March 15, 2026

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

Mark Twain wrote “Heaven is by favor; if it were by merit, your dog would go in, and you would stay out.” Spot-on observation given this continuing time in which detest of fellow humankind is leading to more prejudice, harm, death and expanding war. Principles abandoned.

We expect a ticket to an afterlife but seem not to realize that those we dislike will be there too – those whom many fervently reject for reasons both petty and hateful.

Do white nationalists think an afterlife, if it exists, is a forever place just for them? Do they believe that immigrants, especially illegal immigrants who flee from dictators, gangs and other evil people as well as from bleak futures for their children will not be with them upstairs? Is there a separate “heaven” for the wealthy, for earth-privileged kings? For war profiteers? For humanity’s abusers? For those “leaders” who seek blitzkrieg and total war destruction over negotiation beyond the 11th hour?

Does “faith” earn you a place in happy forever land just because you say you “believe?” Do you ascend in the same line and speed as those with true religious worth – those with humility, charity, compassion, those who pay it forward?

Twain also wrote, “We may not doubt that society in heaven consists mainly of undesirable persons.” A great argument for the imperfection of humankind and probably why there is truth to the thought that people reincarnate over and over in a try to do it better. Me included – I have thrown stones in a glass house.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

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