While pacifism is a legitimate theological template, although difficult for me to understand in the face of the vile evil of our age, I do not believe Christians can defend identification with and verbal support of the enemies of freedom and faith. How can we understand the Left’s utter fascination with and sympathy for Islamic terrorists and the ideology of oppression that is at its core?
It is reminiscent of the Religious Left’s alignment with the Marxists of earlier decades. The self-described “penitent former liberal” who writes thoughtfully at the Blue Goldfish blog said:
“The evil spirit demanding a response of that age in the early 1970s was that of the Marxist tyranny known as communism. And from the Christian Left, there was - indeed - enabling, useful foolishness, appeasement, apologies, and complete denial.”
And this quote from Richard John Neuhaus:
At the height of Mao’s cultural revolution in which as many as thirty million died, the National Council of Churches published a booklet hailing China as an admirably “Christian” society. In 1981, 60 Minutes did an hour-long program on the National Council of Churches’ support for Marxist causes, and I spoke with Morley Safer about religious leaders who had become “apologists for oppression.” That was the end of some important friendships, or at least I thought they were friends. I was then a much younger man, learning slowly and painfully what many had learned before. Allegiance to the left, however variously defined, was a religion, and dissent was punished by excommunication.
Today, the liberals' desire to oppose the Republican administration has morphed into the absurdity of defending and excusing the utter evil of Saddam and al Queda and developing an apologetic for addressing the oppression of poor Middle Eastern Muslims as the way to stop the ideology of terror that is producing the bomb throwers of our time.
The anti-war activists of today’s Religious Left are the heirs of yesterday’s NCC Marxist sympathizers. They have no footing in the church of Jesus Christ.
--James Jewell
What the hell are you talking about? You have not quoted one of the people you are mischaracterizing. Instead, you are arguing with a strawman.
YanıtlaSilThe peace movement, most of it anyway, does not excuse Saddam Hussein and it is a vile deception for you to say that.
It was the Republicans who were Saddam Hussein's biggest supporters and apologists when he was at his warmaking, Kurd-gassing worst. The peace movement opposed support for Saddam then and does not embrace him now.
You claim religious credentials but you bear false witness against your neighbors. For shame.
Bush embraces the dicator Mushareff in Pakistan. The same Mushareff who overthrew a democratically elected government and turns a blind eye to fundamenalist abuses.
YanıtlaSilIn Iraq, innocent Iraqis are locked up in Abu Ghraib, as the Red Cross has pointed out time and again. Conservatives don't care, they snicker "so what? Better we fight a war in their country than in our own." How is it Christian to wage war in someone else's land in the hope that will spare attacks on our own?
How about Saudi Arabia? Bush holds hands with the corrupt monarchy while basic human rights are trammeled in Saudi Arabia. Where is your outrage?
The Christian Left opposed Republican support for brutal military dictatorships in Latin America throughout the 1980s. The Right said it was better to force military dictatorships on them than to allow them the chance to choose their own governments.
Hypocrites.
This post is such a forgery of the Christian faith -- Saddam is evil, therefore we have to kills innocent Iraqis to bring him to justice -- it's sickening. God may not proscribe all warmaking, but it's certainly a violation of His will for His people.
YanıtlaSilTo be even more sick, you're basically rationalizing this war because the Christian Left says we shouldn't have started it, and they were wrong a generation ago, so they're obviously wrong now.
The right-wing in the U.S. set up Hussein and set up bin Laden, and now their hate for peace and for America -- not their idealized America, but the real America -- has come home to roost.
"Make nice"? We had more control over Iraq under the previous administration than we do now that we've invaded it under this one. While no one can presume to know where Jesus would stand on the issue of no-fly zones and sanctions, I think we all know where He would come down on people who invade a country to support their own materialism (oil), the revenge of their father (Bush Sr), and their own self-aggrandizement ("mission accomplished").
Jesus still weeps.
Ditto.
YanıtlaSilA couple other points:
1. You're making the mistake of conflating opposition to the war in Iraq with opposition to the "war on terror" in general. They are not the same thing.
2. Liberals don't have a monopoly on opposition to the war in Iraq. Plenty of upstanding, and yes Christian, Republicans likewise think that the Iraq war was a collosal blunder. That giant sucking sound you hear is any and all progress in the war on terror going down the drain thanks to the invasion of Iraq (or Bush's jump the shark moment).
3. Who are you to determine who has and who doesn't have "footing in the church of Jesus Christ"?
The Jewish people in Jesus's time were oppressed, treated as less than human, and the government antogonized their religion. Yet Jesus's harshest words were not for the political oppressor, but for the Pharisees who were obsessed with a phony purity of deciding who was a good enough Jew.
YanıtlaSilIt seems he cares more for people and less for rigid pietism (especially political). Jesus love Bush as much as he does Saddam, and you.
James Jewell must be posting this as a troll. No civil, intelligent, christian could support this drivel. My guess is that he is doing this to stir up reaction. Well you got peoples attention James, what do you really believe?
YanıtlaSilThe evil that existed during Christ's short life on earth was no less heinous than now.
YanıtlaSilI am constantly amazed at how those who purport to be Christians have abandoned the very core of His teachings: Love thy neighbor as thyself.
All you have is vitriol and hate. And you justify it by saying you are fighting evil.
Christ's message was precisely the opposite: Do not waste your time fighting your enemy or waging "war" against evil. Simply be good. Love.
And yes, it is that simple.
boy, you're getting your head handed to you, aren't you?
YanıtlaSilStill more issues...
YanıtlaSil* The "Marxism" that the Christian Left of the '60's and '70's aligned with was not by any means similar to the Russian communist ideology. This is a superb example of a common Republican rhetorical tactic -- choose simple labels for others, then use the essential vagueness of the labels to mischaracterize their beliefs.
* The "Blue Goldfish" guy talks about Hitler's apologists but fails to mention (probably because he doesn't know) that those apologists were the far-right conservatives of their day.
* "Liberals desire to oppose the Republican administration" is another sample of rhetorical technique. The "liberal" doesn't really believe what he says -- he's just driven to it by perversity, hatred, or some other irrational motive so powerful that he doesn't even know it. That's an extraordinarily arrogant view, Mr. Jewell -- and rather un-Christian, as well.
War is filled with evil acts, Mr. Jewell. By choosing to associate yourself with that war, you're party to them. A "just war" is one fought as a last resort, with the purpose of redressing wrongs and reestablishing peace while minimizing the human cost. This war was optional, has little hope of achieving stated objectives, and is filled with pointless injury to non-combatants. Supporters of such an endeavor have no footing in the church of Christ.
so, being against american action in iraq is like playing nice with terrorists?
YanıtlaSillet us remind the right once again--iraq did not attack us. iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. every single reason we said we were going into iraq for turned out to be wrong.
can you even see the difference?
Correct, the above comment is correct. Iraq did not attack us, and they did not have WMD as Bush promised. And Iraq was not an immediate threat which sold the war to Americans. But Iraqi children have dark enough skin. Jesus would approve of bombing them, I'm sure.
YanıtlaSil