I heard on the radio today that there exists a group of Christians who protest the funerals of soldiers, saying we should not honor those who died. They say this is because these young men and women have died because they support a country that supports and includes the gay lifestyle.

I might have gone through my days blissfully unaware that these terrible creatures exist except that, like most terrible creatures, they got worse. They now plan to protest the funerals of the Amish girls who were murdered not long ago. The reasoning given to Hannity et al was something along the lines of that the Amish don't worship God correctly and follow false prophets and doctrines. The woman speaking went as far as to say "THESE GIRLS DESERVED TO DIE."

She went on to say that all people deserve to die, cagily including herself in the blanket statement. This is extremism, folks, every bit as extreme as anything we fight in Iraq and Afghanistan and will probably begin to fight elsewhere in the middle east and asia.

I know I've often spoken harshly about the influence of religion in the world and I want to be clear that doing so is NOT my intent here. This isn't the influence of religion, its the influence of mentally disturbed individuals, whose disorders are currently being inflamed by religion, but who probably would've found some other catalyst if religion didn't exist.

I will, however, speak harshly of the Pope, the leader to many of these types of people, and all other Christian leaders around the world.

These Christian leaders stood up in outrage when the leaders of Islam failed to criticize the actions of Islamic extremists around the world. They equated the leaders' collective silence with condoning these actions and even supporting them.

Well where are these leaders now? Where are they when their own extremists are throwing salt into the wounds of the parents of innocent amish children? Where are they when they cast judgement on noble soldiers fighting and dying for their country in the name of their God? Where are they when they go on television and say all people deserve to die at the hands of a rageful and vengeful God(her words, not mine)?

NOWHERE. SILENT. We can only interpret this silence the same way they interpreted Islam's: condining and supporting the actions of their extremists. No better than the Islamic leaders they chastised. In fact, if anything Christianity is worse than Islam because Islam doesn't have a "go-to guy" to stand up and make a statement in these situations, but Christianity does. So what say you, Pope? And what say you, Christians? Do you still stand by your leaders?