Imagine the Quaker
an erstwhile mirror site for weblog on newquaker.com
archives | newquaker.comThursday, June 03, 2004
Bush's money pit. On May 5, the Bush Adminstration begged Congress for another $25 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. You know, that really is a lot of money, and yet it looks like our sound-and-fury Congress is going to give it all to him. And this is on top of what may well turn out to be a humongous $280 billion tab since the first Gulf War for operations in Iraq, anti-terrorism efforts outside of the US, and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those numbers don't include any money spent for Homeland Defense. See retired Col. Dan Smith's estimates, with tables, in his article at the Friends Committee on National Legislation website. The FCNL is a Quaker public interest lobby founded in 1943.
If you think you can stand it, you could try staring at the running total of the amount of money being spent by the US on the war in Iraq, based on estimates from Congressional appropriations, at the costofwar.com website. The site includes also where else that money could be spent—if you can handle your outrage, that is.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 10:16 AM
Sunday, May 30, 2004
Remember the future. This Memorial Day will have a special significance for me. Not because of the new memorial unveiled in Washington, DC, this weekend, nor because my father served in WWII and remained in military service (first in the Marines and then in the Air Force) until retirement, but rather because I must now confront again the very issue of service to country and the stupidity of war as a tactic for world peace.
My number two son, Kiel, enlisted in the US Army and will be off to boot camp at the end of August. I was able to spend time with him—not enough time, really—last weekend during a two-day trip to New Orleans for his graduation from Fontainebleau High School. He is determined that the Army is a good career move for him and, with a signed employment contract in hand, he isn't able to do much now to change that decision. I hadn't planned this for any of my children and so hadn't planned for this day. I myself faced it during the Vietnam confict. I didn't enlist because God did not lead me there and instead lead me to oppose our government's attempt to impose the American will on a sovereign country that was not even a remote danger to the citizens of the US. What we did to the people of Southeast Asia is immoral, and we all got to watch the immoral deeds every day on television. There seemed to be no end to it, and it was a kind of madness, and there seemed no reason why there were any Americans who believed the war to be a good thing, and yet many Americans did believe that. So it happens again, except that it is not Vietnamam but Iraq and only the names have changed, and Americans again believe that our occupation of Iraq is a good thing, and American Christians believe this, and my son is now going to serve his country under more bad leadership.
The point of memorials is that we also remember the mistakes.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 11:11 PM
Right of Return—to South Carolina? Michael Gallaugher of the Christian Conservative pointed out to me the WorldNetDaily news reports on a movement called ChristianExodus.org. Alarmed by the recent rise of liberal values, the erosion of classical Christian ideals in the US, and meddlesome federal policies, Cory Burnell began the organization in order to "coordinate the move of 50,000 or more Christians to a single conservative state in the U.S. for the express purpose of reestablishing constitutional governance." Thus will be created "an independent Christian nation where people may once again worship God under the protection of a friendly government." Burrell wants Christians to move to South Carolina, populate state government, and then secede (peacefully) from the union. "If all goes according to plan," reported the WorldNetDaily last Monday, "Burnell is hoping to have a constitutional convention by 2014, with a president of the new nation—still to be known as South Carolina—elected in 2016, which is also a presidential election year in the U.S." [WorldNetDaily, May 28, 2004; see also May 24, 2004]
What Burnell's ChristianExodus.org is planning really isn't much different than the Free State Project (um, except for the secession part), and could very well bring about a torrent of radical Christians into South Carolina, whether the residents there want it or not. Back in January I blogged on the Free State Project's plans to take over New Hampshire. Come to think of it, it's very similar to modern Israel, every planned community, and the historic utopian societies' endeavors to segregate and control the influences of culture and governance. After all, that's how we ended up with monasteries and Amish communities, etc. The Mormons took over Utah (or, well, tried to) and William Penn's "Holy Experiment" in Pennsylvania let the Quakers hold onto the state from 1681 to 1756, during which time Pennsylvania pretty much had no government at all (or, more importantly, had no need for government). Hey, wait a minute, isn't this the reason why Protestants came to America in the first place?
What's wrong with Burnell's plan in particular is the idea that you can pack the body of Christ into a single package without some truth-in-labeling law. Modern attempts to do this have usually resulted in new sects, compounds, and guns. We can't even agree among ourselves on canonical doctrine and the Church's direction—I mean, who wants to see South Carolina explode? What will happen if Burnell is successful is that the Christians there will be forced to concoct a separate denomination, with a new creed and book of discipline. It will be a kind of theocracy, although he denies that this is what his plans include.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 9:35 PM
© Merle Harton, Jr. All rights reserved. Biblical references are NIV® unless otherwise noted.
