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3.05.2003
Public prayer fanatics borrow page from enemy's script This is really an argument between two kinds of prayer--vertical and horizontal. I don't have the slightest problem with vertical prayer. It is horizontal prayer that frightens me. Vertical prayer is private, directed upward toward heaven. It need not be spoken aloud, because God is a spirit and has no ears. Horizontal prayer must always be audible, because its purpose is not to be heard by God, but to be heard by fellow men standing within earshot. To choose an example from football, when my team needs a field goal to win and I think, ''Please, dear God, let them make it!''--that is vertical prayer. When, before the game, a group of fans joins hands and ''voluntarily'' recites the Lord's Prayer--that is horizontal prayer. It serves one of two purposes: to encourage me to join them, or to make me feel excluded. Although some of the horizontal devout are sincere, others use this prayer as a device of recruitment or intimidation. If you are conspicuous in your refusal to go along, they may even turn and pray while holding you directly in their sights. ------ I used to work in a public place serving coffee. It was right down the street from a major evangelical university. Every so often one of the students would start "witnissing" to me. I hated that. I was at work. I was trapped, I couldn't leave and I couldnt speak my mind back because of my status as an employee. But that didnt matter. When it all boils down to the facts, it remains that any amount of coercion is acceptable in the service of their religion. I could tell when there was a pep talk at the university because the rate at which people approached me was quickened. What I want to know. Since we felt smugly justified in explaining the recent Orange alert by saying that the Haj was occuring in the muslim world, can we possibly justify an orange alert now that the Catholics are starting Lent. Because with the one dimensional logic that all Muslims equal potential terrorists because some muslims commited terrorism, then it stands to reason that since some Chrstians have commited terrorism as well (OKC), then we should be on alert anytime there is a christian holiday as well. But being a myopic nation that sees only good in the mirror and only bad when we look at others, I guess it makes sense that we don't think critically about our justifications for terrorism alerts. I of course, dont actually think that Catholics are terrorists. I dont think muslims are terrorists. I think EXTREMISTS are terrorists. Every religion has them. Hell, you dont even has to be a religious person to be an extremist, look at the CEO's! Engaged in economic terrorism. | |
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