[pope] gauntlet taken up which was never thrown

The Pope has used the word ‘evil’ and he should know – he’s close to it everyday. It surrounds him in the corridors of the Vatican. The main thrust of his remarks – looking at the fruits of a scripture if one truly follows its precepts, as distinct from the zealots who would adapt selected passages to their own prejudices – reveals, in one case, a world of peace and harmony for the male gender and obliteration for all who disagreed; and in peace, harmony and goodwill to all in the other case. I don’t see what the argument’s about. Unless you find solace in the cobalt-blue, sardonic sternness of dispassionate, indifferent, spiritually-cold rationality which denies and destroys but never ever builds and nurtures?