Friday, July 29, 2005

Fw: [peacemakersBiblestudy] Do not cooperate by Kjenn

Psalm 81:   9There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.
 
The god worshiped by the Radical Religious Right is strange.  He condones torture, robbing the poor to enrich the rich, endless warmongering, manipulation of consciousness by way of lies and deceit, illegal invasion of other countries, hatred of those who believe differently, and many other crimes which the God of the Bible, the God of life, love, truth and justice, would never countenance. 
 
I am forwarding a wonderful post from our peacemakers group, with some excellent suggestions for withdrawing energy from the reign of satan which we are experiencing.
 
In the name of the Prince of Peace,  Carol Wolman 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 4:02 AM
Subject: Re: [peacemakersBiblestudy] loving your enemy but not loving the devil.

Excellent post.  The key is to not cooperate.  My silence back in the fall of 01 was basically a failure to cooperate with the cheerleading for war and it drove the people around me nuts.  I've become much more vocal since then.  I've also sometimes gone in early to work and blessed my coworkers desks.  Why?  Because they're not going to stand still for me to bless them in person.  Because something is obviously wrong with them but I don't know what and can't help them beyond prayer.  I see the W flying by on the interstate and I say a prayer for whoever put the sticker there.  If silence amounts to not cooperating, then keep silence.  If talking is uncooperative with evil, then talk!  I try to think of more and more ways to be uncooperative with evil.  I am thinking of writing a letter to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church USA, the archbishop of Canterbury as leaders of my church and then copy every religious leader I can think of appealing for a united effort, something everyone can do in every circumstance to demonstrate that they do not and will not cooperate with either terrorists or imperialists.  I am thinking of a monthly boycott -- no one buy anything every third weekend, the weekend to include Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the weekly holy days of the three religions causing the most trouble in all creation this year and last.  It likely wouldn't hurt business overall, but I think it might wake some business people up.  If the religious leaders who also practice ordinary common decency (not the other religious leaders and you know who I mean) called all the faithful of every religion to something, not necessarily the third weekend thing, what would happen?  Would it shame Bush and the terrorists into stopping their evil murderous crap?  Wouldn't it at least be a proclamation to the world of how many people are sick of both terrorism and war?  How many people who see that they're both merely different brands of the same, quite literally damned, thing?

Buying less or no petroleum is failure to cooperate.  Buying less or no meat is failing to cooperate.  Exercising your God-given rights is failing to cooperate.  I could go on.  We have to fail to cooperate!  When Jesus said to turn the other check, I firmly believe he meant for us to fail to cooperate when we are oppressed.  Fighting back or reacting with fear and shame were expected.  Turning the other check was not the expected reaction.  Today, turning the other check has become just masochistic.  Don't do it unless it will be seen as godly defiance, failure to cooperate.  If people are ostracizing you at work, put on your best clothes, smile, perform goofy little acts of kindness for them, and grin like an idiot when they wince and squirm.  Is there some petty spite in that?  Well, of course.  But it is also nonviolently failing to cooperate, that is, stubbornly failing to be crushed, which is what they wanted.  Then take it all the way up to ... what?  General strike?  Hunger strike?  I don't know.  I'm still working on it, but I grab every available opportunity to fail to cooperate

Debate theology if you want to, but for Jesus' sake, DO NOT COOPERATE!

Kathy Johnson
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS



posted by carol wolman @ 8:58 AM   0 comments

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