The Beauty & Nobility of Misery and Suffering: My disturbing revelation

In a follow-up to our ongoing exchange of emails my Canadia Christian author friend asked me this about my feelings on AIDS deaths in Africa: “I'm very intrigued to know if you've considered why all of this matters so much to you.”

I found this shocking. Before replying I gave this a great deal of thought which brought me to a horrifying revelation. Here is my response.

Dear P,

You wonder why the issue of millions dying of AIDS in Africa is of such importance to me. To me and dare I say to all realists, the life we have is precious since it is the only one we ever will have. Thus we value it highly. Unlike Mother Teresa who said "The suffering of the poor is something very beautiful and the world is being very much helped by the nobility of this example of misery and suffering," which I find obscene and perverse, we see no beauty, no nobility, no glory in the suffering of people. That's why the issue is so important to me.

But your question caused me to have a revelation of sorts. These poor ignorant 3rd world people are falsely told by the pope that condoms do more harm than good, and that the path to ending this epidemic is "belief" and devoting oneself to the ghost of some presumed ancient mystic. But the Catholic Church, and people who down play the importance of condom use instead favoring acceptance of Jesus, don't much care about the suffering or death of the millions.

What they, what you, care about, what your agenda is, what all your efforts are directed toward is converting people to Jesus ... "saving souls." If for every 1 million people who die because of lack of sex education and unavailability of condoms a dozen souls can be saved for Jesus then it's a small price to pay. Human life and the avoidance of suffering isn't precious to people like you, the pope or Mother Teresa, because this life is but a staging ground, preparation, a test of sorts, for the "real reward" in your fictional heaven.

Oh yes, you / they pay it lip service. You'll praise the missionaries for mopping the sweating brow of a dying AIDS child. You'll wring your hands and shed crocodile tears over the multitude that will die. You'll protest that Christians have done so much to ease their suffering in the throes of death. But the reality is these lives are being sacrificed on the altar of religious ignorance ... for a "higher purpose." Their lives aren't precious; their souls and the afterlife take precedence.

P, in my last email I called you cavalier about the millions dying of AIDS. I was wrong, you aren't cavalier. You and those who think this way are knowingly complicit in their deaths.

You want to save their souls? Then save their only life with proven science, THEN do your evangelical proselytizing thing. To do otherwise is a kin to a doctor withholding proven treatment and instead lecturing about watching his cholesterol and getting more exercise while the man is dying from a massive heart attack. It's immoral.

Now I don't mean to offend but I think I am onto something here that I expect you will protest and dismiss as totally fallacious. I’ll understand that. Nevertheless, I've come to know the Christian mind pretty well through my many readings and over many years. I dare say that it would be impossible for you, or others who think in these terms to openly admit as true what I have come to realize (at long last) is clearly at very root of this whole issue. It disturbs me.

Regards,
Bart