In the latest episode of The Point, a show produced by The Young Turks network, (its at http://www.youtube.com/...) a panel was asked by PZ Myers whether they agreed that US politicians who use religion to garner votes or justify policy should be held accountable for the beliefs they hold and statements they make based on those beliefs. I agree with PZ and the panel - damn skippy they should.
Now, in a recent frantic Etch-A-Sketch shaking to remove his past love affair with the hideous inhuman selfishness of Ayn Rand and her ugly Objectivist insanity, Mr Ryan has replaced her with that saintly philosopher of the Catholic faith St Thomas Aquinas.
Cardinal Timothy M Dolan, head of the Catholic Church in the USA has been effusive in his praise for Ryan and has written articles and delivered statements on what a good Catholic scholar of Aquinas Mr Ryan is, despite the fact his policy making seems to run contrary to most of Aquinas' actual philosophy. Still, why would you expect integrity, honestly and morality from a man who, while Archbishop of Milwaukee, paid off pedophile priests to the tune of $20,000 and arranged for them to quietly evade secular justice?
Anyway, I digress. You see, while on the surface of it Mr Ryan has replaced an inhuman hypocritical ratbag with a faithful and thoughtful saint, scratch the surface my US chums and you find that St Tom was not as saintly and loving as is made out. Yes he wrote some wonderful and inspiring stuff, but he also wrote other things as well. Things that seem ..... well..... so 1200s..... so GOP.
And some of those statements sound uncomfortably close to those that Ayn made...
Firstly, shades of Rand
“By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.”
"A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational."
St Tom wasn't big on religious freedom either it seems:
"How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God."
“If forgers and malefactors are put to death by the secular power, there is much more reason for excommunicating and even putting to death one convicted of heresy”
There is but one Church in which men find salvation, just as outside the ark of Noah it was not possible for anyone to be saved.
And as for women.....well
“As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power”
Seems St Tom also loved the idea of supernatural snuff movies for the chosen:
“That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell”
And St Tom had some rather interesting views on Jews:
"The Jews should not be allowed to keep what they have obtained from others by usury; it were best that they were compelled to work so that they could earn their living instead of doing nothing but becoming avaricious." and went on to demand that “the Jew should be punished with a greater fine than anyone else in a similar case.”
“Jews by reason of their fault are sentenced to perpetual servitude” (for killing Jesus as St Tom saw it).
“Jews of each sex in all Christian provinces, and all the time, should be distinguished from other people by some clothing.” .... shades of Nazi Germany? Thanks to great thinkers like St Tom Jews in late 1200s England were made to wear the first yellow badges, shaped like the two Mosaic Tablets, to mark them out. That made the first pogrom like acts of genocide, such as that at York shortly afterwards, so much easier.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
There are barrel loads more of Aquinas herrings (see previous diary for the laughably stupid Miracle Of The Herrings that justified his sainthood). Have a dig around and they are easily found.
And finally, far from it for me to point out the potential rampant hypocrisy of Mr Ryan, but didn't his new old guru also say:
Man should not consider his material possession his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need.
I guess Paul skipped that chapter.....
I think that as Ryan has thrown this most saintly of bigots into the spotlight, cheerled on by a sexual abuse facilitating Cardinal, that its time for the US media to call him out on this.
The next move is yours my US chums...... get in his face, and get this calling out done wherever he shows his face on the trail.
As Militades commanded his small force of brave Athenians at the Battle of Marathon as they faced the Persian horde bearing down on them
AT THEM!