Tax Exempt No More?

I imagine that rather than continuing to try to fight the battle over denying the existence of sexual abuse by priests, the Catholic Church has decided to turn its -- and our -- attention to women.  While they continue to keep nuns under their thumbs, denying them the same status as priests, Catholic women at large tend to be philosophical about whether it really is God telling the Pope what to do about birth control and abortion.  It may simply be that the Pope and bishops just have issues with women that are interfering with messages from the Almighty.


Sadly, our right-wing politicians are all too happy to yield to the authority of this bunch of guys known as the Catholic Bishops, being guys themselves, mostly (There are always a couple of women in the crowd that are going to "stand by their man", and that is definitely true in the republican party.).


It started most notably when a bunch of guys was asked to testify on Capitol Hill in February as to whether Obamacare is hurting religious freedom by offering cost-free birth control to women.  Catholics, scorned fifty years ago in politics, were proudly represented by a member of the Catholic Bishops, who, in his wisdom, testified that, by allowing women reproductive freedom, he was being denied religious freedom.  Not in so many words.


Legitimatized by Congressional right wing-nuts, the Catholic Church has flaunted their wealth and power with increasingly grandiose political contributions, as with the anti-same-sex marriage support in North Carolina in May.  The Mormon Church was successful in their anti-gay effort in California -- twice -- although the courts continue to find the ban unconstitutional.  And it is no longer risky to preach an anti-left-wing get out the vote message at the pulpit.


So, as the wealthy Christian (and I use that term loosely) denominations step up to throw money into the political fray as they whine about losing their freedom, the theatrics can only get more incredible, the message ever more dramatic.


Hence:

     


Only a clip from Monty Python could improve on this message, absurdity-wise:



      

On the other hand, I would have a difficult time finding a comparable message, horror-wise.  I can only hope that whoever paid the production company for Test of Fire: Election 2012 is planning on a full-feature extravaganza for Halloween.


And I would think that the reason the sponsors of that ghastly video are anonymous is that they realize that the Church that paid for this message no longer qualifies as tax-exempt.