Church and State, by Neal Pollack

[Miss Authoritiva]

CHURCH & STATE

by Neal Pollack

Every truly religious person can tell the story of his or her moment of conversion. Mine came when I heard that the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq would now be called Camp Redemption.

<snip>

Who or what, exactly, will Camp Redemption redeem? The people who committed the torture? They're currently either being sacrificed in show trials or slowly having their names erased from our collective memory by some sort of sinister government mind-control device. Is it our international reputation? That would have to be one whale of a camp. Or what about the prisoners themselves? Come, you heathens! A ticket to heaven awaits you at... Camp Redemption!

<snip>

Wake up, people! It's worse than you imagined! The United States of America has been hijacked by religious nutballs who are trying to bring about the end of the world! We have to stop them now! The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Wolf! Wolf!

But how, you ask, do we pull the brakes on this steaming train of holiness? The answer isn't simple, but it is righteous. You beat them at their own game.

<MUCH MORE>

http://www.thestranger.com/2004-06-10/feature2.html

[struggle4progress]

1. It's scary, isn't it?

[2Design]

2. Not the first place I have read this...thanks for posting

http://www.prayforreason.org/

interesting site

Pray for God to restore the World to reason

[myopic4141]

3. Pray for reason.

To pray for reason implies that God in God's wisdom did not allocate man enough wisdom in the original design. Could this be a flaw in God's design? Could God have made an error in implementation? In that God does not make flawed designs or errors in implementation (otherwise God would not be God if either were the case), the amount of wisdom allocated to man is the amount God intended to assign. Maybe then, the prayer should be for man to better use the wisdom that was allocated; however, this too would imply that God either made a mistake in the design or an error in implementation and, once again, that is not possible. The only conclusion that one can reach is that man has been allocated all the wisdom God has intended to allocate and that God has assigned the maximum ability to use that God intended to assign; therefore, it is solely up to man to decide whether to use was given to the fullest extent or not. Praying to God for more of what has been given would appear to be a great waste of time and effort along a path that would be self defeating towards who we are to be as determined by God.

[dand]

4. These people are dangerous,

as fanatical as any Islamic fundamentalist and just as ruthless. They are playing our pResident like a violin.