|
As we enter the
season of the year when a large portion of humanity, for lack of archaeological
precedent, sets aside time in December to celebrate Jesus' birthday, I'd like to
share with you a few thoughts. If you and your country would only
spend a small fraction of
your enthusiasm for war contemplating why I am called the Prince of Peace
there would
be much less death and destruction on Earth. You who profess to
follow me should stop invoking my name as divine sanction of the
slaughter of my father's creation, especially in Iraq where the innocent
and the children die from your callous might. What contemptible arrogance you have adhering to the notion that I would bless
dropping thousand-pound bombs on civilian populations? And what
of your countrymen, the youth who are paying the price?
Enough taking of my name in
vain. Stop praying to me and my father for victory in battle, as if more prolific
and public petitioning would have Him or me choose a side to bless with
victory. I am appalled that both sides in war pray so that misery
and death befall the other. Such heresy makes a falsehood out of the
goodness and love that I am. I
am profoundly disappointed that nations expend so much energy begging me and my father to
kill for them and have them kill each other with more vigor and efficiency.
What craven images you worship, icons made of explosive steel and
combustibles, flying chariots of fire, calves made of depleted uranium whose cost
of manufacture could heal the
sick, feed the hungry, relieve the thirsty and shelter the homeless.
You choose instead to make the sick, create the hungry, pollute the water
and sicken the thirsty, and create the homeless only to bomb them as they seek
refuge from exposure. How dare you rain death and destruction in
my name? How dare you invoke the Almighty in your orgy of killing?
Nations that make unprovoked war and
kill while clutching my name and mouthing my words mock my teachings. They use what they
call their Good Book
for
their own self-centered ends. They are like the prayerful who
stand ostentatious and visible in their prayer. They are as the
hypocrites are, "For they love to pray standing on the corners of
the streets that they may be seen of men". (Mathew 6:5) And the superpatriots
who make war by deception and in error refusing to admit their mistake cover
them up with flag
lapel pins for all to see. Look at me. Look at me, they cry
out. But do not look at what I do.
When teaching the Sermon on the Mount I
said, "That
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of
the judgment". (Matthew 5:22) Making war without cause
summons such
judgment. Making brutal war while bearing false witness
cries out for condemnation. The war-maker nation is too blinded with zealous indignation to see the conclusion and the verdict that the
rest of world has reached. The machinery of
industrial war making is not an instrument of my blessing. How could
I bless destroying a village in order to save it? This is
murder. How could I bless the Daisy Cutter, the Bunker Buster, the
cluster bomb, the
cruise missile, depleted uranium munitions? How dare you expect me to
bless the use of napalm? How dare you even ask.
When Matthew wrote my words as I
spoke from the Mount at Karne Hittim I was teaching that the peacemakers are blessed and that
they will be called the sons of God. But, the sons are missing.
The meek have disappeared as you have cast fear onto them. Where are
the peacemakers? They have been silenced by the war-makers who snarl at
them and despise them. Those who despise the peacemaker despise
me. The self-righteous super-powerful indulge in the cardinal sin of pride as the
inheritance of the Earth slips away slick as oil. Remember that
anger and greed are cardinal sins. A peacemaker you are not and
thus my blessing escapes you. And what does that
make you a son of?
You cannot serve two masters. If you serve the empire then the
empire is your god. Loyalty and devotion to empire precludes loyalty
to anything else. You cannot serve the empire and the people at the
same time for serving one makes you despise the other. I am of
and for the people just as at one time your nation was of, for and by the
people. I am for peace. Never forget that.
Never forget Isaiah when he said "Every warrior's boot used in battle and every
garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for
fire." (Isaiah 9:5) My message is nonviolent love. Your message is
love of violence. I am love. I am the way. You are
fear. You are the way to destruction and death. "Put your
sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the
sword." (Matthew 26:52)
How audacious is the most powerful
nation on earth? What brazen arrogance its leader a mere
mortal extols? How quick to
determine the destiny of millions of lives, as if a god deciding
whether they live or die? How
quick to judge? How quick to forget my admonition, "For with what
judgment you judge, you will be judged and with the measure that you use,
it will be measured back to you". (Matthew 7:2)
You would do well to revisit my Sermon on the Mount.
Read it. How simple is the Golden Rule. If you
believe in me then you believe when I say, "In everything, therefore,
treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the
Law". (Matthew 7:12) Then think of what you are doing
in Iraq and other places around the world and ponder. That which goes around
comes around. Spread peace and you shall have it. Spread war
and you too shall have that. "Enter through the narrow gate; for the
gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are
many who enter through it". (Matthew 7:13) Do not enter through it any
longer. "For the gate is small and the way is
narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it".
(Matthew 7:14) And you my
son are not even looking for the narrow gate. Worse, you have no interest
in finding it, nor do you care.
Your term as governor of Texas is
historic evidence of
your willingness to kill. You enthusiastically embrace the death
penalty. Forget not that capital punishment put an end to me and my
teaching. Why is it so hard for you to understand the commandment:
thou shalt not kill? Is it not true that the executioner becomes more
complacent with each execution? What do the deaths of thousands
matter after one-hundred-fifty executions by the
stroke of your pen? You put to death nine innocent people. What do the deaths of millions matter after the
deaths of thousands? To you who
turn to violence as the solution to the world's problems I say to you
exchange your weapons - "swords for plowshares and spears for
pruning-hooks"? (Isaiah 2:4) How terrible is the future
for you as you contemplate the day of reckoning! I say again,
"You sail the seas and cross whole countries to win one convert and
when you succeed, you make him twice as deserving of going to hell as you
yourselves are". (Matthew 23:15) And
so at this time of Christ Mass on what you celebrate as my birthday I ask
you, who would Jesus
bomb? "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you".
(Matthew 5:44)
©
2004
Jozef
Hand-Boniakowski
|
