Comments about Christianity absurd
I’m writing in regards to Steve Salter’s infantile “opinion” letter that was published in the Jordan River Forum on April 12, “Christian Easter an artificial holiday.” What I found particularly amusing, apart from its childish wordplay and atrocious scholarship, was the inherent hypocrisy of the letter itself and the alleged message.\nA few things first though. I can only assume that Mr. Salter has read one book on the issue of Jesus as a holy man. Perhaps two. “The Jesus Mysteries” is where he clearly draws the majority of his talking points, and possibly “Jesus the Magician” (though I doubt it). While I sympathize with his overall point, any competent historian will tell you that Freke and Gandy, the authors of “The Jesus Mysteries,” are not competent historians. I won’t even begin to discuss the intellectually insulting level of gross misunderstanding of history Mr. Salter shows. A piece of advice to Mr. Salter: Let we real historians handle these issues. Not somebody who has simply read the sorry excuse for history that is “The Jesus Mysteries.”\nOn the whole, however, Mr. Salter is truly exceptional in his craft. Though his cunning use of words like “AmeriKKKa” and “primitive religion” he not only managed to insult at least one-third of the world’s population in rather offensive terms, but then proceeded to insult the majority of the other two-thirds by describing nearly all other major religions with the same brush. He then asked that we all “grow up” and advance “spiritually.” A truly brilliant stratagem. As an avowed agnostic, I must say that it is exactly the kind of spiritualism that Mr. Salter espouses that makes me take a step back and realize that if we all embrace each other, I’d have to be associated with people like Mr. Salter. No thanks.
Ed Fitzmaurice\nSenior
