Elmer's Brother

Today I attended a panel discussion at ASU East with the topic being "Faith and Our Times", an attempt to bring representative religious spokespeople together and have a little, well, dialogue.

The issue at hand was how various religous traditions have been affected by the rise of terrorism over the past few years.

Well, you know you're in trouble when your "representative" panelists include a Rabbi, a Catholic Priest, and an Islamic Scholar. And, that's it. Those three are fine, but in my mind there was a few missing.

Anyway, the discussion gets going, and, as you can imagine, the topic of "9/11" gets ditched for other more fun things to talk about, like the Crusades, the war in Iraq, and basically, how right-wing fundamentalist Christians, and America in general, represent all that is wrong with the world.

So I raised my hand. "I'm a right-wing evangelical Christian who believes in the existence of absolute truth. I find it interesting that my 'people-group' is the only one that has been criticized and put down during this entire discussion. I'm curious, Why am I a threat to you? Can you tell me?"

Of course I got the predictable dose of "we're not saying all you guys are that way, but your view is the logical next step to a totalitarian theocracy. Besides, Hitler was a Christian."

Your tax dollars at work, once again. I tried to respond with, "Secular humanist governments such as communism and Marxism have been far more destructive to humanity than any religious institution has ever been" but, they cut me off at "Secular hu...."

So much for the open-minded, tolerant, free speech loving university system. I can tell you first hand that I haven't been in such a monolithic, lock-step, group-think environment since my stint with the Civil Air Patrol when I was 14. Even then, you were free to dissent at times.

That's the short version. Dr. Nadir, the Islamic scholar, refused to shake my hand after the panel discussion because it violated her religion to touch a man. So, of course, I had to respect her religious customs, lest I be labeled as a Right Wing Conservative Fundamentalist Fanatic Christian Hater. I suppose my customs can go to, well, you know.

And, don't forget, the concept of Holy War is certianly not an Islamic idea. How archaic and non-cosmopolitain to think that! No, everybody knows that Holy War is a concept that was derived from those nasty Christians of the Crusade, and the term has been unfairly applied to sensible, well- meaning Muslims.

Hey, I was all smiles, and did my best to be a winsome witness. My friends, we are in some serious trouble. What I attended today is a drop in the ocean compared to what is being taught to millions and millions of children and young adults every day. We'd better recognize that.

The church is the hope of the world. If we can build the church, we can save the world. It's that simple. So hey, it's time to build a Bridge to Our Future. Our future depends on it.