I have been more and more concerned as fundamental, evangelical, far-right, literal interpreters of the Bible take over my government. My pastor, who seems very liberal, sent out an email to a huge church listserv that we have simply asking for prayers of untiy when Kerry conceded. Then the ugly people of my church responded. It wasn't many, but enough to cause a full frontal assualt on my behalf.
Here is the offending email.
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Good Morning xxxxxxxxx.
It would be nice if America could be united again, but I see things getting worse before they get better.
As long as special interest groups with hyphenated names place their agendas above the best interests of America, we will never unite. We are no longer Americans, we are African-Americans, Gay-Americans, Arab-Americans, etc. We were all Americans for a few months after 9/11, but that didn't last long did it?
As long as the Democratic Party continues to lend their whole-hearted support to anti-Christian, anti-Amercian policies, we will never unite. Their support of gay marriage, partial birth abortion, higher taxes, and a policy of appeasement in time of war is what lost them the presidential election, the House of Representative, and the Senate. Character and morals count and the Democrat Party is short in both areas. The Democratic Party of today is not the party of my parents.
We are so blessed to be Americans. I just hope we can hold onto those blessings for our children.
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My response is the following. Many will notice info and graphics that I have taken from DU posters. Sorry for not crediting you. I honestly can't remember all the poster from whom I have taken information.
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How pathetic! We will never unite unless the Democratic Party stops supporting anti-Christian (values I suppose), partial-birth abortions, gay marriage, etc...? This makes me sick and is just one more reason I am so disillusioned with organized religion, religious groups, and American society in general and the shift to "conservative" values. I want no part of this whatsoever. And if this is the overall feeling at the church, I am withdrawing my membership immediately! I do not want my children growing up in such a narrow-minded environment!
Being in the Democratic Party means having a secular, humanistic look at the world. Yes, secular! The last time I looked there is something called separation of church and state. I am deeply concerned that radical, evangelical fundamentalists are having too much influence on my government and I don't like it for a second.
There is a place for religion and it is not in government. In order for a government to fully represent the people , it must remain impartial. It can not seem to favor one religion over another and the best way to avoid this is to simply take religion out of the government completely. Unfortunately, this is not happening as fear and hate mongers in the guise of religious people are hijacking religion just as Osama bin Ladin hijacked Islam to push their bigoted agenda.
Much blood in this world has been spilled solely because of religious differences. It is happening today and will continue as long as people continue to force religious issues in government. The religious right, as it manifests itself in the likes of Jerry Falwell and Ralph Reed of the Christian Right or Pat Robertson, promote nothing but bigotry, hatred and intransigence. These are not religious men. Desmond Tutu is a religious man. The Pope is a religious man. Ed Wolf is a religious man. These are opportunistic hawks who have weaseled their way into politics, but the media still gives them air time. It's disgusting. They only bring out the more moderate Billy Graham at Christmas or for an inauguration. Yet the Republicans continue to pander to them and their followers with wedge issues which should mean nothing to a government. Every year schools have to deal with creationism vs. evolution. Really, there is a place for both theories in society; one in church, the other in public schools.
Additionally, do you mean to tell me that we have to fight gay marriage? Who cares with whom someone sleeps or marries. A government should not meddle in these affairs. If a church wants to wage war on gays, then so be it. Personally I will have no part in it. I know and work with far too many gay people who are wonderful, caring people with whom I would entrust my own children. Why should I change that? So much energy has been spent on a moot points. But Karl Rove told Bush to push this to distract attention away from the disaster that he is. It is not that the Democrats are causing the split in American society. It's Bush; plain and simple. My God, the Republican Party in either South Carolina, North Carolina or Virginia (I can't remember which one) actually sent out flyers insinuating that Kerry would ban the Bible. For Pete's Sake, that is just ignorant! Oh and we can't forget this war thing. Rove and Bush's handlers told him to harp on the war. Terror, Terror, Terror. Fear, Fear, Fear.
Don't vote for Kerry or we will be attacked. Give me a break. Bush has mishandled this war from the beginning just as he mishandled his own service record. He never completed his time in the Air National Guard, check the latest PBS Frontline and he was stripped of his wings for not completing a flight physical, yet he still was given an honorable discharge. I think his Daddy was helping him. Meanwhile, John Kerry went to Viet Nam, fought, saw that he didn't like what was going on and spoke out against the war. That is legal, you know? Is is legal for Bush to do what he did? If you are rich and have a Daddy in a position of power I guess so.
The war is in Afghanistan. There were never connections with Iraq and Al-Qaeda. There were never any WMD's and now we are seeing how poorly planned the invasion and the occupation were. 370 tons of weapons gone...1200 soldiers dead for nothing, the US is not respected at all in the world any more, and the worst part is that Bush handed Bin Ladin exactly what he wanted. Bin Ladin warned the Arab world that the US was going to invade an Arab country. Now we have. We have taken an evil tyrant, who was not well liked to begin with in the Arab world and created sympathy for him. We have also created a breeding ground for terrorists for generations to come. Now Bush says we attacked because the intentions were there for Saddam to use the WMD's. Okay, so why aren't we in North Korea, why aren't we in Iran? They actually have them. Democrats do support the troops and we do all those in uniform. We just don't like the ones issuing orders. Oh and speaking of the ones issuing orders, check out this link.
http://www.newamericancentury.org/ This place is just scary. It basically is a white paper on how the US will spread American culture and democracy everywhere, wanted or not. Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld all have contributed to this site. After reading there at this site, I am convinced that the war in Iraq was not about WMD's. Finally, and I will get off the military thing, but republicans clamor on and on about how Democrats can't lead a war yet the republican leaders and pundits are the ones that have NO military experience. They just like to talk the talk but not walk the walk. Look at this list.
Democrats:
* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
* David Bonior: Staff Sgt, Air Force 1968-72.
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat
V, Purple Hearts.
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star,
Vietnam..
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
* Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven
campaign ribbons.
* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze
Stars, and Soldier's Medal.
* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star
and Legion of Merit.
* Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.
* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze
Star with Combat V.
* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
* Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57
* Chuck Robb: Vietnam
* Howell Heflin: Silver Star
* George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII.
* Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments Entered draft but
received #311.
* Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and Air Medal with 18 Clusters.
* Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg.
Republicans:
* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. "Bad knee." The man who attacked Max Cleland's patriotism.
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Richard Shelby: did not serve.
* Jon! Kyl: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Christopher Cox: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.
* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; got assigned to Alabama so he could campaign for family friend running for U.S. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam, disappeared from duty.
* Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role making movies.
* B-1 Bob Dornan: Consciously enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* John McCain: Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
* Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
* John M. McHugh: did not serve.
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Jack Kemp: did not serve. "Knee problem," although continued in NFL for 8 years.
* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
* John Engler: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.
Pundits & Preachers
* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a 'pilonidal cyst.')
* Bill O'Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* John Wayne: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
* Ralph Reed: did not serve.
* Michael Medved: did not serve.
* Charlie Daniels: did not serve.
* Ted Nugent: did not serve. (He only shoots at things that don't shoot back.)
Republicans vote and pander to an image, nothing more. Bush won because of the good ole boy image he portrayed; not the aloof intellectual that is Kerry. And believe me, it is all image! Bush couldn't be an intellectual if he tried his hardest.
Economically, he is a disaster. He has saddled generations with a huge debt, but that is normal for republicans. Look at this from the Congressional Budget Office:
Now look at the job loss. There has been no stimulation of the economy under Bush, none! Heck he is one of the worst at creating jobs!
How about the environment? Bush has one of the worst records on the environment and his former EPA director quit in disgust because of it. Water and air are much dirtier under Bush, but it stands to reason, because it would cost industry billions to retrofit factories and Bush wouldn't want his rich friends getting mad at him. Daddy Dick Cheney might have to scold him. For more info, check here:
http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/Education? He has done better here, correct? Hardly. I am a teacher so I know. He has saddled schools with unrealistic expectations (for example schools that do not test special ed children at grade level are penalized), has forced a type of voucher system on schools and vehemently opposes bilingual education and the idea that some children need to learn in their native language first to become literate thinking human beings. He is an idiot! He takes most of his advice on reading from some ex-Army guy who spent two years in the classroom. Wow! That makes him an expert! His name is Reid Lyon. Google his name. For more info see: www.susanohanian.org
I am disgusted with American society and its refusal to bring our government back to the center where it belongs. I am disgusted with the "moral values" being touted by the republicans. I find them reprehensible. The Democratic Party did not create the split. Republicans and their wedge issues have.
I will be not be party to any organization that holds these values. Period!
Stephen xxxxxx
Probably former member of church.
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Response from my pastor:
Wow! I had no idea what my email was going to create! I know you got a copy of the mass email I sent, so I won't go into those details.
But I did want to write specifically to you in hopes of helping you/us in your feelings about me/this church. I apologize if you read something in my email that went beyond praying for our country. I agree with you that I will not combine church and state. But I hope that does not mean we cannot at least pray for everyone, including our leaders.
I like you and your family, Stephen. I think you are a great asset to this church. I also agree that organized religion can be such a pain in the butt sometimes. So many rules and regulations and... But for me, being in community with fellow Christians, right or wrong in opinions, helps my faith in God more than going alone. You and I share similar questions about biblical views, and I have appreciated being able to talk with you about them. I don't want to lose that. I don't want to see you leave the church over the views others may have. I am sorry if I said anything in my emails that you might have seen as offensive.
I would like to offer that I would be willing to speak with you on this or any issue. Some things we will agree on, others not. But know this: no matter what side we may fall on any issue, I will not love you any less as a fellow believer in Jesus Christ. My hope is to share the love of God in Jesus Christ more than "religious" ways. Please allow me the chance to do so with you.
Peace,
xxxx
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One conflicted DUer!