Pride flags

Dear Editor,

It is interesting to see how far Ireland has come towards becoming a Christian country as distinct from being a Roman Catholic dictatorship in which men, women and children suffered extreme abuse under a self-appointed moral hierarchy, none of whom demonstrated sufficient Christlike qualities to cry halt.

Gearóid Duffy cites the Old Testament in support of his anti-pride attitude. He then goes on to claim that God does not engage in cancel-culture, but brings good out of every evil.

I am not aware of which edition of the Bible

Gearóid Duffy reads, but in most Bible’s available today God does exactly the opposite.

In Exodus, for example, God incites Moses to appeal to Pharaoh to set Moses’ people free. Simultaneously, God incites Pharaoh to harden his heart against Moses’ appeal. Thereafter God punishes the Egyptians in many ways for actions that they have no hand, act or part in. This episode of Divine Depravity culminates in the Passover, when an Angel of God slays all Egyptian firstborn males, human and animal alike, as a reprisal for Pharaoh’s doing as God incited him to do. So much for a merciful God.

In Job, we find a man who is dedicated to God, in body soul and spirit, in deed and in thought. Rather than be glad of such a devoted servant, God kills Job’s family, ruins his health and wealth and condemns Job to a life of misery, totally undeserved. Job remains true.

When God created man, he instructed Lucifer to bow to man, but Lucifer was true to God alone and did as God later instructed Moses to do, he put God in first place and paid homage to God alone. So God kicks Lucifer out of Heaven as punishment. Hard to keep on the right side of tyrants, isn’t it?

As for fostering cultural homogeneity, the Pride Movement and flag represent and promote cultural diversity. Cultural homogeneity was enforced by so-called Christians for centuries with extreme violence. Christian sects, such as Roman Catholics and Protestants fought wars against one another to gain supremacy.

The Roman Catholic Church authorities had men, women and children tortured and killed for their difference from the Roman Catholic norm. A Crusade was sanctioned by Pope Innocent III against the Cathars who refused to accept his authority. During that shameful episode 120,000 men, women and children were killed by Roman Catholic armies led by Saint Dominic.

As for Gearóid Duffy’s claim that the Pride flag is seeking public endorsement for a lifestyle that is inherently opposed to the way of Christ, the opposite is true. Jesus Christ never condemned anyone in his own time or by implication, in ours, except those who abused children and particularly those who aided and abetted those who abused children. In Matthew 18:6, Jesus condemns the behaviour of the paedophiles of his own time and their protectors. In our times, those who preached morality as they see it, abused children on a world-wide scale. Their superiors, from Bishops of Dioceses to the Pope himself, protected these paedophiles despite preaching the words that Christ himself used to condemn them. Hypocrisy reigned and still reigns supreme.

Not satisfied with the deep hole that he has dug for himself, Gearóid Duffy continues that ‘in the Christian tradition placing oneself as the arbiter of what is good is the precursor to all sin’. Yet the Roman Catholic Hierarchy has been doing so since the foundation of that sect 1700 years ago. This is totally contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ but apparently those rules do not apply to the Hierarchy.

In the 20th century, to mankind’s perpetual shame, the homophobia and antisemitism that Roman Catholicism advocated reached its apogee. In the Holocaust, millions of Jews, Romanies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others deemed ‘undesirables’ were marched into gas chambers by baptized Christians, mostly Roman Catholics and Protestants.

Recently, the Irish electorate voted to permit marriage equality, and men who loved other men and women who loved other women were able to marry legally for the first time in our country. This was a major move towards fostering a truly Christian attitude towards everyone. As Jesus said, ‘ Love one another as I have loved you!’

After Catholic Emancipation in 1829 the Roman Catholic Church set about establishing itself as a major player in Irish society. Post Famine it used that event to manipulate the people into accepting the Church’s authority. Until recently Bishops and other dignitaries of the church demanded a say in our legislation, much to the detriment of our social development.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in June 1993 although Church authorities opposed this move. In 2015, the Irish electorate voted to legalise marriage equality, this was again opposed by

the Church authorities. In acknowledgement of its wrongdoing in its discrimination against homosexuals, the State should fly the Pride flag at every possible opportunity.

Those who seek a return to the bad old days when homosexuals were gaoled for natural behaviour are as remote as they could possibly be from the mindset of Jesus Christ. As usual with the Holy Joe brigade, the name of Christian suffices, the following of Christ is forgotten.

Is mise le meas, Tomás Ó Briain, Faiche Naomh Colmán, Mainsitir Fhear Maí.