My brother told me we are in a “Holy War”. He was quite serious and took great offense to my position about the Muslim Mosque/cultural center controversy in New York City. Personally I never thought any war could really be considered “holy”. You know, “My God is better than your God!” stuff. For me it’s always come down to the God of “OIL”, who has it and who wants it. It really could be any mineral or something of value that everyone wants for that matter but in the Middle East is a vast amount of oil.
During the first gulf war Saddam Hussein went into Kuwait and it was also about oil. Saddam claimed Kuwait was drilling at an angle into Iraq for oil. Saddam decided to put a stop to that and we decided to stop Saddam.
I was surprised to discover this piece online:
A supplier for military rifle sights puts biblical coding on the guns sights. Here is one of the citations:
One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
This is also from the article:
U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious “Crusade” in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.
To me it is such an oxymoron to consider war to be part of any religious beliefs as most religions teach us to “love one another”. However, we know that through out history religion has started many wars! So I ask myself, “Is my brother right?” Are we secretly involved in a “Holy War” for the religious right? As a people we believe in the freedom of religion. You can even be an “Atheist” if you choose. You don’t have to be Christian; and you don’t have to be Christian to fight for the military as well. So why must so many people think we are fighting a “Holy War” and how did this get started?
This weekend there is a Glenn Beck rally in Washington D.C. on the Mall. It’s called the “Restoring Honor Rally” and I am watching it on C-Span as I finish this piece on “Holy War”. The rally is huge, filled with a number of people that appear to be pretty white and by the make up of the speakers, “Christians”. Sarah Palin was asked to speak as a mother of a soldier, not a politician. She introduced three war heroes, two from the recent wars and one from Vietnam.
Glenn Beck spoke and kept referring back to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I found this rather appalling. Glenn’s rally seemed to me to be more about a “Holy War” and pushing “Christianity” on the world than anything Dr. King ever spoke about. However, he appeared to have the backing of all the usage of the “King” words and philosophy as Kings’ Niece, Alveda King, was a part of the rally. She is an anti- abortion activist that had two abortions in her youth that she now regrets. She acts as a voice for the “Silent No More Awareness Campaign.” Glenn Beck stealing the words of Martin Luther King Jr. is frightening to me. Just this last week Glenn made a very anti-Catholic statement about social justice. I talk on here about being raised Catholic with the ideals of social justice often. Glenn Beck wants people to leave any church that speaks about social or economic justice, saying they were code words for Communism and Nazism.
For me Glenn Beck follows a narrow form of Christianity that probably does indeed believe we are in a “Holy War”.
Glenn talked about the origination of the “Purple Heart” and decided to take a cue from it and give out three special medals based on faith, hope and charity. “Faith” went to a black minister who talked about sitting next to Martin Luther King Jr. Unfortunately, I don’t remember his name. “Hope” went to Albert Pujos who came from the Dominican Republic, scored a 100% on his citizenship test and has a foundation organized for “Down’s syndrome” and finally “Charity” went to John Huntman, Sr. from Salt Lake City, Utah. He is a rich philanthropist that wrote “Winners Never Cheat: Everyday Values We Learned as Children (But May Have Forgotten)” in 2005. He is worth about 2 billion and is dedicated to giving away the majority of it. He was not there to receive the award as he was at the marriage of his granddaughter.
They began this rally talking about the Mayflower and Native Americans, Indians and it was all about basically saying that America was founded on religion, Christianity. I feel the underlying implication of this entire rally is that President Obama and maybe the Democrats have some how taken away our “Honor”. They don’t mention his name but you know it’s there. . The rally is about heroes and God, fighting wars and religion. I dare say it might be about a “Holy War” after all.
After watching this rally I know my brother isn’t alone with his thinking. For me it’s such a waste of human life and resources in these never ending wars that we seem to be involved in. Who would have thought that students that I taught in middle school classes many years ago are now preparing to go off to fight these same stupid wars? We seem to be embattled in endless war.
While our cities, economy, and way of life are being destroyed at home, we continue to battle on in these two wars overseas. Bush said, “We fight them overseas so we don’t have to fight them here.” Yes, I know we have had a draw down of sorts recently in Iraq but many more soldiers have just been shifted over to Afghanistan. At this time it appears that many oil companies are hopeful for their profits in the years to come in Iraq. Imagine that!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704125604575449001388136336.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Isn’t it comforting to know that this is the end result of our efforts in Iraq?
I cannot think of a good reason for constant war let alone a “Holy War”. My favorite song in my youth was the Universal Soldier by Buffy Ste. Marie. It may have been written in my youth but it is as important of a statement today as it was then. I used to sing this song all the time. Here Buffy tells how she wrote the song and then sings it. Listen to it and you will know that we are the product of war and we continue to be the pawn of war. It doesn’t matter what religion you are as you know you aren’t supposed to kill, but you will kill. You will kill for whatever your government tells you is worth killing for! And if you think this will put an end to war, think again!
Finally here is “Holy War” by Thin Lizzy.
Below are the words to Holy War:
If you will adore me
Bow before me and praise my name
If you place no God before me
Then all I have is yours to claim
And if God is in the heavens
Why did God let children die
If you don’t ask these questions
There is no reasons why
We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law
All the visions shown before you
All the kingdoms and the thrones
All are yours if you bow before me and adore me
All this you can own
There are those that will go to heaven
There are those that will never win
No one knows what will happen
There are those that turn to sin
We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law
(solo)
We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law
We are chosen
The devil is in hell with the demons
This is the holy war
They lead us to our temptation
Lead us, take our souls
There is no evil in salvation
There is evil in us all
Just as Satan tempted Jesus
And Jesus slips and falls
He is a station on the cross now
He is dying to save us all
We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law
We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law
We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law
We are chosen
We are one
We are frightened of no one
And no one will win this war
This is the way
This is the law
If God is in heaven, won’t you save me now
Oh lord forgive them for what they’ve done
Lost children of Babylon
Oh Allah oh no oh no (? )
This is the holy war