Bitter Hobbies

"I challenge you to show me one person who makes religion the center of their life who still has things together otherwise." That may not be an exact quote, but it's pretty close.

I heard this while waiting to cross the street near the White House a couple days ago. It was a long light to wait out, and two people were talking (one pretty loudly) about religion. It seemed pretty obvious that the Obama "bitter" comment was the spark. The man quoted above seemed to think Barack had it about right. I heard enough to get my blood pumping, and so when he voiced the above challenge I broke the unwritten D.C. code ("Thou shalt always pretend you can't hear what people are saying right next to you.") However, Obama-boy knew the rules and, after looking slightly stunned, declined to engage further when I said, "You've got one right here."

This post could go a lot of ways right now. For starters, I don't really have it together, and most of the time I don't really make Jesus the true center of my life. I could go down that road more or I could just tell you what happened next, as I (literally) went down the road.

First, I'll point you to Yale Law School Professor Stephen Carter's very good book "The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion." This young man's comments fit Carter's critique well. Our sidewalk loudmouth invoked his parents who were "moral and a little religious" but they "didn't take it too far." Carter aptly describes this as elites' acceptance of religion as a hobby. Should religion leave the realm of stamp collecting, following college football, or antiquing though...well, now we've got a problem.

Walking away from the anti-religious yuppie I was met by protesters at the White House with Ghostbuster style t-shirts sporting the word "Celibacy." Yes, the Pope's visit had brought out the anti-anti-sex folks. Now, these people weren't just suggesting that the Catholic Church reconsider a biblically questionable policy--- no, they had a big banner comparing Benedict XVI to Osama Bin Laden. By now you can probably guess who was declared the "leader of the world's most dangerous terrorist organization."

On whose authority did they base such a claim---well, as a leaflet helpfully provided by a ghostbuster informed me, this indictment comes from none other than Jesus Christ himself. In case you did not yet know, God himself is back on earth and his name is Dr. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda. Yep, it was news to me too. The whole roll back the sky like a scroll idea seemed too gaudy, so appparently the Messiah has returned as a well dressed Hispanic guy with a fondness for the number 666. Jose managed to get about 100 people to show up outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Remember, the first time he came to earth he only started with 12.

So, score one for Obama-boy. I have a feeling as he walked by the Mirandans, he probably said "Case closed." Let's pray he'll answer when the real Jesus comes knocking.