Month: March 2006

The "Iron Sheik" wrestler tells some poor schmuck called Brian Blair what he would like to do to him. Unhinged homophobia. Pure. Distilled. Deadly.

The abuse of Christianity by the religious right is beginning to be exposed and understood more thoroughly. But more needs to be done. Critically, we have to rescue the concept of faith from the hands of fundamentalists, of all kinds. They have turned Jesus’ message into its opposite, as this reader recognizes:

"Didn’t Jesus tell his followers to love their enemies? Didn’t he tell them that God does not choose sides, but like the sun, shines his love on all, sinners and innocents alike? Would Jesus recognize Delay and the Republicans as being on "His" side? Did Jesus have a side? Obviously not. If Delay and Bush and the Christianist Republicans would truly ask themselves the question "What would Jesus do?", wouldn’t the answer obviously be to love your enemies rather than separate oneself from them and fight them? Wouldn’t Jesus see both Democrats and Republicans as one people whom he loved equally, and not take sides at all, or see either of them as enemies? If these people truly see themselves as bringing Jesus’ mesage into the world, and living a truly spiritual relationship to Jesus as the basis for their personal and political lives, wouldn’t they bring this same loving embrace of equality and charity for all into the political sphere? That kind of "Christianizing" of America would be a wonderful thing."

Yes, it would. And it still can be. Another trap is to play into the hands of fundamentalism and try to defeat their version of faith, rather than working, daily and hourly, on improving one’s own morality, bettering one’s own soul. Opposing one ideology with another is simply to perpetuate the same mistake. I admire Karen Armstrong’s work a great deal; and in this profile, the intrepid breadth of her own faith journey comes through. Money quote:

"It’s a mistake to define God. I gave it up a long time ago …’To define’ literally means to set limits. That is a travesty to try to define a reality that must go beyond our human thinking. The idea of a God overseeing all of this death and despair is untenable. That’s the antithesis of God. If you looked at the history of the 20th century, who is overseeing this? Elie Wiesel says that God died at Auschwitz. That’s just one human idea of God as overseer, and it’s a childish idea of God."

"The Ministry of Defense requests that civilians do not comply with the orders of the army or police on nightly patrols unless they are accompanied by coalition forces working in that area," – Iraqi blogger, River, at her blog. That’s the sentence she read scrolled across her television last night. Hey, stuff happens.

A reader writes:

"Well, I would consider Tom DeLay’s remarks inappropriate if they had been delivered on the floor of the House, but since they were made at a Christian conference, I don’t have a problem with them. And if he were a Jewish congressman who made analogous remarks at a gathering of Jews, that would be fine, too, and the same applies to any faith. DeLay is entitled to have and express his religious views; the First Amendment guarantees that right to him as well as to the rest of us.
If his religious views align more closely with the Republican Party than the Democratic, there’s nothing wrong with that. Wanna find the party affiliations of the more outspoken Atheists? If they feel more comfortable in the Democratic Party, that’s okay, too.
Was he pandering? Possibly, but I don’t know.  He might really believe what he said or he might not, but it’s clear from the report that the audience thought he was sincere."

My own view is not that DeLay shouldn’t have the right to say such things. Of course he should. But dividing the world and country into two sides at war, and placing Christ on one side, that of the Republicans’, are politically dangerous and morally repugnant gambits. It sickens me to see my own faith abused and purloined in this way. I hope there are some Republicans left who can call this demagoguery and abuse of faith for what it is.

(Photo: Harris County Sheriff’s Office/AFP/Getty.)

They face the most severe oppression Islamism can dole out. But they are trying to organize and speak out. And you can show simple moral support by signing a petition of solidarity. I just did.

"The motives of the people who were going to produce this play Off-Broadway in New York are not adequately known and I think that they should be aired … But it highlights a larger phenomenon which is an international gangsterism towards the arts at this time. I consider the New York Times not publishing the cartoons about Mohammed to be an act of editorial cowardice and inappropriate – obviously it was major news – and this idea of it being ‘sensitive’ to religion, respectful to religion, not to air differences, not to air slurs, not to air slights, is just giving into intimidation of different kinds. Now the theatre in New York may not have been afraid that they were going to be killed, they may have been afraid they were going to lose funding from somebody, that I don’t know. But I do know there is intimidation across this country in the arts, where plays like "Grease" are being vetoed by local organizations as being too racy and cartoons are being called unworthy of publication because the sensitivities of people of a certain religion trumps the need of people of every persuasion to know. And I think it has to be looked at. There’s a certain degree of cowardice involved and I think people are going to have to get used to the idea that doing these things – like what happened to [documentary film maker Theo] Van Gogh in the Netherlands – may lead to them being killed," – John Patrick Shanley, author of the Tony-winning play, "Doubt."

A new study is out – and it finds, at the very least, that gay men and lesbians can be and often are at a minimum competent parents. The methodology only suggests rather than proves anything else (although it suggests that gays can be great parents). The bottom line is: Competent, loving parenting is better than no parenting. And that is the choice most kids adopted by gay couples now face. Give them a chance for a stable home. Give us all a chance.   

"Sides are being chosen, and the future of man hangs in the balance! The enemies of virtue may be on the march, but they have not won, and if we put our trust in Christ, they never will … It is for us then to do as our heroes have always done and put our faith in the perfect redeeming love of Jesus Christ," – Tom DeLay, in Washington yesterday. I have no idea where people could get the idea that the Republican party has been turned into a religious sect, do you?

The Belmont Club bloggers have spent much of the occupation excoriating those of us who have pointed out failures, setbacks or bad news. So it must be sobering that even Wretchard is now deeply concerned about the spiraling violence in Iraq. An Iraqi blogger explains the crisis:

The confusion and conflict between the Americans, the army and the Ministry of interior is producing a situation where the citizens don’t know anymore whether the security personnel in the street are friends, enemies, terrorists or simply criminals and thieves. Everybody is wearing the same uniforms. Whole sections of the city have virtually fallen to gangs and terrorists, and this is specially true for the "Sunni" dominated neighborhoods. People and businesses are being robbed and the employees kidnapped en mass in broad daylight and with complete ease as though security forces are non-existent, although we see them everwhere.

Security everywhere and nowhere. The Hobbesian world Rumsfeld unleashed and refused to contain has yet to be reined in.

(Photo: AP.)

More distressing news: they’ve just jailed two journalists merely for criticizing political leaders.