Long time listener, first time caller
I live in a very red region, I have crimson neighbours. Mike, next door, is a good neighbour though. He is hard working, honest and dependable. We have given each other house keys " just in case", we have each other over two or three times a year for dinner and small talk. We are stuck at small talk because we disagree about every significant issue. Mike is pro- Bush, pro- life, and ironically pro - war. ( Even though Mike is pro-war his two teenagers will never low crawl or know what it is like to break in a pair of combat boots on an overnight 20 mile march). Mike is also a hand waving fundamentalist.
Today Mike and I had our first meaningful conversation.
We met at the mail box and started talking about a common problem. The dogs down the street bark a lot. Mike thinks something should be done about it.. To cut to the chase and deconstruct his argument, Mike believes that on the scale of personal freedoms versus community good barking dogs go too far. I further explored this position and he also believes that people should not be aloud to keep rusting junkers and old bathtubs in the front yard as this would bring down his property value. OK, so maybe he is not so much in favor of community good and more concerned about his asset portfolio. Anyway, I further probed his belief system by asking if he thought that pat Robertson should have the freedom to say that Muslims do not believe in God and that they worship demons and the Devil. Surely there is some community harm in those type of statements. Mike then uttered the most profoundly ignorant statement I have ever heard.
Mike said that " Muslims do worship the Devil" and that they should " Killed in the name of the Lord" ( I think that was a Falwell influence?). Mike thinks that the time for talking is over and that we need to take action about the IED's and beheadings. By "we" of course Mike means somebody else. It turns out that Robertson is not making inflammatory remarks, he is simply telling the truth.
After recovering I suggest that we take broader position and try to see this from the point of view of a Muslim. I suggested that the Western World is largely ignorant of Islam, that many Muslim live in conditions that we can not comprehend and that much of this is due to Western Policies. That the perception , either true or false, of Western foreign policy is seen to be anti-Muslim. I added that we would gain more by ignoring the violent acts of a few and suggested that we reach out to embrace our differences and start a dialogue. I finished by saying that the use of the military to address a cultural - theological -social issues could only result in endless war and endless killing.
This is when Mike lost it. He yelled " Where do you get these ideas ... MoveOn and other lefty rags?"
" No" I replied " I get my ideas from the New Testament"
As Iwas leaving , I turned and said " Mike, I'll pray for you." The fundies hate it when liberals say that. I suppose I should go back and check on him, he looked like he might have a stroke.