Wednesday, December 26, 2007

the Pope puts environmental degradation on blast

Pope Benedict XVI used his Christmas homily to speak out against the destruction of our environment and human selfishness during the midnight mass at St Peter’s Basilica. During the homily, he stated, “Man is so preoccupied with himself, he has such urgent need of all the space and all the time for his own things, that nothing remains for others - for his neighbour, for the poor, for God.” Continuing, he added, “What would he (God) say if he could see the state of the world today, through the abuse of energy and its selfish and reckless exploitation?

I guess this is nice for all those scary-ass religious people who say that "man is not strong enough to destroy the world."

By the way, let's note the sexism and exclusion of women in contemporary religious discourse. Of course, I could qualify "religious discourse" to a specific version of a specific religion...but I think the problem is far too pervasive for me to dignify the topic with my academic objectivity or politically correct diction.

But what am I thinking? Women are so pure and saintly that they could never do anything proactive besides pop children--which is questionable--and certainly nothing as horrific as destroying the world. For Pete's sake, we never even leave the house!

Someone please tell me: what is the point of sex-differentiated language, if not to embed (consciously or unconsciously) specific cultural agendas or implicit social ideologies?

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