I don't think you got the joke.
Perhpas not in the way you intended it. But it
is funny, in a sad sort of way. An obnoxious atheist meets a bad Christian. The atheist makes a fool of himself (how many true faithful Christians have you ever seen led away from their faith by the rantings of an obnoxious atheist?) but the Christian makes a mockery of Christianity.
If Jesus had been present in the lecture hall, do you think He would have waited fourteen minutes and then beaten the professor up? Or would He perhaps have spoken up sooner, speaking with the voice of love and wisdom to change the Professor's mind, or at least convince the audience that the professor was wrong?
The Marine had no wise words to offer. For that, he would have had to open himself up to the Holy Spirit and let Christ speak through him, as so many Christians have done to such great effect through the ages. But the only spirit that filled our Marine was a spirit of wrath and violence. His only testimony was his fist. Shame on him.
This sin -- wrath, compounded with the additional sin of misrepresenting an act of wrath as doing God's will and thus taking the Lord's name in vain, was unfortunate, but understandable. Many give in to temptation when provoked. Anyone in the audience -- that is, the audience of people to whom the joke is being told -- should be able to understand why the Marine (though undoubtedly brave and strong in other ways, as most Marines are) was weak in his faith and acted on his weakness at that moment. What's harder to understand and reconcile with professed New Testament Christian ideals is why the other Christians hearing the tale -- especially the person telling the joke, or any Christians in the audience who laugh at the professor's comeuppance while overlooking the Marine's mockery of Christ's teaching -- seem to approve of the Marine's act.
And that, my brother, is how atheists are made. Not by the obnoxious atheist professors of the world, but by the far more numerous bad examples like the supposedly Christian Marine and by the hypocrisy, the denial of Christ's teaching, of the joke-teller. They see Christians professing to believe something and then behaving as though they don't believe it at all. Christians who claim to follow Christ's teachings concerning helping the needy, but vote for candidates who promise to stick it to illegal immigrant sweatshop workers and welfare "deadbeats" and minimum-wage employees. Christians who claim to follow Christ's teachings concerning loving your fellow man, turning the other cheek, and not casting the first stone, but who confidently predict that those they dislike are bound for eternal torment. Christians who (unlike you, Huntster) claim to take every word of the Bible literally, yet are infinitely more zealous about applying what they perceive (rightly or wrongly) as the lesson of Sodom and Gomorrah (homosexuality invokes God's wrath) than, for instance, the lesson of the Tower of Babel (building tall buildings invokes God's wrath). Christians who seek to promote their faith through oppression, censorship, force, and violence instead of teaching. Christians who testify with their fists. And the much greater number of Christians who, while not doing any of these things themselves, approve of others who do.
In the end, the joke I get is that the joke is you, Huntster. The joke is that one such as you does more harm to Christianity, does more to make atheism look like the better path to a society of peace, wisdom, and freedom, than all the ranting atheist professors in all the universities in the world.
I leave it up to you to decide whether the joke is funny.
And I ask you to look carefully and see if you can find repentance in your heart.
Respectfully,
Myriad
