&uot;One of the many things [the story of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion] tells us is that Jesus was not brought down by atheism and anarchy. He was brought down by law and order allied with religion, which is always a deadly mix. Beware those who claim to know the mind of God and who are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform. Beware those who cannot tell God’s will from their own.&uot; &045; Barbara Brown Taylor, Episcopalian priest and writer

As I look around the social, political and religious landscape, I see much that discourages me. I see people turning their backs on the needs of others out of a selfish desire to keep more of everything for themselves. I see leaders act as if their own opinions are the only ones that matter, whether they’ve been elected or seized the job through violence. I see religious people using their faith to justify hatred and violence towards those they disagree with.

In our state, the selfishness of some, especially those who live in the suburbs around Minneapolis and St. Paul, is governing the choices made for the rest of us. We’re no longer in this together. From their perspective, libraries, parks, and arts programs in Greater Minnesota are all &uot;non-essential&uot; expenditures of public money. Anyone who wants access to those things should just move to Edina or Maple Grove or Bloomington. Build more roads in our communities, they say, so we can get to work and the grocery store more easily, while the rest of us will have to put up with less maintenance and snow removal. Because their eyes are focused only on themselves, instead of a thoughtful series of reforms that revitalize our state, we’ll all have to learn to live with cuts that undermine the quality of life.

Our President and his cronies are engaged in a war against the world. They don’t care what anyone else thinks, because they’ve got the biggest fists in the neighborhood. Their support for democracy ends when democratic values get in the way of their plans for reordering the world’s power structure. Looking at the way the Bush Administration has thumbed its nose at the world over the past two years, one begins to suspect that the real &uot;target&uot; in the war with Iraq was the United Nations. And while our attention is focused on war, our basic freedoms at home are threatened, and pressure is exerted to cut down more trees and drill for more oil &045; whatever the consequences.

But the darkest shadows linger around the terrible words and deeds of Christians, Jews and Muslims, who oppress and even slaughter people in many places around the world because, they claim, it’s part of God’s war against evil. But whether they worship Christ, Jehovah or Allah, their faith is a false one. Their authoritarianism and violence make them more like each other than like the others whose faith they claim to share. No matter what our so-called Christian leaders say, Jesus Christ would not be telling the world that violence is the only solution to our problems. Christ would not treat all pregnant women and their doctors as potential criminals in order to protect the life of the unborn. No matter what the government of Israel might think, neither the teachings nor experiences of Judaism provide any justification for the destruction of people’s homes, and the killing of pregnant women and children. Faithful Muslims do not kill innocent people, no matter what the provocation, something that became quite clear in the weeks following the attacks on the World Trade Center.

In the face of so much selfishness, arrogance and reckless hatred, I find I can no longer use my writing to make a difference for the better. Caught up in despair and bitterness, the writing of each column has become increasingly difficult. The energy required to stake out and support positions too often seems wasted in a futile kind of irrelevance.

It’s time to back away from the computer and clear my head. It has been an interesting experience, this editorial page assignment, but I think it’s time to pass that opportunity and responsibility on to somebody else, a writer who is better able to see reasons to hope for good things in the future and fewer causes for despair.

David Rask Behling is a rural Albert Lea resident.