On November 16, 2005, the following letter to the editor was published in the Mille
Lacs Messenger.
WHY NO OUTRAGE?
In a Oct. 31, Saint Paul Pioneer Press letter to the editor, it readers were
informed that 2,000 U.S. combatants had been killed in Iraqi since the war
began and that 40,000 U.S. citizens had been killed by drunk drivers in that same
period of time.
Are the vast majority of U.S. Christians outraged by this large number of people
being killed by drunk drivers and engaging in social activism to stop this
atrocity? No, they are not. Why are they not outraged and then doing something
to stop this atrocity?
When the Star and Tribune asked our state's religious leaders to answer the
question: "Where is religious outrage for the poor?", Bishop Peter Rogness, a
Lutheran Bishop, answered the question. He wrote: "We are awash in a culture of
individualism, with powerful forces at work that bombard us with the message to
take care of our own needs as much as we want". And before this question was
asked by the Star and Tribune, Pope John Paul II expressing his opinion on
this question. He once said, when referring to a popular expression of mainline
U.S. denominational Christianity, the U.S. Catholic Church, "it is hypnotized by
materialism, teetering before a soulless vision of the world."
"Hypnotized by materialism", or brainwashed by "powerful forces" that make people
selfish and apathetic is the answer to why most U.S. Christians are not outraged
for the poor, nor for the large number of U.S. citizens killed by drunk drivers every
year.
And why is their no outrage and social activism by the majority of U.S. Christians
for the 108,000 U.S. citizens who die every year from alcohol abuse? And
why is their no outrage and social activism by the majority of U.S. Christians
for the 440,000 U.S.citizens who die every year from tobacco abuse?
In a recent edition of the Mille Lacs Messenger, there was an article about a
movement in Mille Lacs County to help curb alcohol and drug abuse. And in the
article, it was mentioned that alcohol and tobacco are "gateway" substances. I
would like to see the Pastors of Christian Churches in Mille Lacs County encouraging
their congregations to start up social concerns groups that would work to not
only make Mille Lacs County a dry county but also work to influence legislators to
make the addictive and dangerous "gateway" substances (alcohol and tobacco) illegal
to produce, sell or use.
Continuing on with a radically hypocritical (sinful) double standard associated with
the approved of legalization of two very dangerous and harmful "gateway" substances
(alcohol and tobacco) and the disapproval of the legalization of other substances is
not going to do anything but make the horrendous substance abuse epidemic and related
social atrocities situation even worse.
Tom Dahlheimer
Wahkon
