measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- America's One-Sided Prayers Looking from a non-Christian angle, I found myself nodding a lot while reading this column over lunch today. For another angle, read Shandra's entry for today. They both are articles that go in tandem, in my opinion. And I feel they're both right. ~ Mel. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From the Boston Globe. By Derrick Z. Jackson, 4/9/2003 GOD HAS ROLLED into Baghdad. Our jihad is almost complete. Back home, from the halls of Centcom to the fields of Camp Lejeune, President Bush has invoked the name of the Maker to help us disassemble and remake Iraq in our image of freedom. God bless America. God bless our troops. In one press availability, Bush said: ''I pray for God's comfort and God's healing powers to anybody, coalition force, American, Brit, anybody who loses a life in this -- in our efforts to make the world more peaceful and more free.'' At his speech at Central Command, he said: ''People across this country are praying. . . . We pray that God will bless and receive each of the fallen, and we thank God that liberty found such brave defenders.'' Some soldiers believe this so much that someone at Centcom shouted, ''God bless you, sir!'' There is an ugliness about this. Although it is so easy and appropriate to note the cynical use of God by Saddam Hussein, it is striking that not a single time during this first-strike war has Bush ever asked God to bless however few or many Iraqi civilians our attack has killed and maimed. On the night he announced the war, Bush said: ''The families of our military are praying that all those who serve will return safely and soon. Millions of Americans are praying with you for the safety of your loved ones and for the protection of the innocent.'' That is as close as he has gotten. He has not cited Iraqi citizens by their country's name. Bush claims that the freedom we are giving to the Iraqi people is ''God's gift to humanity.'' But the Iraqi people are not quite human enough for him to say ''God bless the fallen civilians of Iraq,'' or ''God bless the innocent of Iraq,'' or even ''God bless the children of Iraq.'' It is always, God bless our troops. God bless our country. God bless our fallen. We pray that our families will receive God's comfort and grace.'' This sends a strong message to the world that in God's eyes we are better than you, so much better that you do not even deserve our prayers. We are still stuck in a locker room, behaving no more maturely than two football teams trying to outpray each other. We can kid ourselves that our prayers are less fanatical than Iraq's information minister, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, warning American soldiers that ''God will grill their bellies in hell.'' That is small comfort to the families of Iraqi civilians whose bodies were set aflame and grilled beyond recognition by our bombs and bullets. For them, the brave defenders of liberty denied freedom forever. The arrogance of American power by the bomb and the bullet allows us to forget that history offers no evidence that those who pray the hardest to their God are right. The Europeans who baptized Africans into slavery, the Christians who prayed as they exterminated North American Indians, the Klansmen with their crosses were indisputably on the wrong side of history. As much as many of us believe God was with us in World Wars I and II, God was more neutral in Korea and was a POW in Vietnam. So many people are still tearing each other up in the name of God, from the poorest nations in Africa to once again, America, that only the most blind can see that religion does not necessarily equate with reason, resolve, or resolution. As evil as Saddam Hussein is, it is interesting to note that the same politicians who ask God's blessing for the troops have nothing to say about God when reports come in of scared US soldiers -- many of whom look like babies under their pot-sized helmets -- gunning down entire Iraqi families. This week, a US soldier in Iraq said, ''It really gets to me to see children being killed like this, but we had no choice.'' Perhaps it gets to him because despite all the prayers and proclamations, soldiers know far better than the politicians that the charred bodies of the innocent cannot possibly be God's work. If we are to pray, perhaps it would be better to wish that soldiers like him are not mentally disabled by the deadly choices of our leaders. America will never truly be a beacon of global freedom as long as it prays only for itself. In the New Testament, Jesus said, ''Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.'' God is rolling into Baghdad promising to make the world more peaceful and free. A nation that has chosen to kill innocent Iraqis in a ''preventive'' war has a lot of talking to do with God. It is hard to love Saddam Hussein, but in our hate of him, we failed to deliver God's love to the innocents. All that many Iraqis have felt from the God-blessed troops of the United States is preventive vengeance. Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is [email protected]. 1:21 p.m. - 09 April 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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