----- Original Message ----- Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004 2:42 PM
Subject: Re: What the hell happened? by Carol Wolman
Very very very good, Carol. We have to get the message out: Jesus has been hijacked.
Look, in the 60s, Jesus was a liberal. Jesus Christ Superstar was not a right wing play. Hippies grew their hair long to emulate Jesus. There were Jesus communes. MLK Jr won the hearts and minds of every black in America by emulating and quoting Jesus and scripture at a time when he was aligned with the Democratic Party, mainly the Kennedy's. The right hated these men and, for some "strange reason", they were all assassinated, one after the other. After that, Jesus was hijacked and is now associated with xenophobia and war mongering. For this reason, most northeastern and west coast liberals dont even want to hear the word Jesus, because for them it means a country hick who wants to shoot abortion doctors and thinks wars in Jerusalem are good for God. It's just all "too hokey" to them, and in their self-righteousness, have deserted God in every way. The breadbasket states, and those people who yearn for a connection to God, are aware of this fact...that you can't talk about God to a liberal or they will think you are lunatic. So where do you go, then, to find a community of God loving AMericans? Well, you start to join the evangelical church's, you start to go to their schools, you start to have cook outs where everyone is talking about Jesus, quoting scripture, has children letter magnets on their fridge that spell "Jesus" and have Jesus's blood dripping on their screen savers. These people aren't on the left, they are on the right and all of them vote for Bush.
Until some institution -- be it a collection of reporters, a collection of spiritual and religious leaders, or a mainstream, midwestern university -- starts to poke holes in this fact, then the right will further use God as a way to manipulate voters who think that by electing someone who seems moralistic and loves God that they are going to erradicate abortion, stop stem cell research, and make prayer in school mandatory and take porn off the internet and maybe shut down a few Hollywood studios. None of this has ever happened -- not even close (porn proliferated in last 4 years on line) -- in the eight years of a religious right supported Reagan administration, four years of Bush 41 and four years of Bush 42. And it is unlikely that these cultural conservatives will get their wishes in a second Bush term, because the Repubs know that they need this carrot on a stick to keep learning these churches to the polls. They fall for it everytime.
Ken Rapoza
Westport, MA
I appreciate your comments, for which I thank you, but allow me to disagree. The Peace movement in the US has no political party or political leader. Bush and Kerry are both War leaders. They are both warriors. Kerry made his "career" thanks to the many people he killed or had killed in Vietnam. Kerry sand his party are sponsored by the same weapon manufacturers that sponsor the Republicans. In fact Kerry never promised Peace. Quite on the contrary. He said he would remain in Irak only that his "military strategy" would be different. Same as Bush, he promised to spare no expense in the name of National security and to continue the War on Terrorism. Kerry is a member of Skulls and Bones, just like George Bush. They are both members of the same Mafia. This is why they are such rivals, Bush and Kerry. As students they started this cut-throat race. They are not rivals because Bush favours the use of arms and Kerry not. Kerry even had to admit, in one of his interviews during his campaign, that he loves arms and shooting.
Bush won simply because he is already much better known to Americans, not only because he is the President but also because he is the son oof a former president and, at one point in his criminal career, Head of CIA, the largest Mafia and Crime organisation in the world. Bush also won because he had better advisors on how to campaign. Everything he said - even though he was repeating words or ideas put into his head by others - was geared to convince even rabid anti-Bush voters, that HE was the choice. That no option could be better.
To this you have to add the fact that Peace lovers have stupidly and continuously refused to oppose an education of violence, a love of violence. They continue to teach Americans that they are great, because they are citizens of the greatest country in the world. Peace lovers continue to tell the world they live in a Great Democracy, when they know the truth is they live in the best disguised dictatorship. Peace lovers never mention the weapon industry, the half a million scientists who have their salaries and funds for research paid by the military budget of the US Administration, to which they themselves contribute. Peace lovers do nothing to stop their children from watching non-stop violence on TV and growing to become the next generation of soldiers or murderers. Peace loving parents by video or DVD games for their children that instead of the winner being the one who saves the most lives, it is the one who kills the most.
Carol:
You are right on. I know a lot of fundamental Christians, and on the surface seem to be nice, but below the surface they are cruel and and mean, especially when it comes to money.
Their brand of Christianity is the only brand, and the Old Testament is at least as importent as the New.
We are in big trouble. We can only hope that the Republic does not fall before Bush goes away. In any case the damage that he has caused, and will cause, will take generations to go away.
God bless,
Jack Shannon
Thanks Carol...I'm feeling depressed these past few days but I know I'll get better soon...it's just such a scary time right now...I just found out that my neighbors, lovely Christian people, voted for Bush. I'm trying to deal with the anger I feel towards them....and yet, they are really nice people. Susanne
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 6:20 PM
Subject: What the hell happened? by Carol Wolman
What the hell happened? by Carol Wolman
Kerry supporters all over the world are shaking their heads and wondering how Bush, with his terrible track record, could possibly have won a second term. Even given massive machine fraud, how could so many American citizens vote against their own self-interest? Bush has hurt American pocketbooks, American wilderness, American image and friendships abroad, and above all, American security.
Sober analysts are starting to realize that morality, defined as disapproval of certain sexual behaviors and of abortion, are more important than truth, love, and survival to the voters who call themselves Christians, believe themselves to be Christians, and vote for Bush.
These citizens take a passage like the following,
Their minds are occupied with earthly things.
But our citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Phillipians 3: 19-20
and accept the interpretation of their false prophets, believing that a vote for Bush hastens the coming of Jesus.
Jerry Falwell, Franklin Graham, Tim LaHaye and their ilk have been preaching for decades that we are in the End-time, life on planet earth is doomed, and when Jesus comes, the elect will be transported to heaven. Millions of Americans believe this, and so don't care about Bush's earthly depredations, as long as he talks the heaven talk.
It's one of the most monstrous and cruelest scams ever visited upon humanity. The wolves in sheeps' clothing prey upon the deep terror of nuclear holocaust that we all carry. The mushroom cloud is indelibly imprinted in the center of human consciousness- Condi used it brilliantly to goad the Congress into accepting the invasion of Iraq.
Bush promises a fortress America, bristling with nuclear weapons and ineffective missile defenses, and promises to bully the rest of the world into submission. Having provoked vicious hatred, and carelessly allowed all sorts of weaponry to fall into terrorist hands, Bush promises to protect America from those who hate us.
His voters half believe that Bush will protect us, and half believe that it doesn't matter, that nuclear war is inevitable but they will be spared- they call themselves "dispensationalists". Because their fear is so deep, they are highly irrational, and have lost all common sense.
They believe they are like the early Christians to whom Paul was writing. Those people were persecuted mercilessly, and Paul was telling them to accept the suffering that goes along with preaching love and peace in a corrupt empire. They were the empire's victims, not its supporters.
The Bush administration is like the Pharisees against whom Jesus was always railing - pious rulers whose religion is all show and no substance, hypocrites who preach goodness while they steal and kill.
We ARE in some sort of end-time- it's the end of wilderness, of frontier, of unlimited resources. Bush's re-election means it will get worse before it gets better. We do need the return of Jesus, meaning a global surge of Christ-consciousness, which I understand as knowing that we are all one, and that only loving our neighbors can preserve life on earth.
Those of us who carry this vision within us may be in for a rough time at the hands of the "Christian" establishment. Those of us who believe that Jesus never condemned abortion or homosexuality, but did condemn pursuit of wealth and power, lying, indifference to the poor, hatred, and many other traits of the Bush administration, are going against the wealth and power of the new theocracy.
Our hour of trial is coming. Let us take heart and embrace the spirit of love.
In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman
