In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Repost / Update: Now available on DVD
The Magdalene Sisters
(originally posted on 9/2/03)
I Saw this movie this weekend. I knew of the story before hand, but even so, I was unprepared for the overpowering dread this film left me with (as one moviegoer said to another as we left the theater, “well now what do you have planned for us, hitting our heads with a hammer?"), nonetheless I recommend this film.
Here’s Roger Ebert’s explanation of what the film is about:
Here is a movie about barbaric practices against women, who were locked up without trial and sentenced to forced, unpaid labor for such crimes as flirting with boys, becoming pregnant out of wedlock, or being raped. These inhuman punishments did not take place in Afghanistan under the Taliban, but in Ireland under the Sisters of Mercy. And they are not ancient history. The Magdalene Laundries flourished through the 1970s and processed some 30,000 victims; the last were closed in 1996.
"The Magdalene Sisters" is a harrowing look at institutional cruelty, perpetrated by the Catholic Church in Ireland, and justified by a perverted hysteria about sex. "I've never been with any lads ever," one girl says, protesting her sentence, "and that's the god's honest truth." A nun replies: "But you'd like to, wouldn't you?" And because she might want to, because she flirted with boys outside the walls of her orphanage, she gets what could amount to a life sentence at slave labor.
This film has been attacked by the Catholic League, but its facts stand up; a series of Irish Times articles on the Internet talk of cash settlements totaling millions of pounds to women who were caught in the Magdalene net. What is inexplicable is that this practice could have existed in our own time, in a Western European nation. The laundries were justified because they saved the souls of their inmates--but what about the souls of those who ran them?
…
... the closing credits remind us once again that the Magdalene Laundries existed and did their evil work in God's name. The Church in Ireland has changed almost beyond recognition in recent years, and is now, like the American church, making amends for the behavior of some clergy. And the Irish Times articles report that some Protestant denominations had (and have) similar punishments for sexuality, real or suspected. The movie is not so much an attack on the Catholic Church as on the universal mind-set that allows transgressions beyond all decency, if they are justified by religious hysteria. Even today there are women walled up in solitary confinement in closed rooms in their own homes in the Middle East, punished for crimes no more serious, or trivial, that those of the Magdalene laundresses.
We look at Afghanistan and we think “well that could never happen in the west.” We read about this and think, “well that could never happen in America.” So we try to forget the Mission Schools Native Americans were forced to go to, where their mouths would be literally washed with soap if they spoke a word of their native tongue. And we try to forget the sterilization of orphans in the fifties (or that a charity now will pay drug addicts $200 to get sterilized) . And we definitely try to forget the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (that didn’t end until 1972).
A great source of evil is an institution. Institutions are not evil in and of themselves, of course not, society needs institutions, it’s a mandatory ingredient. But an institution diminishes personal guilt. When you work at an institution and do horrible things, you are just doing your job. When you combine institutions with religion (like the laundries) you create an opportunity for true evil to arise, now your horrid acts are not just your job, they are acts of a greater good. One does not feel guilty of beating a young girl if this beating will save the girl's soul (but alas, look what it does to both their souls).
Ashcroft and Bush must know that separation and Church and State is both for the good of the people and the good of religion. No one wants to see their religion used for such wickedness as described above. But if a church (any church) becomes the defacto law in this nation the Taliban will happen here. Afghanistan isn’t a victim of Islamic law gone made, it is a victim of religious law gone mad. That wouldn’t happen with Protestants you say? Please ask the victims of witch burnings on their opinion of that.
Separation of church and state saves the soul of both.
Freedom of religion allows the religions to flourish in decency. Undo influence of any religion draws that religion to evil. The same goes for political parties. One should never have all the power, neither republican nor democrat. Constant competition of who is better, who represents the people more, etc is what keeps them and anyone in check.
- rob 12:33 PM - [PermaLink] -
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