The Pope

My feelings about the Pope are mixed. On the one hand, I actively dislike most of the religious dogma for which he stands (especially his stand on women – there’s a fantastic article about this over at Myth and Culture. On the other hand, I know he’s really important to many people and a very influential spiritual leader. Plus, he’s essentially the ruler of the Vatican, which is a country in its own right (if I remember correctly). Plus, he was a human being, and the death of any human being is a significant event.
Even so, it raises my hackles when I see flags at half staff for him. Not only was he not American, he stood for a religion which (as I understand it) is opposed to many of the ideas upon which our country was founded (the innate equality of all humans, the separation of church and state, etc.). Plus, there’s the fact that he no doubt would have told me, had I met him and told him my own spiritual beliefs, that I was a Satan-deluded fool, unwomanly, and destined for eternal damnation.