Letters to the Editor
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Don't forget about Sudan
For love of money, Abramoff and his buddies cozied up to the government of Sudan, one of the most repellent in the world. To me, that might be the most appalling thing in a long, long list of appalling actions by this crew.
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response to Johnhummel
John, there is a Christian Left movement, spearheaded by Soujourner's magazine. The problem is: money and influence. The reason why the christian right has so much political traction is because they've been willing to sell their souls, so to speak, for the cash and influence needed to win over political minds hungry for some pork and privilege. So I'm not sure what to do: if the Christian Left tries to stay on the high road, they will gain no traction in politics because they're not willing to play the game. If they stoop to the necessary tactics, they become their own enemy.
Any ideas? This is a real burden of mine. I'm discovering more and more 'progressive' Christians out there but there is no unifying force and no access. Feeding the poor never made anyone rich and so no one's interested.
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consider yourselves zinged!
"Whatever may become of Abramoff, Reed, DeLay and their luckless co-conspirators, the Colson path will not be open to them. When you've spent a lifetime exploiting religion for profit and power, it's a lot harder to convince anyone that you've undergone a jailhouse conversion."
This zinger shows what I love about Joe. This is the most brilliant sentence I've read all week. Joe Conason is the single person most responsible for my renewing my Salon Premium membership year after year.
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Abramoff Scandal
Great article! I urge everyone to forward the article to Texas newspapers and throughout the bible belt. This story only underscores what so many of us have long known and it is now time for the self rightous to be confronted with the fruits of their votes and blindness.
Bob
Denver, CO
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Religion isn't the problem, it's uninformed society
I've always believed that those that shout their piety the loudest are the biggest liars. So I was always suspicious of these powerful men going it's God's will, don't look to close at what I'm doing, I'm a Christian, trust me. Than again many a non- shouting piety politician have been lying traitors. It's not really religion that's the biggest problem, it’s that a lot people do not think and make connections, even if they have read 1984, Fahrenheit 415, or Machiavelli. They don't put it all together. In my college classes I am astounded at how simple things to me like analyzing a Jack London short story can be so hard for others. How they will pull out a thesis statement without any backing from the story. There are so many under my supervision that can't follow simple directions and they went to college. So I'm not that surprised that things like so and so says they are Christian, but take money from the poor, consolidate power and money for the already powerful and wealthy but they give to faith based orgs and are reducing my taxes so aren't they good works? It just seems to confuse people and we expect these people to understand the con game these politicos are running?
All I really see in these people are money worshipping bigots who can gain support because abortionists, homosexuals, and terrorists are easy targets to hate and to get people to rally behind you. It's easier to get people angry and hate small groups of people and blame all of society’s problems on them then ask people for compassion, understanding and some help to fix systems that are unfair.
Until we see the same amount of stalking that happens to celebrities happen to politicians they will continue to con their constituents. People need to be shown point by point, lie by lie, because without it they will try to defend and spin and obfuscate. I mean just look at the wire tap issue. It is obviously a violation of the 4th amendment, but people are like well we are at war and it’s only to try to find terrorists anyway so what’s the big deal, like the founding fathers didn’t put that there in the first place to avoid this exact situation of a president expanding his powers during war time. But people don't get it or they just don't care.
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Jailhouse conversions require Jailtime
"When you've spent a lifetime exploiting religion for profit and power, it's a lot harder to convince anyone that you've undergone a jailhouse conversion."
With the rotten state of our government, including our judiciary, don't be too surprised if these rich and powerful people never see the inside of a jail. These people have plenty of money and influence. To paraphrase Chevy Chase: "This breaking news just in. Kenny Lay is still free!"
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What to do on the christian left?
One other form of power other than money is people. The christian right doesn't have people because it has money. It has money because it has people. Strength will come from having more "liberal" christians. I quote liberal because both the word conservative and the word liberal have become so mishapen as words I have no real idea what they mean anymore. In fact I tend to lump as name calling any arguments that say "liberals" do this or "conservatives" do that. Not that I haven't lost my temper at some of the crap I read on "conservative" blogs lately. I think that most are just Republican partisan apologists now. Is it really conservative to rush to war? Conservative, western Republicans didn't think so during Roosevelt's presidency. They thwarted Roosevelt's attempts to enter WWII because they were anti-globalists. It took the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japaneese for Roosevelt to convince congress to allow him to declare war on Germany and Japan. (I don't think Germany declared war on us until a month later, they had hoped to keep us out of the war.) I remember conservatives belly aching about bosnia. Bush ran a traditional US first style campaign. No nation building was his mantra.
Sorry, I got on an off topic rant. The bible quotes below are the other things liberal christians can do.
Mathew 25
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'