What started out as story about a soccer team invoking religious privilege, that was posted on an atheist blog, took a left turn as the author and many commenters didn’t seem to be concerned with an Islamic school soccer team forcing two Catholic girls to sit out half a match because the Muslim player’s religion wouldn’t allow them to mix with strange females. Could the fear of Islamophobia lead some atheists to overlook obvious religious bigotry? Looks like it can.
Hemant Mehta, over at Friendly Atheist, posted a story about two girls who played on a boy’s soccer team in Ontario Canada:
Brief thoughts on the passing of Pope John Paul II
Couldn’t avoid the death watch the past few days. CNN had wall to wall coverage since Friday.
I just shook my head as millions of Catholics prayed for the Pope’s recovery then of course it was changed to praying for the Pope as he makes his way to Jesus.
John Paul II was an interesting person. Very active and he traveled a lot.
I didn’t and still don’t agree with his religion but respect him more than some of the political leaders during his 26 year reign.
Read some interesting comments about him. One was that he despised totalitarianism (having lived through the Nazi occupation of Poland and the Soviet domination) and he called it false religion yet he made his own decisions that are seen just as dictatorial. He wanted to improve the status of women but dictated that no women could be priests and came out against abortion for example.
Then there is the continued road blocks the Vatican has put up when trying to work on the issue of population control.
His Papacy set back US Catholicism 30 years and aligned it with the evangelical Christians.
Saw a quote in an AP article this evening that pretty much explains why someone like me could never be a member of any church:
“The church cannot be an association of freethinkers.”