title: trump is ahead in zero national polls while the media continues close race narrative
text: by rmuse    am the archdiocese holds the matter among its highest priorities if passed the law would have significantly detrimental impacts on our parishes our ministries   the following is an opinion column by r muse 
  for almost all secular humanists organized religion is nothing more than an easy means of controlling people through fear and intimidation throughout recorded history the catholic church has been responsible for all manner of devious machinations to control not just its adherents but any humans it comes in contact with that lust to control human beings has continued unabated into the st century and in america like the rest of the earth the catholics number one focus has been on controlling women apparently the catholic church in massachusetts wants to expand its control over the population 
  on friday the boston globe reported that the archdiocese of boston dropped about a million dollars in a lastditch effort to exert church control over massachusetts law and citizens to stop marijuana from being legalized for recreational use other reports reveal that the taxexempt political spending is meant to help defeat a massachusetts ballot measure question   question  simply legalizes cannabis for recreational use for people over  and creates a commission to regulate marijuana in the state of massachusetts question  contains no references to the catholic or any other church and makes no claim of trying to  impact ministries  
  a spokesman for the boston archdiocese terrence donilon made a truly pathetic attempt at justifying the catholic churchs political donation to the campaign against massachusetts version of legalized recreational marijuana saying  
   it reflects the fact that the archdiocese holds the matter among its highest priorities its a recognition that if passed the law would have significantly detrimental impacts on our parishes our ministries  
  seriously that has to be one of the most monumental piles of bovine excrement of a reason to use taxfree congregants donations to interfere in an election ever offered nowhere in massachusetts or any states decriminalization statutes is any church mentioned much less affected by the outcome of an election catholic priests will still be free to sexually abuse little boys if adults can legally purchase and consume cannabis and despite residents having a toke in the privacy of their homes the church will still frighten its members into increasing their tithes and the usccb will still attempt to control and dominate all american women no reefer decriminalization will impact the catholic ministry but it will drastically reduce the number of people being arrested and imprisoned for marijuana possession free up law enforcement to pursue nasty pedophile priests and relieve americas overburdened judicial system 
  now the catholics claim that people using cannabis legally whether they inhale or eat it will have  significantly detrimental impacts on their ministries  that is an odd assertion on yet another point surely part of catholic ministries is teaching according to their gods word in the christian bible it is nearly certain that every catholic priest on the planet including those in massachusetts are aware of gods word in genesis where in chapter  verse  the catholics  almighty god  said 
   out of the ground the lord god caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food  and he continues in verses    then the lord god took the man and put him into the garden of eden to cultivate it and keep it the lord god commanded the man saying from any tree of the garden you may eat freely but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die  
  although there is recorded evidence that cannabis was first discovered to be used for its medicinal qualities  years ago  there is no record of reefer ever being confused with  the tree of the knowledge of good and evil  weed is not and will not affect the catholic ministries if it is decriminalized today any more than it has over the past twothousand years the catholic church has existed and cannabis was either unknown to the clergy or illegal 
  in a reaction to the news the archdiocese was interfering with politics with taxexempt money an advocate and spokesman for the yes on question  jim borghesani said  
   the archdiocese has come up with a position that frankly we think is based on unfounded assumptions and junk science what i think the archdiocese is missing is the terrible harm that marijuana prohibition has done to people of color to people who have chosen a substance that is less dangerous than alcohol and have had their lives ruined because theyve been arrested  
  one wonders if part of the boston archdioceses ministry entails increasing the number of americans mainly americans of color sent to prison for possessing or using a plant that  god caused to grow  and was  pleasing to the sight and good to eat  obviously that is the case and according to a new set of data keeping marijuana illegal means keeping americans arrested for drug possession at a rate of every  seconds of every day of the year 
  why is the catholic church so interested in perpetuating the failed war on drugs in general and the criminalization of marijuana in particular as noted by michael stone over at patheos what the massachusetts catholics and mormons are actually helping to sustain is  in reality a war on poor people and people of color  mr stone really nails it when he said that by spending taxexempt donations on a political agenda to  defend the unjust prohibition on marijuana the catholic church is guilty of perpetuating the failed war on drugs and the new jim crow  
  the archdiocese is also guilty of hypocrisy besides implicit racism because any religious organization that condones and even promotes the use of alcohol while using taxexempt donations to maintain the ridiculous prohibition on cannabis is  morally indefensible  mormons are also busy instructing lds members to vote against all state initiatives that seek to decriminalize and regulate recreational marijuana use as if it has any affect whatsoever on either their private mormon lives or their lds ministry but they allegedly dont condone or enjoy alcohol so they just have control issues and are not blatant hypocrites at least where cannabis decriminalization is concerned 
  the massachusetts catholics may not be violating the law by  acting as an antimarijuana super pac  but they are using taxexempt member donations to politically influence an election and control other americans lives the church is all about wielding ultimate control over all facets of american society however if the church is so flush with money why not use that money to compensate the thousands of victims of the churchs pedophile priests or dog forbid use that taxexempt donors money to help the people of massachusetts in need 
  the catholic church is guilty of using fear and intimidation to control its own adherents and that is down to frightened people needing a  daddy figure in the church to tell them what is right what is wrong and how to stay out of the proverbial hell that is all well and good for people that willingly cry out for a controlling organization speaking for a deity but for people that are not  in the church  it is an affront to use donated taxexempt money to impact read control their private lives the only good news out of this abominable story is that it looks like question  will pass with relative ease informing that the archdiocese wasted about a million dollars of its congregations hardearned money 
  this is yet another example of why all churches should be taxed like every other business and american citizen except donald trump it is  morally obnoxious  that the archdiocese is using the congregations donations for political purposes to influence an election and yet another sign that there is no area the church considers as out of bounds in attempting to control every aspect of society with taxexempt funds wrung out of hardworking americans many of whom use recreational cannabis 
  ht patheos