Keith Addison wrote:
Methinks 'tis perhaps but a task for the menials. I find myself sniggering at the prospect of the ensuing spectacle upon the arrival of the enraptured at the Pearly Gates: "Hey Peter, who the hell are all these naked guys outside trying to get in? They say they got tickets but it's only monopoly board money. Wrong address? Right." Ooops! LOL! I've read somewhere that there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth" among those who claim to do God's will, but behave otherwise. There is an irony to what you've written that would be funny if the people who behaved this way weren't so bent on increasing the world's suffering. Yeah I know, sorry. But their God isn't God, it's some other guy who hates everybody, and by the time they find out it'll be too late. A better man might manage to shed a tear for them over that but I reckon I'm doing quite well if I can wring a laugh out of it at least. "Always look on the bright side of life, ta-dum..."I mean, if you wrote a science-fiction novel where the world ended like this singularly unenrapturing bunch of total whackoes wants it to end, and they could even do it, nobody'd want to publish it, the editor would tell you it's too preposterous, the characters are like cardboard cut-outs, the plot needs work and the ending really stinks. We've discussed the "Left Behind" series before, Keith. It seems the Dispensationalist nonsense that passes for eschatology in the US these days has sold far more books than I have! (50 million copies!!! I'd be happy with 50 000 copies sold!) http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2002/07/29/left_behind/index.html Of course, I'm capable of writing such tripe too, but WHY? Have you seen some of the reactions here of non-Americans when they first encounter stuff like this?
Sigh . . . Sometimes it's embarrassing to be a Christian--not because I'm ashamed of my faith in Jesus, but because of how people who CLAIM to follow him behave! It certainly doesn't look like Mr. Ahmadi-Najad is the one who's crazy. Certainly not. I don't see the harm in talking to someone who is genuinely interested in solving conflicts, nor do I perceive a problem with listening and making an effort to understand someone else's point of view. The difficult part is determining the degree of sincerity from the other person, and that issue cuts BOTH ways. I've also read: "Two kings, with their hearts bent on evil, will sit at the same table and lie to each other, but to no avail for an end will still come at the appointed time." All that aside, if you'd had some foreign thugs marching into your country in 1953 and replacing your democratically elected president with a brutal dictator like the Shah and suffered all the consequences since, up to now, when the same people are threatening to nuke you, would you have managed to write such a mild letter to Mr Bush? The man is a paragon of restraint. At some point we're all going to have to learn to forgive one another and turn away from our desire to lord authority over other people. What other options do we have? Much of the difficulty in the Middle East stems from the American appetite for energy, which has a strangely synergistic effect when combined with the bizarre, Schofield-annotated eschatology of the Dispensationalists. As long as we insist that we're "right", and that we "have a right" to behave this way, at what point can we actually listen? Without listening, how can we change? Without change, how long can the world sustain its present course? How can you compare someone like Rice? And what does it say that "enough" people (she thinks) will accept her mindless response as good and wise? If you want cardboard cut-outs doing foreign policy you'd do a lot better with Max Headroom, and so would we all. You mean there's a difference? : - ) (Mr. Ahmadi-Najad, the "irrational lunatic") You could say about the same of the US media's treatment of Bin Laden's various messages. But it's so hard to hear the voice of truth when a hurricane of lies keeps screaming through the country. robert luis rabello "The Edge of Justice" Adventure for Your Mind http://www.newadventure.ca Ranger Supercharger Project Page http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/ |
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