Yesterday I posted about how the Catholic faith would not support any sort of embryo research because it goes against their God’s teachings. I think they are selfish, narrow-minded, bigoted and various other negative terms for this and other things.
Today I read in the news that the Government are thinking about hiding the display of cigarettes in shops. Given the bright and ever more inventive ways that the cigarette manufacturers come up with to display their legal wares this is probably no bad thing. Do the Catholics say anything about that? Do they say anything about a drug/habit that kills people, that kills their followers and stops their further contribution to the (already rich) Vatican coffers? No, they do not. Probably because cigarettes are not covered in the Bible – not that this stops them on embryo research (“And from the mount Jesus said ‘Do not fiddle around with small clumps of cells even if it could make lots of people better. They got ill so they must die. It is the way of The Lord’”). But there is something else in those same shops which the vatican followers are studiously ignoring.

Offenses against chastity
2352 By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. “Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.”

So bashing the bishop is not just not allowed it is really really bad. It paves the road to hell.

2354 Pornography …. is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.

Do we hear calls to remove the top shelf magazines? i think not.

[This one is especially for members of the Catholic clergy who have raped, abused and those who have just said "Well these things happen" and muttered some pathetic apologies:
2356 Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still is the rape of children committed by parents (incest) or those responsible for the education of the children entrusted to them.]

Do we hear any Cardinals preaching in the press about the wanton displays of naked flesh? Do we hear them crying that while smoking might make the lungs twitch that spanking the monkey will make people go blind? No. But why not? The above quotes are actually from the Vatican website and they mention masturbation, chastity, lust and others which if the magazines were removed would go a great way to reducing.
That’s the problem with religion. They pick and choose just what to get all animated about and quietly ignore everything else until they need a few more coins in the coffers at which point they wheel out the “God says you shouldn’t stuff”. And the Catholic Church is the worst for it. Sure we have Rowan Williams whining about Slavery (“Yes we took you in the name of our Lord, we raped, we pillaged, we tortured, killed and sold you but hey, I’ll say sorry and we’ll call it quits. Cool?”) but it’s usually those who hail to Rome who do this. It’s like they are trying to impress the Pope, but that would be just childish wouldn’t it.