Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Are These the New Dark Ages?
The period between the 400s and the late 900s A.D. was termed The Dark Ages by scholars who later lamented that during that epoch almost all love for learning, art and craftsmanship disappeared in Western Europe.
During the Middle Ages a vibrant cultural commitment to discovery and progress was replaced by the preference for popular myths, fabrications and rumors, which were used by both the religious and political leaders to regulate the aspirations and fears of the masses. It is often forgotten, however, that during this dark period in Western Christianity’s history the Muslims developed a splendidly progressive civilization that stretched from Spain to China.
Behind the frenetic agenda of the political and religious right in America today lies a profound angst over the unspoken awareness that American civilization is most likely entering a profound period of economic, religious and cultural descendency. They know that our ability to claim pre-eminence in these areas certainly will soon be openly questioned by the world. Even our military pre-eminence cannot for much longer rescue us from our fading sense of supremacy.
This fear--that America is facing a significant period of economic, religious and cultural decline--is actually the essential root cause of the social anxiety which is behind much of the political and religious right’s recent achievements.
Evangelical fundamentalists are on a ruthless crusade to “save America” from what they perceive is its potential destruction from within.
They identify liberalism as the culprit, but they are sorely mistaken. The real danger for the world is religious fundamentalism. The most frightening aspect of this crusade is comfort level of fundamentalists with regards to an apocalyptic resolution of this conflict if their agenda of cultural redemption cannot be achieved.
The irony is that the world’s fundamentalists of every tradition have this in common, whether Christian, Jew or Muslim. They are distraught over the perceived losses and declines of their particular culture, and they are willing to use all means available to purge their culture of all people working for the cause of enlightenment and rationality....
Faith-Based Communicators React to CBS, NBC Nixing of Church Ad
December 3, 2004, NEW YORK CITY - Responding to the refusal of the CBS and NBC television networks to air a message from the United Church of Christ, a nationwide group of faith-based communicators has issued a statement challenging the networks' action as "arbitrary" and contrary to the principles of freedom of speech and equal access to media.
The statement was drafted yesterday by the Communication Commission of the National Council of Churches USA, an ecumenical association of professional communicators serving a wide range of Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox faith groups. The statement reads:
"The controversial issue here is not the content of the ad, but the arbitrary standards of the network gatekeepers. Church doors are open to all who would come; but broadcast channels are increasingly closed to all but the wealthy and well-connected.
"It is important to note that the broadcast networks are not being asked to give free time to the United Church of Christ to express its message - the church is ready to pay dearly for that privilege, even though the networks do not pay for their highly profitable use of the broadcast spectrum.
"The Federal Communications Commission, in giving free access to the public's airwaves to commercial corporations - with virtually no strings attached - has handed them powerful control over America's media "public square." The for-profit keepers of that square are all too willing to promulgate messages laced with sexual innuendo, greed, violence, and the politics of personal destruction, but a message of openness and welcome that merely says "church doors are open to all" is being silenced as too controversial!
"Advocacy advertising abounds on TV: agribusinesses, drug manufacturers, gambling casinos, oil companies, even some government agencies regularly expose viewers to messages advocating their products and programs, in the interest of shaping public attitudes and building support for their points of view.
"Are only the ideas and attitudes of faith groups now off limits? Constitutional guarantees of religious liberty and freedom of speech, not to mention common fairness, beg for leadership by the FCC to assure that America's faith community has full and equal access to the nation's airwaves, to deliver positive messages that seek to build and enrich the quality of life."...
Army Torture Whistleblower Kidnapped and Flown out of Iraq
...On June 15, 2002, Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, a counterintelligence agent in the California National Guard's 223rd Military Intelligence (M.I.) Battalion stationed in Samarra, Iraq, told his commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga, that he had witnessed five incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees at his base, and requested a formal investigation. Thirty-six hours later, Ford, a 49-year-old with over 30 years of military service in the Coast Guard, Army and Navy, was ordered by U.S. Army medical personnel to lie down on a gurney, was then strapped down, loaded onto a military plane and medevac'd to a military medical center outside the country....
...Col. C. Tsai, a military doctor who examined Ford in Germany and found nothing wrong with him, told a film crew for Spiegel Television that he was "not surprised" at Ford's diagnosis. Tsai told Spiegel that he had treated "three or four" other U.S. soldiers from Iraq that were also sent to Landstuhl for psychological evaluations or "combat stress counseling" after they reported incidents of detainee abuse or other wrongdoing by American soldiers....
Afraid To Look in the Moral Abyss
Why don't we Americans look directly at the war? We avert our gaze, knowing that the situation in Iraq grows more desperate by the day. Vaunted "coalition" efforts to "break the back" of the "insurgency" have only strengthened it. The violence among Iraqis would surely qualify as civil war -- except that only one side is fighting. The structures of relief and repair are gone. Whole cities are destroyed, populations displaced. The hope of Iraqi elections is mortally compromised. "Coalition" members are dropping out. The mission of American force is to secure the country, but it can't secure itself. The performance of US intelligence has been consistent: Its strategic failures caused the war, and its tactical ignorance of the enemy is losing the war.
Meanwhile, in America, this, the gravest foreign policy crisis in a generation, source of a crisis of conscience for tens of millions of citizens, is not a subject of political debate. For many months, overt opposition to the war was sublimated in the effort to defeat George W. Bush in the November election. John Kerry's fatal ambivalence about Iraq sealed the war off from the great quadrennial decision, with the result that the voices of those who hated the war were muted, and the uneasiness of those who were troubled by it was never addressed.
Astoundingly, the Democrats cooperated with the Republicans in assuring that the war in Iraq -- the one thing that might have defeated Bush -- was not an issue. That marginalization of the anti-war impulse continues in the suspended animation of a period after the American election and before the Iraqi election.
The new Bush administration has moved to reconfigure itself in most ways but one. The president's affirmation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in combination with his naming of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state, reflects a blind determination to "stay the course" in Iraq, never mind that the course is heading off a cliff....
...Americans, meanwhile, are so confused about religion that we have just been through an election in which "religious values" were defined as key, but precisely in ways that kept the war out of the discussion. America's purpose in Iraq is a compound of such deflection, self-deception, half-measures, and shallow thinking. The opposition, meanwhile, is absolute and unblinking. That difference partly answers the question with which this column began, but mainly we avert our eyes because the war is a moral abyss. If we dare to look, as Nietzsche said, the abyss stares back.
Leading evangelicals lend their support to the President in the effort to go to war with Iraq
(or here)
Dear Mr. President,
In this decisive hour of our nation’s history we are writing to express our deep appreciation for your bold, courageous, and visionary leadership. Americans everywhere have been inspired by your eloquent and clear articulation of our nation’s highest ideals of freedom and of our resolve to defend that freedom both here and across the globe.
We believe that your policies concerning the ongoing international terrorist campaign against America are both right and just. Specifically, we believe that your stated policies concerning Saddam Hussein and his headlong pursuit and development of biochemical and nuclear weapons of mass destruction are prudent and fall well within the time-honored criteria of just war theory as developed by Christian theologians in the late fourth and early fifth centuries A.D....
Pro-War Christians Should Come Clean
Leading up to the war in Iraq, evangelical Christians became perhaps the most enthusiastic advocates of imperium. Though politicians have often abused "Just War theory," it is still an integral part of Christian ethics when examining issues of war and peace. Thus, one must ask, was the Iraq war "just" based on the criteria of historic Just War theory?
Lets look at a sampling of comments proffered by Evangelical leaders leading up to the war.
Henry Blackaby told Agape Press, "those who oppose the war to liberate Iraq need to read God's Word." Blackaby said, "There is no question that the current war to liberate Iraq is a 'just' war – according to biblical standards." Blackaby went on to say that those who stand in opposition to the president were courting the very judgment of God.
Writing in defense of preemptive military strikes in Christianity Today, Chuck Colson argued for a less restrictive understanding of Just War theory in the face of the terrorist threat. Remarkably, Colson writes that, "out of love of neighbor, then, Christians can and should support a preemptive strike" when an attack is imminent. Try not to snicker, but Colson also wrote the following:
"Of course, all of this presupposes solid intelligence and the goodwill of U.S. and Western leaders. I find it hard to believe that any president, aware of the awesome consequences of his decision and of the swiftness of second-guessing in a liberal democracy, would act recklessly."
Now then, I love Colson, but given that he believes in the total depravity of man and considering that he did time in the pokey for doing Nixon's dirty work, wouldn't you think he might be a bit more circumspect about executive branch power, and the abuse thereof? ...
... In a sermon at his Atlanta church, Charles Stanley defended the "war on terror." Stanley said that, "Throughout Scripture there is evidence that God favors war for divine reasons and sometimes uses it to accomplish His will. He has also given governments and their citizens very specific responsibilities in regards to this matter."
Naturally, Stanley did not try to justify this particular war and again directed his listeners to Romans 13 and demanded they be good boys and girls. He asks, "How can we justify the protests and marches against war? I understand that, in America, for example, we have a right to express our different opinions. However, there comes a time when our personal opinion is not a priority. The only reason we have the freedom to protest in this country is because thousands were willing to die for that liberty in the past." Rather than relying on Scripture, Stanley resorts to vulgar patriotism here. ...
The Free Speech Myth
...Now that government is so massive, and interferes in virtually every aspect of our lives, being a journalist means acquiring a large portion of the information that is used in daily news reporting from the government. If you are a foreign affairs correspondent, then most of your daily information comes from the State Department. If you are an environmental reporter you rely crucially on information from EPA bureaucrats. Farm state reporters depend on the U.S. Department of Agriculture bureaucracy. If you report on state and local politics, the governor’s office is one of your main sources of information.
This is why there is no longer an independent press – or genuine freedom of speech – in America. Any reporter who reports truthfully about the scandals, illegal acts, and downright failures of government will be shut off from his information sources and his career ruined. Those who become mere lapdogs to the powers that be will thrive. Just look at the success of the Fox News Channel, whose logo should be "All GOP Propaganda, All the Time." ...
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
More GOP Slime
Republican Congressman, Donald "Buz" Lukens, convicted of having sex with a minor. http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/from_redirect/0,10987,1101890213-151183
Republican fundraiser, Richard A. Delgaudio, convicted of child porn charges.
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/2153721/detail.html
Republican activist, Mark A. Grethen, convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.
http://www.orlandoweekly.com/weird/index.asp?now=3400
Republican activist, Randal David Ankeney, convicted of assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/1130885/detail.html
Republican Congressman, Dan Crane, had sex with a minor.
http://archive.salon.com/col/cona/1998/10/05cona.html
Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader, Beverly Russell, admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter. http://wlo.org/nw/nww5.html
Republican anti-abortion activist, John Allen Burt, was charged with sexual misconduct involving a 15 year old girl. http://www.brojed.org/wwwboard/messages/14076.html
Conservative radio talk host indicted on charge of indecency with child
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/111203_local_matthews.html
Republican congressman, Robert Bauman, was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy. http://www.glinn.com/news/h122989a.htm
Republican activist, Marty Glickman convicted on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a juvenile and one count of the delivery of LSD. http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/01/top10_2001_15.html
Howard L. Brooks, a Republican staffer, charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.
http://www.sacbee.com/static/live/news/calreport/N2001-11-22-2300-0.html
Republican Senate candidate, John Hathaway, was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter.
http://www..cascobayweekly.com/cbw/news/al01.31.02.stm
Republican preacher, Stephen White, arrested after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy to perform oral sex on him. http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=23709
Republican state Rep. Brent Parker arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover officer posing as a male prostitute. http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Mar/03012003/utah/34193.asp
Douglas County Election Commissioner Pat McPherson arrested for fondling a 17-year-old girl. http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=36
Jim Bakker - adultery
Jimmy Swaggart - adultery
Bob Dole - adultery
Ann Coulter - "Let's say I go out every night, I meet a guy have sex with him. Good for me. I'm not married." Rivera Live
Helen Chenoweth (R - Idaho) - serial adultery
Sue Myrick (R- N.C.) - adultery
Henry Hyde - adultery
Bob Barr - adultery
Dan Burton - adultery
Bob Livingstone - adultery
Bob Packwood - sexual harassment
Steve Symms - (R- Idaho) - serial adultery
Newt Gingrich - adultery
Beverly Russell - (S. Carolina) - child molestation
Jim Bunn - (R - Oregon) - adultery
Jim Nussle - (R - Iowa) - adultery
Joe Scarborough - (R- Florida) - adultery
John McLaughlin - sexual harassment
Tim Hutchinson (R - Arkansas) - adultery
Rudy Giuliani -adultery
George Roche III - adultery with his son's wife
Earl Kimmerling - child molestation
Mike Trout - adultery
Mike Bowers - adultery
Richard Delgaudio - (he brought us Paula Jones) - child pornography
Ken Calvert - arrested for engaging with a prostitute
Matt Glavin - homosexual indecent exposure
Deal Hudson - sexual harassment of a female student
Edward L. Schrock (R-Va.) - married but solicited sex from male homosexual
Philip Giordano - sexual child abuse
Randal David Ankeney - attempted sexual assault on a child
Robert Bauman - homosexual sex with a minor
John Hathaway - sex with a minor
Stephen White - soliciting a 14 year old boy
Jon Matthews - indecency with a child
Earl "Butch" Kimmerling - child molestation
Paul Ingram - incest
Andrew Buhr - sodomy with a 12 year old boy
Keith Westmoreland - indecency with minors
John Allen Burt - molesting a minor
Parker J. Bena - child pornography
Larry Jack Schwarz - child pornography
Robin Vanderwall - soliciting sex with minors of both sexes
Marty Glickman - unlawful sexual activity with a minor
Dan Crane - sex with a minor (a Congressional page)
Donald "Buz" Lukens - sex with a minor
First Lady Laura Bush - Manslaughter
Vice President Dick Cheney - Draft dodger
Entertainer Rush Limbaugh - Drug abuse
Entertainer Bill O'Reilly - Sexual harassment
Outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft - Draft dodger
CA Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger - Serial groping, sexual harassment, drug abuse
Former South Dakota Gov Bill Janklow - Manslaughter
Former Drug Czar Bill Bennett - Gambling addiction
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert - Draft dodger
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey - Draft dodger
House Majority Leader Tom Delay - Draft dodger
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist - Cruelty to animals
Rep. David Dreier - Closeted gay who supports anti-gay policies
Rep. Mark Foley - Closeted gay who supports anti-gay policies
Prospective RNC Head Ken Mehlman - Closeted gay who supports anti-gay policies
TV evangelist Paul Crouch - Closeted gay who supports anti-gay policies, accused of bilking flock
"God Is With Us": Hitler's Rhetoric and the Lure of "Moral Values"
A couple weeks ago, while asserting that the Founding Founders intended for the U.S. government to be infused with Christianity, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that the Holocaust was able to flourish in Germany because of Europe's secular ways. "Did it turn out that, by reason of the separation of church and state, the Jews were safer in Europe than they were in the United States of America?" Scalia asked a congregation at Manhattan's Shearith Israel synagogue. "I don't think so."
One might expect regular citizens to be ignorant of history, but a Supreme Court Justice? Does he imagine that the phrase "Gott mit Uns" was a German clothier's interpretation of "Got Milk"?...
...Scalia, who also cited the Bible to claim that government "derives its moral authority from God," is hardly alone in his assertions. Leo Strauss, the philosopher who has influenced neoconservativism, and by proxy, George Bush's America, felt that religion, like deception, was crucial to maintaining social order. Meanwhile, neoconservative kingpin Irving Kristol has argued similar points -- bragging about how easy it is to fool the public into accepting the government's actions while arguing that America's Founding Fathers were wrong to insist on the separation of church and state. Why? According to Jim Lobe, it's because religion, as Strauss and his disciples see it, is "absolutely essential in order to impose moral law on the masses who otherwise would be out of control."
Saying that neoconservatives believe that secular society is undesirable "because it leads to individualism, liberalism, and relativism, precisely those traits that may promote dissent that in turn could dangerously weaken society's ability to cope with external threats," Lobe explained why Kristol and other neocons have "allied themselves with the Christian Right" and, in some cases, have also denounced Darwin's theory of evolution. "Neoconservatives are pro-religion even though they themselves may not be believers," Reason magazine's Ronald Bailey explained, pointing to publications like Commentary which has espoused the virtues of religious fundamentalism and has questioned evolutionary science. ...
...Although several others, including the legendary Seymour Hersh, have noted the neoconservatives' belief that deception is essential, the religious aspect of their philosophy is especially unnerving. Religion may be the opium of the masses, but when zealots become so certain of their own righteousness that they ignore their own humanity, horror is the natural consequence. Islamic extremism offers the most glaring recent example, and now that Osama bin Laden has been granted permission to nuke America, the most extreme changes within the U.S. could very well come from the outside world....
...Yes, many of Hitler's faith-based comments could have come from George Bush himself, and are undoubtedly the kinds of sentiments many Americans not only agree with -- but take comfort in. This is not to say that Bush is Hitler or that religion is evil, but to serve as a reminder that things are not always what they seem. Christianity was used to justify everything from the Salem witch trials to slavery in America, and facilitated group-think in Germany -- when individuality and questions of conscience were needed the most. These are but a few of the Fuhrer's assertions...
Hitler Was Not An Atheist
...Hitler's Germany amalgamated state with church. Soldiers of the vermacht wore belt buckles inscribed with the following: "Gott mit uns" (God is with us). His troops were often sprinkled with holy water by the priests. It was a real Christian country whose citizens were indoctrinated by both state and church and blindly followed all authority figures, political and ecclesiastical.
Hitler, like some of the today's politicians and preachers, politicized "family values." He liked corporeal punishment in home and school. Jesus prayers became mandatory in all schools under his administration. While abortion was illegal in pre-Hitler Germany, he took it to new depths of enforcement, requiring all doctors to report to the government the circumstances of all miscarriages. He openly despised homosexuality and criminalized it. If past is prologue, we know what to expect if liberty becomes license. ...
Pastor Charged With Sexual Exploitation Of Child
First Assembly Of God Church Fires Reverend
KCCI learned that the married father of four recently turned himself in to Johnston police.
Rev. Mike Hintz was fired from the First Assembly of God Church, located at 2725 Merle Hay Road, on Oct. 30. Hintz was the youth pastor there for three years....
Bush signs Tax Relief Act
President Bush visited the swing state of Iowa on Monday to sign the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004, which he said would mean lower tax bills for 94 million Americans.
"It comes at just the right time for America. Some of the provisions were set to expire at the end of 2004 ..." he said. "That would have been a setback for hardworking families of America and a setback for our economy."
Bush introduced Mike and Sharla Hintz, a couple from Clive, whom he said benefited from his tax plan.
Last year, because of the enhanced the child tax credit, they received an extra $1,600 in their tax refund, Bush said. With other tax cuts in the bill, they saved $2,800 on their income taxes.
They used the money to buy a wood-burning stove to more efficiently heat their home, made some home improvements and went on a vacation to Minnesota, the president said.
"Next year, maybe they'll want to come to Texas," Bush quipped.
Mike Hintz, a First Assembly of God youth pastor, said the tax cuts also gave him additional money to use for health care.
He said he supports Bush's values....
Apocalypse Now
...A TIME/CNN poll finds that more than one-third of Americans say they are paying more attention now to how the news might relate to the end of the world, and have talked about what the Bible has to say on the subject. Fully 59% say they believe the events in Revelation are going to come true, and nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the Sept. 11 attack....
...Rick Scarborough, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Pearland, Texas, a Houston suburb, resigned his pulpit this month to put all his energy into recruiting Christians to become politically involved. "I am mobilizing Christians and getting more Christians to vote. I am preparing a beachhead of righteousness," he says. Meanwhile Wyoming state senator Carroll Miller, a popular legislator from Big Horn County, announced his retirement from politics in part so that he could spend more time speaking at churches and men's clubs, helping people come to grips with the prospect of the Second Coming. "It's very important that we as a Christian nation know what the Scriptures have said about these days," he says. "I'm putting forth my personal effort for my own sake as well as for my family and friends."...
...But it took something more, a pre-eminent theological entrepreneur, to bring a wider American audience to the apocalyptic tradition. Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth, published in 1970, became the best-selling nonfiction book of its decade; Time called Lindsey "the Jeremiah of our generation" for his detailed argument that the end was approaching. "That's the first book I ever read about last days, and it changed my life," says George Morrison, pastor of Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, Colo., where average Sunday-morning attendance is 4,000. "All of a sudden, I was made aware that wow, there's an order to this thing." Lindsey's explanation of the Bible's warnings came just as a backlash was stirring against '60s liberalism, an echo of the 18th century reaction to the Enlightenment. Lindsey caught the moment that launched a decade of evangelical resurgence, when for the first time in generations believers organized to put their stamp on this world, rather than the next.
The election of Ronald Reagan brought "Christian Zionism" deeper into the White House: Lindsey served as a consultant on Middle East affairs to the Pentagon and the Israeli government. Interior Secretary James Watt, a Pentecostalist, in discussing environmental concerns, observed, "I don't know how many future generations we can count on until the Lord returns." Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger affirmed, "I have read the Book of Revelation, and, yes, I believe the world is going to end—by an act of God, I hope—but every day I think time is running out." It was no accident that Reagan made his "evil empire" speech at a meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals. ...
...It is one thing to become politically active to deploy that Gospel to improve people's lives, another to try to promote a specific religious scenario. Intercessors for America, a 30-year-old prayer ministry, helps keep people politically connected through e-mail alerts and telephone-prayer chains. The June 11 Prayer Alert implored, "Lord, raise up government leaders in Israel, the United States (and worldwide) who will not seek to 'divide the land,' and who would recognize the unique significance of Jerusalem in God's end-time purposes." A refusal to consider Israel's withdrawal from any occupied territory would tend to complicate the peace process: virtually every proposal has involved a land-for-peace swap. Yet at the same time, "if this wave of terrorism continues without a meaningful peace treaty soon," predicts John Hagee, pastor of the 17,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, "the sparks of war will produce a third world war. And that will be the coming of the End Times. That will be the end of the world as we know it."...
The Fundamentalist Agenda
is absolutely natural, ancient, and powerful—but the liberal impulse makes us humane
...From 1988 to 1993, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences sponsored an interdisciplinary study known as The Fundamentalism Project, the largest such study ever done. More than 100 scholars from all over the world took part, reporting on every imaginable kind of fundamentalism. And what they discovered was that the agenda of all fundamentalist movements in the world is virtually identical, regardless of religion or culture.
They identified five characteristics shared by virtually all fundamentalisms. The fundamentalists' agenda starts with insistence that their rules must be made to apply to all people, and to all areas of life. There can be no separation of church and state, or of public and private areas of life. The rigid rules of God—and they never doubt that they and only they have got these right—must become the law of the land. Pat Robertson, again, has said that just as Supreme Court justices place a hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution, so they should also place a hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible. In Khomeini's Iran, and in the recent Taliban rule of Afghanistan, we saw how brutal and bloody this looks in real time.
The second agenda item is really at the top of the list, and it's vulgarly simple: Men are on top. Men are bigger and stronger, and they rule not only through physical strength but also and more importantly through their influence on the laws and rules of the land. Men set the boundaries. Men define the norms, and men enforce them. They also define women, and they define them through narrowly conceived biological functions. Women are to be supportive wives, mothers, and homemakers.
A third item follows from the others. (Indeed each part of the fundamentalist agenda is necessarily interlocked, and needs every other part to survive.) Since there is only one right picture of the world, one right set of beliefs, and one right set of roles for men, women, and children, it is imperative that this picture and these rules be communicated precisely to the next generation. Therefore, fundamentalists must control education by controlling textbooks and teaching styles, deciding what may and may not be taught.
Fourth, fundamentalists spurn the modern, and want to return to a nostalgic vision of a golden age that never really existed. Several of the scholars observed a strong and deep resemblance between fundamentalism and fascism. Both have almost identical agendas. Men are on top, women are subservient, there is one rigid set of rules, with police and military might to enforce them, and education is tightly controlled by the state. One scholar suggested that it's helpful to understand fundamentalism as religious fascism, and fascism as political fundamentalism. The phrase “overcoming the modern” is a fascist slogan dating back to at least 1941.
The fifth point is the most abstract, though it's foundational. Fundamentalists deny history in a radical and idiosyncratic way. Fundamentalists know as well or better than anybody that culture shapes everything it touches: The times we live in color how we think, what we value, and the kind of people we become. Fundamentalists agree on the perverseness of modern American society: the air of permissiveness and narcissism, individual rights unbalanced by responsibilities, sex divorced from commitment, and so on. What they don't want to see is the way culture colored the era when their scriptures were created.
Good biblical scholarship begins by studying the cultural situation when scriptures were written in search of their original intent, so that we can better discern what messages they may still have that are relevant for our lives. But if fundamentalists were to admit that their own scriptures are as culturally conditioned as everything else, they would lose the foundation of their certainties. Some scholars see evidence that St. Paul, for instance, had severe personal hang-ups about sex that may account for his harsh teachings about homosexuality and women. Many biblical scholars treat some of Paul's teachings as rants rather than revelations. But for fundamentalists, their scriptures fell straight from heaven in a leather-bound book, every jot and tittle intact.
Except for the illustrations I've added in laying out the agenda that the Fundamentalism Project discovered, you can't tell what religion, culture, or century I'm describing. The scholars discovered this a dozen years ago while they were presenting abstracts of their papers. Several noted that all their papers were sounding alike, reporting on “species” when studying the “genus” was called for, that there were strong family resemblances between all fundamentalisms, even when the religions had had no contact, no way to influence each other.
The only way all fundamentalisms can have the same agenda is if the agenda preceded all the religions. And it did. Fundamentalist behaviors are familiar because we've all seen them so many times. These men are acting the role of “alpha males” who define the boundaries of their group's territory and the norms and behaviors that define members of their in-group. These are the behaviors of territorial species in which males are stronger than females. In biological terms, these are the characteristic behaviors of sexually dimorphous territorial animals. Males set and enforce the rules, females obey the males and raise the children; there is a clear separation between the in-group and the out-group. The in-group is protected; outsiders are expelled or fought.
It is easier to account for this set of behavioral biases as part of the common evolutionary heritage of our species than to argue that it is simply a monumental coincidence that the social and behavioral agendas of all fundamentalisms and fascisms are essentially identical.
What conservatives are conserving is the biological default setting of our species, which has strong family resemblances to the default setting of thousands of other species. This means that when fundamentalists say they are obeying the word of God, they have severely understated the authority for their position. The real authority behind this behavioral scheme is millions of years older than all the religions and all the gods there have ever been. It is the picture of life that gave birth to most of the gods as its projected champions.
Fundamentalism is absolutely natural, ancient, powerful—and inadequate. It's a means of structuring relationships that evolved when we lived in troops of 150 or less. But in the modern world, it's completely incapable of the nuance or flexibility needed to structure humane societies. ...
Gadflyers Prove Prescient
We learn via MyDD, riffing off of something Tom Schaller pointed out and I have been seconding for weeks, that it's a very good thing that the likes of James Dobson and Jerry Falwell are taking credit for Bush's victory. A recent CBS/New York Times poll finds that in answer to the question, "What worries you more: public officials who don't pay enough attention to religion and religious leaders, or public officials who are too close to religion and religious leaders?", only 35% said they were worried by politicians who didn't pay enough attention to religion, while 51% said they were worried by politicians who were too close to religion. A year ago, these numbers were reversed, with 50% saying they were worried politicians didn't pay enough attention and 34% saying they were worried they paid too much attention. Although we can't say for sure, I agree with Chris Bowers that most of this movement probably happened since the election....
Monday, December 06, 2004
The rapture debunked
..."Today's Christian fixation on Armageddon and war is a sickness even while it may be thrilling and entertaining," Rossing said by phone, a few days after she preached on the theme of the Second Coming for the first Sunday in Advent.
Rossing, who has a doctorate from the Harvard Divinity School, says she wrote her latest book, "The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation," which came out earlier this year, because "more and more I was talking to Lutherans and evangelicals and even Catholics who had read the [Left Behind] novels and gotten the impression this was what the Bible teaches." In news stories on the Left Behind juggernaut, she has been quoted condemning the ethical implications of the "beam-me-up" aspect of Rapture theory, which she says "invites a selfish nonconcern for the world." But the heart of the book is Rossing's effort to go toe-to-toe with the Rapture theorists in Scriptural readings.
The Rapture theory itself is quite new, she argues -- one reason to be suspicious. It was largely invented around 1830 by a British evangelical named John Nelson Darby. One key proof-text, then as now, is Daniel 9:24-27, which speaks of "seventy weeks of years" between the time "the word went out to restore and build Jerusalem" and the second coming. Theologians disagree on when the clock should start for the countdown of those 490 years (70 times seven). After the 69th week, however, Daniel says a "prince" will come who "shall destroy the city and its sanctuary" through war and flood.
Rossing and other mainline biblical scholars believe this last is a historical reference to an emperor named Antiochus, who desecrated Jerusalem's main temple in 168 BC by erecting a statue of Zeus. However, the Rapture theorists say this can't be what Daniel refers to, citing a lack of the all-out "desolation" described in Daniel. Instead, they say, the 490-year countdown continued into Jesus' time and stopped when he was crucified. Therefore, the Earth still awaits one more week of years, or seven years, of the prophecy: first, the destruction of the Temple (which at this point must be rebuilt, on the site where the Dome of the Rock now stands) and then seven years of war and flood.
Rossing calls the purported 2,000-year clock stoppage -- unmentioned in Daniel -- a "complete fabrication." Additionally, she says, the Rapture theorists strain to impose a two-part Second Coming on the New Testament. The gospel of Matthew says, "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left." But Rossing says those lines don't even make it clear which person is being saved, let alone specify a seven-year gap between the two events.
The Book of Revelation, with its hail and fire and plagues and blood, provides the grist for much of the Left Behind books' depiction of the Tribulation. But Rossing calls Revelation an allegorical vision of a possible future -- "a wakeup call" for first-century Christians. (She says it's not unlike the frightening vision of the future that Marley's ghost shows Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol" -- another future that didn't have to happen.) And despite blood and gore, the centerpiece of Revelation, she says, is still the "Lamb" of God, who "conquers" only through love.
To Christians wondering which Biblical reading to believe, Rossing says: "I would just appeal to their experience of God in their lives. Is he a God who wants to destroy the world or who wants to redeem it and who gives us a vision of hope?" Tensions between secular elites and heartland believers have been getting a lot of ink lately. But Rossing's book shows that intellectual battles within Christianity can be just as heated -- and, given that they can shape Christian responses to, say, Middle Eastern wars -- just as consequential.
Firebombing Falluja
The United States is using napalm in Falluja. So far, the military has denied the allegations, but the proof is mounting. On Nov. 28 The Daily Mirror’s political editor, Paul Gilfeather filed a report stating: “US troops are secretly using outlawed napalm gas to wipe out remaining insurgents in and around Fallujah. News that President George W. Bush has sanctioned the use of napalm, a deadly cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel banned by the United Nations in 1980, will stun governments around the world.”
For over a week rumors have circulated in the Arab press that both napalm and other chemical weapons were used mainly in the Jolan district of Falluja, a major area of the fighting. Now, despite a US media blackout, more evidence is leaking out and causing a furor in the British Parliament. As Gilfeather reports: “Last night Tony Blair was dragged into the row as furious Labour MPs demanded he face the Commons over it. Reports claim that innocent civilians have died in napalm attacks, which turn victims into human fireballs as the gel bonds flames to flesh.”
Blair is being pressed by furious MP’s to clarify whether or not he knew that the “banned weapon” was being used. He is also being asked to withdraw British troops if the US continues its use of napalm. As of this writing, Blair’s response remains unknown.
The US has already admitted that it used napalm during the siege of Baghdad. The truth was reluctantly confirmed by the Pentagon after news reports corroborated the evidence. The military has tried to conceal the truth by saying that there is a distinction between its new weapon and “traditional napalm”. The “improved” product carries the Pentagon moniker “Mark 77 firebombs” and uses jet fuel to “decrease environmental damage”. The fact that military planner’s even considered “environmental damage” while developing the tools for incinerating human beings, gives us some insight into the deep vein of cynicism that permeates their ranks.
The Pentagon’s hair-splitting has done little to obfuscate the facts. Marines returning from Iraq call the bombs napalm and napalm it is. Journalist Simon Jenkins of the British Sunday Times describes the incidents in Falluja like this: “Some artillery guns fired white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water. Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns.” It is an excruciatingly painful way to die.
Independent journalists have been reporting for some time now that the US has been using banned weapons in Falluja. Iraqi doctors have noted that many of the bodies they have examined have been “swollen, yellowish and have no smell.” Asia Times online has reported that “Americans used chemical weapons in the bombing of Jolan, ash-Shuhada and al-Jubayl neighborhoods. They also say the neighborhoods were showered with cluster bombs”; an allegation that refutes the Pentagon’s claim of “precision bombing”. ...
Escaping blame for Abu Ghraib
SOLDIERS face jail. Commanders get 15-gun salutes. Soldiers are pilloried. White House officials are promoted. The cost of hypocrisy in the billowing prison abuse scandal has not mattered much up to now. Tomorrow we might care a lot more. The next victim of the hypocrisy could be you or me.
This week there was a hearing for Lynndie England, the soldier who became the face of Abu Ghraib for two photos, one in which she held a naked Iraqi prisoner by a leash and a second in which she smiled while pointing at the genitals of another detainee.
Her lawyers want the photos thrown out as evidence, saying she was pressured to pose for them by superior officers. Lawyers for the Army, of course, deny this. If England is convicted, she could get up to 38 years in prison. Another hearing was scheduled this week for three soldiers accused of smothering an Iraqi general to death in an interrogation. They may get life behind bars.
Superiors dream of adding stars to their bars. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander in Iraq during the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, returned to his base in Germany in October to a 15-gun salute. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz praised Sanchez on behalf of President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his "courage, his perseverance, and his concern for his troops." Sanchez was passed over for one possible four-star promotion in the wake of Abu Ghraib. But the Los Angeles Times reported later in October that Rumsfeld and Richard Meyers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, still want to make him a four-star general despite Army reports indicating that Sanchez approved of controversial interrogation tactics and did not move quickly to halt abuse....
Is the Bush Administration Certifiable?
Has President Bush lost his grip on reality?
In his December 1 speech in Halifax, Nova Scotia, President Bush again declared his intention to pre-emptively attack "enemies who plot in secret and set out to murder the innocent and the unsuspecting." Freedom from terrorism, Bush declared, will come only through pre-emptive war against enemies of democracy.
How does Bush know who and where these secret enemies are? How many more times will his guesses be wrong like he was about Iraq?
What world does Bush live in? The US cannot control Iraq, much less battle the rest of the Muslim world and beyond. While Bush threatened the world with US aggression, headlines revealed the futility of preemptively invading countries: "Pentagon to Boost Iraq Force by 12,000," "US Death Toll in Iraq at Highest Monthly Level," "Wounded Disabled Soldiers Kept on Active Duty."
We are getting our butts kicked in Iraq, and Bush wants to invade more countries? It is clear as day that we do not have enough troops to deal with Iraq. The 12,000 additional troops "to improve security" are being acquired by extending the combat tours of troops already on duty in Iraq. More US soldiers were killed in Iraq in November than in any previous month. The US is so hard up for troops that the Pentagon is deploying soldiers who have lost arms and legs in combat. On December 1 the Washington Post reported: "US armed forces have recently announced new efforts to keep seriously wounded or disabled soldiers on active duty."...
...According to the US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, the hospital has treated 20,802 US troops for injuries received in Iraq. According to the Pentagon’s figures, 54% of the wounded are too seriously injured to return to their units. If that figure is correct, it would mean that the insurgents have put 11,233 US troops out of action. Add in the 1,254 US troops who have been killed for a total of 12,487. That’s 9% of our total force in Iraq and a much higher percentage of our combat force....
...On December 3, Russian President Vladimir L. Putin replied to Bush’s Hallifax speech by declaring Bush’s policy "dictatorial and hypocritical." Russia’s leader warned that policies "based on the barrack-room principles of a unipolar world appear to be extremely dangerous." Russian Air Force commander General Vladimir Mikhailov announced that Russia, too, can engage in pre-emptive attacks. Russia has informed neighboring Georgia that Russia might use cruise missiles and strategic bombers in preventive strikes against Chechen terrorists sheltering on Georgian territory.
Bush’s insane doctrine of pre-emptive war promises a 21st century more bloody than the 20th.
Sunday, December 05, 2004
17 Iraqi Workers Killed by Rebels in Attack on Bus
...Citing the deepening violence, more political leaders added their voices to a growing movement to delay the national and provincial elections now scheduled for Jan. 30. Leaders of Iraq's majority Shiite community have responded to earlier calls by insisting that the elections go forward as planned, and President Bush said Thursday that they must not be postponed.
But the political leaders who gathered in Baghdad on Sunday, mostly Sunni Arabs representing about 40 political parties and individuals, said that the insurgents' campaign of violence and intimidation made credible elections impossible for the moment, and that holding them in January would achieve an illegitimate result that could provoke further civil conflict....
...Shiite leaders in southern Iraq have deeply resented the killings of Shiite security officers and religious pilgrims in the Sunni-dominated area around Latifiya, and last month they began organizing hundreds of young men into so-called Anger Brigades. The stated goal of the brigades has been to kill extremist Sunni Arabs in the area around Latifiya in northern Babil province, known as the Triangle of Death.
The specter of civil conflict also looms over the January elections. Some Sunni political figures at the conference in Baghdad on Sunday, held at the Babylon Hotel, warned that a January election could result in a dramatically unbalanced result along sectarian lines, with many Sunni Arabs either boycotting the election or too frightened to go to the polls. Turnout is expected to be high, meanwhile, among Iraq's majority Shiites, and among the Kurds, who dominate in the north.
"A partial election will put the country into chaos," said Tariq al-Hashmi, the secretary general of the Iraqi Islamic Party. The party, one of the better-known Sunni groups, is considering boycotting the elections, Mr. Hashmi said.
At the conference, about 40 officials signed a petition calling for a postponement, and vowed to press their case with the United Nations, the Arab League, the State Department of the United States and other world bodies....
Ex-CIA official: We will lose terror war
Washington, DC, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The United States will ultimately lose the war on terror because of its policies in the Middle East and because of concerns over the human rights of militants worldwide, the former head of the CIA's team that hunted Osama bin Laden said Friday.
In a conversation with United Press International's reporters and editors, Michael Scheuer, newly revealed as the author of the bestselling book "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror," said bin Laden was now possibly the Arab world's most popular leader, adding al-Qaida's domination of the Internet in the Muslim world was leading to the United States losing its battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims worldwide.
Scheuer, who resigned last month from the CIA because of the agency's refusal to allow him permission to grant media interviews, added that before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, the United States had between eight and 10 chances to kill bin Laden, but failed to because of inaction by the upper echelons of the U.S. bureaucracy. He said the Bush administration's claims that two-thirds of al-Qaida's leadership had been killed and destroyed were "ludicrous," noting the group functioned with terrorists, insurgents, financiers and administrators across the globe.
When asked if the United States could win the "war on terror," which was undertaken following the Sept. 11 attacks, Scheuer said: "No. It can't be won. We're going to eventually lose it. And the problem for us is that we're going to lose it much more quickly if we don't start killing more of the enemy."...
..."Unless we change or at least consider changing our policies in the Middle East, the room for bin Laden or bin Ladenism to grow is virtually unlimited," Scheuer said.
He further dismissed Western assessments that bin Laden and his group targeted the United States and Europe because they hate Western culture. He said though they might not want a Western approach to life, their goals were policy-driven.
"They're attacking us because of our unqualified support for Israel. They're attacking us because we've helped cement on their heads tyrannies in the Arab world ... for the last 40 years," he said. They're attacking us because we're in the Arabian Peninsula and it happens to be a holy place for them."...
Returning Fallujans will face clampdown
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The US military is drawing up plans to keep insurgents from regaining control of this battle-scarred city, but returning residents may find that the measures make Fallujah look more like a police state than the democracy they have been promised.
Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned....
...One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions. Depending on their skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or rubble-clearing platoons.
"You have to say, 'Here are the rules,' and you are firm and fair. That radiates stability," said Lieutenant Colonel Dave Bellon, intelligence officer for the First Regimental Combat Team, the Marine regiment that took the western half of Fallujah during the US assault and expects to be based downtown for some time....
...Most Fallujans have not heard about the US plans. But for some people in a city that has long opposed the occupation, any presence of the Americans, and the restrictions they bring, feels threatening.
"When the insurgents were here, we felt safe," said Ammar Ahmed, 19, a biology student at Anbar University. "At least I could move freely in the city; now I cannot."...
BushCo's Arab Democracy Project: Maybe Not
No WMDs. No connection to Al Qaida. No nuthin'. What did the neocons have left to justify the Iraq Debacle? Why their Arab Democracy Project. Well, now that seems a non-starter too. At next week's summit with our Arab allies, the Bush Arab Democracy Project, so touted by the remaining defenders of the Iraq Debacle, looks like it will be put to rest...
Bow Wow
...Despite the mass exodus, the incompetent one remains -Rummy. All that happened on his watch was an abysmal post-war plan and a prison scandal. This confirms that the only ones held accountable in this Administration are welfare mothers and struggling third grade students. For them, standards and accountability apply. For Rumsfeld, he is just passed along to the next grade (or term) regardless of his performance.
Holy Molly, even in Texas high school football, they have no pass, no play! Goodness gracious, Mr. President, you should know that if a kid had Rummy's record he would not be allowed to quarterback for the Crawford High School Pirates much less run the biggest defense establishment in the world! ...
Friday, December 03, 2004
Looking Back, Looking Forward
...The "Christian" right is simply reactionary politics with gospel lip gloss, but its fearmongering message has touched a responsive nerve among millions of Americans in and outside the Bible Belt and the movement shows little signs of abating....
Pastor Allegedly Used Fear Of Devil To Have Sex With Women
SAN DIEGO -- A National City pastor accused of using the fear of the devil to persuade women in his congregation to have sex with him will go on trial next year.
Carlos Romero, 59, faces up to five years and eight months in prison if convicted of three felony counts, including making a criminal threat.
Superior Court Judge William Kennedy Wednesday scheduled a pretrial hearing for Dec. 13, with trial scheduled to start Feb. 14.
At a Sept. 17 preliminary hearing, La Mesa police Sgt. Daniel Willis testified that Romero told him he was sorry for telling three women who went to his church the "devil would physically harm them and he could protect them if they had sex with him."
Willis said the pastor told him he knew his actions toward the women were wrong and he "wouldn't do it again."
A woman identified as Dora testified that she had gone to Romero's church for about a year and came back in 2000. She said she met the defendant in Fashion Valley last January.
"He told me that there was a revelation from God," Dora said. "He told me that I had already been attacked by the devil, that I could only stop this by having sexual relations with him."
Dora said she believed Romero because she considered him a "true pastor" who was "guiding us toward eternal life."...
It seems that 'we have never gone to war for conquest, for exploitation, nor for territory'; we have the word of a president [McKinley] for that. Observe, now, how Providence overrules the intentions of the truly good for their advantage. We went to war with Mexico for peace, humanity and honor, yet emerged from the contest with an extension of territory beyond the dreams of political avarice. We went to war with Spain for relief of an oppressed people [the Cubans], and at the close found ourselves in possession of vast and rich insular dependencies [primarily the Philippines] and with a pretty tight grasp upon the country for relief of whose oppressed people we took up arms. We could hardly have profited more had 'territorial aggrandizement' been the spirit of our purpose and heart of our hope. The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.
-- Ambrose Bierce, Warlike America
Fundamentalist flim-flam
... But what makes this strain of Cultivated Ignorance so pernicious and virulent is the ersatz fundamentalist religious coating which Joe Conason describes in his book "Big Lies" (2003):
"No matter how many of the Right's virtucrats are caught committing the sins they claim to condemn, they pretend that they are lecturing us from the moral high ground. Are these bogus moralizers trying to deceive themselves as well as the rest of us? Or are they simply relying on the willingness of the millions of Americans to be duped? It is remarkable indeed that those trusting herds remain convinced of the moral superiority of conservatism, giving their money to ranting televangelists and their votes to ostentatiously pious politicians. Such credulous folk must be unaware of the evidence that traditional morals are declining more rapidly and more precipitously on the right-and in the so called red states-than anywhere else."...
A moral quandary
The goal starting out was an incredibly simple one: I wanted to explain to you, you elitist, atheistical, liberal swine, a little bit more about your decent, God-fearing, crop-growing counterparts in those big blocky states in the middle of America.
There they are, shopping at Wal-Mart and driving their Chevrolets to church on Sunday mornings in what every clichd member of the chattering class has described ad nauseam as the Red States. Yet the morally bankrupt, ethically challenged residents of much of the nation's perimeter, you included, know precisely nothing about them.
So who better to call for an understanding of this brave-hearted, pure-minded swath of America than the most brave-hearted and pure-minded within it? Certainly they would tell us about their cause to bridge this yawning divide.
To that end, the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, was first on my list. Such a fine leader, Mr. DeLay, a man of true conviction, though his staff is quick to point out that he hasn't even been indicted yet.
True, three of his associates have been charged with illegally using corporate money to influence political races in Texas, and DeLay apparently remains under investigation.
But at least his Republican colleagues in the House voted to change that pesky 11-year-old rule that would require him to step down if he's indicted, so these nice people will always have him as their moral guide.
Still, I decided to leave DeLay alone to face his legal dilemma. Next on the list of upstanding representatives of Red State America: William J. Bennett.
You know Mr. Bennett: former secretary of education, one-time national drug czar, author of "The Book of Virtues," professional moralist. When you see that perpetually pained look on his face and hear that funereal voice detailing all that is wrong with this country, you just know he represents the core of America.
But wait a minute, wasn't Bennett the one who was reported to have lost $8 million sneaking off to play slot machines and video poker? I seem to remember something about a $200,000 credit line, preferred status at four Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos, and incredible indignation on his part that anyone dare question the hypocrisy in it all.
Next up, Rush Limbaugh, the playful radio voice of the conservative movement for all these years. But no, that's wrong, too, what with the OxyContin addiction and the investigation into how he acquired the drugs.
On to Bill O'Reilly, the hard-line, hard-nosed television personality for a network, the Fox News Channel, that has come to embody much of what the pundits call Red State America. O'Reilly might be the hottest franchise on cable television, so influential that George W. Bush graced him with a lengthy interview in the teeth of the campaign season.
But what happens if O'Reilly tries to have phone sex with me, as he allegedly did with his longtime producer? Can I really ask him about the moral fiber of middle America if he keeps asking what I'm wearing?
So I look to the heroes of yore, particularly the first revolutionary in this grand Republican revolution, none other than Newt Gingrich himself. A good guy, former House speaker Gingrich, but can he really speak to moral issues like the sanctity of heterosexual marriage, given his track record with his former wives?...
A lesson for the religious right
IT IS unfortunate that in his attempt to address the important issue of cultural and religious divides in this country, Bernard Moon ("A lesson for the liberal elite," op ed, Nov. 30) adds to the mythical stereotypes clouding this conversation and misdirects his concern. Using one quote attributed to Andy Rooney and unnamed editorialists writing about bigoted Christian rednecks, Moon concocts a conspiracy of anti-Christian sentiment among an anonymous liberal elite.
In doing so, he blithely ignores the fact that this country is currently governed by right-wing economic and political elites and that the intelligentsia who have the most influence over policy today are also of the right. Liberal elites is a shibboleth used by those actually in power to deride any attempt to critique the status quo.
But Moon's confusion goes deeper than that. If there is a widespread conviction among those who voted against George W. Bush that his version of Christianity is one that threatens the separation of church and state, demonizes gays and lesbians, and undermines the use of science, it's because those are the policies and ideas that Bush, Karl Rove, and their comrades on the Christian right have been promulgating....
Mixed on war, evangelicals back Bush
Saturday, October 02, 2004
...Evangelical Christians are comfortable with the Republican president because they see him as one of them, the group said. They like his openness about his faith, appreciate his regular references to biblical passages, and identify with the presence of prayer in life. And they agree with him on key moral issues, especially his stance against abortion and gay marriage....
...And although they generally back the commander in chief on Iraq, many express decidedly mixed feelings about the war — especially those with sons approaching the age when they could be drafted. (Bush has said the draft won’t be reinstituted.)
"I want all this stuff to be over before they get to draft age," said Zandra McEntie, a fiscal officer and independent voter, referring to her teenage sons.
Edna Wright, 44, a school nurse with three sons, agreed the prospect of a draft is a "frightening thought."
Mike Burkett, the father of two teen sons, acknowledged, "I’ve really had to struggle with the whole Iraq war issue."
But the 43-year-old business analyst concluded that the United States needed to enforce United Nations sanctions on Iraq.
"There needs to be a policeman in this world," Burkett said.
That’s a big reason he’s voting for the president again.
Edna Wright’s husband, Harry, a 46-year-old lawyer who was the lone Kerry supporter in the group, said his decision was influenced by a pair of mission trips to Asia.
"My perception is that Americans are now perceived differently — and more negatively — overseas because of the war in Iraq," he said. "I’m not an enthusiastic supporter of John Kerry, but I’m uncomfortable with where we are, and I think we need a change."...
...During a retreat last month at a church camp near Loudonville, Ohio, the senior minister of one of the nation’s largest churches told several hundred men that the stage is set for anarchy in the United States because no society has ever survived without a moral conscience.
"I think we have more reasons to start a revolution than they did in 1776," said Bob Russell, senior pastor at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., attended by about 18,000.
"They had taxation without representation; we have imposed morality without representation. . . . I don’t see how you can be a dedicated Christian and remain neutral." ...
You're Nothing But Dirty, Dirty Sinners, Boys and Girls!
...The curriculum also teaches: "The father gives the bride to the groom because he is the one man who has had the responsibility of protecting her throughout her life. He is now giving his daughter to the only other man who will take over this protective role."
One book in the "Choosing the Best" series presents a story about a knight who saves a princess from a dragon. The next time the dragon arrives, the princess advises the knight to kill the dragon with a noose, and the following time with poison, both of which work but leave the knight feeling "ashamed." The knight eventually decides to marry a village maiden, but did so "only after making sure she knew nothing about nooses or poison." The curriculum concludes: "Moral of the story: Occasional suggestions and assistance may be alright, but too much of it will lessen a man’s confidence or even turn him away from his princess."...
Everyone is a potential torturer
All humans are capable of committing torture and other “acts of great evil”. That is the unhappy conclusion drawn from an analysis of psychological studies.
Over 25,000 psychological studies involving eight million participants support this finding, say Susan Fiske and colleagues at Princeton University in New Jersey, US.
The researchers considered the circumstances surrounding how individuals committed seemingly inexplicable acts of abuse in the midst of the US military’s torture of Iraqi inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 and 2004.
“Could any average 18-year-old have tortured these prisoners? I would have to answer: ‘Yes, just about anyone could have.’”, Fiske says.
Many forms of behaviour, including acts of cruelty, are influenced as much by authority figures, peer pressure and other social interactions as by the psychology of the individual, she says.
“If we don’t understand the importance of social context and accept that almost anybody could commit acts of torture under certain circumstances, then we are setting ourselves up for situations where Abu Ghraib [atrocities] will occur again,” Fiske warns....
On War
The vanquished know war. They see through the empty jingoism of those who use the abstract words of glory, honor, and patriotism to mask the cries of the wounded, the senseless killing, war profiteering, and chest-pounding grief. They know the lies the victors often do not acknowledge, the lies covered up in stately war memorials and mythic war narratives, filled with stories of courage and comradeship. They know the lies that permeate the thick, self-important memoirs by amoral statesmen who make wars but do not know war. The vanquished know the essence of war—death. They grasp that war is necrophilia. They see that war is a state of almost pure sin with its goals of hatred and destruction. They know how war fosters alienation, leads inevitably to nihilism, and is a turning away from the sanctity and preservation of life. All other narratives about war too easily fall prey to the allure and seductiveness of violence, as well as the attraction of the godlike power that comes with the license to kill with impunity.
But the words of the vanquished come later, sometimes long after the war, when grown men and women unpack the suffering they endured as children, what it was like to see their mother or father killed or taken away, or what it was like to lose their homes, their community, their security, and be discarded as human refuse. But by then few listen. The truth about war comes out, but usually too late. We are assured by the war-makers that these stories have no bearing on the glorious violent enterprise the nation is about to inaugurate. And, lapping up the myth of war and its sense of empowerment, we prefer not to look. ...
...Physical courage is common on a battlefield. Moral courage is not. Those who defy the machine usually become its victim. And Lieutenant Fick, who we find in the epilogue has left the Marines to go back to school, wonders if he was a good officer or if his concern for his men colored his judgment. Those who make war betray those who fight it. This is something most enlisted combat veterans soon understand. They have little love for officers, tolerating the good ones and hoping the bad ones are replaced or injured before they get them killed. Those on the bottom rung of the military pay the price for their commanders' vanity, ego, and thirst for recognition. These motives are hardly exclusive to the neocons and the ambitious generals in the Bush administration. They are a staple of war. Homer wrote about all of them in The Iliad as did Norman Mailer in The Naked and the Dead. Stupidity and callousness cause senseless death and wanton destruction. That being a good human being—that possessing not only physical courage but moral courage—is detrimental in a commander says much about the industrial slaughter that is war.
Combat has an undeniable attraction. It is seductive and exciting, and it is ultimately addictive. The young soldiers, trained well enough to be disciplined but encouraged to maintain their naive adolescent belief in invulnerability, have in wartime more power at their fingertips than they will ever have again. From being minimum-wage employees at places like Burger King, looking forward to a life of dead-end jobs, they catapult to being part of, in the words of the Marines, "the greatest fighting force on the face of the earth." The disparity between what they were and what they have become is breathtaking, intoxicating. Their intoxication is only heightened in wartime when all taboos are broken. Murder goes unpunished and is often rewarded. The thrill of destruction fills their days with wild adrenaline highs, strange grotesque landscapes that are almost hallucinogenic, and a sense of purpose and belonging that overpowers the feeling of alienation many left behind. They become accustomed to killing, carrying out acts of slaughter with no more forethought than they take to relieve themselves...
...These Marines have learned the awful truth about our civil religion. They have learned that our nation is not righteous. They have understood that there are no transcendent goals at the heart of our political process. The Sunday School God that blesses our nation above all others vanishes in war zones like Iraq. These young troops disdain the teachers, religious authorities, and government officials who feed them these lies. This is why so many combat veterans hate military shrinks and chaplains, whose task is largely to patch them up with the old clichés and ship them back to the battlefield. It is why they feel distance and anger with those at home who drink in the dark elixir of blind patriotism, and absorb mythology about themselves and war....
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Hollow pledge:The problem with "under God"
The Supreme Court’s June ruling on whether “under God” should be part of the Pledge of Allegiance passed with relatively little notice, since the case was rejected on procedural grounds. For those who paid attention to the arguments, however, it conclusively exposed the incompatibility of American civil religion with any kind of robust Christianity. If one considers Elk Grove Unified School v. Newdow theologically, with the conviction that God ultimately refers to the Creator-Redeemer met in Israel and Jesus Christ, then the “God” Americans are to pledge their nation to be “under” is at worst an idol and at best the true God’s name taken in vain....
...Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s opinion summarizes the basic attitude underlying the theologically germane aspects of the government’s argument and the court’s response. Mindful of legal and constitutional precedents, Rehnquist knew that the God-phrase must be stripped of theological content to qualify as an admissible declaration in a government-sanctioned pledge. He asserts bluntly that the pledge, with the God-phrase, is not a “religious exercise.” The pledge instead “is a declaration of belief in allegiance and loyalty to the United States flag and the Republic that it represents.” As a “commendable patriotic exercise,” the object of the pledge is to unify and otherwise promote the good of the nation....
... Short of hanging on to the muddy, vacillating devices of ceremonial deism, Christians appear to face one of two choices. One is the open, deliberate restoration of Christian theocracy. Then the referent of “God” in the pledge would be clear and honest. Some evangelicals and conservative Catholics lean in this direction, but gingerly and equivocatingly, if not disingenuously, because of the sheer infeasibility of theocracy in a pluralistic America. With most contemporary Christians, I would argue that theocracy is not only politically dangerous but theologically disastrous.
We are on much more solid theological ground if we turn to the other choice. That choice is to recognize what the Bible and such exemplars of the Christian tradition as Augustine have taught us: to see and trust that the church and not any nation-state is preeminently the social agent through which God works God’s will in history. The church catholic stretches throughout the world and is its own “public,” crossing the comparatively sectarian boundaries of nation-states. Knowing themselves first of all as “citizens with the saints,” Christians may then, like the Babylon-dwelling Israelites counseled by Jeremiah, work and pray for the welfare of the cities (and nations) in which they now dwell, but never confuse those cities with the kingdom for which the church stands.
This means and entails many things. In the case of the pledge it means that atheists should not be alone in hoping to see this “God” dropped from it. Faithful and thoughtful Christians should also want the pledge to be returned to its pre-1954 form, and thereby end any pretense of embracing a henotheistic God or cheapening their own faith language.
CBS and NBC shut door on church ad
As church bells chime in the background, a burly bouncer guards the velvet ropes at the church entrance.
"No, step aside, please," he tells two men holding hands. "I don't think so," he says to a young black girl, blocking her entrance. A Hispanic man and a person in a wheelchair also are denied entry.
The scene fades to black and a message: "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we."
Hoping to boost the numbers of a dwindling denomination, the United Church of Christ launched a nationwide television ad campaign Wednesday, banking on this 30-second spot to let all viewers know they are welcome in the pews.
But two major networks have declined to air the ad, deeming it too controversial because it champions one side of the public debate on gay relationships....
... "CBS and NBC seem to be afraid, not of stirring controversy, but of alienating potential viewers, the kind, moreover, that like to organize boycotts and write letters," Wolfe said. "There may be a new form of political correctness arising in America, one in which attempts are made to avoid violating the sensibilities, not of women or racial minorities, but of conservative Christians."...
U.S. Says Terrorism Net Must Be Wide
Even a 'little old lady in Switzerland' who gave money unwittingly to extremists could end up in Guantanamo, judge is told by a federal official.
WASHINGTON — Under detailed questioning by a federal judge, government lawyers asserted Wednesday that the U.S. military could hold foreigners indefinitely as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, even if they aided terrorists unintentionally and never fought the United States.
Could a "little old lady in Switzerland" who sent a check to an orphanage in Afghanistan be taken into custody if, unbeknownst to her, some of her donation was passed to Al Qaeda terrorists? asked U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green.
"She could," replied Deputy Associate Atty. Gen. Brian Boyle. "Someone's intention is clearly not a factor that would disable detention." It would be up to a newly established military review panel to decide whether to believe her and release her.
Boyle said the military could pick any foreigner who provided support to terrorists or might know of their plans. And the foreigners held on the U.S. naval base in Cuba "have no constitutional rights enforceable in this court," Boyle told the judge. ...
...Green asked if a hypothetical resident of England who taught English to the son of an Al Qaeda leader could be detained. Boyle said he could because "Al Qaeda could be trying to learn English to stage attacks there," and he compared that aid to "those shipping bullets to the front." Some detainees have been picked up in Bosnia and others in Africa.
Noting the Supreme Court said detention was to keep combatants from returning to the battlefield, Green asked: "What and where is the battlefield the U.S. military is trying to detain the prisoners from returning to? Africa? London?"
Boyle: "The conflict with Al Qaeda has a global reach."
Christian Killers?
There is no doubt that many of the soldiers responsible for the recent death and destruction in Fallujah are Christians. And there is no doubt that many Americans who call for more death and destruction in Iraq and elsewhere are Christians as well.
Christian Killers.
The phrase should be a contradiction in terms. If someone referred to Christian adulterers, Christian drug addicts, Christian prostitutes, Christian pimps, Christian gangsta rappers, or Christian acid rockers, most Christians would get an extremely perplexed look on their face. But when Christians in the military continue killing for the state, and Christians not in the military call for more killing in the name of the state, many Christians don’t even raise an eyebrow.
In some respects, this is the fault of religious "leaders." Christians in the pew are in many cases just blindly following their pastors, priests, elders, and ministers who, instead of preaching the gospel, are preaching the same pro-war politics their congregation hears on the Sean Hannity radio show or else they are not denouncing the debacle in Iraq for what it is: unscriptural, immoral, and unconstitutional. Conservative religious leaders are in some cases nothing more than cheerleaders for George Bush and the Republican Party.
But even if a Christian hears nothing but pro-war propaganda from the pulpit, it is still no excuse, for Christians have access to the truth if they will just put forth the effort to look for it. They have a Bible they can read for themselves....
...What is a Christian (or anyone) going to do when he faces God at the Judgment and has to give an account of his actions? Suppose he is asked a simple question: "Why did you kill those people defending their homes in Iraq?" And suppose he replied: "Because the U.S. government told me to." What do you suppose would be the Lord’s reaction to such a reply? But what else could a man say? He could not say that the United States was under attack. He could not say that Iraq was a threat to the United States. He could not say that he was protecting his family. He could not say that he was protecting his property. He could not even legitimately say that he was protecting himself, since he was in fact a trespasser on someone else’s property intending to do the owner great bodily harm.
"Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen" (Deuteronomy 27:25).
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
The Spy Who Loved Me
...From early in my involvement as a Christian working with national security, I have marveled at the striking analogy between intelligence work and missionary work. When you strip away the divergent settings, both represent efforts to recruit (convert) other human beings into doing something that does not conform with their local culture or upbringing. To prepare for his task, the intelligence officer like the missionary invests time in learning the target's language, the culture, the locale, and the best way to deliver the message. The missionary often finds it difficult to develop a convert in the same way an intelligence officer finds it difficult to recruit. Both need empathy with the target that is real, based in a mutual conviction that some higher value is more important than the particular agendas of either party in the relationship. The intelligence officer trusts that his country in some sense embraces a Right, a Good, that deserves to be served. The missionary, of course, believes in a divine-human Person greater than any one person on earth.
Like their counterparts in espionage, missionaries are alert to the potential of walk-ins. Indeed, much missionary labor today asks Christians to be living witnesses within a culture where people would not respond to a direct message. They seek to enhance the possibility that walk-ins will walk in. And just as intelligence officers often depend on networks of people to help with protection, access and support, so missionaries involved in church planting are building networks that reinforce their work....
Falwell Labels Political Foe ‘Anti-America’
...On Monday the newspaper devoted a “Nashville Eye” op-ed piece to a rebuttal of Land by David Harkness, a retired Presbyterian minister who attended a Southern Baptist college and seminary.
“I’m an Eagle Scout, graduate of Baylor University and Southern Baptist Seminary and am now a retired Presbyterian minister,” Harkness wrote. “My wife, a Mississippi College graduate, and I raised two wonderful Christian daughters, one a registered nurse, the other a teacher. I served 32 months in the Army and was commissioned an officer by President Harry Truman. I voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, and have voted in every election since.
“Now I learn from you that I am not a ‘real American.’
“As an ‘unreal American’ saved by Jesus Christ, I find it impossible to meditate on His words ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ while supporting a pre-emptive, unnecessary war against an undefined enemy, ordered by a president who claims to be led by God, that has killed close to 150,000 innocent Iraqi people and more than 1,200 U.S. soldiers, seriously injuring tens of thousands more people. And $200 billion of taxpayers’ money? How much food, education and medical care could this have provided for Americans?”
“You expend enormous amounts of energy to protect the unborn while collateral damage in Iraq has slain thousands of women, many pregnant, and killed or maimed thousands of little children,” Harkness said later in the article. “What greater hypocrisy can one practice?”
“So, Mr. Land, please don’t ask me to accept your Jesus. I’m content to remain an ‘'unreal American’ and to seek the true Jesus whose mission is redemption, forgiveness and love which, if taken seriously, could indeed heal our serious polarization and make of all of us--reds and blues--reconciled real American sisters and brothers.”
Charles Deweese of the Brentwood-based Baptist History and Heritage Society had a letter in Sunday’s paper saying the Land interview “reveals what SBC leaders really stand for today.”
“These leaders talk traditional Baptist values,” Deweese said. “What they actually practice is anti-traditional faith that is nationalized, politicized, militarized, chauvinized, fundamentalized and opportunized.”
The Glories and Pathologies of Texocentrism
...More than any previous visit, one enters Texas aware that this is the state running the world—via that man in the White House, who will rule for another four dreadful years of war, debt, and arrogance, and cultural decline. All charms aside, this is a fact difficult to ignore. I've always adored Texas, but this paradox requires some rethinking of relationship between culture and politics.
The political culture here is dominated by white Christian males who enthusiastically voted for Bush by 75%. Add the words conservative and protestant to the mixed and you have a consensus for Bush that approaches nearly 100%. One doubts that any dictator or Pope in the history of the world enjoyed such universal uncritical support from a dominant group.
Yet in casual discussions with actual members of this group—having cleverly won their trust by being a white male myself—I found virtually no awareness of any of the basic facts concerning the ballooning budget, the chaos and bloodshed of Iraq, the vast expansion of federal power, the shredding of civil liberties, or anything else.
To speak of these matters comes across as boring and irrelevant as a lecture on the chemical properties of the rings of Saturn. All Texans know is that their man in Washington guarding their interests, slaying bad guys, and doing something to make everyone really prosperous. The big threats they see on the horizon are gay marriage and Islam—sentiments easily manipulated by a cynical political elite.
These charming and peaceful people who go on about what the Middle East needs now are the same ones who routinely and dismissively refer to non-Texans as Yankees, with a studied indifferentism. Iraqi, Iowan, it's all the same to them. It's bad enough that the people of the state to have given the world this man and celebrated his works, but to have done so with willful ignorance of what he has done to the country and the world, and with little concern for the fate of anyone but themselves, this is really unforgivable....
Guinea Pig Kids
Vulnerable children in some of New York's poorest districts are being forced to take part in HIV drug trials.
During a nine month investigation, the BBC has uncovered the disturbing truth about the way authorities in New York City are conducting the fight against Aids.
HIV positive children - some only a few months old - are enrolled in toxic experiments without the consent of guardians or relatives.
In some cases where parents have refused to give children their medication, they have been placed in care.
The city's Administration of Children's Services (ACS) does not even require a court order to place HIV kids with foster parents or in children's homes, where they can continue to give them experimental drugs. ...
...Dr David Rasnick from the University of Berkeley who has studied the effects of HIV drugs on patients - particularly children - says these drugs are "lethal".
"The young are not completely developed yet," he says. "The immune system isn't completely mature until a person's in their teens." ...
The 'Cops' State
...One night, several of us were watching the latest installment of a feature about patrolling with US forces in Iraq on CNN International. For several days, CNN had been broadcasting video of American soldiers banging down doors, yelling at Iraqis, forcing people on the ground and rifling through homes in pursuit of resistance fighters and supporters. Not the same video, but the same technique, applied over and over again, at house after house.
"Have you ever seen anything like that?" Shaadi asked, visibly angry at the way the Americans treated the Iraqis.
Yes, actually, I have, I told him. This is like watching an episode of Cops. Only the video and audio are worse.
"What's that?"
I had a hard time believing Fox never packaged one of its earliest hits for broadcast abroad – especially in the Middle East, where American pop culture is consumed so eagerly. So I explained it – a video crew wanders around with a police officer or two, records everything, and then neatly edits the presentable bits together into a half-hour long show. And based on what we were watching, I explained that what were seeing was fairly typical of American police techniques, although the soldiers are a little more intense. This busting into an Iraqi villa, this is little different than what American cops would do in any American city. And little different than what we'd see in the final edit.
Shaadi shook his head and laughed.
"You people are f****d up!"
The statement was so obviously true on the face of it, I never bothered to ask Shaadi what he meant. ...
...The show's narrative also implies – something too easily assumed by those for whom political and social power is generally wielded – that folks who get themselves chased, arrested, and detained generally deserve it.
Don't want trouble with the police? Then don't cause any. Don't want to get bombed and invaded by America? Then do what it says....
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