A blown save

I don't know if the quality of Christian witnessing has gone downhill or if, well, it's just more difficult to rack up saves (while keeping your ERA low, of course), but a visitor to my blog sent me this the other night:

Now that you will read this, you will be held accountable for your action on this day(Nov. 4th, 5th, 6th...). When you die, the Lord will ask you, "why did you not come to me when you were told about me?" You should repent of your sins and return unto the Father while you still have time. If you choose to live as there is no God, you had better be right.


This seems to translate as "be a good little boy, or daddy will punish you real bad." And, by the way "Don't question daddy!"

I know not all Christianity is like this, and that this gentleman is not a representative of anyone but himself, but whenever I see something like this, it makes me very proud to be a Jew. The Jewish faith encourage you to question God, to always ask "why" and to use your human intelligence to learn about the world and make the world a better place. In fact, the very word "Israel" itself comes from a root meaning "to struggle with God."

If the only reason that you choose to behave in a moral fashion is because you are afraid of being punished when you die, then you have the mind of a small child. An adult will live a moral life because he or she has thought seriously about the cosmic questions, big and small, and determined that behaving ethically is the right thing to do.