[Granville-Hough] 13 Apr 2009 - Old Pope, New Pope, Any Pope

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:05:02 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Old Pope, New Pope, Any Pope - 13 Apr 2009.

    I did not go to church, but spent the time in bed (in 2005).  In
all, I slept about four hours today.  I feel pretty well, but drop off
to sleep quite readily. I hope I can sleep tonight.
    All TV is about the deceased pope, and now the discussion is whether
he should be made a saint or not.  Of course, the Catholics can elevate
to Sainthood anyone
they wish to, and they will not ask me for my vote.  My personal feeling
is that I simply do not fully understand the human psyche, and I do not
understand the role of statues, saints, military heroes, sports heroes,
rock stars, etc on the human mind.  If you worship or revere or
genuflect, or make the sign of the cross in front of some likeness, are
you not violating a commandment about graven images.  I do not know
where the dividing lines are.
    It is somewhat like the Pledge of Allegiance.  Years after I learned
the words, after World War II during the McCarthy era in fact, the
phrase, "under God," was
added.  While I did not personally object, I could never remember to add
the phrase, and I can understand the problems an atheist would have with
the added words. If you do not believe the "under God," does that mean
you are unpatriotic?  I think that is what the flat-earth Republicans
would believe, and have you believe as well.
    The former pope was right on one point he made that it was very hard
to know the will of God.  With his constant devotion to daily prayer, he
apparently came to believe that he alone knew the will of God, as
regards abortion, sexuality, role of females, birth control, etc, and
that it was up to
him, as pope, to see that others got in line.  Now, what will the future
pope bring?
        We can now fast forward from this message to some years experience with
the new pope.  I do not give him high marks on anything he has tried.
If we had a "Recall the Pope," Campaign, I would probably take part with
some enthusiasm.  It seems he has trouble with anything dealing with
public relations.  Just consider the 4 million live births in the U. S.
in 2007, or was it 2008, but certainly under his and George Bush's
leadership.  Forty percent, or 1 million, 600 thousnd, were begot in
single mother, or maternal parent households.  What do we make of that?
Did the Bush withdrawal of Plan B cause or affect it?
Maybe we should have changed the pledge of allegiance that year to
"under the pope and George Bush."
        Even some Catholics are disgruntled and are speaking out.  One said the
present pope leads a geriatrics regime where the function of the
parishioner is to "pray, pay, and obey."
        Parking lots for the Catholic churches were filled and street parking
was taken as far as the eye could see for Easter services yesterday.
Perhaps, like me, individual Catholics do not even know the name of the
current alpha leader in their branch of Christianity. We believe, with
or without guidance from popes or of Preacher Grayson of the old
Saratoga Baptist Church, who admonished: "Don't do as I do, Do as I say do!"