This is a holiday season preceding an election year, which means that all the usual excesses of religion are pushed at us through the media sphincter with ever increasing venom. Whether it is the casting call of presidential candidates competing to prove who loves Jesus the most, Christian conservative pundits who take every gesture toward inclusiveness during the holidays as a war on their most deeply held beliefs, or Baptist preachers labeling Mormons as a cult, I don’t seem to be able to escape the inquisition.
Although, I must admit that I did enjoy the last one. It came from a Baptist preacher in criticism of Mitt Romney, and it led me to imagine this purely hypothetical conversation:
Baptist preacher: “We believe Jesus was born of a virgin, turned water into wine, raised the dead, walked on water, died on the cross because it was the only way God could forgive the sins I was to commit 2000 years later, and rose from the dead three days after his crucifixion to ascend bodily into heaven.”
Mormon: “We believe all that. We also believe that on his way to heaven, Jesus stopped in America and visited with the Indians.”
Baptist preacher: “Well, that’s just crazy.”
In general, I’ve tried to avoid the topic of religion, because, in my experience, when people ask me what I believe, they don’t really care what I believe. They simply want to know whether . . .
Continue reading . . . |
