There's Right & Wrong and Right & Left

I promised myself I wouldn’t give this man anymore attention than deserved. He’s like Paris Hilton or any bad jingle that gets stuck in your head. Ignore it and hopefully they will just vanish, forgotten instantly like a dream sometimes. But for some reason, I cannot stop reading his weekly column in the Sun, I just can’t. Like many liberals, I fall into nodding approvingly when another liberal writer writes something I agree with. But that’s where it ends. No discussion, no one playing devil’s advocate at the risk of offending someone, somewhere about something said.

So maybe that’s why, every Monday, during my break at work, I read his Saturday column. I see in him, the person I use to be. Catholic, devout, seeing life on the straight and narrow too scared to deviate even in the face of glaring contradictions to a faith that has been re-written countless times. And lately, after late night discussions with other like-minded liberal friends, I’ve been finding myself agreeing with some of his written work. No, I don’t want polygamy to even be considered as recognizable marriage in Canada; he doesn’t either but more because it’s a non-Christian value rather than a total abuse on the legal system that provides for those couples that are having a rough time making ends meat. But hey you know what they say about the enemy of my enemy.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Canada for a few years now and so far the skies aren’t blackened, husbands aren’t suddenly switching teams leaving their wives, children aren’t coming out of the closet in record numbers dwindling the chance of our survival for the future. But that doesn’t matter; it’s not marriage because children can’t be made. It’s not right because there may be too many dangling bits or not enough dangling bits in the household. He doesn’t grasp that maybe this law allowed a father to see that there’s nothing wrong with his son, or prevented a young woman from entering into a loveless marriage because it’s expected of her to do so, in her small town.

But hey, it’s a difference of opinion. He and I, in my head at least, go back and forth, singing the “I was right, you were wrong; I’m going to sing the ‘I was right’ song” with no solution in the end. Abortion is wrong. Tell that to a 10 year old raped, impregnated and will forever hold the scars of her violation. Euthanasia is wrong. Tell that to a child, watching his parent die, slowly, painfully, without dignity, lying on a bed, having a nurse change their diaper. Homosexuality is wrong. Tell that to Matthew Shepard.

I guess as the nice, sweet-minded liberal that doesn’t want to offend anyone, I may have cringed at some of the stuff he’s written but I took it in stride. “It’s his opinion”, “He’s entitled to say whatever he wants, so long as he doesn’t break the law”, and “Who am I to tell him otherwise” – were all wonderful catch phrases that prevented any real conversation of his erroneous and offensive speech because hey, he’s not gone as far as to say his way is the only way, simply a way. Until now.

Read the following:
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Coren_Michael/2008/03/22/5073661-sun.php

Now I could talk about how Jesus is simply a Sun-god myth, rewritten over and over, even worshipped by pagans under different names. Attis, Mythra, Dionysus and his Egyptian Twin Horus (the story of Jesus and the story of Horus are pretty much identical, from being born on Decemeber 25th, to a virgin, to sharing the name “Lamb of God”, to beginning a ministry at 30, dying on a cross by crucifixion, to entering the land of the dead and staying there for 3 days, to being resurrected on the 3rd day) are all demigod or god like beings sent by the Universal Father to bring the world salvation. I could be an ass and state just that. But he’ll scoff. Call me an atheist (as if it’s an insult). Perhaps, if I’m lucky, rebuke everything and write something about it and in the end he’ll truly believe (here’s the scary part) that because I’ve taken all of 10 minutes to write this, it’s simply more proof that he’s right in his belief and more importantly (read: frightening) that I’m wrong.

Stupidity is something I cannot condone. Be it a man that rides his motorcycle without a helmet because he can’t take off his turban and then tries to sue the government, after caught breaking the law, because his rights to stupidity (read: religious freedom) were in question with the Highway Traffic Control Act or be it a man that cannot even, in the smallest instance, try to understand that maybe there’s more to his religion, his country and it’s traditional background than the written word he writes. And the written Word he reads.

Go on believing you are right and I am wrong Mr. Coren – it finally gives me something more to do, than approvingly nod and hope I’m not offending anyone.

Happy Easter to all!