author of the best-selling
Harry Potter book series,
delivers her
Commencement Address,
June 5, 2008
at the
Showing posts with label J.K. Rowling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label J.K. Rowling. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, August 3, 2009
Catholics Support Gay Rights "Gay Marriage" – Checks and Balances – Intelligence and Ignorance
By Fr. Marty Kurylowicz – Thalamus Center
Maybe there are checks and balances in the Catholic Church called the Holy Spirit. The realization that came over me in March 1997, at the New Way Ministry Symposium, in Pittsburgh, PA, about just how harmful the influence of the Vatican’s antigay teachings are on children motivated me in lightening speed in “good conscience” to come out publically as a gay priest. There was no hesitation “Kids are being Hurt !!!” What’s there to think about?!? Move!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Save the kids!!!!!!!!
I think that it is a basic human instinct, heightened by growing up in my family, neighborhood, the time in history I was born and the strong influence of my Catholic upbringing, the years and years of all Catholic school education, grade school, high school, college, graduate school in the seminary, becoming a priest – “You just don’t hurt kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” However, from the news media and the Internet it is clear that the Vatican and the hierarchy don't get it!!! It is not rocket science! You do not have to be Einstein or Sonia Sotomayor to figure this one out! But why in God’s name can’t the hierarchy of the Catholic Church figure this out. The most basic human instinct to protect children they so badly fumbled the ball and they are allowed to continue to fumble so badly, even still! Not one cardinal or bishop was charged with criminal neglect for the decades of cover-ups of child sexual abuse cases, not to mention their intimation of the victims and parents who spoke up. How can this be allowed to happen? How can all world pretend it never happened? Have we become that indifferent to what violence happens to children? In part, I realised why, because as we learn from Selma Fraiberg, (1987) Ghosts in the Nursery, there was no one attentive their pain growing up as very young children, they are unable to recognize the same pain happening to children, now.
Selma Fraiberg, (1987) Ghosts in the Nursery, explains how parents' own past experiences of growing up, impacts their relationship with their own child, beginning as infants. Fraiberg’s research studied the interactions between an infant and one of the parents, when both were left alone in a room. She observed what happens when an infant begins to cry and continues crying for an extended amount of time. Fraiberg discovered that some parents appeared undisturbed by their infant's distress and made no gesture, to soothe, calm or even to pick up their infant.What prevented these parents from attending to their crying infants? Fraiberg’s research revealed that unconscious processes, conflicts (the Ghosts) of the parents' own past were being played out, in the same way, as these parents experienced being cared for by adults during their early childhood years growing up. The reason why some parents did not pick up their crying infants was because in the past when they were growing up, no one heard their cries or picked them up to soothe them. Not having experienced the attentiveness of a caring comforting adult when they were in distress, as children, as parents, they have no conception of the need to comfort their own crying infants. Read more
J.K. Rowling describes a way the we can hear the cries of children, in her description of IMAGINATION she gave in her Harvard Commencement Address on, June 5, 2008. She begins by speaking about her early days, in her 20’s working at Amnesty International in London. video
…Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
You can see what happens to priests like myself, who speak out publicly of these atrocities that happen to other human beings. We are silenced, dismissed from our jobs, lose our income, and shamed by the hierarchy in the same way that they treated the victims of child abuse. The idea of working for God as a priest or religious is that you work for “free” or for very little and pay little attention to making money only in caring for others. This is a noble idea and freeing because you can be totally focused on the lives of others. The evil that comes in is when you are working for God for free and then you are misused by the hierarchy to be kept silent, because you cannot afford to be thrown out. We all know now more than ever, these days, the feeling of losing your home, your car and everything. This is how atrocities in the Catholic Church can continue for decades. Because if you come out as an alone priest, to speak out about actual human violence happening to kids, you are quickly and publicly shamed and removed by the hierarchy. Since you are the only one who speaks up and no one else does, then to the public you look like you must be the problem and deserved to be mistreated and thrown out. And, again repeating, this is how human atrocities continue in the Catholic Church for decades. It is called blaming the victim, bad things only happen to bad people, which in reality is not true.
After I came out 1997, and lost my income and position unless I submitted to conversion/reparative "reeducation" or to be locked up in another more permanent closet for the rest of my life, I attended a gay blessing just like a wedding, a marriage at a Metropolitan Community Church (MCC). I was struck again as if by a bolt lightening to the true meaning of marriage. After doing tons and tons of weddings, as a priest, and though I was happy for the people I did them for, I realized that I did not get the true meaning of marriage. It was only after witnessing from the pew the, oh, so familiar orchestration of all that is involved in putting together a marriage ceremony that the true meaning of marriage hit me. I get it now!!! It is about two people in love and everyone gathers together to celebrate this most wonderful love. I understood why everyone is so happy. My mind flashed back to vivid scenes when I was a very young child being taken with my brothers in our white shirts, bow ties and shiny new shoes, to what seemed then like 100’s of weddings. I understood why everyone looked so good. I could understand why my great aunts and uncles, who to me as a kid, I thought were real old and never seemed to smile, became the life of the party. You could hardly recognize them all dressed up in their "best" with beaming smiles, laughing, hugging and kissing everyone in sight and dancing to beat the band, like I had never saw before. I got it! For the very first time in my whole life, at 50 years old, I got it!!! It is about LOVE, being one with another human being and how wonderful the feels!!! I understood the excitement, the fusing, the tears, the rejuvenating atmosphere, contagious feeling of good will, it all made sense to me now!!! I also understood why I did not get it before, it was because of how I was raised quite implicitly and not at all intentionally done, but I was being told “They are writing songs of love but not for me.”
They’re writing songs of love - But not for me ...A lucky star's above, but not for me,... With love to lead the way I’ve found more clouds of gray… Gershwin, 1960 Grammy Award Listen 753
Now, a life time later, I again felt most deeply the harmful social influence of the Vatican’s antigay teachings have on a very young child growing up gay, in a way that no one could have ever imagined, least of all my parents and relatives. Because even before I was being dragged to all those 100’s of weddings as a very young child I had already been told quite implicitly that these celebrations would not be for me.
After that gay couple’s WEDDING, I could not in justice as a priest do another heterosexual wedding in Church. We cannot celebrate love when we are harming others so inhumanly. In good conscience, before God, as a priest I could not do it ever again until all could come to their Church and be married. I know, even now, as I write this article why I was so ecstatic with unbelievable joy when the Episcopal Church this past July 2009 approved the blessing of same-sex unions, as they begin writing the liturgies for gay marriages. The tears I could not cry at other peoples’ weddings before came out flooding uncontrollably. And that "crazy spirit" that seemed to possess my great aunts and uncles at weddings I attended as a kid I could feel alive in me for the very first time. How unbelievably wonderful and yet now, at the same time, how so very tragic. How do you compensate children, adults for a life time of implicit violence, far worst than explicit violence, which is wholeheartedly approved by Benedict XVI* and his heirarchy? It cries out the heavens, to God for justice, the violence done and is allowed to continue is far more extensive than anyone can possibly imagine. This may help us to begin to understand better why there may be so many violent human atrocities, like HItler's.
And recently, reading how so many Catholics support LGBT civil rights, including Marriage Equality I feel like dancing and hugging and kissing everyone. Those songs of love are for me and you, too!!!!!!! There may after all be checks and balances in the Roman Catholic Church, the powerful love and strength of the Holy Spirit.
However, Benedict XVI and his hierarchy, instead of being concerned about the global economy and people in crisis, they are still obsessively hot on the trail of witch hunting gays, only. What actually do the hierarchy do? They are not good at protecting children. How do they get elected or get picked or whatever to become a member of the hierarchy??? We need to find this out and how has it been altered through the centuries. Something is not right with it, today. There needs to be full, complete and ongoing transparency regarding the cardinals and bishops bank accounts and duties and effectiveness. There needs to be a comprehensive investigation into the pontiffs, cardinals and bishops their activities both past and present. As Catholics we are responsible for their behavior, now that we know they are not dependable or responsible, especially when it comes to children. With all due respect, Benedict XVI has helped to bring to the public attention the problems with the Roman Catholic hierarchy, their insulation from the real problems people are facing. What would Jesus do and say to them?
Written by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - Thalamus Center
*Important note: I mean no disrespect to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children. Kids are being hurt!!!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
"The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living" - Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC) - Kids are being hurt!!!
Revised – Thursday, July 30, 2009, 13:41:15 GMT
Thalamus Center
By Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
Important note: I mean no disrespect to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children. Kids are being hurt!!!
As, a priest, I was always worried about preaching whether I was helping in the smallest way helping people to become better or whether I was making them crazy. I would tell people from the pulpit that it was like raising kids, “Parents always worry whether they are making their kids better or making them crazy.” I would go on to say that “…in the end, it really doesn’t matter much what the parents do, because when their kids turn teenagers they will say that their parents made them crazy.”
I am one of the middle generation of the baby bloomers. Meaning growing up, for me, was always in the midst of tons of kids born before me and tons born after me. Families, neighborhoods and schools were flooded with kids and raising kids was of prime importance, maybe for the sake of survival for parents, for everyone, because we were like swarming locust covering the entire land. I believe that our parents were truly focused on making this a better world for their children and did their best for us kids. Growing up out of this social environment of the 1950’s and 1960’s I guess I have that same kind of concern about caring for kids and people ingrained in me. This is especially true growing up in a city like Grand Rapids, Michigan.
So, when I was ordained, I was worried about doing my best not to harm anyone. Psychology has been a passion of mine as far back as I can remember, even in the first grade. I always wanted to know what makes people tick, why do they do, what they do. This passion of mine was in part due to my growing up gay, which I was not conscious of at that time. So, when your natural sexual orientation growing up is not acceptable to others, as a child for survival sake, a child will try to learn quickly how to act in a way that will be acceptable. Because the biggest fear for a child is being abandoned. The threat of being abandoned for a child can be overwhelming, even traumatizing depending on kind and degree of abandonment.
J.K. Rowling speaks about how people block out huge sections of their childhood years, which were most unpleasant and then will say that their childhood years were wonderful. Ms. Rowling will challenge these adults by reminding them of some of the most unpleasant things that happened to them and even then they will say that their childhood years were wonderful. People forget the unpleasant memories, but she states that her brain does not let her forget. Our entire lives are significantly shaped by what happens to us in our early childhood years, which most people forget. However, in our adults lives we tend to be constantly trying to unconsciously resolved issues that were troubling for us growing up. This oftens prevents us from truly living our lives, which not only impacts our own personal lives but many others in our lives. 13,645
I had been in years of Catholic psychotherapy; because of the problems I had growing up gay, due to the psychological harm of the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings. I was concerned about not harming others by my preaching and this was another reason why I continued in psychotherapy and due to the fact that Catholic psychotherapy was heavily influenced by the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings. In these years of psychotherapy, studying psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan and then changing to psychotherapy not influenced by the Vatican unsubstantiated antigay teachings, I vividly and thoroughly examined my early childhood years. And it is in this way I can see so clearly the harm that the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings has on children in early childhood psychological developmental years growing up. It freed me from the past-unresolved problems and to truly begin growing and living my life. However, without the influence of the unsubstantiated Vatican’s antigay teachings I would have begun to truly living my life over some 50 years before and have avoided wasting decades of my life and not had to have been in any psychotherapy. No child should ever have to experience this kind of harm and wasting most of their lives trying resolve these issues caused by the influence of the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings. "Kids are being hurt!!!
Presently, there are no civil laws to protect children growing up or for receiving compensation for the harm inflicited on children by the influence of the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings.
The Needless Early Childhood Hardships Caused by The Vatican’s Unsubstantiated Antigay Teachings.
If being gay was not considered such an abhorrent evil, published by going to hell, a social disgrace, I would have learn that I was gay at an early age. This would have significantly improved my early childhood years growing up. It would have eliminated years of conflict and tension between my older brother and me.
My older brother by 3 years is a heterosexual and would be classified growing as all boy. He loved and played any and all sports. And he was good at everything he did. Me, I could not throw a ball to save my soul, although, I desperately tried to because I wanted to be just like my big older brother who idealized. And even though, my brother patiently practiced endlessly with me, I could not do it. He became frustrated and upset with me calling me all the stereotypical names about being gay, which hurt me deeply and forever. He was hurt by my inability and clumsiness at sports. He thought I wasn’t trying that I didn’t care about him, he felt rejected, abandoned and used by me. He didn’t know how bad I felt that I couldn’t be like my older brother and how that was so devastating to me that I was such disappointment to him. This started a needless separation and conflict between us that lasted throughout our growing up years.
When I was just about 3 years old, I slept in the same bed with my brother, who was 3 years older. This likely happened when my twin brothers were born. I can remember being thrill to sleep with my older brother. I could snuggle up next to him and would feel safe and secure all through the night. When he started school and my mother would wake him up to get ready to go, I would cry without end. It seemed like I cried all day until he came home. I was inseparable from my brother. But as we grew up my brother started to push me away, because at school, I didn’t know how embarrassing it was to have your younger brother always with you. It would not have been so bad if I could throw a ball. This is likely the reason why my brother tried so hard to teach me sports and why he felt hurt by my lack of improvement.
Had being gay been socially and religiously acceptable and understood by the adults in my life growing up, it would have prevented years of frustration and conflict between my brother and me. I would not have been put in the same bed with my brother. My attraction for my brother would have been understood and explained to me that my brother is "straight" and that I was "gay." I would have been told that some day I could meet someone like my older brother who is gay and I could marry him. It would have been explained to my older brother that I was gay, which would have saved a lot of hurt feelings, hurt feelings that either of us, including my parents understood. There would have been enormous improvements made for my entire family and me had being gay was understood correctly and accepted.
This does not even begin to explain the unending traumatic, humiliating, confusing and isolating experiences that I and others like me had growing up through puberty having an unidentified attraction for other boys. Only, knowing that something must be terribly wrong with the way I was made. In more extreme cases, this may begin to explained why some people who are so obsessively speaking out publicly against "gays" only to be exposed themselves publicly in a samesex sexual encounter, because their samesex attraction was never identified. This is not the experience of all gay people growing up; it seems to be for only those who grow up in more extreme antigay social and religious environments.
Revised – Thursday, July 30, 2009, 13:41:15 GMT
To be continued...
Saturday, July 18, 2009
J. K. Rowling – A Remarkably Courageous Woman beyond the Fame - Doing " … Her Best She Could With the Talents She Had”
J. K. Rowling
Importance of Children & Reading
By Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, Thalamus Center
I wanted to but never had the time because of my grueling work and study schedule (5:00am -10:00pm), and lack of funds, after I came out 1997, to read and view the “Harry Potter” movies. I learned about J.K. Rowling being on the University campus and from people working for community mental health and their positive reactions to “Harry Potter” and renewed sense of hope. She managed to touch the lives of millions people by her writings. If her books are anything like how she has lived her life, it would explain their worldwide popularity.
As we come to the end of the first decade of the 21st century, we have witnessed many of our public figures both in government and in the Church dropping to an unprecedented low level of blatant immorality and ignorance, and a total disregard of the poor and children. It was like a return to the “Dark Ages” a period in history void of intellectual thought and unbelievable corruption in both church and state.
J.K. Rowling in her quiet nature becomes a bright beacon of hope in her morally neural writing style managing to keep alive the importance of love, loyalty, trust, integrity and the need to stand up against evil. By her determination facing the overwhelming struggles and major disappointments in her life, gives us an example of hope struggling to do our best with the talents we have against seemly all odds, making a difference for the better. She kept alive what we expected from our leaders in both state and church. At a time that has forgotten about the importance of children, she gave to our children hope and a way to live that can benefit everyone. During her struggles in her life, she never expected it to turn out as it has for her. I was most impressed with her work at Amnesty International in London, as she describes in her Commencement Address at Harvard, June 5, 2008. 41,552
She has given an interview to ABC News, explaining more about what her life was like before the fame of “Harry Potter.” Read more and video 665 ABC News interview Photo
Happy Birthday - J. K. Rowling - July 31, 2009 - Thank you for your work, especially for children.
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Achilles’ heel for Benedict XVI, the Hierarchy & the Vatican regarding Sexual Orientation – Homosexuality – Gender Identity
by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - revised July 17, 2008 Read complete posting
Kids are being hurt !!!
Divert Contributions - Making A Difference for Children
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Achilles’ heel for Benedict XVI, the Hierarchy & the Vatican regarding Sexual Orientation – Homosexuality – Gender Identity
by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - revised July 17, 2008
Kids are being hurt !!!
Monday, July 13, 2009
The Achilles’ heel for Benedict XVI, the Hierarchy & the Vatican regarding Sexual Orientation – Homosexuality – Gender Identity
by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - Revised on July 17, 2009 The Diary of Anne Frank (published in English 1952) Marie-Louise Luxemburg
In 1933 the Frank family moved from Germany to Holland to escape the Nazi persecution of the Jews. In Amsterdam, Anne Frank’s father Otto Frank started a Dutch branch of the Opekta Company, manufacturing products used in jam making, such as pectin. The Franks lived in a house in the southern side of the city, and Anne and her sister Margot attended the local school and made friends with the local children. Read more & Photo
Kindergarten Cop 1990
John Kimble is a tough city cop who's been on the trail of drug dealer Cullen Crisp for years. He finally tracks Crisp down but it seems the only person that can testify against him is his ex-wife. The problem is she's disappeared and all Kimble knows is the name of the school in Oregon where her son attends. When things don't quite go to plan, Kimble finds he has to go undercover on his toughest assignment yet - Kindergarten teacher! Photo & Video clip
Divert Contributions - Making A Difference for Children
Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Matthew 21: 43
"Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering." Luke 11: 52
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Achilles’ heel for Benedict XVI, the Hierarchy & the Vatican regarding Sexual Orientation – Homosexuality – Gender Identity
by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - Revised on July 17, 2009
Important note: I mean no disrespect to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children. Kids are being hurt!!!
The Achilles’ heel is the fact the sexual orientation begins very early in life either just before birth or shortly after and it remains resistant to change throughout a person’s lifetime. Like with Galileo the documentation is overwhelmingly supportive of this fact. This one fact alone totally destroys the very foundation of the Vatican’s teachings on homosexuality. Because an infant’s preference of attachment to another human being and that infant “acting on that preference” cannot be thought of as “intrinsically evil,” “intrinsically disordered,” or are such actions to be “condemned.” Nor is it even humanly possible to think that for the rest of that infant’s life, he, she is never to be held, to be embraced or to fall in love and to be one with another human being, ever! Nor to be told in some way, which is beyond all human comprehension, for life to “sublimate one’s sexuality,” which is a great risk to the psychological well-being of anyone. See related articles
Sexual orientation is less about sex and more about love …
“An illustration of the process of the Vatican's Achilles' heel of the teachings of homosexual orientation that renders them null and void.”
From the movie "Stars Wars “A New Hope” the Empire’s indestructible Battle Station (the Vatican's teaching on sexual orientation) has one small weakness. Its’ defenses are designed around a direct large-scale assault (adults) but not for a small one-man fighter (children), which was not considered to be a threat. The weakness is a target area only 2 meters wide and only a precise direct hit will start a chain reaction that will destroy Battle Station. The one-man fighter is this one fact, a small piece of truth that sexual orientation is set very early in a person life, long before for the Vatican's arbitrary set "age of reason" and it remains resistant to change. With the promulgation of the erroneous teachings of the Vatican regarding homosexual orientation – Kids are being hurt!!! View video clip 152,684
The Vatican never considered children to be a threat, as proven by their failure to protect children for decades regarding the global sexual abuse cases. Now again, the Vatican, Benedict XVI and the hierarchy have failed to take in the well-being of children regarding their teachings of sexual orientation and gender identity.
President Obama is wise to say he is conflicted by Christian teachings regarding LGBT issues and other aspects, (because he is not alone) before he meets with Benedict XVI. President Obama and Mrs. Obama will be meeting with the authoritative leader of the Roman Catholic Church, not the authoritarian leader. This means that Benedict XVI should be able to explain in great detail all the documentary evidence regarding human sexuality, which is backed by leaders in the field. Benedict XVI should be able to supply President Obama and Mrs. Obama with detailed facts that make sense about human sexuality. The Obamas are intelligent people, both are respected lawyers who have shown great compassion for all human beings, particularly children. The Obamas, as major world leaders will be most interested in all that Benedict XVI has to offer on human sexuality. Benedict XVI is to mirror the example of Christ who is the great teacher, not the great dictator. LGBT issues will not be addressed, because this a diplomatic visit of good will, out of respect and nothing more. However, the Obamas will be a "breath of fresh air" as they grace the Vatican with their visit. They will bring a sense of "new life," human warmth and profound respect to the Vatican during their time with Benedict XVI.
Christ is protective of children and gave stern warnings to see that children are not harmed. Even if, the Vatican, Benedict XVI and the hierarchy pay no heed to Christ's warnings to protect children many world leaders have and have taken great risks to do so. Thank you in the name of Christ. After Benedict XVI's chilling Christmas message 2008…
I think in truth on a much deeper level I was frightened, really frightened, to hear Pope Benedict XVI’s Christmas remarks against homosexuals and transgendered human beings and even more frightened by the silence from the larger global community of human beings. What is so frightening is, even if there is agreement that one person does not matter or is not important, in truth then no one matters. Read more AUSCHWITZ
However, I was so surprised that slowly but firmly many world leaders came forth, as well as, major medical and mental health professional associations and organizations to express their objections to Benedict XVI’s statements related to human sexuality.
Since, the beginning of 2009, many world leaders made appointments of openly gay people to high political offices, USA, France, Belgium, Iceland, others and some gay people in high offices acknowledged their sexual orientation, Spain. The Obamas have been supportive even through these historical hard economic times more than any other presidential administration. A significant gesture was the invitation of LGBT youths to work at the White House. For years the Episcopal Church has led the way, as well as, many other Christians churches regarding the love and acceptance that Christ has for all LGBT people, as well as, many of other faiths. The Episcopalians continue their struggles starting this week "Marching to Anaheim" with Rev. Susan Russell leading the way along with many others. We pray the best for them because their successes will be for us all. Then for us in the USA, this year President Obama begins by dedicating June 2009 to Gay Pride, another unprecedented event made by a USA President. Throughout many of the Gay Pride Parades in the USA and globally major political leaders, and major entertainment celebrities have joined in. The Obamas held a reception at the White House at the end of June 2009 for many of our LGBT leaders and LGBT Veterans commemorating Stonewall’s 40th Anniversary. These people I am eternally indebted to for my “coming out” alive. Then the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, and his wife, Sarah, host a private reception for the London’s Gay Pride leaders, at 10 Dowling Street. Stunned and left speechless by this overwhelming outpouring of world leaders’ support, acknowledgment and respect for many of our LGBT leaders and workers. Then as if coming out of a surreal experience, realizing that it is truly the “Sarah Brown” with a beaming smile, leading London’s Gay Pride Parade 2009. Wow!!! Can this really be happening!?! What a remarkable women! Her quiet reserve demeanor takes public attention off her rich example of humanitarian work that seems endless. Thank you Sarah Brown, and to all our world leaders for the risks you took for all LGBT people, their parents, families and friends, but most especially for very young children all around the world. You will not be forgotten by millions of people, people who you will never meet. Those of us who are of the Christian persuasion, we know that Christ promised heaven to those who cared for those who the world wrongly considers to be the least among people. For me the terrible fright I felt at Christmas 2008 by Benedict XVI chilling words against homosexuals and transgender persons and the silence of the global world melted away, quite unexpectedly, by this outpouring of human empathy.
We have a ways to go yet for civil rights for LGBT people, the safety and well-being for all LGBT children and people, Marriage Equality, but at least we seem to be moving in the right direction. Hope burns brighter thanks to the endless efforts of our LGBT leaders and organizers globally, who are managing to get world leaders to be publicly supportive for LGBT civil rights. J.K. Rowling describes this kind of renewing human empathy, so well in her Harvard Commencement Address, June 5, 2008. J.K. Rowling speaks of her early days, in her 20’s working at Amnesty International in London. She begins by telling us first of the importance of "imagination."
…Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
...I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them… I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments…
I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.
And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just had to give him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country’s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.
Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read.
And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.
Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places.
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy. Read complete address (video) of J.K. Rowling - HARVARD MAGAZINE 41,552
The one and only concern is for the well being of children. The movie “Prayers for Bobby” 2009 (video) was too unbearable to watch in its entirety for me, though our situations were different the experience of the confusion, isolation, and depression were in many ways too similar. It was quite difficult to re-experience even a little bit of those painful feelings long forgotten. And the thought to allow any child to go through that kind of needless pain and suffering goes against everything we know God to be. 111,862
Victims of abuse become the Aggressors
Doing to others what was done to them as children
Benedict XVI (Cardinal Ratzinger) was around 10 years old living in Germany, when Hitler came to power and immediately began his attacks against homosexuals. As a child, Benedict XVI witnessed and would have been traumatized by this inhuman attack against homosexuals being quickly and quietly disposed of by Hitler’s men. This would have made Benedict XVI, as a child, a victim of violent abuse living through this massive form of inhuman treatment of other human beings. As well as, a victim of an inhuman form of neglect abuse, because no one tried to stop this inhumanity from happening. From psychology it is known that the victims of child abuse, as adults are likely to become the aggressor committing the exact same crimes against others that were committed against them as children. Benedict XVI seems to have recreated the same horror of Hitler’s extermination of homosexuals. As Cardinal Ratzinger, Benedict XVI’s investigations beginning in the late 1970’s were constant and extensive, an endless obsession tracking down those who were speaking the truth about homosexuality. Benedict XVI's period of his inhuman inquisition lasted well over some 30 years and is still ongoing. All Benedict XVI’s tactics were done behind closed doors silencing these people, similar to Hitler’s tactics of disposing of human beings. Anne Frank: The Whole Story 2001 Captured 83,486 - 87,676
Think of how many millions of children and adults would have lived healthier more productive lives and others not being killed, prevented others from taking their own lives and others from being physically abused, if Benedict XVI did not prevented the truth about homosexuality from being made known. The only difference from Hitler and Benedict XVI form of violence against humanity was that Hitler’s was an explicit form of violence and Benedict XVI’s was implicit form of violence against humanity, which is even more sadistic and inhuman. The cardinals, bishops and Vatican staffers under the authority, first of Cardinal Ratzinger, then later as Benedict XVI resemble the Gestapo the official secret police of Nazi Germany under Hitler’s dictatorship. After Hitler’s death, at the end of WWII all these people who carried out his atrocities were arrested, others hunted down and all were convicted of war crimes. They were not excused by making the statement “I was only following orders.” This will also not work for the many people in the Church either, the many who go to church every Sunday. They will be held responsible for their silence and apathy, which is a form of collusion that is evil, because by it “Kids are being hurt!!!”
Human goodness at its’ best is brighter than all the stars in the heavens and more beautiful than all the sunrises and sunsets put together. The power of human love is beyond any known force on earth, to heal, give life, restore hope becoming a part of something greater than one’s self. This kind of human goodness is needed because “Kids being are being hurt.” A tough movie but some great scenes caring about and working with kids - Kindergarten Cop 9476 - 9242
Divert Contributions - Making A Difference for Children
Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Matthew 21: 43
"Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering." Luke 11: 52
The quickest way to see results regarding the Vatican, Benedict XVI, the cardinals and bishops is to withhold all contributions, until immediate changes are made. That open discussions are held by the Vatican of the best and the brightest theologians and scientists and professional researchers and practitioners regarding human sexuality. Withhold all contributions except of course, for institutions specifically for children, the elderly and the sick. It would also be a great time to insist on transparency in all accounting, a word quite foreign to the Vatican, Benedict XVI, the cardinals and bishops. Do not settle for anything less, we are talking about protecting children, regrettably another concept quite foreign to the Vatican, Benedict XVI, the cardinals and bishops.
However, this does not mean that we keep the money we would have given in contributions, because we as Christians are responsible to care for the poor and those in need. And today, with our economy that is terrible globally there are a lot of people in need, losing their homes, having no food or health care, etc. There are plenty of people in need of our help even in our families and neighborhoods. Also, on the Thalamus Center there are listed on the left hand side of this blog a number of organizations for children that need our support. The Family Acceptance Project - Dr. Caitlin Ryan of San Francisco State University is a research project about LGBT children growing up. They can most definitely use our donations and it would be putting our money where it could do the most good. There are a number of organizations like PFLAG and Fortunate Families that can use our donations. There are numerous Religious LGBT groups who are also listed on the left side of this blog like Dignity and Integrity and many other denominations and of various religions. Also, there are local LGBT Community Centers who are always in need of donations and most all work with LGBT youths.
It is sad that the only time the Vatican, Benedict XVI, the cardinals and bishops will move is when money is involved. Only after numerous victims of sexual abuse started class action lawsuits did the Vatican moved, most regrettable they did not move out of concern for the children.
by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
Revised on July 17, 2009
Important note: I mean no disrespect to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children.Kids are being hurt!!!
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