It's Just a Joke. Until it Isn't.

It seems I receive a lot of emails forwarded from well meaning parties. Usually they are silly religious anecdotes of dubious origin meant to inspire. Tonight I received an email that clearly was meant in that same spirit. I read it once, then read it again. And once more. The more I read it, the more crazy it got. The narrative consisted of a heroic, God-fearing veteran who assaults a professor, who is an atheist (and for good measure, a member of the ACLU). Naturally, I forwarded this on to a colleague, who was entertained but more interested in why the ACLU bit was thrown in to the story. Here's the email I received, my colleague's response, and my response to her:

GOD Is Busy

If you don't know GOD, don't make stupid remarks!!!!!!

A United States Marine was attending some college
courses between assignments. He had completed missions
in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor
who was an avowed atheist, and a member of the ACLU.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in.
He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, "GOD!! if you are real
then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly
15 min." The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.
Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, "Here I am
GOD, I'm still waiting."

It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got
out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him;
knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold.
The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently.

The other students were shocked and stunned, and sat there
looking on in silence. The professor eventually came to,
noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, 'What
in the world is the matter with you? 'Why did you do that?'
The Marine calmly replied, "GOD was too busy today protecting
American soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid
stuff and act like an idiot. So He sent me."

The classroom erupted in cheers!

THIS IS GOOD, KEEP IT GOING
AMEN!!


My colleague's response:
"what does being a member of the ACLU have to do with anything?!"

My response to her:
"Nothing. Of course. It just makes the act of violence committed against him more justified in the eyes of the religious right. We wouldn't want this to be the parable of an unjustified assault. But an atheist and an ACLU member clearly deserves harm. And so, forget all that Jesus non-violence stuff. Go clobber him."

In the eyes of some in the religious right, members of the ACLU and atheists are villains who presumably deserve this kind of treatment from God's people. Obviously this is a fictional anecdote and none of the recipients of the email would actually openly advocate assaulting an atheist. But deep down, there's a kernel of sympathy for anyone who wants to slug an atheist or ACLU member, who are recurring villains in these types of emails. That's why the emails keep getting forwarded.

Isn't it un-American to assault others based on who they are and what they believe? Taken to it's logical and fanatical end, this mentality is a powerful rationalization that leads good people to do bad things. It's not hard to think of examples.