-John B. Cobb Jr, coauthor of The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God
Never utter these words, "I do not know this, so therefore it is false." One must study to know, know to understand, and understand to fairly judge. I sincerely hope that you don't know what is going on in this country…because that would explain the Christian community'eerie silence. I can easily forgive you for not rising up to speak out against such grave threats if you haven't yet recognized them as such. I myself just woke up from the American fantasy. I always thought that the land that I loved was good…like Santa Clause.
I now know I live in a place whose government openly tortures people and justifies it. I live in a country that is waging an illegal war with illegal weapons with no end in sight on the basis of outrageous lies! I live in a country that suppresses science which may prove disasterous for the survival of the human race! I live in a country that glorifies greed, intolerance and ignorance through a culture reinforced through mass media! I live in a country that claims to be democratic yet elections are repeatedly compromised! No, this isn't a place I recognize, and the more I see it as it is, the more I know our country needs powerful voices to proclaim Christian ideals of love, compassion, honesty, and courage.
Crimes that are known yet unrepudiated is complicity through silence. The pacifists of the world have allowed the evils of slavery, the holocaust, and segregation to continue unchallenged. Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it, yet the disastrous course of this regime makes silence unconscionable. We are in the midst of modern-day Muslim Holocaust with US playing the part of the Fourth Reich.
May this letter serve as the religious community's notice that from now on, you must either stop being mistaken in believing our war is just and subsequently speak out against it, or cease being HONEST. If you bow down through your silence and let these atrocities continue unchecked, then what is the purpose of the Christian life?
We cannot serve two masters. We cannot allow lies to flourish, while the truth is hidden under our breath. Can God feel welcome in places where truth is not?
"Those who do not stand up for something, will bow down to anything."
A truth of this nature and of this magnitude has the power to radically transform our wealthy, yet morally bankrupt society. The veil of lies that has darkened our once rational and collective consciousness is acting like a cancer growing untreated…invading once healthy parts, until the body relinquishes in the struggle. Until you look deeply into the cells, it is impossible to decide which part is healthy and which is malignant. The explanation, "I can't believe that!" just isn't good enough when so much is at stake.
"For whenever you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
-Arthur Conan Doyle
The Widows and families of the victims of September 11th, are begging Americans to stand with them in demanding a new investigation. Christians are instructed to "defend the widows," yet who among us has demanded a new investigation? If it weren't for the relentless efforts of the September Eleventh Widows, America would not even have the 9/11 Commission Report. This "conclusive investigation" failed to mention the controlled demolition (on 9/11) of the 47 story, World Trade Center 7, and saw the source of funding into the 9/11 attacks "of little practical significance."
It is also disturbing to me that the Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas H. Kean said, "FAA and NORAD officials advanced an account of 9/11 that was untrue...We, to this day, don't know why NORAD told us what they told us...It was just so far from the truth." Likewise, Vice Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Lee Hamilton, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Homeland Security Advisory Council said, "We got started late; we had a very short time frame...we did not have enough money...We had a lot of people strongly opposed to what we did. We had a lot of trouble getting access to documents and to people. ... So there were all kinds of reasons we thought we were set up to fail." For more prominent governmental comments on this issue, look at www.patriotsquestion911.org.
Does this mean that 9/11's "conclusive investigation" failed? If September Eleventh has not been properly investigated, then how can we know how to proplerly respond to it? Can there be justice and peace without the truth?
Christians seem to mistake the absence of conflict as peace, but peace can not be attained without boldly facing the lies which started the conflict! A lasting peace can only be secured when it is built upon a foundation of truth. The truth may be scary, but the lack of it is much more treacherous.
How can our faith be relevant when unable to address the problems of today? Silence to injustice is betrayal to the oppressed. Lies of ommission and commission lead down the same road of destruction! We must save our own troops and the Iraqui people alike from any more unecessary deaths.
There are some who seem to beleive that when the truth is this bloody we should just bury it, but I disagree. I believe that when the truth is so gruesome, we each have an obligation to expose it for what it is. This truth will signal a wake up to Christian patriots to blow their horns either like Gabriel or Taps for freedom, justice and peace.
Christians offer no support to our brave soldiers if we refuse to face the truth of why they are there. We allow more soldiers to die if we fail to learn and spread the message of the truth...the "good news" and the bad.
Instead of shouting the ever popular, "Free Darfur!" we should remove the log out of our own eyes and shout "Free Iraq!" to the real terrorists…which truth be told…is US! The United States of America is a terrorist nation, and through our Christian community’s silence, we are complicit in our own government's crimes.
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