Of government-assisted religious transgression

Bonsoir, mes chês lecteurs, aujourd'hui je suis furieux. Je suis furieux parce que le gouvernement de mon pays a décidé d'offrir quatre-vingt-dix Millions de Pesos (MXN) a l'eglise catholique. Quatre-vingt-dix millions! It is truly outrageous. This particular transgression comes from the state of Jalisco (which is notorious for the borderline and not-so-borderline religious fanaticism of most of its inhabitants). I'm sure you can understand my anger at this event. Oh, and to top things off, the ninety million are to be used to build a monument to catholic martyrs of the Cristero war, when their so called "martyrs" were the ones who started the war and committed the atrocities during the conflict (Further reading here). Mexico is by law a secular nation, and this is an open violation of said law (pdf). As it has come to be expected, the governor of Jalisco is a member of the National Action Party (PAN). The church constantly violates the Law of Religious Associations and Public Cult, one of the more recent incidents being their attempt to coerce congresspeople into not legalizing abortion here in the city by threatening them with excommunication (I'm sure that only scared the people from PAN).

Para cerrar, los que vivan en México y sean seres racionales, y los que no vivan en México y tengan un lugar especial en su corazón para este pais nuestro, no se queden callados ante este abuso. Ese dinero es de todos los contribuyentes y no es correcto que lo desperdicien, mucho menos regalándoselo a una asociación religiosa (notando particularmente que esta asociación, la iglesia católica, no necesita ese dinero para un monumento, porque estoy seguro que el retrete del papa cuesta mas que eso). Que sepa el ciudadano gobernador Emilio Gonzalez que no importa que maquille el asunto como que le está dando dinero a una Asociación Civil, no engaña a nadie.

If anyone requires a tranlation of anything I wrote, feel free to ask for it.

Rêves Doux, chês lecteurs.

Of secularity and belief

Bonsoir mes chês lecteurs! Every country seems to have a party that favors the participation of religion in politics, or at least the creation of laws that enforce religious "values". In the US it's the Republican Party, here in Mexico it's the National Action Party (hereafter referred to as PAN). The PAN originally was a center party that was ready to favor either left or right policies, if those were to favor the country and its people, but it became a highly conservative, right-wing, "christian democratic" party (I cringe whenever I hear christian and democracy together). PAN has opposed same-sex civil unions, legalization of abortion, day-after pills (One member of the party went so far as to call them "weapons of mass destruction"). Fortunately, Mexico, with all its wrongs and flaws, has very strict Church-State separation laws. One example of this in action was seen during the campaign of Vicente Fox Quesada (President, 2000, 2006) when he used the standard of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a symbol of run for presidency. His effort was quickly stopped and he was given a fine of about 2'000 dollars (a mere slap in the wrist, but a powerful message none the less). Still, the battle is far from over. Catholic priests and bishops have the bad habit of meddling in politics (Exempli Gratia: The church threatening to excommunicate politicians who voted in favor of legalizing abortion here in MX City), particularly the big bad wolf Norberto Rivera.

Fortunately for us atheists, we are not even remotely as hated or discriminated here as in the US, so hopefully we'll one day have an atheist president.

The current president is a member of PAN. Luckily enough he is kept from being too harmful because PAN does not have majority in congress. Some of the less rational of their policies in states governed by PAN are forbidding the use of miniskirts by public employees and outlawing the use of profanity in public marketplaces (Guadalajara and Queretaro).

The sad truth is there is not a "Best Choice" in politics here, rather a less harmful one. Oh well, I'm sure you all know how that feels.

Rêves Doux