I’ve been struggling to come up with a way to write about religion as objectively as possible. Since I don’t really harp on the other parts of the opinion page, I though I’d tackle the letters to the editor today.

This is where the real good meat is at, but you can’t really spend a lot of time raging against the staid, tired, bullshit that sort of is the bulk of the body opinion page. You’ll read your typical right wing blowhard spout nonsense in one editorial. You’ll wait a few days, then some doofus will write in and say the same thing, but he’s from around these parts, he gets published. Typically these are coupled with another viewpoint saying the exact opposite, but using sources, which the right-winger writer never ever does. So it’s more a microcosm of the right wing left wing bologna thrown in with some “someone needs to check themselves” and a little “we need more bike lanes” or something.

Even rarer is the community voice who somehow gets a diatribe published bi-weekly where the nonsense hose gets turned on full blast then dropped in the yard, but that’s another article for another day.

This particular letter to the editor covers the well worn road of what’s causing the crumblization of our morals and society as a whole. Mr. Elmore, starts his letter in the fashion that you know it will surely be followed with an amazing amount of hyperbole and….well…horeseshit:
“Is the United States under attack?
You bet!”
I imagine the space between the sentences is to give you that “Well, gee, I don’t know if…” Then the “You bet!” is someone all up in your face with their best panic inducing tone. Mr. Elmore continues:
“We are under attack on five major fronts and these attacks are being led from within.”
Aww man! Not from within! It’s amazing how much mileage people try to get out of the post 9/11 world. You would think by now that well would be tapped, at least those with enough common sense to rub a couple of brain cells together. Nah. Mr. Elmore isn’t alone in this ages old fear that “one of them” is “one of us” and they’re winning with this ultimate evil plot.
This letter is the very definition of boilerplate right-wing, fear mongering, church loving, ignorance that assails our communities papers. Since most people don’t really care enough to write anything, let alone know what their towns newspaper address is, it’s any wonder other people may get the misguided idea that we’re a center-right nation.

These letters always have this definitive answer to what ails the world. They’re typically enumerated, mixed with bible verses, dictionary definitions. It’s the whole idea that they’re being divinely inspired to met out justice via a letter to the editor.

The first major front, and to Mr. Elmore’s mind the most devastating, is the deterioration of our churches. He goes on to paste the definition of complacency after his first sentence, and rightly blames his brothers and sisters of the church. “We as a nation have chosen to believe in man and government instead of our church and God.” Whoa, wait a minute there Mr. Elmore, I thought we had grown complacent? I guess there’s no better place to put the whole “Obama/Christ” analogy to good use here. Now, I haven’t been to church in a while, but I have read about schools doing the whole worshipping Obama, I even wrote an article about it last year. But churches, Mr. Elmore? I don’t really think that’s possible, and I certainly hope that you aren’t being racist and leading me to believe that black churches just have that giant “HOPE” poster hung up over the pulpit somewhere? Mr. Elmore continues:
“We allow churches to proclaim fake doctrine and distort the Word because we aren’t involved: Why? Because many of us no longer believe the Word.” Man, it’s really hard to keep capitalizing “Word”, it comes out of no where. It’s hard to tell if Mr. Elmore is more literal when it comes to the Word, or does he mean the fundamental values supposedly in the Word? He mentions that we have allowed our churches to become soiled, and by that soiling have allowed more disaster in to the church.

It’s like I was saying a few weeks ago about the lack of specificity. I know it’s a letter to the editor so word count is premium, but he could’ve omitted those bible verses and let some real facts in, or some other hyperbole in there. But oh how he turns over the hyperbole gravy boat on his next points.

“The decline in our moral values has opened the door for homosexuality and the gay rights movement. This group of people not only perverts themselves but our nation along with them.” Mr. Elmore fails to make the connection that this kind of attitude is polarizing. Maybe this is why the church is in decline. Outside of just the “homosexuals”, what about normal people that don’t feel the need to justify judging others? This may make some churchgoers uncomfortable, and it’s definitely out of bounds with much of what Jesus taught in the New Testament. More importantly it’s a waste of church resources to go around chasing straw men and windmills, when the could be performing outreach to those very same “homosexuals”, instead of constantly demonizing them from a bully pulpit.

“Our lack of understanding has led us to seek other gods including Islam,” Mr. Elmore, Islam isn’t a god. It’s another religious viewpoint. It’s kind of like switching to Lutheran, Methodist or Catholicism beliefs. Yet another clue in the decay of the modern church. He continues, “…a religion based on a false prophet demanding the death of all that don’t believe in Mohammed.” The fact that people like Mr. Elmore’s main leaning is making people read the bible to understand where he’s coming from, I’m shocked that these people like him, systematically fail to bone up on other religions. You don’t have to like it, or take it to heart, but I think you can at least glean a perspective and other points of view. Has Mr. Elmore read the Old Testament of the Bible? There’s some heavy shit in there, and a lot of that has to do with smiting and destroying civilizations for “non-belief” in their appointed god.

Sensing he’s running out of room, Mr. Elmore shapes up an old talking point. “We should close our borders to illegal’s and quit rewarding them when they have broken our laws,” yet he goes on “I am happy to welcome legal immigration and work visas.” How very Christian of you Mr. Elmore. We can help Mexico, which has a staggering problem, which I can’t tell is it illegal drugs, money or child slavery? By making immigration from Mexico legal we can wrap that up how Mr. Elmore?

Of course I’m being a bit obtuse, but I fail to see any specificity in fixing problems. This is the problem with a society that fails to engage on a personal level. The great thing about Fox News, their punditry is so out of touch, and it spreads to like minded lizard brained people who fail to engage on a personal level. It’s all regional. Mr. Elmore most likely lives in the whitest town in America, and has seen maybe 6 brown people in his entire life.