REJECTED by Cobourg Daily Star, June 16/08

Re: God’s Word testifies to the truth of His power. June 13, 2008

I quite agree with Fellowship Baptist Church, Russell Young’s assertion that “Myths, stories and creative imagination have no more power than that possessed by those who proclaim them.”

Likewise, the myths, stories and parables in holy texts have no more power than that possessed by those clergy who proclaim otherwise in their weekly pulpitganda.

The Cobourg Daily Star is in full collaboration with these proselytizers, prostrating themselves to offer column inch after column mile to spread “The Word” beyond the confines of the congregation of willing believers.

The Cobourg Daily Star would like to think of itself as secular, an advocate of separation of religion and state, however it denies any criticism of the week-after-week, year-in-and-year-out spreading of the myths, stories and creative imagination posited by assorted clergy.

Clergy can utilize the pages of the Cobourg Daily Star to discredit non-believers with impunity. Non-believers are deliberately denied a single inch to rebut the odious ridicule of clergy.

In my late teens, I was enriched by the example of Cobourg Sentinel Star publisher/editor Foster Russell. I was a long-haired hippie thrown out of school by the militaristic Col. Gordon King who considered it unseemly to have hair hanging over a male’s collar, but Mr Russell provided me with carte blanche to enter his editorial office, often for some vigorous freedom-of-speech debate.

Many readers may not recall that Mr Russell was the only Canadian to win the Parrish Lovejoy Award for Courage in Journalism. Parrish Lovejoy was an American abolitionist killed by a mob who trashed his printing press which advocated anti-slavery. The operative word is COURAGE.

Mr Russell was awarded for his courage in standing up to the threat of union goons who had smashed in his newspaper shop windows, including the harrowing night when they attacked his home in the middle of the night. He withstood the wrath of a large part of the community for his stand.

Today’s editors of the Cobourg Daily Star, by comparison, are prissy, spineless milqtoasts unable to bring themselves to take a principled stand for freedom of speech beyond proselytizing the usual anti-American bigotry. They are enthralled with the fear of a wrathful God, of a jealous God, a genocidal God, an over-all unpleasant God with its self-righteous whorshippers.

I much prefer the Gods of Poetry, Art, Music, and other creative manifestations. I once wrote: “God is a great exclamation point after the word, YES!” I didn’t mean it literally, but poetically. In another line of poetry I wrote that the crescent moon “was the thumbnail of God pressing excellent approval onto the night sky.”

Russell Young wrote “The apostle Paul, cautions that those who proclaim such falseness should not be given audience.” The Cobourg Daily Star is only too happily submissive to comply with such ancient edicts.

Imagine that! God and all His Christian followers are so weak that they are unable to withstand the mortal blasts of ridicule, mockery, satire and any other manner of criticism. They are in good company it seems. Some devout Hindus are expressing concern about the ridicule, mockery and satire implicit in Mike Myer’s newest movie, The Love Guru. No doubt the Cobourg Daily Star will accept the HOLY CASH to advertise/proselytize this movie, and to hell with the sensitivities of the low-visibility minority Hindu’s in our midst.

If I recall correctly, in religious circles and triangles, this is referred to as HYPOCRISY.

-- Wally Keeler