Christianity Is Simply More Fun

[Valin]

The American Spectator

I love being part of a religion whose leader’s first action was to bless wine.
Itxu Díaz
April 18, 2024

I just saw a typical protest march in some Arab country on the news. I think it was Jordan, but it could have been Tunisia; I tend to get them all mixed up. I was late to the report, so I don’t know what they were protesting, but it matters not. That lot are always angry. They scream like someone just raised their taxes. They elbow each other. And if the police didn’t contain them, they would likely eat someone alive without even bothering to cook them first. Even when their countries manage to stay peaceful for a time, most of them don’t experience that same peace in their souls. They always seem as though they have just been stung on a testicle by a wasp. 

I’m sure you have occasionally seen an imam preaching in a mosque. There are thousands of such videos on the internet. It is indeed very rare to see an imam instructing his people without raising his voice. The body language is aggressive even if you don’t actually understand anything he says. Sometimes, it is even more aggressive when you do understand it. When I have watched them on occasion, I have caught myself muttering under my breath: Dude, why don’t you calm down a little? Have you tried enjoying life? Even when preaching about how one should love one’s brothers, they speak with such vehemence that it’s unclear whether to love thy neighbor or headbutt him. 

(Snip)

I said at the beginning that I do not intend to turn this into a theological confrontation between religions. Faith is often conditioned by the environment into which you are born, and the good Lord is not always in time to send you falling from a horse to bring you into his fold. But, yes, now that the Left is going on about how we should promote Islam in the West, I would like to stress that even for an atheist or a secularist, living with Christians is more bearable than living with Muslims. Christianity has a much more elaborate notion of freedom, and, unlike others, we do not consider all those who do not identify as Christians to be infidels. 

Christianity is peace of soul, joy in the home, a good turkey on the table at Christmas, and mountains of mercy. Well, it’s all that, and it’s Chesterton. I have needed a lot of lines to try to say something similar to what he was able to summarize in a couple of sentences: “The outer ring of Christianity is a rigid guard of ethical abnegations and professional priests; but inside that inhuman guard you will find the old human life dancing like children, and drinking wine like men; for Christianity is the only frame for pagan freedom. But in the modern philosophy the case is opposite; it is its outer ring that is obviously artistic and emancipated; its despair is within.” I’ll raise a glass to that.