 |
|
 |
|
Charles Jaco has written opinion and commentary pieces for dozens of magazines and newspapers. Each week, read and comment on a fresh on-line version. The discussion page enables you to share your view points world wide. If you would like to make a comment go to the " Join the discussion" link below. If you would like to view past editorials visit the Editorial Archive. Editorial: 10/15/99
Each man creates God in his own image. So the pinch-faced fundamentalists on the Kansas Board of Education created a flaccid, impotent God unable to handle the complexities of creating a universe that evolves over billions of years. The anti-abortion zealots who believe in justifiable homicide created a God who smiles on them for killing abortion doctors. Black nationalists who preach wearing African vestments created a God who looks suspiciously like Malcolm X. Islamic fundamentalists who preach death to all infidels created a God who wields a scimitar. The Church of the Identity Aryans created a God who's lifted straight from Hitler's racial purity propaganda. All this comes to mind because the modern minister of inclusiveness, Billy Graham, has brought his crusade to my hometown. And my radio program has been flooded with phone calls from hardshell fundamentalists suspicious of Graham for saying that people other than Protestant evangelicals might actually find their way into heaven. I have heard these same people speak Arabic and Farsi, Tagalog and Urdu, saying essentially the same thing--that their particular sect was blessed with exclusive knowledge of salvation by the Almighty, and that those who disagree with them were either going to be damned to perdition in the by-and-by, or were going to be killed on the spot to speed the process along. This is where Jesse Ventura, sad to say, is right. These people are weak-minded individuals who only feel their self-worth through zealotry. This is not to condemn, as the good governor did, all organized religion. Far from it. But it is to condemn the small-minded yahoos scattered from Tehran and Kabul to St. Louis and Montana. In that one respect, Governor Body Slam didn't go far enough. These people are Satanists disguised as true believers. They preach from the Book of Superstition and worship at the altar of self-righteousness. If the Hindu are correct, they spent their past lives cutting the hearts from virgins in Aztec temples, feeding Christians to the lions in Rome, and burning witches alive in Salem. Hindu nationalists in India slaughter Christian missionaries in front of their children. Islamic militants go to heaven by blowing up an Israeli bus full of women and children. Christian fundamentalists thunder that not only Jews and Hindus and Muslims, but Catholics and homosexuals and maybe you and me will all burn in hell. If all of that doesn't sound like devil worship, I'm not sure what does. These unholy warriors of all persuasions exist only because good people believe in a God of wisdom and tolerance and infinite patience. As Billy Graham said, "I am not wise enough to know who will acheive the kingdom of heaven. I will let God sort that out." Amen, brother. |
Visit the Editorial Archive.
 |
|
[ News Views ] [ Coming Up ] [ Public Speaking ] [ News Boom ] |