The Grease Virgin

I was reading about a supposed likeness in a grease stain of the Virgin of Guadalupe icon over at http://www.adultchristianity.blogspot.com/ which "appeared" on a griddle in CA. The piece includes a great photo of two Mexican wrestlers in masks and costumes studying the griddle. A couple of other bloggers have written about it with many scathing comments being proferred by readers. I was pretty amused, but I really try to with hold judgement on such matters. Then I read some commentary on hate crimes over at The Field Negro http://www.field-negro.blogspot.com/ and Field included extensive quotes in opposition to hatecrimes legislation from, yep, you guessed it, so-called Christian writers. Finally, I came across a poll http://religions.pewforum.org/reports that finds that young Americans who claim Christianity as their faith has declined substantially in the past twenty years.

People who find icons in cheese sandwiches are an easy target for mockery, bigots spewing in the name of religion make it easy to villify faith of that sort, and of course the history of religious wars, persecutions and the viciousness of theocracies makes it imperative that reasonable people remain wary of fanaticism. But in an era of wild-eyed fundamentalists, murderous jihadists, and all stripe of immoderate, reason-mangling, hate mongering, harbingers of apocalyptic hate, isn't it time for charity, kindness and even sympathy (if you can't work up a little empathy) for those poor folk who desperately seek hope, even if grease stain madonnas are not to our spirtual taste?