Another day another anti-religion piece from Huffington Post Religion. On April 14 columnist Derek Beres wrote “Why Arresting the Pope is a Great Idea.” Not only that, but Beres actually compared Pope Benedict to director Roman Polanski, who raped a young girl. He also, of course, couldn’t resist ranting against the Church’s teachings on priests remaining celibate.
Atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have called for Pope Benedict’s arrest when he travels to Britain. Beres labeled this idea as “common sense.”
“If Roman Polanski can be arrested on sexual abuse charges after 32 years of hiding,” Beres wrote, “so can the Pope, holy or not.”
He also complained that it was a “travesty” that anybody can get away with a crime. That Pope Benedict has not been charged with any crime was no concern of Beres’. Roman Polanski raped a child; Pope Benedict certainly did not. Comparing them is simply absurd.
Beres isn’t the only one who has joined in for calling Pope Benedict’s arrest, while tying in Polanski. Big Hollywood reported Jeffrey Welles of Hollywood-Elsewhere.com stated, “I for one would be impressed and delighted if author and noted biologist and author Richard Dawkins and author Christopher Hitchens could manage to actually arrest Pope Benedict for crimes against humanity during a planned visit to England in September.”
Welles’ indignation over Benedict’s supposed crimes is ironic, since he has expressed sympathy for Polanski. He actually complained that some people are attempting to make Polanski’s situation “uglier and more pernicious” on his Wikipedia page.
For his part, Beres attempted to offer an explanation as to why the Pope has been immune. He explained that every religion, except Islam, allows for humans to rise to “idolatrous heights.” Beres wrote that, “you are told to worship this or that person who supposedly did so, disregarding their messages to find the truth for yourself.”
Actually, no, Catholics are never told to “worship” the Pope or anyone else but God.
No column about Pope Benedict would be complete without bashing church doctrine. Beres’ criticized the Church’s teachings on priests remaining celibate and wrote, “If only these men would put down the bible and pick up a biology book, they would understand that forcing any man into celibacy as a theological mandate for righteousness is physically demeaning and emotionally damaging.”
Beres’ piece is just another example of Huffington Post Religion pushing its’ anti-religion agenda. A Culture and Media Institute study of just the first two weeks of HuffPo Religion found that 81 percent of the stories were critical of Christian leaders, denominations, and beliefs.
