Feeding Lions

Last night, I had dinner with a group of people with whom I do business, plus the spouse of one of those people. The spouse, who I'd met several times before, had seemed like a nice-enough guy; not the sharpest person on the planet, but affable.

But my opinion of him changed last night when I brought up the Haitian earthquake and that I hoped large-scale humanitarian aid efforts would reach all the victims before it was too late. This guy responded that he believed the quake was god's vengeance on the people of Haiti for worshipping false idols! I was stunned. This guy and his wife CONSTANTLY talk about being "blessed" by god and about god's plans for them...and he thinks "god" is punishing Haitians for not believing in him!

If I weren't sitting at a restaurant surrounded by clients, I think I would have expressed my opinion that this moron should be euthanised for even THINKING such thoughts. But I didn't. Instead, I pretended to be a "believer" and argued that a merciful god would not do such a thing. He spewed back the clap-trap that he had been fed at his deep east Texas black baptist bible-banger church. At every step of the way I refuted his arguments, but he kept responding with "well, what CAN'T be disputed is what god said about..." I gently reminded him that whatever version of the bible he was reading was 1) translated from the original language, quite probably by people who are not PERFECT in their understanding of both languages; 2) written, in the first place, by mortals who very probably embellished their stories a good bit; 3)subject to wildly varied interpretations of the VERY SAME WORDS, depending on who had the most to gain or lose from its message; and 4) contradictory from version to version, story to story, and message to message.

His preachers had filled his mind with this drivel at "Sunday school" and he was not buying my opinions. He was steadfast in his belief that Haitians are simply paying the wages of sin. I told him I was contributing to the relief effort because I didn't care about their religions or lack thereof, I simply felt compelled to show some human compassion toward people who desperately need help

When I got back to my hotel room, I wrote a vitriolic post on the topic on Facebook, but then decided this morning to remove it really didn't belong there. But it belongs here. And my nice Christian friend from last belongs in a cage with lions; my compassion does not extend to him.