Although I am an atheist, I have read the gospels. I have read them more than once, yet nowhere have I seen any mention of gay people, trans people, people who use contraception, or people who have abortions.
No mention at all of any of “these people”.
Instead, Jesus told his followers simply to love one another.
Somehow, in the years since that message was recorded, the Catholic Church has developed an unhealthy obsession with sex, sexuality, and what other people do with their bodies.
Very little sign of love persists. When a priest who provided a character reference for a convicted sex offender rails against others who have harmed no one, it’s time to see the Church for what it now is — an organisation which has lost all authority to preach on matters of morality.
Yet this organisation still controls 90%-plus of our primary schools.
It’s time to separate Church and State.
Bernie Linnane
Dromahair
Co Leitrim
Word of Jesus did not forbid homosexuality
To read the Ten Commandments is to find that not one of these 10 fundamental moral laws forbids homosexual relations.
Jesus himself in the gospels later on also does not make any ruling that exactly states that homosexual relationships are forbidden.
However, what really happened instead, I believe, is that religious scholars down through the years have incorrectly inferred that certain words that Jesus spoke must mean that he intended to forbid homosexual relations,
There are here no clear words from Jesus which forbid homosexual marriages or homosexual relationships.
One wonders truly how much heart-ache and hurt must have been caused to many gay people down through the centuries from poorly deduced inferences of things Jesus said?
Sean O’Brien
South Kilrush
Co Clare
Eternal damnation for minor transgressions
Recent news brought me back more than three score years.
As an altar boy in the 1950s I sat on the granite steps of the altar in the church, facing the congregation listening to sermons in which everything from the theft of a plough part to masturbation merited eternal fire.
Mattie Lennon
Blessington
Co Wicklow
Bank lacks consumer friendly switchovers
Questions are not being asked about bank departures.
Why are banks themselves not facilitating account swapping? Given the long lead in time, surely it is not beyond the wit of these banks to have created some software to automate the account transfer process?
Why have Ulster Bank not created even the most basic facility to allow customers to download their payees’ details?
When their customer service was contacted on this issue they suggested clicking on each individual payee and taking a screenshot. A very simple piece of computer code would have allowed customers to download their payees’ information in a useable format.
The bank has had two years to prepare but have done nothing to help customers.
Why has the regulator not insisted on a more consumer friendly switchover?
I’m not suggesting anything improper, just a lack of leadership and customer advocacy by the regulator. They are asleep at the wheel.
Colm Finn
Conna, Cork
Army’s demining mission in Ukraine
I am shocked to read the Government has instructed the Irish Army to train the Ukrainian army in demining tracts of land.
This knowledge that the Irish Army has should not be shared because you are showing others involved in a war how to actually mine land too.
Ireland has been traditionally a peacekeeping nation and the Irish Army, have up to now been trusted as peacekeepers.
The Irish nation and army are being totally undermined (if you’ll pardon the pun), by the Government. It’s a disgrace
Josephine McEvoy
Ennis
Co Clare
Politicians crib about live animals in nativity
At a time when it would be so easy to be distracted by political red herrings like the housing crisis, inflation, and a heightened risk of nuclear apocalypse, it is reassuring to see public representatives remain focused on the issues that really matter — like the need for farm animals to be used in a crib outside the Mansion House.
Fine Gael Councillor James Geoghegan is tabling an emergency motion to reverse a ban on live animals in the festive display, while his party colleague, junior minister Patrick O’Donovan, described the ludicrous prioritisation of animal welfare over longstanding tradition as a “Grinch-like decision”.
Of course, it matters little to our politicians that there were no animals present at the birth of Jesus, according to the gospels and the writings of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. What would he know? It’s not like he’s infallible.
Michael Collins wasn’t present at the birth of Fine Gael, but that won’t stop the likes of Geoghegan and O’Donovan from shoehorning the Big Fellow into every reference to the party’s nativity.
Given that our public representatives are unbound by the shackles of catechism and historical fact, I believe they should not only insist on the return of farmyard animals to the Mansion House crib, but also the addition of several other figures who were incontrovertibly absent from the stable when Christ was born.
These might include Nelson Mandela, Elvis Presley, atheist Richard Dawkins, lycra-clad TV fitness instructor Mr Motivator, Wolverine from X-Men, Stephen Brennan from Glenroe, and Harry Potter.
If it starts to get crowded, some of the original characters can always be removed.
Be warned, however, if the composition of the crib is anything like the cohort of politicians so exercised by this issue, there’ll be asses, but a dearth of wise men.
Darragh McDonagh
Balla
Co Mayo
Political focus needed on the ‘real’ issues
Politicians who ‘crib ‘ about the supposed cruelty to animals in the traditional crib outside the Mansion House would do better to focus their attention on real issues ie homelessness, the war in Ukraine, rising cost of living — or is that too much to expect?
Aileen Hooper
Stoneybatter
Dublin 7
Delays to Assisted Decision-Making Act
It is with dismay that I learned that the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity Act) is to be delayed yet again, in spite of several government commitments that it would commence this year.
This law was enacted in 2015 amid much fanfare and was rightly lauded as a crucial law which would have the effect of repealing 19th century, Victorian-era legislation called the Lunacy Act.
Under this act, people with disabilities or brain injuries may be made wards of court, categorised as lunatics under law, incapable in the eyes of the law of making decisions for themselves.
These decisions may be financial, health related or even related to where you live.
The law is 151 years old, yet in the now seven years since the Act to replace this system was brought in, it has still not fully commenced.
People with disabilities, in particular those who have been affected by this law, have waited impatiently for their human rights to be brought from the 19th century to the 21st century.
Now they have been told to wait longer still.
Sarah Lennon
Shankill
Dublin 18
