equalitopia:

UK Government suggest the Pope should bless gay marriage and launch Papal-branded condoms

The Foreign Office has been forced to issue a public apology after an official document suggested Britain should mark the Pope’s visit this year by asking him to open an abortion clinic, bless a gay marriage and launch a range of Benedict-branded condoms.

The document, obtained by the Sunday Telegraph, also suggested Benedict XVI could show his hard line on the sensitive issue of child abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests by “sacking dodgy bishops” and launching a helpline for abused children.  

The ideas were included in a paper titled “The ideal visit would see…” which was distributed to officials in Whitehall and Downing Street preparing for the historic visit in September. A cover note said the paper stemmed from a brainstorming session and accepted that some of the ideas were “far-fetched”.

An investigation was launched after some recipients of the memo objected to the disrespectful tone of the paper.

So the deeper question here is: Should the fight against religious tyranny seek to liberalize the organizations or liberate its followers? Is there any value in making corrupt institutions bend to the values of the people which the church then turns around and claims as a value it taught us in the first place? Should we allow the Catholic Church to scrap the message, handed directly from ‘God’ to an ‘infallible’ messanger, in order to appeal to the fence-sitting liberal Christians who can’t decide whether they should stick with an organization whose values don’t reflect their own or to abadon superstition for reasonable morality?

What good will a Catholic blessing of a gay marriage do, but to encourage gay people to kneel before power-hungry oppressors like the pope?

What good would a female priest do, but to mask the church’s long history of abuse, neglect and marginalization of women?

What good will changing their moral tenets do, but to keep the wool over the eyes of the people so desperate to line their values up with some magical, punishing, loving god’s?