A meeting with my friend

Whenever I come to my home town to visit there are a couple of friends that are on my list to see. I went over to one of their apartments on Saturday night. The evening started out fine. Talking about how things were going and then I must have said something that he wanted clarification on. I think it had to do with asking about my son and my talking about how glad I was that he was out of the service.

I made some reference to one of the main missions of the military was death and destruction as a means to achieve the end. (a side note, both he and I were in the military during the Viet Nam era but neither went to Viet Nam). That started the discourse down a path of the war in Iraq and religion. Bad place to go.

In the end of the conversation I asked him how with him being a "Christian," which is his main identity according to him,  how does his support of someone, Bush, who was into war and torturing people, and his distain for Obama, who wants to treat the world with dignity and respect, coexist? It is a question that I have often wondered. That wanting to respect all people, of seeing people as equal, as trying to spread peace through conversations instead of through war, is closer to Jesus' teachings then killing those who disagree with us. His answered scared me.

His religious teachings tell him the world is full of evil. That the United States has a responsibility to contain evil. In his view, without the containment, evil will take over the world. He sites his own classification of himself as evil because in the past he was a murderer. I think he was referring to Roe vs. Wade.

His black and white thinking and the fact that he saw himself as evil because of a few decisions in his life was scary. He spoke of not wanting to have a "world view" but a "biblical view." To him the world was an evil place, filled with evil people. On the other hand, I see the world as a wonderful place filled with good people who occasionally do bad things. Yes, there are evil or bad people, but they are the minority. I do not see the bible as mandate for whole world.

I find it ironic that I see the world as a far better place to live and see God as a more loving person than a person who sees themselves as such a Christian. The scary part was how he saw it as the United States' responsibility to police the world for and contain evil based on his view of religion.

I left thinking that I will have to do some grieving at a loss of a long time friend. I no longer feel the need to contact him as I come to my hometown. I choose not to be around someone who sees the world as such an evil place. 

Back in my home town

I have come back to McHenry, Illinois for a visit. I grew up in McHenry but have not lived here since 1978. To give you some perspective, I can remember the census when I was growing up being around 2,000. I think it is now around 20,000. Needless to say, I grew up in a small town.

Much of the old part of town looks the same on the outside. The buildings are the same but the name of the businesses have changed. Gone is the Ben Franklin, 5 & 10 cent store. I wonder what ever happened to "Frenchie?" I never knew what her real name was, that is just the name we had given her. She used to watch kids like a hawk, peering around the corner, trying to catch a kid shoplifting. Bolgers drug store is not longer there and Baskin and Robbins is long gone but the building is still there.

A few of the stores are still where they always have been. Riverside Bakery is still there. It is the best bakery in the world. A vanilla long john and a chocolate donut are always at least one morning breakfast when I come back into town. Then there is Bimbo's, a restaurant. The owners have changed but the place and he menu are much the same. Of course that is the second must place to eat when I am in town.

Coming back to McHenry is always an enjoyable experience. It always seems so different. In many ways it seems like only yesterday that I lived her. In other ways, it seems like a lifetime ago.