The Very Rev. Either through personal experience, reading history, or daily exposure to news reports, we are well aware of the fact that religious fanatics are alive and up to their particular brand of malicious behavior. These are the people who are determined to impose their particular brand of orthodoxy upon other any way they can. They are intolerant people who believe their way, their methods, their beliefs are the only way. There are religious fanatics in every religious system for Animism to Zoroastianism.
Fanaticism is a phenomenon that is truly ecumenical.
Someone once commented that religious fanatics are people who see themselves as doing what they think God would do if only God knew all the facts and then had the courage and will to act upon them. We have a prime example of a type of religious fanaticism reflected in this morning's Old Testament lesson from the Book of Numbers and the Gospel lesson from Mark. I always smile when I hear the account of Moses dealing with all of the whining and complaining Israelites in the wilderness. It reminds me a bit of bad family vacation in a hot cramped car. I'm thirsty and there is nothing to drink.