I Don't Believe

It does not bother me if people do not believe in a round earth for I do and I have flown around it. It does not bother me that some people do not believe in flight. I do and have flown overseas over 100 times and I belong to several frequent flyers' programs. It does not bother me if people do not believe in God. I do and I have spoken with Him and have personally experienced Him many times.

I cannot understand, however, why a person who believes in a flat earth would desire to join the round earth society. I cannot understand why a person that refuses to accept flight would want to join the frequent flyers' associations.

But I am most mystified about why an atheist would want to join a Christian Church. Even more so, why an atheist wants to be the "pastor" of a Christian Church. Why would Satan want to belong to a heavenly choir or a mouse join the local cats' club? It just does not go together.

Yet, we continue to read about people who go to seminary and then become involved in a Christian church in order to destroy its traditions and teachings. Read this dispatch.

From time to time throughout their colorful careers, UT journalism professor Robert Jensen and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church pastor Jim Rigby have come under attack for their outspoken views of the world. Jensen's biggest stir swirled around his post 9/11 remarks suggesting that U.S. policies provoked the attack. For Rigby, it was his ordination of an openly gay elder and his willingness to bless same-sex unions that once threatened his standing in the Presbyterian Church.

Now Jensen and Rigby have teamed up Â? this time as parishioner and pastor Â? to challenge the conservative wing of the Presbyterian hierarchy, which seeks to have Jensen tossed out on his atheist ear. Jensen grew up in the Presbyterian Church but later rejected organized religion altogether. He joined St. Andrew's late last year after striking up a friendship with Rigby. For the last two years, Jensen has led a monthly series of political film screenings at the church. "It's hard not to feel at home there," Jensen said. "It's a very welcoming church."

In November, St. Andrew's formally threw out the welcome mat for Jensen, who then wrote aofop-ed article about his experience. The article, which opens with the provocative line "I don't believe in God," first ran in a December edition of the Hindustan Times, one of India's two largest English-language newspapers. The item barely created a ripple in India, but when the Houston Chronicle picked it up in March, conservative Christians went bananas. "I hadn't received this much of a reaction since 9/11," Jensen said. "It really got people going."

Rigby tried to quell the uproar with an opinion piece titled "Why We Let an Atheist Join Our Church." Religion, he explained, "is not about groveling before a savior, it's joining in the work of saving our world." (A subsequent article Rigby wrote on the same subject is playing to appreciative audiences on the left-leaning Web sites of AlterNet and The Huffington Post.)

I do not believe in movies but I want to run a chain of theatres.
I do not believe in sports but I want to own a professional team.
I do not believe in education but I am president of a college.
I do not believe in America but I want to be President.

At least it was the Communists not the Priests and Ministers who attempted to kill the church in Russia. In America it is the clergy that are trying to kill it.