Using God to Peddle Violence and Oppression

By: Mark Weber

A question often posed to provide a barometer for the spiritual climate of our society is How would Jesus be received if he walked our streets today? With his obvious Middle Eastern features, his unabashed advocacy for the disadvantaged, and his refusal to bow to the prejudices and dictates of those wielding religious or political power, it would not be surprising to find him under surveillance, detained indefinitely, or even secretly tried in a military tribunal under the provisions of the recently enacted Patriot Act.

To me the saddest commentary on our government's response to the Sept. 11 tragedy is the repeated invocations of God's blessings and the insistent appeals to patriotism to justify actions that demean our spiritual integrity and our democratic ideals.

I'm sorry Mr. President, but God is neutral; God loves all life - Afghan, Israeli, Palestinian, American, Muslim, Christian, even those without a nation to call home or a faith community to belong to. To say that God favors U.S. interests over others is to put God into a very small box, a box of narrow self-interest that divides the world into "Us" and "Them". The God most Americans worship, no matter what denomination, values all people equally.

That America is the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth is not a sign that God approves of all we do or a license to dominate rather than cooperate; rather it is a challenge to be a responsible steward of these gifts and an opportunity to use that abundance to lead in global efforts to improve the health, prosperity and well-being of all people, life forms and the earth itself. Jesus said, "Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me". Is continued bombing of destitute, innocent Afghans our best effort to live these words?

The rally cry to patriotism shortchanges our democratic ideals just as much as invoking God's favoritism belittles our spiritual maturity. The hallmark of American democracy is the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. It is alarming how readily our Congress surrendered our due process rights. How ironic that it is now unpatriotic to decry this dilution of our democracy, and unpatriotic to point out that our government has helped to overthrow democratically elected governments in a number of third world countries in the past quarter century.

Evidence is mounting that early last summer our government had already planned an October military intervention in Afghanistan. Corporate and government efforts to get Taliban cooperation in laying an oil pipeline through Afghanistan to the Caspian Sea had been spurned.

It is clear that the War on Terrorism is a convenient excuse to further prior U.S. economic and political interests. That our leaders choose to hide their motives behind the cloak of patriotism and religious righteousness is a mockery of our democratic ideals and our spiritual integrity.