Imagine the Quaker
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archives | newquaker.comSaturday, November 06, 2004
The next four years are going to be difficult times for Americans—for Christians and non-Christians alike. Like a maelstrom, the focus of the 2004 election centered on the events of 9/11 and the counterfeit link between the invasion of Iraq and the so-called war on terrorism. Should this be a surprise? America really can't go a year without calling out its armed forces for some combat mission or another on foreign soil—then quickly pulling everyone together in support of "our troops" (who are really our children we've handed over to evil leadership). Now an elite cadre of bogus Christians has managed to mesmerize even the faithful into putting into power a machinery that has two aims: One, reshaping the values of Americans and, two, Americanizing the world. This cadre will continue to pretend that its authority is God-derived, and it will rule by fear. And there is much to fear: Islam, the undocumented alien, protecting America's corporate interests abroad, the left-of-center culture .... The list goes on, for there is much to fear.
On the other side are fears that this administration, its trust-card recharged with "political capital," will extend its emotional hold on the country through tactics borrowed from an earlier time. Will it be a manufactured event, something resembling 9/11, that will require a repeat of the Reichstagsbrandverordnung? Perhaps with this in mind the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is calling on us to contact our congressional representatives to vote against harmful anti-immigration provisions of HR 10, the House version of legislation implementing recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. There are two versions of the bill, a House version and a Senate version. A committee is meeting to bring the two bills into one version that both House and Senate can approve before it goes to the President for his signature. The AFSC cites these harmful provisions of HR 10:
The undocumented immigrant will be prohibited from obtaining a driver's license
Immigrants who entered the US "without inspection" can be deported without a hearing before an immigration judge. This "expedited removal" would place immigrants at risk of wrongful deportation.
Federal agencies will refuse to accept consular identification cards ("matriculas") as proof of personal identification; undocumented immigrants will be prohibited from obtaining other identification accepted by federal agencies.
Additional Border Patrol agents and Immigration and Custom Enforcement inspectors will be added, without mandating training and other safeguards to address current problems with immigration enforcement.
Of course we should reject these "border-closing" provisions, just as we should, wherever possible, resist the return of the Draft and any form of Christian police state. More importantly we should remember Paul's words to the church elders in Ephesus:
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. [Acts 20:28-30]
We should stop walking around with this fear and that fear, but should instead walk boldly in Christ's light, remembering Jesus' remark that "All men will hate you because of me" [Mark 13:13]—even if that hate should originate from American Christians dressed in sheep's clothing [see Matt 7:15, 10:16; Luke 10:3].
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 1:35 PM
Thursday, November 04, 2004
The mourning after—November 2. I just got back from Fort Knox, KY, where my number 2 son graduated from US Army Basic Training. On the afternoon of November 2, I flew into Louisville and rented a car for the drive to accommodations in the small town of Muldgraugh, next to the base. I'm very proud of my son, and seeing "Harton" on his uniform brought back memories—and, well, so did being on the base, since I spent most of my childhood on Air Force base housing. I realized, during the 1.5 hour ceremony, that soldiers qua soldiers aren't political persons, but are part of a top-down organization with the Commander-in-Chief, whoever it is, at the top, even though individually they have their own political views. It was that way with my father, and with his brothers and with all the other Hartons before us. Still, I discovered to my horror on Wednesday that the Commander-in-Chief of these young patriotic men had not changed.
In the November 4 issue of the Christian Science Monitor, Liz Marlantes quotes Republican strategist Scott Reed as saying: "Bush needs to start thinking about his place in history as a uniter not a divider." Now that would be a comforting suggestion if it weren't for two finger-in-your-eye facts. One, Bush used the phrase "I'm a uniter, not a divider" in a 1999 interview in Salon, and continued to use the phrase throughout the 2000 presidential campaign. As a consequence of his leadership, the division among Americans was cut deeper. Two, this administration (with or without some of the incumbent cabinet membership) can only "unite" by gathering together people like themselves: everyone else must change or face being labeled "un-American." As a consequence, we will see a fast oxidation of civic freedoms and watch as the rust, er, patina of a profane, neo-conservative brand of American Christianity coats everything in the US.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 5:25 PM
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Beyond Oz's curtain. On Friday, I walked down the College's corridor leading from the classroom/administration building to the cafeteria and happened to notice an interminable line of yellow paper ribbons stuck to the wall with Scotch tape. One of them had my name on it, the result of a $1 donation to a campus organization promoting Domestic Violence Awareness Month. October was Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It was also Breast Cancer Awareness Month—and, well, probably the month for many other "awarenesses." But this isn't about any of these specifically: it's about how we are engaged in these activities. By giving my $1 donation, I joined a club that holds everybody who gives money, walks in parades, buys baked goods, throws cans of food in a box, subscribes to magazines, tosses toys into a collection box, clips on a lapel pins, and other activities that make us feel good about helping, even if we don't know anything about the cause or what on earth our small deed has done to help promote the particular organization's mission.
Often just the sheer movement gives us the impression that things are getting better and that we're actually making an impact. I don't know that I've ever seen a more caring community than the Mohawk Valley. I mean, there are rallies, parades, races, walk-runs, collections, and campaigns for just about every cause one could think of. In the Utica area, you will find a support group for any disease, any affliction, any social problem, anyone who's recovered from these, anyone thinking about them, and even for people related to those who fall into such categories. This is almost an epicenter of care, if it weren't for the fact that the activities doesn't always do anything except make it appear that things are actually getting done.
I don't mean that things don't ever get done; what I mean is that we often trade the bigger gift for something much smaller—perhaps because it's easier, more immediate, less intrusive in our busy lives. My $1 donation got me a ribbon, but probably didn't do anything to stop domestic violence; in fact, I don't know that a million of those $1 bills has had any impact on domestic violence, except perhaps to create an "awareness" that it happens, and doesn't at all touch the root of violence. I would offer, too, that this is true for the other "feel good" events that people assemble for, oblivious to the presence of the very causes of the problems. The American Cancer Society has on its board several chemical and pharmaceutical companies. Breast Cancer Awareness Month programs are sponsored in part by corporations that have themselves contributed to the very disease they are helping to "cure." As we complain about the condition of business ethics du jour and the abusive, greedy corporation, still we clutch our mutual fund portfolios, tend the 401(k) allocations, and watch for the direction of the stock market.
Attending worship is often like that, in the sense that we feel good about the music, the songs, the incense, the 12-minute sermon, the social contacts, the silence, even just being there, and still can be so easily beguiled by the thought that the deed could ever replace the more immediate responsibilities which Christ says we have toward our neighbors. Jesus made sure that he and his disciples paid their taxes [see Matt 17:27], but his example for care was usually always with one person at a time.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 2:35 PM
© Merle Harton, Jr. All rights reserved. Biblical references are NIV® unless otherwise noted.
