TRULY Remembering 9/11

Last night Keith Olbermann spoke (as usual) with incredible eloquence regarding the real meaning of remembering 9/11, as opposed to the Republican ad campaign that abuses the memories of those who suffered in 9/11, cynically commandeering that memory as a way to maintain, and further abuse, the power they so desperately crave.

On Nov. 4, Remember OK City

Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic writes, in an op-ed in the NY Times entitled "On Nov.4, Remember 9/11" that "The next president must do one thing, and one thing only, if he is to be judged a success: He must prevent Al Qaeda, or a Qaeda imitator, from gaining control of a nuclear device and detonating it in America. " He goes on to state that "We live, seven years after 9/11, in the age of the super-empowered, eschatologically minded terrorist. He is motivated by revolutionary and theological concerns rather than by nationalist grievances, and he is adept at manipulating technology against its Western innovators."

I would suggest to the rather myopic Mr. Goldberg that the potential terrorists are much much closer, just as fanatical, and ESPECIALLY eschatological. They too have struck on our shores, and the devastation of that event is still being felt.

The posting and the listing below discusses the real threat from religious fanatics in this country.

The gretest danger on November 4 is that we could elect to the Vice Presidency, a fundamentalist megalomaniac in an A-line skirt and cute little librarian glasses. She could, quite easily, and quite rapidly, move to a position where her finger is on the trigger of our entire nuclear arsenal and her religious, God-delivered orders to start The Final Battle have already been given.

This is just scary!

[NOTE AS OF FRIDAY MORNING 9/12/08: The video below is SUPPOSED to be playing from You Tube, but instead there is an error message that comes up stating that it has been removed. I made a search for - and found - another source for this material because I believe it is VERY important that it be seen. In the meantime, please read what I have to say about it, because the perspective remains, and is in fact perhaps even MORE significant in light of this new development.

In addition, for a look at the way Google's censorship policy works in oher countries around the world, go to my story on China and watch the Tank Man movie.]


Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.

Anyone who knows me personally, or who reads this blog on any semi-regular basis (I only WRITE it on a semi-regular basis), knows that I firmly believe in the importance of the separation of church and state. At the same time, I believe in the rights of believers (all believers of all faiths) to worship as they believe is appropriate (within a certain range of human descency however... murder as a part of worship is not really something that sits well with me for example).

I am "a believer" myself, though what that actually means in my life is not what a lot of people who call themselves "believers" would accept. I have a Masters of Divinity from a Southern Baptist seminary (a degree that also has a social work major - something that no SBC seminary offers any longer), I attended Oral Roberts University my freshman year in college... I have "spoken in tongues" (no smart-ass comments please). I was "licensed to preach" by the Southern Baptists when I was 18. For three years I worked for the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board at a mission in San Francisco. I am an ordained minister, and I co-pastored a small church in San Francisco for a short period of time in 1981. I directed an independent gospel music recording company from 1982 - 1991. I am presently a member of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.

All I have to say about the above is that we need to BE CAREFUL!!! As you will see in the video (go to the links at the end for more, if you can stomach it), the election of Sarah Palin would be no less than the final ascension of the first of The American Taliban to reach high executive office. It's a plan that began with these people back right about the time I graduated from seminary (1980) and the arch-conservative factions of a number of Protestant denominations swore that they were going to take over first their denominations and then the country as a whole. I stood in an auditorium in LA while Bailey Smith, the newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, made that declaration and I went home and watched as my church (a church open to and welcoming gay people among others) was harassed and eventually thrown out of the SBC.

These people believe in it... These people want it... These people will make it happen. These people aren't your relatively benign, live and let live neighborhood Presbyterians (or Episcopalians, or even most Baptists), these people are fanatical, war-mongering, psychotics and they absolutely believe that what they do comes by direct order from God. There is no difference between the churches that Sarah Palin comes from and the deep fundamentalist Islamic mosques and schools of Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia; no difference except the fact that one believes in a demented Jesus while the other believes in a demented Mohammed. BOTH are wrong, BOTH are evil, and BOTH are terrifying. They are drunk, free-wheeling maniacs commandeering Arnold Schwrzanegger's Hummer and speeding down the political freeway with God in the back seat smoking crack and yelling out orders.

Jim Jones on steroids and lugging gigantic containers of kool-aid.

John McCain is too ignorant of these folks and their beliefs to realize the deal he's made, or - and I truly believe this - he wouldn't have made it. Giving the Republican Party, and the country, to these people is literally a "Disaster of Biblical Proportions!"

While it's possible that John"... would rather lose an election than a war," he clearly IS willing to sell our country down the river to these takeover fanatics in order to win THIS election.

If you thought we were at war before... get ready for friggin' ARMAGEDDON...

Their ultimate goal is to destroy the world so they can go home to Jesus.

We Are The Ones...

Every time I see this video, or hear this song, I keep thinking that this is what this blog is about.

It isn't about my cousin... It isn't about people and principles we can't understand. What this is really about.. What LIFE is really about is BEING the ones that we have been waiting for.

If we succeed, or don't (oh please God no) succeed in seeing Obama win the presidency of the U.S., the real point is what each of us does with it (both before and after). The last couple of weeks - for both public and personal reasons - have moved me to a new place, a REnewED place.

The fact of the matter is, there's only one thing I really give a damn about.

Children, Politics, and "Family Values"

There's been a lot of talk over the last few days about how candidates' children should be "off limits" in discussions of the candidates. While I am largely in agreement with that sentiment, I have a problem with it as well. The issue of Sarah Palin's new grand-fetus may not really be relevant to the discussion of her as Veep, but her approach to the issue, her thoughts on how to help prevent teen pregnancy, and her support, or lack thereof, for services to teenage mothers not related to the Governor is HIGHLY relevant. Hence the above graphic from Salon which shows Governor Palin's use of line item veto to cut $1,100,000 of funding (more than 20%) for Covenant House, a home for teen mothers. She also slashed $25,000 from the Fairbanks Community Food Bank, but that's worth another posting.

In addition, Palin's refusal to support anything but abstinence based sex education (I'm thinkin' THAT horse has left the proverbial barn) in Alaska's schools, begs the question of not only what did Bristol hear about sex in school, but what did she hear about sex in her Pentecostal home and church?

Yeah... It seems fair to ask that Bristol and her obvious fecundity should not be a major part of the campaign discussion. At the same time it is rare indeed that a candidate so strongly advocates one set of principles, policies, and... "values" while providing such an incredibly clear example of the arguments for the other side!

For further examples of this behavior see... Newt Gingrich, Larry Craig, or David Vitter.