A few days ago, I commented on how the God Squad (now dubbed the Goon Squad) complained about the prejudice against people of faith being the "last acceptable prejudice in our society." Why are they now recommending that someone annoy an agnostic on his death bed?

Someone writes to the Goon Squad to ask:

I have a great son-in-law who, after being raised in a religious family, decided he was an agnostic. He just turned 50 and last month was diagnosed with stage-4 liver cancer. We all know what the end results will be. He has been having panic attacks trying to cope. I have been praying that the end will be pain-free but realized that what I am really hoping is that he will realize he needs faith to see him through this. How can I start him on the right path without being pushy or intrusive?

The Goon Squad responds:

Start with the 23rd Psalm. Ask your son-in-law if he would object to your reading it aloud. Just read it and let the words pour out of you, without any request for a conversion. Let the words of confidence in the shepherd who will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death comfort him as those words have comforted so many millions of others who fear death. Then, if he does not object to your reading of the 23rd Psalm, move on to Psalm 122, and then on to other Psalms of comfort: 130, 27, 121, 33, 65, 1, 107, 119, 57, 91.

If he ever wants to talk about the Psalms, great. If not, just read them and sit quietly after each one. Ask him between each Psalm if he would like you to read another one. Remember, not every path up the mountain begins in childhood, and not every direction to the top is clear. The only truth is that your presence, your love and God's healing hope will come through every cloud and every doubt.

So, poking fun at religion is a sign of social prejudice against people of faith, but it's quite acceptable for someone to bother an agnostic who is close to death, all so that he can be put on what someone arrogantly considers the "right path." I have to give the letter writer credit for not wanting to be push or intrusive, but the Goon Squad seems willing to ignore that part.

They probably don't realize it, perhaps because they don't much care, but such a person isn't likely to take kindly to even the request to read from the Bible. If the guy was interested in hearing more about someone else's religion, he'd ask. Offering to read from it when you know they are an agnostic or atheist is presumptuous. Care for people in such a condition must be guided by their wishes and their requests, not assumptions by others about what they "really" need.

The Goon Squad concludes with:

We will pray for him.

I guess because donating time or money to cancer research in order to prevent more situations like this would be too much work. Praying allows them to pretend to be doing something while they encourage the writer to intrude upon an agnostic's death bed.

Read More:

• Atheism 101
• Agnosticism 101
• Defining Atheism
• Rebuttals to Attacks on Atheism