In response to “Defend faith against silliness” which appeared online April 24.

The author offered, “But if he wants to mock his Christian neighbor’s faith as silly, he must be prepared to defend his own faith against that same charge of silliness.”

Gladly.  I make it a personal practice to not write anything that I am not more than perfectly prepared to defend, as I would encourage anyone to do.

The first thing I would point out is that apparently the author overlooked the bit in my submission in which I indicated that I actually have no particular faith to defend, and that I am firmly and immovably in the ‘I don’t know” category.  And I argued how, in essence, that we all are.

The author went on to call my argument “Silly” and “Goldilocks-like gobbledygook”.

Setting aside the thoughtfulness of that retort, how so?

By pointing out when the Gospels were actually written and who they were written by, in relation to the most commonly accepted timeline of the life and death of Jesus?  I don’t know how this could possibly be considered any more silly than someone actually believing in some of the stories within the Gospels,  but Okay.

I was offering a counter argument to the original author’s unanswered criticism of a local church not once, but twice.  I would think that if one self-identifies as a Christian, or simply does not like bullies, that he or she would aspire to do the same.

I realize that one’s faith can be a great source of focus and comfort in his or her life.  Good for them.  This is however not to say that the Catholic Church in particular is somehow beyond reproach or criticism.  You could start with The Crusades, The Spanish Inquisition, and the clergy’s record as child care providers, just to name several.

What I take particular offense to is someone cherry picking quotes from the Bible, in order to somehow justify hatred, xenophobia, or ignorance.  To do so is arrogant, condescending, and as history has shown time and again to this present day, very dangerous.

With minimal effort, I could cherry pick out quotes from the Gospels in order to justify why our Armed Forces should attack Canada, why pumpkin products should be banned at Thanksgiving, or why my dog should be on the ballot this November for County Legislator.

But I’m not that person.  I, as with so many others, prefer to live in the time that we actually live in.

Leland Farnsworth

Massena