Christopher Hitchens: A Rant Against A Pompous Windbag With A Point
Seriously June 26th, 2007
Cleveland, Ohio
One of the hottest reads of the summer is from the English writer (now an American citizen) Christopher Hitchens, a staple on cable television news programs. He is a crowing opinionator known for flip-flopping fom liberal, Marxist (!) to neo-conservative. He is a close ally of discredited Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz.And now we hear him in all his narcissistic glory as America’s bully atheist. His new book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, is a searing indictment of theistic belief. It is religion, Hitchens asserts, that is responsible for most of the world’s disgraceful violence, genocide and humanity’s inability to function harmoniously. Well, fair enough.
And of course, he’s right. Who among us is not embarrassed by the hideous acts done in the name of God? Hitchens is an imperious personality who appears on many news shows principally because he can be depended upon to say something shocking. If you want to get noticed in the media you can always emulate the Ann Coulter-Al Sharpton marketing strategy for selling books through intemperate words and accusations - such as praising the disgraced, infamous Senator Joe McCarthy & trashing 9-11 widows (Coulter), defending the disturbed teenager Tawana Brawley (Sharpton), or say, by lambasting Mother Theresa as a fraud (Hitchens). Ouch!
For one thing, such career moves do make a person rich. Let’s face it, in American Popular culture it’s a dependable formula: pick any sacred cow, then get on television or in a “respected" magazine then skewer the object of others’ admiration. This works every time.And so it is with citizen Hitchens, the heavy drinking blowhard who celebrates himself and his storied literary history through appearances on ratings-starved American cable news channels with verbal bombast spiced with obscene gestures. Looking for a ratings spike? Bring on the roaring showoff with the British accent & the fawning, irrelevant literary syncophants and call action. It’s "good TV" as they say for Bill O’Reilly, Bill Maher, Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough and Hannity & Colmes.
Giving Hitchens airtime is a ratings winner reminiscent of Geraldo Rivera’s salad days of trotting out racist skinheads for fistfights as daytime television entertainment.This blowback notwithstanding, Hitchens is indeed right on the money to blast the abominable inclination for organized religion to drift into hatred and social detachment. It is an embarrassment to any thinking person of faith to be unwittingly associated with the murderous actions of extreme ideologies practiced in the name of a divine creator. No matter what stripe - be it Christian, Muslim, Jew or Hindu - dehumanizing others for failing to adhere to the strictures of your own beliefs is a scandalous distortion of the very fundamentals of the divine inspiration of the creed. And it is right to reject and fight against hatred in the name of God. It is an honorable endeavor.But for for Hitchens to claim a connection between the stunning depravity of human cruelty done in the name of a religion with proof of anything beyond his own personal outrage is absurd and an intellectually naive generalization.
Christopher Hitchens: a noisy, inert gasbag and media hound. Ugh!
Say what he will about the saints, but my money is on the Gospel command to love God and my neighbor and its message of faith, hope & love.
Deliver me from Christipher Hitchens. I prefer the guidance and promises of Jesus and his Apostle Paul.
3 Responses to “Christopher Hitchens: A Rant Against A Pompous Windbag With A Point”
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August 15th, 2007 at 11:04 am
The Bermuda triangle is real and it,s 3 huge electromagnets under is waters use millions of volts to displace objects in time. I belive that ectromagnets can be used to open up a dimensional corridor, with out time travel, but into the spirit world. The equation m=m/1-v squared over c squared is Albert Einstien’s theory of this. But ATHEIST do not believe in the spirit world. So I guess that if someone lost thier entire family in a fire, an ATHEIST would say go get 5 chimps to replace your family, because you were all monkeys.
August 15th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Mr. Hitchens remember that I will destroy all atheism in debates or in labratories.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:14 am
What if world war III would occuar 10 years from now, as an all out nuclear war. So, a guess ATHEIST would say only think about apes and monkeys. Me on the other hand would not think about apes. I would hope to be wealthy by then, enough to build structures that could float above the earth. These structures would be 200 by 200 feet. They would be like small towns, with a very ancient greek look to them, but newly made. Blimp like technology would be used, to made it work. It would have gold colored streets and white pearl colored walls, for safety, due to wind. Hopefully more of these futuristic towns could be built, but it reminds me of Revelations chapter 21 verse 2. These is one of the reasons why many people believe in God. The answers to solve all problems are in the Holy Bible and not in ATHEISM with it’s flee carrying apes and monkeis. Corey M. Davis one man destroying ATHEISM.