And with luck, there aren't very many of the folks you referred to in your last paragraph. In the larger view of things.
There really aren't that many, I think, in absolute terms. But they tend to flock to the developing world, and they undergo a strange metamorphosis when they get here. The American fundamentalists I see show a very different face than the one you see there. Much more aggressive, much more absolute in their conviction of their own rectitude, much more contemptuous of other groups. It can get pretty bizarre, especially when they start on local politics. They know absolutely nothing about it, but that doesn't stop them from declaiming.
Sometimes it bounces back. There's a ship that makes the rounds here, floating bookstore, very Christian. Young staff, very enthusiastic, from all over the world. A few years back they were docked in Zamboanga, and someone tossed a grenade. Killed a few; just kids, but the day before one of them had announced that "Allah is a liar", and someone took exception. |
