Commentary by H.G. Listiak

Thursday 2/12/2004

Welcome to My World, where an American Airlines pilot full of the holy spirit, fresh off a religious retreat, is under investigation for foisting his born again exhuberance on his coast to coast passengers. On the ground in Los Angeles, he asked passengers to raise their hands if they were Christians. He then invited others to talk with these selected passengers about their religious beliefs, allowing the Christians to witness for the Lord. The airline is questioning whether his judgement was appropriate. I say no. But not for the reasons you might think. You see, it brings to mind an incident several years ago, before flying across the country with a sports team. I was in the aisle seat. A very nervous elderly lady was in the middle, and an athlete sat in the window seat, proud of the fact that he knew how to open the emergency hatch, which didn't help the poor woman, who had told me it was her first flight and she was frightened. She sat there clutching her purse, with a barf bag on her lap. I tried to calm her down and it was working, right up until the time the athlete opened his bible, started praying, and asked her if she had accepted Christ as her personal saviour and if she was ready to meet him. She absolutely freaked and was off the plane before it even left the ground. I shook my head and returned her barf bag to the seat pocket. The athlete, who I will not name, since he has since backslid into sin, prayed for her and went back to Paul's letters to the Corinthians in the Bible. Now I have nothing against Christians who witness and push their faith. This is America. But a lot of people get very nervous about flying, and when you are about to spend four hours at 33 thousand feet at 400 knots, it's no time to be next to these very nervous people talking about eternal life and life after death, as I see it ... I'm H.G. Listiak.