10 years and a cup of tea

how did we get here? this era of fear of religions and fearful religions. this pornographic time machine, arguing between politically correct censorship and the right to bare it all. who decided this? was it 9/11: the final push into our spiritual recession? was it those turban-wearing, Arabic-slurring young jihadists who pushed us not into the deep end of the religious waters, but back into the kiddie pool? it's been 10 years since the solidified secularization and the thus-following fear of any substantial belief systems. whoever named it the war on terror was completely mistaken: it should have been called the war on faith. i just don't get how we got to this place where Islamophobia has blown wide-scale to fear of all and any beliefs. why can't crosses still be in courtrooms? why is Jesus the modern-day Satan? why don't we stand for anything, other than being the unbiblical zionists with a spine made of artillery?

i was almost surprised to hear the biblical verses of psalm 34 spill out from obama's economically sour lips during the world trade centre memorial. it was so unexpected; but not in the bold, courageous, all-hail-the-Christ-like leader way. it was unexpected in the sense that faith is suddenly adopted for just one (or two, with Christmas and all) days of the year. when it's convenient and uncontroversial, we cling to the words of the Bible in this mysteriously unspiritual way. but God forbid when there's, I don't know let's say an economic crisis, obama cracks the Bible in congress and see what it has to say on the situation. it's like we're God's best friend and worst enemy.

osama bin laden has had the last laugh. his vision of an international caliphate of Islam may seem ridiculiously far off with our newly instilled fear of their religion; but we've gone along with his plan so far and jumped right into his lap. although his actions did not resonate an entire North American conversion to Sunnism, he did successfully make many of us drop our beliefs or soften the edge of the courageous faith we once had. we took one step closer to his ideal when we collectively decided to forget how to be bold in our beliefs.

"o ye of little faith"