Les Jenkins thoughtfully posted this YouTubeified preview of a new documentary:

We're not sure if we need to watch this movie or not. We already know far more about this crap than we ever wanted to. But perhaps it should be mandatory viewing for those who still trust their religious leaders — a good reminder that these people are humans, and humans are capable of being absolute monsters.

The problem, of course, is that we aren't just referring to the priests who sexually abused children for (at the very least) the past several decades. In fact, our accusative fingers point even more firmly at the assholes who tried to keep these motherfuckers under wraps, moving them from town to town and tacitly granting them access to more victims.

We have a very, very simple question for the church leaders in these cases: don't you think that, if you had done what you should have done, and actively campaigned to have these bastards brought up on charges and convicted, then the laity would trust you more?

We're being totally sincere, here. The church leaders apparently thought that keeping this shit quiet would preserve the trust their followers put in them. Once it came to light, of course, the evil of the abuse itself was compounded by the conspiracy to keep it a secret. Whereas if the church had immediately and without reservations aided in the investigations and turned over the perpetrators, we think it likely that, rather than mistrusting the church itself, the lay-folk would vilify the men who did the deeds, and would actually admire the leaders — who brought them to justice — for their honesty and integrity in the face of hard decisions. Instead, more and more people have come to mistrust the church as a whole, since the fuck-ups were so severe on so many levels.

Seriously, who the fuck do these people think they are? The answer to that one seems pretty plain: with all the "bonuses" granted them by the law — from particular tax exemptions to the "sanctity" of private confession — they really think they get to be above the law.

It's just another reason to stop giving religions any special treatment under our secular government. The Establishment Clause isn't supposed to single out religion as being "above" the law, but rather "apart" from the law; in other words, religion simply shouldn't enter into the equation. Granting them tax exemptions, for example, isn't a demonstration of the separation of church and state — it is, more accurately, a legislative acknowledgement of the "special place" religion tenaciously holds onto in our culture, which singles religious organizations out for special treatment. Disallowing confessions to clergy as evidence doesn't "allow folks their religious freedom" — it merely adds a ludicrous loophole that can only be exploited by those who claim to have faith in mythical superheroes.

So it comes as no surprise that, when push comes to shove, the church tries to take care of their dirty laundry internally, because our silly government has made it clear that such behavior is A-OK simply by assuming their allegedly "hands-off" attitude when it comes to religious organizations. Yes, blame the individual priests for the terrible, repulsive acts they've done. And yes, blame the church for covering it up. But just as much, blame the government for creating an environment in which churches are hermetically sealed from our laws and our justice. All of them are to blame.

Fucking, fucking, fucking Mahony. He is a slimy, lying, holier-than-thou shitbag bastard.

Sorry. This may not be my most intelligent argument ever, but I don't like Roger Mahony. The man deserves to be thrown in jail for the rest of his life. He's lucky there isn't a hell because if there was, he'd be burning in it.