Guess the rest of us haven't a prayer

[Tom Beck]

www.presidentialprayerteam.org

Why does this bother me so much? Since I have no fear whatsoever that  
being Jewish (and, therefore, not being "saved" as these Christians put  
it) means I'm going to hell (as a Jew, I don't believe in anything like  
hell), why does it bother me that people like this delude themselves  
that Jews (and, by definition, Muslims, Hindus, etc.) are going to  
hell? It's a free country; they have the right to be wrong.

I guess it's because, as a Jew, I'm aware of the 2 millennia during  
which so-called Christians did not just believe Jews were damned; they  
actively tried to send us to hell prematurely. Or they forced us to  
convert. And in every other way tried to convince us that their  
Christian love was better.

I guess I don't like any ideology that enshrines discrimination, even  
when those engaging in the discrimination can't really take any  
practical steps to harm those they would discriminate against. I also  
don't like the implied arrogance.

I wonder if they would pray for Joe Lieberman, if he had become veep. I  
suppose they'd pray for him to "see the light" (as they see it).

Note: I'm not accusing Bush himself of being like these people. One of  
the few favorable things I can say about Dubya is that he appears to be  
more religiously tolerant than his more fervent Christian followers.  
Not that we need his approval to be Jewish, but he seems genuinely  
tolerant of non-Christian religions.

Still, this is most definitely his base, people who think like this  
self-appointed Presidential Prayer Team. They represent a small  
minority of Americans, yet have a greatly exaggerated voice in the  
Republican Party and in the Bush Administration. So even if Bush  
himself is not as extreme, he can't but be influenced by them. And, as  
a member of not only a minority faith, but a faith persecuted for two  
thousand years by people who think very much like members of this  
Prayer Team, I think I have a right to be pissed off and apprehensive  
at the idea of people like this having the President's ear.

(By the way, Catholics shouldn't be too pleased with these people,  
either, since it is an article of faith among extreme right-wing  
Protestants that Catholicism isn't really Christianity; read the Bob  
Jones University Web site.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
----------

Tom Beck

my LiveJournal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/tomfodw/

"I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never thought I'd  
see the last." - Dr. Jerry Pournelle

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
----------
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l