Peace Be With You

I take offense to CATHOLICS (OR ANY religious folk) who throw the word “peace” around as a salutation. Used at the end of their internet posts, their letters and their greeting cards, often in the most hypocritical way. Here’s my response to such a recent use by a upstanding Catholic on the yahoo group Theology and Religion (enjoy):

Peach eh? What is anyone here doing to change anything about the wars and killing that rages and has raged for thousands of years among men? Maybe the total lack of forefront inaction is the refult of having been responsible for the three crusades, which were directly the result of Papal orders?

How about the power of a Billion plus members in the Catholic Church? Where are they? Are they out there making a difference in the current war in Iraq? Anyone? Hello? And then what does the Catholic church and it's Billion members do to stop violence on a global scale? Telvision advertisments? Pro-active rallies? Constant Never ending efforts to halt violence? In fact, what does that figure head pope do about anything in regard to issues of vital importance to humanity except sit on a gazillion dollars in assets while wearing a head dress? Speaking of which I'm sure all those god-fearing Catholics who have more than enough wealth but who nevertless feel vindicated in horading it have this example of leadership to follow! What a fine example this Catholic church provides!

I see what we can do, we can pacify each other with the proverbial "peace" salutation. Peace to you also. It's vital to our souls to be polite because the hundreds of thousands of murdered children in the last three hundred years alone appreciate your ability to invocate peace in some salutation in a Yahoo group. The most insane part of the hypocrisy of the members of this group and the religious in general is that you cant see the utter godlessness in having the support of a billion people who stand by idly offering peace to one another while hundreds of thousands of people (women and children) are murdered in wars each year worldwide.

And how about those other religions and your nonsense about "understanding"...you must live in a shoe box. The insane belief that one religion is superior to another is ONE OF THE PRINCIPLE CAUSES of killing and death and always has been. I see you have quite a plan.

Okay, now stop that the Church AND IT'S BILLION MEMBERS are very active in organizing peaceful anti-war protests, in organizing boycotts against the murderous multi-national corporations that are literally and figuratively raping the environment and people all over the world, in directing Catholics to become peaceful conscientious objectors to violence and killing, in influencing politics and government, in getting the power of that billion people behind making significant changes on a global scale....hold on, sorry one of us has just woke up. No I'm sorry, what religion does so effectively is let murderers invoke god as a means toward their materialistic goals. We're constanlty doing "god's work" - really we are!

Wait there probably is some "resolution" calling for peace in some file in the Vatican so that all the godly Catholics in the world can feel morally relieved of all that guilt for watching television while the golbal murders continue. When a billion people who believe in "peace" can sit by idly and do nothing SIGNICANT to change the world (by the way 1 billion people is about 1/6 the total population and I have not even accounted for other Christian denominations which total more than 2 Billion people or 2/6 the world's population) and offer nothing more than some words (and not action) then I say you take your peace salutation and shove it. And while this is certainly not a peaceful gesture at least it's not hollow and meaningless: it's genuine...

"When war, as in these days in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity, it is ever more urgent to proclaim, with a strong and decisive voice, that only peace is the road to follow to construct a more just and united society," John Paul II said. "Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of man."

This "decisive" voice that one Billion people fail to hear? I think John Paul was saying "peace", don't you? Thousands of years of colorful garments and polite peaceful salutations and no real results....God Bless You All and Peace Be With You.