In 2009 the Obama administration, led by the full-throated imperialist war-monger, Hillary Clinton, facilitated a military coup against the
Former Honduran president Manuel Zalaya
democratically elected, and wildly popular, Honduran president, Manuel Zalaya (see here, here, here and here).
Since then, Honduras has descended into a horrific maelstrom of drug-trafficking, gang warfare, murder, and economic collapse for the common people.
But little of this matters to the U.S. government because our hand-picked replacement for Zalaya, the current president Juan Orlando Hernandez, has implemented the malicious, neo-liberal economic practices well-suited to the expansion of American multi-national corporations.
Never mind that Hernandez and his family are all up to their eyeballs in the
Current Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez
drug trade. Together with his wife and brother, they have all been indicted by U.S. attorneys for drug trafficking (see here, here, here and here).
Under Hernandez’s watch, Honduran democracy has been crushed and the gates of hell-on-earth opened up. It is now one of the most violent nations in the western hemisphere with a sky-rocketing murder rate.
The greatest factor driving this scourge of nation-wide violence is the shocking growth of drug-cartel related gang violence. These brutal gangs literally run the country, at least for the average man and woman in the street.
So, the people literally flee for their lives, especially the lives of their children.
Honduran migrants take part in a caravan heading to the US, on the road linking Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on October 21, 2018. – Thousands of Honduran migrants resumed their march toward the United States on Sunday from the southern Mexican city of Ciudad Hidalgo, AFP journalists at the scene said. (Photo by Pedro Pardo / AFP) (Photo credit should read PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images)
And they flee to the United States, NOT as “illegal immigrants” (whatever you think of that label) but as legal asylum seekers.
What does America do — after we have destroyed their homeland?
We refuse to give them the humanitarian assistance that they deserve.
In other words, first we burn their house down, and then we refuse to give them shelter.
Instead, we take away their children, put them in detention camps or foster homes and lose track of where we put them.
Please watch the video links below for more information about the current immigration debate that rarely if ever receives the attention it deserves from the media or our politicians. Have you ever heard an intelligent conversation or debate about our current immigration policies that included this issue of U.S. interference abroad?
I haven’t.
First, an interview with Pulitzer-Prize winning author/journalist, Sonia Nazario. She describes her recent investigative visits to Honduras, and what she witnessed there (about 18 min.).
Hondudran gang members. Enforcers for drug cartels propped up by the U..S.
She describes Honduras today as “a narco-state supported by the United States.”
Second, a two-part interview (part 1, part 2) with former president Zalaya where he discusses the U.S. backed coup that forced him to flee the country.
He aptly describes Hillary Clinton as a “mafia boss.”
Everyone seeking refuge in our country after escaping the violent landscape
Clinton, the “mafia boss”
left to them by U.S. interventionism, deserves asylum here.
Christians especially ought to be knowledgeable and filled with empathy over the plight of those refugees who suffer because of American meddling in their homelands.
Include these crucial facts in your next conversation with anyone ignorantly chanting, “Send them back.”
The city of Ramallah is the provisional capital of the Palestinian state. It is located in the West Bank region designated as Area A.
Supposedly, Area A is under the autonomous control of the Palestinian Authority. Israeli propaganda says that the people living in this area have complete autonomy without the interference of Israeli forces.
Zionist literature, included ALL of the Christian Zionist work that I am reading these days, label Palestinian protesters against Israel as unappreciative, recalcitrant dead-enders who rebel simply because they hate Jews.
The proof, they say, is the supposed freedom and independence Palestinians have been granted by Israel throughout the West Bank in communities designated as part of Area A.
In other words, why else would Palestinians who have been granted their freedom continue to protest against good-natured Israel? Obviously, they must be ungrateful anti-Semites.
Below is a video of Israeli soldiers harassing and firing tear-gas at a non-violent march of Palestinians near the city of Ramallah in Area A.
Check it out:
This confrontation between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians is something that politicians on a tour of Israel sponsored by AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) — such as the one recently boycotted by Reps. Omar and Tlaib — would never be allowed to see.
Forty-on Democrats and thirty-one Republicans participated in the most recent trip, sponsored annually by AIPAC.
Thankfully, the trip was boycotted by Reps. Omar and Tlaib because they know better. These women know the truth about Israel.
Israeli public relations people sponsor these tours in order to repeat their government propaganda:
“Nothing to see here in Area A. These people are autonomous and independent. They live in freedom. Disturbances are addressed by Palestinian police. Israeli soldiers are not allowed here.”
And this smiling gaggle of American doofuses, masquerading as
U.S. politicians being indoctrinated by Zionist propaganda on AIPAC sponsored tour of Israel
knowledgeable politicians, will then return home more ignorant and ill-informed about the plight of the Palestinian people than when they accepted a free trip to Israel from AIPAC.
And they will repeat these lies to their constituents, many of whom are misguided Christian Zionists, about Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank.
The fact is, there is no place in the West Bank, Gaza or the state of Israel where Palestinians are truly free. They do not enjoy civil rights or genuine equality anywhere that is controlled by the Israeli government.
As you watch the video notice that the only people carrying weapons are the Israeli soldiers. All of the Palestinians are unarmed. I have never seen any Palestinians carrying weapons at any of the protest marches I have attended in the West Bank.
I recognize one of the marchers as a friend of mine who is unwaverlingly committed to non-violence.
Some months ago he was released from an Israeli prison.
He had been arrested for the horrible crime of protesting the all-too common imprisonment of Palestinian children by the Israeli military. He dared to stand in public with a home-made sign objecting to the arrest of 17 year-old Ahed Tamimi for the dangerous act of slapping an Israeli soldier.
A soldier, by the way, who had just finished shooting one of her cousins in the head.
My friend’s arrest for protesting occurred in another section of Area A, where — the Israeli government assures us — the Palestinian people are free.
I tried listening to a conservative, call-in radio program last night. Five to ten minutes was all I could take before my bleeding ears forced me to change the station.
The topic of conversation was the “invasion” of immigrants “flooding” across America’s southern border.
The first thing I noticed was the ignorance on display about the average person’s living circumstances in Central American countries where the U.S. has toppled governments in the recent past. The second and most prominent factor was the hard-hearted lack of empathy or compassion voiced by both the bloviating host and his lynch-mob minded callers.
It was painful to listen.
The ability to empathize – that is, feel an impulse for putting ourselves in another person’s place, to understand their pain, to try to feel what they are feeling as they are feeling it – is an important trait for every human being to possess. Some would say it is part of what makes us human.
Unfortunately, not everyone can do it. Many don’t ever try.
Both sociopaths and psychopaths can be identified by their inability, or well-practiced disinterest, in feeling empathy. So, they can skin cats alive and watch other people suffer without experiencing a twinge of concern or human kindness.
I can only hope that a high percentage of psychopaths make evening calls to conservative radio talk shows . Otherwise, America really is in deep trouble.
Perhaps you have heard the old saying about empathy: Before you criticize another person first walk a mile in his shoes. Then when you do criticize him you will be a mile away AND have his shoes.
At least, that seems to be the American, conservative understanding of empathy nowadays.
These children came home from school only to learn that their parents had been arrested by ICE. ICE agents say they are not responsible for the children
The painful lack of public empathy that I witnessed last night is also glaring evidence that many Americans who call themselves Christians do not know Jesus Christ from a hole in the ground, no matter what their “testimony.”
Empathy is THE cardinal Christian virtue.
The incarnation of Jesus Christ was/is the supreme demonstration of divine empathy. The Father’s empathy for us, lost sinners, motivated him to send
His parents have vanished and ICE made no allowances for what to do with him or dozens of other minor children
his one and only eternal Son into this world. Empathy for humanity moved the Son to become fully human; to experience all that we experience; and to stick with it for an entire lifetime. He walked in our shoes, carried our burdens, suffered injustice, died our death, and finally experienced resurrection as our Precursor.
To know Jesus is to know empathy.
To be like Jesus is to demonstrate empathy for others, but especially for those who are the most “unlike” us. The Son of God was UTTERLY unlike sinful humanity in every way. Yet, He set aside all privilege in order to rescue undeserving, ungrateful, self-destructive people like you and me.
The kingdom of God is a kingdom founded on empathy for others unlike ourselves.
It is a kingdom founded upon practical action to meet others in their suffering and to alleviate their distress, to bring practical solutions to human dilemmas, to save life, to make more room for those seeking safety, to share whatever we have with those who have lost everything.
Without empathy there is no such thing as Christianity.
Without empathy there is no discipleship.
Without visible demonstrations of practical empathy there is no Christian Church.
Without empathy there is no hope for the human race or the planet.
The El Paso gunman left behind a manifesto proclaiming his allegiance to white supremacy, decrying the dangerous hordes of brown immigrants “flooding” across our southern border. I haven’t heard any details yet about the shooter in Ohio, his motives or political ideology.
At least, law enforcement has begun to describe these horrific incidents for what they are: domestic terrorism.
The FBI continues to warn that the vast majority of these incidents are committed by right-wing political extremists who are, without exception, white men. In most cases, their targets are people of color. Nowadays, anyone who looks like they might be Hispanic or Muslim is scrutinized without mercy.
Look at YouTube to watch the many videos posted there showing the white vigilantes who have deputized themselves to harass people of color. They call the police because they overheard someone speaking a different language, or saw a black person walking through the neighborhood and “looking suspicious while being black.”
No informed citizen with an ounce of common sense can deny the overt,
Survivors of the El Paso shootings
blatant, explicit encouragement that such anti-immigrant, white, racist extremism is receiving from the White House.
If you don’t understand or believe that previous sentence then, I am sorry, but you are lost.
You need to be converted.
Your conscience has been swallowed up by the swamp of moral relativism and outright evil that has taken hold of this country’s public life, especially within the comfortable parlors of political conservatism, Republicanism and establishment D.C. power brokers.
And, yes, that moral degeneration includes the Democrats as well as anyone else who remains silent while the newest wave of neo-Nazis, skin-heads, neo-fascists and every other stripe of authoritarian race-baiter feels that this moment in our nation’s history is their opportunity to resurrect the Confederate flag and wave a banner of white, racial superiority over the graves of innocent men, women and children whose skin-tone carries too much melanin.
But I reserve my strongest condemnation for conservative evangelicals who continue to endorse this president’s policies and turn a blind eye to the daily dose of hatred spewing forth from his puerile and filthy mouth.
He is the latest anti-Christ who has risen up to deceive the church; like a false prophet crying, “Peace, peace!” while he sows seeds of hatred, lies and racial division.
Everyone likes to imagine they would have been a hero in Hitler’s Germany. We all tell ourselves, “I would have resisted. I would have hidden Jews in MY attic. I would never have allowed the Nazi flag in MY church. The Fuehrer’s censors would have never have been allowed to edit MY sermons.”
We swear that we would have been a faithful Israelite, never to be counted among the idolaters that sent the nation into exile.
We would have been faithful disciples. Unlike Simon Peter, we would have spoken up in Jesus’ defense when the time came.
Well, folks now is the moment, another moment of truth.
Another opportunity for faithfulness to Christ is staring us in the face. The question is – what will we, what can we, do?
I have a few suggestions:
Every church, and every member of every church, located in a town, village, city or unincorporated township with a population of dark-skinned immigrants needs to walk door-to-door through those neighborhoods, shaking hands and offering hugs, help and resources while welcoming those people of color into your community. Listen to their stories. Ask if there is anything you and/or your church community can do to help meet their needs. Then follow through, and do it. Make new friends. Have them over to your home; eat together and publicly testify to their humanity at every opportunity. Push for your church to become a more inter-racial community, if it isn’t already.
Challenge all racist, white-nationalist types of conversation whenever, wherever you hear it – especially among Christians. Remind people that Jesus of Nazareth was a very brown-skinned, Palestinian Jew who had once been an immigrant himself seeking safety in a foreign land (Egypt). We worship a dark-skinned Savior. Avoid fights, but faithfully and boldly represent the universal love of God for all people everywhere.
Remind people that there is a difference between illegal immigration and seeking asylum. Asylum-seeking is perfectly legal. In fact, I believe that America owes automatic asylum – even citizenship – to anyone fleeing a dangerous situation in a country that has been destabilized by U.S. intervention, whether military, political or economic. THAT, my friends, includes the whole of Central and South America. When the United States helps to destroy the social fabric of a nation by forcing it to adopt policies that serve American interests first, then we must take responsibility for the human fall-out. (Personally, I also believe that illegal immigration ought to be decriminalized. We would still have border guards patrolling the southern border humanely, seeking to care for the people they detain and send back, but what is the point of jailing these people as felons after their second capture? It serves no purpose but to enrich those who own America’s private, for-profit prison/detention system.)
I haven’t touched on the many related issues such as the American gun lobby, gun ownership, etc. because I don’t want this post to become a book. We could also talk about the policy of separating children from their parents when detained at the border, and the fact that our government admits to having “lost track” of nearly 1,500 of these children. Imagine if they were your children…
Urge your pastor to talk about these issues in the context of obedient Christian discipleship. It is obvious and easy to “pray for the victims” of a mass shooting. Perhaps, it is the pastoral thing to do. But think about it: what good did it do for patriotic, German pastors to offer nice pastoral prayers for those who were being arrested and tortured by Hitler’s SS guards, while remaining silent about the immoral policies being implemented by those unjust arrests? The church needs more than safe, pastoral prayers for victims. We need strong leadership and pointed Biblical teaching that identifies immorality and injustice in the public square; that gives direction to God’s counter-cultural ways of kingdom living in a nation wrestling with its own racist demons.
Those of you who have read this blog for sometime will know that I try to keep track of Lawrence Wilkerson, his interviews, lectures and writings, as
Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson
diligently as possible.
You may recall that Wilkerson is a retired Army colonel, former chief of staff to Colin Powell during the Bush Jr. administration. He is now a regular contributor to The Real News Network.
He is a rare breed. As far as I know, he is the only member of that administration to have promptly admitted to the wrongheadedness, stupidity, deception, illegality, and wholesale systemic, political failure that led up to the disastrous and immoral Iraq war.
The United States is now teetering on the brink of a major conflict, perhaps even an outright war, with Iran. Those of you who have followed the recent history of US relations with Iran will not be surprised to hear Col. Wilkerson describe this administration’s current anti-Iran saber rattling as a repetition of the horrific boondoggle that led us into the Iraq war.
I won’t take the time to rehearse that sorry story-line here, rather I will simply quote a few of the more telling words from Col. Wilkerson in the hopes that you will be motivated to watch the entire 17 minute interview available here and here.
Below are a few gems from Wilkerson:
“I wouldn’t doubt for a moment that we [the US government] would manufacture another Gulf of Tonkin incident…” [Remember, the Gulf of
Vietnamese children fleeing their village; it had just been hit with napalm.
Tonkin incident was a fictitious “attack” on an American ship that became the official excuse for US military action in Vietnam.]
We are being governed “by clowns and baboons in Washington…”
“The world now sees the US as insane…warmongers…”
I believe that every follower of Jesus is called to be a pacifist. Consequently, the Christian’s public posture must always be in favor of peace, combating war and violence whenever, wherever it tries to raise its ugly head.
The necessity of public, anti-war protest is especially urgent when our “leaders” agitate for war on the basis of lies, misinformation and propaganda.
There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for the United States to see Iran as a hostile power, much less an enemy in need of a good bombing.
Know this: You and I are being lied to regularly by the MSM every time they discuss Iran.
I urge you to please do what I have done — call and/or write your elected officials and urge them to say NO to any and all efforts to attack Iran.
Only Congress has the Constitutional authority to declare war. Tell your senators and representatives, at the very least, to insist on the enforcement of the War Powers Resolutions of 1973.
For some reason, religious conservatives in America insist on viewing themselves as a persecuted minority.
Gene Veith complains regularly about the persecution of American Christians at Patheos. His most recent post in this vein is entitled “Dehumanizing Christians.”
Though he thankfully, and quite necessarily, exhorts Christians never to dehumanize anyone, the focus of his piece centers nonetheless on a supposed increase in the dehumanization of traditional Christians in this era of expanding “neo-Marxist” politics.
There is MUCH to be explored here, but I will limit myself to only two brief points:
First, my current bedtime reading consists of Professor Jason Stanley’s book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (Random House, 2018). It’s a good book, not hard to read, and I highly recommend it. Professor Stanley offers a boatload of historical material, both old and new, to illustrate his description of fascist politics and its affects throughout modern, western history.
Last night’s reading consisted of Stanley’s many examples of right-wing, fascist political parties expanding throughout Europe today. An attentive reader can’t help but notice close similarities to the current atmosphere in American politics during this era of Trump’s presidency.
Stanley’s is not the first book I’ve read in the past few years discussing the history and characteristics of fascism — think of guys like Hitler, Mussolini and Franco.
I confess that I had a difficult time falling asleep as I contemplated, with a very downcast frame of mind, the many features of American public life that make this country overly ripe for our own slide into fascist territory. In fact, some would say we have been there for some time.
So, here is a BULLETIN for Veith, Siewers, and similar conservative fear-mongers: the world is not threatened by the spread of neo-Marxism at this moment in history, neither are American Christians a primary target of extremist violence.
To begin with, there is no Marxist movement of any sort, whether neo, paleo, crypto, or psycho, in America today. Period.
In fact, the United States does not have a genuine leftist, left-wing, authentically liberal political party any more, despite the faux warnings of people like Laura Ingram, Shawn Hannity and Tucker Carlson.
Leftist strains of American politics died as viable political options long ago, with the demise of leaders like Frances Perkins (FDR’s Secretary of Labor), Dorothy Day, (Founder of the Catholic Workers Movement), Eugene Debs (5
Henry A. Wallace (1888 – 1965), one of my political heroes
times presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America), and Henry A. Wallace (vice-president for FDR).
However, we DO face the very real and very dangerous threat of fascism. But conservative pundits will rarely, if ever, recognize the dangers posed by this problem because of their own authoritarian instincts. (One of the great failings of the American church, in my view, is its strong preference for authoritarianism and social control over freedom and liberty, but I digress.)
The fascist threat has already expanded throughout central and eastern Europe, and it could easily emerge vestigially in this country too, like the creepy, embryonic crab creature that latches onto your innocent face and then bursts your bowels in the Alien movie franchise.
Don’t be too skeptical. Large sectors of the American public have thrown their arms around fascism more than once in our history. Recall Sinclair Lewis’ famous (purported) statement, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
The right’s fraudulent neo-Marxist label is merely the favorite boogeyman
If you have never read Sinclair Lewis’ novel, _It Can’t Happen Here_, I encourage you to do so. He predicts what American fascism will look like.
conjured up by conservative pundits in order first, to scare their followers and second, to smear whomever they wish to attack at the moment.
Notice, for instance, how the neo-Marxist “threat” is also the favorite whipping boy for another current conservative phenom, Jordan Peterson. (Personally, I can’t understand his popularity, especially in the church.)
Second, as numerous studies have documented, the greatest rise in domestic terrorism and politically motivated violence in America has come from the right wing, not the left.
In 2009, the Republican-controlled congress suppressed and eventually pressured the Department of Homeland Security to repudiate its own report warning about the growing dangers of extreme right-wing violence in American. (see here, here and here).
Well, folks. What they predicted in 2009 is coming true in 2019.
I clearly remember the times when candidate Trump encouraged and even praised public violence at his campaign rallies.
Trump applauded those who punched his critics and pledged to pay their legal expenses. I watched the coverage at the time. He stoked his followers’ anger at the news media, calling out specific journalists covering his campaign, and “blessed” anyone who would teach them aside in order to teach them a thing or two.
In 2018, the Anti-Defamation League published a report entitled “Murder and Extremism in the United States” documenting the sharp rise in politically motivated, violent crimes in this country. The report’s executive summary begins with this sentence:
“2018 was a particularly active year for right-wing extremist murders: every single extremist killing — from Pittsburgh to Parkland — had a link to right-wing extremism.” (emphasis mine)
I urge you to read the report for yourself. You will never hear about the dramatic increase of this problem from conservative pundits or cable news.
God’s people are called to deal in truth, which requires investigating the facts, all the facts. It means being honest; doing our best to critique our own biased tendencies; remembering that our primary allegiance is to God’s kingdom, not a political party, an ideology, or secular movement of any stripe.
We can never deal in fear-mongering or false accusations. The truth of the gospel is our standard of communication.
So, here are the simple facts:
First, neither Christians nor political conservatives are the primary, or the expanding, targets of politically or religiously motivated violence in America. To say otherwise is to perpetuate a myth.
The prize for being targeted by political violence goes to American Muslims, African-Americans, other people of color, and immigrants — including legal immigrants.
The bottom line is, white Christians need to stop their whining and abandon their self-pitying victim mentality. It is more than unbecoming. It is ungodly.
Second, you and I are about as likely to be harmed (whether physically, emotionally, psychically or rhetorically) by a rabid “neo-Marxist” as we are to be hit by an asteroid. In fact, we are more likely to be struck by lightning.
If any of us (God forbid) is ever injured in an incident of domestic terrorism, the perpetrator, in all likelihood, will be a right-wing, ultra-conservative conspiracy theorist (who will probably imagine that he has been victimized by various and sundry neo-Marxist assailants.)
I firmly believe that Christian social and political engagement is important. But we need to understand what is actually going on in the world. We dare no live in a dream world.
Such understanding requires stepping outside of the Christian media mis-information bubble, reading widely, studying broadly, and keeping our eyes focused on the kingdom of God.
Our only hope is in Jesus, and he never asks us to mislead others or to misrepresent the facts.
I am offering this post to highlight the stark contrast that exists between the way U.S. news outlets cover criticism of Israel (think of Rep. Ilhan Omar) vs. the way it covers, or fails to cover, truly horrific, racist events in Israel itself.
The difference is telling.
The events described in the article below occurred in 2016. Think back two
A large anti-Palestinian rally in Tel Aviv. The sign says, Kill Them All
years ago. Can you remember hearing a news story describing these anti-Palestinian rallies in Tel Aviv?
Compare the number of times you’ve heard a public figure suggest that Ilhan Omar is an anti-Semite with the number of similar condemnations you’ve heard of these despicable Israeli demonstrations.
Israel in 2016 was no different than it is today. No, I take that back. Israel in 2019 may be worse.
While mainstream America, including too many of our politicians, are ready to muzzle Israel’s critics, a sizeable portion of Israeli citizens publicly advocate racist violence against Palestinians.
So, which is the more “dangerous” type of speech? Ilhan Omar’s criticism of the power of pro-Zionist lobbying groups in D.C.? Or large public rallies in Israel calling for the genocide of the Palestinian people?
You can read the entire article by clicking on the title above. I also provide an excerpt below:
“Israeli government concern over recent violence has led them to arrest Palestinians for social media content that could potentially lead to crimes. So far, 145 Palestinians have been arrested this year for ‘pre-crime’ via social media ‘incitement.’ This practice eventually led to a collaboration between Facebook and the Israeli government, whose joint effort to curb social media ‘incitement’ has led to the banning of several Facebook accounts of Palestinian journalists and news agencies.
“However, social media, as well as mainstream Western media, have failed to condemn Israeli ‘incitement’ against Palestinians, a practice that is surprisingly
Another anti-Palestinian rally in Israel, photographed by Dan Cohen, a Jewish-American journalist. The crowd was chanting, Death to Arabs.
common considering the little to no attention it receives. Often these anti-Palestinian posts, pictures, and rallies are rife with calls for genocide, with cries of ‘Death to the whole Arab nation’ and ‘Kill them all’ surprisingly common.
“Even the Times of Israel ran an op-ed article about ‘When Genocide is Permissible’ in reference to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Though the post was eventually taken down, it points to an all-too-common and dangerous mentality that social media, the Israeli government, and Western media ‘conveniently’ ignore.
“An Israeli news agency even put the then-suspected preferential treatment to the test and found that Facebook and the Israeli authorities treated calls for revenge from Palestinians and Israelis very differently.
“Even massive rallies calling for Palestinian genocide have been ignored entirely by social media and the corporate press. Earlier this year in April, a massive anti-Palestinian rally took place in Tel Aviv where thousands called for the death of all Arabs. The rally was organized to support an Israeli soldier who killed an already-wounded Palestinian by shooting him execution-style in the head…
“A Jewish reporter at the scene remarked that it seemed ‘more like a celebration of murder than anything.’ Despite the obvious animosity and incitement made evident at the rally, it isn’t difficult to imagine what the response would have been if this has been a pro-Palestinian rally calling for the deaths of Jews. The stark divide between what is permissible for Palestinians and what is permissible for Israelis should concern us all as the widespread bias of social media, the press, and many governments threaten to blind us from the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Religion is both unifying and divisive. It’s the nature of the beast.
A set of shared beliefs and common acts of piety will consolidate a community of the faithful in shared devotion. But those religious practices will simultaneously exclude anyone who thinks, believes and behaves otherwise.
That’s why religious liberty and toleration have been crucial to the history of America’s experiment with democracy. It is also why the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his book The Social Contract, insisted that Christianity must be replaced by something he called Civil Religion– that is, the citizens’ devotion to the State.
We are currently witnessing a very public debate over the inclusion of 9/11 and the destruction of the Twin Towers into the religious iconography and liturgy of American civil religion.
Rep. Ilhan Omar recently gave a speech (a very good and important speech, in my view) condemning the persistent discrimination experienced by American Muslims in the aftermath of 9/11. She focused on the rise of Islamophobia in this country, which has been the dark-side of the aftermath of 9/11 in this country.
Unfortunately, the keepers of America’s high-and-holy civil religion were
Rep. Ilhan Omar
indignant about Omar’s remarks because, in their view, she was not sufficiently reverential when referring to the tragedy. And a tragedy it was; a horrific tragedy. But there is a world of difference between the tragic and the sacred.
Omar’s point was that “some people did something,” as she put it, meaning a few Saudi Arabians flew airliners into the Twin Towers, and as a result, every Muslim in America has been put under a microscope and viewed with suspicion as a potential “terrorist” ever since.
Speaking from the place of the underdog, a Muslim woman of color in post-9/11 America, Rep. Omar was condemning the overflow of injustice that has been meted out upon her community by those holding the reins of power in the American establishment.
The high priests of American civil religion are not happy.
Omar was immediately condemned for not genuflecting in the direction of the fallen Towers. She failed to cloth herself in dust and ashes. She didn’t speak solemnly enough or kneel deeply enough while weeping a stream of tears. In short, she wanted to present a different perspective, speaking, not for the dead but for the living, for the many who continue to suffer needlessly because of the 9/11 tragedy.
As a result, Omar has been branded a heretic. She has violated the central tenet of all civil religion – worship of the innocent nation as holy. But Omar didn’t embrace America’s mythology about striding the globe as a paragon of innocence, attacked without cause or justification by the dark-skinned denizens of evil on 9/11.
Nor do I. And neither should you.
Now she is paying the price that every truth-teller pays when speaking Truth to Power.
The president joined in with the uncivil chorus of civil religion choir boys by tweeting a short film linking Omar to the 9/11 attacks, implicitly accusing her of sacrilege. Rep. Omar’s congressional office is now receiving more death threats against the congresswoman than ever before. Her security detail has been increased.
Even Nancy Pelosi, the House majority leader, gave Rep. Omar a back-handed slap when she issued a statement condemning Trump’s tweet. She scolded,
The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence. The President shouldn’t use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack.
Spoken like a career politician and high priestess in the temple of America. The standard of sacred discourse about America’s tragedy has been established for all to see. It must be done with reverence as we approach holy ground…but excuse me while I toss my cookies.
We can read between Pelosi’s lines. Yes, the president is a hate-mongering sociopath who doesn’t think twice about fomenting more violence against an innocent woman whose family is already under 24-hour police protection.
But notice how Pelosi also smoothly sticks a shiv into Omar’s back.
Only an experienced priestess of power could issue a statement explicitly condemning the president’s grotesque bloviating, while implicitly condemning her party colleague for failing to offer up proper homage to American sanctity.
Of course, the fundamental problem with all of this is that civil religion is an abomination. It is idolatry, plain and simple. And we are currently witnessing another example of its destructive power.
God’s people cannot have anything to do with this kind of foolishness.
We certainly have no business cheering on either the cruelty and maliciousness demonstrated by the president, or the self-righteousness displayed by today’s Pharisees and high priests of American civil piety. Both the Left and the Right are equally guilty.
A pox on both their houses.
There is nothing holy or sacred about the ruins of the Twin Towers or the memory of 9/11. God does not live there. He never did. It is certainly a place for people to grieve the massive loss of life and the thousands of loved ones murdered that day, but neither tragedy nor sorrow turns a renovated ruin into sacred space.
That sanctification occurs only in the presence of The Holy One, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
But the Ancient of Days has not built his temple in America. Neither does civil religion give God glory.
But then, instigating violence and vitriol against a principled woman who speaks her conscience looks very much like the rotten fruit one would expect to issue from civil religion’s demonic tree.
Personally, I won’t speak of 9/11 in hushed tones, but I will stand with Rep. Omar.
You can read the entire piece, which contains a video clip of the T.V. interview under discussion, by clicking on the title above. Or you can read a brief excerpt provided below.
I am writing this post for several reasons:
First, I found Erickson’s article interesting. I agree with his argument about Buttigieg’s moral relativism with respect to Buttigieg’s decision to lead a gay lifestyle, including his marriage to another man.
Erickson is right to point out that Buttigieg can’t call out President Trump’s hypocrisy for ignoring Biblical commands to “help the widows and the orphans” while simultaneously ignoring the New Testament’s condemnations of same-sex intimacy.
Nope, that doesn’t wash, Mr. Buttigieg.
Pete Buttigieg
Buttigieg’s judgments on this score not only look like cherry-picking from among the select pieces of scripture he happens to like (or dislike), it IScherry-picking of the most obvious sort.
My concerns begin with the title of this article — “Pete Buttigieg Shows Why Progressive Christianity is a Hypocritical Farce.”
The title raises a number of troubling questions which Mr. Erickson never tries to answers.
How does he define Progressive Christianity? What is it exactly? A writer really shouldn’t be attacking something that he makes no effort to describe.
And why should I accept Mr. Erickson’s assumption that Pete Buttigieg is a (if not the) representative of said Progressive Christianity? Has Mr. Buttigieg ever made that claim for himself? Has an official spokesperson for “Progressive Christianity” ever claimed Pete Buttigieg as its chosen candidate?
Nope and nope. So, I have to ask, on what basis is Erickson implying that connection now? In fact, what the heck is he trying to say by making such a suggestion???
Nope, Mr. Erickson. This is an underlying assumption of yours that I’m not willing to share. Such ill-conceived innuendo does not constitute an argument.
Furthermore, demonstrating one respect in which Buttigieg is being hypocritical (an extremely human trait by the way, displayed by all of us at one time or another) is a far cry from proving that the entirety of Progressive Christianity (however that is defined) is either hypocritical or farcical.
You are grossly over-reaching Mr. Erickson, which always makes me suspicious that there is something other than a concern for proper Biblical interpretation and its consistent application animating your arguments.
I think I smell a purely political agenda brewing in the background; partisanship disguised in the popular garb of Christian conscience.
Actually, in a round-about fashion, Erickson ends up showing us that his view of Christianity is every bit as skewed by partisan loyalties as is Buttigieg’s.
In his article chiding Buttigieg for publicly denying the possibility that president Trump might be a Christian, Erickson begins by pointing out how “badly” Buttigieg himself performs while “trying to play a Christian on television.”
The implication is clear: Erickson can’t believe that Buttigieg is a genuine Christian, either.
Ouch. I can’t help but wonder if Erickson is “trying to play a Christian” at The Resurgent?
In one way, I agree with Buttigieg. I do not find Trump’s profession of Christian faith the least bit believable, either. The man is a career criminal who admits that he has never felt the need either to confess his sins or to ask God for forgiveness. Trump’s past, as well as his present, suggest that our president is a sociopath.
And that, sadly, assures us that our current president is (for now, at least) a son of perdition.
On the other hand, I don’t know know much about either Mr. Erickson or Mr. Buttigieg, and I can’t judge either man’s faith in Jesus. (Perhaps I will write another post in the near future about how a Christian may or may not pursue a gay lifestyle.) However, I’ll happily remind them both that being a Christian means submitting the entirety of our lives, in every respect, to the teaching and the Lordship of the resurrected Jesus.
That Jesus was not a progressive or a conservative or a democrat or a republican. Christ’s only partisanship is to the eternal glory of his heavenly Father. Thus, he remains the eternal Son who requires that his followers seek after God’s kingdom, first, last, and always.
Here, finally, is that excerpt I promised:
“Buttigieg said he thought evangelicals backing President Trump were hypocritical because when he goes to church he hears about taking care of widows, the poor, and refugees, but Trump does not do that. Buttigieg went on to draw a distinction. In his professional conduct, Trump does not take care of widows and refugees as scripture commands and Buttigieg is right on this. Then Buttigieg continues that in Trump’s personal life as well he falls short of Christian behavior (he is right on that part too, by the way, but then we are all sinners). You can see the full, unedited exchange here.
“Interestingly, Buttigieg goes on to note that evangelicals are too focused on sexual ethics these days. He seems to be arguing that they need to drop that aspect of their faith, as he has. Then comes the pivot exposing Buttigieg’s own hypocrisy.
“Buttigieg thinks the President is not really behaving as one who believes in God because, as President, Donald Trump is not taking care of the widows, the orphans, the poor, and the refugees. Chuck Todd asks Buttigieg about his position on abortion and Buttigieg’s response is that abortion is a moral issue and we cannot legislate morality.
“This is why progressive Christianity is so corrupt and flawed. As much as Buttigieg makes a valid critique on the President’s behavior and evangelicals excusing that behavior, Buttigieg wants to reject the inconvenient parts of faith he does not like. He is a gay man who got married; he does not think homosexuality is a sin despite express statements in scripture, and he thinks abortion is a moral issue and we cannot legislate our morality. Buttigieg wants to use the social obligations as Christians against the President, but wants to avoid any implication on the personal obligations of Christians in terms of clear Biblical sexual ethics and how we are to live our lives applying our faith even for ‘the least of these.’
“He wants to have it both ways and in reality is showing he is no better a Christian than Donald Trump. What is particularly damning here is that Buttigieg claims to be governed by some moral code and he claims he will lead as a more moral President than Trump. At the same time, he claims we cannot do exactly what he is proposing.
“Everyone has a moral code and we all conduct our actions by our moral code. Buttigieg just wants a pass on his moral code, which is all about not taking inconvenient stands on parts of scripture that might make his life a bit uncomfortable. He will wield it against the President and abdicate when it comes to himself.”
Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, was arrested by British police yesterday after 7 years of refuge in London’s Ecuadorian embassy.
Julian Assange at Ecuadoran embassy
It’s another sad day for the freedom of the press worldwide, and one more example of the way the U.S. bullies other nations around the world, forcing them to do America’s dirty work. (Watch reports here, and here.)
The United States is undoubtedly seeking Assange’s extradition to this country where the Trump administration is eager to charge him with conspiring to hack U.S. computers and stealing military intelligence in 2010.
A number of pundits are also linking Assange to the debunked and moribund Russia-gate conspiracy because they apparently don’t have anything better to do with their useless careers.
The entire affair would all be a colossal joke were it not for the extraordinary abuse suffered by Mr. Assange and the horrendous consequences entailed for a free press.
Here are just a few of the problems:
To begin with, the Obama Justice department worked for years to dig up enough evidence to charge Assange with the very same crime that the Trump administration wants to charge him with today. Yet, they failed to discover a scrap of incriminating evidence.
Assange is the victim of an American vendetta. Wikileaks has embarrassed the world’s sole super-power, and super-powers don’t take their humiliations lying down.
None of this should be happening. If Trump’s Justice Department has found the evidence that eluded all of the Obama administration’s best efforts, then they should make it public, pronto.
Furthermore, Assange is not an American citizen, so it’s impossible for him to commit “treason” against the U.S., despite the many accusations made by ignorant U.S. officials.
Assange is an Australian.
For the U.S. to put a foreign national on trial for supposedly breaking U.S. security laws would set a dangerous precedent to set. But then, no one has ever accused American politicians, including Donald Trump, of excessively long-range thinking.
Many American journalists regularly print stories that rely on the breach of foreign intelligence laws. Is Trump, or any other president, going to hand U.S. journalists over to China or North Korea or Russia or whoever else wants them when that foreign country accuses them of printing stories that reveal their foreign state secrets?
I don’t think so.
Ahem….why, then, should an American president think he has the right to do this to an Australian who has never lived in the U.S.?
Wikileaks is a publication outlet for whistle-blowers around the world. If you are unfamiliar with the types of materials they have published in the past, check out the the following report from RT with Dan Cohen to hear about only a few of the many valuable “secrets” that have been exposed through Wikileaks.
Both Assange and others who work with Wikileaks have always maintained that they are not hackers. Yet, the U.S. continues to accuse Assange of hacking, which he obviously denies. Naturally, he could be lying, but then why has no one ever produced the kind of evidence needed to prove Assange a liar?
Wikileaks has always described itself as a publishing clearinghouse, of
Assange taken from the embassy
sorts, for the documents obtained by whistle-blowers around the world. It will accept such material, review it with the help of other intelligence agencies, make their own editorial decisions, and then release the (redacted) material for world consumption.
Their publications typically expose the corruption and criminality of governments and world leaders. In this regard, Wikileaks provides an extremely valuable service to the world.
This means that Wikileaks is a journalistic enterprise; it is a news outlet. As many others have pointed out, prosecuting Julian Assange and Wikileaks is the equivalent of prosecuting the New York Times or the Washington Post or Fox News for publishing and/or broadcasting government documents that have been “leaking” to them.
The establishment press’s insistence that Wikileaks is not a journalism organization is absolute rubbish, plain and simple. Many of these other journalists and newspapers have happily printed leaked intelligence information that was first handed over to them by Wikileaks.
If Assange is prosecuted, then the editors of all those newspapers, magazines and TV networks should be next in line, and the conservative pundits who actually believe that such prosecutions would be a good thing haven’t the foggiest notion of what it means to be truly “un-American.”
Both Assange and the numerous whistle-blowers from whom he has received documents over the years all insist that neither he nor anyone affiliated with Wikileaks have been involved in obtaining documents themselves by computer hacking.
The two best known whistle-blowers have been Edward Snowden and
FORT MEADE, MD – JULY 30: U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning is escorted by military police as he leaves his military trial after he was found guilty of 20 out of 21 charges, July 30, 2013 Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. Manning, was found not guilty of aiding the enemy, was convicted of wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the internet, is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of classified Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and more than 250,000 diplomatic cables to the website WikiLeaks while he was working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad in 2009 and 2010. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Bradley (now Chelsey) Manning. They both insist that Wikileaks received their hacked intelligence documents when they were offered to them but had nothing to do with taking the information from government computers.
Frankly, I view both Snowden and Manning as national heroes. The American public only knows about the U.S. government’s illegal, anti-Constitutional programs of warrantless, worldwide wire-tapping and surveillance because of the material Snowden handed over to Wikileaks and other outlets.
Similarly, we only learned the truth about U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan
Edward Snowden
and Iraq, including the astonishing levels of civilian casualties during the Iraq War, because of Manning’s communications with Wikileaks.
American citizens have a right to know about the crimes committed by their government.
Despite the repeated hue and cry about these whistle-blowers “having American blood on their hands,” no one has ever produced a single piece of evidence to show that these leaks actually put a single American life “at risk” anywhere in the world. Sure, the accusation makes for a dramatic propaganda talking-point, but in the words of a well-known T.V. commercial, no one has ever been able to produce the beef.
The collaboration between conscientious whistle-blowers like Snowden and Manning together with publication outlets like Wikileaks, provide an essential service to all the people of the world who care about freedom, democracy, justice and accountability.
Finally, since Assange is being accused of conspiring to hack U.S. intelligence computers with Bradley Manning in 2010, let’s recall what all of that entailed.
Remember, first, that Manning has always denied any involvement by Assange. His military trial, where he was convicted, failed to produce any evidence to the contrary.
Manning was working with military intelligence in Iraq when his superior officers ordered him to investigate and arrest the Iraqi “insurgents” distributing anti-American, “terrorist” leaflets allegedly fomenting violence against the new U.S. backed government.
Child wounded by U.S. forces
When Manning had the leaflets translated, he discovered that they were not advocating terrorism or violence of any sort. They were actually political fliers offering legitimate criticisms of the new government.
Manning went to his superior officers with this information and informed them that the group was not threatening violence or terrorism. Rather, they were merely an opposition political party doing what politicians do in a democracy – arguing against the establishment. The leaflets were simply an example of democracy in action.
Manning’s superiors told him to be quiet and do what he was ordered to do; namely, find the critics, confiscate their materials, have them arrested and thrown into jail.
That was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.
Manning disobeyed his orders, downloaded a treasure-trove of classified material documenting American crimes, atrocities and mismanagement. He then handed it all over to Wikileaks.
One of the pieces of information released by Wikileaks was the now famous film from an Apache helicopter that came to be called the “Collateral Damage” video. I used to show it to my classes at Calvin College.
“Collateral Damage” was filmed through a helicopter gun site. It shows the indiscriminate slaughter of over a dozen civilians, including two Reuters
** EDS NOTE GRAHPHIC CONTENTS ** This is an image obtained by The Associated Press which shows naked detainees with bags placed over their heads placed into a human pyramid as Spc. Sabrina Harman, middle and Cpl. Charles Graner Jr., above, pose behind them in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo)
journalists, walking in an Iraqi suburb. The film concludes with the murder of a father and child who were gunned down when the father stopped his van in order to pick up the wounded and take them to a local hospital.
The family’s van was riddled with bullets. Fortunately, one of the two children inside survived. You can hear the helicopter pilot talking with someone at ground control as he gets the van in his sights. After unleashing the storm of lethal bullets, one of them notes that the pilot had just shot an innocent family with children.
The pilot responds by saying, “Well, that’s what happens when you bring your kids into a war zone.”
The man’s callousness is stunning. His arrogance and stupidity, remarkable.
Never mind that it was actually America that brought the war zone into this family’s backyard; that this father was picking up his children from school when he saw strangers bleeding to death on the side of the road; that he was the Good Samaritan riddled with bullets by the heartless Pharisees of American imperialism.
The Collateral Damage video was only the tip of Manning’s iceberg of previously concealed U.S intelligence, demonstrating once again that both the secrecy and the national security designations are typically used to hide national embarrassments and conceal government crimes.
People like Chelsey Manning, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange deserve medals of honor, not senseless, interminable persecution by abusive governments hell-bent on hiding their flagrant crimes against humanity behind a bogus curtain of national security.
Every world citizen who cares about democracy, truth and equal justice for all must protest and stand against Julian Assange’s illegal arrest.
Otherwise, Assange’s eventual trial and certain conviction on Trumped-up charges will be one more nail in the coffin of a free press.
has toppled governments in the recent past. The second and most prominent factor was the hard-hearted lack of empathy or compassion voiced by both the bloviating host and his lynch-mob minded callers.
those who are the most “unlike” us. The Son of God was UTTERLY unlike sinful humanity in every way. Yet, He set aside all privilege in order to rescue undeserving, ungrateful, self-destructive people like you and me.
It’s a good book, not hard to read, and I highly recommend it. Professor Stanley offers a boatload of historical material, both old and new, to illustrate his description of fascist politics and its affects throughout modern, western history.
reader can’t help but notice close similarities to the current atmosphere in American politics during this era of Trump’s presidency.
of America’s experiment with democracy. It is also why the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his book The Social Contract, insisted that Christianity must be replaced by something he called Civil Religion– that is, the citizens’ devotion to the State.
My concerns begin with the title of this article — “Pete Buttigieg Shows Why Progressive Christianity is a Hypocritical Farce.”
humiliations lying down.
pundits who actually believe that such prosecutions would be a good thing haven’t the foggiest notion of what it means to be truly “un-American.”
