The Pope and the revolutionary Dictator!

“The time has come” the Walrus said,

To talk of many things:

Of shoes – and ships – and sealing wax –

Of Cabbages and Kings.

The poem flashed across my mind when Pope Benedict and Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro had a meeting like the Walrus and the Carpenter.

In an era of interconnectedness and interdependence it is all the more imperative that the Church and state come together to formulize strategy. These two eponymous and predatory leaders discussed world matters which are a paradox by itself seeing that they are different as chalk and cheese.

The case for a non religions moral sensibility is now gaining momentum & resonance especially when backed by Dalai Lama, Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris and others who endorse the movement. Religion is a bundle of contradiction even in the scriptures causing confusion in the minds of the single minded zealots and crusading missionaries.

In Mathew 5:39 you exhort followers to “turn to him the other cheek” and in the same vein you use les talions- “An eye for an eye” in retribution.

The poem by Lewis Carrol was brilliantly interpreted by J B Priestly and is viewed as an indictment against organized religion and dictatorship – Jesus depicted as the carpenter representing Religion and Castro the political dictator. Religion and politics cleverly lures its followers and subjects to certain destruction. It is possible to lead a moral and ethical life without the crutches of religion or state as all of us have a moral compass that shows as how to differentiate between right and wrong, and there is no need for special guidance.

Religion has become a sort of aggressive fanaticism whereas many non-believers, atheists do a lot of good for the down trodden, and help people who have been subjugated and exploited in the name of religion and state. One need not pray 5 times or recite anthems in rapture of the lord, to be seen as ennobled, while the atheist tries to give relief to those who suffer. History is full of people who have done wrong and oppression in the name of religion and state.

The real joke was when Fidel Castro asked Pope Benedict “what does a Pontiff do” and he replied that he too had his own ministries. Religion and the church have their own Catechism of things you have to repeat in lockstep; kind of like Fidel’s old Communist party, both of them deny free will.

The Cleric and the Communist dictator hunts the same quarry “man “and one wants to control his body into obedience, whilst the other wants to control his mind…. –Vinay-