So what, then am I advocating? What do I want? Do I wish for our political system to come crashing down? Absolutely not! Do I want the United States to lose the war in Iraq? Absolutely not! I hear comments from people that insist that those of us who criticize the actions of our government would like to see its demise; that each loss of an American life in Iraq is cheered by those "anti-American" citizens in the same way that Jews who are critical of Israel are somehow glad to see innocent Israelis killed in a suicide bombing.  In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth.
          When the number of American military personnel killed in Iraq passed the 2000 mark, the 3000 mark, and then the 4000 mark, there were the typical blasts from the far right that this was a number that was bound to delight liberals, as if the death of American soldiers anywhere could possibly be a good thing.  Not only is this insulting, but I think it is an opinion that has to be rebuffed and disposed of right now.  This has to be made very clear–to the extent that anyone who shares my beliefs could possibly wish any sort of defeat on our military is most certainly only doing so reluctantly for the express purpose of hoping for a quicker end to the involvement of our soldiers, and the swift returning of them home from a bad situation.  I think there is a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding about this. There is room here for reasonable people to disagree.
          Let me try an example: if you knew that in the course of a business deal gone terribly wrong that you could give up your car to save the life of your kids, I don't think anyone in their right mind would think twice about it.  No one would accuse you of being anti-family in that situation.  Reasonable people may argue over the terms of the original deal, but no one would begrudge you the wish for the safe return of your children.  Likewise, a turn of events that might be viewed as a negative for our side in Iraq could therefore be viewed as a positive if it meant that our soldiers would be returning home sooner.  I don't care if these soldiers volunteered or not; a great percentage of them didn't realize what they were signing up for, or in many cases they were led to believe something that turned out very differently in the event.  It gets back to being able to support the troops without necessarily supporting the mission.            
          I've heard another analogy: If I was the passenger in a car that I was convinced was heading over a cliff, could I be accused of negativity for agitating for a change of course?  

          As a Christian, the decisions of my government have to square with my belief in the things that Jesus Christ lived and died for, or otherwise, I am going to have a problem with it. For me, being a Christian comes before being an American, and way before my declaration for a particular party. If this seems obvious, think of how you would have thought about this in, oh, say, 1997. Never mind the fact that the same people who will support the Bush administration's decisions until hell freezes over are the same people who were screaming the loudest at each and every misstep of Bill Clinton; there was precious little talk of patriotism and "supporting our leaders" then. Back then, it was all about the moral values of the man who inhabited the White House.
          Conservative friends automatically assume that if I felt the way I did about the Bush administration, then that must make me a Hillary Clinton fan (the words ooze out of their mouths, as they can hardly spit the name out), or a fan of some other Democrat; the truth is, I don't much like what I've heard from Ms. Clinton. I don't like the way she supported the war in Iraq, the way she tries to out-hawk the male politicians, and she also continues to give Israel a free pass no matter what they do.  I have actually been a Barack Obama supporter from the day that he announced his candidacy for president. 
          My favorite politicians are the ones who are willing to take positions based on principle, not polls.

Name one.

Dennis Kucinich; Bernie Sanders; John McCain, until he ran for president in 2008.
          Among the many sad things about politics these days is the almost slavish devotion of most politicians to stick their finger in the air to find out which way the political wind is blowing before venturing an opinion on anything.
          John Murtha has been a Democratic congressman for thirty-two years.  The burly Pennsylvanian has also been in the military for thirty-eight years.  Murtha won two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star with a Combat "V," and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.  Although a Democrat, the ex-Marine has always been known as a "hawk."  Congressman Murtha initially supported the war in Iraq, as he did the 1st Gulf War, and conflicts in Central America.  On November 17th, 2005, Murtha stunned the political world by calling for a pullout of troops from Iraq saying, "the troops have done all they can."  Predictably, Republicans pounced all over John Murtha, calling him a coward and a traitor.  Most of the "pouncers" never served in the military and wouldn't know bravery if it slapped them in the face.  The sad attempt by Republicans to "swift-boat" Murtha, as they successfully did another war hero, 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, this time quickly crashed upon the rocks of its own absurdity.  John Murtha looked deep within his conscience, realized he had made a mistake in supporting the war, and was man enough to admit it.
          I don't want my government to come crashing down; I just want it to perform better.  I want politicians to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not because corporations paid them to do it, or because it will help them get re-elected.  The Bush administration forced a quick vote on a war resolution just before the 2002 mid-term elections, and most Democrats were too afraid of being on the wrong side of the perception of patriotism to vote their consciences.  Then, with the 2006 mid-term elections, we saw politician after politician, both Democrat and Republican, jump off the war bandwagon.  They demanded that the troops come home, not because they thought the mission was over, but because they didn't want to be on the wrong side of public opinion.


            I would like to see the citizens of our nation become more engaged in what our elected officials are doing on their behalf in this country and in the rest of the world.  This necessarily involves a trade-off of time in some way.  Most people, to the extent that they are even interested (and it never fails to surprise me when people say they either never give what we do overseas much thought, or they simply aren't interested), will complain that there just isn't enough time in the day (or night) to spend on these things.  Heaven knows we're all too busy.  Life in 21st-century America, at least in my part of it, is seriously overbooked.  Those of you who have school-aged children know how complicated just living life can be.  The combination of affluence and fear has turned our children's lives into a seemingly non-stop race from one activity to the next; the days of sending your kids "out to play" until dinnertime have long since past.  Our nation's obsession to turn out future technocrats has increased our children's homework past the reasonable point in most households, with many parents having to share the load.
          If you have a job, chances are you work more than forty hours at it. If you want to stay healthy, you need to carve out time for whatever exercise you choose.  If your town is anything like mine, you spend way too much time in your car.  Add to this the stress for many of us of living right up to the edge of our means, and throw in some chronic sleep deprivation, and you have the formula by which so many Americans live.  These are the problems of affluence.
          Given all of this, where does one possibly find the time to even begin to get educated in the oftentimes arcane world of foreign policy, or the economic workings of our government? It's no wonder that most people think themselves doing well if they just catch the drift of what's going on in the world.  This is why most news these days is disseminated in bite-sized bits; this is what gave rise to the sound-bite.  Politicians have understood for quite some time that most Americans catch their news on the run, so they've tailored their messages to take advantage of this.  In-depth analysis is becoming harder and harder to come by.
          In this hectic and harried state of mind, we look to the Great American Culture Machine to take our minds off our problems and escape the drudgery of everyday life.  I'm always amazed at surveys that reveal how much television we watch as a nation.  I don't think most people would go on record to admit the truth about their TV viewing.  Truth is, we never stop and add it up.  If we did, it might be a little embarrassing.  True enough, the computer has carved into this time to a varying degree.  The Internet has taken its place right along side of the television in its ability to provide endless hours of mind-numbing entertainment.
          What we watch, to a greater or lesser degree, are shows about other people living their lives.  We spend a tremendous amount of our down time watching actors depict so-called "regular" people doing either mundane things (shows like Friends, King of Queens, Will & Grace, and Everybody Loves Raymond), or actors depicting regular people doing important or extraordinary things (all your CSI's, Cold Case, The West Wing, ER, Law & Order, Lost, NYPD Blue, Alias, The X-Files, 24), or actors depicting regular people doing "bad" things (The Sopranos, Desperate Housewives, Sex and the City, most soap operas).  We watch a whole lot of "regular" people do all sorts of things, from the stupid or dangerous (Fear Factor, Survivor, Temptation Island, America's Funniest Home Videos, Crocodile Hunter, Cops, Jerry Springer, WifeSwap), to the mundane (Trading Spaces, Real World, Growing Up Gotti, Airline, watching Poker on TV), to watching "regular" people strive to do things we wish we could do (American Idol, Extreme Makeover, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, The Amazing Race, The Apprentice, Making the Band).  There is more than a little of what the Germans call Schadenfruede, or pleasure in other people's misfortune, in watching many of these programs.  There is also a whole network devoted to what actors do when they're not acting and what celebrities do when they do what they do (E!).  In fact, the whole industry of celebrity is built on the premise that you and I are on average more interested in the ups and downs of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s relationship or Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's spiritual choices, or Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan's meltdowns, or where Paris Hilton is shopping, than the serious business of what is going on in the rest of the world.  We haven't even touched on the viewing of sporting events, when sports may be the biggest thing of all that we watch other people do.
          Believe it or not, the government (and here I am speaking of it in a broader sense than just this administration) hopes you are more interested in Tom and Katie, and Lindsey and Paris, too.  They hope that you are so preoccupied with work, getting the kids to one activity after another, and then watching other people do things on TV, that you won't have time to even try to understand the finer points of NAFTA, or globalization in general, or pre-emptive strikes, or the Patriot act, or the Kyoto Accords, or global warming, or alternative and sustainable energies, or why we have over 700 military bases in over 90 countries, or Free Trade versus Fair Trade, or why exactly are we in Iraq again?, or any of the promises that politicians trot out every two, four, or six years when they have our attention around election time.  The great national sedatives of television and celebrity do the job quite nicely, leaving Americans with little time or space left in their brains to ponder the larger issues of the day.  When the whole country is more concerned with who gets kicked off of the island than what is going on in Iraq, or who gets the hook on Idol more than how we turned a multi-trillion dollar surplus into a multi-trillion dollar deficit, or who gets fired from The Apprentice more than the brutal effects of economic globalization, then the government has us just where they want us.
          I know a popular response to what I have just written will be something like this: "I do work too much, spend way too long in my car, run a taxicab service for my kids, don't even have time to exercise, so when I finally have time to relax, the last thing I want to think about is starving kids in Malawi, or NAFTA, or WMD's." This is a point well taken, and to be honest, I feel the same way much of the time.  In fact, until a few years ago, this would've been very close to my own response.  This whole spiel doesn't even take into account the fact that many people have worthy hobbies, or go to Bible studies, or participate in sports, or practice a craft, or write in journals, or read books, or walk the dog, or just have quality family time in what spare time they have.
          Paul says in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Does this mean that we can't relax? Or that we can't have some "veg" time? Of course not.  God rested on the Sabbath.  If we want to indulge ourselves in a little mindless entertainment once in awhile, this not only acceptable, but is probably a good thing.  I think what Paul is trying to say here is that we don't want to become so enveloped by the things in the world, in this case, the living of our lives through others, that we forego the renewing of our own minds in the process.
          So, in lieu of all of these counter arguments, I have to come up with a really compelling reason why it is so important to spend some of this "down" time learning about why it is we do the things as a country that we do.  Hopefully, if you've gotten this far in the book, I've already more or less made that case.
 
         If I am bold enough and humble enough to call myself a Christian, then how can I be for war? Where is it that Jesus says it is okay to do unto others what I wouldn't want done to me? If I am rightfully appalled at the evil inflicted on innocent people at the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon, then shouldn't I be appalled at each and every civilian who is killed at the hands of our military? What sort of moral relativism gives me the right to accept these deaths? As an individual, I can't stop my government from perpetrating this violence in response to violence.  I can only register my own dissent, and I can pray that God will give our leaders the wisdom to find solutions to their grievances in a more peaceful way.  I can write my representatives in Congress, and write the administration.  I can write letters to the editor of my local newspaper.  I can voice my opinion in polls, in which is very important to let the politicians know that Christians are on the side of peace.  All these things are infinitely easier to do in the Age of the Internet.  Never in history has violence cured violence.  It has only led to more violence.  Thomas Merton said, "When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my country may cease to want war, but above all that my own country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable."
          If I dare call myself a Christian then I must seek the Truth.  The first truth is that I am a sinner.  I must acknowledge that nothing in my life will truly get better if do not admit that I fall short of God's expectations.  We've all known people who think they are always right.  We don't consider this boasting to be a strength; on the contrary, it points out all too obviously this person's weakness.  We've all had times in our lives when we've mistakenly thought we were right.  I know I have.  I also know that I have stubbornly clung to my convictions even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  Likewise, President Bush calls himself a Christian, and I believe him.  He therefore must know how hypocritical it has been to never ever admit that he has made a mistake.  I can only assume that he has felt as the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, it would be a sign of weakness to admit any sort of fallibility.  The rest of the world views the constant bellowing of invincibility and infallibility as weakness of character.  I believe it has planted the seeds of further conflict in the future.  This macho yet childish position flies in the face of everything he must know about Jesus.  I can't stop the President from embarrassing himself and endangering our country in this way.  I can only register my dissent through the voting booth, and through writing him to say that as a Christian I am appalled by his behavior, and pray that God will show the him the path towards truthfulness and humility.  For these are signs of strength, not weakness.
          If I am to bear the name "Christian," then I must be conscious of the tremendous gift of material prosperity that God has given me personally, and our country collectively, and the admonition that "to whom much is given, much will be required." This passage has local, as well as global significance.  It is about service. Service is a word that is analogous to the hub of a wheel.  There are as many ways to be of service as our imagination will allow ourselves to conceive.  They are spelled out in detail in Romans 12:6-8.  Paul could have spent many pages elaborating on this passage, and we can extend this list to include the needs of our community and the world that apply specifically to life in the twenty-first century.  Being of service does not necessarily assume that you have to leave the comforts of your own home.  This is a great barrier to some who cherish the time they have at home with their families, or some who, for a variety of reasons, are confined to their homes.  If you have a computer and Internet service (an assumption of American affluence on my part), you can be of great service in the transmission of information, the rendering of opinion, and the furthering of all sorts of worthy causes.  As the most powerful nation on earth, the United States has the tremendous opportunity to use this power for the betterment of mankind.  They also have the capacity to abuse their power through economic bullying, unilateral military action, and ignoring international law.  I can't change my government's position on free (fair) trade and the unfair aspects of globalization, but I can make my opinion known by registering my dissent through the writing of letters and emails both to my local Congressmen and women, and to the letters and forum sections of my local newspapers, and I can pray that God will help our leaders find more compassion for others less fortunate.  I can pray that God will help our leaders turn our swords into plowshares, and our guns into butter.  This would not be a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.
          I hope that my children don't grow up with the same misunderstanding of history that I had.  I would like them to be aware of the idea that in any historical rendering, they are often getting only one side of the story.  The winners get to write the history.  Our schools have made progress over the last thirty years in starting to balance the scales.  I would like to think that if our children are taught the whole truth about our country's history, both the good and the bad, they will be better equipped to make intelligent choices about their shared futures.  If they are only presented the sanitized version, then they are apt to perpetuate and pass on the myths that are in some measure responsible for the chasm between the way we see ourselves, and the way the rest of the world sees us.  While I certainly can't change history, and I can't do very much about the way most people learn history, I can register my opinion by sending letters and e-mails to people in positions of power, and by participating in school board meetings.  I can also pray that God will allow the powers-that-be that decide what goes into our history textbooks to see the wisdom in telling the whole truth about our history so that our children will be equipped with the full knowledge they need to lead our country into the next fifty years.
          As a child of God, I have been given a share of the stewardship and dominion over the earth and its living things.  I need to respect these living things as God's creations, and not abuse the privilege so graciously given me.  As the most powerful nation in the world, and the leading contributor of harmful greenhouse gases, the United States should be taking the lead in trying to slow down the environmental degradation that is resulting in global warming.  Instead, in the face of overwhelming evidence, the Bush administration acted as though the entire science community is wrong and the whole global warming crisis is a creation of environmental wackos.  I can't change my government's position on the environment except to vote them out of office, but I can make changes in my lifestyle that conserve energy and preserve the environment.  I can also register my dissent from the environmental policies of this administration and pray that God will grant our leaders the wisdom to make choices concerning the stewardship of this planet that will leave it in better, not worse shape than they found it.
          I spent the first twenty-five years of my adult life basically taking up space.  I could tell you what I believed on a variety of political issues, but my knowledge base was shallow.  I couldn't tell you why I believed what I believed, except to parrot vague bits of things that I had heard.  We all, as citizens of the United States of America, face the individual choice of whether we're even going to pay attention while our government tramples on the original ideals set out by the Founding Fathers.  If we don't, then we have absolutely nothing to complain about.  The Constitution is a great document, a much-copied model of representative democracy that is one of our greatest exports.  However, it isn't perfect.  It was a product of the time that it was conceived and of the men who wrote it.  The failures to exclude slavery and the lack of voting rights for all Americans were only two prominent examples of issues that had to be tackled by various amendments and a Civil War.  The only way to move the government in any great way is through mass activism, and most of these history-changing events were led by what we would today call  liberal Christians.  Abolition, the women's vote, the civil right's movement, and the opposition to the Vietnam War were all fueled by mass citizen action.  Voting is essential, but sadly, it is not on its own enough.  Politicians need to know that their promises made during the election season need to be kept and that their actions between elections will be closely monitored.
          The coalition of far-right conservatives and the evangelical movement led by the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson understood these concepts very well.  They created a mass movement based on the large databases collected from church rosters and viewers of their television programs whose energy and single-mindedness outflanked their opponents time and time again.  They learned that by deluging corporations, television stations, politicians, and the print media with letters, e-mails, and phone calls, they could have an impact that far exceeded their numbers.  This coalition has reaped the benefits of an admirable work ethic with results that would have surprised even the most optimistic of them thirty years ago.  But what is good for the far right wing has not proven to be good for the country, for reasons that I hope I have adequately elaborated on in this book.
          For those of us who are followers of Jesus, there is even less excuse to sit idly by as our government engages in practices that are morally and ethically unacceptable.  Despite the unholy alliance between the Far Right and a large swath of the evangelical Christian community, the ideological precepts of the right wing are not compatible with the concepts that Jesus taught and that He died for.  Evangelicals, unfortunately many who are led by gullible pastors with questionable political instincts, have been practically brainwashed into believing that the only political choice they have is from the center-right to the far, far right.  This is emphatically, biblically untrue.  Any sober reading of the four Gospels, centering in on Jesus's words, tell a completely different story.  I hope that I have shed enough light on this throughout the book as well.
          We desperately need to change the face of Christianity back to Jesus's.  Too many people in this world think of all sorts of unsavory and most definitely fallible human beings when the word "Christian" is uttered.  It is a dirty, unpleasant word for millions upon millions of people.  Not that Jesus needs our help, but the only way for us to participate in changing these unfortunate perceptions is by taking Jesus back from the right-wing clique who hijacked him some thirty years ago.  These people have acted since then as if Jesus was their personal property while almost completely ignoring the actual things that He said.  The constant stream of negativity and ranting about anything that is not in their agenda has gone on for too long without an adequate response.  I've had enough of it.  That's why I wrote this book.  I hope that I have presented an alternate view of how we should look our American history and how to interpret both this history and the actions of our government through the only lens that matters: that of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
B.B.