Mr. Bageant,
I have just read your article, "The Whore that Sitteth on Many Waters". Brilliant! You have encapsulated the very real, very serious threat posed by Fundamentalists/Evangelicals to our nation and to the world. It is indeed a very sick, a very twisted vision they embrace.
What you may want to consider (if I may be so bold), and if you have not already considered this, is that these people are in fact NOT CHRISTIANS. They are apostates, blasphemers, for they take The Master's teachings and pervert them in order to justify an agenda of intolerance, avarice (wealth-hoarding), and prejudice on so many levels it stupefies the imagination. You will note that these people quote scripture OUTSIDE The Master's actual teachings more often than not.
That is because if they weighed everything else in the Bible against Jesus' teachings, they would find that much of it is, in point of fact, primitive crap. That is one of the reasons God allowed a part of God's Self to be incarnated into human form to begin with. People had some pretty messed up ideas, and had come to worship and revere teachings that had NOTHING to do with God. The Master said "In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men".
Jesus repeatedly (REPEATEDLY) went against the old laws (stopping the mob from stoning the prostitute, healing on the sabbath, dismissing absurd hand-washing rituals, allowing His disciples to pick grain on the sabbath, hanging out with those considered "unclean", etc.), proving they (the old laws/traditions) were seriously f*&^%$d up, and this is what got Him on the top of the Pharisees' and Saduccees' hit list. And yet it is these very same laws, rejected by The Master, that these people hold dear to their collective bosom. That, and of course Revelations, which was NOT part of Jesus' teachings, but merely a DREAM St. John had. To raise it, or ANY other part of the Bible, to an equal status with Jesus Christ's teachings is apostacy. It is blasphemy in the extreme. It is, quite frankly, a form of Satanism, for in piecing together, by "cherry-picking" together their own "version" of Christianity apart from what The Master taught, these idiots truly (and in a very real sense) are serving The Devil.
Well, sorry to go on and on. This is a very serious issue to me, as I am an Orthodox-Catholic monk, part of an extremely Progressive/Liberal Church that rejects totally this evil pseudo-Christianity espoused by these neocon fanatics. I just wanted to let you know I very much admired your article, and intend to hunt down others you have written (and look forward to your upcoming book). Keep up the good work!
Peace and Blessings,
Brother Damien, OCCA
