Most "good Christians" believe it is all right, apparently, to engage in very non-Christian acts in order to promote Christianity. This statement seems to defy logic.
Or does it, in today's old-time religion atmosphere? As far as I can tell, there are sufficient numbers of Christian clergy at least as virulent in their attacks on non-believers as there are Islamic idealogues of the same stripe. Often, they get at least some members of their congregations so agitated that they become the scourge of the unbeliever, the self-appointed "thought police" regarding any concepts not in accord with what they listen to on Sunday.
What got me started thinking about this was my inability to find Christopher Hitchens' book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, at my local Barnes & Noble. The in-store computer not only said the store had a copy or two; it pointed me to precisely where those copies should have been, in the Current Affairs section.
They were not there. They were not even in the Current Affairs section mis-alphabetized. That same branch is notorious, in my experience, for not knowing the alphabet, or at least, not knowing how to use it to shelve books. One day, I ransacked the place looking for Alexander McCall Smith's latest. When I looked under "M," I found it. Note: His name is not hyphenated. His name is Smith. "S" End of story. Well, end of that story. But mis-alphabetizing was not the case with the Hitchens book.
Anyway, I did the same sort of search for the Christopher Hitchens book, looking under "C". I even looked under K, for Kitchens, in case there was some dyslexia involved. Nada. Then I looked in Religion, then in Christianity, then in New Age. Again, I looked under C and K. Nada. I figure if I had looked in, perhaps, architecture or some other section few people frequent, I might have found it.
The reason I think it might have been moved to a spot no one would think to look is because, in that very store, copies of Science of Mind magazine are ALWAYS found stuck behind mainstream Christian magazines, and usually in some way that makes it incumbent on one who wants to read Science of Mind to have some minor acrobatic skills as well.
I do not for one minute think this is the policy of Barnes & Noble. I do think it might be the work of a zealot, on or off staff, who likes to hide information not approved of in his or her fundamentalist sect.
Which brings me to the point: Isn't it rather non-Christian to move other people's property because one disagrees with that person? This may not be the same as killing infidels because of one's interpretation (or some might say misinterpretation) of a sacred book, but I don't see it as much different. It is malicious by nature; unless such actions are those of a person of diminished capacity (intellectually or emotionally, although I think the latter is giving too much ground), then it is, pure and simple, theft. If you make something unavailable to a person that was formerly available, or meant to be available, then you have stolen from that person. In the case of moving products in stores, you've stolen from both the consumer and the merchant.
Is this Christian?
Posts
