The world is too dangerous to live in—not because of people who do evil, but because of people who sit and let it happen.

- Albert Einstein

There’s a prevalent perception among Christians that when it comes to conflict (like the War on Terror), Christ’s teachings go limper than an ED laden Pillsbury Dough Boy after six hours in a Sioux sweat lodge.

Yeah, Jesus is seen in certain sectors of emasculated evangelicalism and in some spiritually castrated Catholic circles as an altruistic bearded lady who traipsed around Israel spitting out courteous clichés and nifty narratives like an over-medicated Garrison Keillor.

Because of these notions, which were constructed by torturing the scripture via inane eisegesis and icky exegesis, it’s hard for the follower of this Effeminized Christ to come to a place of clashing with the likes of Osama and his mama.

Just a cursory glance at the gospel of Mark, unaided by a Nancy’d pastor or priest’s thoughts or a 21st century Lysol-disinfected, Politically Correct New Testament commentary, will leave one thinking, “Holy Crikey! Christ confronted anyone and anything that was oppressive and abusive.”

When you take the accounts of Christ’s life straight (as I do my whiskey) you come away with an entirely different picture than the one that pantywaists have painted of God’s Prophet.

You do not see Him as a passive peacemaker in the face of evil. If something threatened those He came to save, well then, He took it on. If something or someone was malevolent in its/his intentions then it/he was about to clash with Christ. Guaranteed.

Christ is portrayed in the gospel according to Mark (which was, BTW, inspired by the Holy Spirit and not Richard Simmons) as a dragon slayer. Yes, the Incarnate One showed up on this terra firma 2,000 years ago as a throttler of the works of darkness. Mark whipped out his inspired quill and depicted Jesus as a warrior picking fights with that which was detrimental to people and places.

Whether it was in the whipping of the avaricious religious glitterati who were desecrating the Temple, casting a nest of demons out of a 1st century Emily Rose, publicly rebuking a bad politician or priest or foreswearing the wrath of God upon those who would harm kids—one cannot skip away from the holy script thinking Christ was cool with creeps. That is, unless of course, he chooses to close his eyes to these ubiquitous texts.

So, what about all those “love your enemy,” “do good to those who harm you,” “turn the other cheek,” “howdy, bad neighbor” verses? Well, as far as I can tell, these passages apply to personal insults and injury . . . like the ones I get week after week from those who hate what I write.

Am I to create a Haitian voodoo doll, conjure up some wicked curse and level it at the bloggers who are having fun at my expense? Absolutely not. It’s a difference of opinion that makes a horse race. Anyway, most of their quips are hilarious . . . and being the narcissist that I am, I appreciate the attention be it good or bad. Since I dish it out on a regular and prolific basis, I should be a good sport and not wince when I get it.

Here’s where the “love stuff” comes into play: by not going postal when you get picked on. In this entitlement, lawsuit-ready, hair-triggered, I’ll-kill-you-in-your-sleep-if-you-wrong-me culture, “love and patience” is a needed maxim and is an appreciated reprieve from the ripe hate that inundates petty America.

However, when it comes to terrorists sticking planes into buildings and blowing up trains, buses and Pizza Huts around the planet, I think the balance of the scripture and the common sense God’s given us show the multifaceted Jesus morph from being a gentle lamb into a rough lion. Can you handle that?

Look, if Christ went to town on a punk unclean spirit that was oppressing one individual in a grave yard, I kind of think that He might green light the US military cleaning the clock of Islamo-facist death dealers trying to wipe out Western Civilization. Duh.

“But, shouldn’t we err on the side of love, tolerance and grace in dealing with these people?” I can hear some whine. Uh . . . not when it comes to glaze-eyed, militant Islamic monsters who intend to kill millions of people who don’t think the way they do. Continued...