Interesting Stuff

While traveling this week, I hit the 'Scan' button on the radio in my rental car, looking for something interesting. I found a few things.

Cruising down the highway, I stumbled on some guy named Mike Malloy, who within the first 5 seconds was unquestionably identified as an Air America type. I thought I'd listen for a bit to see how he spun the Obama agenda.

He had no interest in the Obama agenda. Actually, he didn't have anything at all to say about current events. He was obsessing with Bush. Angry that Pelosi didn't move impeachment forward before Bush left office, he was declaring his deepest hope that Bush and Cheney might still get locked up for their "crimes". He actually believes John Conyers' quest to hold hearings on the Bush administration will somehow satisfy his apparent one and only wish, the persecution and prosecution of the object of his most intense hatred.

Then I found it interesting to hear later in a snippet from another channel that the same Mike Malloy was having fun at the expense of Bobby Jindal. His sidekick was doing a caricature impression of Jindal, portraying him as an Indian phone center worker. The segment was repeated, and it was pretty shocking. More evidence of the double standard. Get a Limbaugh or Hannity doing this sort of racist stuff (which I've never heard them or anybody else on the right do, unless you think Imus is a right-winger), and everyone knows what would happen.

A second interesting piece was an interview with noted atheist Christopher Hitchens. He was attempting to make the case that religion in general, and Christianity specifically, is the root of all evil in the world. He supports the idea that government needs to drive religion from society.

What I found most interesting was that Hitchens' animus against Christians is tied to his observations of the bad behavior of some who profess to be members of the faith. That's something I have noticed in every atheist argument I've ever heard. At the root of their denial of even a possibility of the existence of God is the fact that some people who claim to be believers do evil.

Hitchens and others like him must have had a very bad experience in life, most likely in childhood, where a Christian adult mistreated them. It saddens me to find so many alienated from the Church because someone in that Church offended or mistreated them. It isn't fair to the true nature of the faith.

I would like to have asked Hitchens a few questions, like:

If there is no God, then who gets to define what's good and what's evil? You? Me? The Government?

Putting aside the evil done by people in the name of God, what is it about the actual teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as documented in the four Gospels, do you find offensive?

By focusing on those who corrupt the Church for their own gain, you are ignoring the massive good done by Christians. Is there any group of people in the history of the world who have fed, clothed, educated, healed, and helped more people in need than Christians?

The modern examples of what happens to people in officially atheist countries clearly show millions murdered, imprisoned, and persecuted simply because they refuse to give up their faith. How can you suggest that these regimes are more desirable than the American nation that was founded on Christian principles and religious freedom?

When you die, consider that you come face to face with God and must come to grips with the fact you've willfully rejected Him? What would you say in your defense?

Hitchens doesn't know who I am, and would certainly not appreciate it, but I'm going to pray for him anyway.