Prominent Christains Call for Sanctions Against Iran

I learned today by way of Philip Giraldi's latest article at Antiwar.com of an open letter sent by Christian Leaders for a Nuclear Free Iran to top members of the U.S. Congress that pushes for "immediate passage of tough sanctions on Iran". Like Giraldi, I am appalled and saddened that this is what America's Christian leaders are now supporting. Sanctions are immoral and counterproductive.

Most importantly, the hardships of the sanctions recently passed by the House would by far fall most heavily on the most vulnerable of the Iranian population. Iran imports 40% of its refined fuel; this would all be cut off under the sanctions bill. Those most affected would be women, children, and the poor who would not be able to afford to heat their homes at the skyrocketing prices sure to result. This directly violates the Biblical mandate to tend to the poor.

And for what? Sanctions have never proven an effective tool. Rather than turn the citizenry against their domestic leadership (which is the story commonly told), sanctions embitter the people toward the foreign enforcer and entrench support for the domestic power structure. If there is a shortage of fuel in Iran, who do you think will get it? The State will take all it needs, leaving the populace in a far weaker position to oppose them even if they wanted to.

Many very prominent conservative Christian leaders and organizations are represented in the letter, including Richard Land, Pat Robertson, Chuck Colson, Gary Bauer, John Hagee, and Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family. FOCUS ON THE FAMILY!!! Supporting an evil act of war that will wreak horrific devastation on Iranian families.

I urge you to read Giraldi's well-written article. He points out several important inaccuracies and untruths contained the Christian Leaders' letter. One most important point is that Iran is in full compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has been fully cooperative with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Giraldi points out that seeking a nuclear-free Iran "is particularly ironic as Iran is in fact nuclear-free."

I call upon these Christian leaders to abandon their warmongering, and turn instead to truly honor the Prince of Peace they supposedly follow. Many of them were also signatories to the recent Manhattan Declaration, which among other things, staked out a firmly pro-life stance. I challenge these leaders to take a consistent pro-life stance, and reject sanctions which will only bring death to many innocents while pushing peace out of reach.

Rising Military Suicides Reflect War's Moral Trauma

In an article released earlier this week, independent journalist Dahr Jamail documents the mounting mental toll on veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. For the first time since the Vietnam War, the Army's suicide rate exceeds that of the civilian population.

Multiple deployments to fight an illegal and unjust war are wreaking havoc on the mental health of American soldiers. According to Jamail, a RAND Corporation report found that 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or severe depression, yet only half sought treatment. Former sergeant, Chuck Luther is quoted in the article as saying that he has "heard commanders tell soldiers requesting psychological help that they are full of crap and don’t have PTSD."

18 veterans are killing themselves every day, according the a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) email cited by Jamail. He also reveals that the VA is logging 1000 suicide attempts per month among those under its care.

These reports are disturbing and tragic, but are they really surprising? While the American public blithely ignores the reality of war in general and these wars in particular, U.S. soldiers are buckling under the weight of their horrific experiences.

Compared to WWII, when less than half of U.S. soldiers actually discharged their weapons, new training techniques have resulted in over 90% of soldiers now firing at the "enemy". In addition to the fact that more soldiers now must deal with the guilt of personally ending human life, the current wars are taking place in more urban settings and among civilian populations, leading to an unprecedented level of "collateral" death. This would understandably carry a high price on one's mental stability.

Returning soldiers are not the only ones who suffer from PTSD. Military families are seeing a disturbing increase in domestic violence as well. How far must these trends escalate until the American public stirs from its insulated stupor? Since the end of the Vietnam war, 170,000 veterans of that conflict have killed themselves. How many lives and families must be destroyed before we cry, "Enough!"?

Is War Immoral Anymore?

Paul Craig Roberts' latest column at Antiwar.com makes an important and disheartening point about how antiwar arguments have morphed over the decades. Rather than the common perception that the the Vietnam war was brought to its brutal end by antipathy for the draft, Roberts argues that Americans had tired of the immorality of what was until recently our longest war.

Roberts credits a (marginally) more independent media, unafraid to cast the war in moral terms through such images as "the film of the naked little girl running in terror down the road burning with napalm", for "arousing moral opposition to the [Vietnam] war."

Today's conflicts in Iraq and Af-Pak are all too often judged only on materialist conditions, such as U.S. military deaths, what Roberts calls, "Karl Marx's explanation." Indeed, when John McCain argued during the 2008 presidential campaign that the U.SI. could remain in Iraq for 100 years, his sole justification was limiting casualties of U.S. soldiers. Never mind the morality of forcibly occupying the native land of people with the same inalienable, God-given natural rights as the rest of us.

Roberts' conclusion for why the American people have tolerated these morally indefensible wars for so long?:

The answer is that the United States is an immoral country, with an immoral people and an immoral government. Americans no longer have a moral conscience. They have gone over to the Dark Side.

Sadly, I think that Roberts' prognosis is spot on. Christianity's peaceful heritage has long ago been forsaken in America. Pacifism among American Christians was much more widespread prior to WWI than after. Especially since the Cold War, Christians have been the worst warmongers of any segment of society. I would definitely describe that as a moral decline.

This article needs to be taken very seriously by any American who values morality as the foundation of a sound society.

Christian Nation Hypocrisy

Many of today’s leading Christian Conservatives (CCs) often bemoan America’s moral decay as a betrayal of its explicitly biblical foundation. Growing up surrounded by such luminaries as David Barton, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, and Bill Bennett, I heard countless times that the USA was and is a “Christian Nation”. This tag seemed to be assumed from the fact that the Plymouth pilgrims were Puritans, that the majority of the founding fathers professed a Christian faith of some variety, and that Christianity has remained the dominant religion in American society.

An important facet of this Christian Nation Hypothesis is the belief that the American founders explicitly intended to base the nation’s laws and governmental form directly on the Bible, rather than on universal natural law. This has given Christian Conservatism a flavor of near-theocracy, as activists seek to permeate the public atmosphere with explicitly Christian symbolism, such as displays of the Ten Commandments in government courthouses and prayer in government schools.

One tragic result of this view of constitution as bible is that it often gives a holy aura of religious justification for the state in general and the American state in particular. This rationalization is seen no more clearly than in CCs’ reverence for the American military and its wars.

It is always an unspoken assumption among CCs that American wars are only commenced for the noblest of reasons, are prosecuted by the noblest of means, and that American soldiers inherently act with honor, nobility and sacrifice. This is as opposed to the evil enemy soldiers who torture innocents, kill indiscriminately, and take orders from ruthless, bloodthirsty tyrants, hungry for world domination and the extinction of the Christian heritage of freedom and democracy. If American soldiers ever cross the perceived line of morality, it can either be dismissed as an anomaly or excused as acceptable based on the greater evil of the enemy.

This fable is strengthened all the more by the fact that the enemy soldiers many times are of an inferior religion, such as the atheist communists of North Vietnam and North Korea, or the Muslims of Iraq and Afghanistan.

CCs often lament America’s moral decay, exemplified by teenage sexual promiscuity, the legalized murder of innocent unborn, divorce rates, and the widespread acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle. American society has demonstrably strayed from biblical mores to be sure. But glaringly missing from the list above is decade after decade of military incursion, occupation, and domination by American troops across the globe.

Christians are right to measure society against biblical standards in areas of sexuality, family, and the sanctity of life in utero. But why are obvious biblical teachings so easily ignored when it comes to questions of war, peace, militarism, torture, and the sanctity of foreign lives? It’s not as if the Bible doesn’t address such issues.

Jesus’ life on earth is a shining example of proactive, non-violent activism. He came to earth as Messiah to a place and time that interpreted the Messiah as a liberating military/political leader. He had every opportunity to rally his followers to arms. Instead, he led a mission of uncompromising peace and love in the face of virulent, and eventually violent, opposition.

When Christians cheer “shock and awe” bombing campaigns, do they think of Jesus’ words, “Love your enemies?”

When they defend the merciless torturing of prisoners based on the supposition that they are religiously-motivated killers, do they hear Jesus’ admonition to, “Pray for those that persecute you?”

When they justify violent retaliation for perceived wrongs, do they forget that, “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord?”

When they condemn the enemy’s actions as war crimes, are they oblivious is Jesus’ warning to, “first take the plank out of your own eye?”

When they excuse the death and destruction of foreign civilians’ lives as collateral damage, how to they expect to honor the Great Commission’s call to take the Gospel to the entire world?

When Christian leaders seek God’s forgiveness for the nation’s sins in order to restore God’s favor, do they recall Jesus’ promise that, “Blessed are the peacemakers?”

Some may contend that the Bible’s mandates for Christian peace apply only to individuals and not states. But what is a state besides a collection of individuals? A state has no soul, no conscience, no moral will other than that of its leaders and followers. And those leaders and followers are individuals who are ultimately accountable for their choices and actions as measured against the biblical moral standard.

Besides, even if the state was an entity exempt from individual moral responsibilities, if ours is a “Christian Nation”, it should therefore wholly reflect and promote Christ’s values. If the CCs are right about America’s Christian identity, then they are being grossly hypocritical in their application of biblical standards by cheering warfare. If they are wrong, then they still hold an individual moral duty to adhere to all biblical standards, supremely the call to love our neighbors and enemies.

American Christians need to abandon this tragic dichotomy and turn instead to consistently pursue the path blazed by the Prince of Peace. The Gospel of Jesus is a gospel of peace and reconciliation, of unwarranted compassion from a God of perfect holiness and justice. We do the Gospel great shame to practice anything less.

The U.S. Army is Spying on Americans

According to Dan Kennedy of The Guardian (citing a NY Times story), a U.S. Army operative infiltrated and spied on an antiwar activist group in Washington. Here is the original story as broken by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now:


There is no way this is an isolated case. Past experience tells us that operations of this nature are always broader than they first appear. Evidence from this more detailed report from Justin Raimondo would seem to indicate that a more widespread operation is likely.

Is this liberty? Is this the rule of law? Is this the America we think we know?