180 Degrees: Pastor Mike

PZ has a post about Pastor Mike’s plan to create a database of “known” atheists, and a really disgusting plan it is.

That someone could come up with such a thing, and then broadcast it into the public sphere, shows a breathtaking unawareness both of history and of the consequences of one’s actions in the real world.

The idea is both incredibly ugly and yet so blithely inept in concept that I imagine we have nothing to fear from it. But we DO have to point out — yet again, to those unaware of history — that nothing of the sort can be permitted. And that even proposing it, however idly, shows a meanness of spirit viciously at odds with civil society.

But something else on Pastor Mike’s page caught my eye. Take a look at these side-by-side bits from his site:

DON’T LET ATHEISM DESTROY OUR CHILDREN / OR THEIR LOVE FOR GOD !!

… is right next to the video-link

THE REALITY OF HELL !! THE REALITY OF HELL!! CLICK HERE !! (NOT FOR THE ‘FAINT-HEARTED’ ) !

If you watch the video, you see scenes that look like skydivers plummeting helplessly into a tunnel of flames, and hear gut-wrenching screams — scenes and sounds sure to frighten the sunny life out of a child of the age shown hugging the Bible story book. A triumphant, righteous-chorus soundtrack underscores the urgency of the pitch.

The two pieces together — the video link and the picture of a beautiful innocent child — constitute the dark joke of railing against the destruction of children … by people seemingly avid to destroy children. Or at least mark them psychologically with the parentally-relished image of burning, screaming, forever.

………………………………..

BTW, there’s something almost poetic in the caption of the YouTube video:

6.5 billion people inhabit planet Earth. An estimate of 107 people die every minute. By the time you’ve finished watching this movie 130 people will have faced the other side of eternity, be it for better of (sic) for worse. The only way out of eternal destruction is through Christ. Thats (sic) why we must take him to the nations. The great commission applies to everyone who has breath in their mouth. It’s time to take a stand! Countless millions (sic) eternities are at steak (sic).

The immense earnestness of the pitch is spoiled in the very last word — not ‘stake’ but ‘steak’ — but there is also a weird sort of rightness about it. Infinite confidence welded to blundering ineptness practically screams Christian evangelist.