Cardinal Brady, Lisbon, and Christian "values"

So, Cardinal Sean Brady, the Catholic primate (presumably the term is not meant in a Darwinian sense) thinks that growing unease about the EU’s “prevailing culture and social agenda”, driven by the “secular tradition”, may have been a factor in the Irish electorate’s ill-judged rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.

What kind of agenda does Brady expect the EU to have? Should it be more grounded in the brand of superstitious nonsense that he represents? The same brand of church interference in State affairs that held this country in isolated ignorance for so long? The provider of the same moral values that presided over unthinkable child abuse and swept it under its collective cassock?

Or why not give another variety of ignorant superstition a go? How about Protestant fundamentalist values? Some of its adherents still justify slavery and truly believe that the universe was created in seven days. Should they decide the EU’s direction?

Both brands of Christianity created the conditions for the holocaust. They were the foundation of the European anti-Semitism that existed for centuries, an anti-semitism fostered and encouraged by German church leaders long before the Nazis came to power. This church-inspired, institutionalized hatred was endemic in German society, and the Nazis gave it its fullest expression. Make no mistake: the anti-Semitism the Nazis fed off was firmly based on Christian “values”.

While we are at it, how about giving the Muslims a shot? Their religion has never even seen the Enlightenment and, as such, is even more misogynistic and backward than its Christian counterpart. Perhaps too much so, even for Cardinal Brady.

There are very good reasons why the EU promotes secular values. And if we are really so stupid as to look to Cardinal Brady or the Catholic church for guidance on any issue – political or moral – perhaps we don’t deserve to be in it.

Maybe we aren’t going back to the 80s so much as going back to the 50s?


See also Ireland says "no" to Lisbon - Gombeens rejoice

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