KURT VONNEGUT (Author: “Slaughterhouse Five”) IS BEATING HIS PULPIT OVER AT INTHESETIMES.COM.  CURRENTLY 81 YEARS-OLD, HIS ENTIRE RANT IS WORTH READING, WORTH DISAGREEING AND AGREEING WITH (IN THAT ORDER PROBABLY), AND WORTH A GOOD LAUGH A TIME OR TWO AS WELL.  KNOWN FOR HIS NON-LINEAR A.D.D. STYLE OF WRITING, MR.VONNEGUT DOES NOT DISAPPOINT FANS OF HIS SCATTERED RAMBLINGS WITH THIS PIECE.  ENJOY AN EXCERPT BELOW ON THE BEATITUDES:

Doesn’t anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools or health insurance for all?

How about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. …

And so on.

Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney stuff.

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

“Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!