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Excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church and others
Why should I get excommunicated? Four good reasons.
The Roman Catholic church is misogynistic. Although they may talk about 'cherishing' or 'adoring' womanhood, they mean a master's appreciation of an obedient and docile servant. They do not believe that women are the equals of men. The church funds and works for anti-woman legislation around the world. The Roman Catholics and the Mormons were the primary sources of the funds and lobbying which helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the United States. The church has crippled international development, especially in the neediest countries, by refusing to allow any form of birth control to be discussed. Ireland and other Catholic countries do the church's dirty work by blocking meetings unless all countries submit to Catholic doctrine in matters of birth control. Historically, the church has fostered wife abuse by promoting cultures where any marriage, no matter how bad, was better for a woman than living alone.
The Roman Catholic church is homophobic. In fact, it's worse than that, the proper description of its position is 'pro-natalist'. Any form of sexual behavior that doesn't raise the birth rate is forbidden. Sex as an expression of love and sexual activity for simple pleasure are prohibited or subordinated to the production of little Catholics. Even within marriage the loving exchange of pleasure is a sin. The church will also refuse to marry couples if the union cannot be fertile, which has caused untold anguish to couples wherein one partner was handicapped or otherwise infertile. Through the ages, of course, men have had little trouble getting their pleasure from sex. The burden of this policy falls on women, whose bodies and health are destroyed by endless childbearing. Homosexuality is completely prohibited and is condemned with unusually intense loathing and disgust. (Although priestly pedophilia was very lightly punished, if at all, until recently.) The church has never objected to any punishments, up to and including death, which a society has wished to impose on homosexuals, quite the opposite.
The Roman Catholic Church is antidemocratic, authoritarian and intolerant. Americans, Canadians and others from secular or otherwise non-Catholic countries may refuse to believe this. However, like every religion, the Catholic church, when it is in a minority position, is all in favor of tolerance and democracy. However, when it is in control, as in Ireland or Poland, it shows its true colors. The church is much more comfortable with authoritarian rightwing governments and has historically allied itself with them. If the people in 'Catholic' countries who do not accept the homophobic, misogynistic and intolerant doctrines of Catholicism would take the step of leaving the church, especially in a positive direction towards humanism, the church's power to do harm would be greatly lessened. Historically, the church saw Mussolini and Hitler as bulwarks against atheistic communism and actively supported Spanish dictator Franco. Hitler, although a Catholic, never committed a grave enough sin to merit excommunication. Such an action on the church's part might have saved millions of lives.
When politicians make their decisions, they consider what they think are the demographics of their area: if they perceive that everybody is Christian or supportive of a religious agenda, that is how they will tend to vote. Many of the proselytizing churches' influence is based on the number of members they claim. You will note that the Mormons, for instance, constantly mention their numbers; and, in press releases they like to be referred to as 'fast growing.' The fact is, that a large percentage of these members are 'inactive,' a church euphemism for people who have stopped coming. Their theory being that although they do not attend services, contribute no time or money, and no longer practice Mormon ways, in their hearts they are still Mormons, and can still be counted as members. The same with JWs, Moonies and Scientologists. Typical 'conversion' enthusiasm lasts about three years, and then cools off.
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