Extremists

Extremist – it’s a word we hear a lot in today’s society. But what does it mean? Based on our current culture, we tend to think of an extremist as someone who is going to blow up our airplane – a terrorist. Don’t believe me? Check the thesaurus in a Microsoft Word document and you’ll find terrorist as a synonym for extremist. But is that really what the word implies? According to the dictionary.com app on my blackberry, an extremist is “a person who goes to extremes, especially in political matters.” Well, that definition tells me nothing. Did their English teacher not teach them you can’t define a word with part of the word? Extreme, according to the same source, is “going well beyond the moderate or ordinary, outermost, very great or intense.” So an extremist is someone who goes beyond the moderate or ordinary, especially in political, or as we’ve come to know it, religious matters.

Ah, the “r” word. Most of the times I hear the word “extremist,” it is immediately preceded by the name of a particular religious group. Daily, news is reported about Islamic Extremists and their attempts to bomb an airplane or shoot up a military base. The term is used to stress that these people are going to the extreme – beyond the ordinary. They do not represent most people who practice the religion of Islam. Mainstream media tries to emphasize that most people who practice Islam do not condone this type of violence. Sadly, I’m afraid many people refuse to listen to these messages. They don’t hear the word extremist and make a judgment of others based on the word “Islamic.”

I suppose all groups have their extremists. In fact, based on the definition of the word, I don’t guess there could be an average without extremes. Unfortunately, the extremists seem to be the ones who stand out and create a negative identity for the entire group. This week, an extremist of another religion made a comment that did just that. Christian Extremist, Pat Robertson, made some idiotic comments that, in the words of a friend, “embarrassed Christians and people named Pat everywhere.” (Pat Ward's Facebook status)

The comments made by Robertson were the opinion of ONE person who goes to the EXTREME in his religious beliefs. Unfortunately, this one person has a public platform in which he proudly claims the Christian religion. When you hear comments such as the one by Robertson or news of extreme acts done in the name of Christianity, please don’t judge us all by these extremists. Shepard Smith commented on this “We're in the middle of a crisis that the western hemisphere has not seen in my lifetime. And 700 miles east of Miami, hundreds of thousands of desperate human beings need our help, our support, our money, and our love. And they don't need that (Robertson's comments).” I can't help but to believe the average Christian's belief stands more in line with Smith's comments than Robertson's.

Maybe Microsoft’s thesaurus has it right. Maybe “terrorist” is a synonym for extremist, at least when defined in terms of Islamic or Christian extremist. Both groups destroy those whose opinions differ from their own. Islamic Extremists threaten and destroy physical lives when carrying out their missions. Christian Extremists threaten and destroy souls. I wonder which is worse.