“The pornographic violence of religious killings”

The beheading of James Foley. Photo via NYDailyNews.

The phrase, “the pornographic violence of religious killings,” jumped out at me as I read David Ignatius’s column titled The Hooded Face of Evil. Ignatius is commenting on the beheading of journalist James Foley, which the Islamic State has been boasting about lately. As a seminary graduate, I appreciate that Ignatius makes clear that “no faith teaches people to massacre innocents. No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day."

Ignatius provides a reasoned account of the developments culminating in Foley’s death and President Obama’s response so far:

WASHINGTON -- The propagandists of the Islamic State must have imagined that their brutal video of the beheading of journalist James Foley would intimidate and terrorize the world. But people aren't built that way, not in Muslim countries or anywhere else. When they see sadistic, uncivilized behavior, they are disgusted -- and angry.

President Obama spoke with special precision and moral clarity in reacting to the video's release Wednesday. The Islamic State, he said, "speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents. No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day."

The videotaped beheading was a sign of the Islamic State's weakness, not its strength. "People like this ultimately fail," Obama explained. "They fail, because the future is won by those who build and not destroy." He spoke, as a president must, about the consequences of killing U.S. civilians: "We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done."

 The life and death of Osama bin Laden illustrate why the terrorist strategy is destined to fail -- if civilized nations maintain their will. Obama authorized the mission that pursued the al-Qaeda leader to his lair in Abbottabad, Pakistan. But in the months before his death, bin Laden knew he had failed.

Read more:

Echoes of 9/11 in yesterday's tragedy in Boston

plumvillage.org/thich-nhat-hanh.html

TV coverage of yesterday's tragedy in Boston affected me physically. I'm hundreds of miles from Boston, but reports of the limbs of children strewn on the roadway really got to me.  It took all of my mindfulness training to calm down and recenter.

Later on, I experienced a flashback to 9/11 and our nation's rush to war despite the warnings of the peace-makers among us:

In his book “Calming the Fearful Mind: a Zen Response to Terrorism,” Thich Nhat Hanh wrote: “Many of us claim to be disciples of the Buddha, of Jesus Christ, of Mohammed, but we don’t listen to their teachings. Hatred cannot overcome hatred. Violence cannot overcome violence. The bible, the Koran, the Torah, and the Sutras teach us that. But we don’t always believe in our spiritual path. We must think that our spiritual teachings are not realistic, because we have put so much faith in military and financial power. We think that money and weapons can make us strong. But our country has a lot of weapons and a lot of money and we are still very afraid and insecure.”

Hopefully, we've learned the difference since 9/11 between justice and revenge, and this latest incident will not send our nation down the path of retaliatory violence. There is but a slight hint of that "get even" mentality in the New York Times editorial board's response to yesterday's tragedy:

A marathon is the most unifying of sporting events. The city that shows up to cheer on thousands of runners doesn’t really know or care much about who wins; there are no sides to root for or against. Those who stand on the sidelines — as they have done in Boston since 1897 — come to celebrate runners from around the world. The country or neighborhood of origin of the competitors matters far less than their stamina. 

 On Monday, the weather for the 117th running of the Boston Marathon was cloudy and a little chilly — just the way runners like it. Three hours after the winners had broken the tape, there were still many runners on the course, and hundreds of spectators on the sidewalk, when an explosion rocked the finish-line area on Boylston Street, across from the main viewing stand. For a brief second, the flags of scores of nations were bent downward by the blast. 

Read more:

How can I keep from singing

Nobel Laureate Elie Weisel (wikipedia.com)

I was reading Elie Weisel’s novel, The Gates of the Forest, in the summer of 1999, well before the terrorist attack on 9/11 that propelled America down the road of retaliation. That August I served as guest preacher at a Minneapolis church where I offered words that may be even more appropriate now than they were then. The sermon below, How can I keep from singing, was based on the following readings:

Paul's letter to the Romans  12: 21: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Contemporary reading from The Gates of the Forest by Elie Wiesel:

In Elie Wiesel’s novel, The Gates of the Forest, Gregor, a survivor of the Holocaust, is living in Paris.  A friend has persuaded him to visit the Rabbi.  After some intense discussion about God’s role in the Holocaust, the Rabbi asks Gregor what he expects from him.

“Rabbi,” he said, “you asked me what I expected of you, and I said I expected nothing.  I was mistaken.  Make me able to cry.”

The Rabbi shook his head, “That’s not enough.  I shall teach you to sing.  Grown people don’t cry; beggars don’t cry.”

The Rabbi added, “Crying is for children.  Are you still a child, and is your life a child’s dream?  No, crying’s no use. You must sing.”

“And you, Rabbi?  What do you expect of me?”

“Everything.”

And when Gregor started to protest, the Rabbi added, “Jacob wrestled with the angel all night and overcame him.  But the angel implored him:  Let me go, dawn is approaching.  Jacob let him go; to show his gratitude, the angel brought him a ladder.  Bring me this ladder.”

“Which one of us is Jacob?” asked Gregor.  “And which the angel?”

“I don’t know,” said the Rabbi with a friendly wink.  “Do you?

Gregor got up and the Rabbi took him to the door.

“Promise to come back,” he said, holding out his hand.

“I’ll come back.”

“Will you come to our celebrations?”

“Yes.”

How can I keep from singing

It may seem odd to bring together a passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans about love and not returning evil for evil with a reading from holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel’s novel, The Gates of the Forest. The holocaust is a symbol of evil that for most of us remains beyond our powers of comprehension. How can we ever hope to overcome such evil with good?

I read The Gates of the Forest for the first time a couple of weeks ago. For years I had avoided reading Wiesel’s works and other major holocaust literature because I was afraid. I feared I would be overwhelmed by the enormity of the suffering and be swallowed up by despair. I was not. Out of the depth and breadth of his soul, Wiesel’s words overcome the evil of the holocaust. As someone else has remarked, The Gates of the Forest is “shot through with a strange humor of forgiveness.”

When the novel begins, Gregor, a young partisan has been left alone, hiding in a cave during the war. His father promised to return in three days, but three days have passed, and Gregor has stopped counting. I won’t forget Gregor’s thoughts as from his hiding place he sees the clouds hovering over the village below: “They were not clouds properly speaking, but Jews driven from their homes and transformed into clouds. In this disguise they were able to return to their homes where strangers now lived.”

To Gregor, on clear nights the stars in the heavens were Jewish children who had died in Hitler’s ovens.

It is true what they say about Elie Wiesel, also known as the Great Reminder: “He does not describe, he casts a spell.” I was caught in that spell as I read the effect on first Gregor and then his companions, when in their various hiding places, they gradually discovered it was the intent of their persecutors to completely annihilate the Jewish people.

The enormity of it.

If there has been a paradigm shift in theological understanding since the holocaust, it is the realization among a few at least that our perception of reality depends on where we stand. It seems obvious now, does it not, that those with power see reality differently from those without power?

Reading The Gates of the Forest altered my perception of reality in all experiences of time, backward, forward, and in this present moment. I’ve not yet integrated the force of the evil it reveals or the strength demonstrated by the survivors of the holocaust to continue to live with hope and love and miraculously, forgiveness.

We know in our own country, anti-Semitism continues to flare up here and there in hatred and vilification of innocent people. It did not end with the holocaust. What must it do to the children? Inevitably, they must learn about the holocaust- and then, too often, experience firsthand the cruelty of irrational hatred. In bewilderment, just as Gregor and his companions did, they must cry out, “What have we done that was so wrong?”

Thus, those who would persecute the innocent continue to inflict psychic wounds even on those too young to protect themselves.

I met such a psychically wounded child nearly 20 years ago on the campus of Mankato State University where he and I were both students;  I was a non-traditional student in my 30s, married, and the mother of two children. He was probably right out of high school. He was in some of my classes. He may have been drawn to me by comments I made in our class discussions - I don’t know. I was a Unitarian at the time, not nominally Christian, and I had a tendency to be outspoken, especially when the topic of bigotry arose. In any case, the young man began to follow me around as the weeks elapsed.

This was the 70s,and at Mankato, we were still feeling repercussions from the student revolution of the 60s. There were occasional bomb threats. Students wore outlandish costumes. But this young man stood out even in that setting. He favored military uniforms, often decorated with Nazi symbols. On one occasion, he confided that he was Jewish. He observed that the Jews had been the underdogs, and he added, “I choose to identify with the Nazis because they had power.”

On another occasion, he told me he had guns stockpiled in his small apartment. I can’t remember my earlier responses to his remarks. I do remember noticing the fineness and delicacy of his features. And that his eyes were clear, and he had a gentle face.

One afternoon, my young friend sat down across from me at my table in the student union. Once again, he began describing the arsenal he maintained in his apartment. I don’t know what prompted my words to him that day. It could’ve been the impatience of a mother who had heard about enough nonsense. I looked him in the eye, and said, “When are you going to stop trying to impress me and admit that you’re just a nice young man?”

He stood up, walked around the table and bent over to kiss me gently on the cheek. When I ran into him a few days later, he told me he got rid of his guns. I noticed as time passed that his style of clothing changed, and I even recall seeing him around campus in a neat blue suit, white shirt, and tie. One day he introduced me to the young woman who had become his fiancée.

Once in awhile over the years, I’ve had occasion to remember him, always with affection, as a bright young man with a sweet face, who only needed a brief acknowledgment of his humanity to be who he really was at heart.

I remembered him after the shooting in Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. My son Steve lived in Milwaukee at the time, and he and I were on the phone discussing the horror of the Columbine incident. It was one of those moments, when I said, “Son, did I ever tell you about...”

And I told him about the young Jewish student who had forever touched my life at Mankato.

There are many among us, I think, who would benefit from a brief acknowledgment of their humanity, an acknowledgment that opens the door for love to overcome the nightmare of alienation.

Several years after the incident in Mankato, where I majored in English, with a concentration in writing, I took a part-time job as a receptionist at an adult residential mental health facility; the job allowed me to contribute to the family income while trying my hand at freelance writing.  From my desk in the front lobby, I had the opportunity to visit with many of the residents and develop relationships of trust with them. My hours during the week were from 5-9 p.m. One evening as I walked through the front entrance I saw a drama unfolding. A young male resident with whom I had become friends and a male staff member were circling each other, fists drawn. The administrator stood helplessly by.

I walked over to the main desk and told the receptionist on duty to stay there. I picked up an empty coffee cup and walked to a spot where the young man could see me. I lifted the cup up high and called his name. When he glanced toward me, I said, “Let’s go get a cup of coffee.”

In that moment, the trust he and I had established held. An expression of relief swept over his face. His arms went down. He glanced at his opponent as if to say, “I don’t have time for you.” And he and I walked together into the cafeteria.

On my way past her, the administrator whispered, “Thanks.”

At coffee that evening in the cafeteria, the young man confided what his therapist told him that day. She said that deep down in his heart, there was a rosebud, which was now tightly closed, but in time it would unfold, and he would be healed and whole. His face was radiant as he shared this with me.

I never learned what triggered the incident I interrupted that evening. I suspect the therapist’s words had so filled the young man with hope he became agitated and unable to maintain his self control. To be safe and healed and whole is what we all long for, I believe. Whether we are Jew or Christian, male or female, straight or gay, black or white, young or old; it matters not.

It has been said that in our lifetimes we human beings move from the age of innocence to the age of experience when we can sometimes get lost in that too prevalent state of cynicism and despair where from one day to the next a primary motivation is to get even with those who have hurt us. We Minnesotans are yet in the developmental age of experience when, in reference to Gov. Jesse Ventura’s former life as a professional wrestler, we display bumper stickers that read, “My governor can beat up your governor.”

The third age to which human beings can aspire is the age of wisdom. It is the same wisdom that teaches us to not be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good. I don’t think any of us progresses neatly from one stage to the next, rather we continue to visit each of the three from time to time and hopefully as we mature, we most often choose the way of wisdom.

In its concluding chapters, The Gates of the Forest draws us toward the age of wisdom. Gregor has come to see the Rabbi in search of answers. They engage in a prolonged and intense discussion in which Gregor wants the Rabbi to acknowledge that in the holocaust God has abandoned the Jewish people.

To a certain extent the Rabbi acknowledges this harsh reality but in his next words to Gregor, we know that he understands it was not God who abandoned the Jewish people, it was other human beings who abandoned them: “Who says, that power comes from a shout, an outcry rather than from a prayer? From anger rather than compassion? Where do you find certainties when you claim to have denied them? A song on the lips is worth a dagger in the hand...”

The Rabbi continues, “There is joy as well as fury in the Hasid’s dancing. It’s his way of proclaiming, ‘You don’t want me to dance; too bad, I’ll dance anyhow. You’ve taken away every reason for singing, but I shall sing. I shall sing of the deceit that walks by day and the truth that walks by night, yes, and of the silence of dusk as well. You didn’t expect my joy, but here it is; yes, my joy will rise up; it will submerge you.’”

Thus, the Rabbi instructs Gregor in the art of standing for himself without standing against anyone else - one of the most difficult arts any of us ever has to learn.

That evening, the Hasidic Jews sang and danced, and Gregor saw “the joy roll in great waves over the hall; they shouted out their happiness, climbed invisible ladders, discarded them when they ceased to be of use.”

“Bring me that ladder,” the Rabbi told Gregor.

“Which of us is Jacob and which is the angel?” Gregor asked.

“I don’t know,” the Rabbi replied, “Do you?”

We never know, do we? It is best perhaps that we do not.

A few years ago, I organized a talent show and acted as the emcee for the residents of a long-term women’s shelter, long term meaning they could live there for a maximum of two years. Each woman had a personal history of immense pain and suffering and faced many obstacles toward getting back on her feet again and rejoining the mainstream.

The shelter was located on the grounds of a convent. The audience the night of the talent show included the shelter staff and the nuns from the convent. Both orders came, the active and the contemplative. I was told it was rare for the contemplative sisters to attend something like this.

We framed the talent show as a means of thanking God for the many gifts of the participants and celebrating those gifts. One woman sang the Ave Maria. Another played a whimsical flute solo. There was also a piano solo. A woman read a moving poem she had written. One gave a demonstration of pottery making; another demonstrated flower arranging. There was dancing and a couple of skits which poked gentle fun at the ways of the shelter. The child’s little red wagon, loaded down with hundreds of pages representing the shelter’s rule book, drew laughter from our audience as one of the women pulled it across the stage.

I’m here to tell you there were ladders passed back and forth the evening of the talent show. And no one there could have told who the angels were in that rather unique crowd. At the conclusion of the program, the participants and the audience stood and together sang the hymn, How Can I Keep From Singing.

As I helped the women fold up the chairs and put them away that evening after the show was over and the audience had left, I heard many comments such as, “That was fun. We should do things like that more often.”

Their lingering joy was pleasant to witness.

“No, I will not teach you to cry,” the Rabbi said to Gregor, “I will teach you to sing.”

“And what do you expect from me,” Gregor asked the Rabbi.

“Everything,” the Rabbi replied.

I should guess that everything is expected of us, too.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let’s stand at this time and sing How can I keep from singing, number 25 in the New Century Hymnal:

P.S.

Follow the link for the lyrics and to listen to How can I keep from singing:

http://www.songlyrics.com/seeger-pete/how-can-i-keep-from-singing-lyrics/

 

America's use of terrorism to fight terrorism abroad

Justice Party's  Rocky Anderson.

The Washington Post's article on the Obama Administration's long term plans for continuation of using drones to take out those on the president's kill list and any innocent civilians who get in the way is scary and sickening stuff to read - it's referred to in the article as America's developing blueprint for fighting terrorism. In other words, America is using terrorism to fight terrorism?

In the final presidential debate Monday night, Gov. Romney expressed his support of the Obama Administration's policy of using drones for targeted killing of suspected terrorists abroad.

Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson, a former Democrat, got it right when he said: “The Constitution has been eviscerated while Democrats have stood by with nary a whimper. It is a gutless, unprincipled party, bought and paid for by the same interests that buy and pay for the Republican Party."

When I completed my absentee ballot the other day, I could not in good conscience vote for either Obama or Romney. I voted instead for the Justice Party ticket: Rocky Anderson and Louis Rodriguez.

 
Read more about Rocky Anderson here.

Is there a distinction between America’s targeted killing of individuals and acts of murder?

Public domain.

Writing for Esquire, author Tom Junod raises some difficult questions in his article titled, The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama. Junod’s words are especially troubling as my mindfulness meditation group is currently reading and discussing Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, Calming the Fearful Mind: a Zen response to terrorism, which I recommend to all people who are sincerely interested in peacemaking.” Nhat Hanh warns:

The military doesn’t know where terrorism is. They cannot locate terrorism-it is in the heart. The more military force you use, the more terrorists you create, in your own country and in other countries as well.

But back to The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama:

Sure, we as a nation have always killed people. A lot of people. But no president has ever waged war by killing enemies one by one, targeting them individually for execution, wherever they are. The Obama administration has taken pains to tell us, over and over again, that they are careful, scrupulous of our laws, and determined to avoid the loss of collateral, innocent lives. They're careful because when it comes to waging war on individuals, the distinction between war and murder becomes a fine one. Especially when, on occasion, the individuals we target are Americans and when, in one instance, the collateral damage was an American boy.

Read more:

Calming the fearful mind…

My meditation group recently decided to read and discuss Thich Nhat Hanh’s Calming the Fearful Mind: a Zen response to terrorism. 

I was nearly finished with the book when I decided to get some exercise yesterday afternoon and take a walk in my apartment building. 

I saw my neighbor, a three times per week dialysis patient, seated in the alcove near the elevator. She looked disconsolate, so I stopped to visit with her. 

She had lost her keys and was locked out of her apartment. Her granddaughter had an extra set of keys, but she was without a phone to call her. I happened to have my cell phone in my pocket. 

Another neighbor joined us as we waited until the granddaughter arrived with her grandmother’s extra keys, and we saw her safely enter her apartment.

When I returned to Calming the Fearful Mind, I read the following paragraph:

You can’t feel safe if you’re not in good communication with the people you live with or see regularly. You can’t feel safe if those around you don’t look at you with sympathy and compassion. In the way you speak, sit, and walk, you can show the other person that she is safe in your presence, because you are coming to her in peace… Safety is not an individual matter. Helping the other person feel safe guarantees your safety.

Thich Nhat Hanh continues:

We can bring the spiritual dimension into our daily life, as well as our social, political, and economic life. This is our practice. Jesus had this intention. Buddha had this intention. All of our spiritual ancestors, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist had this intention. We can display the light of wisdom and come together in order to create hope and to prevent society and the younger generation from sinking in despair.

We can learn to speak out so that the voice of the Buddha, the voice of Jesus, the voice of Mohammed, and all our spiritual ancestors can be heard in this dangerous and pivotal moment in our history. We offer this light so that the world will not sink into total darkness…

May it be so.

America terrorizes others in its take no prisoners strategy in the war on terror

This photo released on Dec. 8, 2012 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, claims to show the US RQ-170 Sentinel drone captured by Iran.

Katalusis readers already know how I feel about America’s current weapon of choice, the deadly unmanned Predator drone. This morning the CS Monitor reports the Obama Administration’s resumption of drone attacks in Pakistan after a brief hiatus following the NATO air strike in November that mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Ariel Zirulnick, Staff writer, reports:

A US drone strike killed a senior militant in northwestern Pakistan today, one of two drone attacks on suspected militants this week.

Pakistani intelligence officials and Pakistani Taliban members told Reuters that the strike in the town of Miran Shah killed Bador Mansoor, a leader of a faction of the Pakistani Taliban with close ties to Al Qaeda. At least three others were killed in the strike, which came on the heels of a strike yesterday that killed 10 people.

Mr. Mansoor led a group of more than 200 Pakistani Taliban fighters in North Waziristan (see map here), a key sanctuary for militants, an insurgent told the Associated Press. Intelligence officials said they could not confirm for the AP that Mansoor was among those killed in the strike on Miran Shah’s bazaar.

So we continue to kill off our enemies with these antiseptic air strikes that remove us from the messiness of human death and the complications that arise from taking prisoners and bringing them to trial.

And even though Iran recently captured one of our drones and may now be able to repair and replicate it for its own use, the Obama Administration continues to pursue this immoral use of force. 

Has it never occurred to President Obama or our military leaders that one day Americans may be targeted by a “made in the USA Predator drone?”

The Challenges President-Elect Barack Obama Faces

Word from CNN’s Pam Benson is that the world President-Elect Barack Obama is facing is even more complicated than the pressing issues of a tanking global economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Covering National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell’s speech to an annual conference of intelligence officials and contractors, Benson reports that McConnell said “demographics, competition for natural resources and climate change will increase the potential for conflict.”

Benson continues:

“McConnell spoke of the unprecedented transfer of global wealth from West to East. By 2025, China is projected to be the second-largest economy and on its way to becoming the largest. India will grow to be the second- or third-largest economy.

‘“All of this adds up to an unstable future. ‘Given the confluence of factors from a new global international system, increasing tension over natural resources, weapons proliferation ... we predict an increased likelihood for conflict,’ McConnell concluded.

“Among the problems that aren't going away is terrorism -- an issue that did not get as much play as it initially appeared it would during the presidential campaign. McConnell said the descendants of long-established terrorist groups ‘will inherit organizational structures, the command and control processes and the training procedures necessary to conduct sophisticated attacks.’

“He said he is particularly concerned that a terrorist group will acquire and use biological agents to create casualties greater than the September 11, 2001, attacks.

‘“In addition, he warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would "sow the seeds of instability and potential conflict’ in that region on a scale that could affect the entire world.

“Although the risk of a nuclear attack is ‘very low’ over the next 20 to 30 years, McConnell said, ‘That possibility is grayer in the future than it is today.’”

(McConnell will soon be giving Obama his first intelligence briefing.)

To read Benson’s article in its entirety, go here.

Obama Steps from Comedy Skit onto the World Stage

Photo Credits: AFP

I came across an interesting reader’s comment, posted by “Jr.” while scanning a message board at the Caucus (NYTimes) a few minutes ago. Jr. was responding to a humorous video about Barack Obama by connecting its content to an incident that arose in the news this week.

First, I’ll give you the background from the network news. It began with a speech President Bush made to the Knesset during a visit to Israel. After mentioning Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."

Bush went on to say, "We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement.'"

Positioning himself as the Democratic candidate, even though the race is yet undecided, Obama immediately assumed he was the target of Bush’s criticism and personally led a counterattack on both Bush and John McCain:

In the meantime, our friend Jr. had just viewed a humorous video over at the Caucus that predicted what the world would be like in 2015 with Obama as commander in chief. A man awakening from a seven-year coma realizes that Obama is indeed the second coming of Christ.

Jr. responds:

“That first video is perfect, Obama think hes all that. He even thought Bush was talking about him in Israel. Bush was clearly talking about a politician thats actually done something in this avenue, maybe Jimmie Carter?? Yea this is who he was talking about, Obama looks like a fathead now that is too conceited. Obama isnt even a nominee yet, and thinks he has foreign policy issues already gimme a break, is this the best we can do?? I dont think so, Obama hasnt even gotten as many votes as Hillary let alone won anything yet. What a terrible move for Obama to address that comment like it was towards him. How conceited can you be.. Well I think this video shows how much of that he is. THank you for a perfect video that ties Obama to being the elite, when hes nothing but a senator!!!”

I agree with Jr. that even though Barack Obama is thought to be the Messiah by his followers, he ought to restrain himself from assuming the role of the nominee until he has officially been declared the winner of the Democratic primary. After all, Jesus himself exemplified the virtue of humility.

A Torturous Discussion

In my last post yesterday, I commented on recent rituals of the religious right loudly proclaiming their preferred presidential candidates: Sen. Brownback endorsed John McCain, and Pat Robertson proudly announced his support of Rudy Giuliani (watch Robertson and Giuliani on YouTube from this site).

After reflecting in my post on the apparent fragmentation of evangelical Christians, the GOP’s key block of voters, I raised a question popular among this group, “What would Jesus do?” and left it there.

My thoughts later drifted back to childhood Sunday school lessons when we were taught that Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world; he wasn’t interested in political power. But as I recall, Jesus had a lot to say about loving our neighbor, including the foreigner in our midst, famously illustrated in the story about the good Samaritan. In that light it’s a little jarring to read the Fox News summary of Roberts’ reasons for supporting Giuliani:

Robertson on Wednesday said Giuliani is the best candidate to handle the War on Terror. He said Giuliani understands the need for a conservative judiciary, and that he is a "true fiscal conservative" who is tough on crime.

"The overriding issue before the American people, is the defense of our population against the bloodlust of Islamic terrorists," Robertson told the National Press Club audience. "Our world faces deadly peril...and we need a leader with a bold vision who is not afraid to tackle the challenges ahead."

Robertson said Giuliani is "a proven leader who is not afraid of what lies ahead and who will cast a hopeful vision for all Americans ... It is my hope and prayer that he will lead the Republican Party to victory in November of 2008."

In today’s Los Angeles Times, Rosa Brooks reminds us that Giuliani’s “hopeful vision for all Americans” includes his boast to use torture whenever it suits America’s needs:

Giuliani's main selling point with GOP stalwarts is his toughness on terrorism, symbolized by his "gloves-off" approach to interrogations. In the campaign's first GOP presidential debate, Giuliani told a cheering crowd that if the U.S. captured a suspect believed to be planning a terrorist attack, "I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they can think of." Pressed on whether that would include waterboarding, Giuliani repeated, "Every method they could think of, and I would support them in doing that." More recently, Giuliani claimed that whether or not waterboarding is torture "depends on who does it."

I make no claims to being a traditionally defined Christian, but as a peace-loving, theistic Unitarian-Universalist, I respect the social justice teachings of Jesus, and I’m appalled that a segment of our society, led by the likes of Pat Robertson, continues to distort his teachings and exploit gullible followers to promote cruelty and inhumane treatment of other human beings in our own country and throughout the world.

Memo from Rumsfeld: “Link Iraq to Iran”

My friend David dropped by Katalusis yesterday and left a comment in response to my Oct. 23 post, “Wrapping the Earth in an Explosive Vest.”

The suicide bomber’s explosive vest was the ominous metaphor developed by James Carroll in his reflections on the recent Bush-Cheney mutterings about Iran and the possibility of World War III. Carroll concluded:

Iraqi civil war, conflict with Iran, Turkish-Kurdish violence, chaos throughout the Middle East - and now President Bush tells us that, if we don't defuse the regional body vest carefully, World War III will start. There it is. Bush himself acknowledging at last what, under his leadership, the United States has done. We have put an explosive vest on Earth itself.

David responded:

Because I have lived abroad in several countries, and because I speak several languages (French, German, Turkish), I have been able to have conversations with people around the world not in English but in their own languages. And they have told me in their own ways that they view the US as a "terrorist nation." We get our way by creating fear, by using force, and by sacrificing our young people. And they have noticed that the nations we don't bully are the ones that have nuclear weapons. Is it any surprise that Iran wants to have nuclear weapons? If Bush is willing to attack Iran with nuclear weapons, then he is the incarnation of Satan himself, and the whole world will suffer or
even come to an end through him. I love this world, and I love my country. Already he has caused havoc that may change our world forever. A hex on you, Bush.--David Brunet.

However, the fact that many people around the world view the US as a terrorist nation isn’t due to Bush-Cheney alone; those two had considerable help from Donald Rumsfeld. Check out Robin Wright’s article in today’s Washington Post that jarringly reminds us of the former secretary of defense’s legacy, effectively captured in Wright’s opening paragraph:

In a series of internal musings and memos to his staff, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld argued that Muslims avoid "physical labor" and wrote of the need to "keep elevating the threat," "link Iraq to Iran" and develop "bumper sticker statements" to rally public support for an increasingly unpopular war.

What I can’t figure out is why more people aren't as concerned as my friend David about our country’s reputation in the world and the latest saber rattling in Washington.