"Is the bondage of the priest-ridden less galling than that of the slave, because we do not see the chains, the indelible scars, the festering wounds, the deep degradation of all the powers of the God-like mind?"

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

How appropriate a verse in light of the recent allegations of impropriety and coverups by the Catholic Church. I'm sure that there are about fifteen other sects that are breathing a heavy sigh of relief that the spotlight is focused on the priests. I'm sure in time we'll come to discover that sexual abuse is not confined to just the followers of the Pope, we'll end up with a gaggle of rabbis and preachers in this before it's all over.

I must be fair about this, though. I had the good fortune to attend Catholic schools most of my life, and I do consider it good fortune. I had a terrific education.

Never in the entire time did a priest make any inappropriate gestures, and they had ample chances to, had they been so inclined. I was an altar boy, and spent long hours alone with priests for various reasons in school.

For example, to help pay tuition, I worked weekends answering the phones at the school, alone for long stretches of the afternoon and evening. Every once in a while one of the fathers would drop in to pick up something, or use the copy machine, whatever. Sometimes they'd sit and chat for a while. Perfect opportunity.

And I was a pretty little boy, though you'd have a hard time swallowing that looking at me today. Smallish, slender, long hair, rosy cheeks, the whole bit. Once, in my mid teens, working at a petshop and wearing a loose fitting smock, I was mistaken for a girl. I had a hard time living that one down. :-)

Anyway, in all those years, nothing untoward happened, for which I am thankful. All the priests I knew were fine men.

My pal macker seems to think that his conduct and personality as a Xian is an important facet of people's acceptance of his faith, or the lack therof. In fact, when he first came to know me, he assumed that my distaste for organized religion was due to some unpleasant experiences with the shamans in the Church while I was in my formative years. Not so.

My experience is that most adults have pretty much made up their mind about God, and aren't going to let other people's actions sway them much. We all know of assholes and angels in and out of the faith. If I was inclined to buy in to the whole Eternal Salvation thing, I'd be pretty foolish to risk my soul just because one insufferable asshole stumbled on the truth, too.

Conversely, I'm not going to be much persuaded to to believe, either, just because some proponent of the faith is charismatic, personable, and/or looks like a movie star.(Well, maybe the latter, iffn we're talking a female type. I might be willing to affect an enthusiasm. But if she was that sexy, I'd be more inclined to drag her over with me to the Dark Side. :-) It's a lot more fun over here.

So, I was not one of the "priest-ridden," at least in the most salacious interpretation of the term. However, I believe that we are all priest-ridden in a more insidious way, whether we are of the faith or not. We live in a culture in which many of the values are Xian values, and we follow them even if we don't follow the religion. They have transcended the faith to become an American value.

"Work Hard" is one of those values.

It's hard to find a man that's unemployed that feels good about himself, as men in our culture tend to define themselves by their job. Walk up to the average Joe, and ask him, "Joe, what are you?" In almost every instance, Joe will reply "I'm a truck driver." Not, I'm a Republican, or a father, or a model railroad enthusiast, though Joe is in fact all of those things, too. Take away a man's vocation, and you remove a large part of his selfhood.

All protestations of equality aside, we still look a bit askance at a man that chooses to be a stay-at-home dad. Or one that chooses to work only part-time, and lives a simple life so that he can afford to do so. Or one that is considerably under-employed. We expect men, and increasingly women, to work long and hard outside the home, as hard as they can, and to strive for promotions and raises. Anything less is considered laziness, and a character flaw. That's why it's called the "work ethic."

This is not the best way to live your life. Anthropologists tell us that we work much longer than primitive peoples in hunter-gatherer cultures, where most men and women only work a few hours each day, and spend the rest of the time relaxing, telling stories, having sex, or just "hanging out." Who knows what stress-related health problems and mental disorders result from this?

There are more of these cultural values which we've inherited from the Xian faith - the nature of sin, appropriate punishments for crime, denial of the senses as morally superior to indulging them among them.

In logic, the validity of a conclusion can only be as valid as the axioms used in it's construction. So too, as we search for the answers to many of the ethical dilemmas facing us today - the proper use of technology and natural resources, the just use of political and military power, even the simple centuries old question of how a man should live his personal life, we would do well to examine those unconscious assumptions to determine which we choose to keep, and which ones represent being saddled by the shamans, and deserve nothing more than to be tossed into the rubbish heap of history.