I recently watched a film called "The Magdalene Sisters" (2002) that was based off a documentary called, "Sex in a Cold Climate" describing the Magdalene Laundries of which approx. 30,000 Irish-Catholic girls were imprisoned until 1997. These young girls were sent to the Magdalene Laundries (also called Magdalene Asylums) run by sadistic nuns and priests (mostly nuns) who enslaved the "fallen" girls and forced them into hard labor for no pay - washing linens to "cleanse themselves" of their so-called sins, which included being raped, having a child out of wedlock, or for simply being too beautiful. Yes. Some girls were sent there "just in case" they should fall into temptations. Or more importantly, they could tempt other men into acts of sin, a mirror of Eve the foul temptress of Eden. Ah yes. The patriarchal, misogynistic themes of religion are alive and well. But in this case, it was the so-called whore Mary Magdalene who served as a model of repentance, for she did so after committing her most vile "sin" of f*king Jesus. (and not in the way Judas did!) I can imagine that the Christians didn't take kindly to her relationship with a person who they believed was the son of God, and thus she was written into the books as a whore. It doesn't surprise me that woman of the 20th century were also branded as such after doing absolutely nothing wrong. It's 2,000 years later, and we're still stuck in the dark ages.

While at the Magdalene, the girls were forced to work long hours for no pay. They had no liberties or free time, and were expected to follow strict regulations. If they spoke out of term, or offended the nuns they were severely beaten or were held down while the nuns violently cut their hair short, often causing them to bleed and afterward, forcing them to look at themselves in the mirror while being degraded by the nuns. They were brainwashed into thinking that impure thoughts, or actions were a sin. Many of the girls grew up forever sexually stunted and damaged by this mindset, and by the emotional and sexual abuse that occurred while living there. At times, the nuns would force the girls to strip naked, and then scrutinize and judge their physical characteristics as if it were a game. I have to wonder if the sexually repressed nuns were not masking their alternative sexuality in this manner just as priests often do. But homosexuality aside -- a human being forced to ignore and feel shameful about their sexuality for long periods of time will no doubt produce sexual dysfunctions... Carl Sagan once remarked in a somewhat joking manner that "a celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism," and albeit a humorous notion, I believe the hazards of sexually repressed clerics are being felt by far too many vulnerable, innocent people, many of which are too afraid to speak out against the church.

The hypocrisy of religion no longer surprises me. The evidence of it's damaging effects keeps piling up, and yet the hazards continue to be ignored and discarded by most of the world. Created by confused, ignorant, dim-witted, domineering men, and perpetuated by mankind, the backward thinking, illogical, bigoted dogma of religion has infested the world. Will the antidote ever become available? Or will it be our eventual global killer? I do not fear the bubonic plague -- science has released us from that threat, or has at least greatly minimized the chances of another outbreak. Science gives us the option to go a sane route, and to utilize it's discoveries in a positive way. Some may point out that science also gives us the bomb, but the bomb itself is not the threat - it is the people who have it at their disposal who concern me; especially those who are willing to kill and die for their most cherished beliefs. In the words of Christopher Hitchens, "Religions kills."

Written 11.13.07