Bill Moyers: 9/11 And The Sport of God

[G_j]

9/11 And The Sport of God

by Bill Moyers, TomPaine.com

Our democratic values are imperiled when irrational people are appeased merely because they are pious.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050909/911_and_the_sport_of_god.php

This article is adapted from Bill Moyer's address this week at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where Judith and Bill Moyers received the seminary’s highest award, the Union Medal, for their contributions to faith and reason in America. Bill Moyers is a broadcast journalist and former host the PBS program NOW With Bill Moyers. Moyers also serves as president of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, which gives financial support to TomPaine.com.

At the Central Baptist Church in Marshall, Texas, where I was baptized in the faith, we believed in a free church in a free state. I still do.

My spiritual forbears did not take kindly to living under theocrats who embraced religious liberty for themselves but denied it to others. “Forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils,” thundered the dissenter Roger Williams as he was banished from Massachusetts for denying Puritan authority over his conscience. Baptists there were a “pitiful negligible minority” but they were agitators for freedom and therefore denounced as “incendiaries of the commonwealth” for holding to their belief in that great democracy of faith—the priesthood of all believers. For refusing to pay tribute to the state religion they were fined, flogged, and exiled. In l651 the Baptist Obadiah Holmes was given 30 stripes with a three-corded whip after he violated the law and took forbidden communion with another Baptist in Lynn, Massachusetts. His friends offered to pay his fine for his release but he refused. They offered him strong drink to anesthetize the pain of the flogging. Again he refused. It is the love of liberty, he said, “that must free the soul.”

Such revolutionary ideas made the new nation with its Constitution and Bill of Rights “a haven for the cause of conscience.” No longer could magistrates order citizens to support churches they did not attend and recite creeds that they did not believe. No longer would “the loathsome combination of church and state”—as Thomas Jefferson described it—be the settled order. Unlike the Old World that had been wracked with religious wars and persecution, the government of America would take no sides in the religious free-for-all that liberty would make possible and politics would make inevitable. The First Amendment neither inculcates religion nor inoculates against it. Americans could be loyal to the Constitution without being hostile to God, or they could pay no heed to God without fear of being mugged by an official God Squad. It has been a remarkable arrangement that guaranteed “soul freedom.”

It is at risk now, and the fourth observance of the terrorist attacks of 9/ll is an appropriate time to think about it.

Four years ago this week, the poet’s prophetic metaphor became real again and “the great dark birds of history” plunged into our lives.

..more..

[Independent_Liberal]

1. Kick!

[mzmolly]

2. Recommended.

They win only if we let them, only if we become like them: vengeful, imperious, intolerant, paranoid. Having lost faith in all else, zealots have nothing left but a holy cause to please a warrior God. They win if we become holy warriors, too; if we kill the innocent as they do; strike first at those who had not struck us; allow our leaders to use the fear of terrorism to make us afraid of the truth; cease to think and reason together, allowing others to tell what’s in God’s mind. Yes, we are vulnerable to terrorists, but only a shaken faith in ourselves can do us in.

Excellent read.

[FreedomAngel82]

12. So true

Getting through these last four years I've realied on my faith in God that justice will happen. It may not happen when I like or in my lifetime, but I know George Bush and his people and those who are like him will have to answer to God someday just like I will and God will make the best judgment. I shouldn't want to be like them in any sense or fashion. Last week on the "Daily Show" there was a guy who wrote a book dealing with fear and he was saying how we worry too much about fear that we can't control such as a terrorist attack. Some people worry about it and will never be effected and if we're all so focused on one thing we'd forget about other things out there (such as the hurricane and other natural disasters). As the great FDR once said: "the only thing to fear is fear itself." This quote has helped me get through a lot. God bless him and his leadership and for his words of wisdom in a time of it.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. “the great dark birds of history”

Thanks.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Hey - that's my seminary! YAY!! I've seen some pretty impressive,

wonderful people receive that award. Too bad I wasn't there this year for it - I'm a big Bill Moyers fan.

[niyad]

5. I have sent this to all my little fundies and trolls--gee, not 1 response

[burrowowl]

6. Bill Moyers is what

I call a patriot!
Other so-called RW patriots are nationalist chauvist pigs!

[G_j]

7. kick

[lateo]

8. People are becoming increasingly intoxicated with their faith.

This makes their manipulation all that much easier.

[ThomWV]

9. What An Outstanding Article

That is easily the best article I have read this year. I recommend it to everyone here.

I wonder, is there a recording of it as it was given as a speech? I would very much like to hear it as delivered.

[ThomWV]

10. Kick: This Article Is Too Good To Miss

It will take a few minutes to read but it is well worth it.

[G_j]

11. agreed :-)

[liberalitch]

13. Did you go to the site in his article? What nuts!

[Czolgosz]

14. I'm starting to believe Bill Moyers is ALWAYS right n/t

[I Have A Dream]

15. Absolutely recommended.

Bill Moyers is one of my heroes. Even though a bit long, it is well worth reading.

Thanks for posting this, G_j!

[LeahD]

16. Thanks for posting this! Kick! n/t

[ourbluenation]

17. The ohio thing was like getting a kick in the gut...

knocked me to the floor - it's so discouraging.

Let’s take a brief detour to Ohio and I’ll show you what I am talking about. In recent weeks a movement called the Ohio Restoration Project has been launched to identify and train thousands of “Patriot Pastors” to get out the conservative religious vote next year. According to press reports, the leader of the movement— the senior pastor of a large church in suburban Columbus—casts the 2006 elections as an apocalyptic clash between “the forces of righteousness and the hordes of hell.” The fear and loathing in his message is palpable: He denounces public schools that won’t teach creationism, require teachers to read the Bible in class, or allow children to pray. He rails against the “secular jihadists” who have “hijacked” America and prevent school kids from learning that Hitler was “an avid evolutionist.” He links abortion to children who murder their parents. He blasts the “pagan left” for trying to redefine marriage. He declares that “homosexual rights” will bring “a flood of demonic oppression.” On his church website you read that “Reclaiming the teaching of our Christian heritage among America’s youth is paramount to a sense of national destiny that God has invested into this nation.”

[DarkTirade]

18. Good gods...

these people are basically declaring war on the rest of us.

[G_j]

19. how does it feel

being one of the "hordes of hell"? :wow:

[DarkTirade]

26. Surprisingly comfy.

You get used to the constant smell of brimstone eventually.

[VOX]

20. Moyers has nailed it. Kicked and **highly** recommended. n/t

[ewagner]

21. Same here!

Kick

:kick:

Excellent read.....the sweet, sweet aroma of reason.....

[La Coliniere]

22. Kick!

And kick again. Moyers always nails it. Frightening. Should be a clarion call to action for the Christian Left and all sane, rational Americans. WAKE UP!

[bobbieinok]

23. a MUST READ.....end of Moyer's talk

As I look back on the conflicts and clamor of our boisterous past, one lesson about democracy stands above all others: Bullies—political bullies, economic bullies and religious bullies—cannot be appeased; they have to be opposed with a stubbornness to match their own. This is never easy; these guys don’t fight fair; “Robert’s Rules of Order” is not one of their holy texts. But freedom on any front—and especially freedom of conscience—never comes to those who rock and wait, hoping someone else will do the heavy lifting. Christian realism requires us to see the world as it is, without illusions, and then take it on. Christian realism also requires love. But not a sentimental, dreamy love. Reinhold Niebuhr, who taught at Union Theological Seminary and wrestled constantly with applying Christian ethics to political life, put it this way: “When we talk about love we have to become mature or we will become sentimental. Basically love means…being responsible, responsibility to our family, toward our civilization, and now by the pressures of history, toward the universe of humankind.”

Christian realists aren’t afraid to love. But just as the Irishman who came upon a brawl in the street and asked, “Is this a private fight or can anyone get in it?” we have to take that love where the action is. Or the world will remain a theatre of war between fundamentalists.

[bobbieinok]

24. the preacher Rod Paisley.....

...if you can get TBN on your TV, check the schedule and watch him.....he is super scary

...wasn't he the minister the TX gov used when he signed the anti-gay law in a TX church????

[B3Nut]

29. Yup...old Rod Parsley

He's from Ohio (surprise surprise!). He's a few fries short of a Happy Meal, to be sure. Not as bad a hairdo as Benny Hinn, though. :D

Todd in Beerbratistan

[omega minimo]

25. It is the love of soul that must free liberty

from the stranglehold of the soulless hypocrites who infest this government.

"It is the love of liberty, he said, “that must free the soul.”"

"Such revolutionary ideas made the new nation with its Constitution and Bill of Rights “a haven for the cause of conscience."

"The First Amendment neither inculcates religion nor inoculates against it."

Let's renew the cause of conscience.

Thank you so much for posting this. Bill Moyers always lifts the spirits.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

27. I love Bill and miss him on NOW

The thing is, as a Christian, they are losing the Christians who are Gospel focused. They were smart to play borderline Christian politics, what I mean is, bring up Christian buzzwords loosely and conjuring (yes appropriately used) a fake Christan reality.

Katrina's wrath (most of which man could've mitigated with years of forethought and contraction) has exposed the belly of the beast. It was/is pure greed that stopped the Army Corp. of Engineers from doing their job.

You will see a big erosion from their so called Christian base, because actions speak louder than words. This is where Bill is greatest, he exposes the truth subtly, and slowly and people grab it.

How can we get him back on air?

[omega minimo]

28. Become the media

One problem with religions, including Christianity, is that the act of faith can lead to misplaced faith in religious and/or political leaders who are total hypocrites.

Like Bush.

Jesus would have been IN the Superdome.

[MN ChimpH8R]

30. Outstanding piece and a must read

Moyers is a national treasure.

:kick:

[peekaloo]

31. I truly hope he reconsiders his "retirement" from TV.

I miss him. NOW isn't the same.