I was privileged to an email sent out to numerous organizations by Jill Savitt, Director of Campaigns for Human Rights First, an organization that spews illogical solutions to real problems and hides behind a façade of compassion and decorum. The email is intended to spark a resistance to the President’s detainee bill initiative by urging citizens to contact their elected representatives in Congress. The letter states:

Dear Friend,

It's not as visually shocking as the Abu Ghraib photos,
but President Bush's speech last Wednesday tells the
same horrifying story: The Bush administration is again
fighting for the right to abuse detainees in U.S. custody.

This week, the White House is calling on Congress to pass
military commission legislation that undermines the
baseline protections for prisoners guaranteed by the
Geneva Conventions - and undermines our nation's values.

It continues:

If the White House succeeds, we will be inviting other
nations to abuse our own troops, now and in future wars.
The administration is willing to risk the lives of our
soldiers - and further tarnish our reputation - so that
it can engage in cruel and inhuman treatment.

Perhaps this nation needs to show reruns of the atrocious beheading of Nick Berg and other Americans before we place these terrorist under the protection of impotent Geneva Conventions. This organization, as well as the Democratic leadership that denounces the President’s bill, are no more able to make security decisions than that of the adolescent cast of Mean Girls or Clueless. How does one make this more evident? We are not facing “other nations” that will be invited to “abuse our own troops, now and in future wars.” We are facing heartless murders and ruthless executioners. Their conduct is by no way directed by the Geneva Conventions or any other such document that attempts to bring reason to an irrational world. Their conduct is only directed by a misinterpretation of the Quran which calls for the slow and tortuous killings of all infidels. It is the terrorist action of torture that truly constitutes the intervention of groups such as Human Rights First, and we should in no way forget that.

 

How fickle and fuddled are the confused minds of many in America. As the November midterm elections draw near, we find that the same old arguments reiterate themselves time and time again. It seems quiet comical that we would need to address the issue of national security. After the devastating effects of 9/11, it would seem obvious that not only America, but the rest of the world would be united in doing whatever possible to hinder such an atrocity from occurring again. Yet we find it necessary for the President of this great nation to be defending secret CIA prisons and NSA wire tapings. Such operations are essential in preserving life, however many are accusing these actions to be nothing more than a mere attempt of consolidating power. This should not be a divided issue, this should not distinguish further the line between the left and the right, this should not be an area plagued with infinite debate. The unrelenting resolve to destroy all those who wish death upon us should be one that unites, not divides, parallels the left and the right, not distinguishes, and should be a futile debate for there should be no disagreement. America is threatened, and it is a threat against all those who seek a free world. There should be no disparity in our steadfast commitment to make sure that what occurred on September 11^th will never happen again.

 As a person entrenched in the path of becoming a spiritual leader, I am finding that more and more of our so called moral guides are skewing the lines that differentiate between good and evil. Whether this is due to a lifetime embedded solely in academia or whether it is a byproduct of a post-enlightenment concept of acceptance of everyone and everything so as not to discriminate on any level, I do not know. However, it is time for the faith community throughout our world to reestablish its foundation in good and to combat evil in all its forms.

An example of this diversion from asserting what is good in this world into a life without absolute truths of what is good and what is evil can be found in an article entitled “Lutheran World Leader Joins in Call to End Middle East Violence” printed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America News Service.

It is in this article that three leaders of global church organizations do not make a stance for what is good, right, and morally just by not condemning evil as it so blatantly stands. These leaders are: the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, president of the Lutheran World Federation, Geneva, and presiding bish0p of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA); the Rev. Clifton Kirkparick, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Geneva, and stated clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Louisville, Ky.; and the Rev. Samuel Kobia, general secretary, World Council of Churches, Geneva.

This coalition of world church leaders “called on Hezbollah and Israel to end the fighting in Israel and Lebanon, and called for the United States, European Union and Arab States ‘to exercise their influence toward this end.’ They also called on Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to end the conflict in Gaza.” The article continues, “To date, the church leaders said the number of Lebanese deaths is approaching 1,000 people, one-third of them reportedly children under 12. The number of Israeli deaths is near 100. ‘It is time for this intransigence by both parities to end. Israel must withdraw speedily from all the Lebanese territory, and Hezbollah, at the same time, must cease its actions against the Israeli people,’ the church leaders wrote.”

Not once throughout the article do the church leaders refer to Hezbollah or Hamas as evil, rather it is the “fighting” by all parties that is the actual evil. They view the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas as “political leaders” who should work through the United Nations to establish a peace. Their blindness to evils that Hezbollah and Hamas stand for is shocking. They are terrorist organizations that have taken thousands of American and Israeli lives, not distinguishing between combatants and civilians. Their objective is not peace, but the contrary. They have one objective, and one objective only. That is to destroy the infidel, namely anyone who does not hold an accord with their beliefs.

These groups represent Islamic fascism whose only terms for peace is the utter destruction of Israel. Until they “drive Israel into the sea,” there will be no end to their indiscriminate murder of all those who not conform to their beliefs. For our faith leaders not to condemn this as evil is all but stating that evil does not exist.

It is true that war and violence in themselves are not good, but there are times in this world that the acts of war can allow for good to exist and flourish. In most cases, war implies that there is an evil that needs to be eradicated. Yes, war comes with casualties, and at times they are often at the expense of innocent lives. But to stand back and allow evil to exist and spread without combating it by any means would be moral inept. Just as there was no other answer to cease the evils of Nazi fascism than war, so too with terrorist and evil organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas is war necessary to ensure that good will survive.

We are in need of our leaders in faith to stand up to evil in the same way as Sir Winston Churchill did when he stated, “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender,” we shall make evil suffer and stand for the good of all mankind.