COMMENTARY
MILT THOMAS
Isn’t it ironic that a prayer breakfast designed to share the love and compassion Jesus taught us became a platform for the very behavior Jesus gave his life preaching against?
Apparently Christ’s message was lost on the organizers of the prayer breakfast. While they would believe only InsideVero was critical of Robertson’s “prayerful” message, his words received national attention from left and right, with Christian organizations taking the lead in distancing themselves from him.
But he can’t be held entirely to blame. It is one thing for a questionable character like Phil Robertson to construct a near-pornographic murder scene illustrating his apparent hatred of Atheists. It is yet another for one of the chastened promoters of this embarrassing (for most Christians) event to then suggest she is getting “threats from Atheists” as a result of InsideVero publishing comments critical of Robertson’s anti-Atheist hate speech. It is almost enough to stir up vigilante-ism among her supporters. We’ve certainly seen that happen before.
If you were to substitute the word “black” or “Jew” for “Atheist,” you would take America back to the wonderful time 60-70 years ago when innocent people died violently simply because of their non-Christian religion or the color of their skin.
Fortunately, it took our oft-criticized Federal government to enforce Constitutional rights for all Americans regardless of their color or religious persuasion. Those who consider the Federal government an “intrusion” into our God-given freedoms, probably wish those days could return.
Oh wait, they never left! We CAN still hate, but this time it’s Atheists and gays (and liberals). Somehow the arbiters of moral self-righteousness believe they are the only authorities of right and wrong, when in fact they simply preach intolerance.
In today’s world we condemn radical, extremist groups like ISIS in the Middle East, but attribute their brutal behavior to that of the religion they claim to defend, Islam. By far the majority of Muslims disavow any connection with the beliefs of ISIS, just like most Christians disavow the behavior and beliefs of Phil Robertson and those like him. But should we fear for the safety of Christian missionaries around the world trying to to God’s work because of the image Robertson creates for their religion?
In this country, Robertson does represent a constituency of people who agree with him and that is what should concern all Americans. Are the extreme views of Christian Reconstructionists simply the Christian version of ISIS without the beheadings? For those who will comment that comparing to ISIS is unreasonable need only look at world history to know that every religion has had its share of blood-spilling zealots (to wit, the reference above to Southern racial injustice).
And by the way, the national news stories critical of Phil Robertson’s performance at the prayer breakfast as well as the views of those who support him, all include “dateline Vero Beach” in their stories. Yes, for the second time in two years Vero Beach has made national headlines for its examples of bigotry, not beaches, golf, love or compassion.
Indian River Guardian 
Most of us are aware that mainstream religious folks and just about everyone else do not approve of verbal sniping at one another. It’s a waste of energy. Yes, we don’t always get along–there’s often little or no tolerance for the other, and yet when necessary we’ve managed to pull together for a common goal. Right now, one common goal is recognizing how harmful division can be. We all have our short-comings, but our survival as a country depends on how well we can work on problems together – not create problems among ourselves. When we have a hurricane hit our area, we don’t ask if a person is gay, straight, atheist, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, or even citizen: We offer to each other whatever assistance we can. It is sad that Indian River County and particularly Vero Beach end up being chastised in the media for something we citizens had no control over.