[lbo-talk] The curse of literacy

[dano]

At 1:21 AM +1000 7/18/04, Bill Bartlett wrote:
>At 1:08 PM +0000 17/7/04, Carl Remick wrote:
>
>>[According to the National Endowment for the Arts, the amount of 
>>reading Americans do is plummeting.  I'd say Americans still read 
>>way too much.]
>>
>>July 17, 2004
>>OP-ED COLUMNIST
>>
>>Jesus and Jihad
>>
>>By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
>>
>>If the latest in the "Left Behind" series of evangelical thrillers 
>>is to be believed, Jesus will return to Earth, gather 
>>non-Christians to his left and toss them into everlasting fire:
>
>I take issue with this though:
>
>	"People have the right to believe in a racist God, or a God who
>	throws millions of nonevangelicals into hell. I don't think we should
>	ban books that say that."
>
>Books advocating racism should indeed be banned (and their authors 
>imprisoned.) We can't compromise with these people, religion is no 
>excuse. I'm open to argument whether or not the authors of these 
>religious fantasies, about a hateful and deranged God who torments 
>millions, are cut from the same cloth. Sounds like a harmless racket 
>to me, parting fools from their money. So long as they content 
>themselves with waiting for God to do it and don't cross the line to 
>advocate giving the Almighty a helping hand.

Apparently the Aryan Brotherhood is resurrected and marching again in 
Couer d'Alene today.

Which makes me wonder just how far away the Left Behind Christians 
and their vengeful racist god are from the guys who are just outright 
vengeful and racist and use their god as part of the justification.

Certainly the LBCs would deny it. What would a side by side 
comparison look like though?