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Satan is
Resting Easy: The Power of Christ "Propels" Them
BY JASON MILLER
03/10/06 "ICH" -- --
Remember, Big Brother is watching, listening and reading. In light
of the illegal surveillance they are conducting at the behest of
their incompetent, rogue, and murderous Commander-in-Chief, I am
dedicating this essay to the NSA.
To George Bush, Dick Cheney, Daniel Pipes, and their soulless
war-mongering compadres, I proudly admit that I support the
Palestinians (and their democratically elected Hamas leaders) in
their struggle against their brutal Israeli oppressors. In fact,
consider me a member of the so-called Fifth Column identified by
Pipes. I abhor virtually all of the foreign and domestic policies
the Machiavellian disciples of Strauss have implemented through
wielding their ill-gotten power and influence. However, the United
States is as much my country as it is theirs. I fully intend to
remain here and work persistently against them by continuing to
tenaciously pursue human rights and social justice for humanity, not
simply for a select few in the United States and Israel.
Quoting the eloquent and infamous words of the incredibly articulate
Mr. Cheney, I say, "Fuck you!" to their malignant cabal. While this
nefarious faction and its loyalists may consider me a traitor, I
refuse to pledge allegiance to a pack of criminals who have hijacked
the government of the people of the United States. If it is treason
to dissent against corrupt thieves and murderers who have shredded
our sacred Constitution, I stand guilty as charged.
There are lies and there are
damned lies…
One of the boldest and most insidious lies propagated by
the leadership of the Zionists, the Dominionists, the Religious
Right, and by their whores in Washington is that the Middle East is
populated primarily by Islamic extremists with an insatiable thirst
for the blood of "innocent American Christians" and who are hell
bent on eliminating "those poor chronic victims" illegally occupying
the land of the Palestinians and committing genocide against them.
Somehow, in a twist of logic only Lewis Carroll could fully
comprehend, many people in the United States have been indoctrinated
to believe that our nation, which possesses the largest stockpile of
weapons of mass destruction in the history of mankind, is the only
nation to have used those weapons on a massive scale (just ask the
Japanese), and bears direct and indirect responsibility for the
murder of tens of millions of innocent civilians over the last
century, is a benevolent super-power illuminating a beacon of hope
for humanity. I readily recognize that other nations and governments
have committed their share of atrocities, but I do not see them
waving the Red, White and Blue, piously trumpeting platitudes about
spreading freedom and democracy, and simultaneously waging
pre-emptive strikes against nations which they merely “perceive to
be a potential threat”. Holier than thou, dost thou think? The
golden chalice of the United States runneth over with putrid
sanctimony.
The terror of gazing at one’s
own reflection…
For over a year now, I have written numerous essays which have been
widely published on the Internet. My primary goal has been to
inspire Americans to apply the same humanitarian standards to our
nation that we use to stringently and hypocritically measure other
nations. I have also attempted to convince more Americans to engage
in introspection and self-examination. When I began plumbing those
depths about 13 years ago, I did not like what I saw. I have
steadily acted to reshape my values, outlook, and decisions to align
with ideals such as human rights, social justice, peace, equality,
thrift, dignity, honesty, respect, and responsibility. While I have
not achieved the high moral plain of a Gandhi by any means, I have
become more a part of the solution than the problem.
Based on the hateful, denigrating, and sometimes threatening emails
I receive from about a third of the readers responding to my essays,
I conclude that my message threatens the sense of security many
Americans derive from supporting the status quo. I have also
determined that I am swimming upstream against an addictive torrent
of vitriolic propaganda spewed by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Michael
Savage, Jonah Goldberg, and a host of others. Sorry to disappoint
those of you who have told me to leave the country, kill myself, or
renounce being a “traitor and a "self-hating American" (yes, they
often parrot the rhetoric of the likes of Daniel Pipes), but I have
no intention of moving, killing myself, or abandoning my deeply
rooted antipathy for the enemies of humanity (and the Earth) who
have stolen the United States from We the People.
Jesus as a commodity… and a
weapon
One of the American elite’s (amongst whom I include their complicit
disseminators of propaganda in the mainstream media) most repulsive
means of grabbing and maintaining power has been its shameless use
of spiritual manipulation, a heinous form of psychological abuse.
Preying on fear, insecurity, and ignorance, they have perverted true
Christianity to the extent that a third of those voting for George
Bush, a man as morally repugnant as Dorian Gray, were a part of the
radical Religious Right.
With the help of mendacious, avaricious, and highly sophisticated
hucksters like James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, and Ted Haggard, the
American plutocracy has packaged and commercialized spirituality
like an Extra Value Meal at McDonald’s. You want fast food salvation
done the American way? Look for the Golden Crosses, zip into the
drive-through, drop some donation money, and accept Christ as your
savior! Forget spiritual pain or sacrifice. Jesus died to grant you
a path to easy street. So be on your merry way with your Big Mac of
two all beef patties and guaranteed eternity in heaven. Chase it
down with an enchanting Golgotha collector’s cup filled with smug
certainty that you are now morally superior to the rest of humanity.
Savor a side of Schadenfreude fries delightfully spiced with visions
of the abject torment the “heathens” will face when Jesus the
Avenger returns to Earth to smite the sinners.
Acknowledging that not all those comprising the Religious Right are
created equal, and that there is a great deal of diversity amongst
their beliefs and practices, there is enough commonality to conclude
that the malefactors at the helm of the US have leveraged the
hateful, narrow-minded beliefs of enough of these fanatics to garner
sufficient support to commit egregious acts of torture, passive mass
murder (New Orleans ring a bell?), massive slaughter under the guise
of military intervention, and theft of public funds.
Men like Dobson shepherd their flocks to vote for bellicose
champions of the wealthy because these “moral stalwarts” have
pledged their undying support to a "culture of life". Despite their
"devotion" to making abortion illegal, ending the use of human
embryos (even those which would otherwise be discarded) for stem
cell research, and denying equal rights to 5-10% of our population
(gays and lesbians), the power brokers have perpetually been
incapable of making good on their promises. While championing these
“family values”, they have mesmerized their Religious Right
followers into supporting the false dichotomy of Christianity vs.
Islam, an imperialistic and murderous agenda in Iraq and throughout
the Middle East, and domestic policies which significantly erode the
economic well-being of their radical Christian base (and the rest of
us amongst the working class). Thomas Frank explored this
mind-blowing phenomenon in great detail in his book,
What's the Matter with Kansas.
Realize that I am not disparaging the Christian religion in general.
Personally, I am a spiritual person with a belief in a Higher Power,
but I am not Christian. However, I recognize that there are many
rational, compassionate, and
decent human beings who practice
Christianity. If one reads many of my essays,
one will discover that I often find myself defending Islam and its
followers in my writing. I do this because they have been the
victims of Western imperialism for years. I make no claim that
either the Muslims or Christians are better. I am simply deeply
concerned about the Western genocide and acts of imperialism
committed against Islamic peoples since oil became a valued
commodity. In spite of the despicable misdeeds committed in our
names, we wonder why so many in the Middle East harbor such
hostility against the United States and its residents. We act
befuddled, violated, and validated in our belief that we are morally
superior when obscenely oppressed and exploited people resort to
“terrorism” in a desperate attempt to defend themselves from the
mightiest military and economy in the history of the world.
I abhor the violence committed by both sides, but we are not the
“good guys”. The prevaricators leading our nation and writing our
history have portrayed Americans as wearing the white hats for far
too long. Transgressions and atrocities have been committed by many
nations and people throughout history, including the United States
and its leaders. Consider the most recent example in Iraq. Our
occupying force has killed over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians.
This is state terrorism at its worst and it needs to end. With our
resources, the United States could become a humanitarian force.
Sadly, the Neocons have chosen guns over butter (using our tax
dollars and a mountain of borrowed money) to a shameless degree,
enraging many of us who still have a social conscience.
Do as we say, not as we do….
Just as some Islamic fundamentalists wield religion as a weapon, the
morally bankrupt aristocracy of the United States utilizes religion
as a tool of war. Employing the power of spiritual manipulation to
muster the support of their minions of extremist Christians, the
authors of the
Project for the New American Century
mobilized enough popular support to invade a nation which had
not harmed the United States, to eradicate the poor in New Orleans
through passive mass murder and a Diaspora, to sell our children's
future by committing to $8 trillion worth of debt to power their war
machine, to cut taxes on the rich, and to increase war spending
while cutting spending on programs which benefit humanity.
I hate to burst the bubble of those still deluded enough to accept
the false premise (advanced by the Bush Regime) that we are a
Christian nation embroiled in a modern day crusade against the
followers of an Islamic religion which teaches them to hate
democracy and brutally violate human rights. Here is a dose of
reality. Over the last century, this "good Christian nation" and our
friends in Israel have slaughtered, murdered, and tortured millions
of Islamic people, both directly and indirectly (through proxy
dictators). In contrast, Islamic murders of Americans, Christians
and Jews are a relative drop in the bucket. Rather than "spreading
freedom and democracy", Bush has the United States spreading
imperialism, torture, and murder of innocent civilians. Saddam
Hussein’s removal from power was a mere sideshow. If the United
States was so concerned with its moral obligation to remove a
ruthless dictator from power, there were many others they could have
targeted. It was oil, power, and increased security for our
terrorist proxy occupying Palestine that motivated the United States
to invade Iraq.
Speaking of concern for human rights and humanitarian intervention,
when is the United States going to stop funding Israel and launch an
invasion against them to stop the Palestinian genocide? When groups
like Hamas have the audacity to resist oppression and murder,
Americans and Israelis label them as "terrorists". Now that Hamas is
the democratically elected ruling party of the PA, the United States
has elected to cut its aid to the Palestinians, a people who are
already wallowing in the misery of Israeli-inflicted poverty and
racial extermination. (As a side note, the Israelis are able to
inflict genocide on the Palestinians because of the obscene amounts
of financial and military aid they receive from the United States).
To add insult to injury, Israel has determined that they can once
again disregard international law by withholding the Palestinian tax
revenues they collect (the Palestinians’ chief source of income). As
is typical, the United States and its proxy are free to violate
treaties, international laws, UN mandates, and humanitarian
standards with impunity while applying the same laws to the rest of
the world to the nth degree.
How about calling us a
pluralistic nation with freedom of religion?
The notion that the United States is a Christian nation is false on
numerous levels. Certainly we are heavily influenced Christianity,
but to say we are a Christian nation flies in the face of the raison
de’ etre of America.
Consider the following:
1. According to the 1990 US Census, 91.6% of Americans were
Christians. By 2000, the percentage had decreased to 85%. We 42
million “heathens” represent a pretty significant portion of the
population.
2. Many of the Western Europeans who settled the original thirteen
colonies fled their nations of origin to evade religious persecution
and state-imposed religions.
3. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, two of our most prominent
Founding Fathers, were Deists. Washington and Jefferson were not
particularly religious but tended more toward Deism than
Christianity.
4. Thomas Paine, whose writings were a powerful catalyst for the
American Revolution, vehemently attacked Christianity in one of his
polemical works and refused to embrace Christianity, even on his
death-bed.
5. God is not mentioned in our Constitution. The Declaration of
Independence simply mentions "Nature's God" and a "Creator", neither
of which specifically imply a Christian god.
6. Per the Treaty of Tripoli, endorsed by President John Adams and
ratified unanimously by the US Senate in 1797: "As the Government of
the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian
religion..."
7. If Christians lay claim to the United States as their nation,
that means they bear the sole responsibility for the evils of
slavery, the virtual annihilation of the Native Americans, and the
many acts of state terror perpetrated by the US military and CIA
over the years.
8. In 1864, the equivalent of today's Religious Right cowed Congress
into passing legislation mandating that the US begin stamping "In
God We Trust" on several of our coins. Besides caving to the
powerful influence of Christian fundamentalists, our federal
government also recognized the psychological boost the power of
Christian symbolism would give them after the blow to their
authority rendered by the Civil War.
9. McCarthy-inspired anti-Communist hysteria motivated Eisenhower to
sign Public Law 140 in 1956. Going forward, all US coins and paper
money bore the propagandistic slogan "In God We Trust" to reassure
Americans that we were better than the godless Communists. The same
year, the words "under God" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance.
It took 180 years for this Christian nation to fully embrace its
identity. Or perhaps it simply took our plutocratic rulers that long
to recognize the power of spiritual coercion….
As an aside, the original motto on the United States was E Pluribus
Unum (Latin for “Out of many, one”), which obviously encourages more
unity and cohesion than an exclusionary national motto dedicated to
a god worshipped by one segment of the population.
Sleeping like babies….
Aside from the power of radical Christianity to subjugate the
masses, this disturbing perversion of healthy spirituality does come
with an added “benefit”. It enables its devotees to support
politicians who rob from the poor to give to the rich, who wage
murderous and imperialist wars to enrich the military industrial
complex, and who allow their corporate collaborators to blatantly
abuse employees, consumers, and the environment. Thanks to the salve
provided to their consciences by "knowing" they live in a Christian,
morally superior nation (not to mention the security provided by
their "guaranteed blissful after-life"), the mélange of groups and
people comprising the extreme Religious Right can swear their
allegiance to a group of monstrous human beings without feeling a
twinge of guilt.
As many of my antagonists have pointed out, I am not without
limitations (and I do not claim to be). Remaining in the United
States to wage a non-violent struggle for human rights and social
justice virtually assures that I will be a party to enabling the US
war machine and corporatocracy in some way. Besides the fact that I
pay federal taxes (fairly unavoidable for a working class family
person), buy some products from grossly corrupt corporations (albeit
as few as possible), and have my share of personal spiritual
struggles, my other glaring sin is the hostility I harbor toward the
enemies of humanity sitting atop the throne of power in our nation.
However, even Jesus himself directed outrage at the money-changers
and legalistic religious leaders of his day. If someone of his moral
capacity directed anger at the corrupt establishment, who am I to
presume I could overcome my rancor against the malevolent forces
comprising the United States ruling elite? If their numerous crimes
against humanity were not fanning the flames of my anger, I would no
longer be breathing. My challenges are to prevent my ire from
evolving into festering hatred or desire for revenge and to strive
to maintain constructive anger (which motivates me to seek justice
and positive change). That is a challenge to which I can rise,
despite my human short-comings.
Please excuse my use of profanity above, but it felt so good to echo
Cheney's choice sentiments back to him and his unwholesome cohorts.
Meanwhile, send Satan a postcard on his vacation. Our imperialistic
rulers do not need him to perpetrate their acts of profound moral
depravity. They glide on the momentum generated by fanatical
followers who believe they have the market cornered on morality and
that Jesus will soon return to Earth as the ultimate WMD.
Jason Miller is a 39 year old sociopolitical essayist with a
degree in liberal arts and an extensive self-education. When he is
not spending time with his wife and three sons, doing research, or
writing, he works as a loan counselor. He is a member of Amnesty
International and an avid supporter of Oxfam International and Human
Rights Watch. He welcomes responses at
willpowerful@hotmail.com or comments on his blog,
Thomas Paine’s Corner, at
http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/ .
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