The following picture was shared yesterday by the Lebanese Laïque Pride Facebook page, as their way to refute the Pope’s visit.
It seems the Lebanese Laïque (Secular) Pride people are missing a key point to their notion of secularism. Being secular doesn’t mean not being religious. Being secular doesn’t mean you go nazi on any religious event in the country and being secular surely doesn’t mean being this narrow-minded.
I can give the Lebanese Laïque Pride many examples of bonafide laïque countries, the kind that these Laïque people would kill to have over here, that have hosted the Pope and even organized WYD (World Youth Day) before. But I won’t. What I will do however is list them a few things that I, as a Lebanese, wasn’t also asked if I wanted to pay for:
- The few billion dollars we had to pay post July 2006.
- The few billion dollars we had to pay post May 2008.
- The millions in losses that we had to incur over people closing roads and terrorizing citizens.
- The 40% increase to the salaries of MPs who do nothing and ministers who complain about not having electricity.
- The visit of Ahmedinejad to Lebanon back in 2010.
And the list goes on and on. Some of them will throw the “but Jesus wanted you to be poor” argument. They seem to forget apparently that paving roads, hiring organizers, hanging banners and taking care of logistics are matters that are not taken care of by the Holy Spirit and in fact need Earthly monetary input.
What has become clear also is that no other religious figure can have his visit this opposed. I invite you to check this Facebook status (click here). But we’ll take it. Like we’ve taken so many other things before. Because that’s what we do.
One thing has become evident though, there’s no way in hell I’m trusting those Lebanese Laïque Pride people in any of their events ever again. Because, you know, f*ck their logic.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
I love your separate state of mind!
I totally agree with you.
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Thank you for reading 🙂
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1- you always in all your writings justify 1 wrong by another . if you don’t like the government giving money to the Homeless you should’ve said back then 🙂
2-non of the things you Listed cost as much as the Pope’s visit not even the after 2006 war . even though the money was given as gift from other countries , bs 7atowon byejebon :’)
3-you Nag a lot Man . maybe you should write an article about this comment here 😀
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1- who was homeless?
2- the billions are not in direct payments, they are also in lasting economical and social damages.
3- you see it as nagging, I see it as a necessity.
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Holy Spirit/Earthly monetary input… Epic. Thank you for this.
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Thank you for reading!
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I don’t get it.
Are they saying the Lebanese government got a bargain with the visit only costing $3.3mil?
Or they think $3.3mil is a lot of money and the government overpaid?
Either way, the international media coverage and subsequent economic activity surrounding this visit will dwarf the $3.3mil spent.
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They think the 3 million is too much and they’re upset they weren’t asked if they wanted the Gov to spend this much.
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“I can give the Lebanese Laïque Pride many examples of bonafide laïque countries, the kind that these Laïque people would kill to have over here, that have hosted the Pope and even organized WYD (World Youth Day) before. But I won’t.”
why? it would have made a good point , as oppose to the stupid argument you made about post 2006 , and may 8 …
dude seriously , I get the fact that Laïque Pride made a stupid argument… simply because hosting the pope will bring money into the country that would dwarf the 3.3 mill spent!
instead they should have made my argument against the pope! 🙂
Prevent the Pedo protector from coming into our country!!!
anyway he’s here and we have to accept , he’ll be gone soon and we don’t have to worry about him for a VERY long time!
“But we’ll take it. Like we’ve taken so many other things before. Because that’s what we do.”
AWWWWW you poor Christian having to deal with those pesky people that don’t believe in a man/god that condemned mankind for a sin then sacrificed himself to save them from the sin he condemned them for … ummm…. okay….. riiight…
Cheers man
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I didn’t mention the countries because a simple search of World Youth Day would have told them the countries include: Germany, Spain, Australia, France, etc…
And I think the July 2006/May 2008 argument works. Why? Because their argument is: no one asked me if I wanted to spend this. So I’m not answering them by telling them about the benefits of bringing the Pope (or hosting the World Cup in a hypothetical scenario or the Francophone games) but I’m also telling them that no one asked me if I wanted to spend money rebuilding or doing some damage control after those events (let alone someone asking me if I wanted those events to take place to begin with.)
They’re not talking because they’re worried about the money, they’re talking because they’re upset the money was spent on this particular event – not something they are fond of.
As for the rest, -_- :p
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Listen the argument provided by Laïque Pride is stupid … but your argument is flawed
YOU can’t argue with a straight face that an event of war , an attack on Lebanese people and the death for around a 1000 person and the destruction of homes and property is the same as hosting the pope in our country …
one is a humanitarian act and one is a glamorous money making event
so they are not the same.
this argument makes you come across as an unsympathetic Christian that doesn’t care about the people that died in the war , and even maybe you don’t care because they were Muslim houses that got destroyed.
so beware where this argument can take you.
PS: I know fully that you don’t think like that , BUT this is what this argument will take you too.
Empathize with the people that got hit by the disaster of the war in 2006 and the people that lost loved ones in may 08
don’t involved these two events with such a stupid argument against some morons
Again, my problem with the pope isn’t because our government payed money to host him , because they will many millions more out of his visit;
Okay then if you really want to defend the pope’s visit defend it from my argument
that fact this person isn’t a good person , he protects child molesters , he is against abortion , and against gay people.
his church is corrupt and patriarchal !
PS: by saying what i said about the church , THAT DOESN”T MEAN that there is any other religion that is better , they all suck , they are all scum of the earth , every religion on earth is worse than the other!
Cheers ,
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ps : you are my fav blog. you either hit it on the head , or miss completely! i can always count on either loving or hating what you wrote! 🙂 thank you for your hard work 🙂
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I can’t help but feel this is sarcastic :p
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I Promise i’m not being sarcastic.. I love your blog and i think my comments reflect that …
I either love your post or hate it
you are a great writer , and i’m not being sarcastic i actually mean it
I hope that my language that i use doesn’t offend , if it does offend please tell me , and i will apologize for it.
keep up the good work!
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I wouldn’t even go to mention the post July war, and post May 2008 etc… FACT: Every holiday/closure in lebanon costs the country’s GDP about 130 million dollars.
Cancel one of those nonsense holidays, and we’ll be ok for 42 papal visits!!
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Which one would you suggest without causing a mini civil war?
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Being secular doesn’t mean not being religious. And being religious doesn’t give you a license to pour 3 million dollars into such a thing.
Your arguments are weak ones. There are two main arguments that you talk about: other secular countries do it (so why not us?), and we’re spending more on other visits so why not this?
This is ridiculous. Other countries are in a better monetary position than we are. Not only that, but the $3M that they put into such an event is distributed among the population which tend to be bigger ($0.75 per person versus $0.1 for a 10 million population).
The other argument is even more ridiculous! It’s the same argument of that of “they want us to stop smoking? let them fix X, Y, Z before doing that”. Some political spending is warranted, this isn’t. What the hell did he come to do? “Salami a3tikom”. A homeless drug addict could’ve said that and contributed to the Lebanese cause (whatever that is) as much as the Pope. Even if some political spending is unwarranted, then does that grant us the right to throw even more money to even more futile issues?
I honestly think a group Skype session between the Lebanese people and the Pope would’ve had the same added value (if any), but with a reduced cost.
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Pingback: How much did the Pope’s visit cost? - Blog Baladi
about half of this money went to Solidere in order to prepare and allow them to use the waterfront.
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i as many others here atheists who mainly don’t like religious or political figures are most probably not interested with the visit of the pope.. but you cannot disregard 1.8million Lebanese christian who would pay to see him not to discard the ones coming from outside Lebanon just to see him.. instead of pulling up posters about the Pope’s visit and be a totally greedy atheist person, i’d rather focus on more internal social religious stuff, much like fanatic islam and whatever makes our lives a living burden in this f***** up country!
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It is better than buying weapons …
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