I get a lot of e-mail. Most letters are positive and affirming. One came from a lady in Norway telling me that she and her entire village were praying for the protection of our country and our President. Compared to the jealousy and pettiness of France and Germany, her message from Norway was a real breath of fresh air.
After my “Saluting Bush” article was published, I received hundreds of e-mails from readers who said they were praying for our President. Those letters made me realize that America is indeed a good country.
Then again, some of my e-mail is angry, insulting or even scary.
A lot of the “angry” mail comes after I write a piece on the latest scientific discovery that runs counter to the theory of evolution. That mail is often from a freshman biology student whose religion of “nothing X nobody = everything” is shaken.
Some insulting mail comes from readers who take great exception to my belief in an all-powerful, all-loving God. Some of those letters are not from angry atheists, but from people who are hurting, and who simply cannot believe that a loving God would allow evil in the world. Sometimes I think I would almost give up God’s gift of “free-will” to do good or bad – if we could get rid of evil with it. But who would want to be a puppet in a perfect world?
I also get some very angry mail from “pro-abortion folks who believe that taking the life of a pre-born baby is right. Most of them believe that abortion empowers a woman by giving her total control of her body. They call me “anti-woman” and “anti-choice.” I’ve never seen the term “pro-life” used as an insult!
Finally, some of my reader mail is scary. It’s not scary because it comes from a nut who hates what I write, but because it comes from intelligent, dedicated, serious enemies to our Judeo-Christian culture. These people want us dead, and are willing to pay any price to make it happen. The only saving grace, if you could call it that, is that they hate American liberals as intensely as they hate conservatives. They especially hate Americans who say, “we must understand them.” At least they are equal-opportunity haters!
One letter that came from Saudi Arabia woke me up (and kept me awake) shortly after September 11, 2001. “We sent our warriors to destroy you. But soon, we will not send anyone. Our warriors will come from your prisons, where they are now instructed by our clerics. When they are released, they will act.”
At first I shrugged it off. All columnists receive nutcase propaganda. Then a few days later, Chuck Colson informed me that the American prison population is indeed undergoing radical change. Saudi Arabia is funding violent Islam within our prison system. Hundreds of radical Wahabi Islam clerics are training disenfranchised young black men inside our prisons walls. At the same time, moderate Islamic clerics and Christian chaplains are being forced out – often by violence or threat of violence.
It shouldn’t surprise us that our Saudi “friends” are sponsoring our destruction. Fifteen of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudis. Osama bin Laden is a Saudi, funded by Saudis. Last week, Saudi policemen allowed al-Qaeda terrorists access to American facilities in Riyadh, where they murdered 28 people.
After the 9/11 attack, some of my e-mail writers called me intolerant for my criticism of Islam and Islamists. I find that illogical. Last Wednesday, the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom released its annual report and to no one’s surprise, “religious tolerance” is not a phrase linked with Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran or any other Moslem-dominated country.
In the above countries, it is illegal to convert a Moslem to another faith. The penalty for doing so is death. The penalty for the Moslem who converts is also death. It’s not an idle threat. I knew a Moslem lady in Heidelberg, Germany, who was killed for converting. I haven’t met the thousands of others who meet the same fate each year.
Compare that to, let’s say, the Presbyterian Church. Every now and again we’ll lose a member to some other faith. Our minister doesn’t issue a death decree, and we have no “hit squad” to go after the member. We only wish them well. Perhaps we would lose fewer members if we weren’t so gentle.
An Iranian e-mail told me of the Saudi religious police, the “mutawaa,” who have raided worship services in the homes of foreigners in Saudi Arabia. Those raids were followed by harassment, arrests, imprisonment, torture and deportation. This would be the same mutawaa who last year refused to let schoolgirls flee a burning building because the girls had discarded their veils in their attempt to escape. Eleven girls died of burns as a result.
I’m glad I write in America. The scariest e-mails I get are tame.
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© 2008 by George V. Caylor. All rights reserved.
The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.
(Ecclesiastes 10:2)
