At 08:26 1/8/2004 -0500, hkmiller wrote:

 In any Muslim country, the
local populace would not be that upset at finding that some clergy aren't
sufficiently holy; they've known that all along.  In American, I'd think
the proportion of unholy Muslim clergy fairly low, given their tiny minority
status:  why do it at all if you don't believe in it?

         Uh, HK? There's this little thing called "lust for power". Maybe
you've heard of it? Being a religious figure is a lot easier than a
political figure, yet the position carries with it many of the same
percs and privileges. So, if you can cynically fake a certain level of
religious sincerity, why not take the easier path? You get the money, the
guns, the girls, and only have to do half the work.

         I won't name names or point fingers, but there are any number
of television evangelists who don't believe in the God they profess,
they merely believe in all that lovely green money the easily deluded
throw at them.

         As Robert Heinlein once wrote, "...it is hard to see how a man
who has been given a mandate from on High to spread tidings of joy to
all mankind can be seriously interested in taking up a collection to
pay his salary; it causes one to suspect that the shaman is on the moral
level of any other con man. But it is a lovely work if you can stomach it."

         Ed Becerra

         "Dreamers may die, but the Dream is eternal..."



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