Is Abbott a Christian or just a Catholic?
The articleon the AIMN by Sean Stinson, May 25th entitled, “CATHOLIC SCHOOLBOYS
RULE” was so well presented, I thought it deserved a follow up article
to further articulate its message. Twistie 1, who was one of several who joined in the discussion captured the mood best for me when he wrote, “I
have little doubt that Abbott is a psychopath who is incapable of
empathy. He uses religion as a facade against his inherent wickedness.
He is not the first, and will undoubtedly not be the last, to do so.”
As one who endured the cruelty of Catholic Church teaching in the
1950/60s, it doesn’t surprise me that so many like me still carry the
psychological baggage Catholic teaching generated about Hell and
Purgatory. It wasn’t until my late forties that I began to see through
the facade of Catholic teaching and its inherent evil. I think I am one
of the lucky ones who through education, logic and reasoning was able to
extract myself from its tentacles. There are many people I know who,
although they see the flaws in church teaching, are so entrapped by the
fear of everlasting hellfire that even reason and logic won’t displace
it.
Then there are people like Tony Abbott.
If Abbott actually believes in the teachings of the Church, as
opposed to simply using them as a tool to further his political agenda, I
would be surprised. I am similarly unimpressed by his mentor, George
Pell. I suspect Abbott, like Pell, is so seduced by the power that such
teachings offer to men in high places that it becomes a defining feature
of their character. I suspect Abbott saw the priesthood as an avenue to
that power but later realised there was still greater power in
politics. I suspect he realised that in politics he could combine the
notion of spiritual power, which he has cleverly crafted, with secular
power, which he now has; using one to help achieve the other makes
psychopaths very dangerous. Having a cabinet dominated by men who feel
the same way makes such a government even more dangerous. Malcolm Fraser
has tried to warn us of the danger he recognises in Abbott. Men who
lust after power have no respect for democracy but will use it to
advance their personal agenda.
Myexperience in the Catholic Church leads me to believe that it has no
respect for democracy either and Abbott and many of his cabinet are a
product of that environment. I think they are less interested in the
parliament than they are in power. They are guided by the politics of
opportunism. They seize upon moments of confusion and uncertainty to
capture the hearts and minds of the weak-minded, the easily lead. This
is how they were able to so skilfully convince that 4-6% of the
electorate who changed their vote last September.
It may be that Abbott is more Catholic than Christian. His attitude
to the poor, the downtrodden, the weak, the vulnerable, the dispossessed
and the unemployed suggests so. The Princes of the Church have always
pretended to champion these, the least of their brethren, while living
the high life, strutting about the world preaching one message while
practising another. I would like to know how many of the Catholic
contingent of the current cabinet are also members of Opus Dei. As
stated on the Opus Dei website, “The
aim of Opus Dei is to contribute to that evangelising mission of the
Church, by promoting among Christians of all social classes a life fully
consistent with their faith, in the middle of the ordinary
circumstances of their lives and especially through the sanctification
of their work.” If one reads between the lines it is not hard
to identify a sinister fundamentalist agenda in that statement. Opus Dei
is a strong defender of the Catholic position on matters of social
morality particularly in the realm of marriage, abortion and euthanasia
and its members are expected to influence government policies in these
areas. While professing the importance of faith in their agenda, their
aim is overwhelmingly to further Catholic teaching. Faith is the
smokescreen.
Butit is in the field of science that the Catholic Church is the most
vulnerable and it is no surprise to me that climate change, one of the
most divisive issues we currently face, is where we find our present
Catholic government resisting so vehemently. Without a minister for
Science, what does that say about its true intent? The Catholic Church
teaches Christianity but it does not practice it. Most of its priests,
brothers and lay workers devote their lives to the Christian message but
they are ruled by a bureaucracy that conveniently ignores it in favour
of furthering its own wealth and influence. That bureaucracy rules under
the principle, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ Do Abbott and his cabinet
belong to this bureaucracy? We don’t know. We can only speculate. But we
can make a considered judgement by their actions. Not in what they say,
but in what they do. Their appalling betrayal of our trust with the
recent federal budget is a good guide as to their intentions.
So where does that leave we, the people, whose trust has been so
ruthlessly violated? As it was so eloquently articulated by a member of
the audience on Q&A this week, when politicians promise something so
deliberately before an election only to reverse their position within
months of winning, there should be some mechanism where the people can
call for a referendum on whether they want that government to continue
its term in office. When company board members deliberately mislead
shareholders there is a mechanism to have them removed. We the citizens
of Australia are far more important than shareholders in a corporation
yet, as matters stand, we are powerless to call our elected leaders to
account other than every three years.
When one feels so deceived, so cheated by those who abuse our trust,
there should be some form of redress to set right what is wrong.
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