FROM THE MAILBOX:
Dr. Robin Meyers
Mayflower Congregational Church (405) 842-88973901
Nw 63rd StOklahoma City, OK 73116
http://www.mayflowerucc.org/
As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church inOklahoma City, an Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice church in northwestOklahoma City, and professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University.But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the OklahomaGazette, where I have been a columnist for six years, and hold the recordfor the most number of angry letters to the editor.Today, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as thefaith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak forJesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian.We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having swung theelection to President Bush. Well, I'm a great believer in moral values, butwe need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly whatconstitutes 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 weare people of faith. We have an inherited tradition of what is right andwrong, and moral is as moral does.Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those inpower who claim moral values are on their side:-- When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if yourdeceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that yourcritics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us whohave given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe thatthis is not only not moral, but immoral.-- When you live in a country that has established international rules forwaging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforcethem, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest ofthe world, you are doing something immoral.-- When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail toacknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn themon their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we must neverreturn violence for violence and that those who live by the sword will dieby the sword), you are doing something immoral.-- When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important asthe lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doingsomething immoral.-- When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question thepatriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero, youare doing something immoral.-- When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says thatthe way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by givingtax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get stronger andthe weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.-- When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called "enemycombatants" of the rules of the Geneva convention, which your own countryhelped to establish and insists that other countries follow, you are doingsomething immoral.-- When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys andthe evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you, orwith the terrorists -- and then launch a war which enriches your own friendsand seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted, instead of helpingus 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 warwith no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous deficit thathangs like a great millstone around the necks of our children, you are doingsomething immoral.-- When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that wasonce the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn't matterwhat others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have donesomething immoral.-- When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out recordnumbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool ofdiscrimination, you are doing something immoral.-- When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower ofJesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of thekingdom, you are doing something immoral.-- When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect theearth which is God's gift to us all, so that the corporations that boughtyou and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our childrenbreathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done somethingimmoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.-- When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that ourkilling is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble theenemy 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 allreligious faith-compassion, and then show no compassion for anyone whodisagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to you for help, youare doing something immoral.-- When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the sick, butdo nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to see a doctor, evenif 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 backa hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers who say gaysought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must be asupporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gayrights I must not be a person of faith.I'm tired of people saying that I can't support the troops if I oppose thewar -- I heard that when I was your age, when the Vietnam war was raging. Weknew that the war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong--the onlyquestion is how many people are going to die before these make-believeChristians are removed from power?This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of thisadministration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people who can turnthings around are people like you--young people who are just beginning towake up to what is happening to them. It's your country to take back. It'syour 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 totell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be wrappedaround 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 theworld at their heart believe one thing: life is precious. Every human beingis precious. Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite ofcharity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of adeluded man, not a man of faith.And war -- war is the greatest failure of the human race -- and thus thegreatest failure of faith.There's an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: War, what is itgood 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 pruninghooks. Who would Jesus bomb, indeed? How many wars does it take to know thattoo 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 civil disobedience.Time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in the madness. Mygeneration finally stopped a tragic war. You can too!

posted by Joshua P. Angell  @ 20.1.05

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