Culture Wars

The subject of this letter was supposed to be about how Chuck Smith, in the name of his Christian self appointed moral authority, fleeced his flock for millions of dollars. The story would have continued with Chuck Smith translating millions of dollars into hundreds of million of dollars using his connections among political reactionaries here in Orange County and in Washington DC. But, Jay Grant, another self appointed moral authority and friend and mentee of Chuck Smith, would rather use his withered little column in the local newspaper to pointedly ignore Smith’s fraud and instead write about himself. More specifically, Jay Grant whines in his weekly withered little column “Veiling the Truth” (1/26/2001) sobbing about how misunderstood he has become (talk about ego, eh, Jim Kerr!).

One way to decide if Jay Grant is the truly misunderstood, is to examine the public record. Quoting liberally from the Bible, Al Enderle, writing in the local newspaper (8/11/2000), declares homosexuality is not about love. Al Enderle asks, ”Why would a man want to have sex with another man?...Is it love or is it lust? I suggest that it is lust because, were he to really love the other man, he would choose not to do it even though be (sic) wants to.” Al Enderle concludes,” I just don’t agree...that God is tolerant of homosexuality, lying, stealing, adultery, etc.”

Edward T. Graney, wreiying in the local newspaper (8/25/2000), writes a garbled and almost illiterate letter weaving a weird theory of hatred for orthodox Jews and why the reader should “...be diligent and vote for the morality in the Republican platform.” Graney tells us orthodox Jews are a defiance of Christianity, orthodox Jews will never enter a Christian church, and orthodox Jews believe all Goyum are unclean. Where does Edward T. Graney get his ideas? From the Holy Bible, where else? (Dt.17:2-7, 1 Kg.18:40, Mt.23:31, Mt.27:25, Jn.5:16, 7:1, 7:13, 10:31, 11:8, Jn.8:44).

On September 8, 2000 the self-righteous and misunderstood Jay Grant decides to weigh in supporting Enderle and Graney. Grant writes, “I applaud Mr. Enderle and Mr. Graney for having the courage to put themselves on the firing line with their regular contributions to this paper. I’m sure they both fully understand there’s a culture war going on and to endorse the Lord, Scripture or absolute truth is going to usually bring a stinging rebuke from the numerous atheists, secularists and other assorted skeptics scattered throughout our town.”

Does Jay Grant rebuke Enderle’s and Graney’s scurrilous homophobic and anti-semitic remarks? Not at all! Jay Grant “applauds” Enderle and Graney lauding them as brave foot soldiers in the “culture war” against the enlightenment. Does Jay Grant distance himself from homophobia and anti-semitism of the Holy Bible? Are you kidding! Jay Grant embraces the Holy Bible as “absolute truth.” Five months later, Jay Grant is singing a different tune. Did you have an epiphany, Jay Grant, or are you again blowing smoke hoping to write an Orwellian history for yourself?

Unlike Jay Grant’s contradictory, self serving, and cloudy view of reality, Jim Kerr has both feet planted firmly on the ground. Jim Kerr knows what’s important and what is irrelevant. For Jim Kerr, view obstructing power lines are an absolute horror for our town. Everything else about our town is simply, simply, simply boring.