Hooray for Rev.John Thomas, President of the United Church of Christ

[Kolesar]

He gave a wonderful speech at the antiwar rally. It was about 90 minutes into the rally, shortly before the march.

[Kolesar]

1. "some people were for the war, and some people were against it"

Two years ago, I donated a lot of furniture to a Catholic church who helps resettled immigrants in our community. The man who arranged donations was a real earnest and genuine fellow. After a few meetings and at the moment when I was doing my last drop off, I asked him as tactfully as possible about whether the war came up. He replied: "some people were for the war, and some people were against it". I did not press the subject.

With the exception of Rev. Thomas and Rev. Jesse Jackson and leaders of a few more liberal denominations, the leaders of America's religions have been unexcusably silent on the War in Iraq. If these men are presumably trained and responsible for ethical issues in America, why don't they get home from their Sunday sermons, pick up the newspaper, and try to sort out this lying, ghastly horror that is the war in Iraq? Jesus Christ, the Bush administration has ordered people to be tortured!

What do they spend their time on? The worst of them spend time politicizing the abortion issue (Pope Ratzinger-Benedict). The lot of them must be quite busy tending to their congregations (which is fine, they are needed to counsel the bereaved and such). But there has to be somebody in the organization with time to work on the war issue. My hunch is that they are actively or subtly discouraged from doing so. I wish I knew.

[Zenlitened]

2. Forgive me if I don't send up a cheer for a religioinst today....

... whether he happens to get something right for a change or not.

Maybe some other time.

:thumbsdown: