Give Us That Old Time Religious Massacre

Despite its dominant catholicism, Pope Benedict's incredibly ignorant remarks have stirred up storms of protest from Latin America. When he stated that the native population had been just waiting for the conquistadors to come enlighten them, that constituted such a denial of facts that it is being massively rejected.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Pope Benedict XVI's declaration in Brazil that colonial-era evangelization in the New World did not represent "the imposition of a foreign culture" has ignited a firestorm of criticism from indigenous representatives and the governments of Venezuela and Bolivia.

Indigenous groups from Chile to Mexico have condemned the remarks as a revision of a history marked by massacres, enslavement and destruction of native cultures.

For many in Latin America, the incident was reminiscent of provocative comments that the pope made last year about Islam, unleashing a wave of anger across the Muslim world.
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The people of the Americas, the pope said, had been "silently longing" for Christ "without realizing it," and willingly received a Holy Spirit "who came to make their cultures fruitful, purifying them."

The pope's analysis didn't mention the widely acknowledged violent side of the conquest.

Credible modern accounts of the conquest include reference to the often barbarous treatment that Spanish and Portuguese overseers inflicted on native populations through colonial times.

The inability of high officials is not peculiar to the Catholic church, we see it breaking out here in the Department of Justice and its hirees. These students of the recidivism inherent in televangelism are trying to follow teachings they have no doubt swalled hook, line and sinker since it's really Hard Work to think for yourself. That they are able to lie without shame is something we watched today at C-Span 3, and can be observed whenever the right wingers start trying to Win One for the Gipper, or whoever they've enshrined in his place at the moment.

Sadly, putting the name of religion on this anarchistic authoritarianism is a complete perversion of the kindness and humanity that most religion was meant to teach. Even more sadly, too many who are not practiced in seeking out the truth accept it as a reasonable substitute.