EDITOR,
So here's the scoop. Steve Chapman, of Church on 99, visits a gravely sick friend. Chapman tells his friend, facing death, how he needs to believe in a deity spoken about in a book written a couple thousand years ago. If his ailing friend doesn't take Chapman's words seriously, his friend is going to suffer eternal torment when he dies. Moreover, Chapman tells us, the rest of us are headed for a similar fate.
At least that's how Chapman told his story in the Aug. 9 Prayer Corner of The Chief.
Yeesh. Chapman's shocking attempt at palliative care is greatly informative, but not for the reasons he may imagine. While reading his story I could only think of Hitchens book, How Religion Poisons Everything. Although I'm not a new atheist like Hitchens, I was appalled at how a representative of a church could visit a dying friend with the foremost intent on telling him how he's bound for hell.
What else but organized religion could bring one to act so callously and shamefully? Where's the compassion for someone so sick? Where's the sympathy for one facing death?
The only good thing coming out of this story is knowing that I even have less reason to attend church - especially one like Chapman's.
Elijah Dann
Garibaldi Highlands
