And take that, evangelicals

I recently heard an interview with Egyptian writer Ali Salem. He spoke of the Muslim extremists in his country, of the fundamentalism that incites violence. “They hate life,” he said, linking this assertion with the belief that true life occurs after death, and that certain violent acts would be rewarded then by God. Indeed, extremists in our own country – who have transmogrified Christianity into something that more reasonable practitioners reject – manufacture their own divisive and violent battles in hope of attaining a better life after death. Thus, our leaders encourage the production and irresponsible disposal of poisons that irrevocably damage our world, they work (tirelessly, pathologically) to force women into lives that may not be appropriate for them, they create an unsafe, hostile environment for people who love people these fundamentalists have never met, yet despise. My intuitive understanding that life – plant, animal, human – is valuable and to be respected, that it is the birthright of people to decide for themselves how they wish to live, shows me with unfaltering clarity that our country’s extremists are wrong.

jem