September 1, 1998

Not everyone wants or needs to be saved by zealots

Jay Ware, Opinion Editor
 

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the positive feedback that I got from the “Rip-off” articles I wrote.

This one’s from the “People will hate you now” file.  As we have all recently seen on Sanford Mall, our lives can be bombarded by religion-spilling, Bible-misquoting morons.  Yet they are not the only ones who are leading an assault on our state of mind.

I am extremely frustrated with the close-minded, condescending Christian groups on campus.  “We have the answer!”  They yell to me as I pass by their pamphlet-filled hands and empathetic eyes.  “Yeah, right,” I think to myself, as I pop my favorite Tool  CD into my portable player to drown out their incantations.  I don’t need an afterlife insurance policy right now, thanks.

And I don’t need to be told that I’m sinful and will be punished for my actions, when all I’m trying to do is mind my own business and keep my religious views to myself.

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t have a problem with right-wing religious groups.  They have a right to believe anything they wish to believe.  Just leave me alone!  You might think that you have the key to ultimate happiness, but here’s the eye-opening part: you’re not the only one.  Not one of you can corner the market on universal morality, so stop claiming that you can.  Not everyone needs to be saved, and no, I don’t want the easy-to-read, complete-with-pictures version of the New Testament handed to me when I’m simply attempting to check my mail.

Let me also add that many of the members of these groups that attempt to spread the “good word” don’t even understand the history or nature of the book that they flail wildly in the faces of the doomed.  Do not get the false impression that the Bible somehow simply fell to the earth from the heavens in it’s perfect form.

If you’ve ever even heard of the Apocrypha or read about the history of Catholicism, then you know that Christianity has a history of mixing politics and bloody war into the religion, which has altered the way in which you now view Christian concepts.

Also, I can’t understand the ignorance and hatred that many of these groups tend to spread like a mind-numbing plague.  I can’t count the number of times I have heard homosexuals and philosophically liberal people bashed by Southern Baptists who, five minutes later, will continue to speak of the far-extending reach of Jesus’ love.

The last time I checked, Jesus was the guy who was hanging out with the lepers, bathing the feet of prostitutes, and healing the downtrodden of society with love, not with burning crosses.

To those of you who are now thinking to yourself, “I don’t fit into those categories of prejudice,” I would say, good.  Don’t start.  Just try to remember one thing (and I know you’ll hate me for this one): you do not have The Answer, you only have an answer for yourself.

If this article seems harsh, then it’s because I’ve been treated harshly.  To better make my point, let me give you an example of a situation where you would feel the same way that I do.

Remember the last time you were visited by a Jehovah’s Witness?  Do you remember how they tried to force their literature into your hands and tell you that if you would just listen to them, there was a still a chance you could attain “salvation?”

At what point did you wish to introduce their skull to the nearest blunt object?  Keep that thought in mind the next time you are condescending to uninterested students with your rhetoric and literature.