RELIGION AND POLITICS: ART'S VIEW

Art LOVES politics. Really. I don’t understand why, but he does. He watches CNN and CNBC continuously, stopping at FOX only until his blood boils over.

Personally I find politics boring, think that 99.9% of all politicians are crooks, and don’t’ see any reason to get all upset over things that are out of my control. Don’t get me wrong…I DO vote, and I try to vote intelligently, but still, I view it as a losing battle. Look at the results of the last election.

Anyway, occasionally Art sends letters to the editor of the Louisville paper, The Courier Journal. I’m sure they must get a ton of letters, and Art has never had any of his letters printed.

Last night it came to me….why not publish his letters on the blog? DUH. It would make him more a part of our blog, and would give his ideas the same exposure as mine….however much or little that might be. So, here is Art’s most recent letter to the editor, inspired after a full day of watching the riots in Beirut…….


“It has been said that money is the root of all evil; I disagree. The root of all evil is religion. In my almost 60 years I have watched religions all over the world become more and more radicalized. From my own religion, Southern Baptist as a youth, to Islam, Judaism, Catholicism and more, organized religion in general seems to have been taken over by the most radical factions.

We have a president who believes God wanted him to be president. God is welcome in the oval office but religion is not. And this in a country that uses “In God We Trust” as our motto and was founded to ensure religious freedom.

As a Christian I am ashamed of the Crusades. Killing for God is sacrilegious no matter the religion and yet we continue to offend the Muslim world by using this word as if it’s synonymous with some noble cause. Muslims use the term “jihad” to justify their crusade against “non-believers”. See any similarities?

Baptists for example, believe the ONLY way to heaven is through Jesus; therefore anyone who is not a Christian is doomed to hell. If you are a “non-believer” you are doomed. Sound familiar?

Muslims apparently believe it is their duty to kill all infidels. They celebrate violence and kill while shouting “God is great”. It seems that almost any offense is punishable by death. There is no freedom of speech in the Muslim world as evidenced by the worldwide demonstrations against a Danish newspaper.

The common ground between the major religions of the world seems to be hatred and intolerance. There is more tolerance within the Christian world, but even that is rapidly moving to the far right. All religions seem to believe that theirs is the only “true” religion, that their God is the one and only “true” God. Every religion seems to think that God is only on their side.

The world is being torn apart by religion… God save me from religion.

Arthur Skinner”