November 20, 2007
by Volt and Electra Penn 

May 18, 2001

Dear Miss P.:

Thank you for your kind letter of 19th March. You asked whether Madalyn Murray O'Hair, a professed atheist, could go to heaven if she accepted God's forgiveness the second before her death. You say your class is equally divided on this question.

I am a Christian and as such I subscribe to the belief that Jesus, as the Son of God, was God Himself and thus when He died on the cross He did so acting as "the lamb of God". That reference means He was sacrificed to propitiate the sins of all members of mankind. To take advantage of that infinite amount of grace Jesus earned for us, His death requires but two things: 1) repentance for whatever sins one many have committed and, 2) a firm purpose of amendment, meaning the intention not to repeat the sinful conduct.

The moment the above is accomplished one will be forgiven by God and upon death will go to Him (the real meaning of "go to heaven").

There is but one unforgiveable sin and that is despair. Despair is not forgiveable by God because by definition it means the abandonment of hope in God which denies God the opportunity to forgive, because on without hope in God would not think to ask Him for forgiveness.

Thus, my answer is that if Mrs. O'Hair, the instant before her death, repented and asked God's forgiveness, intending never to repeat her sins, she would be united with God upon her death.

Warm wishes,

G. Gordon Liddy

You want irony? Well, here it is. G. Gordon Liddy's letter was delivered right after Katharine Graham's. It was the master plumber himself who had plunged the depths of his soul to let flow his opinion on THE END. I didn't have to look close to find the return address on the correspondence, either. With its all-seeing eye, CBS Radio's logo was winking from the upper left hand corner of the stationary. I felt more than hyperventilated. I was validated.

In his letter instead of damning her to hell for all eternity, Liddy offers O'Hair a life-line to heaven. But if the feisty atheist were here today, no doubt she would touché Liddy with a, "Salvation, my ass. Get one thing clear, Mister.  It's none of a Christer's business where my soul sits, shits or soars".

The fact is O'Hair usually let her mouth dominate her brain. If Madalyn had thought beyond name-calling, she would have thanked Mr. Liddy for taking time to contemplate her untimely demise, retract any harsh statements, and offer him an atheist-blessed olive branch. Because to anybody that's spent time dug-in, waiting for some unknown enemy to pop up, they'd have no better backup than G. Gordon Liddy.

It's been years since Mr. Liddy took most of the heat for the Watergate break-in. Like all Government Men trained by Hoover, Mr. G. was taught to fall on the sharp corner of his F.B.I. badge and never bleed; take a dose of water boarding like surfing at the beach; do hard time in prison, yet never - never rat on his buddies. G's early ?semper fi' attitude must have come about while being ?educated privately by Benedictines and Jesuits.' The teachings of Ignatius of Loyola, a founding father of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) included the devotion to one's own principles.

In the body of his letter, Mr. Liddy brought up the subject of despair which is often avoided by those of a more squeamish nature. But like his early Jesuit educators, who are also  the Catholic church's intellectual think-tank, Liddy is hinting that despair/suicide is never the solution for a hopeless situation; i.e. if one is caught up in the extraordinary renditions of secret prisons.

Mr. Liddy writes that "Christ is the Lamb of God" who died "to propitiate the sins".  The most egregious sins that have been condoned by this country's leaders are ?the ?black sites' in Poland, where enhanced interrogation includes water boarding, sleep deprivation and electrical shock to the gonads. I wonder if J. Christ will propitiate those sins? Probably so, if like G. Gord says in his letter, they repented and asked God's forgiveness.

Hear me out, folks. I doubt that G. Gordon Liddy would condone another person's hand being held over a lit candle, except his own. Neither do I think he is a neocon liar. My opinion is that G. leads by example and tries to do what he believes is the right thing. That's why he took the time and answered my letter. After reading my question, he recognized a young person searching for the meaning of THE END, and provided an answer - his answer, and that, my friends, was a stroke of human kindness.

I've never listened to Liddy's Radio America, but I have visited his website. There are a couple of itsy-bitsy changes I'd recommend for cosmetic purposes. I know it must be his pride and joy, but I'd like to see G. give up the Saddam cookie duster for Lent, just to avoid whisker-bias or mistaken identity. And to make the Mother of all Statements, a Maori tribal tattoo completely covering the whole of his head would be awesome - a hot top to give history something to hang a hat on.

And while we're at it, I hope Jeff, the good looking hunk in the picture with Tracy is the ex-G man's son. If I didn't know better, it looks like the young-gun's getting ready to wax old G-Gord's Model-T.

Thanks to G.G.L. from V.&E.P. for the earlier correspondence. We hope to hear from you soon.

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Have Penn they'll listen. Volt Penn writes speeches for Progressive Populists and reasoned arguments for those on the left of center. He has also written speeches for anybody who has read his work. You can reach Volt Penn through his artist friend, b.b.kemp, at bbkemp@bbkemp.com

Volt/Electra Penn copyright 2007