Jesus Hates Muslims

Flip Benham, Director of a group called Operation Save America, leads members in a prayer Friday August 6, 2010 on Clinton Avenue outside the Bridgeport Islamic Society following a protest against Islam.

According to a bunch of Jesus-loving, Bible-reading Christians in Bridgeport, Connecticut, their professed savior of the world, who as far as I can tell from what we know about him in the gospels didn't hate anyone, hates Muslims. And to be sure that Islam gets the message, they gathered outside an Islamic center there and screamed this and other Christian truths such as "Islam is a lie!" into the faces of a group of Muslims gathered to pray. To pray! Oh, and they also screamed "Murders!" at a gaggle of young Muslim children leaving the center.

I continue to contend that this really kookoo stuff, which is happening all over the country, is a symptom of something much more sinister. There's nothing more fanatical and more hateful than religious certitude. My (albeit limited) understanding of religion is that it is by its nature tolerant of others since the journey to God and the search to understand the Truth is universal and incomplete. So the journeys and searches of others are to be respected. People who are positive that their course is the only one will be more than willing--they will be eager--to stamp out the apostates and "enemies of Christ [or Islam or Judaism or whatever--fill in your own godless enemy]" So the longer and more virulent these anti-Muslim protests go on, the more frenzy that is whipped up by the Right on this issue, the greater the likelihood of widespread bloodshed and violence in the name of Jesus. Haven't we been here many times before? And that turned out great, didn't it?

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