Rock Island

by Bill Etem

saying is a person would have to be a brainless bastard to think that the people under the sign of the cross did not fall away from the True Faith many centuries ago. What you’re saying is that any person who is not a f@#king idiot ought to know that Peter and Paul and the other apostles weren’t evil like these f@#king ass-h#les under the sign of the cross were for century after century. What you’re saying is that a person has no right to think he is any brighter than some retard who slaves for decades in some vile Turkey slaughtering plant in Atalissa, IA if he can’t understand that the cross and the crucifix are no damn good, right?’

  Me - ‘Bill Clinton once looked into the TV cameras and said to the American people and to all the people of the world: “Now I want you to listen to me: I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky…” President Ronald Reagan once said to the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev: ‘Mr. Gorbachev, ‘tear down this wall’. Jack Kennedy once stood arm in arm with the people of East and West Berlin after the Soviets built the wall that divided that city for decades – half of Berlin would be free and the other half would become a slave city, a population under the tyranny of the Soviet Empire. Jack Kennedy went to West Berlin and told the world that he stood with all Berliners, and that he stood with all people who yearned to be free from the yoke of Communist aggression, when he said: “Ich bin ein Berliner”. In like manner, I say to you people here in the Quad Cities: I am a Rock Islander, and I am a Moliner, and I am a Davenporter, and I am a Bettendorfer… I tell you the truth when I say to you: we are people of normal intelligence - and yes I include myself in this category – basically 99% of the people in this world all fall into this category – we’re people of normal intelligence - we’re not retarded, but, all the same, we are people who are certainly capable of making huge enormous mistakes – we are capable of making even really stupid brainless mistakes - mistakes which you would think that only a crazed half-wit, which you would think that only a brainless moron could make - whenever we refuse to examine evidence with integrity. As soon as a person of normal intelligence lets his biases override his integrity when examining evidence, then he becomes especially vulnerable to making really stupid mistakes, the worst of which is making a mistake which leads one away from heaven and straight to perdition.’

  Moderator - ‘Yeah, that sounds real sincere how you try to kiss up to the people of the Quad Cities, by sort of linking their situation to that of the heroic people of East Berlin living under the cruel despotism of the Soviets. Then you switch directions and try to liken the people of the Quad Cities, blasted for years by accusations of indifference or even hostility to the plight of the retarded men enslaved in Atallisa, to the plight of a President, Bill Clinton. You’re certainly insinuating something. You’re saying the people of the Quad Cities deserve to be blasted by allegations regarding those men just as Bill Clinton deserved to be blasted by the allegations of that woman…You seem to be asking: when did the people of the Quad Cities first learn about the men of Atallisa? When did the cover-up begin? When did the people of the Quad Cities first begin to lie to themselves about the abomination which was being perpetrated in Atalissa? When did a Berlin wall of silence and denial first go up in the Quad Cities?’

  At this point the audience in Rock Island began to hurl insults at me quite vigorously. I didn’t even realize that I had been insinuating anything! I quickly decided it would be a bad idea to start in with that stuff I was saying earlier: you know: ‘I am a Rock Islander, and I am a Moliner, and I am a Davenporter, and I am a Bettendorfer etc., etc.’

  Then the Moderator started in again - ‘On another level, yes, what you say sounds good about how we must use integrity when we examine evidence, but what you really believe is that people like me, people who love the cross, are effing retards. You think we are effing tards, don’t you? What you are really trying to say is that the people who love the cross are like those retards who slaved for decades in that turkey slaughterhouse in Atallisa. That’s why you chose to have this Symposium here. You needed to have it in a city close to Atallisa.’

  Me - ‘You’re reading way too much into what I said. Or maybe I was getting in a few subtle shots, subconsciously. But consciously I was just sort of babbling away, talking about Presidents and the Quad Cities and the Berlin Wall in a free verse sort of way. Sometimes I think we get too caught up in trying to be oh so very, very careful in what we say. Sometimes I think it’s best to just say what’s on our minds. I think we worry too much about saying something stupid. I also think we’re getting tied up in semantics. I mean, effing retards?... brainless bastards?... ignorant shit-heads?’… half-wits?... imbeciles?... dumb-asses?…biased people of normal intelligence who refuse to examine evidence with integrity?…What’s the big difference here? So, let’s not get tied up in semantics. Let’s not twist words until we can’t see straight. I was clear enough when I said that people of normal intelligence can make really brainless mistakes when they fail to examine evidence with integrity. That’s perfectly true! What more do you want? Suppose my version of Christianity leads people away from heaven and straight to perdition. I’m saying: renounce the Church of Rome, renounce every sect under the sign of the cross, including every Protestant sect under the sign of the cross, get rid of the cross, get rid of the crucifix, read the New Testament and live according to the New Testament. That’s what I’m saying. Suppose this advice of mine is a foul heresy which leads people away from heaven and straight to perdition. Then it would be overly charitable of you to characterize me as: ‘a f$#king retard, an arrogant pompous incompetent brainless bastard’. If people took my advice, and if this advice caused them to be cheated out of eternal happiness in heaven, and if my advice led them to eternal misery in perdition, then calling me: ‘a f$#king retard, an arrogant pompous incompetent brainless bastard ass-@#$%’’ is really being far too kind to me, it is really sugar-coating the truth about me far too much; you’re being way way way too generous in your description of me. But the same logic applies to everyone else as well. If a person, any person, preaches a heresy which leads people away from eternal bliss in heaven and straight to eternal misery in perdition, then that person is doing something which is extremely evil, and you’re being extremely diplomatic, you’re being extremely kind and charitable, when you classify him as an: ‘effing retard sh$t-head incompetent brainless bastard’. I mean, preaching heresies which cheat people out of eternal happiness in heaven, and which instead lead them straight to eternal perdition, is really, quite simply, a beastly, foul, filthy, despicable, evil, vile and satanic thing to do, you know?’

  Moderator - ‘So you say that people like me – people who are fans of the cross – are beastly, foul, filthy, despicable, evil, vile and satanic, huh? Is that it?’

  Me continuing - ‘The cross either reflects no evil or else it reflects some evil. Suppose the sign of the cross reflects some evil. Suppose it is a sacrilege to say the sign of the cross is holy, as it is a sacrilege to say that evil things are holy. Suppose every church under the sign of the cross leads people to perdition. Then there is something satanic about every church under the sign of the cross. Now suppose some church under the cross is the True Church, the Church Christ founded on a rock. Suppose the Roman Catholic Church is the True Church. Suppose the Pope leads people to heaven. Suppose the Pope is the true leader on earth of the Church which Christ founded on a rock. If this is true, then the Vatican is the only government we need. If the Pope leads people to heaven, if the Pope is the leader of God’s True Church, if the Pope upholds the True Faith, then it is stupid to have all these Senates and Supreme Courts and Parliaments and Executive branches. Whenever these institutions rebel against the teachings and orders of the Pope, they simply lead people to perdition, assuming still the Pope is the true leader on earth of God’s True Church. Who needs any institutions which lead people to perdition? Why keep them around? It’s madness! But, on the other hand, if the Pope leads people to perditi
on, if the Pope has fallen away from the True Faith, if the Roman Catholic Church has fallen away from the True Faith and is not God’s True Church and leads people to perdition, then, what’s wrong with my analysis of the Roman Catholic crucifix, given earlier? Suppose the Eastern Orthodox Church is God’s True Church. Why are you Protestants rebelling against God’s True Church? Suppose the Eastern Orthodox Church leads people to perdition, suppose the Eastern Orthodox Church is not God’s True Church, suppose the Eastern Orthodox Church has fallen away from the True Faith. Then you Protestants are right to reject Eastern Orthodoxy. If the Eastern Orthodox Church leads people to perdition, then, since the Eastern Orthodox crucifix is the image of a god, of a version of Jesus, who says the Eastern Orthodox Church leads people to heaven, when in fact it leads people to perdition, then the Eastern Orthodox crucifix is the image of a false god / a false version of Jesus...false gods are beastly because they lead people