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."