Subject: FW: A Minister Speaks Out... Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 09:03:20 -0600 Message-ID: <376546015E56D640AB10F112B8127DDF0135D001@PEPSI.uwec.edu> From: "Wahome, Kimamo" <WAHOMEK@uwec.edu>
-----Original Message-----
From: Tina Zabel [mailto:tzabel@wctc.net]
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 9:17 PM
To: Wahome, Kimamo
Subject: Fw: A Minister Speaks Out...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nancy Witt" <nancystew@nethere.com>
To: "Judy Brinner" <jbrinner@san.rr.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 9:55 AM
Subject: Fw: A Minister Speaks Out...
> This is my kind of minister! He says it all! Nancy
> > >Dr. Robin Meyers
> > >Oklahoma University Peace Rally
> > >November 14, 2004
> > >
> > >As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational
> > >Church in Oklahoma City, an Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice
> > >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 fundamentalists 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 start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your
> > >deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that
> > >your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are
> > >some
> >
> > >of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith
> > >who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.
> > >
> > >-- 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 ar rogantly 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 wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called
> > >"enemy combatants" of the rules of the Geneva convention, which
> > >your own country helped to establish and insists that other
> > >countries follow, you are doing something immoral.
> > >
> > >-- When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good
> > >guys and the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who
> > >are with you, or with the terrorists -- and then launch a war which
> > >enriches your own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we
> > >are addicted, instead of helping us to kick the habit, you are
> > >doing something immoral.
> > >
> > >-- When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay
> > >for a war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an
> > >enormous deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks
> > >of our children, you are doing something immoral.
> > >
> > >-- When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country
> > >that was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it
> > >doesn't matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of
> > >you, you have done something immoral.
> > >
> > >-- When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out
> > >record numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a
> > >tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.
> > >
> > >-- When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower
> > >of Jesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way
> > >of the kingdom, you are doing something immoral.
> > >
> > >-- When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to
> > >protect the earth which is God's gift to us all, so that the
> > >corporations that bought you and paid for your favors will make
> > >higher profits while our children breathe dirty air and live in a
> > >toxic world, you have done something immoral. The earth belongs to
> > >the Lord, not Halliburton.
> > >
> > >-- 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.
> > >
> > >-- When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a
> > >"compassionate conservative," using the word which is the essence
> > >of all religious faith-compassion, and then show no compassion for
> > >anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry
> > >to you for help, you are doing something immoral.
> > >
> > >-- When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the
> > >sick, but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to
> > >see a doctor, even if she doesn't have a penny in her pocket, you
> > >are doing something immoral.
> > >
> > >-- When you put judges on the bench who are racist, and will set
> > >women back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with
> > >preachers who
> >
> > >say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.
> > >
> > >I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must
> > >be a supporter of President Bush, or that becau se 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 --
> > >I heard that when
> >
> > >I was your age, when the Vietnam war was raging. We knew that that
> > >war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong--the only
> > >question is how many people are going to die before these
> > >make-believe Christians are removed from power?
> > >
> > >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. It's your faith
> > >to take back. It's your
> >
> > >future 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.
> > >
> > >There's an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it
> > >all: War, what is it good for? absolutely nothing.
> > >
> > >And what is the dream of the prophets? That we should study war no
> > >more, that we should beat our swords into plowshares and our spears
> > >into pruning hooks. Who would Jesus bomb, indeed? How many wars
> > >does it
> >
> > >take to know that too many people have died? What if they gave a
> > >war and nobody came? Maybe one day we will find out.
> > >
> > >Time to march again my friends. Time to commit acts of
> > >civildisobedience. Time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to
> > >participate
> >
> > >in the madness. My generation finally stopped a tragic war. You can
> > >too!
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >__________________________________
> > >Do you Yahoo!?
> > >Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search.
> > >http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>