Forget the Geneva Conventions for a second, what happened to our soul?
We all know there has been a lot of focus on religion during the bush administration. The Christian Right has never been more prominent, at least not in my memory. Yet today people are tortured around the world and it’s happening in our name. Please insert this visual in your mind. Jesus on the cross beside the picture we saw of the detainee standing on the box, shrouded with his arms straight out and the electrodes attached to his body. Do those pictures tell you something?
I wanted to post the pictures side by side, but I just couldn’t do it. Although I am not a religious person, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t post two pictures of torture.
Our country has lost it’s soul. Was it stolen or did we give it away? We need to restore the virtue of soul that our country used to have and valued so highly. There’s never been, in our lifetime, a greater need to remember the Golden Rule. We must return to the days of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. It’s imperative if we ever hope to restore our respect among other nations.
If the Christian Right claim to be the people of God, how can they tolerate the torture of His creations, His children? According to the bible, God forgives, but you have to wonder, how much and how many times? Perhaps the Christian Right should consider this question. Religion tells us that when we die our soul goes to heaven. But what of those who have already lost their soul?
I wanted to post the pictures side by side, but I just couldn’t do it. Although I am not a religious person, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t post two pictures of torture.
Our country has lost it’s soul. Was it stolen or did we give it away? We need to restore the virtue of soul that our country used to have and valued so highly. There’s never been, in our lifetime, a greater need to remember the Golden Rule. We must return to the days of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. It’s imperative if we ever hope to restore our respect among other nations.
If the Christian Right claim to be the people of God, how can they tolerate the torture of His creations, His children? According to the bible, God forgives, but you have to wonder, how much and how many times? Perhaps the Christian Right should consider this question. Religion tells us that when we die our soul goes to heaven. But what of those who have already lost their soul?
posted by pissed off patricia at 5:35 AM
21 Comments:
As long as "fags and abortiionists" are in the crosshairs, the Christian right will be content. Issues like torture, poverty, national debt, and health care are hippy, liberal concerns.
Hypocrisy knows all religions - and sinners are forgiven for having sinned and confessed - it all comes out in the wash, right?
We chose our enemy (well, Bushco did)and now we have become him.
Nietzsche wrote that when sallying forth to defeat monsters, one must be wary to avoid becoming the very thing he wishes to destroy.
Rep. Barbara Lee of California said in 2001 that we should not act precipitately, lest "we become what we deplore."
But I think the late, great Walt Kelly said it best: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
We have lost our soul. One of the beliefs of Christians is that Jesus came here to save us from our sins. These "Christians", should ask themselves when He, His son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit(Mary) look down at the detainee torture pictures, after the death Jesus went through, what They feel and think about their actions.
Not related to this post, and feel weird saying it in same comment, but your new martini visual is great. What did you use?
The kind gentleman over at Left of Center made the header for me. I'm clueless on such matters. I believe it was a site-warming gift and I absolutely love it. :)
I would argue that the majority of Euro-Americans have never had any soul.
Going all the way back to the genocide carried out against the indigenous people of North & South America, the enslaving of Africans, exploitation of Chinese labor to build the transcontinental railroad, oppresion of women, etc etc.
It's only when a few people get upset about the immoral actions of our nation and start progressive movements do things really change. Whether its the abolitionists, women's suffrage, or justice for the Japanese Americans interned during World War II, these actions only happen when those few blessed humans that do actually have souls, take action.
America is blinded by its past. We have engaged in warfare every 20 years. We dropped nuclear bombs on Japan. We slaughtered over 10 million Vietnamese.
I mean really, is it that much of a surprise to us that we have killed over 100,000 Iraqis and raped, tortured, and murdred thousands more?
And we wonder why the world hates us.
If more Americans studied the history of America, they would know why.
PoP,
I'm just beginning to catch up with all the blogging I've missed this past week. Love your rantings below about birds. I LOVE birds! I LOVE nature!
On this religious subject...well...
I tried to be a BaHai 25 yrs. ago.
I lasted one yr. and it was my last attempt at religion. I have no quarrel with God....just can't stand religion. But boy...do we need a few lessons in values in this country. I recommend Jimmy
Carter's latest book.
BTW, my email is: weaver1@adelphia.net
Well,geesh,I'm behind the times.Sorry PoP,I didn't know you had your own blog these days.But now that I do,I shall be a regular visitor.
I'm struggling with keeping a blog or just letting it go,to be a reader instead of a writer.
But a change can do you good,and having your own blog means you can do whatever you wanna.I still say you need to write a holiday book with all your memories and musings in it.
Hey! Wow! Hello, AOB and welcome to my new lounge. I've missed you. Thanks for dropping in and don't forget where you'll get the coldest cocktails and the warmest conversations on the internet.
If I knew how to even begin to put those stories into a book I would give it a shot. But doing something like that is as mystical to me as flying to the moon.
That welcome also goes out to everyone who is new to my very young little blog site. :)
Jesus said a church is when ever three or more gather in my name, too bad they had to go and make a building out of it, since the building has sprung an empire, and the empire will deny The Christ to defend their dogma. The majority of what I hear from the Christian Right comes from the old testament but Christ changed the rules, and they can't seem to fit their particular monetarily hyped up christofascist regime into his message so they simply ignore it. If he came back today and preached his same message to those in power he would not end up on Calvary but in Gitmo......
Hi Patricia (and hi Clif)
Thank you for visiting my blog! I love your blog and will post a link to it.
Clif is right about the old testament. Conservative Christians (certain ones) seem to not realize that Christ is part of the word Christian (maybe because the two words have different vowel sounds!) His actual words are in the New Testament! This is getting so ridiculous. But we cannot lose hope or faith. Why do people argue about God, when God is simply LOVE?
Love,
Lydia
really good post...and so sad we even have to have this discussion....we have a 'leader ' a "government" that is torturing and spying and killing people...
( if you haven't seen it go see it- huffiningtonpost- the NO BRAVERY video...it says it all...)
Thanks for posting on this POP....
The good news is that soul can always be regained.
Seems like their brand of fundyism gets off on the torture ... like the almost pornographic relishing of the tearing of every bit of skin off of Christ in fundy Mel Gibson's movie (what I heard about it was nauseating enough that I didn't subject myself to the unnecessary trauma) ... also, this strange idea in many of these fundy christian religions that it matters not what you do on earth because all you gotta do is accept jesus by the time you check out and your heaven bound ... encourages evil ... and it's really unnatural ... like they are thinking their way out of altruism ... and the idea that Jesus was executed after torture so that later generations could get a free pass on earth for sinning is way too wacky ... do animals have religion? they say not ... however animals have altruism ... they perhaps don't have the means to make up believe systems to relieve themselves of it like we humans do ... anyhow ... nice post ... you are obviously one of the altruistic ones and I salute you ...
The basic premise of faith is unquestioning belief. One can't hope to argue the finer points with people who will make faith based decisions over those based on physical evidence or scientific principle. They pick their leaders this way and look to the future this way. I don't mind what beliefs people have or teach their children, but just don't make decisions that effect me based on your faith.
waving to Patricia...and if you want The Heretik has heresy.
I really don't think these people HAVE souls, quite frankly.
No, not really.
I think They don't have souls....at all...
REPENT ??- you mean like "apologize" ? or admit "wrongdoing?" or admit making a mistake ?...
NOT one of them is capable of doing that...
about Missing WMD's...or Katrina....
they are souless....
Evil, there are names, and faces....
I wrote a post a while back featuring pics of the detainee with the electrodes attached to him and of a bloodied Jim Caviezel as Jesus. This made at least a couple of readers irate. Too friggin' bad. How much difference is there between the pictures of prison torture and a movie wherein Jesus is tortured for almost an hour? (I've seen The Passion of the Christ -- if you haven't, don't bother.) It's all pornography as far as I'm concerned...
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