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Bush
said he 'preciates folks dyin' for the cause.
Are The Good Times Really Over For Good?
By Sheila Samples
Are we rolling downhill like a
snowball headed for hell?
With no kind of chance for the flag or the liberty bell...
Is the best of the free life behind us now...
Are the good times really over for good?
~~Merle Haggard
"For thou are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil
may not sojourn with thee. The boastful may not stand before thy
eyes; thou hatest all evildoers. Thou destroyest those who speak
lies; the Lord abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful men." ~~
David, Psalms 5:4
07/11/05 "ICH"
- - On Memorial Day, George W. Bush, the world's most
bloodthirsty and deceitful man strutted to the podium at our
National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, to once again
regurgitate his woefully shallow and inappropriate stump speech
-- "Across the globe (sly smile), our military is standing
directly between our people and the worst dangers in the world
(pause, smirk)...the war on terror has brought great costs
(no-nonsense head bob)...two terror regimes are gone forever
(narrowed eyes darting nervously back and forth across the
crowd), freedom is on the march (leaning forward earnestly), and
America is more secure."
Unfazed by plummeting poll numbers at home or spiraling fatality
numbers abroad, Bush remarked with shudderingly bad taste that
all headstones look alike -- a Texan's crude way of saying,
"You seen one skull orchard, you seen 'em all," and
announced with devilish arrogance that his mission remains
unchanged -- he has the terrorists on the run and he isn't going
to stop until he has spread God's gifts of freedom and democracy
and liberty and neat stuff like that throughout the world. His
will will never be broken. His mission is God's mission;
together, he and God will rid the world of evil. On behalf of
God, Bush said he 'preciates folks dyin' for the cause. Heck, he
even honors 'em.
They applauded him. It was astonishing. They applauded, when
they should have been wailing in anguish while collapsing under
an unbearable sense of national loss. But no. Grinning like
cartoon caricatures, they applauded an in-your-face war criminal
-- a great deceiver who is openly intent on destroying
everything that is, or ever was, good in their lives. Bush's
mission will be over when the good times are over; when they're
over for good -- when all that remains is broken. Broken
families. Broken bodies. Broken societies. Broken cultures.
Broken hearts. Broken world.
Where are the Christians? Where is the revulsion at Bush roaming
freely on hallowed ground while belching out lies and deceit
that have caused the slaughter of more than 100,000 Iraqi's, 1,942 coalition troops --
1,752 of them American -- more than American 18,000 wounded or maimed;
10,000 striken with lifelong disease? (No figures are available
for the number of Iraqi wounded or maimed ) Where is the raw horror
that Christians should feel for a charlaton who boasts that he
is on a mission from God -- a mission to rule over a world of
hate and lies and fear and death and disease?
You'd think the souls of true Christians would surely shrivel
when a man who claims Jesus Christ as his
"philosopher" murders hundreds of thousands of
innocents, abuses and tortures hundreds, maybe even thousands,
more and then raises blood-stained fists -- shakes them in the
face of the Almighty, and shouts, "Thou
Fool!" You'd think, as a minimum, Christians would
remember who in the Bible is known as the "Great
Deceiver." You'd think. But alas...
Actually, people who claim to speak to, as well as
for, God are everywhere. Most are Republicans, members of
the Christian Reconstructionist Movement whose lust for power
and obsession with Biblical control extends beyond the wildest
fantasies of the most radical evangelical. With flags in one
hand and Bibles in the other, they are militant, intolerant,
boastful -- eaten up with messianic hubris. They proudly call
themselves "people of faith," and are brazenly
committed to religion, but their religion is politics and vice
versa. They're the God people -- George Bush's voting base.
Ironically, followers of Jesus are awakening to find themselves
in the midst of religious plenty, yet are literally dying of
thirst, much like the lone sailor in Coleridge's "Ancient
Mariner" who was surrounded by water but dared not drink.
They are discovering it is dangerous for Christian love to be
surrounded by religious hate.
I wonder if Americans know just how close to the abyss we really
are. I hate to sound yet another terror warning, but if we were
in theological Vietnam, we'd be in deep, deep spiritual kimche.
Bush is the perfect pawn for the Reconstructionists. He owes
them, big time, and he's paying them back at dizzying and
destructive speed. Never has a more bloodthirsty and vengeful
bully so devoid of reason and sanity been given universal free
rein to act out his incorrigible delusions. Bush believes -- has
been led to believe -- that he has been commissioned by God to
slay all those whom he fantasizes might someday oppose him --
and to justify the slaughter by brandishing the double-edged
sword of freedom and liberty.
As early as 1994, Frederick Clarkson, author of "Eternal
Hostility: The Struggle Between Democracy and Theocracy in the
United States," warned Americans about the fundie-fascist
danger in a
critical, indepth article on Christian Reconstructionists.
Clarkson said, "...the movement is Very Disturbing in it's
ideology. And if it ever came to political power, it would be
disasterous for this civilization. Freedom under a Christian
Reconstructionist government would be similar to that of Stalan
(sic) or Hitler."
If they need proof, Bush's "freedom-loving Americans"
would do well to listen to the mad ravings of Gary North, one of
the more frightening Reconstructionist shepherds, who is
determined to place people of faith in every political office,
in every schoolroom, every church, and in every societal nook
and cranny in order to "gain exclusive control over the
American franchise." North, from Tyler, Texas, says,
"Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal
sanctions of God by submitting to His Church's public marks of
the covenant -- baptism and holy communion -- must be denied
citizenship, just as they were in ancient Israel."
It is not by chance that Reconstructionists are Republicans or
that their crusade against Democrats and all things liberal
mirrors that of Bush's jihad against the Muslim world. Clarkson
cites Reconstructionist theologian David Chilton, who very
succinctly describes the movement's mission -- "The
Christian goal for the world is the universal development of
Biblical theocratic republics, in which every area of life is
redeemed and placed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the
rule of God's law."
Nobody has worked harder nor longer to bring this madness to
fruition than Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson. For
him, the "rule of God's law" does not extend to
Liberals and there's no place for gays to hide in a Robertson
world. He believes that homosexuals have nothing better to do
than to "come into churches and disrupt church services and
throw blood all around and try to give people AIDS and spit in
the face of ministers."
And, if you're a Democrat, chances are if Robertson and the
Reconstructionists have their way, you're going to get your ass
kicked. "The strategy against the American Radical Left
should be the same as General Douglas MacArthur employed against
the Japanese in the Pacific," Robertson said.
"...Bypass their strongholds, then surround them, isolate
them, bombard them, then blast the individuals out of their
power bunkers with hand-to-hand combat..."
Sound like a plan?
Well, listen up, because it gets better. Christian
Reconstructionists soar into a divine frenzy at the mere thought
of capital punishment. Those of us who do not see things their
way will very quickly turn into collateral damage. Clarkson says
Reconstructionists "call for the death penalty for a wide
range of crimes in addition to such contemporary capital crimes
as rape, kidnapping, and murder. Death is also the punishment
for apostasy (abandonment of the faith), heresy, blasphemy,
witchcraft, astrology, adultery, "sodomy or
homosexuality," incest, striking a parent, incorrigible
juvenile delinquency, and, in the case of women, "unchastity
before marriage."
Like Bush, who stolidly refuses to accept blame for his actions,
the Reconstructionists believe that both men and nations must
obey God's laws or God must invoke the death penalty against
them. According to North, women who have abortions should be
publicly executed, "along with those who advised them to
abort their children." But, not to worry. Theocracies,
according to theologian Rev. Ray Sutton, are "happy"
places to which people flock because "capital punishment is
one of the best evangelistic tools of a society."
Clarkson said the Biblically approved methods of execution
include burning at the stake, stoning, hanging, and "the
sword." So, if you slap your mama or do the "wild
thaing" before the wedding, a "person of faith"
will be happy to behead you... But North says not to worry. He
prefers stoning because, among other things, stones are cheap,
plentiful, and convenient. Punishments for non-capital crimes
generally involve whipping, restitution in the form of
indentured servitude, or slavery. Prisons would likely be only
temporary holding tanks, prior to imposition of the actual
sentence.
In April, Rev. Jim Wallis of "Sojourners" magazine addresed
this problem at a Lewisville rally. Wallis said, "Those
on the Religious Right are declaring a religious war to give
their version of faith religious supremacy in America. And some
members of the Republican Party seem ready almost to declare a
Christian theocracy in America. It is time," Wallis said
firmly, "to take back both our faith and our
Constitution."
I agree, but how do we do this? Many of us are weary of feeling
like we're the the last person standing -- sloshing around in a
Stepford world of hate and fear and blood -- where every man,
woman and child we meet has "9-11" tattooed on their
foreheads, and they don't even know it.
What can we tell them that is more horrible than what Christians
have already accepted without question -- lies, treason, deceit,
abuse and torture, body parts of innocents littering the
landscape, the slaughter of their own children, and freedom
ebbing away? If we tell them what the Great Deceiver and his
Christian Reconstructionist God have in store for them, will
they continue to stare at us vacantly while waving their flags?
Or, when they see that our foreheads do not proclaim the
patriotic "9-11," will they skitter fearfully into the
shadows?
We have a choice. We can either take our places in line at the
tattoo parlor or we can grab a taser in each hand and start
walking cross-country, kicking doors down and jolting folks
awake. It may already be too late, but before this vast herd of
comatose sheep goes plodding blindly over the edge of the cliff;
before they pull the rest of us into the morass with them, we
have earned the right to see one last collective shock of
recognition -- a final terrified realization that they know the
good times are over -- really over for good.
And they will know, at long last, it didn't have to be this way.
Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma
freelance writer and a former civilian US Army Public
Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety
of Internet sites. Contact her at: rsamples@sirinet.net.
© 2005 Sheila Samples
Copyright: Sheila
Samples. All rights reserved. You may republish under the following conditions: An active link to the original publication must be provided. You must not alter, edit or remove any text within the article, including this copyright notice.
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