The Enemy Does Not Sleep

Granted, while "World" is a Christian magazine and is thus biased (who isn't?), it still reports the news itself accurately. So I was both pleased and depressed to open an issue of it today and read this:

Author Christopher Hitchens, who wrote the best-selling God Is Not Great, was a bit startled during a Feb. 28 panel discussion he moderated in New York for the opening of Brett Morgen's documentary film Chicago 10. Among notable journalists who gathered to discuss the Vietnam-era film, Suchin Pak (MTV news) observed that young people are not as passionately anti-war now as their counterparts were over Vietnam. Key cultural difference between 1968 and 2008: "Our audience is more religious and conservative than we assume," she said. "I really hate to hear that the young are becoming more Christian," a startled Hitchens replied. "If that's true, that's the worst news of the night!"

Now, opposed to Hitchens, I'm extremely pleased at any hint that today's youth is becoming more Christian... But I'm always deeply saddened to hear about people like this, who hate religion so much. It's one thing to disagree with the teachings of Christ... It's quite another to wage war on God. My heart goes out for Christopher Hitchens, but this, of course, makes him another potential adversary for me in the literary world (provided things go as planned on my end).

Interestingly, it looks like his own brother, Peter Hitchens, is a believer, and also something of a public figure. Christopher said, "The real difference between Peter and myself is the belief in the supernatural. I'm a materialist and he attributes his presence here to a divine plan. I can't stand anyone who believes in God, who invokes the divinity or who is a person of faith."

So he can't stand his own relatives... Shame...