Response to Erickson

by Marty Essen, Victor

I normally do not respond to letters from members of the far-right that attack me, but in Dallas Erickson’s case, I feel a response is necessary.

Apparently, Erickson believes that the moment a Christian does something evil he/she ceases to be a Christian. I base this on his October 4 letter (attempting to refute my September 7 guest column), where he writes, “People may do those things but if they do, they are not following Christ so are NOT Christians.”

So if we are to believe Erickson, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem witch hangings, the murder and torture of thousands of indigenous children in Canada’s Christian residential schools, the clergy who have sexually molested millions of children in Christian churches worldwide, and the Trump supporters who attempted to overthrow the U.S. Government by storming the U.S. Capitol—pausing to pray to the Christian god once inside—had no participants who were Christian.

How convenient! By that logic, all Christians are perfect until the moment they do something heinous, and then—bam!—they are kicked out of the club.

Well, if that’s what Dallas Erickson believes, he must also kick himself out of the Christian club. Why? Because in his October 4 letter he wrote, “Essen’s piece truly reflects who he is historically and what he stands for. He implicated Jesus Christ in almost all the evils that have ever existed.”

 What does the Bible say about bearing false witness? Erickson’s statement is a provable lie! All one need do is go back and read my column. Not once did I mention “Jesus Christ.” My beef has never been with a historical figure who may or may not have existed some 2,000 years ago. Instead, via both my guest columns and my books, I have tried to publicize what no one likes to talk about: Christians have a long, long history of doing horrible things to other people.

Erickson also twisted my words in multiple other ways, but rather than list them here, both Erickson’s letter and my guest column are easily found on the Bitterroot Star’s website. I invite people to read them side-by-side.

Finally, I wish to point out that I have Pope Francis on my side when it comes to Christian atrocities throughout history. For instance, this past July the pope visited Canada to apologize for the thousands of tortures and murders of indigenous children in Christian residential schools. Unlike Erickson and so many others like him, the pope didn’t try to pass the blame on to others (usually liberals or atheists), but instead he accepted responsibility for the Christian atrocities by saying, “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous Peoples.”

Erickson could learn a lot from the pope’s words.