| Home > Community Forum > Monthly Archive |
December 29, 2006
Exporting American Justice: The Execution of Saddam Hussein
Posted by Public Theologian
If the Iraqis make good on their promise to execute Saddam Hussein in the coming days, it will be the culmination of one of the most shameful and lawless episodes in our nation's history.
Starting with the invasion of Iraq made under false pretenses, the whole sorry affair has been a case study in how to evade and circumvent international law. The "trial" of Saddam Hussein turned out to be the biggest joke of all, what with the farce of impartiality that we attempted to impose in our attempt, not to see that justice be done, but to insure that Saddam be killed as quickly as possible. Well we are about to get our wish, a wish that will further tarnish our image in the rest of the world as the uncivilized barbarians we have become.
The level of justice of the trial in which Saddam was convicted had all the credibility of a trial of a black man in the days of Jim Crow, or of a Soviet dissident under Stalin. The verdict was a foregone conclusion, such that if the witnesses against him had said that night was day it would have mattered little. There was never any possibility that he would get a fair trial in a society that had no history of an independent judiciary and no experience with prosecuting crimes against humanity.
I am not apologist for Saddam. I have little doubt that he is guilty of everything he was accused of. But to try him in front of people he had formerly oppressed is the very antithesis of the kind of impartial justice which Iraq needs to learn and which the world needs to see America support.
Hussein should have been tried by a war crimes tribunal at the Hague, in front of a panel of unbiased jurists of unquestioned qualifications, as has been the procedure heretofore. But the US knew that the world body does not execute the guilty, so in its bloodthirstiness it cooked up the kangaroo court that has now passed judgment on Saddam and which is now rushing to kill him.
God forgive us. And let us pray that this injustice will not lead to an outbreak of further violence against the US troops standing in harm's way, or the inncoent Iraqis in the streets.
Posted by Public Theologian at 06:47 PM | Comments (8)
December 21, 2006
Stand Up for Religious Freedom, Tell Rep. Virgil Goode to Stop Attacking US Muslims
Posted by Faithful Progressive
Stand up for religious freedom, tell Rep. Virgil Goode that America is still "one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all."
Lawmaker won't apologize for 'Islamophobic' letter:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Virginia congressman will not apologize for writing that without immigration reform "there will be many more Muslims elected to office demanding the use of the Quran," his spokesman said.
Republican Rep. Virgil Goode's letter to constituents also warns that without immigration reform "we will have many more Muslims in the United States."
Spokesman Linwood Duncan said Goode's letter was written in response to complaints his office received about Minnesota Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's request to be sworn in using the Quran.
Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress.
Goode's office released the letter to CNN Wednesday.
In it, Goode wrote, "When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Quran in any way.
"The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran.
"We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country.
"I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped."
He added, "The Ten Commandments and 'In God We Trust' are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Quran.
"My response was clear, 'As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, the Quran is not going to be on the wall of my office.' "
The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked Goode to apologize. They provided a letter sent by Rep. Bill Pascrell that makes for a good draft of a letter to oppose this type of un-American bashing of a single religious group.
December 20, 2006
Rep. Virgil Goode
1520 Longworth Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Congressman Goode:
I was greatly disappointed and in fact startled by your recent constituent letter addressing the issue of Representative-elect Keith Ellison using a Koran for his swearing-in ceremony. The United States Constitution is clear on this issue when its states in Article VI, section 3: "...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." Furthermore, as a returning Member of Congress you know that the official swearing-in for new Members of Congress is done without use of any religious text. The use of any text including a Bible, Torah or Koran is done only in a ceremonial event after the Member has already taken an official oath of office. I have had the pleasure to meet Keith Ellison on a number of occasions and it is clear that his integrity and values will make him an outstanding Member of Congress for many years to come. Keith Ellison serves as a great example of Muslim-Americans in our nation and he does not have to answer to you, to me or anyone else in regards to questions about his faith.
Your letter also wrongfully equates the issue of immigration with a fear of Muslim integration in our society. I take your remarks as personally offensive to the large community of Muslim-Americans I represent in the Eighth District of New Jersey. I have learned a great deal from the Muslim community and have made it one of my priorities to educate other Americans about the common misconceptions regarding the peaceful faith of Islam. There are many valid policy questions regarding immigration that should be addressed by Congress, however promoting a fear and disrespect of Muslims is not only wrongheaded, but it is reckless. Muslim-Americans do not threaten our American values and traditions, in fact they only add to them. The State of Virginia has a large vibrant Muslim population and I would hope you would take this opportunity to meet with that community and learn to dispel misconceptions instead of promoting them.
Please accept my comments in good faith. Together I know we are committed to fighting extremism. Virgil, I trust that our "fight" will not be confused or misdirected to discriminate against any race, religion or ethnicity.
Sincerely,
Bill Pascrell, Jr.
Member of Congress
To contact:
Representative Virgil Goode
Washington, DC Office
1520 Longworth Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202)225-4711
Fax: (202)225-5681
Posted by Faithful Progressive at 12:16 PM | Comments (5)
Jesus and Fox News
Posted by Jesus Politics
Robert Parham of Ethics Daily writes about Jesus and Fox News. It is an excellent meditation for the Christmas season.
Some excerpts:
Fox News loves little baby Jesus--eternally preserved in swaddling clothes, radiant, helpless, voiceless, surrounded by wise men with gifts, angels in perfect harmony, shepherds with faces of wonderment.
Yes, little baby Jesus, the miracle child, the controlled child, is what Fox News loves. [ ]
What a lot of American Christians and apparently Fox News want is the Christmas Jesus, who makes no moral claim on corporate American and consumer choices.
When Baptist pastor Joe Phelps said Jesus offers a moral challenge at Christmas to the market practices of Wal-Mart, Fox News host Neil Cavuto rejected that concept.
"I think it's a little disingenuous on your part--no harm or slight intended--to bring Jesus into the mix to make your point," Cavuto said.
"Why is that inappropriate?" Phelps asked.
Cavuto replied, "[E]ven to mix him [Jesus] in to the business and commerce of this country, under the guise of religion, pastor I think that is at best phony."
Why is it that Cavuto and conservative American Christians do not want "to mix" what Jesus said and did in with the marketplace?
The simple answer is that they don't want to hear Jesus' moral challenge to the prevailing marketplace ideology, which says that the rich should get richer at the expense of others, that the pursuit of profit at the expense of the poor is just the way it is.
Jesus rejects economic Darwinianism and refuses to accept challenges from the rival god of materialism. He warns about the dangers of split loyalties between God and greed. He offers the Golden Rule. He prioritizes care for the poor. He criticizes the religious elite who are concerned only about rituals and neglect justice.
Posted by Jesus Politics at 07:13 AM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2006
"Sons of Birchers"--by Guest Blogger Don Wilkey
Posted by Public Theologian
I spoke with church/state monitors one time who told me that they called the Religious Right “sons of birchers”. I thought I might pursue such a claim. Founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, the famous candy maker, the John Birch Society reached its peak in the 1960s with around 60,000 members. Make up of the higher echelon of the organization was that of extremely wealthy families with new money.1 Right wing organizations attracted wealthy men with this new money who held a common fear that their sudden rise to financial power and influence would be taken from them by the left.
The Society, named after fundamentalist missionary to China, John Birch is an extension of the Joseph McCarthy movement. John Birch was a Mercer University graduate who, while in the Baptist school organized campus groups to fight liberalism.2 Missionary Birch had strong ties to fundamentalist preacher, J. Frank Norris of Fort Worth. Norris carried on frequent communications with the missionary to China.3 Fundamentalist Baptist leader, James Hefley, recently published a book about the famous missionary and liberal fighter. McCarthy’s demise after his questionable tactics and rumor spreading caused Americans to look with suspicion on rabid Communist fighters in the nation. The Society thus went underground. Membership is secretive. Their magazines do not carry any JBS logo or name. Founder Welch ran the organization with a strong dictatorial arm. He published the magazine “American Opinion” that would change it’s name to the “New American.” A 1994 version of the magazine claimed that the United Nations was setting up a conspiracy to disarm Americans and overthrow the Constitution. Society magazines were handed out at the 1994 Christian Coalition national meeting I attended. The 2004 version of the periodical claims President Bush was secretly using the war with Iraq to set up a one world order with the U.N. ruling the United States.4
Two national events caused Birchers to lose credibility in the nation. One was the famous ad taken out in the Dallas Morning News that JFK read to his wife the day before his assassination. The ad implied someone needed to take out the president, similar to Jesse Helm’s comment about President Clinton. Kennedy commented to his wife that they were headed into “nut country.”5 Franklin Littell notes that Society members placed posters around Dallas with President Kennedy’s picture mounted in the cross hairs of a rifle scope. The other event was the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City which drew attention to the group’s strange views. Birchers lost membership and influence whenever they claimed that President Eisenhower was a Communist. Society members even believed the PTA was secretly Communist.6 Billy Hargis, a political bedfellow, taught followers that Mexico was secretly Communist. Welch often promoted the idea in his magazines that foreign aid was a secret Communist plot.7
Alan Westin, in his essay on the John Birch Society, claims the Society “stands between the ‘hate’ right and the semi-respectable right.8 Tim LaHaye, the famous Christian novelist is linked to the group. LaHaye is a prime mover in the Religious Right. LaHaye, a Bob Jones University graduate, ran training seminars for the JBS organization in California.9 Joseph Coors was seen handing out Society literature while he was on the board of regents at the University of Colorado.10 Coors underwrites funding of many right wing groups. R. J. Rushdoony, founder of Christian Reconstruction, was a Society member. Rushdoony backed the organization with his praise. The magazine he founded published an affirming article about the group. The article said, “Such groups deserve our support and prayers.”11 The takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention by fundamentalists had a list of JBS activists. One of them praised South African apartheid and called Martin Luther King a fraud. He was nominated to his trustee position by a Bircher.12 Another member helped defund the religious liberty organization in the Southern Baptist Convention.13 Eagle Forum, a Religious Right organization, has strong ties to the organization through it’s leader, Phyllis Shlafly.14
Russ Bellant documents the JBS connections with the secretive and powerful Council on National Policy.15 Teenage chapters of the Society were scattered around the state of Texas. I was told, by friends, that there was one at Baylor University, and I have picked up copies of their magazines from the shelves of the library at Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth. I have found many leaders in fundamentalist churches in Texas are connected. Influential families in First Baptist, Dallas have ties to the group. The National Affairs Briefing, held in Memphis in January 1996, featured a Society booth, according to the Atlanta Constitution. Beverly LaHaye was a featured speaker who hammered home her fear that our nation was being subjected to U.N. supervision.16 This is a common theme in Bircher circles. No doubt Beverly’s husband, Tim, helped to indoctrinate on the subject. In Tim LaHaye’s book, THE BATTLE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, the author has several quotes from John Birch Society leaders and magazine articles.17 The late Ed McAteer, who headed up the first National Affairs Briefing is, according to Americans United, the “Godfather of the Religious Right”. Ed is linked to the Society by board members on his organization.18
The Public TV documentary, “With God on Our Side,” tied in the Republican Party in the sixties with the Society. Senator Mark Hatfield claimed that at least 1/3 of the 1964 delegates at the national GOP meeting were Birchers.19 Baptist political activist pastor, Rick Scarbourough, uses sources from the Society in his book, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Scarbourough’s one time across town rival for right wing activity is Second Baptist Church in Houston. Second’s alleged point man for their political activism is Bill Borden . Bill was at the JBS meeting I attended. He introduced himself to me bragging that he helped write the Nehemiah Project for his church. The Nehemiah Project was the political activity the church engaged in that drew a suit by the Federal Election Commission for being involved in partisan politics. Borden is active in the chapter as well as the state GOP.
JBS members are tied to extremist views believing that “one worlders” are actually secretly taking over the country. These mentalities can be traced to a book by Dan Smoot, an early organizer. Smoot linked Republican and Democratic Party platforms in the 1960s with secret Communist ploys. According to Dan, World War II was even staged by these bankers.20 The Houston leader of the Society claimed to me to have written the last paragraph of the GOP state platform a few years back. The 2000 book store for the Society offers literature claiming abortion is used as population control and the government is indoctrinating families. The pamphlets contain commentary from Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a supporter. The work claims the intent is universal control of churches. In 1961, a Major Walker used JBS literature to indoctrinate troops in Europe. The senate floor denounced him for the activity.21 Contemporary mail outs attack the idea of global warming as a fictional invention to gain control of the world.
The John Birch Society is a peculiar blend of patriotism and anti-government sentiment. On the one hand the group portrays the role of super patriot, condemning flag burning and foreign aid.22 On the other hand their paranoid view of a conspiracy and the government has caused critics to claim they are a threat to national security.23 The September 16,1996 issue of the New American said, “Not only was the Gulf War undeclared, unconstitutional and unwarranted, but there are many indications that it was as phonily fomented as it’s predecessors.” The Society believes that the Civil Rights marches in the sixties were set up and controlled by secret One World movements.24 Hargis often went around the country telling folks that integration was a Communist plot.
JBS folks believe “insiders” are actually behind every election, foreign policy decision and declaration of wars in the nation. Members believe America must be warned, for these “insiders” want to make slaves out of American citizens. Society writer, Edward Griffin, does a concise job of summing up their political positions. He writes, “Federal agencies and tax-exempt foundations lavishly fund those organizations which create the appearance of pressure from below and for more government. The beneficiaries of this funding are not grassroots movements; the entire operation is orchestrated from above by the insiders. These are the agents who constitute a massive conspiracy to defraud the American people of their economic security and personal freedom.”25
The Society meeting I attended was filled with active church members. Everyone I met was active in a fundamentalist oriented church. Some of their writing claims that this diabolical world organization created in Europe and now operating through the Council of Foreign Relations has the Christian faith as a primary target. Their end times theories helps give endnotes to second coming authors who are never short of space at Christian bookstores. Tim LaHaye sound familiar here? By lending itself to European banking conspiracies one can see why critics might call them anti-semitic. Robert Welch denied anti-semitic links years ago. The fact of the matter is that groups that monitor right wing extremism see dangerous concepts taught in these circles. Popular author, Eric Hoffer, coined the term, “religiofication”, which he calls the art of turning practical purposes into holy causes.26 Welch definitely turned religiofication into an art form. This places the Birchers as identifying themselves with the Christian faith.
The JBS website advocates the pulling out of the U.N. with a huge emphasis on gun ownership. Lifetime membership is $2,000. Youth summer camps are announced. One is held annually in East Texas. Many Bible verses are quoted as well as the theme that America has divine origins. Understanding their positions helps comprehend the glue that binds the Religious Right together.
A final point needs to be made about the extremist connections to the Society. The racist, William Pierce, who wrote THE TURNER DIARIES, the book Tim McVeigh used as his model for the bombing of the Federal Building was a member.27 A Christian Identity leader in Mississippi is linked to membership.28 Identity members are hardcore racist and anti-semites who do not believe races outside the Anglo-Saxons are human. While awaiting his execution on death row, bomber, Tim McVeigh, chose to read the JBS magazine before his final venture to his reward for being a faithful patriot.30 A revealing testimony to the kind of ideas expressed in these circles.
Endnotes
1. Daniel Bell Ed., THE RADICAL RIGHT, Doubleday, N.Y., N.Y., 1963 pg. 202.
2. John George, NAZIS, COMMUNISTS, KLANSMEN AND OTHERS ON THE
FRINGE, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y. pg 215
3 William Pitts Ed.., TEXAS BAPTIST HISTORY VOL II, Fort Worth, TX 1987, pg 3
4. THE NEW AMERICAN, February 23, 2004
5. “The Assassination”, TIME, November 1998, pg. 4
6. Bell, pg. 208
7. Ibid. pgs. 204-205
8. Ibid. pgs. 204-208
9. Rob Boston, “Left Behind”, CHURCH AND STATE, February 2002 pg. 8
10. Russ Bellant THE COORS CONNECTION, Southend Press, Boston, 1988 pg. XIV & 31
11. Chad Bull, “Stalwarts of Freedom”, FAITH FOR ALL OF LIFE, Sept/Oct. 2006 pg.10
12. Neil Rodgers, Ed. “Christian Speech”, BAPTIST LAITY JOURNAL, Oct. 1988 pg 4
13. Steve Fox, “Why the Southern Baptist Convention is Upset with Dunn and the BJCPA”, SBC TODAY, January 1989, pg 20
14. Bellant pg 40
15. Ibid. pg 41
16. Mark Wingfield, “Candidates see Blessings of Religious Right”, BAPTIST STANDARD, January 31, 1996 pg 8
17. Tim LaHaye, THE BATTLE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Fleming Revelle Co.,
Old Tappan, N.J. 1983, pgs 271-275
18. Joseph Conn, “Pyramid Scheme”, CHURCH AND STATE, March 1996, pg 8
19. “With God on Our Side Part I”, KUHTV, Houston, 1996
20. Dan Smoot, THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT, Western Islands, Boston, 1962 pgs. 3, 31, 35, 51
21. Michelle Golbert, KINGDOM COMING, Norton, N.Y, 2006 pg 163
22. James Thorton, “Thrashing Our Sacred Symbols”, NEW AMERICAN, December 23, 1996, pg 31
23. Richard Abanes, AMERICAN MILITIAS
24. G. Edward Griffin, ‘Applying the Pincers Strateby”, NEW AMERICAN, September 16, 1996, pg 56
25. Ibid. pg 58
26. Eric Hoffer, THE TRUE BELIEVER, Harper and Row, N.Y., N.Y., 1951 pg 15
27. Morris Dees, GATHERING STORM, Harper, N.Y., N.Y., 1996 pg 138
28. Leonard Zeskind, The Christianity Identity Movement, National Council of Churches
Atlanta, GA 1987
29. Brandon Stickney, ALL-AMERICAN MONSTER, Prometeus Books, Amherst, N.Y.
1996, pg 194
Posted by Public Theologian at 09:06 PM | Comments (5)
December 17, 2006
Not All Evangelicals Support The "Left Behind" Game
Posted by Public Theologian
Today I had a fascinating conversation with an evangelical South Florida attorney named Jack Thompson, who is an ordained elder in the conservative Presbyterian Church in America. Thompson has been active in trying to beat back the tide of violent video games for more than two decades. Additionally, he has worked closely on this issue with the folks at James Dobson's Focus on the Family on numerous occasions. What gave him the most street cred with me, however, is that he is an author, and that Tyndale House, the people who have licensed the rights of the Left Behind book series to Left Behind Games, Inc, is his publisher.
Thompson said he is as baffled as progressive Christians at the decision by his evangelical colleagues to create this game, and worse, to use churches and religious bookstores as the primary vehicle in the marketing strategy to get the game into the hands of kids. He has been involved in several lawsuits of instances of "copy-cat killings" from the Grand Theft Auto game and thus has become something of an expert on the effects of violence on the minds of children. His work has led him both to write and speak against such games for many years, so naturally he was deeply disturbed that such evangelical heavyweights as Tim LaHaye and James Dobson would be lending support to the effort to promote the game as wholesome family entertainment. Furthermore, he said that the game presents to radical Islam a portrait of American Christianity that confirms their worst suspicions about us, namely that we mean them harm. He cannot understand how evangelicals, especially someone like the child psychologist Dobson, who normally is out front warning parents to keep their kids away from such games, can be giving this one the "thumbs up" on his web site.
I was very thankful for Mr. Thompson's call. We have very different politics and many points of difference in our theology. But we share a love for Christ, the church, and this country. That he would reach out to me, despite our differences, speaks volumes about the maturity of his personal faith as well as the sincerity which he brings to this issue. The politically correct thing for him to do would have been for him to fall in line and praise the game as the evangelistic tool of the year, which is how the Left Behind folks are trying to pitch this to the gullible. Failing that, he could have shut his mouth and just waited this controversy out. Instead, he volunteered to help in any way he could and offered to allow those of us in progressive Christian circles to use his name wherever it might help to counter the notion that the controversy around this game is some kind of liberal plot. Right thinking evangelicals know that it is dangerous, too.
I hope that you will join with me in praying that other evangelicals might be moved to take such a stand of faith on this important issue.
Posted by Public Theologian at 10:04 PM | Comments (13)
December 14, 2006
Why Did Religion and Politics Become All about Sex?
Posted by Jesus Politics
This is the question Diane Winston asks while looking at some recent articles on religion in the Los Angeles Times. Her answer is intriguing and worth a look.
An excerpt:
How and why did religion and politics become all about sex?
Jesus and Paul said comparatively little about sex and human sinfulness. They focused instead on love, forgiveness, and a concrete concern for serving “the least of these.” That message mobilized early English settlers in the New World. The Puritans were more concerned with building godly communities in America than in cataloguing immorality.
Puritanical behavior? For Mass Bay colonists, that meant caring, compassion and civic responsibility. Although this first wave of religious conservatives had a healthy respect for the body, they were neither prim nor particularly prurient. Legislating sexuality was not a central component of their community. Nor was it for subsequent religious groups, with exceptions such as the nineteenth century campaign -- mounted by politicians as well as preachers -- to outlaw polygamy.
What happened in the last 25 years to turn sexuality from a private pursuit to a public obsession? Some cite social changes that sprang from better birth control; others say the cultural vacuum after the fall of Eastern Bloc communism. Still others blame the emotional overload of an interconnected and increasingly complex world.
I think it’s something else -- something deeper, darker and more difficult to confront than the pill, the Internet or religious terrorism.
Getting and spending, our ubiquitous market culture, has made heretics of us all. At the heart of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament and Qu’ran, is an emphasis on economic justice and social responsibility. Sexual morality is more honored in the breach than the observance. Biblical menfolk prostitute their daughters, cast off their wives and chop off their adversaries’ penises. But they’re hospitable to strangers and suffer divine wrath when they’re not. Until very recently, charity, compassion and concern for the poor were Christianity’s key tenets and practical applications. Here in America, their centrality spanned the establishment of a Puritan commonwealth, the evangelical crusades for abolition, labor reform and suffrage, and most recently the civil rights movement, which Martin Luther King hoped to transform into an interracial poor people’s campaign for economic equality.
Most of King’s supporters could not follow him there and even fewer would be able to do so today. What is economic justice in a world where everyone wants to be a millionaire, and the health-and-wealth gospel is a staple of televangelists who preach that the products of affluence -- Jags, jets and mega-mansions -- are evidence of God’s grace?
With a social system gone awry and a religious vision to match, believers look outside themselves to find and judge sin. Out of control, they seek to control others and their bodies. But faced with the challenges of nuclear proliferation, bioterrorism, environmental cataclysm, and the growing gap between rich, can we really afford a myopic focus on each other’s genitals?
Posted by Jesus Politics at 03:05 AM | Comments (4)
December 11, 2006
International Human Rights Day
Posted by Westmoreland-White
10 December is celebrated the world over as International Human Rights Day. This gets very little press in the U.S.--especially in the last few years when our government has argued (with support from many "Christian" leaders) that various groups of people aren't human enough to have their rights protected. Some argue that those accused of terrorism have no human rights and can be tortured at will or imprisoned without trial (even though nothing has yet been proven). Others argue that Muslims or non-citizens have no rights that must be acknowledged. (Am I the only one hearing echoes of the infamous Dred Scott case in which the 19th C. Supreme Court ruled (a) that slaves were not citizens and (b) that no black people had any rights that white people "were bound to respect?!!") Some argue that sexual minorities have no rights--and label all moves for equal treatment for GLBT persons as campaigns for "special" rights--special like not being fired for being gay, or evicted, or being denied custody of a child, or denied coverage under partner's insurance, or banned from a partner's intensive care ward because one is not recognized as "family."
On this International Human Rights Day, the U.S. just surpassed China at having a greater percentage of our population in prison than any other nation--mostly due to mandatory prison sentences for nonviolent drug abusers and mandatory sentences for "crack" cocaine (largely used by the poor and racial minorities) while giving powdered cocaine (a more elitist form of the same drug used more by wealthy whites) probation and counseling. Much (not all) of the increase in female prison populations is due to a misuse of conspiracy and racketeering laws that have allowed corporation heads involved in illegal drug sales to pin their crimes on unwitting female secretaries or wives or girlfriends. The glaring atrocities of the Guantanemo Bay gulag, secret prisons, "star chamber" military tribunals and torture need only be mentioned.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, "honor" killings are carried out on women who get pregnant out of wedlock (even by rape!) or who marry unapproved men--by their own family members. Journalists are killed for telling the truth (while here journalists are becoming willing stenographers for powerful elites of business or government), novelists are imprisoned for "insults" to the national honor or to religious orthodoxy, and people are killed for changing religions. Human rights standards are trashed the world over.
The term "human rights" was coined in 1640 by Richard Overton, an English General Baptist influenced by Dutch Mennonites. Along with Congregationalist John Lilburne, Overton led the Levellers, a religiously inspired movement for political equality that sprung up during the English Civil War. His ideas would soon be supported by another Congregationalist, the blind poet John Milton, and by Quakers George Fox and William Penn, and Baptists Roger Williams, John Bunyan, Gerrard Winstanley, Dr. John Clarke, and Hanserd Knollys. Enlightenment philosophers who favored human rights like Locke, Rousseau, Jefferson, and Madison came later, building on, and in some cases WATERING DOWN, the robust views of human rights pioneered by these leftwing Protestants. Human Rights are a Christian (Free Church) heritage--and yet, today, the majority of U.S. Christians (not just Fundamentalists, but some centrists and liberals, too) ridicule this concept of basic justice for everyone as "secular thinking."
Let's reclaim our Human Rights heritage and work to protect human rights the world over--wherever they are threatened. This week, I sent in my renewal donations to Amnesty International and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. I challenge all "progressive Christians to find concrete ways to promote and defend human rights.
Posted by Westmoreland-White at 02:43 PM | Comments (10)
December 07, 2006
What Can Ted Haggard Teach Us?
Posted by Jesus Politics
The Ted Haggard scandal has passed and it is no longer in the headlines. The scandal does, however, still give us an opportunity to reflect on the ongoing struggle of the church to understand and accept homosexuality. Pastor Bob Cornwall has written an excellent article about this.
Some excerpts:
That the pastor of a Colorado Springs megachurch, president of National Association of Evangelicals, friend of powerful politicians, and one of the leading voices against gay marriage in America might himself be gay, or at least bi-sexual, raises questions that most of us in the religious world would just as soon not deal with. With few exceptions, even mainline Protestant denominations have embraced the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policies of the American military. [ ]
While there is an important political angle to this story, largely because Haggard was actively involved in conservative politics, the more important issue is why this happened in the first place. This isn’t a matter of a pastor in an unhappy marriage looking for a more fulfilling relationship with another woman. This is the revelation of the inner struggle to suppress urges considered sinful and ungodly. Ultimately, this is a story about who we are as human beings.
No entity plays a bigger role in the current debates over sexuality than the religious community, and this not just a Christian issue. Our entire society’s sexual mores are influenced, if not determined, by sacred texts of all denominations, most of which appear to frown upon homosexuality. Our debates and our conversations seem to center around how we view and interpret these texts. And it’s far more than an academic exercise, because human lives are at stake. [ ]
Almost as soon as Haggard had resigned, an effort was set in motion by conservative Evangelical leaders to “heal” him of his homosexuality. That he chose to go this route should not be surprising, as he really has no choice if he is to remain within his chosen community. My sense is that this will be a largely unsuccessful venture, but I wish him the best. The rest of us, however, mustn’t let this window of opportunity close without making an effort to come to some understanding about what homosexuality is and how the church should deal with it. [ ]
Despite this seeming openness, however, there remains significant resistance to homosexuality, especially within the church. At our most judgmental, we decry gays as sinners. At our most tolerant, we rely on the old double bind: it’s okay to be gay, but it’s not okay to practice it. I feel that, for the sake of the country and the church, it’s time to find the middle ground, and to finally have this difficult conversation about the true place of gays and lesbians in church and society. [ ]
As pastor of a moderate mainline Protestant congregation in a fairly conservative community, I know how painful it is for people to face these issues with honesty and compassion. I’m hopeful that my little community is ready for the conversation—they seem to be. For us as a congregation, this issue is wrapped up in our commitment to being a place of welcome. [ ]
But Scripture is not the only resource at our disposal. As my more restrictive views of women in the church have been softened by personal relationships, the same is true of my views of homosexuality. As friendships with gifted and called women have forced me to re-examine Scripture, so my discovery that my own brother is gay forced me to wrestle with Scripture and with the traditions of the church in a way I’d never done before. [ ]
What had once been an academic question now became a very personal one for this evangelically inclined mainliner. I used to believe that homosexuality was a choice, but further study, including my reading of the Rev. Dr. Mel White’s autobiography, “Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America,” has suggested otherwise. Overwhelming scientific evidence has shown that homosexuals are born, not made. Now I had to face the question: if the science is right, how should I as a Christian respond to my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters? I must confess I’ve not figured everything out yet, but I know that I can no longer believe as I once did.
This is a difficult time for Ted Haggard, his family, and his church. They have agonizing decisions to face, and this scandal has left a lot of collateral damage. But if the expose of Haggard leads to a broader view of sexuality within the church, then all is not lost. I may be an idealist, but I believe we may have come to one of those important turning points in history, and that we are big enough to learn from our mistakes, discover the real meaning of compassion and brotherhood, and finally have that big discussion that could transform the church, the nation, and the world.
Posted by Jesus Politics at 06:00 PM | Comments (146)
