Posted by The Happy Tutor
If the Gospel didn’t demand that I follow in a Way of non-coercion, I would have reason to cry out for blasphemers to be punished, for impiety to be stifled by force.
Do the Gospels then rebuke the thundering intolerance of Rev. Dr. Jerome Jowells and his ilk? Or, can they turn to the Book of Revelations to claim that Jesus is as intolerant as they are themselves? To our hate-mongering, crowd-swelling pastors, Swift would have said, "No, Sirrah, no, you prating coxcomb, that malicious sermon is not from God; it is air blown upward through your anus with a bellows." Indeed he said precisely that in his "Mechanical Operation of the Spirit."
Yes, it is hard chastening our co-religionists, from our own or other denominations, but unless we are willing to brave their ire, how can we call on our Muslim peers to moderate the fanaticism of their more extreme members?
Fanatics on both sides have much to learn. How, short of Jihad and Crusade, might they be taught? My suggestion is tough love from those who worship the same God.
Apocalypse, later please. There is even after postmodernism something to be said for the Englightenment, of whom Swift was a leading figure, whose example has perhaps never been more relevant, fools and knaves abounding. But those we must satirize are not Muslims, if we are Christian, nor Jews, say, if we are Muslims, but those the devil or the Great Satan has lodged like vipers in the bosom of our own respective religions. Yes, I do have people in mind. AKMA you lead, I will follow. Who among the dignitaries of the low church will we enlighten first, upon whom inflict excellence, as an example to the others?
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