"'A time comes when silence is betrayal,'" preached King. That time has come for us in relation to Iraq. How will you lift high the cross this Holy Week? How will you follow the Lord through the streets of American cities and the streets of Baghdad and Basra? Will you help carry the cross? Will you let your hearts be broken and converted? Will you shout that death has no dominion in the cross and resurrection of Christ? Will you proclaim that we are "better than this"? We, "the whole multitude of Jesus' disciples" must "praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds" we have seen (Luke 19:37). We must shout out that the Prince of Peace is sovereign: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest" (Luke 19:38). If we don't do this—or if we are prevented from doing this—Jesus says: "I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!" (Luke 19:40)."
"Direct US abuse of Iraqi detainees has occurred since early 2004 at sites like the 'black room' at Camp Nama, the headquarters of the secret Task Force 6-26 near the Baghdad airport. The American motto at Camp Nama is “No Blood, No Foul.” [NYT, Mar. 19, 2006]. Inmates are beaten, kicked, blindfolded, and forced to crouch in 6-by-8 foot cubicles in a compound called Hotel California. Despite 2003 warnings by military investigators, the right-wing Christian Gen. William Boykin found no misconduct at the site in an official investigation."
Don't talk to Christians about the 'black room'. The definition of a Christian in this society is one who cares more about his own pious purity than his guilty brothers, to paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Please don't disturb his dreams with the "Salvador option" necessary to protect his purity. A faith that has to be protected in such a way is a Satanic caricature of the religion of Jesus. Look no farther for an explanation in the decline of Western morality.
"We stand before the world as fools. We are foolish enough to believe that Jesus' way is stronger and more true than the way of the world. We rest secure in the knowledge that he has, and will, overcome. We are called to be fools for Christ, a people saved by his cross and converted, finally, by his resurrection.
May God convert us to such foolishness." - Jim Wallis
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