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Recent
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May
8, 2003
Julie
Hilden
When It's a Crime to Visit Your Son
Mickey
Z.
Partisan Protests?
Mark
Zepezauer
Evil is as Evil Does
David Lindorff
The Coming Senior Revolution
Abu
Spinoza
The Detention of Dr. Huda Ammash
Ben
Tripp
The Other "F" Word
Norman
Madarasz
God in the Service of the Security
State: a Dispatch from Brazil
Stew Albert
Pushovers
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/08
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of the Day
Department of Sexual Security
May
7, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Quoting Under the Influence: Breasts,
Martinis, Hitchens
David
Krieger
Winning the War; Alienating the World
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush's Troubling Speech
Bruce Jackson
Bill Kunstler's Last Big Speech
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/07
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of the Day
The Truth About Bush's Military Records
May
6, 2003
Paul
de Rooij
An Activist in the Trenches: an Interview
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Money to Burn: in Defense of Bill Bennett
John
Stanton
Bush's War on Jesus
Sam
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W. Bush: the Little Snot, the Little
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Robert
Fisk
Bush Says the War is Over: Tell It to
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Kathleen
Christison
A Roadmap to Nowhere
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Bush's War Web Log 5/06
May
5, 2003
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Phase Two: Syria and Iran
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Mariscal
The Militarization of US Culture
Ishmael
Reed
A Family Values Man
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Sharon's Confidence: Bush Won't Come to Shove on Roadmap
Leila
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Regime Change Begins at Home...Literally
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3, 2003
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Tears of Rage: Remembering May 1970
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Searching Jenin
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American Bulk
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Bush's War Web Log 5/03
May
2, 2003
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Crowd Control American-style
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Gordon
US: No Right to Know About the Disappeared
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Bush's Military Defeat
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Question Those Writing History
Saul Landau
The Cuba Conundrum
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Bush's War Web Log 5/02
Website
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Moussaoui's
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May
1, 2003
Jeffrey
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Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole
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April
30, 2003
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Robert
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Bush's Strategic Myopia About the Middle East
Gabriel
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Iraq, the US and the End of the European Coalition
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29, 2003
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Don't Envy Abu-Mazen
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Brush with the Law
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Robert
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May
9, 2003
The Great Chistian Schism
Make War or
Peace?
by DON MONKERUD
While some Christians in America expressed serious
disagreements over going to war in Iraq, other Christians waved
the flag and cheered a war against heathen Muslims whom they
hope to convert to Christianity.
One wonders how religious groups that
claim to follow the same God and the Bible come to such different
conclusions. This is not idle speculation. With such a large
proportion of Americans professing to be Christians, the answers
will have a bearing on the future of our nation. Will we support
more military adventures or seek to resolve disputes peacefully?
On one hand, the US Council of Catholic
Bishops, the National Council of Churches (NCC) and hundreds
of religious leaders opposed the war and do not support preemptive
strikes. On the other hand, the Southern Baptist Convention supported
Bush's invasion on the basis that Iraq was an aggressor that
would cause "lasting, grave, and certain damage."
Robert Edgar, General Secretary of the
NCC attributes the split between Christians to those who believe
in a warrior god and those who believe in "blessed is the
peacemaker." Fundamentalists read the Bible and find God
leading a mighty army to divide the good from the bad, while
Edgar finds direction in biblical passages that urge us to love
our neighbors.
"Bush uses language like good and
evil very freely and inappropriately," Edgar says. "The
world is more complicated than black and white, good and evil."
Inappropriate statements-which Edgar
calls "hate speech" and "death speech"-by
Christian leaders such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Franklin
Graham inflame passions and lead to the deaths of innocent Christians
who are killed by fundamentalist Muslims. He urges more efforts
be given to conflict resolution, strengthening the UN and building
international cooperation and less on military solutions.
Douglas Johnston, president of the International
Center for Religion and Diplomacy in Washington, D.C., said that
religious leaders from the evangelical community play an influential
role in White House policy by encouraging fundamentalist views
of biblical prophecy about the end of the world, Israel and the
Middle East. When the White House acts on such views, the world
perceives the US being driven by a religious cult, which undermines
the good the US could do in the world.
A Gallup Poll in October showed that
practicing Christians are more likely than their nonpracticing
counterparts to favor the invasion of Iraq. Nationally, 60 percent
of those who reported that "religion is very important"
to them, support the war, which increases to 64 percent among
"born again" or evangelical Christians. In contrast,
only 49 percent of those who say religion is "not very important"
support invading Iraq.
"What a paradox," says Gregg
Carter, a sociologist at Bryant College in Smithfield, R.I. "Christ's
central messages on how we should come to terms with our enemies-through
love and charity-are ignored, overlooked, and disregarded by
a nation and a majority of its people who claim to be the heirs
of these messages and of their author."
Carter finds that the differences in
the scriptures emphasized by fundamentalists versus mainline
denominations are so great that they appear to be following two
completely different books. Fundamentalists are more likely to
take their cue from Romans in the New Testament, which say your
leaders come from God. Do what they say. If not, you will invoke
God's wrath. Other mainline Protestants take guidance from passages
in Luke, which advises Christians to love your enemies, do good
to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for
those who mistreat you.
Another reason for the schism comes in
who gets included in "the Kingdom of God." The mainline
churches include everyone while the evangelicals exclude those
who don't agree with their doctrine and interpretation of the
Bible. This position plays out politically with the far right
fundamentalist-predominately Republicans-who draw their strength
from the traditional "Bible Belt," the South and Midwest.
Religious leaders and Christians are
locked in disagreement. Evidently, the essential values of Christianity
have not been resolved after almost two thousand years. Despite
the rhetoric about America being "a Christian nation,"
Christians remain undecided on whether to embrace their enemies
or kill them.
Don Monkerud
lives in Aptos, California. He can be reached at: monkerud@cruzio.com
Yesterday's
Features
Julie
Hilden
When It's a Crime to Visit Your Son
Mickey
Z.
Partisan Protests?
Mark
Zepezauer
Evil is as Evil Does
David Lindorff
The Coming Senior Revolution
Abu
Spinoza
The Detention of Dr. Huda Ammash
Ben
Tripp
The Other "F" Word
Norman
Madarasz
God in the Service of the Security
State: a Dispatch from Brazil
Stew Albert
Pushovers
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/08
Website
of the Day
Department of Sexual Security
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