children of a much lesser god

A couple of blocks away from chez Jimbo’s girlfriend there is a vacant lot that has been taken over by Christians. Actually some local church has replicated the Jerusalem marketplace of the era of Christ. The Christians wave at you as you drive by. Really, they are doing no harm. More power to them, if that’s what they are happy doing, and I can’t complain. My occasional desire to go in there and throw out the moneychangers is only for the humorous value and only in my own mind. I know all of you readers out there who are biblical scholars are coming out of their chairs right now. Before you remind me that when Christ threw out the moneychangers it was because the temple was being used for commercial purposes and didn’t happen in the marketplace, per se, please be assured I am aware of that. Like I said, my thought was for humorous value; in my own mind.

Unfortunately, not far away there are some Christians who need to have their asses kicked. I read, with some distress on Friday, that some Baptists from Topeka, Kansas, protested at the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq. They said negative things about the soldier, carried signs and just desecrated decency in general.

Now, there are a number of us that are not fans of the war in Iraq, but one of the reasons for our concern is that American lives are being put at risk. I, for one, have nothing but respect for the American soldiers fighting over there. I hope they all come back safe, and we should honor the memory of those who don’t.

In my further reading I found that the aforementioned Baptists also protest gay weddings and gay churches. They protested at the 1998 funeral of Matthew Shepard, a gay man who was murdered in Wyoming. “When the going gets weird,” said Hunter Thompson, “The weird turn pro.” It seems to me that when you get a bunch of monotheists together bad things happen. They start wars; they fly airplanes into buildings and they dishonor the memory of honorable Americans.

And, of course, this group of Baptists just has to be from Kansas, helping to perpetrate the image of non-sophistication that we seem not to be able to shake.

One of the protesters said the young soldier was in hell right now. If there is a hell—and I hope there is—the protesters have bought and paid for their ticket there, and I don’t think they will see the soldier when they arrive.

I used to go to church with a lady who, when she heard of someone doing wrong to another person, would say that it “wasn’t a Christian thing to do.” Although she too was a Baptist, I don’t think I would be stepping too far out onto a limb by assuming she would have the same comment about these Baptists.

Myself, I would probably go just a little further. I’d say it was a rat-bastard thing to do.

But that’s just the way we feel, here in Jimbo’s world.