This was told to me in confidence by a relative who is, in their own view, a true Christian; but what I call an extreme born again right wing Christian. We both started out as Catholics. I left Catholicism as a teen. He left when his spouse divorced him and he realized that the Church scorned divorcees; even right wing, rigidly true, 'divorced against their will', Catholics. So he became born again and discovered a whole new level of rabid right wing Christianity.
I should preface this by saying last week two sweet, fresh faced Mormon missionaries came to my house and gave me their spiel. Among other things they repeated the story of how Mormonism is the 'restored ' church, i.e. all those other things that happened between the time of Jesus and the time of Joseph Smith were just misguided, and thus false. Also they threw in how (fortunate and lucky) it was that Joe found the book of Mormon on this continent which , yes had been followed by earlier Native Americans prior to the coming of the Europeans! wow , SUCH a wonderful coincidence (ignore the complete non accounting for minor discrepancies such as ...what Language was it in, or why didn't the native Americans still follow it, let alone remember it ...blah ,blah. blah. )
I almost felt sorry for how eagerly and utterly they believed this stuff, but the crux of the matter always seems to hinge on the fact that, not only must you believe your own version of the 'truth', but you must believe that all other versions are wrong , sinful, or at minimum, hopelessly confused. All others must be rejected just the same, and you must accept this wholeheartedly to be part of any group that shares any of the various 'true ' versions, though of course, according to each of them there is only ONE truth , and aren't you glad you found it?.
Which brings me back to the fundamentalist relative of mine. This week he confided in me what the real reason is ..behind fundy Christian's rejection of Mormonism.I am sure he has had this drilled into his noggin by some AM radio jock.."it isn't the underwear ", he said, " the real reason, and the reason we ALL know but no one wants to talk about is", and he looked at me with dead seriousness , lowering his voice," they believe Jesus and Satan are brothers... (dramatic pause)....BROTHERS". I think he expected me to swoon with immensity of his revelation.
All I could think of was the tragedy of these idiotic warring theologies. Everyone has 'the truth', to the exclusion of everyone else. Everyone beating the crap , or scorning the other because of their false truths. Actually it would be a comedy if it weren't for the fact that these religions are so freaking serious about this garbage that they kill , bully, scorn, and intimidate for it.
As far as i am concerned they can fight it out amongst themselves, I just wish they both would keep their hands the hell off our civil laws and civil rights.