Beyond Ourselves

Main Street Plaza

2007-03-24T15:35:00.000-05:00

I am now blogging at Main Street Plaza. See you there!

The Trouble with Certainty

2006-09-28T18:29:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post discusses John Danforth's book tour where he blames the Christian Right for turning the Republicans into a sectarian party.

"The problem with many conservative Christians is that they claim that God's truth is knowable, that they know it, and that they are able to reduce it to legislative form," Danforth writes. "The popular question, 'What would Jesus do?' can be difficult enough to contemplate with respect to everyday interpersonal relations. It is mind boggling when applied to the complex world of politics."

That problem is especially challenging for charismatic Christians. They believe that they understand the mind of god. Proclaiming to act on behalf of god, their leaders are arrogant and domineering. Rather than serving something that is greater than us, we mistake our personal biases for divine revelation.

It is about the adulation of the leader. And for leaders, it is about the adulation of one self. That is why some charismatic ministers ostentatiously display jewelry, expensive cars, and huge churches. That is why Joseph Smith needed access to every woman imaginable.

God becomes secondary. It is all about them. That's idolatry.

Military Religious Freedom Foundation

2006-07-16T18:55:00.000-05:00

Religious freedom may well be the greatest blessing of American heritage. The Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock to escape discrimination. William Penn took the lesson a step further and provided a refuge not only for his own but also for those who disagreed with him. So did the Catholics that founded Maryland, only to be subject to discrimination once Protestants outnumbered them.

According to historian David McCollough, there was some fear that the religious rivalry between Massachusetts Puritans and Virginia Episcopalians would be an obstacle for the colonies to defend themselves against royal aggression. Fortunately, the founding fathers understood that they needed to be above religious differences if they wanted to defend America's liberty. Without the founders' ability to put their religious differences aside, there might not be a United States of America.

All the more troubling is the fact that there is an organized effort by extreme evangelicals to impose their religious preferences by utilizing their power in the nation's armed forces. Jesus Christ taught us to live by the Golden Rule. How would we feel if our children were told by their superiors that they had murdered God?

Yet that is what has been happening at the Air Force Academy.

How would we feel if our superior officers begun preaching their religious views in the service? To be sure, military officers ought to enjoy the right of free speech. But when they are exercising the power of the government over people of other faiths then they have to respect the dignity of their subordinates. Surely, Jesus would not want us to create situations where power rather than liberty determines our religious choices.

May be, you do not share my theology about the Golden Rule. Thank heavens, I cannot impose my views on you. That's because the founding fathers created a red line between the power of the government and religion.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation wants to keep it that way. Unfortunately, the Bush administration has crossed the line by allowing radical evangelical officers to subject their subordinates to their sermons. In defense of our soldiers' religious freedom, Mikey Weinstein has founded the foundation and is suing the Pentagon.

As the son, grandson, and brother of soldiers and as a veteran myself, let me say that I am happy that none of my superior officers confronted me for being Mormon. That would have been very uncomfortable for me in the German armed forces.

Military officers have the power over the life and death of our soldiers. That's the way it has to be in the armed forces. Therefore it is doubly important that we protect the conscience of our soldiers from abuse of power.

That's what the Golden Rule is about. That's what the United States Constitution is about. If we love America then we need to rally to the Constitution. The most virtuous way to do that is to defend the rights of people other than ourselves.

Our soldiers are Jewish and Muslim, Christian and Hindu, Sikh and Wicca, believer and atheist. The founding fathers understood that this makes America strong. In part, it is the essence of freedom. Let's keep it that way and support the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

That Was Close!

2006-06-30T12:59:00.000-05:00

Thank heavens that's over.

Argentina shut down the German game in the German half. Nonetheless, Germany had more chances but Argentina converted a corner kick with a beautiful header.

After the 1:0 more space became available and the German players played with more heart. They were furious. A magnificent serve by Ballack was extended with a header and headed into the net by Klose. The striker was at the verge of tears.

Klinsmann substituted the right players. Especially, Odonkor transformed the German game outpacing his opponents time and time again. Borowski and Neuville also increased the pressure on the Argentine goal. Yet Argentina continued to snatch the ball surprisingly in the German half.

When overtime failed to decide the game, Lehmann shined catching two penalties.

Two more games.

It May Well Be the End

2006-06-29T20:25:00.000-05:00

When Germany meets Argentina in less than fourteen hours, I am very concerned that it will be the last German game.

Of course, Germany has the home advantage. I have also deluded myself that Klinsmann is the better coach. Otherwise the anxiety is just too much.

Slippery Slopes

2006-06-15T16:00:00.000-05:00

A visitor's argument that democracy allows majorities to withhold rights at will, illustrates how slippery a slope the discrimination of gays is. When we label gays second class citizens then we might need to surrender the notion of rights in favor of the tyranny of the majority.

The founding fathers were quite clear that democracy in America was not simply about majority rule but a system that protects the rights of minorities. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay who helped write the Constitution are quite outspoken about the importance of minority rights in the Federalist Papers. Federalist Numbers 9 and 10 are dedicated to the problem of majority tyranny and what the United States Constitution does about it.

The founding fathers carefully designed a system that provides minorities with considerable resources to preserve their liberty.

Discrimination challenges American democracy. Discrimination begins with denying the full rights of citizenship to a seemingly marginal minority. But when we need to justify that we might be compelled to argue that we can take anything from anyone as long as the majority condones it.

Therefore discrimination threatens everyone. It compromises the core of our constitutional system. Discrimination is tyrannical and the seed of tyranny.

Not least, discrimination threatens the integrity of the abusers who might not have considered that the implications of their position will pitt them against liberty, democracy, and the rule of law.

Especially from a Mormon perspective, minority rights are important. Most of Mormons live outside the United States, which means that Mormons will usually be a tiny minority in their communities and countries. Even in the United States, most Mormons live outside Utah.

Some of you might remember how Baptists in Texas attempted to impose their religion on Mormon students in public high schools by electing a student body officer who would deliver prayers at school functions. In Texas, of course, that meant that the prayers would always be Baptist prayers. That might not be a big deal until one remembers that this happened in an environment where teachers would harrass Mormon students by denigrating their parents as members of a cult.

Thank heaven for the Constitution and the Supreme Court who stopped an intolerant majority from compromising our religious freedom. There are some things that cannot be left to the majority.

Unless we respect the humanity of people who are different, we have no right to hope that we shall remain free ourselves.

The safest way to avoid the slippery slope of tyranny, of the few or the many, is to oppose discrimination in the first place. Lets be fair to everyone.

About the Obligations of the Faithful to their Neighors: Scapegoating, Second Installment

2006-06-07T09:28:00.000-05:00

I am glad that we all agree that scapegoating is wrong and unchristian. Since Dan brought up political philosophy, let me declare myself an Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer style conservative. In the United States, of course, that makes me a rabid liberal. But that says a lot more about the ideological decay of conservatism in America than about me.

Deconstructor's quotes do establish that LDS leaders are blaming gays for the decline of the family and western civilization. That goes beyond criticizing the behavior of gays and blames them for consequences, which do not pertain to their actions. Therefore this rhetoric is scapegoating gays and lesbians.

We know the effects that this rhetoric has on gays. Worse, the general authorities have been informed of the effect of their words. I refer you, for example, to the letter of David Eccles Hardy to Boyd Packer. Hardy relates how one of his children responded with three suicide attempts to LDS doctrine regarding homosexuality. That is an all too common story. It is sad that our children cannot be safe at Church because the leadership will not afford them the opportunity to reconcile their nature with their faith.

Regardless of the consequences, the words of LDS leaders are sufficient to demonstrate that homosexuals are the targets of scapegoating.

Anne: Unfortunately, it is not true that the racism, which many LDS leaders have engaged in, merely parallels that of anyone else. It took us a generation longer to desegregate the priesthood than mainstream society. When the United States Supreme Court integrated the schools, Mormons were among the court's most vocal critics.

I agree with you that this dynamic is natural for an organization that is more conservative than the mainstream. If we hold people like Brigham Young, Mark Petersen, or Neal Maxwell to the prophetic standard that they themselves claim, then we need to conclude that being late in matters of humanity is not a good sign.

I am pleased that Gordon Hinckley rejected racism during the last General Conference. Better late than never. However, we ought to remember that the first American efforts to abolish slavery dates back to 1688. By contrast, Brigham Young taught that God created Africans to become slaves and that this would always be so. Young also preached that the punishment for a white woman's and a black man's sexual relationship was death on the spot. Mormon leaders continued to preach against interracial marriage throughout the decades. Even when the priesthood became available to Africans, LDS leaders issued warnings about interracial marriage.

Again a sexual practice was blamed associated with negative consequences for our civilization. That's scapegoating. Therefore the evidence sustains my claim that there is a tradition of scapegoating among LDS leaders.

Notice, at its core racism is about intermarriage. We all belong to the same species and can procreate. Racists deny that. The prohibition of intermarriage establishes racial categories.

Clark makes an interesting point about threat perception. Culpability requires intent. Therefore people who believe that they are doing the right thing may not be culpable. On the other hand, we need to remember the relational content of scapegoating. There are not only perpetrators but real people get hurt. At some point, we have to take responsibility for our beliefs and their consequences. In criminal law, error doctrine defines limits. An erroneous assumption must be reasonable to be exculpatory.

Religious freedom means that we can believe anything but we cannot rely on such beliefs to regulate the lifes of people other than ourselves. Public policy ought to grounded in reason, especially when it becomes a matter of coercion.

Even if we ignore everything we know about the lynching, suicide, and other suffering of homosexuals, it is unreasonable to proclaim that they brought about the fall of Rome.

Likewise, the gender roles, which Mormon theology deploys against gays do not withstand reasoned enquiry. Historically and anthropologically, it is clear that they only capture a slither of the human experience. Rather there has been a wide variety of family models and gender roles that have successfully reared children.

Therefore it is reckless to invoke that kind of theology to agitate against the right of a vulnerable minority.

We know today that skin pigmentation is intrinsically irrelevant with respect to a person's humanity. Many people figured that out centuries ago. I remind you of the role that Frederick Douglas played in that regard. Therefore Mark Petersen could have known better.

We also know that homosexuality is a natural feature of the human condition. While the inquiry into the causes of homosexuality continues, same sex attraction has been observed across a wide variety of species ranging from primates all the way to birds and reptiles. If we want our faith to remain relevant to contemporary public life then we have an interest in accommadating this fact in our theology.

Homosexuality does not intrinsically hurt anyone. Sex can hurt people. Homosexuality can hurt people the same way heterosexuality hurts us.

When we refuse to acknowledge the humanity of homosexuals then we only have ourselves to blame. Therefore we cannot escape responsibility when we blame our gay and brothers and lesbian sisters for bringing down civilization.

Scapegoating Gays

2006-06-06T17:36:00.000-05:00

When my mate Ronan responded to the bigotry of a Scottish politician on By Common Consent I agreed with him but also expressed regret that we ourselves continue to scapegoat vulnerable minorities. In the back and forth, I eventually pointed out that scapegoating has a tradition in Mormon history that seems to be deeply entrenched.

Daniel Peterson joined the debate today and took issue with my view. I tried to engage his argument on BCC but due to some technical glitch, the blog did not accept my posts. The BCC moderators also feel that they would rather not continue the debate there. (That's fine. It's a great and hospitable blog). Therefore I am posting a response here and invite Daniel Peterson and anyone else at Beyond Ourselves.

I hope that Daniel Peterson will feel welcome and safe on Beyond Ourselves. Here is my response:

Good to meet you, Dan.

Scapegoating refers to behavior that blames or sacrifices people for deeds that are not their own.

Connecting the crisis of the family to gays and lesbians meets that definition.

Therefore, I am deeply troubled by the efforts of our leaders to blame our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters for the travails of the family in our age. The notion that parenthood is more virtuous than loving outsiders contradicts the Sermon of the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and has lead us down a path where we once again pick on a weak minority.

That says a lot more about us than about gays. It's sad.

I agree with you, Daniel, that there are many Mormons, probably in every ward, that do not condone scapegoating.

Unfortunately, there is a strand of rhetoric among Mormon leaders spanning from Brigham Young's to our lifetime that alienates the Saints from their neighbors. It does so by defining enemies that are supposedly a threat to the welfare of Mormons and our church.

Targets have shifted over time. It used to be Blacks. During the seventies until today, people who believe that women are human beings who ought to enjoy human rights (code word: feminists). Intellectuals were always an opportune target. Now it's homosexuals.

In light of the Journal of Discourses, the speeches of Mark Petersen and Boyd Packer, there is a sustained tradition of scapegoating in Mormon leadership practice. (When Neal Maxwell preached against crossing cultural boundaries in marriage in 1996 at a CES fireside in Provo, I was shocked.) I presume that most people are familiar with those texts. On demand, I shall be happy to cite them.

Given that our theology emphasizes authority, it is not surprising that the leadership's practice has shaped Mormon culture. Just look at how we talk about people. There are Saints, gentiles, and apostates.

To be fair, scapegoating and stoking animosity (Feindbild) to outsiders is an effective leadership technique that has been used in many communities and societies. As Christians, however, we cannot take solace in the shortcomings of others whether that means invoking a pathological custom or blaming groups so weak that they make convenient targets.

Chick Diplomacy

2006-05-23T08:37:00.000-05:00

The New Times reports that America has caught up with the Dixie Chicks. The article refers to the Incident. That's when Chick Natalie Maines proclaimed her disdain for George Bush in London on the eve of the third Gulf War. The right wing forced country radio stations to boycott the Chicks. When their songs got no air time, the album sold "only" six million times.

As Americans have come to agree with them, the Chicks feel validated. They dedicated their new album to the Incident. While one needs to remember that they have been working on the album for over a year, the President's low approval ratings can only help the Chicks' marketing. It'll be interesting to see if Americans embrace their leadership now that the Chicks turned out to be wiser than their president.

Speaking of which, not only do the Chicks and Americans agree about George Bush. So do Americans and the rest of the world. For the first time since 2003, Americans and their European cousins agree in their assessment of the Republican leader. While European conservatives have understood from the beginning the George Bush wasn't one of them, American conservatives are realizing belatedly that he has damaged their movement and their program.

Chick Natalie Maines wanted to send a message that Americans have more in common with Europeans than it appeared at the moment. Her judgment turned out to be on target. The confluence of public opinion on both sides of the Atlantic is an opportunity to reforge the alliance of Western democracies.

May be, Europeans will even be willing to listen to country music once again.

Faith and Responsibility

2006-05-19T08:29:00.000-05:00

If we rely on God’s compensation to make things right then any Church can excuse anything. It does not matter when we abuse people in this life because in the end God will compensate the victims. Nothing would be out of bounds. Anything goes.

The upsite of such a theology is that it gives us comfort. On the downside, it empowers abuse instead of confronting it.

The martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught that in our age, Christians have to live as if there were no God. His co-conspirators had asked Bonhoeffer why they needed to assassinate Adolf Hitler. If Hitler was so evil then why couldn’t they just leave it to God to kill him?

Bonhoeffer got it right. Christians have to take responsibility for their world. That’s the difference between blind faith that faith that will make us free.

Sex, Power, and Language

2006-04-27T07:34:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post reports about James Moran, a priest who was sexually abused when he was a young intern.

I find it striking how difficult James Moran found it to speak about his experience. When he hinted at problems nobody followed up. Thus conversations that could have protected others and might have been therapeutic could not happen.

It's difficult to be sensitive about a taboo. It's almost impossible to be sensible about a taboo. That's why it is important to be open about sex.

Language empowers us to understand our environment better and to cooperate with others. We can protect our children better from poor choices and victimization if we are talking about penises, vaginas and intercourse. When children know what's up, they will be in a better position to say 'No!' And parents and leaders will follow up more effectively, when our wards are dropping obtuse hints about abuse.

Bigots and Heroes

2006-04-25T10:26:00.000-05:00

I love the bumper sticker "God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions." This morning the BBC Newshour broadcasted a spontaneous demonstration in Dahab where residents chanted: "We love everyone! We love everyone!"

By contrast, Osama bin Laden is calling on his followers to defend the genocidal murderers in Sudan.

Apparently, bin Laden does not care that the murdered men and raped women are Muslims. Instead of celebrating the efforts of the African Union and the United Nations to improve the situation of the victims, bin Laden maligns them as enemies of Islam.

It seems to me that human beings have an obligation to help the victims. While I am not an expert of Islam, I dare say that the Quran supports that view, especially when Muslims are suffering.

Bin Laden's attitude proves that he does not care about Muslims. He reserves his solidarity only to Arabs, a group of which he happens to be a member. In bin Laden's opinion, Arab Muslims apparently deserve protection under all circumstances even when they rape and murder other Muslims.

I can only conclude that bin Laden is just another racist. The heroes are the African soldiers and UN observers, forsaken by the world community, that put their lifes on the line to safe human beings.

The war against al Quaeda is really a civil war that splits every community.

Mormon Studies

2006-04-17T14:14:00.000-05:00

Hiram Page's wrote an excellent analysis about the relationship of Mormon Studies and the LDS Church.

Christ in Paradise

2006-04-15T12:16:00.000-05:00

As lent draws to an end, we are awaiting the resurrection of the Savior from paradise.

Jesus Christ celebrated the outsiders. He dined with the tax collectors who were forced to be the scourge of the community and saved the prostitute. Characteristically, Jesus chose to depict a sacrilegeous foreigner rather than priests as the good neighbor. And when Christ arrived in paradise, he was in the company of a murderer.

Good Friday

2006-04-13T17:07:00.000-05:00

Good Friday, the most important day of the year for Lutherans, barely registers for Mormons. I am compensating by listening to Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew's Passion.

It is good to remember that God partook of mortality and suffered with us.

The Faithful Historian's Secular History of the Faith: Impossible?

2006-04-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

I was asked to move this comment from a previous entry to its own post. Voila!

In my opinion there are very compelling reasons why people should be taught to draw distinctions between secular scholarship and devotional history. Think of the nature of secular scholarship on history. Ideally it should be aimed at providing the best possible analysis of historical evidences using a particular set of intellectual tools. It is not the aim of the historian's craft, at least as most people define it today, to promote or to challenge faith.

Devotional history is a religious exercise as well as a scholarly one. The devotional historian seeks to enhance or deepen believers' spiritual experience of their tradition. BTW, I really think Nate is on to something when he writes about faithful history being an ongoing practice in determining what is normative. What can we bring from our past into the present? How can we define our relationship with the past, while remaining true to our current spiritual convictions? The presentation of the past in this mode does not exclude new insights that would be equally welcome in a secular environment. Bushman's work is as close to perfect in walking the line between the two kinds of history I think we will ever see.

Each kind of history is as much about the present as it is about the past. Secular scholars are sometimes cynical about spiritual experiences and motivations when it comes to writing the history of a faith. Devotional historians craft a view of a faith's past that does as little violence as possible to contemporary belief. People can be educated to understand how to appreciate the difference and use that knowledge to guide them in their response to what they read.

In short, one can write with different aims and methods, and arrive at very different results. Not all history writing is suitable in every context. I do not read from Quinn's Magic World View when I teach Sunday School. I will not use President Hinckley's brief history much when I write my own article on the Restoration (hypothetical).

If we can accept that there are different kinds of history, can we allow that LDS scholars might write different kinds of history and not hold them to devotional history standards whenever they write? Is there ever a time when a scholar is allowed, in a scholarly forum, to forward a hypothesis that contradicts his faith position, but which he or she feels must be explored in forming a secular scholarly view? I think the possibility must exist. Any responsible scholar understands that secular scholarship is tentative. The person who leaps to dismissing faith from the discovery of a tidbit from history is operating in a defective paradigm of truth categories.

Look at the difference between Grant Palmer and Mike Quinn. Someone like a Grant Palmer states clearly that he or she has an agenda that contradicts the faith. In that instance the person is not simply behaving as a scholar, but taking a faith position. A Quinn, who avows loyalty to the LDS Church, writes a historical article in which he explores ideas that make the leadership of that Church uncomfortable (either the Manifesto piece, or the Relief Society piece). He does not seem to have a faith-motivated agenda to change the LDS Church. I simply cannot detect one. Should he punished for sharing his scholarly views? Treating the situation as a hypothetical, I say no.

Secular scholarship always has been and always should be considered a tentative enterprise. Unlike spiritual convictions, which relate to timeless truths acquired through divine illumination, secular scholarship is understood to be perpetually on the move. New methods, new philosophies, new evidences: all these things change our picture of the past on a daily basis. It is only our sad misunderstanding of the differing categories of truth that leads us to fear scholarly analysis as an enemy of faith or eschew spiritual revelation based on scholarly discoveries.

Testimony of a Dissident

2006-04-07T00:45:00.000-05:00

A while back another blogger asked me to submit an essay about my Mormon experience. Probably, for good reasons he changed his mind and never published it. Since it is already written and might shed some light on my argument at Times and Seasons, I might as well publish it myself. It might help some people to understand where I am coming from.

Testimony of a DissidentWhen I grew up in the seventies and eighties, Church was a liberating experience. My mother converted when I was six. My father never joined the LDS Church and refused permission for me to get baptized until I was fourteen. Since the prohibition was never sufficiently justified, it only stimulated my aspirations.

I was an enthusiastic Mormon, walking five miles to get to Church when I couldn’t afford public transportation. Except for my younger brother, I was the only Mormon in my school. Everyone knew about me because I was a Mormon for a reason. Probably the best indicator of my commitment to the Mormon cause was my role as a joint teacher in the conversion of over thirty Germans, which contributed to the creation of another ward.

Freedom made Church a great experience. Our young men’s leader saw to it that we did not come to harm. Beyond that we explored the gospel together. That was fortuitous because German Mormons can either be intellectually self-reliant or they can be sociopaths. We cherished each other and went to great lengths to spend time with each other. Two of us would have to bike 35 kilometers one way to meet the rest of us. Neither distance nor dogma would separate us from the gospel and each other. We did what it would take and our parents and leaders would let us.

Freedom built our testimony. Six of us served missions. That would not be spectacular in the Mormon corridor but it was spectacular in Germany. None of the German leaders I knew had served missions, except for a couple who worked for the Church Education System. Of our group, only one remains active enthusiastically. One participates selectively. Four of us have distanced ourselves from Mormonism. I don’t think that any one of us had a good experience on our missions, though I am in doubt about two.

I left a very enthusiastic missionary and even though the experience was rather disappointing, in terms of trivializing sacred gospel principles with profane management techniques, I held on to my testimony. But I would never be comfortable at Church again. In 2003 I stumbled across the excommunication of the September Six. Finally, I had to acknowledge that LDS leaders are constrained by self-interest rather than god.

Excommunicating scholars for their work creates a theological paradox. At face value, membership in the LDS Church is a condition for salvation. Excommunicated researchers cannot be redeemed until they restore their membership privileges. However, that would require them to deny their research, which represents not objective truth but the results of their best efforts to know the truth. Hence researchers’ denial constitutes a lie and lying is a sin, which makes their salvation impossible. If these individuals wanted to repent their lies then they would fail once more to qualify for membership. Regardless of what the scholars do, according to Mormon theology, they will lose salvation when disciplined for their research. That’s abusive and heretical. It’s abusive because there is no way out for the scholars. It’s heretical because it creates a situation where the atonement does not apply.

Though it appeals to my sense of justice that those who excommunicate scholars entangle themselves in heresy, I am more concerned about abuse. Since the excommunication of scholars has been continuing for twelve years, Gordon Hinckley and the fifteen are responsible. The excommunications could not have been sustained without support from the top. It was my obligation to terminate allegiance to the abusers. Otherwise I would have become an accomplice. Though I am living a Mormon lifestyle, I can no longer accept callings, contribute money, or perform any other act that would support abuse.

Making Sense of Mormon Knowledge ClaimsTo many Mormons, my decision is problematic because Mormons approach religion in terms of knowledge. If knowledge claims imply power claims, what does it mean that Mormon theology claims knowledge rather than faith?

Claiming to know the improvable, Mormons tend to regard those who disagree with suspicion, contempt, and hostility. The Mormon vocabulary refers to people as members, non-members, inactives, and apostates. Only conformists are complete human beings. Everyone else is defective. Non-members would better be members. Inactivity is the manifestation of weakness. Anyone who disagrees must be lacking in faith, virtue, or good will.

This aggressive language is necessary to sustain the belief that Mormons know what no one else knows. The only way, Mormon culture can maintain the notion of knowledge, which 98% of humanity does not share and the majority of their co-religionists refuse to apply, is to claim superior virtue. For in Mormon epistemology, it is the heart, not the brain that determines what is right (D&C 9:8, Moroni 10:3). And virtue, not reason, is the vehicle of knowledge. Those who do not obtain such insight must have been lacking in sincerity and effort (Moroni 10:4). Mormon theology reserves the ultimate judgment for those who reassess their experience.

Alma 36:6 describes reassessment in terms of murder:

For behold, if ye deny the Holy Ghost when it once has had place in you, and ye know that ye deny it, behold, this is a sin which is unpardonable; yea, and whosoever murdereth against the light and knowledge of God, it is not easy for him to obtain forgiveness; yea, I say unto you, my son, that it is not easy for him to obtain a forgiveness.

In spite of the adverb “unpardonable,” the sentence concludes, “it is not easy for him to obtain a forgiveness.” “Not easy” means hard but not impossible. It is in the context of polygamy that Joseph Smith would claim a revelation (D&C 132:27) that is less forgiving:

The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which shall not be forgiven in the world nor out of the world, is in that ye commit murder wherein ye shed innocent blood, and assent unto my death, after ye have received my new and everlasting covenant, saith the Lord God; and he that abideth not this law can in nowise enter into my glory, but shall be damned, saith the Lord.

Those who change their mind about Mormon knowledge claims are murderers of Jesus Christ and “shall not be forgiven” ever. It is fascinating that Smith threatens eternal damnation when he can no longer hide his sex life from his supporters.

Elevating faith to knowledge, the Mormon leadership can extract extraordinary devotion from its followers. That ability comes at a price. Where other religions shelter theology within the confines of faith, Mormonism has abandoned that refuge when it claimed knowledge. Defenders of Mormonism can respond to reasonable criticism only by attacking the messenger rather than engaging the argument.

In 1976 apostle Ezra Taft Benson disparaged realist history as “slander and defamation.” By the time the September Six get excommunicated in 1993 for their historical and theological research, Mormon apostles and members of the First Presidency have pointed out that
• only faithful history is accurate (Packer),
• historians are demeaning and belittling the Saints (Packer),
• criticism of officers of the Church is unjustified even if true (Oaks),
• publishing historical facts about Church officers amounts to blackmail (Oaks),
• “When the prophet speaks the debate is over” (Tanner),
• “Whether one's a bricklayer or an intellectual, the process of coming unto Christ is the same: ultimately it demands complete surrender. It's not a matter of negotiation” (Maxwell),
• members should not listen to alternate voices (Oaks),
• no Christian could possibly debate religion for discord is not of the Lord (Nelson),
• LDS Church leaders must be alert to small signs of apostasy (Hinckley),
• symposia are threatening the LDS Church (joint statement by the fifteen),
• participation at symposia is dangerous (Packer),
• “There is no place in the Kingdom for unanchored brilliance” (Maxwell).
The campaign culminated in the 1993 excommunications, a practice continuing today. In the eyes of LDS leaders, independent scholarship is a sin and loyalty is more important than truth.

Since doubt is taboo, social relations between corridor Mormons are rarely intimate. People are friendly but do not become friends. They meet at LDS activities but do not invite each other to their homes. We read the scriptures but would rather cite Seven Habits. We become missionaries but are uncomfortable meeting strangers. Though some Mormons can, Mormon society cannot tolerate a difference of opinion over religion. Mormonism cannot bear the threat to the illusion of knowledge.

The lack of intimacy in our neighborhoods and congregations extends to our families. As biographies of Mormon dissenters emerge on the net, a recurring theme is the inhibition of spouses to discuss their thoughts and feelings about their religious affiliation. Family members have become the most effective enforcers of discipline of Mormonism. The doctrine of eternal families means that doubts of my children, my parents, and my spouse risk not only the salvation of a loved one but that they are compromising mine. Reassessment of Mormon knowledge claims often estranges parents and children, and believing spouses frequently respond to questions with threats of divorce.

Most fascinating, however, is the silence within individuals. In my case, the mission emaciated me emotionally. The minority experience has benefited me intellectually but one thing that I did not learn was how to manipulate relationships. The mission experience is about gaming the system, playing the numbers, creating impressions, and conforming to expectations. Though I knew what pained me, I could not make sense of that experience because of the illusion of knowledge called the testimony. The fact that I would have advised any young men to serve, fully aware that my experience had been devastating, is a measure of the self-betrayal’s extent. It would take me some seventeen years to work things out because I believed that I knew that the Church was true. Only when I realized that LDS leaders are as self-interested as anyone else, was I able to rees-tablish common sense and put the pain behind me.

I remember my youth in the LDS Church fondly. I have benefited from the generosity of Mormons in many different ways. Though I could have done without the sacrilege pervading the missionary program, I could have dealt with that. But no matter how true the Church may be, it is wrong to bully our members to lie. The pressure to lie does not end at the confines of the ivory tower. Our priesthood leaders are the abusers. And the lies reach into our communities and families where fear of honesty undermines communication. Policies that discipline scholars in terms of “orthodoxy” corrupt everything that is good about Mormonism. It didn’t used to be that way. It doesn’t have to be that way. Mormonism can be better than that.

The Excommunication Paradox

2006-04-06T12:03:00.000-05:00

In response to Nate Oman's reinterpretation of faithful history, I have raised the issue of excommunicating historians that LDS authorities consider as subvervise. Those of you who know me well, will be familiar with the argument. I hope that old and new visitors will engage it once more:

If one takes Mormon theology at its face value then researchers who are threatened with excommunication find themselves in a situation where salvation is unobtainable regardless of what they do.

If the scholars get excommunicated for their research then they lose access to the necessary sacraments. If they submit to authorities and deny their research then they are denouncing their best efforts of determining the facts. That amounts to a lie. Lying is a sin, which results in damnation.

Creating a situation where neither repentance nor salvation are possible is a much greater sacrilege than anything that any historian could possibly say.

Taking It Back

2006-04-05T09:07:00.000-05:00

Hirum Page provides and excellent analysis of race and the problem of false doctrines in Mormon theology. Comparing the renunciation of the priesthood ban to the ban of polygamy and Brigham Young's Adam God doctrine, Hirum puts things into perspective.

You can read it here.

Living in Hiding

2006-04-04T13:05:00.000-05:00

Imagine you where to marry the love of your life but you had to keep it a secret from your family and your church. That's a small measure of what it must feel like if you have to hide the nature of your sexuality from the people that matter most to you.

I found this picture on Postsecret, a blog where the author asks folks to send them their secrets. It's a fascinating project. Check it out.

I am looking forward to the day when monogamous legitimate relationships, also known as families, no longer have to be a secret.

President Hinckley Digs Darron

2006-04-02T17:04:00.000-05:00

During the priesthood session, President Hinckley endorsed Darron Smith's view that we have a long way to go with respect to racism. I will be looking forward to the conference report to see the exact wording.

Gordon Hinckley and Darron Smith are right. It is a tragedy that our children continue to hear that God is a racist and that racism is a virtue. It’s even worse for our brothers and sisters who have African ancestors.

Darron Smith's example is inspiring. He said what needed to be said regardless of the personal consequences. As a good shepherd, Gordon B. Hinckley responded to the concerns and challenged us to become better brothers and sisters.

It is difficult for the President of the Church to denounce the misguided teachings of his predecessors explicitly. It’s up to us as members to exercise our talents and to engage racist thought such as the fence sitter doctrine wherever it rears its head.

President Hinckley gets it. He points us in the right direction. Now it’s our turn to make the most of it.

Do What Is Right, Let the Consequences Follow

2006-04-01T08:52:00.000-05:00

They pulled it off. Here is the Daily Herald's report.

Protest At BYU

2006-03-31T23:43:00.000-05:00

Someone has guts. The Daily Herald reported that a group of BYU students planned to protest the firing of a BYU whistleblower today, Friday, March 31.

The student protesters would step into a chalk circle, remain there until three, and tape their mouth shut with stickers saying BYUSA to show that students have no voice on campus.

The whistleblower was fired for stating that student candidates on campus might be improperly sifted by administrators. BYUSA is the student body organization at Brigham Young University

Why Kids Can't Write

2006-03-31T14:27:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post's Jay Mathews argues that activists' rejection of high stake testing is merely an irrational fear of the unknown. In Mathews' opinion, these kind of tests, now mandated at several grade levels, do not compromise education because good teachers do not engage into drill fests. Mathews misdiagnoses the problem. The technical requirements of the tests shape the curriculum. That means that fundamental skills such as writing, reasoning, and analysis are increasingly marginalized.

I love my children's school, which provides them many opportunities. Somewhere at the policy level, however, the focus is off. In Maryland, third grade used to focus on composition. Due to testing pressures, the curriculum has dropped story, letter, and report writing. There is no compensation in later grades.

I am all for identifying kids that are not up to grade level and supporting them. But that cannot mean that children can no longer acquire basic life skills.

Composition elevates thinking to another level. Few things focus one's thoughts as having to put them down on paper in a coherent and concise way. In the workplace, you need to know how to properly describe a situation. Otherwise you cannot share information in a world of large organizations and bureaucracies.

My daughter's teacher will kindly provide my wife and me with a composition curriculum. Thirty minutes to an hour per day during the summer will probably be sufficient for our daughter to develop her writing skills at an age appropriate level. I am concerned, however, about her peers who will not have that opportunity.

It's already a problem. Teaching at a state college, in my experience most freshmen cannot write a coherent report, no matter how short or simple. A friend of mine who teaches history at Yale reports that she encounters the same problem.

After twelve years of schooling, young adults should be able to write a report about an automobile accident. They should be able to analyze a text, be it a speech by the President of the United States or a scene of Shakespeare.

The notion that multiple choice tests are the appropriate college entrance exam is not only ridiculous but damaging. Multiple choice tests are unable to measure thinking and understanding. They deemphasize skills such as composition or mathematical analysis and proof. Instead the tests are emphasizing the most trivial aspects of education. Multiple choice tests privilege "what" over "why," recognition over reasoning, memorization over skill. If that's what's rewarded then we need not be surprised that the educational attainment of college entries is trivial.

To be sure, the most responsible state legislatures have supplemented No Child Left Behind with short answer questions. Unfortunately, they neither count towards the federal mandate nor are they a substitute for proper composition.

Until we abandon the notion that one can rank order the nation's students with multiple choice tests such as the SAT, we will not be able to provide our children with a proper education. Easy and convenient measurement might be politically convenient. It makes for a crippled education.

Darron Smith: Correction

2006-03-30T08:28:00.001-05:00

I apologize for posting inaccurate information about the Darron Smith interview. It will actually air on Sunday night at 6:30 on KUED.

Check your local listings to find out when your PBS affiliate air Religion and Ethics between April 2-8. Religion and Ethics updates the program website Friday evening to reflect next week's program.

Darron Smith on TV

2006-03-29T16:48:00.000-05:00

Religion and Ethics interviews Darron Smith this week. Darron Smith was a professor at Brigham Young University whose contract was not renewed presumably because his research showed how Latter-day Saints of African descent continue to be affected by racist theology.

For those of you who live in the Salt Lake area, the show will broadcast on KUED, the local PBS affiliate, on Friday evening at 6:30.

The Ultimate Revelation

2006-03-29T09:23:00.000-05:00

If we believe in God as the creator then the creation is the ultimate revelation. Hence doctrine has to accomodate the creation or the nature of things.

The scientific consensus has determined that homosexuality is a natural phenomenon. So are hermaphrodites and barren couples. Therefore we ought to consider homosexuality part and parcel of creation.

Theology that does not reflect these manifestations fails to account for the creation and thus undermines itself.

When it became clear that naturalism contradicted racism, dogmatic insistence to the contrary crippled Mormon theology, corrupted the hearts of our children and damaged the Church as an organization. I hope that does not happen with sexism.

Sex and Salvation

2006-03-28T20:10:00.000-05:00

On Times and Seasons, Nate Oman cuts right to the chase. He argues that Latter-day defenders of gay marriage have failed to engage Mormon theology. General Christian arguments are insufficient justifications, according to Oman, because they do not consider Doctrine and Covenants sections 131 and 132. Sections 131 and 132 define salvation in terms of a union between male and female. That is no small matter. After all, salvation is the ultimate end of Christian theologies.

For the sake of argument, I shall suspend my doubts about section 132 and assume it to be an authoritative text.

In that case, it’s important to be precise. Oman is right that the new and everlasting covenant is about males and females. It is not about the traditional family. It’s about polygamy. The definition of eternal marriage in verses 15-32 is sandwiched between passages about polygamous Old Testament patriarchs and kings. Hence it is clear that eternal marriage or the new and everlasting covenant is polygamous, a fact that has encouraging implications for gay marriage.

Typically though not exclusively, Mormon polygamy was polygynous, which means that one man was married to several women. Hence the new and everlasting covenant can include lesbians as long as their relationship is mediated by the inclusion of a man.

More importantly, Latter-day Saints do not practice the new and everlasting covenant in its original form any longer. Under legal pressure, President Wilford Woodruff declared in 1890 that polygamous eternal marriages were suspended.

Hence no Latter-day Saint are unable to enter into the new and everlasting covenant in its original form. Notice, Woodruff’s Official Declaration does not lay claim to prophesy or revelation. It merely announces a policy change with the authority of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. The Official Declaration does not redefine the requirements of salvation but assures that LDS authorities will not tolerate new polygamous marriages.

As none of us can live polygamy, that policy change would amount to our damnation if one were to rely on D&C 132 only. Unless one assumes that section 132 is ambiguous or needs to be supplemented with other texts, contemporary Mormon practice becomes absurd. The LDS Church would be left without the ability to provide for the salvation of our generation.

It is not my place to determine how far the flexibility will stretch. In the context of Buckley Jeppson’s case, extending temple marriage to gays and lesbians is not on the agenda.

We know, however, that homosexuality is a natural phenomenon and as such a part of the creation. Christians, especially Mormons, believe that the atonement can safe every child of heavenly. It seems to me then that any notion of salvation needs to include those children of Heavenly Father that happen to be homosexual. Otherwise our soteriology will remain not only incomplete but mired in contradiction.

In the meanwhile, it is in the public interest to have a space for believing Mormons to pursue their sexuality in a responsible and safe manner. The best way to obtain that is in a committed, legally sanctioned, monogamous relationship. That does not require theological change. It only requires realism and a little bit of tolerance.

Vee Have Vays of Making You Speak!

2006-03-28T14:23:00.000-05:00

Finally, I have been snarked. Pathetically, I had to ask for it three times. But the humiliation was worth it. Check it out!

Excommunication

2006-03-27T16:27:00.000-05:00

Since the topic came up at Our Thoughts, here is my analysis about excommunication and Mormon theology:

Excommunication is too much of a temptation for leaders to exclude people that disagree with them. Particularly, the excommunication of historians and other scholars is problematic.

If one takes Mormon theology at its face value then researchers who are threatened with excommunication find themselves in a situation where salvation is unobtainable regardless of what they do.

If the scholars get excommunicated for their research then they lose access to the necessary sacraments. If they submit to authorities and deny their research then they are denouncing their best efforts of determining the facts. That amounts to a lie. Lying is a sin, which results in damnation.

Creating a situation where neither repentance nor salvation are possible is a much greater sacrilege than anything that any historian could possibly say.

Why God Really Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah

2006-03-25T16:20:00.000-05:00

When Steven B. proposed language that welcomes gays and lesbians into the LDS Church without violating Mormon dogma on Open Sky Visions, some posters replied that God must hate gays. Why else, was the argument, would God cast fire and brimstone on the heads of homosexuals in Sodom and Gomorrah?

When one reads Genesis closely, however, it becomes clear that the Sodomites were not punished for homosexuality but for violating hospitality. Read for yourself:

4. Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter;
5. and they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them."
6. But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him,
7. and said, "Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.
8. "Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof."
9. But they said, "Stand aside." Furthermore, they said, "This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them." So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door.
10. But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
11. They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.
12. Then the two men said to Lot, "Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place;
13. for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it."

The locals demand from Lot that he turn over his guest to be raped. That's pretty bad. To avert that evil, Lot offers his daughters to the mob. That would not make sense if God were concerned about sexual sin. But when the locals decline the offer and threaten Lot, that's when the messengers of God declare that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah has become imminent.

Genesis 19 is not about homosexuality. It's about hospitality.

Ironically, hospitality plays only a minor role in the theology of latter-day fundamentalists, a fact that should remind us that not everything in a three thousand year old book is relevant in our era.

Costs for Iraq

2006-03-23T16:19:00.000-05:00

Remember when Wolfowitz argued that the war would not be expensive because Iraq would pay for its own reconstruction with its oil revenues? Shortly thereafter George W. Bush's chief economist Lawrence Lindsay was fired for revealing that the Iraq War would cost $200 billion.

It turns out to be a lot worse.

Nobel price winning economist Joseph Stiegliz and Linda Bilmes have published an analysis of the financial costs of the Iraq War. You can download their paper here. By the time, one pays the indirect costs of the war we are well on our way to spending more than one trillion dollars. It may be as much as two.

That means that each American household will have to contribute $10,000.

The Costs

2006-03-21T09:04:00.000-05:00

The sad thing is that the current policy makes it impossible for some of our children to reconcile their essence with their religion. The consequences are traumatic, sometimes deadly.

The experience of Bishop Harding's family illustrates what it is like if one of your loved ones happens to be gay and LDS.

The Latter-day Samaritan

2006-03-19T00:32:00.000-05:00

Buckley has been asked by his ecclesiastical leaders to forsake his faith. He has responded that he will not deny his faith and his heritage. He knows that love is not a sin. Buckley understands that God created him in his image.

In spite of Pauls teachings that privilege celibacy, Mormons understand the power of the sex drive. We know that most people will have sex. Hence we tell them to get married early.

Behavioral codes have to accomodate reality, not the other way around. The fact is that homosexuality is a natural phenomenon. Homosexuality occurs across a wide variety of species including primates.

Furthermore, no species relegates procreation to volition. For humans that manifests itself in the sex drive.

It is not only unjust and unfair to deny humanity's sexual nature to individuals who happen to be created with a different sexual orientation. It's futile.

Most people will have sex. Homosexuals are people. Therefore homosexuals will have sex.

People who do not recognize that are in denial. Even if motivated by the best intentions, this mindset has negative consequences, which include physical violence against homosexuals in the form of bodily injury and homicide. There is also symbolic violence against homosexuals by way of humiliation, marginalization and scapegoating.

Symbolic violence may lead to self-destructive behaviors when gays cannot reconcile their religious commitments and their sexuality. In some cases that means suicide. In others it means that gays act according to the negative image that Mormon society and doctrine prescribes for them.

Bad ideas have consequences. How do I know it's a bad idea? Because the notion that homosexuality is a sin destroys our children.

There is no reason why there needs to be another Stuart Matis. We only need to take responsibility for our ideas instead of blaming God.

Nobody is innocent. We are all responsible when it comes to the power of bad ideas.

Fortunately, Buckley is a pretty strong guy. He bears his cross with dignity. The way we treat him pains him. But in the end, Mormon culture will be better thanks to Buckley's strength. I am grateful for the opportunity to support him. I wish I would have supported Stuart Matis.

In my eyes, Buckley is a Good Samaritan of our generation. He doesn't see himself that way. He just wants to be a good Latter-day Saint. But one cannot say that as a gay Mormon man without helping the weary, burdened, and injured that we encounter on our community's paths.

The Conservative Logic of Gay Marriage

2006-03-17T21:11:00.000-05:00

1. People who have sex ought to be married.
2. Gays and lesbians will have sex.
3. Therefore gays and lesbians ought to get married.

Moving the Bar

2006-03-16T13:07:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post carries an AP story about the threatened excommunication of Buckley Jeppson from the LDS Church. Mormon leaders fault Buckley for being married to his husband in Canada.

In the past, the Mormon prophet Gordon Hinckley has declared that homosexuals are treated no different from heterosexuals. For example, Hinckley said in an interview published by the San Francisco Chronicle on March 13, 1997:

"Now, we have gays in the church. Good people. We take no action against such people—provided they don't become involved in transgression, sexual transgression. If they do, we do with them exactly what we'd do with heterosexuals who transgress. We have a very strong moral teaching concerning abstinence before marriage and total fidelity following marriage. And, regardless of whether they're heterosexuals or otherwise, if they step over that line there are certain sanctions, certain penalties that are imposed."

Now that gays and lesbians can actually get married, it seems that the LDS Church is about to establish a new standard. LDS leaders seem to prepare to declare marriage a sin.

You can read more about Buckley Jeppson's case at the web site of the Safe Space Coalition, which also provides you the opportunity to share your opinion about this issue with LDS leaders. The Safe Space Coalition is a group of Mormons and friends of Mormons who strive to provide a safe space beyond despair and suicide for gay and lesbian Latter-day Saints.

Faith, Reason, and Martin Luther King Day

2006-01-14T05:22:00.000-05:00

Martin Luther King Day is an occassion for Christians to consider both the liberating and the nefarious effects of our faith. Martin Luther King's faith was an important asset in his struggle against racism. On the other hand, if religion had not justified and codified racism in the first place, we might have dislodged hatred earlier and more thoroughly.

It turns out that faith may be selfish or charitable. One is cheap. The other is costly. One is greedy. The other is giving. One is blind. The other is reasoned.

The hope of blessings and salvation is cheap faith. That faith is opium for the masses. Making us prisoners of greed, selfish faith manipulates us and suspends reason. Engaging suffering at personal risk, like the Good Samaritan, is costly faith demanding our commitment here and now. Compassionate faith embraces reason and sets us free. We do not become more Christ like in those experiences that make us feel good but in those that pain us. We do not find God in triumph but when we look into the face of our suffering neighbors and meet their needs.

The story of Job and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman liberate modern human beings from the tyranny of individual success. And then there is the God, who, according to Martin Luther’s translation, was born in a manger among animals, became a refugee, hung out with prostitutes and corrupt officials, and entered paradise in the company of a murderer. He gave us the Sermon of the Mount, which is outdated with respect to sex but remains the best lesson about conflict and cooperation yet, best represented during the last century by leaders of the liberation struggles such as Mohandas Gandhi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, and Václav Havel.

Modernity generated its own form of idolatry. Those who were arrogant enough to proclaim an end to suffering became the perpetrators of crimes against humanity. The fact that even our God was not beyond suffering reminds Christians that no amount of virtue can bring about heaven on earth.

The difference between Gandhi's freedom struggle and Robespierre's terror was that Gandhi appreciated the suffering of his opponents. He loved them and strove to be their friend. Though Gandhi's determination was not free of arrogance, his faith was motivated by his commitment to the rights of others. Like Gandhi, Martin Luther King made it a priority to minimize the suffering of his opponents while he and his people had to suffer like Christ.

I have been spared a similar experience. The most evocative accounts of Christ’s suffering are probably not in the gospels but in the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach knew about suffering. His mother died when he was nine. Surviving his wife as the father of toddlers as well as half of his children, Bach found solace in the passion of his god. His music can instill a deep appreciation for suffering, though the progress brought about by reason denies some of us the requisite experience, thank heaven.

In the Words of a Father

2006-01-06T17:19:00.000-05:00

Most of you will already have seen the editorial by Paul Schroeder whose son was killed in Iraq. You can read the whole story at the Washington Post. Here is an excerpt:

I am outraged at what I see as the cause of his death. For nearly three years, the Bush administration has pursued a policy that makes our troops sitting ducks. While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that our policy is to "clear, hold and build" Iraqi towns, there aren't enough troops to do that.

In our last conversation, Augie complained that the cost in lives to clear insurgents was "less and less worth it," because Marines have to keep coming back to clear the same places. Marine commanders in the field say the same thing. Without sufficient troops, they can't hold the towns. Augie was killed on his fifth mission to clear Haditha.

At Augie's grave, the lieutenant colonel knelt in front of my wife and, with tears in his eyes, handed her the folded flag. He said the only thing he could say openly: "Your son was a true American hero." Perhaps. But I felt no glory, no honor. Doing your duty when you don't know whether you will see the end of the day is certainly heroic. But even more, being a hero comes from respecting your parents and all others, from helping your neighbors and strangers, from loving your spouse, your children, your neighbors and your enemies, from honesty and integrity, from knowing when to fight and when to walk away, and from understanding and respecting the differences among the people of the world.

Two painful questions remain for all of us. Are the lives of Americans being killed in Iraq wasted? Are they dying in vain? President Bush says those who criticize staying the course are not honoring the dead. That is twisted logic: honor the fallen by killing another 2,000 troops in a broken policy?

I choose to honor our fallen hero by remembering who he was in life, not how he died. A picture of a smiling Augie in Iraq, sunglasses turned upside down, shows his essence -- a joyous kid who could use any prop to make others feel the same way.

Though it hurts, I believe that his death -- and that of the other Americans who have died in Iraq -- was a waste. They were wasted in a belief that democracy would grow simply by removing a dictator -- a careless misunderstanding of what democracy requires. They were wasted by not sending enough troops to do the job needed in the resulting occupation -- a careless disregard for professional military counsel.

But their deaths will not be in vain if Americans stop hiding behind flag-draped hero masks and stop whispering their opposition to this war. Until then, the lives of other sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers may be wasted as well.

This is very painful to acknowledge, and I have to live with it. So does President Bush.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-25T09:11:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones! Happy holidays to everyone!

Christmas celebrates a God who was born in a manger among animals. A God who was adored by shepherds and angels. When the wise men came, they attracted danger and the holy family had to seek refuge on foreign soil.

Like our savior, millions of children live in poverty, not only abroad but in our midst. The Nobel Price winning economist Amartya Sen even documented that child mortality is higher in the United States than in the southern Indian state Kerala. New Orleans revealed to us that ten to twenty percent of our countrymen live in third world conditions.

If I encountered baby Jesus in the manger today, would I be concerned about the quality of his health care? What about Mary, the mother of God?

And then what? Would I support Joseph's need for a living wage?

Would I do my part that even those who have to live in stables enjoy a life of rights and dignity?

The genius of Christianity is that God became a man. He lived among us and suffered with us. That's how he was born and that's how he redeemed the world.

If I don't step up for those of my neighbors who share Christ's predicament then I can neither claim to love my God nor my neighbor.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Where Are the Conservatives?

2005-12-18T10:46:00.000-05:00

In Germany, I was a conservative. I still have conservative predispositions and lead a conservative lief style. In the United States, however, conservativism has degenerated into a label for a worldview beyond reason.

The rejection of science: intelligent design, stem cell research, denying global warming in spite of the consensus of the scientific audience.
Fiscal irresponsibility: structural deficits as far as the eye can see, more spending and more tax cuts every year.
Scapegoating: blaming gays for the crisis of American families.
Lack of support for the military: reducing the size of the army from twelve to ten divisions, cutting the budget of the Veteran's administration every year, trying to take combat and family separation pay from soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan, six draft deferments by Cheney.
Cronyism: cost-plus contracts for Halliburton and Bechtel.
Wishful thinking instead of cold blooded analysis: going to war assuming the best, never planning for the worst case.
The middle class squeeze: the evaporation of affordable housing, health care, and higher education.
Lacking commitment to democracy: the lack of commitment by Republican elected officials to provide equal voting rights, providing too few voting machines in black neighborhoods, emaciating the civil rights division in the Department of Justice.

That's not conservative. Conservative is about tradition, stability, responsibility, service, and the common good. Until the Republican party recovers these values they are merely a tribe with a tribal agenda at the expense of the nation and our children.

But not even tribalism is the ultimate end of the Republican party. It is only a cover in the pursuit of personal wealth. The Bushies are spending billions so that their friends can make millions. We might as well be governed by self-righteous robber barons.

Unions: Making Markets Work

2005-12-16T09:07:00.000-05:00

Lots of labor news today. The Copley News Service reports that the gocery chain Ralphs broke a strike by surreptitiously rehiring locked out workers. That happens to be illegal.

In New York the Transit Worker's Union is initiating strikes after negotiating past the contract deadline.

Why can't workers negotiate their contracts individually? Because we are living in a world of large organizations. When you bargain with a government or a multi-billion dollar corporation then employers make all the rules. When workers unite then balance is restored and contracts reflect the market rather than a power imbalance.

Poor People Taking Charge

2005-12-14T14:04:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post reports how a group of Black and Latino tenants banded together to buy Capitol Manor, which otherwise would have been redeveloped. That's an exciting model.

Unfortunately, it's also the exception to the rule. The National Low Income Housing Coalition released its annual report today. To afford a two bedroom apartment, workers have to make $15.78 per hour. That is more than three times the national minimum wage, which means that parents may both work full time but cannot provide decent housing for their children. The problem is that rent has been rising faster than wages for years.

So have health insurance and tuition. Middle class Americans shouldn't kid themselves. The problem is reaching dimensions where it affects us, too.

What Polygamy Tells Us About the Mormon Experience

2005-12-11T15:49:00.000-05:00

One of the grand achievements of the rule of law is the separation of public and private spheres, which gives meaning to the concept of individual liberty. Polygamy established a political order where the powerful regulate the sexual behavior of particular individuals.

The ability of the Mormon alpha male to regulate people's sexual relations and to deploy his power in the pursuit of marriage, takes us straight back to the law of the jungle. Such arrangements inevitably increase levels of political violence.

In other words, polygamy is the most striking manifestation of Smith's claim to unlimited power. Attempts to organize power around claims of prophecy amounted to a civilizational disaster that cost many people dearly, not least Joseph Smith himself.

Talk about a tragedy.

Jerry Falwell's Christmas

2005-12-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

There's nothing like law suits and boycotts to celebrate the birth of the Lord by Colbert King:

Silly me! And here I've been thinking that Target, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Kmart and America's malls are places where people go this time of year to shop. But thanks to the Rev. Jerry Falwell and others in his wing of Christendom, I now know that those stores are there during the holiday season to serve as places of worship. What other conclusion can be drawn?

Another Child Tax Hike

2005-12-08T08:01:00.000-05:00

Republicans are exacerbating the budget deficit with another round of "tax cuts." This one will amount to an additional $94.5 billion dollar deficit. Somebody will have to pay back that money. Once again Republicans consider it appropriate to finance voodew economics on the back of our children.

Then there is the issue of compound interest. Lets assume that we will be paying 4.5% interest for thirty years on the debt for this "tax cut." In that case we will pay over $249 billion dollar interest. And that is the price sticker for merely one year.

That's not a tax cut. It's taxing our children.

Conservative Principles and Same Sex Marriage

2005-12-06T22:36:00.000-05:00

The conservative position is that people who have sex ought to be married. Gays and lesbians have sex. Therefore gays and lesbians ought to be married.

"We May Be Immigrants But We Are Human Beings First"

2005-12-05T17:09:00.001-05:00

Those are the words of immigrants in the custody of the Homeland Security Department after they witnessed the death of Richard Rust who died from a heart attack because he was denied medical care.

Uncovering a series of deaths, NPR asks whether there is a pattern of medical neglect in Homeland Security detention centers.

Alexis de Tocqueville observed that one can tell a lot about a country by how it treats its prisoners. Here is how an expert on prison health care evaluates the evidence:

But nationally respected specialists on prison health care told NPR that if the detainees accounts are true -- their stories are remarkably consistent -- then the prison's efforts fell far short of the required standard of medical care. "It's unconscionable in my opinion," says Dr. Robert Greifinger, who has investigated health care systems in prisons for the federal and local governments. Greifinger has not personally investigated Rust's death, but he says if the detainees' accounts are accurate, the Oakdale staff's "inaction in the face of his life-threatening condition could have been a cause of his death."

Greifinger says the detainees' story suggests the possibility that the staff's response "was more than negligence -- that it was what, in legal terms, is called ‘deliberate indifference' to serious medical needs. If there's deliberate indifference, it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment."

St. Barbara Day

2005-12-04T10:08:00.000-05:00

Today is St. Barbara Day. Traditionally, we go and obtain cherry or forsythia twigs and mark them with ribbons for each member of the family. Indoors, the twigs begin to bloom. Whoever's twig has the most blossoms on Christmas day, will be the luckiest in the coming year.

"Atheists Make Better Comics"

2005-12-03T08:23:00.000-05:00

Seth at Kingdom of Heaven argues that atheists make better comics. Why would that be true?

For one thing, if one is willing to acknowledge how ridiculous the human condition turns out to be then that precludes a lot of bad theology that justifies a belief in god by appealing to our vanity. Intelligent design is merely the most recent example.

What do you think?

Voting and the Golden Rule

2005-12-02T10:01:00.000-05:00

According to De Sententia, the Bush administrations unwillingness to support auditable voting machines now hurts its allies in Venezuela. The Venezuelan opposition who has to contend with President Chavez feels vulnerable because the Diebold voting machines might be manipulated.

Democracy begins at home. It would be nice if we had auditable voting procedures in the United States.

A Jubilee for the Gulf Coast

2005-12-01T09:33:00.000-05:00

Roasted Tomatoes celebrated the deliverance of Israelite and Mormon refugees by flocks of quails that supplemented their meager diets. That reminded me of the sad state of affairs at the Gulf coast where many people are still living in tents.

I am concerned that poor, working, and even middle class Americans at the Gulf coast are getting screwed. While corporations such as Halliburton capture multi-billion dollar no-bid contracts, people cannot meet their obligations to their creditors. That means that they will loose their properties to mortgage banks.

According to All Things Considered many Gulf coast victims have resigned themselves that they will not be able to recover. They lost their homes and their jobs.

In Biloxi, apparently, the casinos are not even preserving seniority for rehired staff. How is a fifty year old woman going to make ends meet with entry level wages after a year of unemployment?

In this day and age where information empowers us to be everyone's neighbor, we shouldn't rely on God or happenstance to make things right. We can make it right for people who are down. The American people have already donated unprecedented amounts to emergency relief. Now we need to demand rules and conditions that allow our Gulf coast neighbors to get back on their feet.

Here is an idea: lets have a jubilee or a Sabbath year for the Gulf coast. Zero interest on mortgages for one year for everyone devastated by the hurricanes. No payments on the principle for one year and debt forgiveness for the working poor.

The people at the Gulf coast deserve a new start. We can give them that. No reason to wait for divine intervention.

In Christ's Own Words:

2005-11-22T09:22:00.000-05:00

As Jesus passed there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinner?" He heard this and said, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do."
Matthew 9:9-12

Crusader For Christmas

2005-11-21T17:39:00.000-05:00

Jerry Falwell has now taken it upon himself to sick Matt Stavers on anyone who is a threat to . . . Christmas!

In Christ's Own Words:

2005-11-21T09:30:00.000-05:00

I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
Matthew 9:13

It's Not About Us

2005-11-19T13:57:00.000-05:00

It has become fashionable to invoke the Bible to impose one's values on others.

Demands for a particular flavor of virtue is merely a veneer for the pursuit of power. That might be a good business model but it ain't the gospel.

Some constituents of the so called Christian right today were openly opposing civil rights thirty years ago. Today they are scape goating our gay and lesbian neighbors. The perpetual need to rely on hate and fear is a sure indicator of moral bankruptcy.

By contrast, the gospel is a message of hope and love. Jesus Christ demands that we respect the rights of others. That applies especially to those who are in distress. Today that means that Christians ought to stand with their gay and lesbian neighbors.

In Christ's Own Words:

2005-11-19T10:51:00.000-05:00

Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.
Matthew 7:12

Prison Reformer David Ruiz Dies

2005-11-18T12:35:00.000-05:00

If you ever feel sorry for yourself because you're struggling against the odds, remember David Ruiz, the inmate who reformed the Texas prison system.

Thirty years ago Ruiz refused to accept brutality in Texas jail. Appealing for justice, Ruiz kept filing writs that argued that the state of Texas violated the United States Constitution.

NPR broadcast a remembrance of David Ruiz who died recently.

One Step at a Time

2005-11-18T08:23:00.000-05:00

When we encounter injustice, often the odds against us are so overwhelming that it is difficult to conceive success. How can we ever compete with the staff and money of bureaucracies and corporations?

We need to remember to take it one step at a time. It doesn't matter that we are only five folks sitting around a table. Make a plan, figure out what you need to do today and do it. That way tomorrow will take care of itself.

In Christ's Own Words:

2005-11-18T07:50:00.000-05:00

Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.
Matthew 7:34

Medi-mess (stolen from Kate Steadman)

2005-11-17T15:45:00.000-05:00

The new medicare prescription benefit program may turn out to be a collection of private monopolies.

At Healthy Policy, Kate Steadman provides an excellent overview of the new Medicare drug benefit. She calls it Medi-mess. The program is so complex that seniors will have a hard time to figure out, which option to choose.

Most troubling is the fact that the various plans only cover a selection of drugs and are only accepted at some drug stores.

That means that there may not be much competition. Goods are defined at a time and a place. If the plans do not offer the same drugs then they are not competitors. If the plans are not available at the same pharmacies then they are not really competing.

When Bush has to choose between markets and big business, he always picks big business. Thus he manages to privatize the profits, socialize the costs, and confuse the seniors.

Roy Moore

2005-11-17T09:53:00.000-05:00

Remember Roy Moore, the Alabama Supreme Court Justice who ostentatiously displayed the ten commandments in his court room? My friend , Hans Hacker published a letter in the Atlantic Monthly, which compares Moore's religiosity to that of Abraham Lincoln.

Here you go:

The juxtaposition of Joshua Wolf Shenk's "Lincoln's Great Depression" and Joshua Green's "Roy and His Rock" (October Atlantic) is a powerful commentary on the history and condition of American politics. It seems we have not learned much from Lincoln's theology, or from his example.

George Bush, who has said he strives to follow the model of Lincoln, seems to have fundamentally misunderstood him. Lincoln's greatest strength was his humility—his belief that God's ways are inscrutable, and that it is prideful sin to claim with dogmatic certainty God's allegiance to one's own cause. How else can we explain the words of the Second Inaugural?

"It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes."

The notion of prideful sin is completely lost on Roy Moore and his version of the Republican Party. Inexplicably for someone claiming to be a follower of Jesus Christ, Moore prefers Moses' Ten Commandments to his own savior's Beatitudes. His certainty in his condemnation of those who envision a life devoid of the punitive justice of Mosaic law defines precisely the corrosive effect of religion on politics today.

The easy answer to Moore comes from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who wrote in The Path of the Law, "The worst reason for doing anything is that it was done in this way during the time of Henry IV." That comment might apply to the time of Moses as well. However, Moore's politics are corrosive mainly because they reward a lack of reflection and promote an unthinking citizenry. In Roy Moore's America citizens are not called upon to evaluate the effectiveness of their institutions in achieving justice, or the usefulness of those institutions in establishing social arrangements and distributing power, wealth, or status. Furthermore, citizens are not required to think carefully about themselves in relation to others. Moore's Mosaic legal order asks no one to be unselfish, to turn the other cheek, or to relinquish his rights in favor of forgiveness and community with others. These are all things for which Americans have striven (even when "knowing that [they] could never be perfectly attained," as Shenk notes of Lincoln). Moore's certainty is simply un-American.

In the end we all could do with a bit more of Lincoln's clarity, and with the knowledge that this clarity flows from uncertainty and humility.

With permission of the author.

In Christ's Own Words

2005-11-17T08:51:00.000-05:00

Jesus Christ about the ostentatious expression of piety:

"When you pray, do not stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward."
Matthew 6: 5

Virtue, Self Interest, and Domination

2005-11-16T14:03:00.000-05:00

Supposedly, Adam Smith said: "Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience."

Modern history certainly bears that out. From Robespierre to the Taliban, rarely does one find more bloody crimes than those committed in the name of salvation. From Alexander to Pizarro those who lacked moral vision, could always justify violence in terms of courage.

That is a problem for those of us who are motviated by morality. How can we protect ourselves from becoming self-righteous and inconsiderate?

Alito About Affirmative Action and Abortion

2005-11-16T08:09:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post, quotes Samuel Alito's 1985 letter seeking promotion in the Reagan Justice Department:

"In successfully seeking a promotion in the Reagan administration's Justice Department, Alito wrote that he was "particularly proud'' of contributing to cases arguing "that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion.'' He added, "I personally believe very strongly" in such positions."

The article goes on to cite Barbara Feinstein's report of Alito's explanation:

"He said, first of all, it was different then," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told reporters after meeting with Alito. "He said, 'I was an advocate seeking a job, it was a political job, and that was 1985. I'm now a judge, I've been on the circuit court for 15 years, and it's very different. I'm not an advocate, I don't give heed to my personal views. What I do is interpret the law.' "

Alito's critics:

""This memo is so significant because it conveys his legal views," said Nan Aron of the liberal Alliance for Justice. "He can't say he was just representing the views of a client or the government. These are his views, and therefore they are the best window into how he would rule if confirmed."

To Protest Ban on Gay Unions, Arlington Pastor Refuses to Conduct Marriages

2005-11-15T20:24:00.000-05:00

Annie Gowen of the Washington Post reports:

"Clarendon Presbyterian Church Pastor David Ensign has an alternative air about him. He wears an earring and has been known to pick up his guitar to play a few hymns during Sunday services.

"But he surprised even some of Arlington's die-hard progressives Nov. 3 at the county's annual human rights awards ceremony, where his church was honored. He used the occasion to announce the church's new wedding policy:

"Traditional marriages are out. "Celebrations of commitment" are in.

"To protest Virginia's laws banning same-sex marriage, Ensign and the church's governing council decided recently that Clarendon Presbyterian will no longer have any weddings, and Ensign will renounce his state authority to marry couples."

Christmas Beyond Tribalism

2005-11-15T13:44:00.000-05:00

vjack from Atheist Revolution reminds us to respect our neighbors during Christmas season:

"To the legions of Christians, I'd like to point out that nobody is attacking your holiday. All we are asking is that you use some sensitivity in how you present it if you cannot refrain from public displays. If you let this become of divisive issue, then it seems that it is you who has destroyed your holiday."

vjack has a point. How would we feel if people would constantly stick Ramadan or Yom Kippur into our faces? When we surrender the Golden Rule then we reduce our faith to just another form of tribalism.

What Poverty Means for the Middle Class

2005-11-15T10:56:00.000-05:00

If memory does not betray me, Russell Hardin remarks in his book Liberalism, Constitutionalism, and Democracy something to the effect that middle class Americans' interests are only marginally affected by the poverty of their countrymen. Returning from an emergency room visit, I have to disagree (which explains why I posted only once yesterday).

The place was overcrowded. My son's condition was serious enough that physicians refused to let us leave at night fall. Nonetheless the boy had to spent six hours on a chair in the waiting room and the hallway because there were no beds available. Eventually I begged for some towels and improvised a bed on the floor when one of the nurses pointed out that the little man was about to fall off the chair.

The emergency room was overcrowded because it is the only health care provider that is reliably available to the uninsured. Overcrowding affects the emergency care of everyone regardless how well we are insured.

Ultimately, appeals to address poverty ought to be grounded in morality rather than in self-interest. Nonetheless we ought to acknowledge that the welfare of others affects ourselves as well.

Health Care Beyond the Middle Class

2005-11-14T11:23:00.000-05:00

Stephen Barr of the Washington Post reports that federal employees will have to pay 6.5 per cent more for health insurance. For some, it will be as high as 15%. As cost of living increases do not keep up with those kind of rate increases people switch into cheaper plan with less benefits.

When the costs for essentials such as health care, housing, and college tuition rise three or four times faster than wages and salaries then the middle class may not be sustainable. Especially when prices escalate year after year.

Suburban Americans better get their act together and organize. Otherwise they will find themselves without health insurance within a decade.

The Good Samaritan

2005-11-14T06:36:00.000-05:00

When I discussed the punishment of researchers by the Mormon Church on an AM radio show, the host and one of the callers responded that abuse did not matter. In the end, God would be the ultimate authority for appeal and everything would be fine regardless of human errors.

That's like saying the Good Samaritan might as well have left the victim in the street since God was going to take of the situation eventually.

Human beings ought to take responsibility for themselves and their neighbors. That is what this life is all about.

In Christ's Own Words

2005-11-13T12:53:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's true. Christ said that if we only love those who are like us then we aren't Christians:

"For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
"If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?"
Matthew 5:46-47

Undermining Civil Rights Enforcement

2005-11-13T11:34:00.000-05:00

Dan Egger reports in the Washington Post that Alberto Gonsalez dismantles the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.

Love Beyond Our Own

2005-11-13T06:22:00.000-05:00

Jesus Christ taught us that even the heathen love their own. True love, Christ pointed out, transcends the realm of our own and extends to those who are least like us (Matthew 5:46-47).

Some religious leaders have appealed to their followers' sense of righteousness by emphasizing the latter's' care for their own children. To be sure, the burdens of parenthood are considerable, some parents perform their duties better than others, and the love that we feel for our children is sublime. Yet loving our children is hardly a manifestation of Christlike love.

After all, loving our children comes natural. Many animals love their children. Evolutionary biologists consider the nurture of children as a manifestation of self-interest because parents have an interest in the propagation of their genes. Thus parenthood may well be the most moral form of selfishness but it remains an essentially selfish enterprise. That is as it should be but we shouldn't feed a sense of self-righteousness just because we love our own children.

Confusing a form of egoism as a manifestation of love, fundamentalist religious entrepreneurs have proclaimed a new enemy. Under the cloak of family values some churches are waging campaigns curtailing the human rights of our neighbors. Thus the illusion of selflessness puts us on a slippery slope of hate.

We shall overcome that hate once we acknowledge that love is about transcending differences.

Methodist Bishops Repent Iraq War

2005-11-12T14:33:00.000-05:00

94 Methodist bishops have proclaimed repentance from their complicity in the "unjust and imoral war" in Iraq.

Here is an excerpt of the declaration:
". . . we repent of our complicity in what we believe to be the unjust and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq. In the face of the United States Administration’s rush toward military action based on misleading information, too many of us were silent. We confess our preoccupation with institutional enhancement and limited agendas while American men and women are sent to Iraq to kill and be killed, while thousands of Iraqi people needlessly suffer and die . . .."

The New England Methodist Conference allows you to comment on the declaration on its website.

Schwarzenegger Stops Exploiting Nurses and Patients

2005-11-12T13:14:00.000-05:00

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Arnold Schwarzenegger has quietly dropped a law suit that aimed to suspend nurse patient ratios.

While the profit margins of health insurers and corporate health care providers continue to increase, nurses were forced to provide for more and more patients. That did not only make for poor working conditions but endangered patients. The California legislature responded to corporate irresponsibility by requiring minimum nurse patients ratios, which were signed into law by Gray Davis.

When the Terminator came into office, he had the impression that the rule of law did not apply to him and that he could supersede the law by degree. Sorry, Arnold. That's not how it works.

The Golden Rule for Missionaries

2005-11-12T11:17:00.000-05:00

How would fundamentalist Christians feel if a Muslim group was given privileged access to the cadets of our military academies?

The Washington Post reports that a fundamentalist evangelical group sent a letter to supporters that claims that the Air Force Academy has given them 24/7 access to cadets. Only the fundies enjoy this privilege.

Here is the article.

How Anyone Could Have Figured Out that the Bushies Were Making It Up

2005-11-12T08:27:00.000-05:00

It was clear before we invaded Iraq that Saddam Hussein and his henchmen did not have weapons of mass destruction anymore.

During his presentation at the United Nations Security Council Colin Powell pin pointed specific bunkers and vehicles where Saddam Hussein was supposed to have hidden weapons of mass destruction illegally. Yet when the UNSCOM inspectors re-entered Iraq, they reported that they had access anywhere in Iraq and still couldn't find the weapons. Powell and UNSCOM could not both be right.

If United States intelligence knew the precise locations of weapons of mass destruction then UNSCOM would have found them. That's just common sense.

Instead of repenting, acknowledging his mistakes, and abandoning wishful thinking, Mr. Bush attacks his critics personally. That might help his public standing but it won't help the United States to conduct the war effectively.

In Christ's Own Words

2005-11-11T16:08:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's true. Jesus Christ did say that taking care of the poor is like taking care of himself:

`Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

Then the righteous will answer Him, `Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

"The King will answer and say to them, `Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

Matthew 25:34-40

Success, Poverty, and Jesus Christ

2005-11-11T15:41:00.000-05:00

Christianity is about a God who became a man. He was the illegitimate child of a teenage mother. Jesus Christ was not born in a palace but in a barn in Bethlehem. Then he became a refugee in a foreign country.

Jesus was never rich and sometimes poor.

When Jesus Christ became a human being, he suffered like a human being. We should take solace in that when we are distraught about the challenges in our life. More importantly, we ought to remember it when we encounter those who have been less fortunate than us.

Veterans Day

2005-11-11T14:26:00.000-05:00

It's easy to play lip service to Veterans. What really counts, however, is whether we keep our promises and pay our debt to those who defended America. The Disabled American Veterans report that Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) is cancelling the joint session of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees for veterans' groups. Traditionally, veterans groups had the opportunity to inform United States Senators and Representatives about the needs of America's veterans.

Under Republican leadership those times are over. We shouldn't be surprised. Draft dodger Dick Cheney and champaign pilot George W. Bush have been trying to cut the Veterans Administration for several years. In the past, these attempts to deprive veterans have been met by energetic resistance in Congress. Apparently, the new chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee Steve Buyer is willing to execute the will of his master in the White House.

Bush, Cheney, and Buyer ought to be ashamed. Our veterans deserve our gratitude. The least we can do is listen to them. Send Steve Buyer an e-mail and tell him to reinstitute the listening session for veterans' groups: buyerforcongress@Stevebuyer.org. There is no better way to pay tribute to our soldiers, airmen, and marines.

Poverty and the Budget Deficit

2005-11-11T08:30:00.000-05:00

The federal budget deficit rises to $550 billion dollars and the best idea Republicans come up with is to take away school lunches from hungry children?

Lets get this straight. We are living in the richest country of the world but more than 35 million Americans live in poverty. With tax cuts for the rich, sky rocketing profit margins for big business, and obscene management compensation packages, wages continue to stagnate. According to the Catholic Bishops Conference, poverty has risen every year of the Bush government. Thanks to the Bush policies one out of eight Americans lived in poverty in 2003.

Now the poor are supposed to balance the budget?

Here is what Jesus Christ has to say about this:

And [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums.
A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent.
Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury;
for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on."
Mark 12:41-44

Rich folk won't starve balancing the budget. The poor are doing more than their share paying pay roll taxes. Lets roll back the tax cuts, have the rich pay their fair share of pay roll taxes, and do away with the crony contracts of the Pentagon and the deficit will have been cut in half.

Pat Robertson and the Wrath of God

2005-11-10T20:39:00.000-05:00

Pat Robertson has taken it upon himself to threaten the people of Dover, Pennsylvania with the wrath of God.

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700 Club."

"And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1300761

Apparently, Robertson is not familiar with the Book of Job. Bad things happen to good people all the time for reasons that have nothing to do with virtue.

Robertson reminds me of the Pharisee who thanks God that he is better than the publican. God rejects such prayers for they are merely an expression of self-adulation, which amounts to a form of idolatry.

The Golden Rule

2005-11-10T20:23:00.000-05:00

You can always tell conservative Christians by their unwillingness to live the Golden Rule.