When I was attending college back in the early and mid 1980s I remember checking out a book, Erich Fromm's You Shall Be As Gods from the campus library and found myself peeved that the library book had been defaced by a fervent Christian who, taking issue with Fromm's metaphorical reading of the Bible, has scribbled his vociferous refutations in the book's marginalia.
It really chafed me that this zealot was blind to his hubris, arrogance, and hypocrisy that fueled his sense of entitlement that "allowed" him to scribble his chicken scratch semi-literate polemic inside a borrowed book.
But this absurdity pales compared to some bathroom graffiti I soon after saw on the same campus. There I was using the urinal when I saw your usual crude graffiti: "Blank Blank does Blank Blank Blank so Call Her at Blank Blank Blank."
Next to the obscenity was more graffiti in response to the original: a Bible verse in which the writer, a Christian presumably, was calling the author of the crude graffiti to come to repentance.
But wait, there's more. Another zealot wrote graffiti commenting on the "inappropriateness" of the Christian who rebuked the "sinner." Of course, this second Christian was being just as inappropriate as the first Christian.
It scares me when people become so intoxicated and self-aggrandized in their belief in a higher purpose that they feel they have license to violate life's basic decencies, especially when their faith is supposed to encourage, not detract from, moral behavior.
Of course, I am not condemning faith, which can have elevating, redeeming qualities. I am condemning arrogance, which too often festoons itself with the garish wreaths of piety.
see also "the ends justify the means"
Posted by: Ed | September 26, 2008 at 03:25 PM
A lot of blood has spilled because supposedly the ends justify the means.
Posted by: jeffrey McMahon | September 26, 2008 at 04:28 PM
I've never seen in scripture where Jesus taught you should do wrong to others in order to achieve a greater good. It just seems to be contrary to how scripture shows Jesus lived and taught others to live. He did go against the common teachings of the day, but Jesus was always thinking of treating others right, even if one wrongs you. It seems to me that Jesus would have this apply to how you treat someone else's property.
Religious beliefs are way too personal to try and force on someone, anyway. I don't think anybody with any common sense would be swayed by the defacing of a book (or of anything else).
Posted by: Brian (Scooby214) | September 27, 2008 at 08:32 AM
I doubt Jesus would graffiti a library book or a bathroom wall, but I don't doubt that some of his followers would give themselves license to do so. Some would be so eager to please him, that they might lose sight of common sense and common decency. An irony about zealous devotion.
Posted by: jeffrey McMahon | September 27, 2008 at 09:08 AM
Jesus was a community organizer.
Posted by: Tom Welch | September 27, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Of all the things said about Jesus, to say that he was a "community organizer" is the biggest understatement I've ever heard. Tom, are you being tongue-in-cheek?
Posted by: jeffrey McMahon | September 27, 2008 at 12:00 PM
No, I was referring to Sarah Palin's negative reference in her acceptance speech to community organizes.
Posted by: Tom Welch | September 27, 2008 at 01:12 PM
...and Pontius Pilot was a Governor!
Posted by: Ed | September 27, 2008 at 01:26 PM
Pontius Pilot and Sarah Palin; now there's a pungent juxtaposition.
Posted by: jeffrey McMahon | September 27, 2008 at 01:49 PM