I rarely blog on 'hot' political issues these days, for a number of reasons. In truth, I wish articles like this weren't necessary because people chose to cultivate and act from the 'higher angels of their natures' -- their Divine or higher, more evolved, heartful, wise, and conscious capacity. That's my wish, and the vision and cause to which I'm committed.
However, right here and now, one of several issues that's occupying more than a few headlines and sound bites is worthy of comment, and in dire need of true spiritually and philosophically mature contemplation, reflection, dialogue, and engaged action.
It's always deeply saddening to see evidence of how acceptable (though by no means natural) violence has become in our culture, and always alarming -- even as it has for too long been shockingly common -- to see violence done in the name of religion, and sanctioned by self-identified 'people of faith'.
Such violence is often condemned (or more tepidly 'not condoned') as the actions
of the more fanatical fringe of various religious sects, though it
continues because it is passively supported or tolerated by a much
larger group of people.
This was the case with the recent assassination of Dr. George Tiller, a physician who did late-term abortions. For the record, late-term abortions are extremely rare, and are by law limited to 'non-viable fetuses' (such as stillborn fetuses, where the fetus is dead) and cases where there is a significant, verifiable threat to the health and life of the woman carrying the fetus.
Tiller was a several-time focus of orchestrated (not random) anti-abortion movement violence, as have many such clinics, physicians, and clinic employees been. Tiller, as many now know, was gunned down in church while serving as an usher, by a fundamentalist Christian anti-abortion 'activist'. Tiller had previously been threatened, stalked, and shot, and the clinic targeted for similar threats and harassment, by fundamentalist Christian anti-abortion terrorists.
At this point, it's ridiculous to view the anti-abortion violence as independent acts of violence by isolated religious fanatics. There is a significant history of organized and ongoing violence since Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion. It sure looks like a terrorist movement to me, and to many others. You shall know them by their fruits.
Imagine this: A group of religious extremists target a specific group of Americans for violence and execution. They stalk the designated group of people at their homes and places of spiritual worship; they follow them to work; they publish 'death lists' and 'hit lists' listing the specific individuals, along with their addresses, for fellow movement activists to see, and act upon; they plant and detonate bombs; they shoot, maim, and kill the individuals. They are supported philosophically and for their religious justification of their acts by those who share their worldview, and some of the perpetrators of the worst of the movement's violence are protected and hidden by sympathizers. Sympathetic propaganda-reporters and news anchors on certain networks actively justify the violence by focusing on how the specific group of Americans targeted are 'sinners' who violate the Will of God according to the movement's most zealous supporters.
In such an instance, there would be little question that the movement, its leaders, and its sympathizers would be targeted immediately as terrorists by the government, and hailed as terrorists by Christians and others in the United States. We've already seen it happen.
However, in the case above, as evidenced by the so-called 'pro-Life' anti-abortion movement involved in the systematized violence towards and killings of Tiller and others, these activities are carried out by often-White, usually male, fundamentalist Christians, so the 'justice' system works a bit differently, hesitating to call it the terrorism that it is.
Worse yet, the so-called 'pro-Life' movement leaders and talking heads are stumbling and falling all over each other (again) to vilify George Tiller -- using typically sensational and inaccurate information to serve their Egos, er, their agendas -- and to justify the ongoing fanaticism and violence, and murder.
Ultimately, an organized group of people whose aim it is to satisfy a religious and often fanatical agenda through terrorizing, instilling fear, inciting violence via threat and propaganda (and the promise of righteousness and Christian Heroism), and perpetrating violence through stalking, vandalism, publishing 'kill lists', physical attack, bombings, shootings, and murder, is a terrorist group, and should be viewed as such by government agencies like the FBI and Homeland Security. To date, largely under administrations favorable to the anti-abortion movement and hostile to environmental or anti-corporate activists, these government agencies have focused more on Muslims, environmental, and anti-corporate activists as potential terrorists.
It's time to include the fundamentalist, fanatical Christian anti-abortion terrorism on the agenda, and call it what it is - terrorism. Perhaps the many Christians who don't align with hateful intolerance and terrorist violence of their fanatical fellow Christians, but who are complicit by their silence, will begin speaking out, refusing to watch or advertise on violence-perpetuating and/or Christian-terrorism-condoning news organizations like Fox, and refusing to tolerate or shelter terrorism and violence coming from within their own midst, from within their own churches.
Perhaps it's a simple yet revealing question: Are you 'pro-life' or not? If you aren't actually pro-life, you support and defend the tactics and outcomes common to the anti-abortion movement and the more fanatical, fundamentalist fringe from which it often festers. If you are pro-life, you may already be engaged with a truly pro-Life Christian agenda or progressive Christian community (or a similar life-valuing expression of your own religious or spiritual tradition) that loves, values, and stewards life in all of its magnificent expressions.
Again, my most genuine wish and preference would be for people to choose to cultivate and live from the higher, more evolved and loving consciousness -- it's inherent within us all -- rather than having such behavior legislated and policed by necessity because some choose to perpetrate hatred, harm, and violence in the name of a vengeful God whom they envision as requiring and rewarding that.
Perhaps a rising vibration and consciousness, like the tide, will indeed open hearts, liberate minds, and raise all people and benefit all beings, and we will find ourselves in a time when we don't have systemetized greed, harm, and violence, but it's opposite, because it's what we choose.
As we know, whether from the words attributed to Jesus, Gandhi, or others, it requires a change of heart, a change from within to be expressed in life, in action, on behalf of Life and Wisdom itself.
May it be so.
Blessings on the Way,
Jamie
Recent Comments