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"Strange
Days"
Jim
Baumer
We
are living in strange days. Days when that which
seems real, isnt and that which would seem
surreal, is in actuality, truth. Words can mean
whatever the speaker wants them to mean. While
George Orwell's 1984 is often invoked whenever
there is remotely a hint of government
overstepping its bounds, the current epoch would
qualify Mr. Orwell as a certified prophet. Every
time a Bush administration official steps to a
microphone, we witness Orwell's Newspeak acted
out. Words mean whatever the speaker chooses to
impregnate them with for meaning. Context doesn't
matter any longer. The Bush administration has
become the modern day version of Orwell's Ministry
of Truth.
I
must confess that Mr. Bush has become my worst
nightmare. I foolishly supported much of what Mr.
Bush championed for a good part of the past 10
years. It has been through my re-examination of my
faith and my desire to understand the message of
Christ as interpreted by people like Martin Luther
King Jr. and others that has helped me to begin to
correctly view the Bush administration and its
doctrine of Pax Americana. I'm thankful that I've
been like Rip Van Winkle, awakened from a long
slumber, to return to my more progressive roots
and an understanding of current events filtered
through the screen of a more radical (but, Id
argue correct) Christian theology. In some ways, I
feel a certain affinity with Orwell's Winston
Smith, as he keeps his diary and seeks to join the
Brotherhood.
Take
for instance, Mr. Bush's definition of his
ideology compassionate conservatism. Now here is
truly an astounding oxymoron. The last I checked, Webster's
defined compassion as, pity aroused by the
distress of others, with the desire to help them.
Might I add, that this term traditionally was
extended to those less fortunate than the wielder
of the compassion. Sort of like when Jesus had
compassion for the multitudes who had followed him
and were without food, just prior to his miracle
of feeding the 5,000. Now if George Bush was
rewriting this tale, he would have Jesus and his
disciples sitting there eating in front of the
masses, who were hungry. You see, to George Bush
and his minions, compassion means taking what
little the poor and underclass has and
redistributing it to the wealthy power-brokers,
who already possess more than enough. It makes a
mockery of everything that Jesus stood for.
Since
Mr. Bush often invoked the name of Christ during
his campaign for president, I thought I would look
at some of the things that Jesus spoke of and see
how our president is measuring up. Since he seemed
to be operating in some parallel universe during
his recent state of the union address, I thought
Id hold him to a different standard than most of
the analysts seemed to hold him to. First and
foremost, Jesus talked about how He came not to do
away with the law and prophets but was sent to
fulfill them. So, that means that the 10
commandments, which by the way, many conservatives
seem to want to plaster in every public place,
would still be applicable. Such as in the
commandment, Thou shalt not kill. This means that
when leaders promote war, which inevitably leads
to killing, then those leaders would be guilty of
breaking that commandment. Yet, those same
conservatives, the stellar spokespeople for God
that they are, by and large support George Bush's
desire to go to war with Iraq. How do these people
justify this logic? Possibly, the killing of
Iraqis is acceptable? Maybe the commandments doesn't
apply to Americans? Somehow, I'm having trouble
with this concept. Maybe one of the spokesmen for
the religious right such as Jerry Falwell or Pat
Robertson could help me here. They seem to be
quite joyous about our upcoming attack upon the beleaguer
red people of Iraq. As Orwell's Ministry of Truth
drummed out its propaganda, so does our current
version with its mantra, War is Peace.
There
is another interesting passage in the Christian
New Testament where Jesus was speaking to his
disciples and he made the statement that not
everyone who professed to be a follower of him was
necessarily honest in their intent. He warned
about false prophets. Those who would even perform
miracles, yet, Jesus clearly delineated that these
would not be part of his kingdom of Heaven. Maybe
Mr. Bush has never read that part of the Bible?
Probably a better explanation is, that he doesn't
think it applies to him, since people like Mr.
Bush are used to bending laws and regulations.
They love to apply the law with impunity, as long
as it isn't applied to their actions.
Getting
back to the killing issue, our President at one
time was governor of Texas. While governor, he had
the dubious honor of being the leader of the state
that executed the most criminals. While he was at
the helm in Texas, our current President had 131
criminals executed. Remember Karla Fay Tucker?
Even when she pled for her life, our compassionate
conservative was unmoved by this. He had laws to
uphold. There is some interesting writing on Bush's
reign in Texas and the lack of competent
representation of its death row inmates in their
capital cases. Whenever Bush was asked about this
during the campaign, he would answer questions
with a certain sadistic certainty.
Is
it too much to ask for some consistency from our
president? Must we continually be fed disingenuous
patter? Is he so cynical as to think that no one
in America sees through this sanctimonious facade?
Interestingly, I think the answer is that most
Americans really don't care. Its gotten to the
point where thoughtfulness and consistent actions
from our leaders is no longer important. Ignorance
is strength.
As
someone who tends to hold to a more evangelical
understanding of Jesus message, I am still deeply
troubled by Mr. Bush and also many of the
so-called religious right, who refuse to use the
same standard of judgment when dealing with Mr.
Bush, as they did when dealing with his
predecessor, Mr. Clinton. It has always been
interesting to me how a conservative, whether in
ones religion or ones politics, has a certain
pecking order when dealing with right and wrong.
For the conservative, anything remotely affiliated
with sexuality will be labeled with a scarlet
letter. However, this same diligence is not
applied to the misuse of money, sometimes referred
to as greed or avarice in scripture. No, if one is
a conservative, its fashionable to rail against
gays, adulterers and a multitude of other sexual
perversities. At the same time, ones business
dealings with Harken Energy and Haliburton are
given nary a mention. I'd like to remind the
conservative lobby that like to invoke Gods name
whenever convenient to drum up votes from some of
their core constituencies, that Jesus spoke out
against the misuse of money and greed more often
than he spoke about ones sexual proclivities.
I
know that many people who read this will be unable
to put aside their predispositions about Mr. Bush
and his rush to war. There are many in America who
feel that Mr. Bush is Gods chosen servant.
However, I am unable to justify the killing of
people who are created in the image of the very
same God that America invoked in the days
following the WTC attacks, as in God Bless
America. My reading of scripture and my
understanding of the teachings of Jesus lead me to
hold the position that the Iraqi people have the
same value in Gods economy as the American people
do. I know that in certain circles, this is not a
popular concept. However, I am not looking to
please man in the positions that I hold. I wish
our President might seek to please the God that I
serve, rather than his cronies in the oil
business. Might his conservatism truly begin to
reflect Gods compassion for people of all races,
creeds, and ideologies
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Jim
Baumer is a free-lance writer living in Durham,
Maine. He is a follower of Jesus, seeking to
involve himself in activism and causes that he
believes express the heart of God in Christ.
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