It’s funny, I thought about this title first (normally doesn’t work like that for me) and what do I find? Biblical scholars actually seem to agree that ‘The Whore of Babylon’ is a reference to Rome. Life’s funny. Why was I thinking about the whore of Babylon? You’ve probably noticed the stream of ‘allocations of sexual misconduct’ (also known als child-molestation) by clergymen and -women. In The Netherlands alone there have been 234 people who admit to have been mistreated by the shepherds of the faith. You can see an interactive chart by NRC Handelsblad here.

The story gets more and more interesting by the day. Yesterday NY Times published a series of letters to and from bishops and archbishops on two continents, what makes this correspondence ‘special’ is that it also features ‘his holiness’ Pope Benedictus – the devout Roman Catholic formerly known as Ratzinger. The letters addressed the ‘undesirable issue’ of Father Lawrence Murphy having been ‘engaged’ with over 200 deaf children in an inappropriate way. He (his holiness that is) did not respond, yet the fact his name shows up in this series is an interesting one.

A little reference to the Whore of Babylon from the Bible;

“And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” (book of Revelation 17 & 18)

Now, I’m not against people finding solace in religion. If you’re happy; I’m happy. But the organised part of religion is what worries me. The extend of the current ‘misconduct’ brought to light is sick. Sexual abuse of children is something that sickens me to the absolute core and well, let’s just say I’m trying to be a peaceful man but in coming across news like this; my ‘faith is tried’.

The incredible hush-up and denial combined with the rigid and moral superiority outlook on the world of the Catholic Church is -dare I say; diabolical. Seriously, I’ve always thought ‘The Church’ to be backwards in a lot of things, but now my amazement has turned into horror. The sideways connection to a ‘myth’ described in ‘their’ own literature, that of the Whore of Babylon, is one that deserves a good, hard look;

- The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand
+ Might just reference to the Pope

- MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH
+ Mystery = lies? Babylon the great = Vatican?  The Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth =  The Father of the Church (i.e. clergy) and thus representative of the Church as a whole.

- Woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration
+  Man who serves wine as ‘the blood of Christ’

A bit farfetched perhaps, yet, I do wonder..

I’m sorry for the possible offence people might take of this post, for I mean no harm to peaceful and harmless human beings -nor to others really, I believe living with the things you have done will take their toll. I take it we all look for meaning in life and we all have our own motivation in order to reach unification with that which we do not understand and possibly even fear. Yet, to systematically destroy the innocence of children, to take away from them the one thing that is so far lost in our world as is, mis-using the faith people have put in you as a spiritual councilor; is disturbing and wrong. Whatever excuse you may find for yourself, whatever God you may choose to believe in; I pray/believe/hope justice will serve you.

My thoughts go out to those who have lost faith in the recent weeks or have suffered from the tyranny of those who claim to be God’s voice on Earth. May you find God’s voice in that one place no one can touch you, within yourself, for it is you who has come to this life in order to experience, and there is no one that can tell you how to do so, but you.

Peace and love to all.