A little more than a year ago I was present at Dataphones (A swedish [[ISP]] where I used to be a System Administrator) anniversary party. The secret guestspeaker was Christer Sturmark who spoke eloquently and with great panache about the information society and how we have arrived where we are today. I was impressed not only with his communication skill but also with his insight into history and socio-economic trends. Christer sturmark then landed high on the list of people I would like to spend an afternoon with and discuss life the universe and everything.
Yesterday when I read his blog, and I was so dissapointed. I have no problems with the fact that Sturmark does not believe in God or that he prefers humanism and a scientific aproach, I would have suspected as much. No I have great respect for his command of language and his strong ideological stance but the way he puts it across is petty and with no compassion or respect. It hurts when someone you respect and see as a rolemodel turn around and not only become a normal human with faults like the rest of us but also show pettiness and a total disregard for other peoples human rights.
It is interesting to read how Sturmark critizes the church for being narrowminded, dead wrong and uninformed but then proves to be exactly that himself by how he presents it.
One shining example is where he points out that the archbishop of Sweden has been forced to appologize to “Humanisterna” (Sturmarks society of humanist belief, advocating belief in human ethics and scientific method without having to fall back on a higher power or religious text) because the archbishop did not realize that some comments was in fact not made by the society but by a single person not representing “Humanisterna”. Then without second thought Sturmark throws away the moral highground he has gained by retorting: If this is how badly they research their source material I understand how they can believe the Bible. By this Sturmark proves that he has done no research himself (since the Bible is the most researched and proven historically accurate document) and that whatever human ethics without God contains there is clearly no room for grace, humility or even common courtesy.
Sturmark claims to be a champion of the new modern secular society. If this is his idea of a secular society ruled by synicism, sarcasm, cheap shots and with no room for the higher virtues of goodness, kindness, love, patience, forgiveness. It is a society I will have no part in.
Furthermore Sturmark seems to have it in for the Christian church, while that certanly certanly doesn’t make him unique in any way he seems to have missed the fact that all forms of persecution historically has always made the church stronger. He also seems to have missed the fact that when you ridicule and belittle someone or their beliefs you only look small yourself.
So Christer Sturmark, while I applaud your eagerness to see society transformed. And I agree that there should be fairness and logic in the way the government relate to the church and vice versa, I urge you to reconsider the tone and the way you try to bring that about. Why throwing pies when we could instead unite in our belief that society needs to change for the better, that the broad public needs to be educated so they can choose what they believe in themselves not based on superstition but based on facts and perhaps an experience of the divine.
You claim to be the champion of freedom and clear thought, yet you seem to want everyone to think exactly like you, I do not see how that makes you any different from the nightmare image oif Christianity that you paint with your words.
Much grace
Patrik
