Last night, I attended a program run by Yeshivat Chovevei Torah at OZ in memory of R' Mordechai Breuer. It was quite nice, and the main event was a speech by R' Leiman, who was fantastic as always. After Maariv, I walked to the subway, and passed the Second Presbyterian Church on Central Park West, right above the station. On the black announcement board, in the largest of those white letters, was a notice that made me crack up right there on the street, hopefully not alarming the nearby Manhattanites waiting for a bus too unduly:
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT
Now, this being a mainline (I assume) Protestant church on the Upper West Side, my first thought might be that they were attacking him over his views on the Islamic Menace. (In fact, because of the break between lines, my very first impression was that he was, in fact, speaking at the church, not too illogical considering the drift of these places.) But I have to be dan l'kaf zekhut: Hitchens is notorious at the moment for his latest book, a defense of his atheism, a fact likely well known to the denizens of Upper Manhattan, and I imagine the church was attacking that view with their pithy statement.
A defense of God on an Upper West Side Presbyterian church? Surely the herald of another one of America's periodic Great Awakenings! Hallelujah!
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