Recently, following the recent election results, I received an email, forwarded a few days before,that had originated with a family that has always been dear to my heart. It was a letter authored by Dutch Sheets, an Evangelical pastor, urging people to support the McCain/Palin ticket. The reasons, as you may or may not already be aware of, focused primarily on the worrisome likelihood that President-Elect Obama is pro-choice and would appoint supreme court justices reflecting this opinion, so-called “liberal Justices” [sic.]. Pastor Sheets goes onto invoke the The Book of Daniel 10, which relates to the message Daniel received, deemed apocalyptic by some, referring to the King of Persia and Israel, particularly as the angel Michael is mentioned herein and later in Jude 9 and finally in Revelations 12.
Many people of faith in this country fall into or between two camps: secularist, those who believe in the separation of church and state, and theocrats, believers in theocracy who believe the church has a definitive role to play in government. The argument of the former often cite a line in the Constitution about there being a “wall between church and state.” What these persons fail to note, of course, is that no such line exists in the Constitution nor does the Constitution at all relate to personal freedoms as this is not the function of the Constitution. The wall refers to a letter, penned by Thomas Jefferson, believing one’s faith to be a personal matter, wrote to the Danbury Baptist congregation who had feared that the dominant church in Connecticut , the Congregationalist Church , would violate their religious freedoms due to their political influence in the state. The contents of this letter would later be used as the foundation of the Establishment Clause found in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Equally erroneous are those who point to founding fathers as people on a mission to establish a kingdom of Heaven on earth. In fact, many of them were Deists, those who believe in God but on a scientific level, which is to argue He created the universe to function on its own and our sense of reason should serve to guide as opposed to any divine revelation or intersession. Although conflicting documents written by the men themselves exist, there is ample evidence pointing to the deist beliefs of Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Paine, and Franklin, to name a few. Thomas Jefferson actually penned some of the most inflammatory statements against Christianity of his time. Some argue the only reason Christianity was invoked at all had to do with keeping the population in from falling into chaos, a lesson learned during the French Revolution after dissolving the church by the Jacobins- of which they were all keenly aware. Nevertheless, this issue is unlikely to subside as, for the most part, it remains a matter of historical debate.
The Obama phenomenon was an unprecedented event that will forever change the electorate. His victory cannot simply be attributed to his color or his stance on abortion or the church and state debate. Although he received the majority of the African American vote, most constituents were captivated by his message of hope and the stark contrast between himself and President Bush not to mention the negative campaigning of John McCain and the hate speech of some of his supporters who simultaneously condemned him for being a Muslim (a false accusation started by the Clinton campaign), and for comments made by his former Pastor, a decorated veteran, one should note. These hateful tirades went so far as shouts of “kill him!” and “off with his head!” from some in attendance of the republican campaign rallies. The fact that these shouts went unchecked by the candidates did not go unnoticed. What is more, many grew uncomfortable the anti-Islamic rhetoric as having a place in a presidential campaign in a country that espouses inalienable rights and religious freedom as honorably noted by Colin Powell on Meet the Press last month.
The two most significant factors that won President-Elect Obama the White House, however, were the economy and the War on Iraq . The trickle town theory has never been shown to be more failing than at this moment, with the enormous taxpayer bailouts being passed onto private industries and financial institutions, a repeat of 1921 and ‘29. President Bush’s tax cut to the wealthiest 1% who continue to export American jobs and evade further evade taxes with offshore headquarters. The blatant mistakes of launching invasions while cutting taxes on the rich and handing out stimulus checks drawn from Chinese banks are incomprehensible. This goes far beyond Reganomics into something that most Americans could not have fathomed when President Bush took office. Although Senator McCain had originally spoke out against these measures, he later reversed his opinion. President Obama, while he supported the bailout, has a specific itinerary for getting this country back on course which the majority agree with.
John McCain’s support for the War on Iraq and Sarah Palin’s constant references to “God’s Will”, calling the invasion a “righteous war” did not sit well with many Americans. Governor Palin further blundered when she repeated unsubstantiated links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein which have long been proven false by government agencies and admitted as such by the Bush administration. Further, onlookers find the conservative call for a fight to the death in Iraq at odds with the pro-life message and consider it anything but ‘righteous.’ This cry of “Onward Christian Soldier” is a farce, especially in the case of Iraq, where rampant crimes have been committed against civilians such in the case of rape of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, a fourteen year old girl and the murder of her and her family by American GIs. Where private interests of the likes of Halliburton and Kellogg Brown & Root have been found overcharging taxpayers millions for services never rendered, where reconstruction bids were replaced with cronyism, and where mercenaries dispatched from Blackwater have massacred innocent Iraqis with impunity; it is clear that that the War on Iraq is not serving the interests of the American people.
The choosing of apocalyptic biblical verses in Pastor Sheets plea to the Christian electorate and his assertion that President Bush has made “some blunders” is absolutely out of touch with the situation Americans now face. Arguing that the War on Iraq , an onslaught that has resulted in nearly 1,000,000 Iraqi lives, is a “righteous war” that relates to the end of times, is not the message the American people are looking for. We have seen what the product of mixing Evangelical politics with secular policies has on government over the last eight years. We understand that President Obama is a devout Christian and many respect him for it; moreover, we know he is well versed in Constitutional law, having taught it at Harvard. He bases his decisions on his fluency of the legal foundations of this country, not on his personal, religious preferences. He supports abortion rights as an elected official of a secular country, sworn to uphold the Constitution, while believing it is wrong in his personal life. Any leader of a secular government is obligated to do the same− God knows the struggle Representative Keith Ellison had to overcome to convince voters that he would lead from a secular position rather than an Islamic one after swearing his oath of office on the Qur’an that belonged to Thomas Jefferson.
What I find astonishing about all of this is the constant condemnation of Islamic Law and Muslims in general. There are constant attacks aimed at Islam and Muslims in this country for simply following religious tenets commanded by God, an endeavor faithful Christians also strive towards, e.g., living an upright life and thanking God for what they have in this life. Last year, I received one email actually applauding comments of John Howard, former prime minister of Australia , for telling Muslims to leave his country if they continued to follow the Shariah. Although this statement was from 2005, it was still being circulated one year ago. Advocates of these views are often absolutely ignorant of Shariah, yet they persist in condemning it, along with the Prophet Muhammad (peace be with him), and the Qur’an, despite having never read it. Critics take aim at Muslim countries when making their point, yet, most of these countries were secularized by their former colonial rulers with the exception of a few Gulf countries and Indonesia . For the record, prior to the ousting of Saddam , Iraq , too, was a secular nation.
In Islam, the faithful do not separate civic life from religious convictions. In secular nation, however, this does not translate into breaking the laws of the adopted country. In fact, as a Muslim, one is obligated to follow the laws of the country one lives in. One would be hard pressed to find anything in the Shariah that runs counter to the laws found in western countries and in the event that the laws make it a hardship to practice Islam, a Muslim is obligated to relocate− North Korea comes to mind as such an example. As long as one is allowed to pray, fast, and protect one’s modesty, the basic requirements are met. Despite the laws of this nation allowing us to pray when, where, and how we wish, many people are offended when they see someone praying in public in way unfamiliar to them, i.e., prostrating on the ground (ironically described in the Bible as the way of Jesus and other prophets, peace be with them) or dressing in a way that some consider too modest. All of these obligations, one should note, can be practiced in one’s private life, on their own time.
Much of the rhetoric voiced by Christian fundamentalists mirrors that of puritanical Muslims calling for “death to America .” Conservatives on the right such as Michael Savage, Pat Robertson, and Ann Coulter are outright fanatical about their hatred as well; here’s a sample, in order of the above named: “You know, when I see a woman walking around with a burqa, I see a Nazi. That's what I see, how-do-you-like-that? A hateful Nazi who would like to cut your throat and kill your children. Don't give me this crap that they're doing it out of a sacred ritual or rite. It's not required by the Quran that a woman walk around in a seventh-century drape. She's doing it to spit in your face. She's saying, 'You white moron, you, I'm going to kill you if I can.' That's how I see it! What do you want me to do, mince words with you? I'm not going to mince words. We're too far gone in this country.” "Islam, at least at its core, teaches violence. It's there in the Quran in clear, bold statements." “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.” To her credit, Coulter’s description of war is accurate. Pastor Sheets alluded to the war between Israel and the king of Persia undoubtedly in reference to calls to bomb Iran− a topic joked about by Senator McCain and considered by the Bush administration and supported by Governor Palin. If these individuals really concerned themselves with the importance of valuing human life, arguments for the annihilation of millions of people on the other side of the world would not be present in their discourse. Pastor Sheets writes about the need to save 50,000 lives by outlawing abortion yet alludes to a battle which would multiply that number many times over in the Middle East . Taxpayers are no longer willing to support these endeavors waged in the name of God. The majority of Americans are fed up with seeing their money going to destroying and rebuilding foreign countries while not being able to afford adequate health insurance and putting Canadian flags on their backpacks when traveling overseas.
President Obama represents a well welcomed change in Washington , D.C. His promises of rebuilding America with public works projects, using qualified union labor, giving taxpayers affordable insurance, equal to that of their public servants, ensuring education is a priority rather than an empty, unfunded, promise to leave no child left behind, withdrawing from Iraq responsibly and restoring America ’s reputation in the world resonated with the voters. Critics point to the election of President-elect Obama as the result of millions of dollars spent campaigning and constant media coverage. Unlike the funds raised by the McCain/Palin ticket, Obama’s campaign ran on donations averaging $84 each, a direct reflection of his landslide victory. Senator Obama spoke to the issues rather than simply the smear tactics used by his opponents− including those of Senator Clinton in the primary. The fact that the media reported the messages of these campaigns does not correlate to favoritism. In fact, media outlets are far from liberal in this country− one only has to review President Bush’s scripted press conferences and the silencing of the largest protest ever rallied, opposing the lead up the War on Iraq.
If the call to save lives is really the call made by Pastor Sheets, we should feel confident that the voters have heeded it. While he expects “more violence, disease and death, natural disasters, terrorism (they will fear us much less now)….” ect. as a result of our choosing President-elect Obama to lead us, our hope is an end to an unjust, bloody, illegal war, waged on false arguments and fear mongering. Our hope is that future Supreme Court nominations will maintain putting the conscience of the mothers who carry their unborn on their own souls and not of the nation’s. Our hope is that our government will no longer undermine international law for the interests of corporate control of foreign assets. Our hope is that taxpayers will no longer have to wait until they are forced into the emergency room to treat an illness. Our hope is that we will return to a nation of law and diplomacy rather than one that refuses to try to consider the views of others’. Our hope is that the leader of this country will once again provide a positive roll model for our children, who, regardless of color or religious affiliation, with hard work and dedication, can one day lead this great county of ours. Ameen.
Many people of faith in this country fall into or between two camps: secularist, those who believe in the separation of church and state, and theocrats, believers in theocracy who believe the church has a definitive role to play in government. The argument of the former often cite a line in the Constitution about there being a “wall between church and state.” What these persons fail to note, of course, is that no such line exists in the Constitution nor does the Constitution at all relate to personal freedoms as this is not the function of the Constitution. The wall refers to a letter, penned by Thomas Jefferson, believing one’s faith to be a personal matter, wrote to the Danbury Baptist congregation who had feared that the dominant church in Connecticut , the Congregationalist Church , would violate their religious freedoms due to their political influence in the state. The contents of this letter would later be used as the foundation of the Establishment Clause found in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Equally erroneous are those who point to founding fathers as people on a mission to establish a kingdom of Heaven on earth. In fact, many of them were Deists, those who believe in God but on a scientific level, which is to argue He created the universe to function on its own and our sense of reason should serve to guide as opposed to any divine revelation or intersession. Although conflicting documents written by the men themselves exist, there is ample evidence pointing to the deist beliefs of Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Paine, and Franklin, to name a few. Thomas Jefferson actually penned some of the most inflammatory statements against Christianity of his time. Some argue the only reason Christianity was invoked at all had to do with keeping the population in from falling into chaos, a lesson learned during the French Revolution after dissolving the church by the Jacobins- of which they were all keenly aware. Nevertheless, this issue is unlikely to subside as, for the most part, it remains a matter of historical debate.
The Obama phenomenon was an unprecedented event that will forever change the electorate. His victory cannot simply be attributed to his color or his stance on abortion or the church and state debate. Although he received the majority of the African American vote, most constituents were captivated by his message of hope and the stark contrast between himself and President Bush not to mention the negative campaigning of John McCain and the hate speech of some of his supporters who simultaneously condemned him for being a Muslim (a false accusation started by the Clinton campaign), and for comments made by his former Pastor, a decorated veteran, one should note. These hateful tirades went so far as shouts of “kill him!” and “off with his head!” from some in attendance of the republican campaign rallies. The fact that these shouts went unchecked by the candidates did not go unnoticed. What is more, many grew uncomfortable the anti-Islamic rhetoric as having a place in a presidential campaign in a country that espouses inalienable rights and religious freedom as honorably noted by Colin Powell on Meet the Press last month.
The two most significant factors that won President-Elect Obama the White House, however, were the economy and the War on Iraq . The trickle town theory has never been shown to be more failing than at this moment, with the enormous taxpayer bailouts being passed onto private industries and financial institutions, a repeat of 1921 and ‘29. President Bush’s tax cut to the wealthiest 1% who continue to export American jobs and evade further evade taxes with offshore headquarters. The blatant mistakes of launching invasions while cutting taxes on the rich and handing out stimulus checks drawn from Chinese banks are incomprehensible. This goes far beyond Reganomics into something that most Americans could not have fathomed when President Bush took office. Although Senator McCain had originally spoke out against these measures, he later reversed his opinion. President Obama, while he supported the bailout, has a specific itinerary for getting this country back on course which the majority agree with.
John McCain’s support for the War on Iraq and Sarah Palin’s constant references to “God’s Will”, calling the invasion a “righteous war” did not sit well with many Americans. Governor Palin further blundered when she repeated unsubstantiated links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein which have long been proven false by government agencies and admitted as such by the Bush administration. Further, onlookers find the conservative call for a fight to the death in Iraq at odds with the pro-life message and consider it anything but ‘righteous.’ This cry of “Onward Christian Soldier” is a farce, especially in the case of Iraq, where rampant crimes have been committed against civilians such in the case of rape of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, a fourteen year old girl and the murder of her and her family by American GIs. Where private interests of the likes of Halliburton and Kellogg Brown & Root have been found overcharging taxpayers millions for services never rendered, where reconstruction bids were replaced with cronyism, and where mercenaries dispatched from Blackwater have massacred innocent Iraqis with impunity; it is clear that that the War on Iraq is not serving the interests of the American people.
The choosing of apocalyptic biblical verses in Pastor Sheets plea to the Christian electorate and his assertion that President Bush has made “some blunders” is absolutely out of touch with the situation Americans now face. Arguing that the War on Iraq , an onslaught that has resulted in nearly 1,000,000 Iraqi lives, is a “righteous war” that relates to the end of times, is not the message the American people are looking for. We have seen what the product of mixing Evangelical politics with secular policies has on government over the last eight years. We understand that President Obama is a devout Christian and many respect him for it; moreover, we know he is well versed in Constitutional law, having taught it at Harvard. He bases his decisions on his fluency of the legal foundations of this country, not on his personal, religious preferences. He supports abortion rights as an elected official of a secular country, sworn to uphold the Constitution, while believing it is wrong in his personal life. Any leader of a secular government is obligated to do the same− God knows the struggle Representative Keith Ellison had to overcome to convince voters that he would lead from a secular position rather than an Islamic one after swearing his oath of office on the Qur’an that belonged to Thomas Jefferson.
What I find astonishing about all of this is the constant condemnation of Islamic Law and Muslims in general. There are constant attacks aimed at Islam and Muslims in this country for simply following religious tenets commanded by God, an endeavor faithful Christians also strive towards, e.g., living an upright life and thanking God for what they have in this life. Last year, I received one email actually applauding comments of John Howard, former prime minister of Australia , for telling Muslims to leave his country if they continued to follow the Shariah. Although this statement was from 2005, it was still being circulated one year ago. Advocates of these views are often absolutely ignorant of Shariah, yet they persist in condemning it, along with the Prophet Muhammad (peace be with him), and the Qur’an, despite having never read it. Critics take aim at Muslim countries when making their point, yet, most of these countries were secularized by their former colonial rulers with the exception of a few Gulf countries and Indonesia . For the record, prior to the ousting of Saddam , Iraq , too, was a secular nation.
In Islam, the faithful do not separate civic life from religious convictions. In secular nation, however, this does not translate into breaking the laws of the adopted country. In fact, as a Muslim, one is obligated to follow the laws of the country one lives in. One would be hard pressed to find anything in the Shariah that runs counter to the laws found in western countries and in the event that the laws make it a hardship to practice Islam, a Muslim is obligated to relocate− North Korea comes to mind as such an example. As long as one is allowed to pray, fast, and protect one’s modesty, the basic requirements are met. Despite the laws of this nation allowing us to pray when, where, and how we wish, many people are offended when they see someone praying in public in way unfamiliar to them, i.e., prostrating on the ground (ironically described in the Bible as the way of Jesus and other prophets, peace be with them) or dressing in a way that some consider too modest. All of these obligations, one should note, can be practiced in one’s private life, on their own time.
Much of the rhetoric voiced by Christian fundamentalists mirrors that of puritanical Muslims calling for “death to America .” Conservatives on the right such as Michael Savage, Pat Robertson, and Ann Coulter are outright fanatical about their hatred as well; here’s a sample, in order of the above named: “You know, when I see a woman walking around with a burqa, I see a Nazi. That's what I see, how-do-you-like-that? A hateful Nazi who would like to cut your throat and kill your children. Don't give me this crap that they're doing it out of a sacred ritual or rite. It's not required by the Quran that a woman walk around in a seventh-century drape. She's doing it to spit in your face. She's saying, 'You white moron, you, I'm going to kill you if I can.' That's how I see it! What do you want me to do, mince words with you? I'm not going to mince words. We're too far gone in this country.” "Islam, at least at its core, teaches violence. It's there in the Quran in clear, bold statements." “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.” To her credit, Coulter’s description of war is accurate. Pastor Sheets alluded to the war between Israel and the king of Persia undoubtedly in reference to calls to bomb Iran− a topic joked about by Senator McCain and considered by the Bush administration and supported by Governor Palin. If these individuals really concerned themselves with the importance of valuing human life, arguments for the annihilation of millions of people on the other side of the world would not be present in their discourse. Pastor Sheets writes about the need to save 50,000 lives by outlawing abortion yet alludes to a battle which would multiply that number many times over in the Middle East . Taxpayers are no longer willing to support these endeavors waged in the name of God. The majority of Americans are fed up with seeing their money going to destroying and rebuilding foreign countries while not being able to afford adequate health insurance and putting Canadian flags on their backpacks when traveling overseas.
President Obama represents a well welcomed change in Washington , D.C. His promises of rebuilding America with public works projects, using qualified union labor, giving taxpayers affordable insurance, equal to that of their public servants, ensuring education is a priority rather than an empty, unfunded, promise to leave no child left behind, withdrawing from Iraq responsibly and restoring America ’s reputation in the world resonated with the voters. Critics point to the election of President-elect Obama as the result of millions of dollars spent campaigning and constant media coverage. Unlike the funds raised by the McCain/Palin ticket, Obama’s campaign ran on donations averaging $84 each, a direct reflection of his landslide victory. Senator Obama spoke to the issues rather than simply the smear tactics used by his opponents− including those of Senator Clinton in the primary. The fact that the media reported the messages of these campaigns does not correlate to favoritism. In fact, media outlets are far from liberal in this country− one only has to review President Bush’s scripted press conferences and the silencing of the largest protest ever rallied, opposing the lead up the War on Iraq.
If the call to save lives is really the call made by Pastor Sheets, we should feel confident that the voters have heeded it. While he expects “more violence, disease and death, natural disasters, terrorism (they will fear us much less now)….” ect. as a result of our choosing President-elect Obama to lead us, our hope is an end to an unjust, bloody, illegal war, waged on false arguments and fear mongering. Our hope is that future Supreme Court nominations will maintain putting the conscience of the mothers who carry their unborn on their own souls and not of the nation’s. Our hope is that our government will no longer undermine international law for the interests of corporate control of foreign assets. Our hope is that taxpayers will no longer have to wait until they are forced into the emergency room to treat an illness. Our hope is that we will return to a nation of law and diplomacy rather than one that refuses to try to consider the views of others’. Our hope is that the leader of this country will once again provide a positive roll model for our children, who, regardless of color or religious affiliation, with hard work and dedication, can one day lead this great county of ours. Ameen.
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