Frank Rich--Theophobe Extraordinaire

Maureen Dowd was not the only New York Times columnist to ridicule faith and spread a message of cynicism on Easter Sunday.

I suspect that Frank Rich, theophobe extraordinaire, breaks out in a cold sweat when he passes a church. Believers terrify him, citing the encroachment of religion in public life as a "full-scale jihad."

FULL-SCALE JIHAD

Don't you think that's a bit over- the-top? Don't you think "a bit" is an understatement?

According to theophobic Rich, faith is a force which "impedes the prevention of unwanted pregnancies and diseases like AIDS."

He draws a connection between God and "Dennis Rader, the church council president arrested in Wichita's B.T.K. serial killer case."

He wonders about "God instructing Terry Ratzmann, the devoted member of the Living Church of God who this month murdered his pastor, an elderly man, two teenagers and two others before killing himself at a weekly church service in Wisconsin." I have followed the Ratzmann case closely and NOWHERE has it been suggested that he believed God was prompting him to commit murder, other than in Rich's warped world.

Rich writes, "The religio-hucksterism surrounding the Schiavo case makes DeMille's Hollywood crusades look like amateur night. This circus is the latest and most egregious in a series of cultural shocks that have followed Election Day 2004, when a fateful exit poll question on "moral values" ignited a take-no-prisoners political grab by moral zealots."

He insists that blame for what he perceives to be the sorry state of the country can be cast on a fifth of the population, calling them a mob bullying the majority. This mob consists of "those in the Republican base whom even George Will, speaking last Sunday on ABC's This Week, acknowledged may be considered 'extremists.'" (Can you tell Rich gets a thrill from quoting George Will?)

Clearly, Rich is threatened by people of faith, likening the protesters holding vigil outside of Terri Schiavo's hospice to the crazed Salem witch-hunters.

I understand how difficult it must be for cynics and theophobes such as Rich to grasp the sincerity of the faithful.

Be afraid, Frank. Be very afraid.