The media attempt to show established
religions in a positive light, but over and over again the leaders of these
religions prove themselves to be bigoted, corrupt, vile, and venial. This is the case, more often than not, and
the people who aspire to leadership in any particular church are typically
those who aspire to wealth and power, including the absolute servile obedience
of the church members. Few people have
heard, for example, of the bank scandal that took place in Springfield, Missouri,
and involved the leader of a large protestant denomination—it didn't make the
national news.
In recent years, the scandals of
Christianity have become so numerous that even True Believers must occasionally
pause in wonder. The errant holy men of
just the last twenty years include such luminaries as Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, Rev.
Jim Bakker, Rev. Oral Roberts, Rev. Pat Robertson—and these are just the
evangelical Christians who have a national television following. Their crimes range from sexual peccadilloes
to supporting African dictators.
The
Catholic Church is no better. For
example, it could easily be said of Mother Teresa that she never met a
third-world dictator that she didn't like, or at least that she wouldn't take
money from—even the mass-murderer Slobodan Milosovic. Now Mother Teresa has been fast tracked to
sainthood, as was the vile Nazi-sympathizer Pope Pius XII. And as bad as Milosovic is, his evil pales by
comparison with that of Adolf Hitler, who remained in good standing with the
Catholic Church up to the time of his suicide. According to a witness, Hitler
paused to pray to the Christian god before committing suicide in his bunker in
Berlin. He was a good Christian, right up to the end.
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