To the editors:
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Robert McClory’s worshipful interview with Professor Sheehan seems to be a classic case of misplaced religious longings, a common failing among the petition-signing left. Revealed religion is obviously a tool of the ruling class, an agent of oppression, racism, insurance redlining and any number of fascist ills. The first thing to do then, should be to sign on with the atheists. However, deep in the hearts of many people, particularly those not used to critical thought, is the desire to believe, to have a personal relationship with a big, warm fuzzy father (or mother) figure that loves you no matter how many times you forget to do your homework. Marxism, a certified Christian heresy, fills that role for many. However, the stern demands of this church (you actually have to out sometimes and shoot somebody!) are a little much. What is the poor leftist to do? Why, come on over to Professor Sheehan’s first church of the radical Jesus!
Professor Sheehan and his colleagues in theology have discovered, (about 100 years after Robert Ingersoll, the great infidel did) that most of the New Testament is made up. Have they made the next logical step and taken up honest trades, like Jiffy Lube attendants? No, they instead have gone to work on some theology that has no factual basis but is entirely dependent on faith, which can be defined as reliance on unprovable postulates. Professor Sheehan quotes a theologian as saying that one can find faith in the inner light within one’s heart. I submit that you might do better by taking a Rolaid. At least the fundamentalists have consistency to their belief. If the miracles of the New Testament did not exist, what is the point of being a Christian? The liberal theologians have explained everything in the Bible away, but have faltered on the last step of the ladder, the step into human independence and reason. Maintaining a belief in God and Jesus at this late date is not a sign of faith, but of cowardice.
