THE CATHOLIC GOD AND THE IRA AND HOW A FAITH BECAME THE FLOWER BED OF TERRORISM


In the wonderful book God and the Gun by Martin Dillon we read that its author was conscious from his excellent research that collectively all religious leaders in Northern Ireland want the hatred and suspicion between the Catholic and Protestant religious camps to continue (page 3). He wrote, "It would be easy to condemn all churchmen and religious leaders, but it is fair to say that collectively they have allowed the terrorists to fill a vacuum of despair, hatred and suspicion". What could you expect when it is over doctrines for which there is no proof? What could you expect in a province where doctrines come before things which are more certain? You would be more sure that murders have happened than you would be that the Bible is God’s word and it is over God’s word that people are killed and the Church forbids you to think that God’s word should be silenced even in order to protect lives.
 
The Church holds that it is better to know of Jesus even if that knowledge makes you go out and join the IRA or some terrorist organisation that supports the Church. Some Christians hate each other because they love Jesus and they think the other religious party is a blight on his cause. They may believe it is wrong to hate but their love is causing them to hate – there is a thin line between love and hate and you can have enough religion to make you hate. But they take consolation in the fact that Jesus will forgive when they repent to some measure and all will be forgotten or possibly even understands. So it must be better to be a Catholic in the IRA than not to be a Catholic at all for truth comes first. The Church would rather that you were a bad Catholic who slaughters Protestants than that you were a LaVeyan Satanist with a good heart.

The Catholics have been called on to excommunicate IRA members but they said this was pointless for the IRA would just ignore it. But it could decree that the excommunication will be automatically lifted once the IRA members repent and leave the organisation so that while they are IRA members they are not Catholics. The Church excommunicates women who have abortions. It cannot pretend that this is for disciplinary reasons. The reason is that the Church be disassociated from their action. The failure to disassociate from the IRA plainly means then that it does not dissociate from them but wants them to kill in her name. So when the IRA kill it is the Catholic Church that kills. To refuse to excommunicate because the excommunication will not frighten the IRA is just an excuse. If it stops one man from killing then it is worth it so it is worth a try.
 
The Church said that it would not excommunicate the IRA murderers because it would mean the Church would have to excommunicate other kinds of terrorists throughout the world which would mean the Church was getting too involved in politics (page 124).
 
Many IRA members did novenas and went to daily Mass (page 148) so the Church had to help a lot in edifying them for evil.
 
If the Church believed its excuse then it would excommunicate nobody. The excuse is a desecration of the memory of those who the IRA have slaughtered. Such insensitivity is a palliative for the consciences of those young men who want to join the IRA and who have done and who believe in their Church. Another excuse is that it would mean the Church was getting involved in politics and would have to behave the same way towards other terrorist groups throughout the world. But the Bible simply says that rebellion against the state is wrong so that is that solved. Plus politics cannot be divorced from morality. If murder is wrong it is wrong when committed for political objectives as well. And the Church has always stuck its nose into politics and as we have seen it thinks it is above the law of the land. Cardinal Cathal Daly has been caught on tape giving communion to members of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA. What kind of message does that relay to the impressionable?

The Bible states that it is a serious sin to go against the state. Catholics in Northern Ireland do just that which is why the troubles in the north were definitely a religious war (page 77). The sincerity of the clergy is evident when they welcome these mortal sinners to Holy Communion! They bring damnation on themselves so they don’t really believe do they? The Church says things that are corrupting for the weak. Anybody who sees how good Jesus is supposed to be will inevitably hate anybody who is antichrist and will take a long time to grow out of that. The Church is definitely to blame for many murders even when the killers are the children it condemns.
 
The Catholic Church in Northern Ireland gave full social and religious funeral trappings to IRA murderers and thus gave them glory after death and drew more to follow their example.  Those inspired by the killers felt even more inspired and drawn in after all that!  The Church as a cultural entity advertised those people and knows from psychology that martyrs or perceived martyrs have an autohypnotic effect on the thoughtless, the impressionable or the mad.  The Church as religion, social force and cultural expression owned the killers.  It expressed that ownership and often piled it on with syrupy sermons.

 

The Church has never complained if bloodletting republicans in Northern Ireland or elsewhere want a funeral with terrorist and paramilitary honours. Shots can be fired over coffins. The tricolour will be provocatively draped over republican coffins even during the funeral Mass. Masked terrorists may walk in procession at the funeral. The republicans have never even been asked to consider making it one of their wishes that none of these honours must take place. Islam despite its reputation for being complicit at least by silence when Muslims engage in terrorism and suicide bombings has never went as far as the Catholic Church has in honouring terrorists in its own ranks.
 
Republicans who believe in violence and in wrecking the peace process usually look for a Catholic funeral. They get great comfort from believing that any murdering comrades they have are with God in Heaven. The Church will say, "They do not think the way the Church does. The Church is welcoming to all and loves only peace." In other words, they are doing a Pontius Pilate making out that the republican's faith - which sees terrorism as fine for it does not keep anybody out of Heaven - has nothing to do with them.
 
Some republicans who idolised Lenin and extremist socialism still sought a Catholic funeral and got it. The reason was that they had to pander to Catholic culture in order to get Catholics on their side or to join their cause or socialist movements. They politicised the rites of the Church in this underhand way.
 
The other problem is that despite the battles between Catholics and Protestants both are still the same religion - Christianity. They have the same faith but with different things emphasised and some of the interpretations are different. For example, Catholics believe in priests who are superior to the flock. Protestants believe in priests too but insist that each Protestant is a priest. That is why it makes sense to blame Catholicism for the terrible things Protestantism does. And vice versa. Evil done by one form of Christianity casts a shadow on the whole of it. The Catholics and Protestants claim to be the body of Christ - it is a body despite being disfigured by religious wars and controversies and sectarianism. If Protestantism is bad as a religion that means Catholicism is no better for it gave it its genes. If Catholicism behaves better that does not mean its genes are good. Protestantism proves they aren't. A religion may behave well by chance or because it is afraid to show its true colours. It does not behave well by design. But what we see is that Catholics and Protestants are just as bad as each other.

 

If you sense the badness in your own religion, you will fear other religions getting power. You will see them as untrustworthy. You will feel that you are better off with the Devil you know. The "them and us" will grip you and you will become part of the reason your society is fracturing.
 
Catholic and Protestant labels in the North are not only about about trying to create and us versus them but to define what they should stand for politically.
 
 WHERE THE IRA FOR EXAMPLE CAME FROM
 
No Catholic baptisms in Ireland? Then no IRA. There would be no IRA if there were no people carrying the Catholic label. There would be no ISIS if there were no Muslims.
 
It does not matter what a religion teaches if terrorist organisations are getting volunteers and soldiers from its members. You are complicit in the terrorism if you enrol yourself or your child in a religion in which terrorists are active. 
 
Liberal religion gives birth to terrorists too. While many of the IRA were devout Catholics and Mass-goers others took a liberal view of religion and supported divorce and contraception despite them being considered seriously immoral by the Church. In fact if like a true liberal you believe your God does not really care much about truth or sin, you will throw the bombs because of faith and not feel the pangs of conscience. It is because of faith.
 
The Church argues that its sacraments are treatments for sin. They heal your bad tendencies and free you from sin. But these treatments are over-hyped. They are like a cure for a rash that takes years to work and may never work. The priesthood is just being pompous and its humility is a mask for self-importance. It is like, "Our rites and sacraments are of supreme importance and their effectiveness is incredible. Small print: don't expect them to help much overnight". What they are really doing is encouraging religious terrorists by giving them false hope. A person who has some regrets about being a terrorist and who could rethink, goes to communion and gets false hope that he will change. The trouble with false hope is that everything is put off until the next day and nothing changes. He ends up feeling better about his evil for he imagines he is getting help and tomorrow could be different. He thinks he is trying and he feels better. He makes excuses for himself when he gets the bomb making kit out again.
 
We all know people who feel good about being evil because they go to Mass, say prayers and get cuddled by Catholic hypocrites. The Church makes it a priority to tell the priest your sins - the victims of your terrorism are far down the list if they are put on it at all which is doubtful. Even worse, the Church says nobody has a moral obligation to turn themselves in to the law. The more the Church condemns terrorism the happier the terrorists feel for they know the Church does this not because it is right because it has to do it.
 
Some liberals lied that the terrorism in Northern Ireland had nothing to do with religion. They have blood on their hands because of their tongues.
 
Even if we pretend that it is true that the Church is not to blame for the existence of Catholic based terrorism, what is scary is that most lay Catholics and Christians do not know it. They blame religion for the murders and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Yet they still give the Church money and support its existence by going to its services and they even have their children conditioned to follow the Church! What kind of message does that give out?

The other problem is that when one's own religion claims to be a religion of peace, one might believe this but if other religions have their terrorists and holy wars and violent scriptures and say they are religions of peace one will say they are lying. Why can't your own religion be lying too? You are no better than it for you would lie for it.
 
To be fair, Protestant baptism produce Protestant terrorists too. But as Protestantism is that bit less ostentatious about "virtue" than Catholicism and there are no rituals in which the terrorist can engage to feel good or okay about his evil Catholicism is worse.

FINALLY

Catholicism leads to war and suffering and intolerance. Atheism that seeks to help people in their self-development must take its place.
 
The world suffers great harm because of the violence and hatred unleashed by religions identifying themselves as Islamic. The Muslim is asked to repent before he prays. There is nothing in Islam that sanctions the person in his evil and gives him a placebo so that he feels good about being bad along the shameless lines of the Catholic Eucharist. The Muslims do nothing to make themselves look virtuous and to win the acclaim of the community when they are at worship. The Roman Catholic Church pretended to vehemently oppose IRA violence. This was mere words. Moreover, the Church says that it is ultimately up to you to decide if your violent activities are self-defence or protecting people for only you can know. So the disapproval of the Church does not count for much and may only be cosmetic. IRA enablers in Sinn Fein or the republican movement were given holy communion without hesitation though they did nothing to indicate that they had repented. Holy Communion in public is a declaration that you are trying to participate in the Church's ambition to become a family united in love and faith and free from serious sin. It is a declaration that you are trying to get grace from God to prevent you sinning seriously. It is parading virtue. It is also saying, "If I am bad I am trying to do something about it and need God to help for I cannot do much alone. Therefore do not condemn me but admire me for trying. I may fall but I am only human." This is just a ploy to feel good while you do outrageous evil. It shows why the doctrine of grace, God magically turning you from a monster into God's gift in record time, is so appealing. Holy Communion is a placebo for the evil person. Thus it can be argued that Roman Catholicism sanctioned religious terrorism in a way that Islam does not and cannot. It is sanctioned in a very clear and public and religious way. Which religion then is the worst? It is the religion that is the best at sanctioning evil and enabling it that is the worst even if it seems on the face of it to do less violence than say Islam. That religion is Roman Catholicism.



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