Volume 53 - No. 6
By Friedrich Gomez In all the voluminous articles and countless books about America’s premier author, Mark Twain (born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 18351910), there still remains a longhidden – and disturbing -- question he often posed in various ways: Why does God allow evil to happen to people and even small innocent children? Such questions are agonising to
February 9, 2023
this day with preachers and ministers grappling with answers from the pulpit – offering “stock” quotes here and there in a frantic effort to attain damage control. Twain was a firebrand and rarely pulled his punches. But he had his limitations. He learned early-on that Christians are, often, uncomfortable and squeamish over such (sincerely)
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posed queries. Often times – he found – they are quick to anger with very little empathy, sensitivity, and tolerance to a confused neophyte. Sadly, Mark Twain was well-aware of the preponderance of open Christian hypocrisy during his day. Often, he disguised and lampooned these hypocrisies in allegorical novels, such as with the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” where he depicts two warring families (the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons), who
steadfastly attend Sunday services, worship, read from the Bible, and sing hymns with the choir . . . then depart church and take up firearms and continue the long feuding with violence, bloodshed, and grisly death. Just as the Good Book used allegorical tales and hidden symbolism, so also did the mighty Mark Twain use the same hidden meanings in his allegorical masterpiece novels to attack even the preachers and minis-
Mark Twain See Page 2