Idiot of the Week: Albert Mohler

Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nothing goes with idiocy quite as well as Christian extremism, and I have finally found a worthy "winner" from somewhere other than politics. You may be less familiar with him than many others, but his is a name you should know.

Albert Mohler is the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. I know, you're probably thinking that this is sufficient to make him an idiot. That might be true, but I'd raster focus on the contradiction between Mohler's stated beliefs and his recent tribute to Steve Jobs.

Mohler wants to extract lessons for Christians from the death of Jobs.

God has invested massive creative abilities in his human creatures. These are often used for good, and sometimes deployed to evil ends. Steve Jobs devoted his life to a technological dream that he thought would empower humanity. He led creative teams that developed technological wonders, and then he made them seemingly necessary for life in the digital age.

But as William Hamby reminds us, there is a serious problem with Mohler trying to praise Jobs and use him to teach Christians. You see, Jobs was a Buddhist, and Mohler is on the record calling Buddhism "Satanic." Because Buddhists do not accept Mohler's "savior," he believes they are destined for hell. He has not been shy about proclaiming this conviction.

Here is how Hamby sums up the problem for Christians who believe as Mohler does:

For Christians who want to say something nice about Steve Jobs, there's a bit of a mountain they have to reframe as a molehill. If they're honest, they must believe that Jobs is at this very minute being burned alive by white hot flames, inside and out. He is experiencing agony worse than any living human has ever endured. Supernatural flames have been licking his body since the moment the cancer in his pancreas ceased to torment him. Unlike earth, where there is morphine, there are no pain relievers in hell. Steve Jobs is experiencing the absolute worst pain imaginable, and there will be no reprieve. Ever. Even after the universe has ceased to exist, Steve Jobs will be burning.

Because he didn't believe that Jesus sacrificed himself to himself to forgive us for being the way he made us.

Mohler's beliefs have boxed him in to the point where he must either concede that Jobs is roasting in hell or invent a story about a death bed conversion of some sort. In either case, the idiot trap has sprung, and he appears to be quite stuck.