"Over Macho Grande?"
"I don't think I'll ever be over Macho Grande."

The Father and My Father
This Fourth of July, my father put up the "Don't Tread On Me" flag. I don't really mind, since the phrase originated from flags actually flown by Continental forces; thus, quite appropos for Independence Day. But he also put up two yard signs, one reading "Support Our Troops" and sporting a likeness of the flag raising on Iwo Jima, the other featuring a waving American flag and the words "God Bless America." While I should very much like to see this great nation continue to enjoy the Lord's favor, I find my father's new found religiosity disturbing and offensive.

Before 9/11, my father did not believe in God. In his own words, he might have believed "in a deity who was not necessarily the Judeo-Christian God." He loathed organized religion. Since he became a rabid anti-Muslim bigot and raving hatemonger in the almost four years since 9/11, he also claims to have seen "thr truth" about the Almighty and Christianity. I do not believe my father truly believes in the Father, the Son, and/or the Holy Ghost. He has, to my knowledge, never given any money to charity; in fact, he seems to rather hate the poor and destitute, a most un-Christian attitude.

What I think my father believes in is some kind of mythical, romanticized version of Crusades-era Christianity. He has often said that the current War on Terror is just the latest battle in Christendom's "1,300 year war against Islam." What he fails to realize is that Christianity is the antithesis of war. The medieval Church made many mistakes, paramount among them proclaimig the righteousness of holy wars against non-Christians. How is the rape of Jerusalem by the knights and soldiers of the First Crusade any different than the Japanese rape of Nanking? Answer, it isn't, and the vast majority of those Crusaders are to this day still burning in Hell. I can imagine no greater sin than murdering in His name. And yet this is the Christianity my father seems to believe in.

My father reads voraciously, including a great deal about the history of the Middle East and the wars between Muslim and Christian empires. But let this be a lesson: you can read all the time and still not learn anything. England allied with the Ottoman Turks to oppose Venice's merchantile empire. The knights of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople instead of reclaiming Jerusalem from Islamic princes, and installed a Latin king in place of the Byzantine emperor. The British Empire and the Second French Empire allied with the Ottoman Empire against Czarist Russia. How does any of this represent a continuing "1,300 year war" between Christianity and Islam?

Our enemies are Muslims but Muslims are not our enemies, Dad. If you really had any faith in Christ, you'd understand this.