"Forgive me father, for I have sinned!...." -Cross the road six times, chicken, say ten Hail Marys and you shall be forgiven.

It's time to talk about religion.

Religious matters are personal and often very complex. However when it comes to child molestation, the issue becomes as simple as any "truly American" movie- the bad guys should get punished. 

The media have given publicity to enough stories in the recent years, involving Catholic personas high in the hierarchy, who have been charged with child molestation.It seems to me that it is the strict prohibitions and supression of what is one of the most natural human needs- sex and companionship, which has led to stories like Billy's. This is yet another example to me of where organised religion has gone wrong. To deny people what is natural, ask them to supress it and constantly reinforce a feeling of guilt for being human cannot end well, and anyone who thinks otherwise has got another thing comming.

Here's generally what happened:

Father Engelhardt plied Billy, a fifth grader,with sacramental wine and pulled pornographic magazines out of a bag in the sacristy and told the child it was time “to become a man,”.

“After that, Billy was in effect passed around to Engelhardt’s colleagues,” the report says. “Father Edward Avery undressed with the boy, told him that God loved him,” and then had him perform sex. 

“Next was the turn of Bernard Shero, a teacher in the school, with whom the parents of the boy had shared about the molestations . Shero offered Billy a ride home but instead stopped at a park, told Billy they were ‘going to have some fun,’ took off the boy’s clothes, orally and anally raped him and then made him walk the rest of the way home.”

Billy fell apart and turned to heroin. (NY Times, 2011, "Avenging Altar Boy")  

In any profession, once a person has been convicted for child molestation, they are never allowed to work with children again. Aparently, the Church are under no such obligation. 

I am not preaching against organised religion, this is a personal choice. I don't claim that all catholics are bad people. 

What I am saying is that it is not acceptable to forgive religion, to tip-toe around it or allow for more. It is not acceptable for the the Pope to cover up a child molestor, and having done so, I don't know what he is doing still being the head of the Catholic church. The reason why he still is on his post is, i am guessing, money and power. And it upsets me that, just like anything else that is too complicated and takes more effort than The X Factor, we seem to lack the attention span to even remember it ever happened. 

When Michael Jackson was accused for child molestation, it destroyed his career. Sadly so, as his accusors later admitted they had been forced by their parents, for money, to accuse him of such terrible acts, even though all they had received from him was company, attention and a great time in Neverland. He was cleared of all alegations, yet still the seed of doubt remains. 

Why can't we be more socially just, socially responsible and socially interested to give a damn about the thousands of children who have been and still are molested by priests, whom these children trust and who are supposed to give them guidance in life? Why is it so appealing to deny an innocent pop-start forgiveness but grant it to those who don't practice what they preach?

Why did the artsy-fartsy chicken cross the road? Because no-one else was doing it.

So.... art. Yeah. 

I don't care for art much. Or more specifically, I don't like the artsy-fartsy, pseudo-intellectual, self-indulgent pretentious cretins who are obsessed with finding the meaning of life in a black dot on a white canvas. You know the kind?

Recently I read that the most expensive painting in the world, "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" by Picasso, was to be shown in the UK. How much did the painting cost then, you might ask? 106 million dollars. A hundred and six million dollars. To put this into perspective, Angelina Jolie was widely publicised and praised for donating 3 million dollars to charity. If every person in the UK gave 3 pounds, they would be able to buy the painting. I must not have been there when they announced that the world's problems were solved....
If you want to see the original article, here is the link. You can also see the painting in question there: World's most expensive painting - BBC

Please, don't misunderstand me: there is nothing inherently bad or morally wrong about art. In fact, entertainment and creativity are essential for the progress of the human race. (Of course, one can sarcastically make the remark that while art may be cricial to the survival of humans, the very survival of humans is not crucial at all!) We are social creatures aware of our own existence and we need intellectual food. All I am saying is, our priorities are completely displaced if we don't mind that someone paid a 100 million dollars for a painting my 10 year old sister could have drawn but we then don't want to switch all electricity off for the World Earth Hour because it is too inconvenient.
And here is a link, if you don't know what the World Earth hour is or want more info on it. It's coming soon: Earth Hour - 26th of March


Yet, every story has at least two sides. Here's the flipside. 


I was finishing up an essay the other night at 3 am, like you do, and I stumbled upon an artist's work. His name is Leonid Afremov, he is from Belarus, and his work moved me. His work is very expressive and I feel that it captures the spirit, the atmosphere, the emotion even, of the moment. While looking at some of his paintings, I had the very distinct feeling that I'd seen this image, it spoke to me and spiked a memory. To my surprise, and as it is becoming clear to you at this moment, I later found out that it was indeed Copenhagen and Paris that he had painted, and it was exactly the two paintings I was wondering about. His work surprised me because not only did it provoke a memory but it built up on it, creating a certain magic, the colours are magnificent. 
Should you be curious, here is some of his work, I hope you enjoy it: Leonid Afremov - Gallery on DeviantArt. 

So there you go. Within a day, I had two very conflicting experiences with art and I wonder, is it just me who sees it this way? 

Réah