Hello Hexbear! I was a (Catholic) theocrat until about 2009, when many factors pushed me into a gradual leftward conversion. I now support Marxism-Leninism and already identify as a communist apprentice, but am still learning feminism and gender equality.

When Pope Francis died, I lectured Hexbear not to show disrespect. People interpreted my carelessly written comment as something much worse than I intended, and dogpiled me. I reacted angrily to the dogpile. An awesome comrade kindly explained:

folk are emotional creatures rather than strictly logical. Some people have been hurt by Christianity and they’re going to be rightfully distrustful or outright hostile.

That helped me realize I misread the context, perhaps because of my autism, depression and anxiety. Hexbear has a strong LGBT majority, and Christianity has been inhuman to these comrades. I am ashamed but it was a learning opportunity. Francis had mostly nice words (sometimes not even that!), but sweet talk is not enough. Malcolm X comes to mind.

I hope you accept my apology.

Now, going philosophical, perhaps the contrast between sweet talk and harsh reality is a feature of idealist ideologies, including religion? For example, in feudal theocratic Tibet, Buddhist monks wanted to impose the death penalty on disobedient serfs, but Buddhism prohibits taking human life. The solution: some offenders were severely lashed and then “left to God” in the freezing night to die.

Capital punishment remained prohibited in the realm of ideas, but, in material reality, Buddhist monks killed serfs – like Christianity says sweet words about loving enemies and serving the poor, while the faithful (including clergy) contort themselves to rationalize the opposite behavior.

Christian scripture condemns the Pharisee who gloated about following all the rules and not being like the Publicans. Many Christians are just as bad or even worse, because they do not come close to even following the rules. For example, Christian cishet males grossly violate Christian sexual moral, often even secular sexual moral, “but I am not gay, so it’s OK. I am pro-family, I hate feminists and gays!” It is worse than discrimination. It is scapegoating.

This disturbs me.