Date: 02 Mar 1996 10:01:19
From: JSwadesh@aol.com
Subject: True Witness, Issue 8

TRUE WITNESS, Issue 8,  February 29, 1996

TABLE OF CONTENTS
     Note from the Editor
     A Counterinsurgency Manual for Spiritual Warfare
     Letters to the Editor
     Appendix:  Ammunition
      
Editor's Note.  We note with some pride that TW7 brought attention to Samuel
Francis, a Buchanan aide who subsequently made the pages of the New York
Times (B. Herbert, 2/16), and Christian Identity, the movement to which
Buchanan aide Larry Pratt seems to have had a fatal attraction.  In this
issue, we are going to do something a little bit different.  The GOP
candidates, with the exception of Dick Lugar, have been doing a far better
job of demonstrating why none of them should be President than we could hope
to.  In this interlude in the Darwinian competition for most devolved man, we
thought we might devote an issue to a manual of counterinsurgency in the
Spiritual Warfare being conducted by the "Christian" Right.  

Harvey Cox wrote in The Nation (1/1/96): "One of the many historic coalitions
that have fallen into disrepair in recent years is the one that united
religious and secular progressives.  Today, fear of the 'religious right' has
pushed many secular liberals into opposing virtually any religiously
motivated effort to influence public policy simply because it is religious.
 Nothing delights the pooh-bahs of the Christian Coalition more...."   

It's not just secular liberals who are getting scared, nowadays.  Sadly, many
mainstream churches are afraid of taking of taking on the "Christian" Right,
as well.  The wrongs committed by the "Christian" Right in the name of
Christianity are plentiful to surfeit, yet we've ceded the moral high ground
to them.  We believe that it's not only possible to debate the "Christian"
Right's theology -- it's incumbent on those who embrace the spirit of truth.

The Bible as described by Pat Robertson sounds as if it were little more than
a lengthy diatribe demanding the subservience of women and damning
homosexuality and adultery.  It would be far more accurate to characterize
the scriptures as a diatribe damning the hateful use of wealth and power
exemplified by men such as Pat Robertson!  Unfortunately, many people,
including most Christians, are so unfamiliar with the Bible that they let the
"Christian" Right twist scripture without speaking up.  

This issue of True Witness will review the theology, and attempt to arm you,
the reader, with some of the detailed knowledge required to win disputes with
the "Christian" Right.  If you happen to find renewed meaning in the Good
Book, well, good!  But even if you happen to be of another religion or of no
religion at all, we hope that this issue will be interesting and engaging,
and help to explain some of the genuine crackpottery that passes as
Christianity nowadays.  

1.  A Fundamental(ist) Error:  The Inerrancy of Scripture

"I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you
forever - the Spirit of truth.... [T]he Counselor...will teach you all things
and will remind you of everything I have said to you." (John 14).  

The claim that every word in the Bible is true is provably false.  

Some simple examples:  Genesis 1-2 states that God created plants on the
third day and man on the seventh.  But Gen. 2 states that God created man
before he created plants.  Proverbs 26: 5 tells us that one must rebuke a
fool...but 26:4 insists that one must not!  The New Testament, as well, has
numerous contradictions, many of which are documented by Spong (Rescuing the
Bible from Fundamentalists, pp. 84-5).  For example, throwing the
moneychangers out of the temple was either at the beginning of Jesus'
ministry (John 2) or in the last week of his life (Matt 21, Mark 11, Luke
19).  More of the many, many inconsistencies and contradictions of the Bible
are in the Appendix.
  
Historical research shows that the Gospels were written at different times,
based primarily on oral tradition, and possibly on an as yet undiscovered
written record of Jesus' sayings.  The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark,
and Luke (of which Mark is the earliest, c. 68 AD), are known as the Synoptic
Gospels, and are fairly consistent with one another.  Even in the Synoptic
Gospels, however, there is some literary license and embellishment.  Matthew
seems to have been written to accommodate a Jewish preference for thematic
organization, while Luke, which was tailored to inform the Gentiles, adds
events that serve as dramatic devices.  John is a later version written to
reinforce early church doctrine, and differs significantly from the other
Gospels.  It is particularly important to note that John attributes words to
Jesus not found in the Synoptics.

Gospel literally means "good news," but in modern usage has become synonymous
with "truth."  By this time, non-Christians may be shaking their heads and
wondering how Christians could abide a "Gospel" that contains so many obvious
contradictions.  Fundamentalists have no answer; asked to explain its
discrepancies, they hide behind the simplistic argument that as the Word of
God, the Bible by definition can contain nothing false.  But if one
understands the Bible to be a witnessing of events by sincere yet fallible
humans, there is no contradiction.  The truth is attained, much as in a
courtroom, by impartial sifting of the testimony.  

With that understanding, the statement in John that the representative of God
in Christ's absence is the Spirit of truth takes on a special meaning.  All
who impartially seek truth, whether scientists or philosophers, laborers or
lawyers, accountants or farmers, are in communion with the Spirit of God.
 And how far from truth and God is the religious right, which asserts the
obviously false doctrine of the inerrancy of scripture!  

Jesus himself emphasized that Deity is not to be found in the written word,
but in personal experience -- in love of God and fellow man.  The
fundamentalists of his era were the Pharisees, whom he berates:  "Woe to you,
teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!... [Y]ou have neglected
the more important matters of the law -- justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
... You blind guides!  You strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel. ...You are
like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the
inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.  In the same way,
on the outside, you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are
full of hypocrisy and wickedness." (Matt. 23)  

One can only wonder what Christ would have said to Pat Robertson about his
diamond ventures with the dictator of Zaire, or his trafficking with the
murderers of the Guatemalan government.  Or to Jerry Falwell, who circulated
a tape falsely accusing President Clinton of all manner of murder and mayhem.
 The Apostle Paul scolded such men:

"But I do not think I am in the least inferior to these 'superapostles.' ...
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles
of Christ.  And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of
light.  It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of
righteousness." (2 Cor. 11)

It is a dedication to the search for truth that differentiates the false and
true followers of Christ:

"The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan
displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in
every sort of evil that deceives those that are perishing.  They perish
because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved." (2 Thes. 2:9-10)

2.  The Two Highest Laws:  Interpreting the Bible as a Whole

" 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second
is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  All the Law and the Prophets
hang on these two commandments."  (Matthew 22:37-40)

The two highest laws are positive commandments:  we are to love God and one
another.  "All the Law," Jesus said, depends on these commandments; love is
the filter through which we must view the "shalt nots" of the Old Testament.
 The "Christian" Right has managed to get it backwards, making adherence to
the lesser commandments a condition of God's love and our own love for one
another.

Even Paul, whose harsh diatribes in the Epistles are some of the biblical
passages most frequently quoted by fundamentalists, did not lose sight of
Jesus' greatest teaching.  When writing in Galatians about justification by
faith, rather than by works or by law (in this context, "the book of the
law," or the Torah), he concludes, "For the whole law is fulfilled in one
word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' " (Galatians 5:14)

"Hate the sin and not the sinner" is an admonition heard frequently among the
more temperate branches of fundamentalism -- its frequency itself an
indication of how easily the central tenet of Christianity is lost amid the
rhetoric of hatred.  But even that admonition misses the meaning of Jesus'
words.  He would more likely have said, "Love the sinner, and grieve for the
sin."  Indeed, that was how Jesus lived.  Among his rag-tag followers were
the outcasts of society.  Those who sat at his feet were the broken.  The
woman who was a sinner, who washed Jesus' feet with her tears, had her sins
forgiven "for she loved much."  (Luke 7:47)

The extent to which Jesus' words stood the traditional world view on its head
is largely lost to us now through time and frequent repetition.  To most of
us, the phrase "Good Samaritan" has a wholly positive connotation.  To Jesus'
contemporaries, the phrase would have been jarring, and the parable itself
not a little outrageous -- much as if Pat Robertson were to tell his 700 Club
audience the story of decent, God-fearing Americans seeing a victim of
muggers and passing by on the other side, while a good member of the
Hezbollah came to the victim's aid.  What made the Samaritan good was his
mercy and compassion alone.  In Jesus' words, it was the Samaritan who
"proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers." (Luke 10:36)  As
neighbor, the Samaritan deserved to be loved.

"A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you
must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples,
if you love one another." (John 13:34-35)  The true sign of discipleship is
love, as Jesus loved -- love for the weak, the broken, the sinner, the
untouchable, even for those who betrayed him.  Where is that sign of
discipleship among the "Christian" Right?  If a compassionate Samaritan, an
untouchable, deserved love, what of today's third-generation welfare mother,
never married, who shares her last bit of food?  Among the soldiers of the
"Christian" Right's army, who even now in Congress are passing laws to punish
that welfare mother, there is little love to spare for the one who proves
neighbor.

3.  The Cross We Each Bear:  The "Christian" Right

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for me will find it." (Matthew 16:24-25)

The central themes of the "Christian" Right, the so-called "culture wars,"
are that idleness, promiscuity, adultery, and especially homosexuality are so
hateful to God that they invite His wrath on the entire nation.  Pointing to
the fiery fates of Sodom and Gomorrah, they warn that this nation may meet
the same fate.  Welfare mothers, kids on drugs, those with AIDS, the most
broken among us, they say, deserve to be actively oppressed.  

Let us select for examination the issue of homosexuality, since that promises
to be the staple of the 1996 presidential campaign.  Some of the key
scriptural passages condemning homosexuality are in Genesis 19 (would-be
sodomy of angels visiting Lot), Lev.18-20 (penalties for homosexuality
prescribed), and Romans 1 (homosexuality condemned). 

The opponents of the "Christian" Right have responded in principal ways.
 First, they have argued that the passages cited above are being
misinterpreted; for example, that the term "sodomy" encompassed various
breaches of the Law, and the strangers who attempted to sodomize the angels
visiting Lot were at fault principally for violating the laws of hospitality.
 Second, the opponents of the "Christian" Right argue that the Bible itself
condones homosexuality, as in the love of David and Jonathan (Sam. 19-20).
Neither of these are particularly persuasive lines of argument to mainstream
Christians.

A third line of argument may persuade many mainstream Christians.  Bishop
John Shelby Spong, for example, argues that undergirding Paul's fiery
epistles was a fear that he, himself, was homosexual.  Most women, and many
men, find Paul's misogyny so extreme as to take what he says about gays with
a grain of salt.  If the scriptures are, as we have argued, to be understood
as witnessing by sincere but fallible human beings, this is persuasive.  But,
to the fundamentalists, who pluck the harshest passages from the Epistles and
wield them like a bludgeon against the rest of the world, this does not
communicate.  Fourth, the argument that we should "hate the sin but love the
sinner" resonates with all but the most extreme of the right, but is still
used, all too often, to justify attacks against individuals.  

None of these responses fully satisfy mainstream Christians.  The "Christian"
Right has raised legitimate issues, albeit in an illegitimate way.  The
dehumanization of casual, loveless sex, the misery and poverty of abandoned
wives and children, and the treason of adultery leading to divorce are a
large part of the social landscape.  Returning to homosexuality, one reason
it carries such potent emotional dynamite is because of its misguided
association with pedophilia -- an association deliberately perpetuated by the
"Christian" Right.  As long as dehumanization, abandonment, marital
dishonesty, and child sexual abuse are not confronted publicly and
effectively, they will continue to fuel the "Christian" Right's fire.
 However, the purpose of this essay is to discuss the correct scriptural
detoxification of the dialogue; the political response is for others.  

Jesus commanded his followers to give up everything -- their material
possessions, their hatreds and other emotional attachments to this world, to
take up their own cross and follow him.  The cross, of course, is the symbol
of Jesus' crucifixion, his death to the mortal world, which he had to endure
alone.  By taking up our own cross, we "die in Christ" (i.e., lose our ego
attachment to the world) so we can be truly liberated.  The command to "take
up your cross and follow me" (Matt.16:24, Luke 14:27) is a clear call to
believers to a spiritual journey that is wholly personal and for which each
of us alone is responsible.  The Holocaust against gays that the extremes of
the "Christian" Right seem to be planning as the working of God's will is a
flight from personal responsibility.  "Do not judge, or you too will be
judged," says Jesus in Matt. 7, adding, "Why do you look at the speck of
sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own
eye?"

Throughout the Bible, "sin" is clearly defined as that which separates or
turns us away from God; "repentance" is literally turning back toward God.
 (In the Old Testament, this theme is conveyed most explicitly in the story
of Jonah.)  By its very nature, the path of repentance is one we must each
seek and follow alone.  The Gospels are very clear that Christian seeking is
a process of personal purification rather than political "cleansing."  Jesus
gives the highest law as to love God with all of one's being, and the second
highest law as to love one's neighbor as if you and he were one.  Through
these higher lenses, the value of much of Mosaic Law becomes manifest as a
mode of life that sets aside worldly things in favor of the greater quest of
understanding God and the meaning and unity of all life.
                             
Just as individual Christians, in taking up their cross, must confront
personal shortcomings, the church universal in taking up its cross must
confront the "Christian" Right if it is ever to fulfill the commands of
scripture.  Just as we attain personal grace through repentance, this nation
can attain civic grace only through engaging the "Christian" Right in a
genuine dialogue about the deep social problems that plague us, so that we
may collectively turn back toward God.

4.  Lo, I Bring Not Peace, but a Sword: Denominational Schisms

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come
to bring peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34)

In one of the greater scriptural perversions practiced by "Christian"
extremists, this verse is used by those of the ilk of The Army of God to
justify violence.  

In fact, the verse describes the nascent schism between Christianity and
Judaism, and future schisms which would multiply within the Christian faith
and to a lesser extent within Judaism.  It is profoundly ironic that
Christianity, which preaches as its two highest laws love of God and fellow
human beings, should be so prone to division.  The Apostle Paul speaks of
"the body of Christ" (1 Cor. 12) to describe the perfect unity of Christians
as cells within a body, individual yet wholly dependent on one another.  And
yet, the schismatic nature of Christianity is so strong that 1 John indicates
that antichrists emerge cancer-like from the body of Christ.  This passage (1
John 2:19) is an important piece of scripture that refutes the notion
propounded by such as Schoedel (TW7) that the enemies of Christianity are
non-Christians.  Rather, it is "Christians" who are the enemy of
Christianity.  

Christianity first split off from Judaism not only over the question of the
divinity of Jesus, but more centrally over the question of whether following
the letter of Mosaic Law was sufficient to please God.  Jesus offended the
fundamentalists of his time by preaching that purity of intent and not merely
following the prescribed behavior was necessary to fulfill the Law.
 Fulfilling the Law through deeds or though faith was a major topic of the
Epistles (see Appendix), and was part of the basis for the later schism
between Catholicism and Protestantism. 

Originally, Martin Luther did not intend to break with the early church,
centered at Rome.  Through his study of the gospels, he determined that works
were insufficient for salvation; he realized that the central message of
Jesus' teachings was the need for faith and repentance.  Having reached that
understanding, he realized how corrupt the sixteenth-century church had
become.  His initial complaint was the sale of indulgences, trading money
rather than penance for time in purgatory.  As the battle escalated, Luther
argued that papal authority was also in opposition to the message of the
gospels, since repentance is a personal and private struggle.  Catholicism,
as a sacerdotal church, holds that the priest is intermediary between man and
God, while Protestantism emphasizes direct experience with God.  This
doctrinal schism became the pivotal difference between Catholicism and
Protestantism.

Further divisions were to follow, mostly centered around the question of the
role of the individual vs. that of the church in religious experience.  Some
denominations rely on hierarchical centralized authority (episcopacy), often
with election by elders (apostolic succession).  Others rely on local,
congregational control, often emphasizing direct spiritual experience and
charismatic expression.  There are also doctrinal differences over the degree
of domination of subordinates.  In some churches, elders may "shepherd"
members of the congregation, and a husband may have "headship" over his wife.
 Some denominations hold that baptism, the rite that symbolizes spiritual
death and rebirth in Christ, cannot be done before the age of reason, when it
can be freely accepted or rejected.  The degree of structure of the weekly
meeting varies, ranging from the highly structured Catholic Mass to the
Quaker meeting, whose limited structure is determined by civility.  The
degree of literal stringency by which the scriptures are read is another
measure of individual vs. church control; in some denominations, the
authority of scripture -- its "inerrancy" -- is equivalent to the Pope's
authority.

Probably the most important functional difference among churches is to be
found in the nature of salvation advertised.  Some churches, notably some
fundamentalist denominations, believe in the Calvinistic "doctrine of the
elect."  It can be briefly summarized like this:  "To do God's will is man's
first duty; in Adam, that was possible; in the Fall of Adam, that power was
destroyed; all are rightfully damned; God in Christ redeems whom He wills,
i.e., the elect; these live by faith in union with Christ; they find
themselves able to do God's will in the world; His purpose moves through
history to its predestined end."  A sense of predestination robs adherents of
the doctrine of the elect of significant motivation to seek truth, intensify
faith, or perform meritorious deeds. 

A final area of difference is evangelism.  Some churches are quite content to
evangelize by example.  In other words, by living a good life, and coming to
peace, one will create an example to which others will be attracted.  Other
churches emphasize the conversion of non-believers, some with an intensity
that would do an Amway salesman proud.  

The "Christian" Right is not a monolith.  The doctrine of the elect, however,
is a prominent feature of fundamentalism that tends to alienate it from
mainstream Christianity.  Evangelism, while seen on both left and right, is
an essential feature of the "Christian" Right's race toward world dominion.
 Headship is essential to subordination of women and children.  Charismatic
expression offers temporary release from domination for subordinates.
 Episcopacy offers some degree of stability in this era of religious fads,
while congregationalism frees a local group from the manipulations of a
misguided centralized authority.  Over the short term, the "Christian" Right
has emphasized congregationalism to splinter the mainstream churches, while
over the long term, the "Christian" Right will certainly turn to ever more
centralized authority.  The emergence of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as
"superapostles" certainly suggests this to be the case. 


True Witness, Issue 8, Part A, Continued in B.  Feb. 29, 1996
_____________________________________________

True Witness is a publication of The Chautauqua Society.  It is compiled by a
citizen network of watchers to monitor public pronouncements of the far right
in media.  To join this effort, send e-mail to LeftAlive@aol.com  

(c)  Material in True Witness is copyrighted.  All rights reserved.  Material
may not be reproduced for profit without editorial permission.  If articles
are preserved intact, properly credited, and this notice of copyright
attached, material may be reproduced.


True Witness, Issue 8, Part B.  February 29, 1996

5.  What's in a Name?

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say
to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your
name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'  Then I will tell them
plainly, 'I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers.' " (Matt. 7)

If you listen to Pat Robertson's 700 Club, you will hear the claim that if
you simply pray repentance "in Jesus' name," you will be saved, healed, and
eligible to receive all of the material door prizes offered by Jehovah to His
elect salesmen of salvation.  The viewer's skepticism might be raised by the
small matter that over a typical month, the 700 Club purports to do more
miracles than were done by Jesus and his disciples over many years.  So, an
important aspect of confronting the "Christian" Right is to understand what,
exactly, is meant by acting in "the name" of Jesus Christ.  

"All the prophets testify about [Jesus] that everyone who believes in him
receives forgiveness through his name."  (Acts 10: 43)   

In Acts, Peter heals a crippled beggar (3:6, 3:16, 4:10), fortune-telling
demons are cast out of a girl (16:18), and the paralytic Aeneas is healed by
the Name.  Saul/Paul's vision is restored by the Name (Acts 22:16).  Misuse
of the Name backfires on the sons of the Jewish priest Sceva (19:13-16).  So,
in Christian theology, the name of Jesus constitutes authority to heal -- yet
the Name can be misused or, as in Matt. 7, used sincerely but without proper
authority.

The Name is not a simple combination of sounds.  Indeed, the contemporaries
of Jesus probably addressed him as "Yeshua," not its Greek equivalent,
anglicized as "Jesus."  Nor is the Name a representation (a symbol or image)
of the historical personage.  If it were, it would be impossible for the Name
to be misused or used without authority.  

Just as God answered Moses, who demanded to know His name, with "I AM THAT I
AM" (Exodus 3:14), a satisfying answer to the question "What is the Name of
Jesus?" is difficult.  John 1 tells us, "In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God...," and it goes on to tell us
that Jesus is the Word of God become flesh.  The Name is the primal essence
of the creative love of God that pours through a human being to act on the
material plane.  And so it becomes all too clear that many who act using the
name "Jesus" have no idea what the Name really is.  Conversely, many who have
never heard of or even have bad associations with the name "Jesus" could,
perhaps, be very close to him in spirit.

That latter speculation would probably be regarded as blasphemous by the
"Christian" Right.  Even many mainstream Christians might regard it as a bit
avant-garde.  It opens the door to the possibility that any number of people
who consider themselves to be Buddhists, Bahais, Moslems, Jews, and even
atheists might actually be well-known and well-loved by Jesus. 

The passage that is almost automatically used to refute that notion is " 'I
am the way and the truth and the life.'  No one comes to the Father except
through me" (John 14:6), which is usually taken as a claim of exclusivity.
 However, Jesus also states that "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30).
 Jesus did not consider himself to be simply the historical personality, but
a manifestation of God.  Render John 14:6 as, "None comes to know God except
through experiencing the primal essence of His love," and parallels between
Christian enlightenment experiences and those of other religions emerge. 

In fact, the proposition that anyone who sincerely seeks the one true God
will find Christ may sound strange to modern ears, but it would have been
familiar to Paul.  As he preached the gospel outside of the Jewish community,
he made a similar remarkable statement:

"God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted [the Gentiles] by giving
the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.  He made no distinction
between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.  Now, then, why
do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke
[detailed Mosaic law] that neither we nor our fathers have been able to
bear?" (Acts 14: 8-10) 

and, again:

"Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required
by the law, they are a law for themselves... since they show that the
requirements of the law are written on their hearts...." (Romans 2:14)

These two statements represent a huge leap in recognizing that the fellowship
of God is far more inclusive than mere membership in human institutions.
 These statements unite on an equal footing Jews, polytheistic Romans and
Greeks, and pagans of the Roman Empire into a single (monotheistic)
brotherhood. 

We see, then, how the "Christian" Right, in the cheerless literalism that
erases all meaning from the Bible, misinform their congregations as to the
meaning of the Name.  Also, the "Christian" Right claims certain salvation
only to those who pray to the name "Jesus," but the scripture that is
supposed to be the foundation of this claim is sand.  In the name of Jesus,
people have been defamed and even tortured or killed.  What blind guides
these fundamentalist Pharisees are!  

6.  The Devil Quoting Scripture

"Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
 You believe that there is one God.  Good!  Even the demons believe that --
and shudder."   (James 2:18-19)

             ---------------------------------------

Here is a recent snapshot of the "Christian" Right:  

"Norm Olson's store...sells two items: guns and King James Bibles.... Olson
is still involved in the militia and the pulpit.  He recently preached in an
auction barn...to 30 militia members wearing fatigues...'I am a military man,
and God raised me up as a warrior for the Lord,' Olson boasts.... [S]ome
militia members subscribe to a twisted, racist gospel (one newsletter
suggested bumper stickers to read 'Ethnic Cleansing-The Only Way!' and 'Speak
English or Die').... Kaplan explains, 'Conspirators become Satan worshipers,
and then everything becomes clear.  Absolute evil undergirds it all.' "
 (Guns and Bibles, Joe Maxwell and Andres Tapia, Christianity Today 6/19/95)

"Jerry Falwell is promoting on his Old Time Gospel Hour 'Bill Clinton's
Circle of Power,' a $40 video tape, that suggests Clinton has been involved
in murder.  Asked to defend his seeming support of the unproved allegations,
Falwell said on NBC's Today show, 'it was not produced by us.' " (cited in
Eye on New York, v. 1, Issue 18, 1995)

"How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists,
New Age, worshipers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy
moneychangers, revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on
top?" (Pat Robertson, in The New World Order, (1991) p.227; cited in Eye on
New York v. 1, Iss.18, 1995)

"Politics, preaching and prayer flowed in a single stream at a Jan. 19-20
gathering alongside the Mississippi River as presidential candidates came to
Memphis, Tenn., to seek a blessing from the Religious Right.... 'When the
government condones what God condemns, it's time for Christians to stand up
and speak out against government,' [Pastor John] Hagee shouted to a
thundering ovation.... 'We want a president who will stand against the
welfare system as we know it,' he added next.  'The Bible says those who will
not work should not eat' ... 'We must focus on abortion and make it once
again a crime under the law,' she [Wanda Franz] said, asserting that
Christians are morally obliged to be single-issue voters regarding the issue
of abortion.... 'The United Nations wants to take over our country,' warned
Beverly LaHaye, president of Concerned Women for America.  'This is the most
anti-family organization in the world today.' ... 'We are on the threshold of
the most important election of our lifetime,' said Reed of the Christian
Coalition.  'We will elect a president for the next millennium.' " (M.
Wingfield, PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS SEEK BLESSING FROM RELIGIOUS RIGHT,
Associated Baptist Press, 1/22/96)

"Beverly LaHaye, president of the Concerned Women for America, blasted
Hillary Clinton as being part of a United Nations effort to create one world
government.... 'When you see Hillary Rodham Clinton on TV promoting her book,
It Takes a Village, do not be deceived,'  LaHaye warned.... Gary Bauer,
president of the Family Research Council, a political-action wing of James
Dobson's Focus on the Family [said]... 'Clinton and Gore sold their souls for
political gain...' " (M. Wingfield, SPEAKERS BLAST CLINTON AT RELIGIOUS RIGHT
EVENT, Associated Baptist Press, 1/22/95)

"Anger has a bad reputation, but it is not all bad.  'Be ye angry, and sin
not:'  (Eph 4:26) is an interesting verse to contemplate.  Not only must it
be possible to be angry without it being wrong, but there must be some good
that can come from anger! ... I have made a short list of things that make me
downright mad: The New World Order; The United Nations; Political
Correctness; Women in Combat; Public School Curriculums; Sex Education (the
way it's taught); Outcome Based Education; Free Condoms; Values Clarification
History Revision; Witchcraft Classes; New Age Nonsense; The Welfare State;
The National Education Association (NEA); The National Endowment for the Arts
(NEA); Big Brother Government; Gun Control; Christians Who Aren't Registered
to Vote; Christians Who Don't Vote; Taxes So High Wives Have to Work; Tax
Breaks for Working Moms; Tax Penalties for Homemaker Moms; Preachers and
Politicians Who Lie; The Liberal Bias of the Media; Hollywood's Depiction of
Christians as Hypocrites or Buffoons; Randell Terry Jailed While Drug Dealers
Go Free; Jesse Jackson Having the Title Rev.; Bill Clinton Carrying a Bible
and Making a Show of Religion; Health Wealth and Prosperity; Name it and
Claim it Religion; Abortion, Especially Tax-Funded Ones; Middle of the Road,
Moderate (Luke-Warm) Politicians and Preachers Who Don't Stand for Anything;
NOW, ERA, and the ACLU; The World Council of Churches; The Council on Foreign
Relations; The Trilateral Commission; The Federal Reserve; Ed Asner, Jane
Fonda, and Louis Farakhan; Nursing Homes that Drug People Out of Their Mind
So They are Easier to Take Care of; Those Who 'Worship' at the Golf Course or
Lake Instead of Church; Fathers Who Abandon, Abuse, or Neglect Their Kids;
Parents Who Let Small Children Control Them; Evolution Taught as Science (Is
it any wonder our kids act like animals?); Earth Day, Horned Owls, Save the
Whales and any Ecological Nonsense That Places Animals Above Men."
 (Contribution to a Promise Keeper mail list, 1/14/95)

                 -------------------------------

Clearly, something is wrong when numerous adherents to a religion based on
truth, responsibility, non-violence, humility, and love produce such a pack
of lies, finger-pointing, violence, self-aggrandizement, and hatred.  

Does Christianity instruct people to sell weapons, hate welfare mothers, use
lies to destroy political opponents, or broil in anger?  No!  And again --
No!  It is only through the twisting of Scripture to promote political ends
that such twisted and perverse results have been obtained. 

As an example, take a look at the verse from Ephesians quoted above to
justify anger: "Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your
anger."  It continues, "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." (Eph.
4:26; 31-32)  Surely NOT an injunction to be angry!  Yet the "Christian"
Right misuses scripture to justify hostility behind a screen of
"righteousness."  Many among them seem to believe that because they are
"saved," those whom they perceive as their enemies are also enemies of God --
and the most extreme feel called to destroy the enemies of God.  Even at
their best, the "Christian" Right offer love through clenched teeth.

But mainstream Americans who call themselves followers of Christ have allowed
a political movement to drape itself in the mantle of Christianity.  For
their silence, the nation will pay a high price -- and the longer individual
Christians fail to speak out against the perversion of scripture, the higher
the price will be. 

"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the
Devil's schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark
world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms....
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the
breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the
readiness that comes from the gospel of peace." (Eph. 6:11; 14-15)

For at least the next 4 years, the United States of America will be consumed
by an internal struggle.  Because of the coming of the Millennium, and the
"Christian" Right's belief that the world as we know it is about to end, we
can only expect that their tactics will grow ever more desperate.  Mainstream
Christians cannot stand by, because events will not permit them to.  

Expect assaults against:  national standards in education, public schools,
the teaching of biology, sex education, the basic human rights of immigrants,
gays, and non-WASPs, minimal guarantees for the poor, the legal right to
abortion, gun control, aid to the poor and elderly, American engagement in
the world, environmental protection, all Federal government except the
military, Hollywood, liberalism, Democratic figures, working women, and
single mothers.  

What you can do:  get involved in and around your community, especially the
schools and food kitchens; turn off the TV and start learning about the
right; volunteer for right-watch efforts; study the Bible and rebuke
scriptural perversion with scriptural knowledge.  The Appendix that is
attached may help you in that effort.  


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

1.  IT'S FUNDAMENTALLY CHRISTIAN TO REJECT POLITICS OF HATE (President J. E.
Carter, Los Angeles Times, Friday, February 23, 1996)  "Campaign '96: No one
should condone, even by silence, the persecution of homosexuals.... [W]hen we
attempt to use our government to force others to worship as we do...we
violate the basic tenets of a democracy.  As a conservative Baptist, I am
deeply concerned.... Beginning about 20 years ago, some Christian leaders
concluded a union with the more conservative wing of the Republican Party....
Now leaders of the highly organized Christian right have successfully
injected into America's political debate some divisive religious
questions....The most vivid examples involve sexual preferences, which
obviously have highly personal and emotional overtones.... [I]t is much
easier and more convenient for heterosexual Christians to focus on
homosexuality, refusing to acknowledge that this is a sin never mentioned by
Jesus.  From the New Testament, it is clear that leaders of the early church
treated homosexual acts [on par with] many transgressions.... The driving
issues in the early Republican primary contests have been made a strange and
disturbing shift from economic and budget items to divisive social issues,
notably abortion and homosexuality.  In the early caucus contests, pressures
from the more extreme religious activists have pushed almost every candidate
to demagoguery, emphasizing vicious attacks on gay men and women.... Other
Christians and the general public must not condone, even by silence, these
obnoxious attitudes, increasingly promoted among a few demagogic religious
and political leaders.... We must make it clear that a platform of 'I hate
gay men and women' is not a way to become president of the United States."

2.  The Following are excerpts from Patrick Buchanan's speech at the
Republican National Convention August 17, 1992:

Like many of you last month, I watched that giant masquerade ball at Madison
Square Garden [the Democratic convention]--where 20,000 radicals and liberals
came dressed up as moderates and centrists--in the greatest single exhibition
of cross-dressing in American political history. 

At its top is unrestricted abortion on demand.  When the Irish-Catholic
governor of Pennsylvania, Robert Casey, asked to say a few words on behalf of
the 25 million unborn children destroyed since Roe v Wade, he was told there
was no place for him at the podium of Bill Clinton's convention, no room at
the inn.  Yet a militant leader of the homosexual rights movement could rise
at that convention and exult: "Bill Clinton and Al Gore represent the most
pro-lesbian and pro-gay ticket in history."  And so they do. 

Friends, this is radical feminism.  The agenda Clinton & Clinton would impose
on America--abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court,
homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in
combat--that's change, all right.  But it is not the kind of change America
wants.  It is not the kind of change America needs. And it is not the kind of
change we can tolerate in a nation that we still call God's country. 

Yes, we disagreed with President Bush, but we stand with him for freedom of
choice... religious schools, and we stand with him against the amoral idea
that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married
men and women.  

My friends, this election is about much more than who gets what.  It is about
who we are.  It is about what we believe.  It is about what we stand for as
Americans.  There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of
America.  It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one
day be as was the Cold War itself.  And as they took back the streets of LA,
block by block, so we must take back our cities, and take back our culture,
and take back our country. God bless you, and God bless America. 

3.  And More Buchanan Excerpts (thanks to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
 Further information from fair-info@fair.org.  Web site at:
http://www.fair.org/fair):

Attacking what he considers the "democratist temptation, the worship of
democracy as a form of governance," Buchanan commented: "Like all idolatries,
democratism substitutes a false god for the real, a love of process for a
love of country." (Patrick J. Buchanan: From the Right, newsletter,
Spring/90)

In a 1977 column, Buchanan said that despite Hitler's anti-Semitic and
genocidal tendencies, he was "an individual of great courage...Hitler's
success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone.  His genius was an
intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness
masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in
his path." (The Guardian, 1/14/92)
 
Writing of "group fantasies of martyrdom," Buchanan challenged the historical
record that thousands of Jews were gassed to death by diesel exhaust at
Treblinka: "Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill
anybody." (New Republic, 10/22/90)  Buchanan's columns have run in the
Liberty Lobby's Spotlight, the German-American National PAC newsletter and
other publications that claim Nazi death camps are a Zionist concoction.

After Cardinal O'Connor criticized anti-Semitism during the controversy over
construction of a convent near Auschwitz, Buchanan wrote: "If U.S. Jewry
takes the clucking appeasement of the Catholic cardinalate as indicative of
our submission, it is mistaken. When Cardinal O'Connor of New York seeks to
soothe the always irate Elie Wiesel by reassuring him 'there are many
Catholics who are anti-Semitic'...he speaks for himself. Be not afraid, Your
Eminence; just step aside, there are bishops and priests ready to assume the
role of defender of the faith." (New Republic, 10/22/90)

On race relations in the late 1940s and early 1950s: "There were no politics
to polarize us then, to magnify every slight. The 'negroes' of Washington had
their public schools, restaurants, bars, movie houses, playgrounds and
churches; and we had ours." (Right from the Beginning, Buchanan's 1988
autobiography, p. 131) 

White House advisor Buchanan urged President Nixon in an April 1969 memo not
to visit "the Widow King" on the first anniversary of Martin Luther King's
assassination, warning that a visit would "outrage many, many people who
believe Dr. King was a fraud and a demagogue and perhaps worse.... Others
consider him the Devil incarnate.  Dr. King is one of the most divisive men
in contemporary history." (New York Daily News, 10/1/90)

In a column sympathetic to ex-Klansman David Duke, Buchanan chided the
Republican Party for overreacting to Duke and his Nazi "costume": "Take a
hard look at Duke's portfolio of winning issues and expropriate those not in
conflict with GOP principles, [such as] reverse discrimination against white
folks." (syndicated column, 2/25/89)

Buchanan on affirmative action: "How, then, can the feds justify favoring
sons of Hispanics over sons of white Americans who fought  in World War II or
Vietnam?" (syndicated column, 1/23/95)

On AIDS, Buchanan wrote in 1983: "The poor homosexuals -- they have declared
war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution (AIDS)."
(Los Angeles Times, 11/28/86)  Later that year, he demanded that New York
City Mayor Ed Koch and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo cancel the Gay Pride Parade
or else "be held personally responsible for the spread of the AIDS plague."
 "With 80,000 dead of AIDS, our promiscuous homosexuals appear literally
hell-bent on Satanism and suicide," Buchanan wrote in 1990 (syndicated
column, 10/17/90).  In the 1992 campaign, he declared: "AIDS is nature's
retribution for violating the laws of nature." (Seattle Times, 7/31/93)

Buchanan, shortly before he announced he was running for president in 1995:
"You just wait until 1996, then you'll see a real right- wing tyrant." (The
Nation, 6/26/95)


True Witness, Issue 8, Part B, continued in C.  Feb. 29, 1996
______________________________________________

True Witness is a publication of The Chautauqua Society.  It is compiled by a
citizen network of watchers to monitor public pronouncements of the far right
in media.  To join this effort, send e-mail to LeftAlive@aol.com  

(c)  Material in True Witness is copyrighted.  All rights reserved.  Material
may not be reproduced for profit without editorial permission.  If articles
are preserved intact, properly credited, and this notice of copyright
attached, material may be reproduced.


True Witness, Issue 8, Part C.  February 29, 1996

APPENDIX:  Biblical extracts

CONTRADICTIONS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.  The best place to look for
contradictions is among the Gospels, since they cover the same events and
demonstrate irreconciliable differences.

The Gospels are in tremendous disagreement on the lineage of Joseph.  Luke
says that "He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the
son of Matthat, the son of Levi..." (Luke 3), while Matthew says that Joseph
was the son of Jacob, who was the son of Matthan, who was the son of
Eleazar..." (Matt. 1).  Although both lineages trace Joseph's descent from
King David, Matthew thinks that it was through his son Solomon, while Luke
thinks it was his son Nathan!  These lineages are utterly irreconcilable,
demonstrating how shameless are those who claim scriptural inerrancy.  

Another good illustration of why the Bible is not meant to be read literally
is the passage which says that a camel will pass through the eye of a needle
more readily than a rich man will enter heaven.  In Mark 10, Jesus tells "a
rich young man" the commandments, and includes "do not defraud."  In Luke 18,
Jesus lists the same commandments less that about defrauding to "a rich
ruler."  Matt. 19 deletes defrauding in the lecture to the "rich young man,"
but adds "love your neighbor as yourself."  John doesn't mention the episode
at all!  

Another point that will surprise many mainstream Christians is that the
events surrounding the birth of Jesus in Matthew and Luke cannot be
reconciled.  Both Gospels agree that the Holy Spirit impregnates Mary, but
from there they diverge.  In Matthew, Joseph has a vision, Jesus is born at
home in Bethlehem, the Magi visit, Herod plots the murder of the infant
Jesus, Joseph has a vision which tells him to flee to Egypt, Herod kills all
the children of Bethlehem, Herod dies, and Joseph returns to Nazareth.  But
Luke describes Mary as being in Nazareth when she is visited by the Holy
Spirit, the family travels to Bethlehem for the census, shepherds (but no
Magi) come, Jesus is born not in Joseph's home, but is placed in a manger
because there is no room at the inn, and then -- unhindered by Herod, who
seems to have no knowledge or interest in the birth -- the family returns to
Nazareth.  Joseph has no visions.  Mark and John are wisely silent on the
birth of Jesus -- but not so the fundamentalists.  

PERILS OF WEALTH: THE IMPERATIVE OF JUSTICE AND CHARITY

Large sections of the Bible are devoted to rebuking power, and warning that
wealth almost certainly corrupts its possessor.  The "Christian" Right barely
admits that these verses exist, preferring to cite those rare passages about
illicit sex as though the Good Book were filled with nothing but such
admonitions.  In challenging the wealthy and powerful, consider these
passages -- they're great for attaching to FAXes to the 104th Congress:  

"Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him..." (Exodus 22:21, repeated in Ex
23)

"Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan.  If you do and they cry out
to me, I will certainly hear their cry." (Ex 22:22-23)

"Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.  Have nothing to
do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death,
for I will not acquit the guilty." (Ex 23:6-7)

"Do not hate your brother in your heart." (Leviticus 19:17)

"When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him.  The alien
living with you must be treated as one of your native-born." (Lev 19:33-34)

"Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice..." (Deut 24:17)

"In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the
schemes he devises.  He boasts of the cravings of his heart; he blesses the
greedy and reviles the Lord.  In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in
all his thoughts there is no room for God.  His ways are always prosperous;
he is haughty and your laws are far from him." (Psalm 10:2-5)

"You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you
listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order
that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more." (Psalm 10:17-18) 

"Will evildoers never learn -- those who devour my people as men eat bread
and do not call on the Lord?  There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God
is present in the company of the righteous.  You evildoers frustrate the
plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge." (Psalm 14:4-6)

"Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:  He bustles about, but only in
vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it." (Psalm 39:6)

"Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house
increases; for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will
not descend with him."  (Psalm 49:16-17)

"A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish."
(Psalm 49:20)

"Here now is the man who did not make his God his stronghold but trusted in
his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!" (Psalm 52:7)

"Do you rulers indeed speak justly?  Do you judge uprightly among men?  No,
in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the
earth." (Psalm 58:1-2)

"Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches
increase, do not set your heart on them." (Psalm 62:10)

"This is what the wicked are like -- always carefree, they increase in
wealth." (Psalm 73:12)   

"How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?
 Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless; maintain the rights of the
poor and oppressed.  Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the
hand of the wicked." (Psalm 82:2-4)

"The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed." (Psalm
103:6)

"Though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows
from afar." (Psalm 138:6)

"See how the faithful city has become a harlot!  She was once full of
justice; righteousness used to dwell in her -- but now murderers!  Your
silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water.  Your rulers
are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after
gifts.  They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does
not come before them." (Isaiah 1:21-23)  

"Woe to those who ... acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the
innocent... for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty...." (Isaiah
5:22-24)

"Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to
deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of
my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.  What will
you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar?  To whom will
you run for help?  Where will you leave your riches?" (Isaiah 10:1-3)

"I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins.  I will put
an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the
ruthless.  I will make man scarcer than pure gold..." (Isaiah 13:11-12)      

"How the oppressor has come to an end!  How his fury has ended!  The Lord has
broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, which in anger
struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with
relentless aggression." (Isaiah 14:4-6)

"In the evening, sudden terror!  Before the morning, they are gone!  This is
the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us." (Isaiah
17:14)

"This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:  Reform your ways
and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.  Do not trust in
deceptive words and say, 'This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the
Lord, the temple of the Lord!'  If you really change your ways and your
actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the
fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if
you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in
this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.  But look,
you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless." (Jeremiah 7:3-8)

"You who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the
ground...you hate the one who reproves in court and despise him who tells the
truth.  You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain.  Therefore,
though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you
have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine.  For I know how
many are your offenses and how great your sins.  You oppress the righteous
and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts." (Amos
5:7-12)

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." (Matthew 6:19)

"You cannot serve both God and Money." (Matt 6:24)

"The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who
hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth
choke it, making it unfruitful." (Matt 13:22)

"Jesus answered [the rich young man] 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell
your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
 Then come, follow me.'  When the young man heard this, he went away sad,
because he had great wealth.  Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'I tell you
the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I
tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Matt 19:21-24)

"Peter answered [Simon]: 'May your money perish with you, because you thought
you could buy the gift of God with money!  You have no part or share in this
ministry, because your heart is not right before God.' " (Acts 8:20-21)

"People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many
foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.  For
the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.  Some people, eager for
money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."
(1 Tim. 6:9-10)

"Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those
who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." (Hebrews 13:3)

"The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high
position.  But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, for
he will pass away like a wild flower.  For the sun rises with scorching heat
and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed.  In the
same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business."
(James 1:9-11)

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look
after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being
polluted by the world." (James 1:27)

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no
deeds?  Can such a faith save him?  Suppose a brother or sister is without
clothes or daily food.  If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep
warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is
it?  In the same way, faith, by itself, if it is not accompanied by action,
is dead." (James 2:14-17)

"Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is
coming upon you.  Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.
 Your gold and silver are corroded.  Their corrosion will testify against you
and eat your flesh like fire.  You have hoarded wealth in the last days.
 Look!  The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are
crying out against you.  The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of
the Lord Almighty.  You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence.
 You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.  You have condemned
and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you." (James 5:1-6)

"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no
pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?" (1 John 3:17)

THE IMPERATIVE OF TRUTH:  REBUKING LIES AND MALICE

Whether it is Jerry Falwell and Rush Limbaugh spreading slander about Vince
Foster, or the House freshmen proclaiming, "We didn't shut the government
down; President Clinton did," or Marvin Olasky proclaiming the "tragedy" that
poverty in this nation has been reduced by wise governance, and that we must
return to a bland indifference to misery, this age has been full of malice
and lies that deserve sound rebukes.  We suggest the following:  

"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." (The Ninth
Commandment; Exodus 20:16)

"Do not spread false reports.  Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious
witness." (Exodus 23:1)

"Do not lie.  Do not deceive one another." (Lev 19:11)

"You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot
dwell.  The arrogant cannot stand your presence; you hate all who do wrong.
 You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord
abhors." (Psalm 5:4-6)

"He who is pregnant with evil and conceives trouble gives birth to
disillusionment.  He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he
has made.  The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down
on his own head." (Psalm 7:14-16) 

"Everyone lies to his neighbor; their flattering lips speak deception.  May
the Lord cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue that says, 'We
will triumph with our tongues; we own our lips -- who is our master?'
 'Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will
now arise' says the Lord." (Psalm 12:2-5)

"But to the wicked, God says: 'What right have you to recite my laws or take
my covenant on your lips?  You hate my instruction and cast my words behind
you.  When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with
adulterers.  You use your mouth for evil, and harness your tongue to deceit.
 You speak continually against your brother and slander your own mother's
son.' " (Psalm 50:16-20)

"Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man?  Why do you boast all day long,
you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?  Your tongue plots destruction; it
is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit.  You love evil rather
than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth." (Psalm 52:1-3)

"Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one
who does good, not even one." (Psalm 53:3)

"Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them."
(Psalm 54:5)
  
"No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks
falsely will stand in my presence." (Psalm 101:7)

"The scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the
righteous, for then the righteous might use their hands to do evil." (Psalm
125:3)

"I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line;
hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your
hiding place." (Isaiah 28:17)

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light
and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
(Isaiah 5:20)

"The Lord spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow
the way of this people.  He said:  Do not call conspiracy everything that
these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear and do not dread
it." (Isaiah 8:11-12)

"Surely wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns, it sets
the forest thickets ablaze, so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke."
(Isaiah 9:18)

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice..." (Hosea 6:6)

"Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts." (Amos 5:15)

"But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing
stream!" (Amos 5:24)

"And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the
blasphemy against the Spirit [of truth] will not be forgiven." (Matt 12:31)

" 'Are you still so dull?' Jesus asked.... '[T]he things that come out of the
mouth come from the heart, and these make a man "unclean."  For out of the
heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false
testimony, slander.  These are what make a man "unclean"...' " (Matt
15:16-20)

"Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for
fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But whosoever lives by the truth comes
into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been
through God." (John 3:20-21)

"You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?"
(Romans 2:23)

"For the word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it
judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)

"We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates
his brother, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he
has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." (1 John 4:19)

CHRISTIANITY:  PERSONAL PURIFICATION, NOT POLITICAL CLEANSING.   

In confronting the bile being poured out against homosexuals, welfare
mothers, wanton liberals, and other demons of the "Christian" Right, consider
the following scriptural passages:  

"Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests..."
(Hosea 4:6)

"...unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees [the
fundamentalists of that era]...you will certainly not enter the kingdom of
heaven." (Matt. 5:20)

"...anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment." (Matt.
5:22)

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.... [I]f you greet
only your brothers,...[d]o not even pagans do that?" (Matt 5:44-47)

"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by
them." (Matt 6:1)

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged." (Matt 7:1) 

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no
attention to the plank in your own eye?" (Matt 7:3)

"...go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' " (Matt
9:13)

"Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites...you have
neglected the more important matters of the law -- justice, mercy and
faithfulness." (Matt 23:23)

"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for
at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because
you who pass judgement do the same things." (Romans 2:1)

"'As it is written, 'There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one
who understands, no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have
together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.' "
(Romans 3:10-12)  

"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual
immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ...
[Y]ou must rid yourself of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice,
slander, and filthy language from your lips."  (Col. 3:5-8)

"Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as
though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 'Do not handle!
 Do not taste!  Do not touch!'?  These are all destined to perish with use,
because they are based on human commands and teachings.  Such regulations
indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their
false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value
in restraining sensual indulgence." (Col. 2:20-23)

ONE FOR RALPH REED

"Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception,
nor do we distort the word of God.  On the contrary, by setting forth the
truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of
God." (2 Cor. 4:2)

AND ONE FOR PAT ROBERTSON

"Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit."  (2 Cor. 2:17)

AND ONE FOR OUR PATIENT READERS

May the peace of the Lord be on you, may the Spirit of truth be in you, may
the call of justice rouse you, strengthen you, and guide you.  
______________________________________________

True Witness is a publication of The Chautauqua Society.  It is compiled by a
citizen network of watchers to monitor public pronouncements of the far right
in media.  To join this effort, send e-mail to LeftAlive@aol.com  

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