Better than Dicks?

As popes go, this one is enlightened. Except for his religious beliefs he seems like a reasonable dude. So I was surprised to see headlines in about a dozen papers report that the Pope thought that it's better to be an atheist than a bad christian. In his defence, he never said that. Instead, he said, speaking about scandalous christians, that "...How many times have we heard – all of us, around the neighbourhood and elsewhere – ‘but to be a Catholic like that, it’s better to be an atheist.’"

Here's a portion of His Holiness' sermon taken from the official Radio Vaticana's website:

“But what is scandal? Scandal is saying one thing and doing another; it is a double life, a double life. A totally double life: ‘I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this association and that one; but my life is not Christian, I don’t pay my workers a just wage, I exploit people, I am dirty in my business, I launder money…’ A double life. And so many Christians are like this, and these people scandalize others. How many times have we heard – all of us, around the neighbourhood and elsewhere – ‘but to be a Catholic like that, it’s better to be an atheist.’ It is that, scandal. You destroy. You beat down. And this happens every day, it’s enough to see the news on TV, or to read the papers. In the papers there are so many scandals, and there is also the great publicity of the scandals. And with the scandals there is destruction.”

He's saying that if you don't live your life according to what you say are your guiding principles, you are a dick. It doesn't matter that you're Catholic. You're still a dick.

The bigger purpose of the homily is reasonable and very praiseworthy, like a lot of things the pope has said. But then. HH has that throw-away comment. Jeez - y'know what we say in the hood. Even atheists are better than dicks like that.

Really?

Dear Mr. P - I know you have to speak a lot. I know that to dissect one sentence - to be sure one that you used to only support your argument and that you attributed to others, is being super nit picky. If you are unsure, replace the word "atheist" in that line with Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim - your pick - and call a rabbi, lama, guru, or imam and run that by him (haha - not her). "It's better to be Buddhist than a scandalous Catholic". Did that offend you, Mr. Lama? You know everyone says that.

Religions preach not to do certain things because it's god's word. Don't follow the rules and bad things will happen to you - in this life, the next, eternity - the details vary. But there is goodness outside religion. That goodness isn't driven by fear or blind faith. It's thoughtful and considered and imperfect and work in progress but it is the ultimate basis for personal responsibility. Aspire to be a good human even if your god isn't looking.

ps. HH said this back in February. I saw a link to the CNN version of this story on Easter. Someone posted it on FB with clearly the opposite intent. Look how understanding this dude is. I ran my thoughts by a few people seated around the table. They didn't fly. If you think that my argument is flawed I'd like to know. But don't just say "that's not what he meant", unless you are the Man Himself.