A friend emailed me a letter from a Christian Reverand commenting on the morala of this country. I am glad to see there are some (probably more than not) normal thinking people out there. I was raised judeo-christian so I have a grasp of the references being made. I am only going to post the sections that speak out to me, but if you want to whole letter just ask.
What Are Moral Values?
By Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers, Mayflower Church, Oklahoma City
As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in
Oklahoma City, a church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor of
rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. But you would most likely have
encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a
columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most number of
angry letters to the editor. Tonight, I join ranks of those who are
angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by
those who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but
Christian.
We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having swung
the election to President Bush. Well, I'm a great believer in moral
values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country, about
exactly what constitutes a moral value -- I mean what are we talking
about? Because we don't get to make them up as we go along, especially
not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited tradition of what
is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does.
Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in
power who claim moral values are on their side:
...
When you live in a country that has established international rules for
waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce
them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest
of the world, you are doing something immoral.
When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to
acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn
them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we
must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the
sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.
When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as
the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are
doing something immoral.
When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the
patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero,
you are doing something immoral.
When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says that
the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by
giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get
stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.
...
When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our
killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble
the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral. We have met the
enemy, and the enemy is us.
...
I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must be a
supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and
gay rights I must not be a person of faith.
I'm tired of people saying that I can't support the troops but oppose
the war.
...
This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of
this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people
who can turn things around are people like you-young people who are just
beginning to wake up to what is happening to them. It's your country to
take back.
...
Don't be afraid to speak out. Don't back down when your friends begin
to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be
wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut.
Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real
Muslims, and real Hindus, and real Buddhists--so do all the faith
traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is
precious. Every human being is precious. Arrogance is the opposite of
faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has
never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.
And war -- war is the greatest failure of the human race -- and thus the
greatest failure of faith.
...
Time to march again my friends. Time to commit acts of civil
disobedience.
Time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in the madness.
==============
Amen to that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
