I'm really surprised you ran the article called "Life in a College Town" about Judaism and Islam. Not because it's about a few touchy subjects, but because it reads like it was written by a 12-year-old doing a report on religion. The only difference is that if a 12-year-old had wrote it I'd think the kid did a decent job and was forward thinking for his age. But this is the work of a college student and it's shameful.
I don't really understand the point of the article. It seems to be that the big three religions are the same. Well, that should be obvious. You don't have to even take a basic comparative religion class to know that all religions are basically the same. I think most people know that. Sure, maybe they don't know how much overlap there is in the stories of the various holy books. But that's something that could be said in two paragraphs, not the painfully redundant, overly written 15 or so paragraphs we were given.
The big problem isn't with the insultingly glib, kind of smug philosophical proselytizing that comes from a college student who had their first thought about a big issue. The big problem, the offensive core of this article is that this guy is basically saying, "Hey, isn't it silly that these guys are fighting when their jam is all so similar? Why don't they just give peace a chance, brother?"
Well, maybe it's because there's a couple thousand years of other issues aside from the basic texts of the religions. Maybe it's because that, forgetting feuds with other faith, within all three of those religions there's massive amount of division, sectarianism and in-fighting. Maybe it's because other people have brains too and have realized that their religions are similar, but trying to build peace on the nation is like trying to float a battle ship in a bath tub.
It's a nice sentiment and I'm sure some people learned a little bit from that article. But it's disgustingly glib, immaturely written and, coming from more-or-less an adult, that nice sentiment about a very complex topic is brittle and insulting to your readers.
Brad Heffner
Williamsport
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom
