Constitution » Pagan+Politics

Our Sacred Constitution

Jan 062011

Today, at 10:30 am (Eastern), the Constitution of the United States, excluding those portions that have been superseded such as the the 18th amendment, will be read aloud on the floor of the House of Representatives. As far as historians can tell, this will be the first time in our history that this will occur. This is in preface to a new House rule that requires every Bill to cite its basis in the Constitution.

Like all things our elected officials do, this is being dissected by pundits, political science academia, folks around the water coolers, and by the politicians themselves. Is reading the constitution aloud “long overdue” as Rep. Robert Goodlatte, who originally proposed this idea, proclaims? Is it “a presumptuous and self-righteous act” by the new GOP majority as the New York Times contends? I don’t see why it couldn’t be both. This is Washington we are talking about, after all.

More interesting than the usual polarizing viewpoints – us good, them bad – is the discussion taking place about how we, as a nation, feel about the Constitution. Take a look at these comments: (Bold emphasis is mine)

“They are reading it like a sacred text,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, and characterized the reading as “ritualistic.” “You read the Torah, you read the Bible, you build a worship service around it. You are not supposed to worship your constitution,” said Nadler, who went on to say that the Founders were not “demigods” and the document’s additional amendments to abolish slavery and other injustices showed it was “highly imperfect.”

On MSNBC, Dahlia Lithwick said: “The way some people rub Buddha and they think the magic will come off, I think there’s a longstanding tradition in this country. We’re awfully religious about the Constitution,” she said. “I think there is this sort of fetishization that is of a piece with the sort of need for a religious document that’s immutable and perfect in every way.”

Both of these statements posit that the Constitution of the United States is not a sacred document, that in order for a text to be sacred it must be unchangeable in nature, and that we grant it an irrational reverence that should be reserved for texts like the Bible and the Torah.

I find myself in total disagreement with Representative Nadler and Ms. Lithwick.

The idea that sacred texts must be unchangeable to be perfect is a uniquely Christian view. Even Christians who are not bible literalists, see the most well known of Christian sacred texts, the stone tablets containing the 10 Commandments, as something that is unchangeable and therefor perfect. Even though there are different versions of the Commandments in the bible, the ones God wrote and the ones Moses re-scribed. The very word of God handed down to man and you don’t screw with that, right?

Other religions, like Buddhism, Judaism and Paganism, look at sacred texts in a different light. They are words of wisdom that can change and be added to because they are alive. Some come directly from the divine, some divinely inspired, and others are wise saying of learned humans. The texts are used as a learning tool, are open to interpretation, and are studied. Students of sacred texts look not only to connect to the divine, they ‘divine’ a blueprint for how to live their life in harmony with a higher power or consciousness.

Columbia Eleutheria, which formerly graced the niche behind the Speaker in the House of Representatives.

That’s how I see the Constitution. It is a sacred text inspired by the Patron Goddess of this country, Columbia Eleutheria. I’m not alone in the belief that a divine hand, whether you call Her Columbia or Providence or God, assisted in the creation of our Constitution. Those where were there when the Constitution was created, whom some Pagans offer (or are considering offering) cultus to as a Hero, had this to say:

“I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence that I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance to the welfare of millions now existing, and to exist in the posterity of a great nation, should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler in whom all inferior spirits live and move and have their being.” Benjamin Franklin

“When the great work was done and published, I was … struck with amazement. Nothing less than that superintending hand of Providence, that so miraculously carried us through the war, … could have brought it about so complete, upon the whole .” Charles Pinckney

“For my part, I sincerely esteem [The Constitution] a system which, without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.” Alexander Hamilton

“No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.” George Washington

Although the mainstream sees the Constitution as a product of a Christian nation and attempt to whitewash the Founding Fathers as firmly Christian in their faith, the Constitution is purely Pagan. Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Washington were all men of the Enlightenment - a time when the ‘lost’ knowledge of the classical world resurfaced in art, literature, and philosophy. They consciously and deliberately set out to use the best of Pagan Athenian and Roman law, philosophy, and political science as the foundation of a new nation, not the Christian bible. The Framers made Rome our body and Athens our soul. Republican Rome offered the example of a Tripartite government consisting of three branches: the executive which was run by two consuls , the legislative which was run by the Roman senate , and the judicial which was run by the assembly. But it was Athenian Democracy, as exercised by the Demos (the People), that became the American ideal of liberty.

French philosopher André Glucksmann, offers an insight into the concept of liberty that the United States adopted from Greece. The same freedom that Columbia Eleutheria breathed into the hearts and minds of our Founding Fathers as they deliberated over the birth of our nation.

Glucksmann writes: “It is liberty understood in doubt and anxiety about the fate of man. Tragic freedom works in uncertainty, sailing toward no glorious destiny. Man is free, yes—free to learn from his mistakes. Or not.”

Our Constitution is a document containing sacred wisdom gained from our Goddess, a blueprint of how the USA can live in harmony if we devote ourselves to its study and gain the wisdom to interpret it. That the constitution can be amended demonstrates its perfection. We have the freedom to learn from our mistakes and correct them. Or not.

Oh – Representative Nadler, I do not see a “ritualistic” reading of the Constitution as meaningless or wrong. Ritual is a positive and effective way to ask for Divine guidance and aid. So I close with this prayer: May Columbia Eleutheria guide our Representatives – especially our newly elected House Speaker John Boehner – and grant Her blessing to our country.

Pagans and the New American Theocracy

Pagan+Politics 29 Responses »

Oct 072010

It’s hardly a secret that certain elements in the United States desire to overturn the Constitution and bring America to a theocratic form of government, in the process turning the clock back on the European Enlightenment and re-writing the history of the past thousand years or so.

The process has already begun. The United States dodged a bullet during the Bush administration, when dominionists came closest to controlling the government. It was a near thing and while one would think the election of a left-leaning centrist president would put the brakes on the drift, it has not. The Religious Right is as potent a force as ever.

Though Evangelicals comprise only about 25% of the population, and extremists/fundamentalists only about half that, their influence is all out of proportion with their numbers thanks to their wealth and their positions in government. Eight years of owning an administration did not hurt their cause at all, however much they might complain after the fact.

Today, xenophobia and Islamophobia have become central to the conservative platform. We are told that Sharia Law threatens to overturn our Constitution, but it is not Sharia Law that we are threatened with but Mosaic Law, which to all intents in purposes is identical, save for the name of the god involved, and who will be calling the shots.

For those who are either irreligious or follow spiritual paths other than Christianity, one is as bad as the other, and neither of these essentially Bronze Age law codes has any place in a modern liberal democracy which enshrines ideas of diversity, pluralism, and individual human rights. It must be remembered that the Old Testament enshrines none of these things. The Mosaic Law is not about rights but about obligations and restrictions; it is not inclusive but exclusive.

Where does this drift leave those belonging to alternative religions, minority groups like modern Paganism, which itself is a diverse collection of spiritual paths? Clearly, a theocracy – Christian or Islamic – is not to be desired. Pagan religion was suppressed for many centuries. As late as the 18th century, some American colonies had law codes as repressive as the fifth century Theodosian Code. A prison term awaited anyone who denied the Trinity or the Scriptures.

The American Revolution and the Constitution that was its aftermath, that was the highest development of the European Enlightenment, changed all that. State sponsored religion, that scourge of the Old World, was banished from these shores by liberalism and its victory over the status quo.

So modern conservative Christians want to turn the clock back, and to a period that left Paganism – or any other religion, even other monotheisms – outlawed. Do not forget that in the early days of the colonies both Catholicism and Judaism were outlawed. Do not forget that some of these prejudices remained so ingrained that the United States did not get its first Catholic president until John F. Kennedy in 1961. He remains our only Catholic president.

The religious landscape of America has changed greatly since the 18th century, when most Americans were Protestants of one denomination or another. We have more Catholics (of many varieties) and more Jews and we have Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and others, including Pagans. That this religious diversity did not emerge until state-sponsored religion was banished is no accident and no mystery.

Historian A.H. Armstrong relates for us the legacy of Christian intolerance:

The choice of the way of intolerance by the authorities of Church and empire in the late fourth century has had some very serious and lasting consequences. The last vestiges of its practical effects, in the form of the imposition of at least petty and vexatious disabilities on forms of religion not approved by the local ecclesiastical establishment, lasted in some European countries well into my lifetime. And theoretical approval of this sort of intolerance has often long outlasted the power to apply it in practice. After all, as late as 1945 many approved Roman Catholic theologians in England, and the Roman authorities, objected to a statement on religious freedom very close to Vatican II’s declaration on that subject.

If this is not damning enough, Armstrong goes on to say,

In general, I do not think that any Christian body has ever abandoned the power to persecute and repress while it actually had it. The acceptance of religious tolerance and freedom as good in themselves has normally been the belated, though sometimes sincere and whole-hearted, recognition and acceptance of a fait accompli. This long persistence of Theodosian intolerance in practice and its still longer persistence in theory has certainly been a cause, though not the only cause, of that unique phenomenon of our time, the decline not only of Christianity but all forms of religious belief and the growth of a totally irreligious and unspiritual materialism.

Conservative Christianity has driven people away from traditional religion but it has not forgotten them, and has in the process created a whole new group of non-believers known as atheists who find religion reprehensible. By religion, of course, they mean religion in the Christian sense. But alternative religions – unfairly – share the fallout. Religion in the modern sense has become the problem. In the ancient world, religion was the solution, transcending cultural and ethnic barriers and bringing people of diverse beliefs together. It can be that way again. There is no reason religion has to remain defined solely by one restrictive group of believers.

But only if theocracy is kept at bay. The threat is real. More than a few Republican candidates belief that the Ten Commandments should be legislated into law. They speak openly of bringing prayer back into school, and of making social work the sole domain of Christian groups, which would make all needy Americans victims of unwanted proselytizing, of re-writing school textbooks to bring them in line with conservative ideology, of teaching Christian creationism in our public schools. In ways large and small, all over America, the First Amendment of the Constitution is under attack.

It is essential, I think, for Pagans of all religious minorities in this country, to remember their history, and if they do not know it, to learn it. We have everything to lose and nothing to gain by a rightward turn in matters of religion. We can argue about conservative and liberal politics and until conservative politics became so closely tied up with conservative Christianity, these did not matter so much where the First Amendment is concerned. But until the Republican Party divorces the Religious Right, religious minorities must remain on their guard.

Islamophobia and an American Heathen

Pagan+Politics 102 Responses »

Aug 272010

Islamophobia has been on the rise since 2001. The latest cause célèbre of conservative opponents of Islam is the Park 51 Islamic Cultural Center. The extent of this opposition is shown by the intentional mislabeling of this project as the “Ground Zero Mosque” despite the by now well known facts – that it is not at Ground Zero but two blocks away (it is not even visible from Ground Zero) and it is not a mosque, cut a community center with a prayer area. Imagine a hospital with a chapel. Do we call that a church?

I don’t. I go into a hospital quite frequently which has not only a chapel but pictures of Jesus on a little table by the door.

Things have gotten so out of control that it is being suggested by some on the right that great Americans “give up their rights” and that Muslims ought to forfeit their Constitutional guarantee of free exercise and go somewhere else, or that Islam is not really a religion at all but a cult, and is therefore not protected by the Constitution. Qur’an burnings have even been announced; an act of violence by Christians somehow meant to demonstrate “once and for all” that Islam is a violent religion.

What is a Pagan to think about this feeding frenzy of angry monotheists? One possible response would be to say, “Well, it’s between them; it doesn’t concern me.” I am here to argue that such a response would be mistaken. It does concern us. It concerns everyone because it concerns a Constitutional guarantee that is under attack by the dominant culture.

Conservative Christians have constructed a new narrative for America, a Mythic America that was founded by and for Christians, an America in which free exercise applies only to Christians, and in which the wall of separation is a myth. The First Amendment ensures that all Americans can practice their religion of choice – or none at all. When the dominant culture – in this case Christianity – takes it upon itself to decide to whom Constitutional guarantees apply, it is time to worry.

Naturally, anyone who defends Islamic rights is accused at worst of being a terrorist, or of being somebody who is “soft” on terrorism. Islam has become the communism of the new millennium, and we should all be searching under our beds for Islamofascists, one of the wonder new terms the right has gifted us. I have been attacked myself, and just recently, for defending Islamic rights in this country. For it is not just conservative Christians who are up in arms and misinformed, but Pagans too. The hysteria is widespread.

But I am not here to defend Islam. My own views on monotheism are hardly a secret to anyone who has read my pieces over the past few years. But my views on monotheism in general or Islam in particular are hardly applicable to this case, for this case is not about Islam but about the Constitution. And the Constitution says that a Muslim group can build a community center wherever they want. There is nothing illegal about it. They did not steal the land. They made a deal with a developer and they are using the site of an old coat factory in the same way that some Christian-oriented group might.

The only difference is that they are Muslims.

And it was Muslim terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center on 9/11.

The thing is, it wasn’t THESE Muslims. And mis-characterizations of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, a man with a reputation as a progressive interfaith leader, as an agent of America’s destruction are simply character attacks aimed at creating at atmosphere of fear and resentment. Fear is the coinage of Republican politics and has been since 2001. Fear of minorities, fear of immigrants, fear of non-Christians, fear of feminists, secular humanists, atheists, the LGBT community – and fear of Islam. It is easy to rally people around fear-inspiring causes – Irish immigrants, Germans in WWI, Japanese in WWII, communists in the 50s, Muslims today.

The situation gets very confused – as it’s meant to – fear mongering inspires neither calmness nor rational thought. Fear demands that people respond on a visceral, atavistic level, from the gut, in the same way that George W. Bush ran the country for eight years, from the gut. It is an anti-intellectual stimulant, fear is, and it brooks no argument.

For a Pagan, to get back to my original point, such attacks should resonate on a level invisible to most monotheists, who have a long history of being the persecutors rather than the persecuted. Once upon a time it was the witches who were being sometimes literally fed to the fires of hate. It isn’t all that long ago that being a Pagan was against the law, or that being a Pagan could cost you your job or your home. Rather than jumping up and joining those who would tear down freedom of religion, we ought to be defending those whose rights are under attack. Because next time, it could be us.

Can anyone forget the words of Jerry Falwell or the agreement of Pat Robertson in the aftermath of 9/11 on the 700 Club?:

JERRY FALWELL: And I agree totally with you that the Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time that we’ve been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results. And I fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, said yesterday, that this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available to these monsters — the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats — what we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact — if, in fact — God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.

PAT ROBERTSON: Jerry, that’s my feeling. I think we’ve just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven’t even begun to see what they can do to the major population.

JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU’s got to take a lot of blame for this.

PAT ROBERTSON: Well yes.

JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I’ll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say “you helped this happen.”

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we’re responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system.

Can we so easily forget that it was Pagans Falwell blamed first, and not Islam? Does anyone seriously think that if they succeed in depriving the world’s second largest religion of their Constitutional rights that they will hesitate to do the same to Pagans?

The threat to the Constitution is very real. Conservative Christians, religious zealots known as dominionists, wield a degree of power in this country far out of proportion to their numbers. Study right-wing Christian theocracy; study the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). Study Sarah Palin and her witch-hunting pastor. People like to scoff, but then, people scoffed at Hitler too.

And look where they ended up.

No, I don’t have to think twice to know where I stand. With religious freedom and with the Constitutional guarantees I was born with, and not just for me, but for everyone.

Would the Real American Identity Please Stand Up

Pagan Pacifism, Pagan+Politics 4 Responses »

Jul 082010

In attempting to respond to Erik’s recent comments on my previous post, I found myself deep in the throes of writing a full-blown follow-up essay. Rather than try to squeeze this into the comments section where it might be lost or overlooked, I thought I would share it here, for ease of continued conversation and debate. But please do check out the comment thread that sparked this post if you have the time, especially because Jeff’s response covers many of the points I had originally planned on making and does a thorough and congenial job of laying out a few of the most obvious difficulties in trying to identify a singular, united American identity.

What follows is my own expansion on these basic issues. I might also have titled it “A Deconstruction of American Identity,” for it is really a lengthy treatment of several different attempts to define what “American identity” means as a socio-cultural construct, and then the reasons why I find each approach inadequate. Although destruction on the material level can be as easy and quick as smashing someone’s sandcastle, I have found that the deconstruction of an intellectual or mental-emotional concept, especially one as repeated and defended as “American-ness,” often takes a great deal more time and energy, sometimes even a lifetime of contemplation. There are certain mystics who talk of “spitting back up the apple.” What they mean is clearing out and cleansing ourselves of all our dearly-held beliefs and assumptions, vomiting up the fruit of the tree of knowledge so preciously guarded. Some, like the Zen Buddhists, work at quieting thoughts and sinking to a place deeper than the chattering monkey-mind; others such as Socrates, Descartes and other Western philosophers, use the chatter of the mind itself as the path that leads to unknowing, following it spiraling down chasing question after question. But the emptiness of unknowing, the chaotic mystery or Mystery underneath the layers of rhetoric and assumptions… within this emptiness is where we become free. Only with that freedom can we begin to ascend the spiral again and choose, with wisdom and efficacy, to “opt in” to the creative process of making and naming ourselves.

Protests Now and Then

Pagan+Politics, politics 16 Responses »

Apr 142010

Watching the various Tea Party groups ramp up their rhetoric in preparation for their April 15th rallies (subtitled “Help Us Build a New Revolution”) reminds me of my own youthful protesting against the war in Southeast Asia. It got me wondering how this year’s protesters were so different from those I remember joining with.

Protesting has been part of the American political scene since the Boston Tea Party (or even before). We were founded by dissenters, and populated by men and women of courage who would rather leave their homelands than abandon their faith and beliefs, serve in the military, or face starvation.

So if political protest is something I agree with, something I have done personally with commitment and enthusiasm, why does the Tea Party movement feel “wrong” to me? This needed some research and considered thought, which I will share.

First, every attempt at dialog I have made with folks involved in the movement has failed. When I was outside the Expo Center in Portland, I tried talking to the protesters. I asked them what cuts in federal and state spending they felt should be made to lower taxes (no suggestions), whether they would like to cut spending by withdrawing our military from foreign wars as Ron Paul suggested (no takers), and what alternative to federal health care legislation they would have preferred (no suggestion, just repeal, but nobody happy with the status quo either).

The folks I talked to (and I’ll admit I didn’t talk to each and every one, just about a dozen at random) felt just as strongly about their position as I did about mine. What I felt was missing was a way to move forward.

If you’re protesting a war, explaining your solution is easy: negotiation leading to a peace agreement. When it comes to legislation, things get knottier, I guess. But the other thing, the thing that really set my teeth on edge, was the anger at government itself, the feeling that absolutely nothing emanating from a central authority would be acceptable, the threatening, confrontational manner (getting closer and closer to those waiting to see the president, until they were mere inches away).

When I protested war, even to the point of civil disobedience, it was non-confrontational. We took a stand against the taking of life, but there was no sense of impending doom, no hate-filled signs. What I saw in the protesters in Portland was quite the opposite. The tea party supporters, by their own words, believe that this nation is under attack and that they need to defend it. They believe that:

Many are in fear of the demise of our Great nation. The fear is legitimate. There is only one entity that will turn things around and save our constitution and our country as we once knew it. “We the People”.

They believe that:

The Tea Party dream includes all who possess a strong belief in the foundational Judaic/Christian values embedded in our great founding documents.

Please judge for yourself. I would never dream of telling you what to believe or how you should define your political beliefs or actions, and I completely respect your right to believe and act as you think you should After all, we are a faith that believes in personal responsibility. Thing is, I don’t understand how a movement that claims to defend the Constitution can violate its First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…

Maybe that’s nit-picking (I don’t believe it is), but it goes deeper than that.

I can’t understand the failure to believe that we, as a people, are resilient, have been through challenging times and been strengthened by them; have the will to join together as Americans, whatever our beliefs; have the common sense to elect leaders we believe in, and to elect someone else if we don’t like the result. We don’t need anger; we need dialog, and I just don’t see that in the Tea Party.

Freedom lost

Uncategorized 109 Responses »

Mar 232010

“Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.” H.L. Mencken

Let us hope, for now, that this is a figurative statement of the bloodbath I believe will come this November. No matter the will of the people, the town hall meetings and countless protests, no matter the polls to the contrary, no matter the loss of Ted Kennedy’s seat in Massachusets, President Obama and his minions in the Democrat party have succeeded, for the time being, in passing the most intrusive government program in our lifetime. It was signed into law today.

All residents of this country will be REQUIRED to purchase a service from an institution that virtually noone believes acts in the best interest of it’s clients….and they have the gall to call it “reform”. The senate must now attempt to remove the “pork” from the bill to make it somewhat palatable to the American people. They will fail. The Nebraska, Louisiana, and Montana bribes have to be removed, as well as the federal funding of elective abortions. So says our president. It sickens me to see how they shoved this through, the closed door sessions, bribery and arm twisting shows the worst of our system. My hope is that the state’s attorney’s general will prevail and this mess be found unconstitutional. Suits were filed within minutes of the signing.

The thing hidden in this disaster that should outrage the Pagan community is the takeover of student loans by the government. Does anyone here think the middle class white pagan kid has ANY shot at a loan for higher education? With a minority slanted Christian government in place we don’t have a chance. Byron, I’d love your take on this! You are much more informed on the Dominionist Christian sector than most of us.

Back on the campaign trail, then Senator Obama spoke to the reparations proposal and said that it didn’t go far enough. He mentioned health care and education as something that was needed. I guess he got his wish. This debacle and the attached loan program have the potential to impact the minority community far more than any other group. Where are the screams of “racism” that would surely echo if the tables were turned?

I find it a bit ironic that it was 235 years ago today that Patrick Henry gave his famous speech in Virginia supporting sending the state’s militiamen to fight in the Revolutionary war against an oppressive, overbearing government. “Give me liberty, or give me death!” There is a growing tide of discontent in this nation again today. Our legislators would do well to pay heed to our past, lest we repeat our mistakes. Jefferson believed a “revolution” would be necessary every 20 years or so, that lethargy was our enemy. We have bloodless revolution with each election cycle, although I doubt that was his meaning….and lethargic we have become!

I have heard said that there are “compromise” provisions in the law to appease some conservatives, “republican” ideas, that it is actually a very conservative approach. My response to that is this: A bit of rouge and lipstick and some dim lighting does not make a syphilitic whore any less of a syphilitic whore. Come daylight, it is what it is. This is an attempt by the federal government to seize more power. Power they are not provided in the Constitution.

I pray to the Gods it is not too late. Freedom lost is seldom regained without bloodshed. Our country is as deeply divided today as it has ever been in our past. Have we evolved to the point of repair without revolution? Time will tell.

An Interview with Mikey Weinstein of Military Religious Freedom Foundation

Pagan+Politics, politics 78 Responses »

Feb 262010

On Thursday, 25 February 2010, I sat down for an interview with Mr. Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org. Mr. Weinstein is, according to his bio, “the undisputed leader of the national movement to restore the obliterated wall separating church and state in the most technologically lethal organization ever created by humankind; the United States armed forces. Described by Harper’s magazine as the constitutional conscience of the U.S. military, a man determined to force accountability.” I would like to again thank Mr. Weinstein for taking time out of his very busy schedule to talk to me, and I apologize in advance for any remaining typos.

PNC: I’d like to begin by asking you about the incident at the Air Force Academy. Now as I understand it, it was a client of yours who saw the cross propped against the rock at the circle of stones. This was reported and the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) began an inquiry but I haven’t read much about it recently. Has the incident created any tensions in the community or in the Air Force Academy itself? Did the cadets take it in stride?

MW: We were upset at first that it took two-and-a-half weeks before our client, Tech. Sgt. Longcrier, who heads the earth-centered/based group up there, was even interviewed by the OSI. And of course we got involved because we felt that there have been a number of communication gaps. And initially we were very pleased, then we were very upset and now we’re back to thinking things are moving along. But look, it’s going to be very hard to have any clues about who did that; very, very difficult.

Tensions? Yeah! You’ve got people in the world who say the academy should never even have accommodated the earth-centered Pagan, Wiccan, Druid, what have you faith groups there. We were also reached out to by Native American spiritualists because they’re saying you know we’re earth centered also and we greatly predate Christianity, Judaism, Islam and many current Pagan groups who’ve been around for a long time.

And so I think it was great that this was accommodated but at the same time there shouldn’t be too many gold stars out there. I mean, People have a right to practice whatever faith they want to.

So in this instance we refer to this a hate crime. And this upset I’m sure a lot of Christians who said, “Well wait, it was just a cross.”

And our response is: “Yeah, well what would happen if you put a pentagram on a church, or put a crescent moon on a church, or put a crucifix on a mosque, or put a swastika on a synagogue?”

But people are just not smart enough to understand those things. I think we are moving along in a better fashion now and certainly when we broke the story we clearly significantly sensitized everybody and so I think that from that perspective – although it’s unlikely we’ll catch who did that – we’ve made it clear that the stakes are high if you try that again.

PNC: So nobody had the courage of their convictions and stepped forward and was anxious to claim responsibility.

MW: No, not at all.

PNC: No instant martyrs there.

MW: Right. We had people argue, “Well we just thought it was a campfire,” which is just complete and total crap. So we think we stand in a better position now and the cadets that are part of this group – Sgt. Longcrier leads it – I think feel emboldened and like I said before we want that worship place – it’s just like a church or mosque or synagogue or what have you – and it needs to be treated with the absolute same level of respect.

The problem is that there is a tremendous dearth of education about the Constitution in our U.S. military – among our officers, NCOs, cadets and midshipmen. They just don’t know what they don’t know and that’s very, very dangerous.

If you think of the military with all of our nukes, conventional and laser-guided weapons – if you think of it as a civilization – and I love to use H.G. Wells’ definition of civilization, which is “a race between education and catastrophe” – and catastrophe is currently winning in the U.S. Military. This is has been the case for humanity. Whether it’s trying to fight a disease or prejudice – which is another form of a disease – or what have you, the concept of the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution – which by the way represents the first time in the history of human kind that any nation state created a governing document that does not invoke somebody’s particular deity .

That by itself is education but it’s being re-framed by the Christian nationalist historians that are out there that argue that Franklin and Thomas Paine and Madison and Jefferson were all fundamentalist Christians and they really wanted this country to look like an enlarged version of the “700 Club.”

PNC: It’s amazing that even confronted by the facts, for example Thomas Paine’s writings about Christianity and his opinion of it…

MW: And Jefferson composed a Bible devoid of any miracles. It’s very likely he was an atheist and most of them were deists or agnostics and they looked assiduously at European history where most of the tyrannies that had occurred there were by men in political power or by men of the cloth. They looked at Cromwell in England; they obviously didn’t even have to leave our shores: They looked at the Salem witch trials and said “Not here.”

PNC: What do you think about claims like that made by the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission which claims that Christianity is under attack and that “a violent anti-Christian spirit is growing in America.”

MW: This reminds me of the famous plea by the young man who has murdered his parents: He’s in court and has now been found guilty and upon sentencing he throws himself upon the mercy of the court and goes: “Please your honor, please, have mercy, after all I’m an orphan.” Or if you will the playground bully who after beating a poor kid into the dust is caught by a teacher monitor and says, “This kid has put bruises and scrapes on my fists.” I hardly find them to be the aggrieved party; that the poor Christians are under attack here. First of all let’s keep in mind who we are fighting.

Our foundation is in a battle, a war with a subset of Christianity just as we are at war with a subset of Islam. We are not at war with all of Islam though that’s the way it’s portrayed by the Christian fundamentalists. I’m sure you’re familiar with the term that “if not you need to be.” We are at war with Wahhabist fundamentalist Islamic extremists who are trying to impose Sharia Law on the rest of us.

We represent over 16,300 active duty Unites States Marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen, cadets and midshipmen at the three major service academies – the Air Force Academy, West Point, Annapolis – and ROTC cadets and midshipmen, reserve and Guard units, Coast Guardsmen and vets.

96% of our clients are believers in Jesus Christ. They’re either Protestants or Catholics. About three-fourths of that 96% are Protestants of a complete rainbow of different denominations, including something like 21 varieties of Baptist. One-fourth of the 96% are Roman Catholic. Most of our staff are Christians; most of our supporters, most of our donors.

So for people to say me or our foundation is anti-Christian we consider that to be defamation because that’s like saying we’re anti-Islam because we’re fighting Wahhabist fundamentalists. We’re fighting a subset of Christianity with a long technical name and it’s known as: Pre-millennial Dispensational Reconstructionist Dominionist Fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity – it’s about 12.6% of the American public. They are like mirror images of the Islamic Taliban and al Qaeda . This is like the fundamentalist Christian Taliban.

PNC: Yes, they’ve been referred to on the Internet as “Talibengelicals.”

MW: Yes, that’s it exactly. So if you’re going to say Christianity is under attack, no sorry. The sad part of this story is that maniacs like these people are very generous with their money and their time. The vast majority of Americans who are Catholics or Protestants are not. They sit back or they pull lint out of their belly button, have one thumb in their mouth and one up their ass and play switch. They’re going to have to get off their ass and do something or we’re going to lose everything. If this war is cast as a cosmic war – a religious war – between Jesus and Allah we lose because that is exactly what our enemies want to cast it as.

Look, we defeated fascist like Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini in World War Two in just 44 months and guess what? We didn’t have to become fascist like them. We don’t have to become fascists like them. We do not have to become the American military Christian Taliban and al Qaeda to defeat the Islamic version.

PNC: Right, we do their job for them.

MW: Exactly. We’re already doing that. We broke that Trijicon gun sight story. You saw the gun sight story right? That’s ours also and it’s astonishing, the level of ignorance in this country about our Constitution. The Tea Partiers say, “We’re looking at the Constitution and nowhere in there does it say separation of church and state.”

Well I got a couple of words for these idiots. The first is that The Constitution and the Bill of Rights -which is of course the first ten amendments – are only a few words. But over the hundreds of years we’ve had construing federal case law that interprets the Constitution and those are millions of words.

For instance, nowhere in the Constitution does it say slavery is prohibited, but slavery is prohibited now. Also nowhere does it say that in public you can’t say “nigger,” “kike,” “spick” or “dago,” but see, we’ve had the Constitution interpreted by our federal courts saying, “No those are fighting words and they are an exception to the First Amendment right of free speech,” just like yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. I thought at first that this was intuitive but it’s not, the average American has no clue about that. For instance Miranda rights are also not in the Constitution. See – that’s where the word Miranda comes from – it was a Supreme Court case. You follow me?

PNC: Yes.

And there are a million or two other things that exist now that were not in the Constitution but exist now because of case law. So if you’re going to say the concept of church and state does doesn’t say it right there, well yes, that’s a foundational aspect of this country. And that’s how it’s been interpreted. They go back and say, “That’s just a letter of Thomas Jefferson to them Danbury Connecticut Baptists”… no sorry, that isn’t the case.

PNC: They also like to denounce the treaty of Tripoli.

MW: Yes, that’s right. They find all kinds of ways even though Washington negotiated it, Adams signed it, it was unanimously passed by the United States Senate…they find all kinds of ways of saying that doesn’t exist either. Well, good luck. It’s embarrassing enough that we have to go with this “don’t ask, don’t tell” thing. Every NATO ally allows GLBT members of the military to serve. Our CIA and FBI do it. The countries that currently don’t: Libya, Iraq, Iran and the U.S. – Congratulations U.S.

PNC: Nice company.

MW: Yes.

PNC: I find one of the most frightening things to be that series of books, the “Political Incorrect Guide to “fill in the blank”.”

MW: Particularly The one about Islam which is sold in every military PX that you can find and it’s just like the “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” you know, the defamation blood libel book against the Jews. It’s unbelievable. In other words, all of Islam is bad; they’re all devils.

PNC: I think a better title would be the “Politically Inaccurate guide to…” We find out that the true Age of Reason was the Middle Ages that people that oppose the Bible oppose reason…

MW: It’s so self-evident. I like what Carl Sagan, the late-famous astronomer said, “Look, absence of the evidence of god,” he admitted, “is not necessarily conclusive evidence of absence.” It’s just his way of saying, “I don’t see anything.” And that’s my right. I don’t have to; I don’t have to say I believe. We have people tell us all the time that America was founded as a Christian nation, and I’ll give you that, America, the colonies- but not the United States of America. It was specifically not founded that way. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony – the Puritans – they had religious freedom: If you didn’t like the way they believed you were free to leave.

Roger Williams up in Rhode Island tried to establish more equanimity up there but it’s amazing. It’s one thing for a public school system or a police department or a fire department to be filled with these fundamentalist Christians but it’s quite another, and listen carefully here, when they are inextricably intertwined into the very particulate of our “Pentacostalagon” – what we used to call our Pentagon.

You see we’re not on this call talking about a particular problem or an issue or challenge we’re talking about a national security threat and here is the calculus of that national security threat: It is a national security threat internally to this country every bit as much in magnitude and formidability as what we are seeing externally by now from a resurgent Taliban and al Qaeda at least as strong as it was on 9/11. And here’s what it is: We have a fanatical religiosity – in this case dominionist fundamentalist Christianity – mixed in with actual weapons of mass destruction. We have them, the other side – thank god – doesn’t – yet. Throw in a dash of terribly misguided patriotism, complete unfettered access to everything due to the draconian specter of command influence, a total abrogation of the oath that everyone is supposed to take to preserve, protect, support and defend the Constitution, and a total dearth of any restraint, oversight, and supervision – and what you’ve got is a national security threat that is so serious that this so unbelievable that nobody believes it unless they’re complicit. That’s it. That’s what we’re facing.

PNC: What do you think about the role of the Oath Keepers as they’re calling themselves – where they recruit military personnel to swear not to violate the Constitution…

MW: Here is the problem with the Oath Keepers. You see they have a version of the Constitution that is like the version of the blind person who reaches out, touches the nose of the camel and thinks he is touching an orange.

We promise you we will not do the following: We will never disarm the American people etc. The problem with the Oath Keepers is that they’re completely infused with fundamentalist Christianity. Their oath is to their version – this warped, perverted, tortured version – of the Constitution.

PNC: It is interesting that these groups only arose after President Obama’s election.

Look, we’re old enough to remember a president by the name of Ike – Eisenhower. Remember his famous warning at his farewell address? What we’re talking about this morning on this call is that we’re fighting is actually a fundamentalist Christian parachurch military corporate proselytizing complex. We talk about the Oath Keepers or Force Ministries or Officers Christian Fellowship or God-chasers or the Navigators or Military ministries, Campus Crusade for Christ.. These are parachurch organizations mixed in with the military, mixed in with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grummond.

We can go on and on and on. This is what we’re dealing with. The Family. You may have seen The C Street situation that came out this past summer. It really is this gigantic breathing, living, driven, wanton, willful, purposeful desire to make everybody the right type of Christian and the astonishing and sickly sad irony is that it’s kind of the flip side of what we’re seeing from the Wahhabist Islamic maniacs.

My mother used to tell me “moderation in all things including moderation,” but remember Goldwater’s famous ‘64 nomination acceptance speech that “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

Too many people are being moderate and that’s the problem. Or that’s the national security threat.

PNC: What’s the atmosphere for them at present with the growing polarization of the religious landscape?

MW: There’s two ways. We feel emboldened because nature abhors a vacuum. If they have a problem they can come to us and we are a very militant organization. Our militancy is in support of the Constitution. We’ll move very quickly into the media and the court systems. But many times it’s such an overtly fundamentalist Christian military that the moderate progressive Christians sit back and do nothing. Same with the moderate Jews or Muslims. Every rabbi in the military who is a chaplain we refer to by the same last name – “Rabbi Speed Bump” – because that’s what they are for the fundamentalist juggernaut. The same with every – there are a few of them – Muslim chaplain in the military: They’re speed bumps. The problem is that if you’re not the appropriate type of Christian you’re a tarantula on a wedding cake and we all know how long tarantula’s on wedding cakes last – not very.

PNC: Right. And unfortunately many Christians don’t understand the caveat “right kind of Christian”

MW: Correct.

PNC: and they see just a triumph for Christianity in terms of the Great Commission in Matthew. What they don’t realize is that they’re probably going to be categorized as heretics.

MW: Right. You see, the fundamentalist Christians love to look at the Great Commission pursuant to Mark 16.15 and Matthew 28.19 – one of the last things Jesus is supposed to have said: “Go and make disciple of all nations.” The difference between a fundamentalist and an evangelical Christian – I want to stress that we have a number of evangelical Christian clients, supporters, donors and even on our staff - evangelical and fundamentalist Christians are identical in that they want to turn you into their version of a Christian pursuant to the Great Commission. But an evangelical will say, “I realize I must comport my zeal to proselytize pursuant to the Great Commission in accordance with the time, place and manner restrictions of our Constitution and construing federal case law.” A fundamentalist will say “To hell and fuck the Constitution and case law because that’s just flawed man’s law and I will subordinate that to my Weaponized Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The non-Evangelical or fundamentalist Christians follow the great commandment which is part of the Sermon on the Mount, which is two things – the Golden Rule, treat others as you want them to be treated and you will love the lord with all thy mind, soul and heart, and they follow the Great Commandment. The bottom line here is that the average person doesn’t understand the following thing about our Constitution and the Bible. The First Commandment is what? You cannot have any other gods but me. What does the first amendment say? Oh yes you can! That’s the problem. They don’t get that. Irrespective of what the first commandment is it doesn’t make any difference, because you’re not allowed to have any other gods.

PNC: They miss the fine distinction that they are allowed to have no other god if they so choose but they want to tell the rest of us we have to follow that too.

MW: That’s it.

PNC: I wanted to ask, I think you already answered this. Do you see the atmosphere improving in the military in light of the Air Force Academy putting up the stone circle? Are we winning or losing the battle.

MW: No, let me make it clear. It’s not getting better – for a couple of reasons. Unfortunately there is a seamless transition between the Bush administration and the Obama administration. We cannot get any traction in the White House, with the commander in chief. And I think that if he was aware of what’s going on I want to think he’d engage but how long can we continue to wait? Remember the movie Top Gun? In the end it was “Maverick , Engage, engage, engage and get into the fight.”

I’m a Republican but I’m a Republican who voted for Clinton twice, Gore, Kerry and Obama. And it seems that as I mentioned, the people are not educated and there is no ongoing program for it. What is civilization? Civilization is that race as H.G. Wells said, between education and catastrophe. Catastrophe is winning. The people who are our enemies are the people who are complacent and do nothing. Remember that Edmund Burke statement that “All that is necessary for evil to win is for enough good men to do nothing.”

PNC: And we see conservatives quote that.

MW: Yes, of course they do and it’s astonishing, and at the same time it’s absurd to believe that we don’t separate church and state in this country, and of course that makes topical that famous statement by Voltaire that “he who can lead you to believe an absurdity can lead you to commit an atrocity.” To the side we’re fighting anyone who believes we have separation of church and state is absurd. We consider that to be the Dark Side of the Force. On our side of the Force if you don’t believe in separation of church and state you’re absurd. It’s a very, very pitched battle and there is no ongoing effort to educate members of the military. I’m sure you know about many of the Christian historical nationalist revisionist that have tried to push that alternative history that never happened in this country. As I said before, it is time to stand up and fight.

PNC: They have a history as it should have been and then they put a spin on facts so quickly you can’t keep up.

MW: I don’t know if you have ever read Howard Zinn’s “Peoples History of the United States.” That’s a powerful book. He writes from the perspective of the African Americans and the Native Americans. We’ve been spinning history for a long time but it’s another thing to spin it completely out of control. The concept of what they’re trying to do in Texas now with David Barton, complete revisionist history focusing on Christians. It’s astonishing.

PNC: Thank you Mr. Weinstein, I appreciate you taking the time to talk, and thank you for doing what you do.

Two wolves and a lamb

Uncategorized 54 Responses »

Feb 222010

“ Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!. ” Benjamin Franklin, or not

From the depths of the past come words that are as true and applicable today as they were then. This one really got me thinking. There are many ways to interpret these words. Today’s post will be but one way I see the meaning . Please feel free to add to my definition, this should be fun! I can see many ways to look at Franklin’s words, and by our vast political differences, this could be a real chance to learn from each other.

So here we go: I can see the two wolves as the Republican and Democrat parties, powerful and intimidating. The lamb I see as The Constitution. It has been whittled away, disregarded and outright ignored by the wolves for nearly 100 years. What happened? Used to be when the lawmakers wanted to effect change in the country, they actually followed the constitution. Amendments are the proper way for change to occur in our founding document. Even when they turn out to be wrong, they can then be repealed. The Constitution was not supposed to be subject to “acts and regulations”.

When did we start ignoring the intent of our most sacred document? When did The Constitution stop being what it was intended to be and become the “living, breathing”, ever-changing-due-to the-current-political-whim, tool of our servants, rather than their guide? When did the instrument of our governance that they (and many of us as well) took an oath to protect and defend, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, become lunch for the wolves?

I put forth this theory: It happened when our people stopped paying attention to their roots. When they moved to the cities and away from the farms, away from the earth and began to let material things rule their lives. In my grandfather’s time, most people were pagans in the original sense (country dwellers). They scratched, and sweat, and lived, and raised their children in respect of, and totally at the mercy of, nature’s laws. Work ethic was a way of life. You didn’t work, you didn’t eat. Plain and simple. Your life depended on that piece of dirt where you raised your garden, crops and livestock.

When people moved to the cities, and times got bad, they looked to the government for help. When they lost a job, and didn’t immediately find another, they cried for help. Instead of moving back to the earth and being self-sufficient, instead of looking at the end of their own arm for the “helping hand”, they looked to the government to help. Our entitlement society that we suffer from today, was born. After all, the government was just trying to help. We can’t let people fail, we can’t let them suffer, we can’t let them go hungry. Sound familiar?

So, how does the lamb arm itself against the wolves? It must be through us. We, the people. The wolves have had their way for far too long, and government has become far too large and intrusive. Our federal government is fast becoming a national government, and we have to stop the slide before it’s too late. Before we no longer even recognize where we came from. Arm yourself with The Constitution and be her defender. Ask why, where do you get the right, show me where The Constitution allows you to do what you are trying to do. Write editorials, call in to radio programs, write and call your representatives. Pay attention. Get involved. Be the gigantic pain in the ass our founders were! And don’t ever take no for an answer.

An open letter to Gov. Tim Pawlenty

politics 6 Responses »

Feb 192010

I would like to discuss with you your speech at The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today. Now, I didn’t just read the clips that reporters thought an Olympics distracted public might want to gloss over while waiting for the next skier to crash. I took the time to listen to the entire speech so I won’t be dissuaded by comments that you were misquoted or taken out of context. I thought that much of your speech was exactly what a constitutional conservative should be saying. Of your four principles on which you made the emphasis of your speech, I whole heartedly agree with three.

In inversed order, principle # 4“Bullies pick on weakness not strength” is a clear statement of common sense and Realpolitik. I agree with the principle that our nation must remain strong militarily.

Principle # 3, “People spend their money differently when it’s their money”. No argument. The best way to control the rising cost of anything is to make sure the person doing the buying has a significant emotional investment in the cost.

Principle # 2, “We can’t spend more than we have.” Fiscal conservatism at its most basic. Again, no issue.

Principle # 1, “God is in charge.” OhhhKaaay? 1^st question. Which God we talking about? Yahweh, Zeus, Dagda, Odin, or maybe Hera, Cerridwyn, or Freya. Or perhaps you meant Buddha, or Kali.

You said the founding documents of our country enshrined these ideas. You quoted the Declaration of Independence to say that it was our creator from who our rights flow. I think you were using this quote, incorrectly, to insinuate that the founding fathers thought that The Creator should be involved in the governance of men. The Declaration did not speak to the governance of the colonies, only to throwing off the yoke of tyranny.

“Section 16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.”

This is a quote from the Virginia Declaration of Rights. This document was written by George Mason prior to the Declaration of Independence and a document from which Thomas Jefferson, a Virginian, drew heavily in writing The Declaration of Independence in 1776. After a failed attempt at a federal government (The Articles of Confederation), the Founding Fathers went back to convention and wrote the constitution in 1787, there was no mention of God in the structure of our government. There were no limits placed on God’s influence on our government either. In 1789 The Bill of Rights was drafted to spell out the limits of power that government had in the lives of citizens.

“THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.” This is the preamble to the Bill of Rights that congress set down in 1789.

It is very clear what their purpose of adding the bill of rights was intended to do, limit the abuse of the power of the constitution. The 1^st limit they stepped forward to clarify was; “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,.” One of the most enduring ideas of the time of the Founding Fathers was that each person must practice his duties to God as he saw fit, and that Congress shall not establish or endorse a religion.

Governor Pawlenty, please understand that the intent of the founding fathers was to establish a government controlled by the citizens, represented by men and women of sound mind and good judgment.

Oh wait, that’s where we made our mistake.

Our Sacred Constitution

Pagans and the New American Theocracy

Islamophobia and an American Heathen

Would the Real American Identity Please Stand Up

Protests Now and Then

Freedom lost

An Interview with Mikey Weinstein of Military Religious Freedom Foundation

Two wolves and a lamb

An open letter to Gov. Tim Pawlenty

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