Written by Bishop Andrew Gentry   

Beloved Friends,

It is no laughing matter to call someone a "servant of the devil"! It is indeed a gravely serious charge. It has been used throughout history to banish and or eradicate those for whom the powerful found troublesome in general and threatening in particular. Is it ever appropriate and if so when? Jesus is very clear on the issue of the judgement of others but he does teach us that behaviour renders judgement in and of itself or to put it Scripturally "by their fruits ye shall know them".

So it is with the gravest sense of trepidation that I call one Rush Limbaugh a servant of the devil and I do so because on his hate filled ranting hour yesterday he made jokes about the suffering of the Japanese people and laughed at their sorrow and had the blasphemous audacity to claim the earthquake and tsunami to be Divine Punishment for being environmentalists who as all good free market capitalists know cost the god of mammon profit!

I am firmly convinced that God forgives nigh everything but spewing day after day hate and encouraging the inhuman treatment of your fellow human being and do all in the name of love of money is not a matter the Divine Judge of All Things will overlook or ignore. There is no absolutely no excuse or reason for Limbaugh's conduct or language. He should be buggy whipped in the town square to begin with and then sent to the nuclear plant to assist in the repairs of the reactor because you see he believes that those unbelievable brave men at the reactors deserve to die as expendable assets of the nuclear power companies! Sometimes it is necessary my brothers and sisters to call a person what they are as evidenced by their actions and words.

In stark contrast to Limbaugh have you looked recently at how the noble and giving people of Japan have responded to this horror and have you compared it to what happen in New Orleans where police officers shot and killed innocent people who were simply standing on a bridge! Did you see the face of that poor fireman who as he was working to help others found the remains of his home and knew that his entire family had perished!

We have deified the ego in the West and dismissed the Wisdom of the Elders and this is what we have produced.

Lord help and forgive us.

Bishop Andrew Gentry
All Saints and Sorts Congregational Catholic Church
Asheville N C