Praying for peace and understanding... OR Getting Nowhere at Light Sped!

Praying For Peace and Understanding...
OR
Getting Nowhere at Light Speed!

In Jerusalem, an American female journalist heard about an old Reformed rabbi who visited the Wailing Wall to pray, twice a day, everyday, for a long, long time.

In an effort to check out the story, she went to the holy site and there he was! She watched the bearded old man at prayer--and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, she approached him for an interview.

"I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN, sir, could you tell me your name please Rabbi?"

"Sure, sure, for a nice young Jewish girl like you, you are Jewish aren't you? Sure, I can tell you my name." He replied.

'Ummm, well... what is your name Rabbi?"

"My name? My Name is Rabbi Irving Finkelstien. But you can call me Rabbi Irving."

"OK then Rabbi Irving. How long have you been coming to the Wailing Wall and praying?"

"For about 50 years", he informs her.

"50 years! Why, that's amazing! What do you pray for?"

"I pray for peace between the Jews and the Arabs. I pray for all the hatred to stop, and I pray for all our children to grow up in safety and friendship."

"And how do you feel Rabbi, after doing this for 50 years?"

"Like I'm talking to a fucking wall."

I've felt like that old rabbi sometimes. But hey, I've only been at it for 30 years! At first I tried actually talking to the Reconstructionists and the Fundamentalists and praying that the Gods, both theirs and mine, would open their minds and hearts to the beautiful message of love, acceptance and tolerance that their own Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth gave His very life to deliver to mankind. Man, you'd think I had just told them Jesus was a Jew! Hey... wait... Jesus WAS a Jew, wasn't he?

But so wrapped in the darkness of hate and their own warped interpretation of His words are they that there was, and still is, no possibility of reaching them. When I finally realized this some 20 years ago and finally gave up on the last vestiges of hope of getting through to them I began to try to sound the alarm. SHEEZE! You'd have thought I'd just have told THEM that Jesus WASN'T a Jew! Out came every Christian apologetic, DEMANDING that I take back the "slander and lies" I had leveled against ALL Christians! I was called an alarmist, an unpatriotic traitor (ME, who VOLUNTEERED for duty in Vietnam!), an "anti-Christian bigot", called a "crackpot" and ignored. It would seem that when a Nazi wraps himself in the flag and uses the pages of the Bible for underwear he becomes untouchable!

Why is it that the good God fearing Christians who are truly trying to live by the works and teachings of Jesus would jump to the defense of those who were using those same words in the most twisted and fiendish way to do the work of the Anti Christ? Why have they had till now no stomach to defend their own faith from those who would misuse it? "Why?", I asked myself for years, "why in the ten thousand names of God would they actually defend these monsters?" I asked that question and asked that question, but the answer never came.

Finally one day about eight or nine years back someone did have the nerve to answer, albeit from the cowardly cover of anonymity, and also years after I'd already figured it out. He/she said that for most Christians, especially those of about 10 years ago, it was a matter of "defending the faith". No one at that time was willing to admit that there could be a "bad" Christian, much less an evil one! And to that end they were willing to go to ANY length to defend ANYONE from ANY charge of religious malfeasance, malpractice or heresy brought up by any one, especially if it is brought by one outside the faith, that might reflect badly on Christianity in general. Remember, these were the days when molesting ministers were still trying to do the Ratzenburger Shuffle from parish to parish and hoping the media reported nary a case... 'cept it just wasn't working as well as it used to. Maybe that's why someone finally had the guts to talk about it to me.

This little tale does bring me to an interesting point... have you ever noticed how the most vicious and rabid of the "TRUE BELIEVERS" (they always seem to need to capitalize that and TRUE FACTS for some unknown reason) NEVER have a profile? If possible they will prefer to go completely anonymous if they can. Having over the years infiltrated some of their groups I can tell you from first hand knowledge that they are encouraged to remain anonymous to "prevent the violent and vicious predatory liberal sodomites" from "gaining any access to any personal information that might be used to track them back to their homes and thereby endanger their families". Have you EVER heard such a load of pure unadulterated BULLSHIT in your entire life? These are the same people who don't think twice about blowing up a family planning clinic FULL of women and children that is located right next to a child care center on one side and a gas station on the other! And THEY are afraid that a movement populated mostly by PACIFISTS for God's sake are going to molest their families??? CHEEZE MARIE PEOPLE!!! What in God's names are using for brains? Elephant manure? Peanut hulls? New York City Executive Washroom Keys? Maybe Southern Baptist Church toilet paper spools? I don't know! One thing for sure, what ever it is has zero capacity for logic, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, and a total disdain for the scientific method! As Martin Short pointed out last night on Bill Maher's show on HBO (a definite maybe-one-might-should-see-if-you-can-spare-the-time-and-are-really-bored-at-3-a.m.) "Bill Frist was playing to his constituency, the guys who believe that if a poisonous snake bites you you won't die!" in reference to Frist's outrage that Justice Kennedy researches his cases on the internet(oh high tech horror of horrors!)! Martin Short and Bill Maher went on to make the point that such people (those that believe the snake pucky) are, and I quote, "just a bit doofy". What can I say? I concur! True enough, we do have freedom of religion in this great nation of ours, but if you honestly believe that drinking poison and getting snake bit can be protected against by nothing more than your faith (and conveniently enough those who die just didn't believe enough you see... yea.. right) you are by ANY sane standard more than "just a bit doofy!" You are, in fact one uneducated, stupid, redneck moron! In short, if the context of this belief were anything BUT religion you would be locked up in the nearest mental institution for being not only completely delusional but a danger to yourself and to others! The truly unfortunate thing is many of them live long enough to breed (and in many cases inbreed) by the DOZENS!

And I'm not alone in my assessment of these "TRUE BELIEVERS" and their Washington Congressional leadership. Read an article form an acquaintance of mine, the Cato Institute's Radley Balko's piece entitled In the Reign of Cotton Mather. Not only well written but entertaining as well!

Well, that's my opinion and you are welcome to it!

Julie Johnson AKA "The Great Spoon"


[AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to my friend Paula for the joke that allowed me to find a jumping off point for this rant! Thanks Paula!]