Pope Benedict and Uncle Larry

Many of you might have heard the Pope’s recent attempt to enlighten the world of its most prominent danger and threat to humanity. This, without a doubt, is gay marriage. I mean, just last week when two homosexuals got married, instead of bells ringing and angels getting wings, atomic bombs went off and incinerated all of Idaho. Who’s to say what's next?

Year by year, powerful leadership figures (and everyone else, for that matter) exercise their assumed right to judge large, generalized groups of people of whom they don’t understand. Whether it’s ‘Aryans’ vs. Jews, African Americans vs. White Americans, or Men vs. Women, there’s always someone who simply isn’t as good as the rest of us. 

I remember being at an extended family gathering when I was quite a bit younger, 15 maybe. My brother was a freshman in college and we were all chatting with him about how school was going. I was a measly high schooler at the time, so no one really cared how school was going for me. Later that night my uncle (for anonymity’s sake, we’ll call him Larry) asked me a rather odd question.

“What about you, Michelle…are you thinking you might go to college?”

The thought had never occurred to me that not going to college was an option so I gave him an incredulous look that basically said, “Why wouldn't I?”, without words.

“Uhh, yeah…” I said with the same look.

“I was just asking because many women find it more suitable to go to college much later in life,” Uncle Larry explained.

O-kay. Raise your hand if you think having a husband, kids, house payments, and a full-time job makes going to college easier and more suitable. No one? No hands? I didn’t think so.

Uncle Larry and I have had several tizzies throughout the many family gatherings that we have each year. Of course, I don’t love him any less, being my uncle and all, but I can’t say much for liking him.

What I’m ultimately getting at here is that it’s dumb to be prejudiced against an entire group of people. Sure, there are plenty of women out in the world who have a brain the size of a pea and whose best characteristic is the ability to talk and file nails at the same time, but that hardly describes all women. The same is with homosexuality.

From this, we can learn a fine lesson from the Pope and take note that not all Catholics are as ignorant as he is.

If you care to read it, here is the link for what the Pope had to say:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/09/us-pope-gay-idUSTRE8081RM20120109