Resolutions

I am one of those people who still think resolutions are useful. Somehow, committing to writing -- and the associated accountability -- is helpful in actually getting something done.

Sooooo. Despite the fact that few, if any, read this pap, I am resolving. It will help me remember.

Here's my resolution.

I'm going to throw a "Peace Party" in 2011.

It will have these elements: a notary public and their seal, several hundred copies of the Free Methodist "Affidavit of Conscientious Objection" and the usual yummy things to eat and drink. Maybe I'll book some entertainment, maybe not.

Being close to Seattle Pacific might help. Maybe. The students might have an interest. I hope.

Nothing New

I've had this flyer since 1972; produced by the McGovern folks. Richard Nixon ran as a peace candidate in 1968, and didn't end the war. Obama ran as a peace candidate in 2008, and won't end this war. The difference? In 1972 the people still cared. Now? Not so sure.

From my friend Ian

Ian Ebright is a friend who writes for online site "Broken Telegraph"

4,430 U.S. Troops killed
31,920 U.S. Troops wounded
9,765 Iraqi Police and Soldiers Killed
98,000- 108,000 Iraqi civilian deaths from violence
Over 2,000,000 Iraqis displaced (driven by necessity into neighboring countries)

Where is the Christian outrage? There is no "just war" theory to cover this, plus murder dressed up as "drone strikes."

Just saying.

Fellowship of Reconciliation

Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation has a fund-raiser coming up on Oct. 23, 5-8:30 pm at Woodland Park Presbyterian.

I can't go, but I'm gonna send a check.

Why do the old-timers predominate on this issue? We don't get wise to the issues until late in life? Too busy with careers and kids to think about military spending, killing, justice and all that?

George Orwell quote

Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

Creedence Clearwater - "Wrote a Song for Everyone"

I'm starting to collect some nice anti-war music. What do you think of this one?

Met myself a comin' county welfare line.
I was feelin' strung out, Hung out on the line.
Saw myself a goin', down to war in June.
All I want, All I want is to write myself a tune.

CHORUS:
Wrote A Song For Ev'ryone,
Wrote a song for truth.
Wrote A Song For Ev'ryone
When I couldn't even talk to you.

Got myself arrested, Wound me up in jail.
Richmond 'bout to blow up, Communication failed.
If you see the answer, now's the time to say.
All I want, All I want is to get you down to pray.

Saw the people standin' thousand years in chains.
Somebody said it's diff'rent now, look, it's just the same.
Pharoahs spin the message, round and round the truth.
They could have saved a million people, How can I tell you?

Feeling safe?

Question: The US military budget is larger than how many of the countries of the rest of the world combined?

We live in a world in which over a billion people rely on wood and dung for heating and have no access to electricity. We live in a world in which more people die in one day from starvation than in an entire year from terrorism.


A: The US military budget of $623 billion is larger than the budgets of all the countries in the rest of the world put together. The total global military budget of the rest of the world is $500 billion. Russia's military budget is $50 billion, South Koreas is $21 billion, and Irons is $4.3 billion. (Source: GlobalSecurity.org) These are 2007 figures.

Next highest on the list is China, which spends 1/10th of what the US spends on their military.

Who would Jesus bomb? That's the bumper-sticker question I have to ask myself.

August 6, 1945

Sixty five years ago today, the Enola Gay flew over the city of Hiroshima and dropped a bomb. A second bomb a few days later flattened Nagasaki, Japan.

That horror is still with us. In a single destructive act, so many people died, were maimed, poisoned. All life in a certain radius was turned to a shadow.

The horror of nuclear war is no more than the horror of war itself. The fire bombing of Dresden Germany was just as miserable an act of war. It just took more bombs, took longer to execute. In the end, people were dead.

The argument for using the bomb -- that it saved American lives, and perhaps saved Japanese lives too -- is pretty weak. The Japanese could have continued fighting, even after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Maybe an American landing expidition would never have been needed. I wonder what might have happened if a policy of isolation had been adopted late in the war.

I just know it's really stupid how many nuclear weapons we have now. Several thousand. Each one powerful enough to decimate a city.

Deficit's a battle for doves. . .

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/deficit_doves_20100720/

Amy Goodman hits the nail on the head.

"The U.S. war budget is greater than the military spending of every other nation on Earth, combined."

When will enough be enough?

Good Christians are Not Always Patriotic

In mid June I took my box of 300 copies of the "Affidavit of Conscientious Objection" to the Pacific Northwest Conference of the Free Methodist Church annual Leadership Summit. I was able to distribute copies of this to several Free Methodist elders, including one who works at a denominational level, and another who works for a local Free Methodist institution.

My goal is not to make trouble, but it seems like trouble will find me in this effort. I want other local Free Methodists to get the statement notarized and filed with the conference and General Conference. I want young people to be aware that there is an option for those who believe that war is contrary to the spirit and teachings of Jesus.

What would Jesus do, indeed?

Do the Right Thing

"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers." Martin Luther King

Spike Lee ends his brilliant movie Do the Right Thing with this quote, followed by a quote by Malcolm X:

"I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence." Malcolm X

Something to think about.

Local conference to examine consequences of war as public health problem

The University of Washington in Seattle is hosting a conference to look at war -- in general -- as a public health issue. This, from the Seattle Times:

"They hope to put war in the same context as tobacco, which evolved in the public perception from habit to health hazard as a result of public-health campaigns in the 1960s."

Here's the link to read more.

Where your income tax goes

They were standing around outside the post office in downtown Seattle, handing out red & black flyers. Giant pie chart. $1,398,000,000,000 goes to current military expenses in one year. Another 123,000,000,000 goes to support veterans' benefits. In ONE year.

Any wonder why we can't afford health care?

Tell the truth on Easter

I spoke at a retirement center on Easter evening. For some reason, they start their vespers service with a sermonette by one of the residents. It is always carefully prepared. Then they sing, then the preacher preaches.

While the resident is talking, it occured to me that what he was saying was really not good for Easter. It was some patriotic piece about honoring veterans.

Jacques Ellul cautions the church against being to friendly to popular culture. The Church has been subverted by culture according to Ellul (Subversion of Christianity).

It seems to me on this great day of God's victory, that all things are shown to be subject to Christ. The Roman seal on the grave of Jesus is broken. The resurrection is against the law. Caesar's power is subject to Christ. Our higher allegience is to another kingdom.

How is it that Christians have sanctified modern warfare? All "just war" theories are bankrupt in these modern days, when by a simple push of a button, non-combantants can be gruesomely wiped out. The revelations of the past week show in graphic detail how inhumane and unjust is modern warfare. From the Los Angeles Times:

"This is real war, and it inevitably reveals more than any government or military would like to have posted on the Internet for millions of citizens and anyone else to view. It is horrible. Not in the way that suicide bombs in marketplaces are horrible, with severed limbs and entrails, with parents wailing over their lifeless children, but in the way that it reduces killing to a banality. The U.S. Army pilot and gunner are disembodied voices chattering about a day's work as they fire and then circle over the bodies that we know -- but they do not know -- include two Iraqi journalists with the Reuters news agency:

"Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards."

"Nice."

"Good shooting."

"Thank you."

Why is it so shocking to watch through the gun sight and listen to soldiers do the job they were sent to do? Because governments normally shield us from such graphic views of the human cost of war. But really, what did we think they were doing there? Now we see. Here on the screens of our laptops and cellphones, we have a real-time view of death, a close-up look at what is generally called by the grotesquely scrubbed term "collateral damage," in this case a handful of the tens of thousands of civilians who have been killed in the Iraq war."