12 February 2009

Wolves in sheep's clothing

Kathy Shaidle, whose blog I will not link to, is scheduled to be a guest on TVO's The Agenda, to discuss the atheist bus campaign I talked about here.

The link above will demonstrate why I think this is a terrible thing. Kathy Shaidle is nothing more than a hate-mongerer. The words, the message she spews is pure evil. I will not say that she is, but her message definitely is. Click on the rationalreasons link above to see what I mean.

Kathy denigrates women, children (of the "wrong" colour), Muslims, blacks, the poor, homosexuals, Native Canadians, Sikhs, the disabled. She never ever espouses love for fellow humans, unless they agree with her on everything, are employed, white, and healthy. How can she say these things and claim to be a follower of Christ? I am utterly baffled.

I do not judge her to be evil, to say she'll go to Hell (which, frankly, I don't exactly believe in). I take Matthew 7:1-2 quite seriously. But I am quite allowed to decide what messages I believe to be evil, what actions I believe to be evil. After all, we are warned just a few verses later in Matthew 7:15 to beware the false prophet, the wolf in sheep's clothing. How can we possibly be expected to judge whether a person is harmless or a ravenous wolf if not to watch their actions and avoid the people who act in that fashion?

And that is exactly how I view Kathy. She's so enveloped in her sheep's clothing that she believes herself to be a sheep of Jesus's flock. But her message is so vastly, horrifyingly different, that I cannot for a second believe her audacity. Her wolf-like behaviour speaks volumes about her nature.

Ever watch Star Trek, Deep Space 9? Remember the religious leader, Kai Winn? People like Kathy remind me of her (not that Kathy has the power she had! Thank God!). There are a number of them out there. The people who seem to like the limelight and power more than the actual work. You know the ones I mean. That scary, hateful man, Bill Donohue, for example. He totally twists the message. I wonder if we read the same Bible when I listen to him, which I avoid doing, because OMG does he frustrate me.

I know that Shaidle and her ilk get on TV and radio because their message is so hateful that it drives viewers/listeners to be furious and call in, and because it appeals to the base of people who already believe in that message. In other words, ratings. I find that so very sad. Christians get such a bad name from these people. The vast majority of us, at least in Canada, aren't like them. We don't hate that which is different from us. We don't believe that “from the beginning, AIDS activism has been more about mainstreaming the gay "lifestyle" than saving lives,” or that the poor are poor because they are “too lazy and stupid to a) finish high school and/or b) keep their pants on.…I don’t care about the poor. They’re no more real than Bigfoot.” This is not Christianity. This is not the voice of a reasonable Christian. This is the voice of a ravenous wolf, and it really bothers me that it's what gets a voice in the media.

I know, I know, let it go. It doesn't matter, right? Well, it does. Because when polled about Christianity, it is this kind of person that the majority of Canadians think about (according to the United Church's polls done by Environics for the Emerging Spirit campaign - I have no link. It was what we were told at the Living the Welcome events). And that is killing the church. We can't even get them in the doors to show them that we're decent people, if they think we're going to condemn them to Hell for being evil sinners. We can't continue to do the outreach in society if we don't have people to do the work. We can't be relevant if we can't get our message heard. I am sick of being outshouted by these screech-harpies and their message of intolerance. And I don't know what to do about it. I want air-time. I want our message heard. I want the world to see Rev. Al Tysick, a man who devotes his life to the homeless in Victoria. Or the people at my church who donate countless hours to the Food Bank. Or the lady who rounds up craft supplies to send overseas to women making their money selling crafts. Or the lady who organizes knitting and crocheting of cloths to send to Central American midwives who clean babies off with them instead of using newspaper. Seriously. Newspapers. Or the minister who spends hours with a woman who is brain damaged and unable to comprehend any social graces. Or the lady who spends 20 or so hours per week visiting sick and housebound people. These are ALL people I know personally. But people like them, they're not getting the media attention. No. Kathy Fucking Shaidle is. It is utterly maddening.