{"id":438,"date":"2011-12-22T18:25:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T18:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/12\/hitchens-wolpe-and-the-dear-leader.html"},"modified":"2011-12-22T18:25:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T18:25:00","slug":"hitchens-wolpe-and-the-dear-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/12\/hitchens-wolpe-and-the-dear-leader.html","title":{"rendered":"Hitchens, Wolpe And The Dear Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I miss Christopher Hitchens.<\/p>\n

Rabbi David Wolpe, in his really lousy book, Why Faith Matters<\/i><\/a>, talks about how Hitchens described North Korea as one of the most religiously authoritarian states that he\u2019s ever experienced.\u00a0 Wolpe\u2019s non-answer to this is to blame North Korea\u2019s problems on its atheism and to praise South Korea for its Christianity.\u00a0 That\u2019s why North Koreans flee there.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure it\u2019s pretty obvious that North Korea is a horrendous place to live and that, if you\u2019re a North Korean with a way out, you\u2019re going to run to South Korea, a free country that shares your language and history.\u00a0 Wolpe asserts that it is North Korea\u2019s official atheism that makes it the nightmare that it is and that it is South Korea\u2019s Christianity that makes it free and so attractive to refugees.<\/p>\n

Hitch tried to point out in debates with Wolpe that it is North Korea that is the more religious country.\u00a0 Sure, North Koreans are atheistic about the western God, but they are subject to round the clock veneration of their various Dear and Great leaders.<\/p>\n

Now that the Dear one has died, just look at how North Koreans described his death<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Sudden cracking ice, glowing mountains and glorious sunsets have all been reported after the death of the leader was reported on Monday.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on its website<\/a> that \u201cpeculiar natural wonders were observed on Mt Paektu, Jong Il Peak and Tonghung Hill in Hamhung City\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ice covering Lake Chon was said to have cracked so loudly that the entire lake trembled with noise.<\/p>\n

A nearby lake exploration group reported that a bitterly cold storm suddenly stopped and the clouds cleared across the lake.<\/p>\n

Then \u201cthe sky began turning red with sunrise on the horizon\u201d KCNA reported. \u201cThe peaks looked like a picture for wide and thick glow\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

KCNA also noted that Kim\u2019s \u201cautographic writings\u201d were seen carved on the edge of a mountain, glowing in sorrow for the leader whose brutal 20-year dictatorship resulted in\u00a0famine and economic catastrophe.<\/p>\n

The state-controlled news service also reported how a crane flew around a statue of the president on Tonghung Hill and bowed its head before flying away.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the crane seemed to mourn the demise of Kim Jong Il born of Heaven after flying down there at dead of cold night, unable to forget him,\u201d the news service said.<\/p>\n

This reminds me of nothing more than the descriptions of the moments after Jesus\u2019 death when earthquakes shook the land and the Temple\u2019s curtain was ripped in two.\u00a0 It\u2019s so obviously religious that, short of self-delusion, I can\u2019t grasp how Wolpe could claim that the country is atheist.\u00a0 Like so many westerners, he refuses to recognize as religion any faith without Yahweh and Co. (aka Adonai, aka Jesus, aka Allah) at its core.<\/p>\n

I miss Christopher Hitchens.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I miss Christopher Hitchens. Rabbi David Wolpe, in his really lousy book, Why Faith Matters, talks about how Hitchens described North Korea as one of the most religiously authoritarian states that he\u2019s ever experienced.\u00a0 Wolpe\u2019s non-answer to this is to blame North Korea\u2019s problems on its atheism and to praise South Korea for its Christianity.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,24,25],"class_list":["post-438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-atheism","tag-liberal-judaism","tag-liberal-religions-and-theologies"],"yoast_head":"\nHitchens, Wolpe And The Dear Leader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I miss Christopher Hitchens. 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