My dad has asked me to post this diary on his behalf. His passion for the Subject at Hand is so much stronger than his Internet Savvy.
Here is his plea to George Bush:
I beg you to make a confession, as all good Christians do, and repent. Your soul is at stake. It is written, "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his soul?" Do not turn your back on God's divine mercy. For your own sake, please make a confession and repent.
More below:
Here is my dad's email to me:
9/7/05
So, before I learn how to cut and paste or do my e-mail program, I have to get this on a blog somehow. More people need to address these issues NOW. Your blog, maybe. Daily Kos, maybe. Anywhere people will see it and call Bush on these points. Can you make that happen? It doesn't have to be under my name. I can be the ghostwriter even. I just want to get this idea out there. Now is the time.
Here is his diary:
9/7/05
Dear Mr. Bush,
You took a horrible situation and used it for a photo op. It was reported in the German press. A translation is available. You took the pictures, and then everyone left, and nothing happened.
You've done staged scenes before. The pictures of the cheering crowds at the fall of Baghdad are now known by everyone to be staged, just like your visit to the NO flood area was staged.
However, the beans have been spilled. Europe knows about it. If I were a German guy, like myself, living in Germany, and I heard this story on the news I would say, "This is the same guy who has been the bully of the neighborhood for the past few years. This is a guy who called us `old Europe', and wants us to take him seriously. This guy is doing what every other dictator in the last century has done. He feeds lies to the people. What a phoney."
And if Saddam Hussein happens to see this news item, I bet he'll probably say, "This is the one who murdered my sons."
Americans have short memories, but Europeans do not forget so quickly. Seen in light of your grandiose behavior over the past five years, your quasi-messianic posturing and your lies about WMD, it's as if we're suddenly in Oz, and we can see what's behind the curtain.
Bad show, Sir, bad show.
And by the way, as long as I have your attention I'll attach a copy of some other e-mails I sent to you. I'm doing this just in case they somehow went astray, and you didn't get them.
October 27, 2004
Dear Brother George,
I speak to you as a fellow Christian. Please hear my words.
When you said "I have sought guidance through prayer," and then refused to grant a stay of execution to Karla Faye Tucker, you used the name of God to justify allowing another human being to be put to death. That is blasphemy. God does not condone the taking of another's life. Jesus Christ saved an adulteress who, like Karla Faye Tucker, was about to be executed. He said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." The sense of your statement is, "I asked God what I should do, and God told me it was ok if I let this woman be put to death."
In doing so you missed an opportunity to follow Jesus' example of forgiveness and compassion. Instead, you followed the example of Pontius Pilate; you washed your hands of the whole affair and told the executioner, "Do with her what you will."
You uttered blasphemy a second time when you claimed divine guidance in your decision to invade Iraq. You said that your decision came after some time spent in prayer for guidance. Again you profaned the Lord's name by claiming that your decision to invade another country came to you as advice directly from God, as if to claim that the present war has God's blessing and approval.
The Christian God is a God of peace, love, compassion and forgiveness. All Christians know this. I therefore raise the following question: can a person be a good Christian and an unrepentant blasphemer at the same time? I believe you know the answer. I believe you also know that God's love and mercy are infinite and are there for the asking if we will but confess and repent.
I beg you to make a confession, as all good Christians do, and repent. Your soul is at stake. It is written, "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his soul?" Do not turn your back on God's divine mercy. For your own sake, please make a confession and repent.
You can run for president, but you cannot hide from God.
Yours in Christ,
James Ritz
A Ministry of One
June 16, 2005
President Bush,
When I hear you say how wrong it is to use human embryos for stem cells because each embryo is a human life, I have to ask this question. When, at what point in the future life of that embryo does it lose that value?
If life is valuable as an embryo, why should it not be equally precious throughout each stage of its development?
Why are you opponents of stem cell research not speaking out just as loudly against the death penalty? Life is life, whether it's an embryo or a fifty-year-old convict.
If life is precious as an embryo but can be deemed to be worthless enough to be destroyed at some later time in its development, then at some point that life must have lost its value. At what point?
That's the question that must be answered. When does a life lose its value? Unless you can answer that question, you cannot be against stem cell research and in favor of the death penalty at the same time. To be in favor of one and against the other is a contradiction, a fallacy, illogical thought. It is to live a lie.
James Ritz
A Ministry of One