Chrsitians with Blood on Their Hands
I never write on this thing anymore... but here's a thought I didn't want to lose.
Sarah Posner writes this in a recent edition of the FundamentaList:
"Notably, evangelicals remain the biggest proponents of the Iraq war, with 57% agreeing with the statement that "the U.S. did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq," a much higher percentage than any other religious grouping, and the only religious group in which a majority expressed support for the war. Support for the war was at 64% among what the Calvin study termed "traditionalist" (or conservative) evangelicals -- comprising about half of all evangelicals. Between his support for overturning Roe v. Wade and his enthusiasm for the war, McCain seems to have two big evangelical issues working in his favor with the religious right base which is supposedly so discontented with him."
I still just completely frustrates, confuses, exasperates, and incenses me that evangelicals - the American Christians with the highest measures of biblical literalism and church attendance - are also the religious group still most in support of going to war in the first place, even after the revelation of every conceivable piece of evidence - from within (read: McClellan) and without - saying that this war was ill-conceived and even more poorly executed. Why are CHRISTIANS - of all people - so bent on defending this war? I recently overheard even Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptists' policy arm - saying that this war was poorly carried out and is now a mess. But even folks who admit that still seem to have some barrier to actually admitting that this war was wrong from the start. Despite the President's dismally low approval rating and the 2006 Democratic election wins, it still seems there are more people than there should be who remain convinced that this war was a good thing from the start. That's dogma, plain and simple. I've heard no compelling reasons to support that dogma.
Lastly, many folks think that Iraq is such a ringing success in large part because they have a democratically elected Parliament. Well, if the group of people singing the praises of Iraq's "self-governance" should sit up and take note that of the recent visit to DC of a delegation of Iraqi Parliament officials. They offered a letter, signed by a majority of the 275-member Parliament, saying that they "strongly reject any military-security, economic, commercial, agricultural, investment, or political agreement with the United States that is not linked to clear mechanisms that obligate the occupying [their word, not mine] American military forces to fully withdraw from Iraq." How's that for self-government?
Sarah Posner writes this in a recent edition of the FundamentaList:
"Notably, evangelicals remain the biggest proponents of the Iraq war, with 57% agreeing with the statement that "the U.S. did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq," a much higher percentage than any other religious grouping, and the only religious group in which a majority expressed support for the war. Support for the war was at 64% among what the Calvin study termed "traditionalist" (or conservative) evangelicals -- comprising about half of all evangelicals. Between his support for overturning Roe v. Wade and his enthusiasm for the war, McCain seems to have two big evangelical issues working in his favor with the religious right base which is supposedly so discontented with him."
I still just completely frustrates, confuses, exasperates, and incenses me that evangelicals - the American Christians with the highest measures of biblical literalism and church attendance - are also the religious group still most in support of going to war in the first place, even after the revelation of every conceivable piece of evidence - from within (read: McClellan) and without - saying that this war was ill-conceived and even more poorly executed. Why are CHRISTIANS - of all people - so bent on defending this war? I recently overheard even Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptists' policy arm - saying that this war was poorly carried out and is now a mess. But even folks who admit that still seem to have some barrier to actually admitting that this war was wrong from the start. Despite the President's dismally low approval rating and the 2006 Democratic election wins, it still seems there are more people than there should be who remain convinced that this war was a good thing from the start. That's dogma, plain and simple. I've heard no compelling reasons to support that dogma.
Lastly, many folks think that Iraq is such a ringing success in large part because they have a democratically elected Parliament. Well, if the group of people singing the praises of Iraq's "self-governance" should sit up and take note that of the recent visit to DC of a delegation of Iraqi Parliament officials. They offered a letter, signed by a majority of the 275-member Parliament, saying that they "strongly reject any military-security, economic, commercial, agricultural, investment, or political agreement with the United States that is not linked to clear mechanisms that obligate the occupying [their word, not mine] American military forces to fully withdraw from Iraq." How's that for self-government?
posted by Bob at 11:35 AM
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