Saturday, July 15, 2006

Religion

Rebirth of a Realist

PRINCE OF PEACE

One would think that if there was a supreme being, be it a he or she supreme being, the first thing that Supreme Being would do is ban religion.
If God sent his son down to be the Prince of Peace then the first thing the Prince of Peace
would have to do would be to get rid of the most deadly weapon man has ever invented. RELIGION.
For centuries humans have been sent off to kill each other, for the benefit of a few seeking power and riches, after they have first been infected with the mind numbing rational that they are doing Gods’ work.

"The Crusades, like so much of the modern conflict, were not wholly rational movements that could be explained away by purely economic or territorial ambition or by the clash of rights and interests. They were fueled, on all sides, by myths and passions that were far more effective in getting people to act than any purely political motivation. The medieval holy wars in the Middle East could not be solved by rational treatises or neat territorial solutions. Fundamental passions were involved which touched the identity of Christians, Muslims and Jews and which were sacred to the identity of each. They have not changed very much in the holy wars of today.
---Karen Armstrong, Holy War, 1988

PROCLOMATION
"The Allied armies through sacrifice and devotion, and with GOD’S help have won from the enemy final and unconditional surrender.
Now, therefore, I Harry S Truman, President of the United States of America
Do hereby appoint Sunday, August 19,1945, to be a day of prayer and thanksgiving."
Harry S Truman
Would God have helped Truman drop one bomb on a city and kill 70,000
people, including the women and children and then a few days later do the same thing again to another city? Was the Prince of Peace really sent here for that purpose? Would he have given us the atom bomb to use?
As congress voted to continue the Day of Prayer South Korean politics of the 1950s was controlled by the ruthless dictator73 year old, Syngman Rhee. His ambition for personal power knew no bounds. He stood in the way of any attempt toward a democratic Korea. He was a new Christian and a virulent anti-Communist .To him they were the anti Christ. He vowed to invade the North
and with help from the US, wipe them out. Hearing that threat, the North launched a pre-emptive strike and the Civil war began. America chose Rhee to lead the fight against the unbelieving Communists. He was to be the President of South Korea.
Rhee instituted "The National Security Law" to put down the opposition
mainly from the Buddhists, and to stop the student uprising against the repression by Rhee’s brother who was boss of the dreaded secrete police, and in charge of enforcing the
oppressive law. Armed with the law, Rhee terrorized the people with a campaign of anti-Communist witch-hunts. The secrete Police rounded up many dissidents who had no connections with the Communists at all, but opposed Rhee’s mad drive to convert and dominate the people.
He was finally driven out of the country into exile in Hawaii, but he continued his
Self serving Christian efforts.
Syngman Rhee, was later elected moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
.
"Our ministry of reconciliation stems from our commitment to Jesus Christ, through whom God has reconciled us to himself," said Rhee in his pre-election speech.
The Results of the Crusade to save American interests in the region:
U.S. losses were placed at over 54,000 dead and 103,000 wounded, while Chinese and Korean casualties were each at least 10 times as high.
Today, more than half a century later the US still has tens of thousands of troops on the North Korean border and the country is still divided.
In the 1960s while marching with Dr. King in Mississippi, some of the older marchers started to sing the second chorus of "We Shall Overcome." The lyrics are "God is on our side." Directly across the street the Klan was holding up a large sign that read, "God believed in the separation of the races." So the younger marchers switched to singing the song," Which side are you on boy, which side are you on," But instead of saying boy they inserted God.
Vietnam
There is ample documentation of the role the Vatican and Cardinal Spellman, along with the Dulles Brothers played in supporting the French Catholics in Indo China and influencing President Kennedy to support the devote Catholic President Diem. in the civil war against the "anti-Christ Communist" of the North. Many leftists referred to the war as, "Spellman’s war."
Cardinal Spellmen made frequent trips to the war zone as the newly appointed Vicar of the American Armed forces. He flew in Air Force planes and gave the impression that he represented the Vatican there. To him the war was a we against them. We being the church and the American forces the "Soldiers of Christ" and they being the "Godless Communists."
The almost Rasputin hold the Cardinal had on the Kennedy family was the major influence that put Diem in power.
As we all know the war was lost and Vietnam is a Communist country. As for Diem and his brother: they were both shot after attending a Mass at Church of Saint Francis in Saigon. I can’t recall who but someone said,
. "Thus died two most devout sons of Holy Mother Church.
And with them died the political regime they had attempted to impose for her sake upon an unwilling non-Catholic—even non-Christian—nation."
Results…All US Forces KIA in Vietnam = 58,169
The Hanoi government revealed on the twentieth anniversary of the war that the true civilian casualties of the Vietnam War were 2,000,000 in the north, and 2,000,000 in the south. Military casualties were 1.1 million killed and 600,000 wounded.
Which side was God on?
Israel
While sitting at an outdoor café table on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv Israel, the handsome actor son of the then defense minister Dayon said {to paraphrase it was years ago) that he didn’t think the Wailing wall, now the Western wall, was worth the life or limb of any of his comrades. He said that he calls himself a Jew because it is the only rational for taking someone else’s land, water and resources.
I said, Then even though you do not call yourself religious, you still claim that as a person with a Jewish mother God gave you the land.
He told me that the Jews escaping from the holocaust had no other choice and they convinced themselves that God, did indeed, give them the land.
His mother Ruth admits in her book that she furnished her home with confiscated Palestinian furniture. I wondered how far is that from taking the gold out of the teeth of the victims of Auschwitz. With God on your side you can see what you want to see.
Students at Hebrew University gave me the analogy of the Christians taking the land from the Natives in America. They are right, but only if God is on your side can you make two wrongs into a right.
Today the slaughter in the area goes on. Jews are killing Muslims. Muslims are killing Jews. Christians are killing Muslims, Shiites are killing Sunni’s, Muslims are killing Buddhists and Catholics are killing Protestants and Protestants are killing Catholics.
This week I intend to go to a Catholic early mass and attend a protestant service later and during the week go to a temple, mosque, synagogue and I will pray to all the Gods PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS GOD DAMNED RELIGION BUSINESS BEFORE IT WIPES US ALL OUT. Or is that the idea?