perhaps you've heard of Christopher
Hitchens he's an Englishman who's lived
for the past many years in Washington DC
and he's one of the wittiest most
intelligent insightful commentators on
the political and societal scene
Hitchens began his career as a
Trotskyite a man of the extreme left but
after September 11th he drifted quite a
bit to the right
becoming a supporter of the Iraq war and
much to the chagrin of many of his
colleagues on the left he became a
supporter of George W Bush so he'd been
for a long time it's a very interesting
intelligent someone unpredictable a
commentator on the cultural scene but
he's best known undoubtedly for his
visceral hatred for religion he's
emerged as one of the most you know
witty and acerbic and intelligent
critics of religion on the scene today
his book from a few years ago called God
is not grave how religion poisons
everything became a best-seller and the
wake of that book Hitchens has been
traveling the world largely around this
country debating all comers including a
lot of religious thinkers Christian and
Jewish and Muslim and meeting them with
an extremely sharp mind and often a very
barbed tongue he's joined the ranks of
Daniel Dennett's and Sam Harris and
Richard Dawkins as one of the Four
Horsemen of the New Atheism this
movement that has kind of take no
prisoners approach to religion I've been
engaging them as you know on some of
these YouTube commentaries for the past
many years I think it's fair to say that
Hitchens has emerged as the Bertrand
Russell of today Russell about a century
ago another very brilliant Englishman
was the public enemy number one of
religion and I think it's fair to say
Hitchens is sort of sitting now in the
Burton Russell chair of opposition to
religion well I've been reading him for
a long time and engaging him you know
intellectually in just a few weeks ago I
picked up his latest book which is his
memoir it's called hitch 22
and it's a it's a book that's like
hitchens it's witty it's brilliant it's
infuriating
it's insightful it's baffling and it's
never dull so it reflects very much his
own personality his own style I'll tell
you one thing that really struck me in
his book was Hitchens great affection
for two of my own literary heroes namely
Bob Dylan and even Wang Hitchens says
something that I said for a long time
but most people just write me off as a
Dylan you know nut he said Bob Dylan
should be mentioned with TS Eliot and WH
Auden is one of the really great poets
of the 20th century Wow yeah I said no
one takes me seriously well there's
Christopher Hitchens says it but also
evil and war of course was the famous
novelist and one of the most
consistently religious thinkers around
and of course the same is true of Bob
Dylan you can't appreciate Bob Dylan
seems to me without appreciating how
deeply biblical he is as I've explained
in other videos from beginning to end of
his career I mean from hard rain's gonna
fall through blowing the wind up to all
along the watchtower to got to serve
somebody to every grain of sand Bob
Dylan is is just immersed in the Bible
and you know wha writes Brideshead
Revisited
which is I think the greatest Catholic
novel of modern literature so he's
really interesting here's the most
outspoken gracias atheist around and yet
he deeply appreciates these two very
biblical very religious figures so that
thought was in my mind when I heard few
you know weeks ago along with the rest
of the world that Hitchens is suffering
from esophageal cancer which is one of
the most aggressive and unforgiving
forms of the disease so I'm reading his
autobiography and I'm thinking about his
interesting juxtaposition when I
discover this this fact now I know some
believers took a certain delight in this
and even saw in it the avenging hand of
God here's this figure who for so long
has been
attacking religion well God has gotten
his vengeance by giving him cancer well
that kind of reading of God's providence
I think is always dicey business let's
face it a lot of really good even
saintly people die young of terrible
diseases and many atheists and even vile
sinners live long productive lives and
die peacefully in their beds so I mean
how we read what God is up to I think is
always a little bit tricky is Hitchens
cancer ingredient somehow in God's
providence
yeah because God's wisdom as the Bible
says stretches from end to end Michael
II concerns all things at least in his
permissive will God has permitted this
to happen now why to bring Hitchens
maybe to faith maybe to bring other
people to faith possibly to compel
Hitchens to think more deeply about
things he hasn't thought about maybe
some good some value that we can't even
in principle see now probably reading
God's providence is a very difficult
business even as we see things as
ingredient in it now here's the thing
though though there were a handful of
believers I think who were taking a
certain delight in Hitchens misfortune
what really edified me as I looked at
the Catholic blogosphere and read
Catholic writers and colonists the vast
majority said to their readers pray for
Christopher Hitchens pray for him and
with obvious sincerity and here there on
much firmer ground is of course Jesus
himself said pray even for your enemies
bless those who curse you pray for those
who mail treat you love your enemies as
Hitchens the enemy of Christianity yes
is he the enemy even of many Christians
yes indeed but he's a child of God made
in love destined for eternal life and so
though he's a great opponent of
Christianity though he's an enemy of
Christianity what we to love him and
want the best for him
pray for him yes now over the years he's
engaged I think it's some very specious
argumentation against religion sometimes
using insinuation or just smear tactics
to bad-mouth religion ought to be
opposed yes and I have opposed him go on
my other youtube videos we ought to meet
him with strong argumentation we ought
to meet him with clear statement of the
facts and we ought to love him and we
ought to pray for him you know comes to
mind here is no hero of my GK Chesterton
Chesterton back in the nineteen tens and
20s when all over England with George
Bernard Shaw the great playwright and
they debated religion Justin is the
great Catholic apologist Shaw was an
atheist and they debated up and down
England often in very vigorous ways and
sometimes sharp you know exchanges but
invariably after the debates you could
find Chesterman and Shaw at some pub
drinking and laughing they were great
friends and Chesterton was able to
bracket his intellectual disagreement
and say but I still love this person as
a human being that to me is a great
model of how Catholic apologetics ought
to work and how we ought to make that
good distinction between opposing
someone's ideas and loving that person
so I would say read Christopher Hitchens
I would say argue with him I would say
take on his specious position and pray
for him