Last week I got a brochure in the mail. Like all brochures, I threw it in the growing pile of my unread mail. Well, yesterday I finally got around to looking at it. The title of the brochure was "What's Next? - Are You Prepared?" I thought this had to do with preparing for the next big earthquake, which is expected to happen sometime soon. So I thought, finally, the local government is being proactive. They are taking steps to ensure everybody knows what to do in case of an earthquake. Of course, I could also be living on a remote desert island, stranded with Claudia Schiffer.
Not to disparage Oakland anymore than it already has been, but this was not a case of good local government. Instead it was yet another example of an obscure religious organization with money which seeks to influence impressionable and uneducated people. This brochure explains all natural calamities and tragic occurences of the past decade or so in terms of the Bible, particularly placing the blame for everything bad on "Satan". Here is an excerpt:
"While appearing to the children of men as a great physician ... he will bring disease and disaster until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations .... in every place and in a thousand forms, is Satan exercising his power."
Satan in Oakland? True, we have some bad crime rates. In fact, I am scared to walk around alone at night in a lot of areas. But, if I were to get mugged, something tells me they're after my wallet, not my soul. The authors of this brochure do not understand the East Bay. Despite tbe presence of some sect-like churches (like my own), this is not what I would call a "god-fearing community". So why do they send us stuff like this? Here are 3 possible answers.
1) People will always look for "the easy answer" to their problems
2) Some churches use #1 to their advantage
3) Paper is too cheap in the Unites States
Solution:
1) multiply the price of paper by, say, 3 times
2) repeal tax-exempt status for all "non traditional" churches that have enough money to send out "free" info-propaganda (i.e. if they're rich enough to send me a brochure, why are my tax dollars supporting them?)
Something tells me the Scientologists are behind this. Then again, there was no picture of the egomaniac L. Ron Hubbard in this brochure.
Next cult please?
