December 4, 2005. Redding, CA-- Around the country, a new trend has more earnest Americans going to church than ever before. Only they do not go inside. Reversing a normal scene, they have brought their own candlelight vigil to churches, like this one in Redding.
One organizer explained. "The season of Christmas is about peace and goodwill to all. We are asking Christians to honor the anniversary of Jesus's birth by putting into practice His most radical teachings -- to love thy enemy."
Another was more blunt. "Bush claims the Iraq war is God's will. Christians in this country need to insist on an immediate end to the atrocities. God does not want war."
So, what do you think? Feedback? Help? I'm basically ready to make the pamphlets and/or picket signs (unless your responses talk me out of it.)
Ademption's diary made something in me snap.
If Bush thinks he's killing civilians for God, God people have to loudly insist this is wrong. (Even people like me, who long ago started mentally defining God as "the good in the universe" -- I think anyone who can use the word "God" without sneering could pull it off).
Why now?
- More people will be at church than any other time during the year.
- Religion is on everyone's mind more than usual, as they gear up for Christmas. They'll be opening their advent calendars, unpacking nativity scenes, and hearing carols. I want people asking themselves -- "is our country living these ideals?"
- The stories write themselves. Christmas is about a baby born to Middle Eastern parents. The Iraq War has killed 27,000-30,000 Middle Eastern men, women, and children. Christmas occurred in a stable, no crib for a bed. Many civilians have lost their homes due to our bombings.
Why churches?
- They are possibly the last bastion of Bush support.
- To weaken the power of the Christian right. To weaken the link between social conservatism and militarism. To raise the faint odds that Christians in red states might vote liberal.
- Bring to light that Bush sees the Iraq war as a crusade for God by getting him to explain -- in Christian terms -- why we're there. Then he'll have to explain to fiscal conservatives why we're fighting a religious war.
- Because it seems incredibly powerful if Christians in the public eye were to call Bush delusional over this (from admemption's diary):
BLITZER: In this new article you [Sy Hersch] have in The New Yorker, you also write this about the president: " 'The president is more determined than ever to stay the course,' the former defense official said. 'He doesn't feel any pain. Bush is a believer in the adage, "People may suffer and die, but the Church advances." ' He said that the president had become more detached, leaving more issues to Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney. 'They keep him in the gray world of religious idealism, where he wants to be anyway,' the former defense official said."
* Because we live in a Christian nation and Christian teachings are radical. As Bill McKibben writes in Harpers:
Ours is among the most spiritually homogenous rich nations on earth. Depending on which poll you look at and how the question is asked, somewhere around 85 percent of us call ourselves Christian. Israel, by way of comparison, is 77 percent Jewish. It is true that a smaller number of Americans--about 75 percent--claim they actually pray to God on a daily basis, and only 33 percent say they manage to get to church every week. Still, even if that 85 percent overstates actual practice, it clearly represents aspiration. In fact, there is nothing else that unites more than four fifths of America. Every other statistic one can cite about American behavior is essentially also a measure of the behavior of professed Christians. That's what America is: a place saturated in Christian identity.
And Christianity is radical. Turn the other cheek. Give all your posessions to the poor. Love your neighbor as yourself. More McKibben:
The power of the Christian right rests largely in the fact that they boldly claim religious authority, and by their very boldness convince the rest of us that they must know what they're talking about. They're like the guy who gives you directions with such loud confidence that you drive on even though the road appears to be turning into a faint, rutted track...
...The gospel is too radical for any culture larger than the Amish to ever come close to realizing; in demanding a departure from selfishness it conflicts with all our current desires. Even the first time around, judging by the reaction, the Gospels were pretty unwelcome news... Taking seriously the actual message of Jesus, though, should serve at least to moderate the greed and violence that mark this culture. It's hard to imagine a con much more audacious than making Christ the front man for a program of tax cuts for the rich or war in Iraq. If some modest part of the 85 percent of us who are Christians woke up to that fact, then the world might change.
My questions for you all:
- How to make this not offensive, not too profane on church property?
- How to get media? The point -- to me -- is to get some talking points into the media and into people's minds. Is there a better way than picketing random churches? (I can't fly to Texas, sorry.)
- What's the action step? What are we asking people to do, politically? Is the political timing right?
- Is there any other benefit? Some charity?
And most of all: Will anyone help? From getting press, to pulling together info or talking points for a fact sheet, to picketing with me, I could REALLY use some help! I'm really inspired now but am afraid I'll lose the momentum unless I find some co-conspirators... (Hello, SF Bay Area...and partner groups elsewhere!)
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Updated: This was originally titled "Picketing churches about the Iraq War" -- Feedback? Help??" But that sounds too aggressive. My point is not to attack any church, but to excitedly ask its attendees, and by extension, other churches, to reject the war. Someone said, call it "tabling," which sounds better. But that implies a drawn-out education campaign, which I unfortunately couldn't commit to. Are there better ways to get these ideas out in the larger press?