[Fwd: FW: Fwd: Great wisdom from Ben Stein!]

[maurice stevens]

> 6 15:58:13.0055 (UTC) FILETIME=[2FA13CF0:01C70A61]
> To: undisclosed-recipients:;
>
>  
>
> *The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS 
> Sunday Morning.*
>  *
> **Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my 
> beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see 
> them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog 
> biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery 
> stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? 
> Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken 
> up? Why are they so important?
>
> I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all 
> about Tom Cruise's wife.
>
> Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a 
> subve rsive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.
>
> If this is what it means to be no longer young, i* *t's not so bad.
> Next confession:
> I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it 
> does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful 
> lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I 
> don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.
>
> It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I 
> don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a 
> ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers 
> and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doe sn't bother me 
> at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection 
> near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as 
> fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
>
> I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think 
> Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think 
> people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, 
> period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an 
> explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I 
> don't like it being shoved down my throat.
>
> Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that 
> we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship 
> God as we understand Him? *
> *
> I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.
>
> But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica 
> came from and where the America we knew went to.
>
> In light of the ma ny jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this 
> is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not 
> funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
>
> Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane 
> Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" 
> (regarding Katrina)
>
> Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She 
> said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but 
> for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out 
> of our government and to get out of our lives.
>
> And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How 
> can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we 
> demand He leave us alone?"
>
> In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. 
> I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her 
> body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, 
> and we said OK .
>
> Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school . The Bible 
> says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor 
> as yourself. And we said OK.
>
> Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they 
> misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we 
> might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We 
> said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.
>
> Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why 
> they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to 
> kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.**
>
> Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it 
> out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
>
> Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and th en wonder why 
> the world's going to hell.
>
> Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the 
> Bible says.
>
> Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like 
> wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, 
> people think twice about sharing.
>
> Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through 
> cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school 
> and workplace.
>
> Are you laughing?
> ** *

-- 
maurice at stanford.edu