THE CATHOLIC GOD AND THE IRA - 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.