Mister Words, in his latest Mister Words-length essay discusses the phenomenon of religious fanaticism (among many other things). To wit:

If God is not fighting on their side, it can only be because the Muslims have not been devout enough. It’s because they don’t follow the most strict interpretations of the Qur’an. It’s because they let their women run around with bare faces, and don’t pray when they’re supposed to, and smoke and drink alcohol and gamble and charge interest on loans and in so many other ways don’t actually follow God’s dictums. It’s because they’ve been seduced by the evil ways of the West. It’s because they’ve become spiritually corrupted. They do not live as God said they should, and thus God refuses to aid them. They’re not worthy of God’s aid; God is displeased with them and shows it through inaction. And from this only one conclusion is possible.

It is only by embracing God’s true teachings, in every way, that they can once again return to God’s grace. [... ... ... ... we know the deal right? --- ed.]

I reported this to Sarah N., which inspired the following exchange, edited for readability and continuity (from both parties) on “grace,” the kind that God gives:

Sarah N.: [...]But then again…one can’t get God’s grace by trying to earn it. Grace is just that – unmerited favor. Strange how zealots lose sight of that in their fundamentalism.

Me: Because zealots of all religions focus on the requirements of salvation. Something even Christians keep on forgetting: that all you need is acceptance of Christ [and] that good deeds come as a consequence of said acceptance, not the other way around.

Sarah N.: Aye.

I do not know if there is anything more to add, for now. The conversation itself is pretty succint. To think I no longer call myself Christian and yet I remember what I learned growing up as one.

(By the way if you’re a Christian who hasn’t forgetten what it takes, please don’t take issue with with the “something even Christians” blanket-clause. It ain’t you dammit.)