False Prophets

By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

There are more than 4,200 "religions" in the world.[2] Christianity is the largest, with more than 2.3 billion followers. Within Christianity, there are lots of religions to choose from: the Catholics, the Episcopalians, the Lutherans, the Baptists.

The followers of Islam number approximately 2.0 billion, while the followers of Judaism number less than 15 million.[3] Put succinctly, there are lots of paths to God, or our higher power.[4] Atheists and Agnostics count too.

Attend one of these and you are apt to hear "Elmer Gantry" reincarnated.[5] Sometimes, lots of times, it is difficult to sit through such rantings. Some attendees walk out. Others are glued to every word spoken by the speaker. It's bizarre.

In Africa and elsewhere, people are persecuted for their religious beliefs. Helter Skelter exists in America too. We just witnessed it with respect to the killing of Charlie Kirk in Utah, and Iryna Zarutska in North Carolina.

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[1] Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6 and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/ He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at The Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams. He can be contacted directly at [email protected]

[2] See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions_and_spiritual_traditions ("List of religions and spiritual traditions")

[3] See supra n.2. See also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/americas-jews-are-americans/ ("America’s Jews Are Americans")

[4] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/what-and-where-is-god/ ("What And Where Is God?")

[5] See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Gantry_(film) ("Elmer Gantry")