disclosure: I write for Grindstone and this is a comment in reply to a previous article on Grindstone
A response to comments by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor
watch the video here: http://www.grindstonejournal.com/6-24-09tvcardinal.html
Bryan,
I agree with nearly everything you said in your first Grindstone video. But I think the example of sexuality and whether or not Cormac is human because he has taken a vow of celibacy gives him a pass based on his religion. I liked your comparisons of productive and destructive humans traits but as an atheist myself I want to remind our readers that atheists don't try to convert others to our way of thinking, nor do we try to subvert the laws in order to FORCE others to adhere to our way of looking at the world of human endeavors.
I think I CAN have an opinion based of the same criteria he uses against atheists. Celibate religionists of all types look for ways to set themselves apart from others, be it how they dress, wear their hair, what they eat, including sexual activity. And so they should if that satisfies their egos and demons.
However, it seems to me, many of these "exclusionists" also want to impose their mental and physical fences on to others as we see with Kern, Terril, and Thomsen in Oklahoma, just to name three people. Their efforts to exclude gays from civil rights, exclude immigrants from the use of their native language, and exclude freedom of inquiry from academic circles is just another way of saying NO to ideas they find threatening.
