You go, Andrew Sullivan:
Torture is not a hard issue for any Christian. It is an unmitigated moral evil. There is no theology on earth which can make it a less grave moral matter than, say, gay marriage. And yet it has been enforced by this president for five years and where is the outrage? You would imagine that James Dobson would have organized a massive phone-in or email blitz to Capitol Hill on the detainee legislation. You would imagine that every theocon from Ponnuru to Neuhaus would be writing about this every day and night. But nah. Gays getting married in one state out of 49? Massive, coordinated outrage, sermon after sermon, direct mail blitz after direct mail blitz, and a threatened constitutional amendment. The president authorizing torture? You can hear a pin drop on the religious right. Tells you something, no?
A bitchin' post on the same topic over at Shakes.
Good question you raise there, BG. Maybe the answer lies in the DNA of conservative zealots who have no problem justifying the murder of human beings if doing so saves a fetus. Or, supporting capital punishment. Or, buying-into an unjust war in which thousands of men,women and children are being murdered.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, I'm not aware of outrage from any pulpit these days. Have even the religious moderates deserted the big moral issues of our day? I can remember elements of the Catholic Church being aggressively and outspokenly active during the Reagan years and our involvement in Nicaragua, but where is the activism today?
Move aside Gaius Caligula, Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, Josef Stalin and Adolph Hitler. Give George Bush some room on history's stage of infamy. Take your hats off Marquis de Sade, Augusto Pinochet, Pol Pot; you are mere pikers compared to this monstrous tinpot despot.
ReplyDeleteThis legislation is the death of America as it has been defined for over two hundred years. Heckuva job, Georgie.
You can google lots of articles about Maher Arar, Canadian citizen, shipped off to Syria in 2002, by American authorities, as he stopped between flights in the U.S. on his way back home to Canada. We could wish he weren't tortured, but he was tortured. GWB had already named Syria as part of the "axis of evil". Torture? Big surprise. A piece of (CBC) news I've heard only once, is that not only had Canadian officials put Maher Arar on a list of suspected terrorists (and given the list to American officials) but they also put his wife Monia Mazigh on the list and--wait for it--their two children. Hardly "family values". Their little girl was 5 years old then, and their little boy was an infant of 9 months. Oh, and by the way, Maher Arar is innocent, as are his wife, and their children. A 3 volume judicial finding in Canada of over 800 pages, recently released, says so--over and over. So..who are the neocons and their extremist counterparts saving us from? Apparently not themselves. Or as Mae West used to say, "Men are always saying they want to protect me. What I want to know, is, who do they want to protect me from?"
ReplyDeleteAgain, check out Sojomail for a writings about what's going on, and their work toward a nationwide movement to change the way the United States is being managed. Sojourners are Christians who work together and with people of other faiths.
As someone responded not so long ago, on this blog, about voting, it's "now or never".
For "then and now" comparisons, I recommend looking up on the net articles about the executions of the Rosenbergs in the U.S. in the 1950s.
To life.
I'm too depressed by this development to write anything snarky. The real values that make this country great are being destroyed right in front of us, and we're more worried about who is winning on "Dancing With the Stars".
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard that Lying Fraud - Lindsay Graham - say that he's certain of his *moral compass* and *sleeps like a babe* in the certitude of his righteousness...I almost spewed coffee out me nose!
ReplyDeleteHypocrits and a Liars are these folks!
And Evil Condoners of Torturers TOO!
Blech!
I think Elaine Scarry's "The Body In Pain: The making and Unmaking of the World" should now be required reading.
ReplyDeleteMy own private research project these days has been exploring Nazi Propaganda methods and comparing them those of Karl Rove and corporation.
ReplyDeleteThe similarities are striking.
I'll probably all of them up on my own blog at some point.
"Don't let the turkeys get you down." Go forth young folk, and get out the vote. There are ways and means, posted on the internet, for getting out the progessive vote. Komrade Kevin: Absolutely. I hear ya. To everyone, as Tevye sang in Fiddler on the Roof, "To life, to life, l'chaim; l'chaim, l'chaim, to life".
ReplyDelete