97 replies on “Stephen Fry v. the Catholic Church”

  2. Stephen Fry is my absolute hero. Articulate, witty, and right on the money. I’ve loved him since he played Lord Snot in the Young Ones.

  3. Fry’s my favorite hardworking, golden-voiced, beautifully educated, hilarious gay thespian heavy-Tweeting survivor of a well-documented crisis of love and faith. He can do no wrong, except he could put a little more product in his hair if you ask me.

    Thanks so much for posting this.

  7. That was thought provoking and it needed to be said. God bless, Stephen Fry for speaking his heart, speaking out against oppression and injustice. It is my opinion that the “Galilean Carpenter” would approve and be pleased with his heart and convictions.

    But do the blind see and the deaf hear? Not without surrendering the pride that allows them to believe that they are always correct.

  8. Mankind stands at the precipice of a new history. A history without the lies and hate and ignorance and murder and plunder and rape of religion. An empirical history of truth about the universe and mankinds place in it. And the begining of a real morality that comes from equality of all peoples.

  10. @6, more likely, Mr. Frye will stay out of Uganda once their legislature makes his orientation illegal upon the pain of death. A policy that has been heavily influenced and supported by American religious figures to their everlasting shame.

  12. Oh man…

    I guess we should say that all Doctors are evil because they used to ‘bleed’ people in the 17th century.
    Italians must be evil too, because they caused so much pain during the Roman Empire and stuff.
    Germans? Should Germans be labeled as wrong and evil as well because of WWII?

    Is it just me or this guy is sort of full of shit?

  14. To think at one time you used to agree with Mr. Fry, Loveschild. Or is “old Ratz boy” a private term of endearment? Which in case than my bad.

    Thankfully President Obama has reversed the U.S. family planning /AIDS prevention policies and funding for Africa that the son of a Bush put into place. I think people in the motherland will be more inclined to listen to one of their own than to old Ratz boy.

    Posted by Loveschild on March 17, 2009 at 10:06 AM
    http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

  15. @12 did you miss the opening where he expressed nothing but respect for individual believers – this is about the church. In terms you would understand, no the Germans shouldn’t be labeled as wrong and evil because of WWII, but the Nazi party and Hitler certainly should.

  17. you lose savage, because you very foolishly left your judas #13 open to ridicule bus riders who aren’t thin and beautiful and a list porn stars.

    once again savage, you should advocate the closing of old repackaged porn stores and get rid of all the ugly gang rape gang bang mutiple partner sex reissues and build a holistic center for wayward sex addicts who jealously build multiple advocasy programs to themselves by scrounging the dirt teams and taking advantage of young people to live vicariously through your own mistaken identities.

    bravo for advocating youth sex in combination with mind altering chemicals.

  18. I love this man.

    Loveschild: Did you really listen? Really listen? I know you are a troll here, and that’s fine. But there is a difference between faith and the church. If you agree the catholic church has been honorable and great and not fucked up on many fronts, then you are a fool, and exactly who they are looking for.

    Sigh.

  19. @12, you might argue that he spent too much time on historical misbehavior of the church, but he clearly makes the point that only some, not all, of this historical misbehavior has been discontinued, and that much of what has been discontinued has not actually been made right.

  20. @14 The Catholic church is more than the current Pope. There have been many previous leaders with more clean past and of greater charismatic influence who were beloved and exemplified a pastoral figure head better than Ratzinger . John Paul II comes to mind. And those essential core moral teachings of the church cannot be undone by the current figure head. Not that any of that matters to you, since I bet to say that you see nothing wrong with the hate Fry spews. It’s almost as if you would love nothing more than his atheist fueled hate to spread in God fearing nations.

    I recognize this for what it is and it’s certainly more than hatred against Catholics, it’s hatred against moral values, teachings and actual respect for God not only by word of mouth as he and others with his mindset would like only to see (so they say), but in action also.

  21. Loveschild- I really don’t need to actually write something this obvious but I will anyways. You are full of crap, you pathetic hypocrite. A pathetic hypocrite who proves yet again he/she has no idea what he/she is talking about.

  23. Loveschild @ 20,

    Neither Fry nor I ever said that wonderful, godly, individual Catholics did not exist.

    You were the one who referenced Uganda. Fry’s complaint with regard to Uganda was the Vatican’s position and promotion that condoms caused AIDS, and you agreed with Fry’s position less than a year ago (http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…).

    Nice try with regard to changing the subject and twisting this to be about the hatred of moral values, teaching, and actual respect for God.

    In fact Fry’s speech was rich in moral values and rich in respect for both an individual’s need for religion in their life and to God. You just did not recognize it, because your church has not taught you that there is a justice and morality above the church. A hint: It is the justice and peace of the kingdom of God.

    Now, I am off to take another shower.

  24. @2: He played Lord Snot? I like him already. I must say, it’s good to be reminded that my family’s not the only people in America to watch The Young Ones.

    @20: If you feared God, you might be a little nervous about attaching the name of HaKadosh Baruch Hu to everything you say. Your arrogance shows so clearly when you claim to interpret God’s will all the time. And what he says isn’t hatred against Catholics, it’s a rebuke of the Catholic Church. It’s like how so much of the world didn’t hate America, per se, they hated Dubya.
    So tell me, how are moral values being threatened by telling off the Catholic Church. You realize, they didn’t so much have the moral high ground during the Middle Ages.
    http://www.royalscandals.com/part8.htm
    I know, it’s a bit sensationalist.
    But it’s good to see that you’ve recovered from that schooling linda with a y gave you the other day. We thought you might have died from it. Well, I guess you can’t keep a good cuntwhorebitch down.

  26. I watched the whole debate a while back and I recommend it as it is jolly good fun. At the start, the audience was, I believe, about 2/3 in favor Hitchens and Fry’s position. At the close, the majority of the remaining 1/3 came over to their side as well.

  27. @23 Fry’s first complaint concerning Ugandan society, especially their leader (Museveni) is that they have found God and that such relationship serves to guide the values in which they shape their society. Because they recognize that justice and morality comes from God. Only those who leave their ideologies and place their lives in His hands for Him to mold and transform into new can attest to this.

    Watch the video again after you take another shower.

  29. @20

    If you seem to think that the Catholic Church is a bastion of intellectual and spiritual integrity, you must be for the most part unaware of its history, which, with close analysis, is predominantly affected by matters of politics, not spirituality. The line of Papal succession is mired amidst many political struggles and many of the Pope’s themselves serve as an example of virtue to no-one. I want to just bring up one major example of this phenomenon: the “Pornocracy” stretching 904 to 964 in which Popes were selected by one powerful Italian family, the Theophylacti. Of course there are other instances of this behavior, but this is especially delicious as one of the daughters from this family, Marozia, herself was a concubine (starting at the age of 15) to Pope Sergius the III, from which union she had child. This child, according to her influence, went on to become a Pope, that is John the XI.

    The doctrine of the Catholic Church was ultimately decided and influenced by people of common integrity, and those who were always unable to follow their own beliefs. This is to say nothing of the other forms of Abrahamic monotheism, which I am not in any way indemnifying, but it does show the fair amount of criticism the Church deserves to suffer under, obviously being no categorical representative of any divine, but nevertheless maintaining such pretense.

    For more reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornocracy

  33. @27 – your argument would be much more convincing if it weren’t based on a 10 second joking aside out of a 20 minute video. Try again.

  34. Hey venomlash @24:

    Could you please not use “cuntwhorebitch” anymore. Please. It is coming across as being anti-women and I don’t think you are against women in general. Are you?

  36. No thanks, LC @ 27,

    I’m all fresh, clean, smelling sweet, and with flushed cheeks to boot.

    My point stands and your using a joke to support your point betrays you.

    Go see if someone else wants to wrestle with you.

  38. It sounds like they are debating some sort of legislation…does anyone know what issue they were debating? Is it funding for the RC church, or something else?

  41. @ 38 Yes, it’s a debate for the motion that “the Catholic Church is a force for good in a world”. Fry spoke against the motion along with Christopher Hitchens, who was also great.

    I’d advise all of you to check out the whole debate if you can. The RC Church gets fucked up the ass.

  42. @37 A joke … yes how convenient for you to see that venom as such, but it doesn’t surprise me in the least.

    I’m not the one who needs to face her demons sweetie. My Heavenly Father has always sent his angels to guard me in all my ways.

    Your cleanings are only superficial dear, here’s hoping that will change soon.

  47. @42
    Seems perhaps a little reflexivity and humility are in order, no? Admitting to the faults of our associations and the presumptuousness of our beliefs will lead us all to more love and less suffering, lest we walk the arrogant path of demanding that others view the world as we do.

    “Physician, heal thyself!”

  48. The Catholic Church isn’t alone, but many evangelical and protestant Christians fall into similar patterns:
    “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” is the basic mechanism by which all sanctimonious Christians claim their own salvation while damning others – they are allowed to lie, steal, and abuse in order to “win souls for Christ” – and they purchase absolution for their tangential personal faults with a slight temporary increase in piety.

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