The Root of All Evil
Last week, Mel Gibson was arrested for drunk driving and made anti-semitic comments toward the officer, including, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars of the world," and "Are you a Jew?" Yesterday, he released his second apology, this time admitting to and apologizing for the anti-semitic comments as well.
There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark. I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge.
The response from the media has been rather interesting, with Barbara Walters unsure if she ever wants to see another Mel Gibson film. I in no way defend Mr. Gibson in his actions or his words. But why the sudden moralizing over hateful comments made toward other groups of people? The beliefs, symbols and figure heads of Christianity are attacked daily without so much as a shrug.

Take for example the Huffington Post. While Gibson says he is "in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display" Bill Maher gives him some insight.
But he'll never win as long as he's so religious, because, I hate to tell you, the disease isn't alcholism, the disease is religion.
Religion. The root of all evil. This sounds frighteningly like the thesis of Sam Harris' book, The End of Faith. The problems of the world can be solved by one and only one means: the eradication of all religion. Of course, that includes the Jews as well. Yes, there is a religious war going on in the Middle East. And yes, many atrocities have occurred bearing the name of Christ. If we repeat this long enough, however, we're going to forget the atrocities which have occurred in the name of eradicating religious expression: Nazi Germany, The Soviet Union, the Eastern Block, China, Viet Nam, Cambodia.

I know the root of Mr. Gibson's difficulties, the source of the disease. And it isn't the alcohol or the anti-semitism. It is "that old deluder Satan" himself. The prince of this world, the father of lies. Anti-semitism is not unique to the faithful...the atheists of the past have gone further in attempting to eradicate the Jews. And the western world which stands on the border with Israeli policy, officially allied with them but publicly criticizing every action, is not "deluded" by religion. In the European world, religion is all but dead, existing as a memorial of a former age. Sure, they have state funded churches and beautiful cathedrals, but there is no personal relationship with any faith.

"Religion" is a convenient scape-goat which seems to be coming in vogue these days. If Bill Maher is arrested for drunk driving and goes on a drunken tirade against the religions of the world, are we going to demand a public apology and then not be sure whether we actually believe it? Oh, wait. He isn't drunk. That is what he believes, and it isn't a demon he is wrestling with at all.

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