To the Editor:

I’m sorry, but since when exactly did North Country residents become such delicate wallflowers, as to be so easily offended to the extent of launching into a religious rant tirade cherry picking quotes from stories written nearly 2000 years ago by human men, none of whom were contemporaries of, or even knew Jesus?  

The Gospels were written between 70-110 AD, the earliest of which being Mark in 70 AD. As a refresher, Jesus died in 33 AD. So, they are therefore just that…stories, written by human men, none of whom could possibly have known Jesus, if one even subscribes to Jesus ever existing in the first place. I don’t know. And by the way, that describes all of us humans, regardless of religious identity. We just don’t know. Because there is no way to know. No cell-phones with cameras and time stamps back then. 

And why the (in my view “fake”) piety? Based on the mere fact that a local church, that one does not even belong to, and presumably knows nothing about, would offer classes on Tarot Card readings? Or Gender Identity? 

I’ll admit it, I don’t get it either. But here’s the great thing about this country. I don’t have to.  

I don’t need to be a member of, nor subscribe to, anything that I don’t want to understand or be a part of. If I did, I would do so. There was a time when I knew nothing about my now chosen profession, until I actually studied it and learned it.  

But maybe that’s the rub. One has to actually want to learn about something that we don’t currently know about. It’s just a shame that religious dogma gets in the way of so many of us from doing so. 

As a side note, but somewhat still on topic, I just recently finished watching the entire 15 seasons of “Supernatural” on Netflix…mostly because one of my former college classmates was one of the writers and producers on the series. Sometimes scary, often funny, and it holds the current record for the longest running Sci-Fi/Fantasy series in television history. I wonder how many potential viewers missed out on this entertaining and historical series just because they were so afraid of something they “read between the lines” from their nearly 2000 year old human men story tellers. 

Leland Farnsworth
Massena