"I'll Fly Away" and Al Qaeda Write On by Peter S. Ferrara One evening, my wife Phyllis and I were talking about things we did as children. We were both born in 1944, but being a gentleman I won't tell you how old she is. Phyllis grew up here in McCreary County. I grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey. We talked about the games we played as kids, the books we read and loved, and the schools and churches we attended. Then she told me how every night before going to bed she would say the following prayer: "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." "Gee," I said, "that's interesting. I used to say almost the same prayer every night before I went to bed. Only mine went: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, Thy love go with me through the night, And wake me with the morning's light." While the first two lines of our prayers were identical, the last two were obviously quite different. It is the difference between those prayers that is most revealing. Her version of that classic child's bedtime prayer concludes with thoughts of death and salvation, while mine ends with being guided through the netherworld of sleep to the next morning's new beginning. Why are there two versions of the same prayer? I know there are some, particularly here in the "Bible Belt," who question my credentials as a Christian because I do not accept the Bible as the absolute inviolate word of God. I believe there are many paths to the Creator's heaven, and that there are Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and a whole host of others not only from Earth but from throughout the universe in His mighty kingdom. They are there because of the things they did in their life and not simply for whom or what they prayed to for salvation. This puts me at odds with those who believe that every word of the Bible is divine truth and that only those who have accepted and been "born again" through Jesus will enter heaven. I don't believe that God would make such an enormous universe (or even many universes), containing countless galaxies and trillions of stars, and then limit his kingdom of heaven to a small handful of "saved" human beings from this tiny blue planet in a remote corner of our Milky Way galaxy. If that offends you, I am truly sorry. You may want to stop reading this column at this point because I'm not finished. I was raised in a tolerant household and taught to respect the religious views of others. You cannot respect another's religious view and at the same time condemn to hell the soul of whoever holds that view because it doesn't square with your own belief. Beyond oil and influence, this lack of mutual respect is why we are at war today with a handful of Muslim extremists who do not represent Islam and use terror as a weapon. Furthermore, this war will not end through military might but rather when all the different factions somehow learn to live together in peace. Some time ago, I switched from satellite to cable television so I could see our local channels, particularly "public access" channels which have been set aside for local community use. What I often find there and on so-called religious channels is a non-stop bombardment by televangelists, preachers, and assorted advocates who have one hand on the Bible and the other hand stretched out for contributions. From the "big guns" like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell to some of our local clergy, it seems to be about accepting one narrow view of the Divine and asking viewers to show their faith by shelling out the bucks. While I know that some of these folks are sincerely pursuing their idea of God's plan, I also know that a lot of this stuff is pure Elmer Gantry-style exploitation of "the faithful." See for yourself how many are convinced that they alone hold the key to "getting right with God." This free-for-all scramble for the souls and pocketbooks of those who thirst for The Truth involves a great deal of yelling and strutting around with heavy doses of smug self-righteousness. God help me, but I think many of these folks are only in it for the money and are preying-- not praying-- on the gullibility of the "faithful." I never heard the song "I'll Fly Away" until I moved here. It is to me a wonderful gospel tune, yet it also reminds me of the difference between my wife's and my versions of "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep." The song begins: "Some glad morning, when this life is o'er, I'll fly away. To a home on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away. I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away (in the morning). When I die, Hallelujah, by and by, I'll fly away." It was written by Albert E. Brumley in that fateful year 1929. According to "Libertygospeltracts.com" on the Internet, Brumley was picking cotton and singing the old song "If I Had The Wings Of An Angel" when he suddenly thought about flying away. "Actually," he is quoted as saying, "I was dreaming of flying away from that cotton field when I wrote I'll Fly Away." For his efforts, Brumley was later inducted into the Country Song Writers Hall of Fame in 1970. It is interesting to note that at the "Liberty Gospel Tracts" website mentioned above, the host of that site writes: "I do not approve of this song for several reasons... There is no reference to Jesus, salvation, sin, blood, cross, forgiveness... There is no attitude of worship toward God in the song." The website writer goes on to quote from Ephesians 5 and John 15 in support of saying that "I'll Fly Away" is a worldly and secular song. Whatever the case may be, what I find interesting is that the song, like my wife's version of the "Now I Lay Me" prayer, has to do with glorifying where we go after we die. What does all of this have to do with Al Qaeda? Well, one of Al Qaeda's leaders is quoted as saying recently that they will defeat us because we revere life while they revere death. What he means is that while we think of life as precious, Al Qaeda's suicide bombers think that what matters most is a death which leads to martyrdom. That is why they are so willing to strap on belts full of explosives and detonate themselves in places where crowds gather, or fly airplanes full of innocent passengers into our buildings. The point is that dwelling on the afterlife, meaning where we go when this earthly existence ends, can be so blown up (no pun intended) in importance that it minimizes the relevance of what each of us makes of this precious life here on Earth which the Creator has given us. Sometimes, what I see around me suggests that some of us are so preoccupied with going to heaven that we don't do everything we can to create a better life for all of us who live together on this little blue ball we call home. As Christians, can we not all agree that Jesus was sent here by God to atone for our sins? If that is so, doesn't it also follow that God values how and what we mortals do with our lives? If God is love-- which is what I believe in my heart God is-- then I also believe we should focus as much of our energies on how we live (and let live) as we do on where we go after we "fly away."