Today's Sermon is inspired by
a searing indictment by Bill Moyers of Bush's capitalist cabal and should be required reading by all who are concerned with the disenfranchisement of all except the rich.
You have probably already watched Michael Moore's film
Fahrenheit 9/11 and agreed with every review. It is that good and I defy anyone not to be stirred, moved, appalled or simply dismayed at a simple gut level. However, without constant use of the
pause or
rewind/search buttons on the remote, a film passes time but you miss or mishear central arguments.
For "
a notably intelligent piece of investigative reporting" of the links between the Bush and Bin Laden clans,
the central core of Moore's film, you will need to read
House of Bush, House of Saud by
Craig Unger.
The film, the book and the article focus on the USA, but there are parallels in nearly every other country, including Indonesia. Bill Moyers keeps "
a file marked 'Holy War'. It bulges with stories of Shias and Sunnis in fratricidal conflict. Of teenage girls in Algeria shot in the face for not wearing a veil. Of professors whose throats are cut for teaching male and female students in the same classroom. Of the fanatical Jewish doctor with a machine gun mowing down 30 praying Muslims in a mosque. Of Muslim suicide bombers bent on the obliteration of Jews. Of the young Orthodox Jew who assassinated Yitzhak Rabin and then announced to the world that "Everything I did, I did for the glory of God." Of Hindus and Muslims slaughtering each other in India, of Christians and Muslims perpetuating gruesome vengeance on each another in Nigeria."
Read this most cogent argument for the power for good, rather than evil, that every religion should stand for. In Bush's America, Christianity doesn't.
"
The very Jesus who drove the money changers from the temple ... has been hijacked and turned into a guardian of privilege instead of a champion of the dispossessed. Hijacked, he was made over into a militarist, hedonist, and lobbyist, sent prowling the halls of Congress in Guccis, seeking tax breaks and loopholes for the powerful, costly new weapon systems that don't work, and punitive public policies."
It may be Sunday today, but I'm not preaching and neither, I feel, is Bill Moyers. Like Michael Moore, Craig Unger, et al, he's telling a powerful truth, albeit as a committed Christian.
Footnotes:
Two blogs to thematically follow:
Liberal Oasis
The Village Gate
Incidentally, I'm not a follower of any organized religion. If anything, I'm an agnostic animist. But, hallelujah, sometimes the truth appears as a shining light on the Road To Perdition.
Which is also a good film.
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