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What Are Moral Values?"
>
> by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers
> Mayflower Church, Oklahoma City
>
> As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church
> in Oklahoma City, a church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor
> of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. But you would most likely
> have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have
> been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most
> number of angry letters to the editor.
>
> Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched
> as the faith I love has been taken over by those who claim to speak
> for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian.
>
> We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having
> swung the election to President Bush. Well, I'm a great believer in
> moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country,
> about exactly what constitutes a moral value -- I mean what are we
> talking about? Because we don't get to make them up as we go along,
> especially not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited
> tradition of what is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does. Let
> me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in
> power who claim moral values are on their side:
>
> When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your
> deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that
> your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are
> some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the
> faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.
>
> When you live in a country that has established international rules
> for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to
> enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down
> for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to
> acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn
> them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we
> must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the
> sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important
> as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you
> are doing something immoral.
>
> When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the
> patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero,
> you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says
> that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test,
> by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get
> stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something
> immoral.
>
> When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called
> "enemy combatants" of the rules of the Geneva Conventions, which your
> own country helped to establish and insists that other countries
> follow, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and
> the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you,
> or with the terrorists -- and then launch a war which enriches your
> own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted,
> instead of helping us to kick the habit, you are doing something
> immoral.
>
> When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay for a
> war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous
> deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our
> children, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that
> was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn't
> matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have
> done something immoral.
>
> When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record
> numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of
> discrimination, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower of
> Jesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of the
> kingdom, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect
> the earth which is God's gift to us all, so that the corporations that
> bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our
> children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done
> something immoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.
>
> When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our
> killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble
> the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral. We have met
> the enemy, and the enemy is us.
>
> When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a
> "compassionate conservative," using the word which is the essence of
> all religious faith -- compassion, and then show no compassion for
> anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to
> you for help, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the sick,
> but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to see a
> doctor, even if she doesn't have a penny in her pocket, you are doing
> something immoral.
>
> When you put judges on the bench who are racist, and will set women
> back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers
> who say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.
>
> I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must be a
> supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and
> gay rights I must not be a person of faith. I'm tired of people saying
> that I can't support the troops but oppose the war.
>
> I heard that when I was your age, when the Vietnam war was raging. We
> knew that that war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong --
> the only question is how many people are going to die before these
> make-believe Christians are removed from power?
>
> This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of
> this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people
> who can turn things around are people like you--young people who are
> just beginning to wake up t owhatishappeningtothem.It'syou­r country
> to
> take back. It's your faith to take back. It's your future to take back.
>
>
> Don't be afraid to speak out. Don't back down when your friends begin
> to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be
> wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut.
> Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real
> Muslims, and real Hindus, and real Buddhists--so do all the faith
> traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is
> precious. Every human being is precious. Arrogance is the opposite of
> faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has
> never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.
> And war -- war is the greatest failure of the human race -- and thus
> the greatest failure of faith.
>
> There's an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: War, what
> is it good for? absolutely nothing. And what is the dream of the
> prophets? That we should study war no more, that we should beat our
> swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Who would
> Jesus bomb, indeed?
>
> How many wars does it take to know that too many people have died?
> What if they gave a war and nobody came? Maybe one day we will find
> out.
>
> Time to march again my friends. Time to commit acts of civil
> disobedience, time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in
> the madness.
>
> by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers
> Mayflower Church, Oklahoma City
>
> As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church
> in Oklahoma City, a church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor
> of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. But you would most likely
> have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have
> been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most
> number of angry letters to the editor.
>
> Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched
> as the faith I love has been taken over by those who claim to speak
> for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian.
>
> We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having
> swung the election to President Bush. Well, I'm a great believer in
> moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country,
> about exactly what constitutes a moral value -- I mean what are we
> talking about? Because we don't get to make them up as we go along,
> especially not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited
> tradition of what is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does. Let
> me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in
> power who claim moral values are on their side:
>
> When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your
> deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that
> your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are
> some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the
> faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.
>
> When you live in a country that has established international rules
> for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to
> enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down
> for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to
> acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn
> them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we
> must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the
> sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important
> as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you
> are doing something immoral.
>
> When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the
> patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero,
> you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says
> that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test,
> by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get
> stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something
> immoral.
>
> When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called
> "enemy combatants" of the rules of the Geneva Conventions, which your
> own country helped to establish and insists that other countries
> follow, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and
> the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you,
> or with the terrorists -- and then launch a war which enriches your
> own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted,
> instead of helping us to kick the habit, you are doing something
> immoral.
>
> When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay for a
> war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous
> deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our
> children, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that
> was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn't
> matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have
> done something immoral.
>
> When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record
> numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of
> discrimination, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower of
> Jesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of the
> kingdom, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect
> the earth which is God's gift to us all, so that the corporations that
> bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our
> children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done
> something immoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.
>
> When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our
> killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble
> the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral. We have met
> the enemy, and the enemy is us.
>
> When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a
> "compassionate conservative," using the word which is the essence of
> all religious faith -- compassion, and then show no compassion for
> anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to
> you for help, you are doing something immoral.
>
> When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the sick,
> but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to see a
> doctor, even if she doesn't have a penny in her pocket, you are doing
> something immoral.
>
> When you put judges on the bench who are racist, and will set women
> back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers
> who say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.
>
> I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must be a
> supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and
> gay rights I must not be a person of faith. I'm tired of people saying
> that I can't support the troops but oppose the war.
>
> I heard that when I was your age, when the Vietnam war was raging. We
> knew that that war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong --
> the only question is how many people are going to die before these
> make-believe Christians are removed from power?
>
> This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of
> this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people
> who can turn things around are people like you--young people who are
> just beginning to wake up t owhatishappeningtothem.It'syou­r country
> to
> take back. It's your faith to take back. It's your future to take back.
>
>
> Don't be afraid to speak out. Don't back down when your friends begin
> to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be
> wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut.
> Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real
> Muslims, and real Hindus, and real Buddhists--so do all the faith
> traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is
> precious. Every human being is precious. Arrogance is the opposite of
> faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has
> never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.
> And war -- war is the greatest failure of the human race -- and thus
> the greatest failure of faith.
>
> There's an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: War, what
> is it good for? absolutely nothing. And what is the dream of the
> prophets? That we should study war no more, that we should beat our
> swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Who would
> Jesus bomb, indeed?
>
> How many wars does it take to know that too many people have died?
> What if they gave a war and nobody came? Maybe one day we will find
> out.
>
> Time to march again my friends. Time to commit acts of civil
> disobedience, time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in
> the madness.