Even the worst people among us think they’re good people. Tom Short is a great example of this. In his blog, he responds to a group of FSU students who rightfully point out that he once compared a woman he knew to be Jewish to Hitler because she was pro-choice.
I now felt we had gotten to the real issue – is all life worth protecting even if it is inconvenient? I responded to Lisa with these words, “Have we gotten to the place where we kill people simply because they are ‘unwanted’? Wasn’t that Hitler’s problem – that he killed people he didn’t want? What do you think – Hitler didn’t go far enough?” After this obviously rhetorical question, I continued to make my point that all life is sacred and to be cherished and that Hitler went too far when he determined that even one life was “unwanted.” Lisa, on the other hand, argued that an “unwanted fetus” had no basic right to live. But that’s not the way it was “reported” in the newspaper.
Several days after I left town, Lisa wrote an article to The Battalion (the Texas A & M newspaper) claiming that I had told her, a Jewish student, to her face that “Hitler did not go far enough.” The following year, the paper reported that “Short allegedly told a Jewish student that Hitler did not go far enough” and the following year a columnist wrote that the university should not allow me on campus since I make such controversial statements as “Hitler did not go far enough.”
Of course, this was only after he told the same woman that she’d burn in hell because she didn’t believe in Jesus:
She was putting me on the spot, but I was not going to back down from the truth in the Bible. “No one goes to hell for being a Jew. People go to hell for rejecting Christ. Therefore, if you persist in rejecting Christ throughout your entire life, then, yes, you will burn in hell.”
Sidestepping the fact that there’s a difference between stopping biological activity in a fetus which hasn’t developed a nervous system and killing a 30 year old banker and his family because you think they’re an inferior race, the fact of the matter is that Short told a Jewish woman she’d burn in hell and then compared her to Hitler. Assuming the article was printed as he says, it might have been out of context but even under the most charitable interpretation the truth of the matter really isn’t much better. He knew that he was flat out comparing a Jewish woman to Hitler and it’s quite apparent she had a legitimate reason to be righteously pissed.
Of course, this type of thing is totally cool because he’s just telling the truth and spreading the word of God. This makes it all justified.
The man’s self delusion is incredible.
Filed under: Athiesm, General Bullshit, Philosophy Tagged: | Asshattery, Athiesm, Bullshit, Christianity, God, Hitler Zombie, Religion
Tom Short sometimes takes a confrontational approach with people that does indeed sometimes make him look like a flaming ass hole. For example, some friends and I once tried to politely point out some problems with the way that Tom was interpreting certain verses from the Bible to support his position on homosexuality. We pointed out that when you consider certain issues of translation and historical context, Tom’s interpretation of verses like 1 Corinthians didn’t seem to make sense. Instead of responding with an intellectual, thoughtful, logical argument, Tom attacked my friend who raised the points and simply told him that he “lacked humility.” Regardless of which side of the fence you stand on when it comes to the issue of homosexuality, I think it’s totally inappropriate for “religious leaders” like Tom Short to belittle others who challenge his point of view, rather than just sticking to the issue at hand and arguing his position with intelligence and respect. I think the latter approach is a much more effective approach to leading others to Christ. By taking the former approach, however, there’s no doubt in my mind that Tom is pushing many people away from Christianity. Many of these Christian fundamentalists really are the modern-day Pharisees.
+My main problem with Tom Short is that he seems to spend too much time condemning others for their sins, rather than focusing on the more positive, hopeful aspects of Christianity. I think Tom’s negative approach actually pushes many people away from Christianity. For example, at a talk on the Ohio State University campus last fall, I saw Tom condemn a male student who had publicly proclaimed that he was homosexual. After condemning this student, Tom then directed some remarks about the nature of homosexuality at this homosexual student that struck me as being rather controversial and offensive. For example, Tom claimed that all homosexual sex is inherently lustful and cannot be committed out of love. In response, this homosexual student just walked away. As he walked away, I got the feeling that Tom had just pushed that student away from Christ.
+I don’t think it’s productive to spend as much time as Tom does condemning and offending others. At the end of the day, we are ALL sinners, and this includes Tom Short. The Bible tells us that we ALL fall short of His glory. If your goal is to bring others to Christ, then harping on everyone for their sins strikes me as being a rather unproductive, hypocritical approach. If you’re a narcissistic egomaniac who gets off on publicly telling other people how you’re right and they’re wrong, however, then Tom’s approach is perhaps a good one.
+Recently on Tom’s facebook page, I tried to suggest to Tom Short that he spend less time condemning everyone for their sins and deliver a more positive message. To support this suggestion, I cited the example of the homosexual student who had walked away after Tom condemned him on the OSU campus. I was rather surprised by Tom’s response. First, Tom claimed that I was wrong to be attacking his position on homosexuality, an issue we had already discussed months earlier. Although it is indeed true that I had previously debated with Tom about whether or not homosexuality is truly a sin, my current suggestion for Tom had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with this issue. In addition, Tom accused me of being a liar for claiming that he believed that God doesn’t love homosexuals. In response, I pointed out to Tom that if he were to read the previous posts I had made to his facebook page more carefully, he would see that I never made any such claim. Like I said, I was just trying to suggest to Tom that he deliver a more positive message. At this point in the conversation, it became obvious that Tom had jumped to making harsh accusations against me in his posts that were based on a complete misreading of my posts. I think this made Tom angry, because Tom’s next move was to erase all the posts I had made to his facebook page and make a bunch of false accusations against me in an attempt to discredit me and make me look bad. Tom claimed that he had previously told me to stop posting on his facebook page, which of course was an absolute lie. In fact, Tom had been, if anything, encouraging our conversation by participating in it. I found it interesting that Tom, after making such a big deal about how I had supposedly told lies about him, had no problem telling lies about me to make me look bad. Tom then proceeded to totally misrepresent the point that I had been trying to make in my previous posts about delivering a more positive message, criticized this misrepresentation, and suggested to me that I spend more time trying to understand his message. Talk about hypocrisy! Tom then went on and on about how I was some sort of obsessed, hateful, abusive guy for criticizing his ministry. In other words, rather than just responding to my criticism in a thoughtful, intelligent way, Tom acted like a total drama queen to discredit me and make me look bad. To a certain extent, I think Tom’s response to my suggestion to deliver a more positive message is representative of how Tom deals with people who challenge or criticize him, and I find it a little disturbing that someone claiming to be a religious leader would act in a way that seems so juvenile, hypocritical, and disrespectful. Even though I probably agree with Tom Short on many, many issues, I totally disagree with Tom’s approach and Tom’s attitude. There’s something about it that seems very disrespectful and self-righteous, and I think this attitude only works to push people away from Christ. Tom’s attitude has certainly worked to push me away from Christian fundamentalism. Like Jennie said, these fundamentalists really are the modern-day Pharisees.