Imagine less adulation

Criticism of President Barack Obama for noting that Christianity, as well as Islam, has used religion to justify violence ignores a deeper issue.

Evils perpetrated with shouts of “Allahu akbar” in response to caricatures of the prophet arise from fundamental unquestioned absurdities common to both faiths.

Consider this: Of the Ten Commandments, couldn’t numbers I, II and III be viewed as rules designed to prop up the shaky ego of a supreme being who, one would think, could get along fine without the adulation of his puny creations? Would a God worth his salt bask in refrains of “How Great Thou Art,” or rage at his name being paired with a curse now and then? Would low self-esteem prevent Him from forging ahead in the face of a golden calf or two?

Isn’t it a short leap from imagining a God who requires reassurance to revenge killings of those who insult him, whether they be heretics in the Inquisition, French or Danish cartoonists or Salman Rushdie?

Much good, as well as evil, has been done in the name of God, but maybe the world needs less “My (invisible) dad is cooler than your (invisible) dad,” and more John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

Steven Heaps

Spokane Valley