Fw: Ramadan peace fast- day 7- are you with me?

 

----- Original Message -----

From: carol wolman

To: peacemakers

Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 7:21 AM

Subject: Ramadan peace fast- day 7- are you with me?

Dear Friends,

 

The Ramadan fast is getting easier, as I get used to it.  It must be much easier in Muslim countries, where the people are all fasting and there are no cooking smells to get one's juices going.  My office is over a hamburger joint, so it gets difficult at times.

 

The fast is, indeed, bringing me closer to God.  Every time my stomach rumbles, I remember that I am fasting for peace, and my thoughts return to the world situation and what I can do about it.

 

My activist days seem to be over- my daughter has grasped that baton.  Writing is what I do these days.  This diary from the 2004 Ramadan fast for peace contains my reflections on the presidential election, on which hangs the fate of the planet.  Ramadan began October 14th; Election Day is almost exactly in the middle. 

 

Both candidates agree that the war against terror (and terrorists are Muslims) is the central focus of US foreign policy.  The invasion of Iraq, which was cloaked as part of a crusade, has aroused the Muslim world to defend itself against the nonbelievers, and a global conflagration is in the making.  Peacemakers are urgently needed.  Are you with me?

 

The candidates agree that stopping the spread of nuclear weapons is the number one priority. 

 

Bush's record is this department is horrible.  He got rid of the ABM treaty, which capped the nuclear arms race in 1970.  The new treaty he replaced it with is so vague that it's useless.  He is pushing for development of "tactical" nuclear weapons that blur the line between nukes and nonnukes.  This has also been done with the intensive use of DU weaponry.   Bush has failed to fund crucial programs that control and trace nuclear material internationally, and tolerated the outing of a key CIA agent, Valerie Plame, whose job it was to run a network that blocked the sale of WMD's to terrorists.

 

Peter Montague brilliantly traces the interconnection between Bush's religious beliefs and his nuclear policy, in Omega-News: FIERY HELL ON EARTH, Pt. 3... Why is the US failing to stop, and in some cases actually promoting, the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide?"  http://omega.twoday.net/stories/250767/ 

 

Briefly, I have no idea what Bush personally believes about the Biblical end-time prophecies, but his political base, the religious right (rr), has embraced the rapture cult, known as dispensationalism.  This cult has its roots in the mid 19th century, with the Scofield Bible, which translates certain prophecies in ways inevitably lead to nuclear holocaust. 

 

It has become popularized through the novels of Hal Lindsey in the 70's THE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH, and now the Tim LeHaye/Jerry Jenkins series LEFT BEHIND.  The latter has over 60 million readers.  They have been told by the false prophets LeHaye, Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham and others that if they vote for George W. Bush, they will be raptured up by Jesus before the inevitable nuclear war creates a fiery hell out of the earth.  We Kerry voters will be destroyed in the lake of fire.

 

The faithful will also miss the 7 year period of tribulation, which precedes nuclear Armageddon, and basically consists of all the ecocatastrophes which we are beginning to experience.  Some authors say the rapture will be pre-trib, some mid-trib, and some post-trib but pre-nuclear Armageddon.  In any case, the blessed followers of Bush will have dispensation from the consequences of their greedy polluting ways.  No wonder the Bush administration feels free to gut environmental laws! 

 

From a psychiatric point of view, this is a classic example of avoidance.  Don't face the ecological mess we've made, find a way to escape.  The rapture cult gives people pie in the sky, along with permission to be as materialistic as they like, as long as they hate terrorists and abortion, and vote for Bush. 

 

It is psychotic, suicidal thinking.  Like all cults, this leads straight to Jonestown.  But now we are not dealing with a small isolated group of people, but with a bloc of voters who can put Bush into a second term, which puts everybody at great risk.

 

The rr false prophets point to passages like this:

 

Jesus said to his disciples:
"I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!

Luke 12: 49

http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/102104.htm

 

This is interpreted to mean that the returning of Jesus will take the form of nuclear holocaust.  Since the Bible is the living word of God, not to be tampered with, nuclear war is inevitable.  The only way out is via the rapture, meaning, again, hate terrorists and abortion and vote for Bush.

 

This is why Bush's electoral base is so unshakeable.  It is based on a psychotic delusion that is fostered by respected preachers and sustained by an aura of success, which proves it is Godly.   What to do?

 

There is another interpretation available, which is much more compatible with the overall teachings of Jesus, and leads us to peace and survival.  Fire stands for spirit.  When the disciples received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, they had tongues of flame on their heads.  The holy fire of Jesus purifies our minds and hearts, and burns out duplicity, hypocrisy, selfishness, hatred, envy, malice, materialism, and all the other spiritual ills humans are prey to.

 

In this view, fear of nuclear holocaust is the "iron rod" which disciplines humanity to accept the teachings of Jesus, and love all our planetary neighbors.  We were given a small taste of the fire in 1945, and that should be enough.  As Kerry pointed out in the third debate, we need much more love for our neighbors, and less revving up of hatred. 

 

Kerry appears to be sane.  He has a long record of working to control nuclear weapons, and gets high marks from the environmentalists. 

 

Another part of the rapture cult involves looking at Biblical prophecy, especially Ezekiel 37-39, as predicting that Armageddon will be a nuclear battle between Muslims and a Jewish-Christian coalition.  The Bush voters see the invasion of Iraq in this context, and so overlook the lies and shameful behavior of America under Bush's leadership.  Their sense of needing to obey the Mosaic law, which Jesus re-emphasized, is gone.

 

I've learned in the past week that Islam sees itself as an extension of the Judeo-Christian tradition, not an opponent of it.  There is no intrinsic reason that these religions have to be at odds.  Isaac and Ishmael went their separate ways, but they didn't kill each other.  And Jesus told us to love our neighbors.  We are all neighbors now.

 

I am joining my Muslim neighbors in observing the Ramadan fast- no eating, drinking, smoking cigarettes or sex between sunrise and sundown.  Actually, being a novice, I allow myself a little soy milk during the day- and coffee.

 

Please join me in the Ramadan fast for peace, even if it just means skipping a meal now and then.  Let me know that you are with me in working for peace during this crucial month.

 

In the name of the Prince of Peace,   Carol Wolman