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The Parasites of God
By Charles Sullivan
03/14/06 "ICH"
-- -- Let me state at the outset that I am not a Christian; nor do I
have any desire to be a Christian. I have my own religious beliefs
that guide my moral behavior. "Neither do I
harbor any ill will toward the Christian faith or its sincere
practitioners." Indeed, I have the utmost respect for them. The trouble is that in
America most people cannot tell the difference between real
Christians, those who do the work of God, and those who use religion
as a tool for evil. In this short essay, I have some harsh truth to
convey. I will endeavor to be as gentle as I can in doing so. I pray
that I do not step on any innocent toes.
Far too much latitude is given in professions of faith in this
country. Undue weight is given to rhetoric and too little is
conceded to action—how a person lives her or his life. Declarations
of faith are not evidence of faith. Going to a garage does not make
a person a car. Neither does going to church make one a Christian.
Meeting an apostle of God, no matter which religion one ascribes to,
is a memorable event. You will know when you stand in divine
presence. Such meetings, however, are very rare, which suggests that
the genuine article is not easily manufactured. Cheap imitations,
the counterfeit, are quite common because they can be easily
produced. But we should not accept imitations as the real thing.
Tom Fox, a member of the non-missionary Christian Peacekeeping Team,
was the genuine article. We know this beyond all doubt by the way
Tom Fox lived his life; by his long devotion to the causes that
mattered to him. Being Christian amid a sea of impostors cannot be
easy. It is dangerous work. As in the case of Christ himself, it may
lead to crucifixion. Real Christians, as exemplified by the CPT,
will always find themselves in formal opposition to U.S. policies of
global domination and empire. But the apostles of wealth and empire,
those who merely claim to be Christian, will sanction these same
polices and proclaim they are the work of God. They are not.
Mr. Fox was executed by his captors in Iraq. His body turned up late
last week with bullets to the head and chest. The fate of his fellow
captives remains unknown. Execution, accentuated by possible
torture, was a fate that Tom Fox did not deserve; but he, as a man
of faith, willingly incurred the risk of doing God’s work amid so
much godlessness and ruin. But this is where the rubber meets the
road, so to speak.
By all accounts, Tom Fox lived a life exemplified by his gentle
soul, a generosity of spirit and strength that endeared him to his
peers—traits of character that led him to a life of service not to
his country, but to his God. Religion does not recognize, nor is it
constrained by nationality or geopolitical boundaries.
Unfortunately, that is rarely how it is taught here.
Tom Fox’s beliefs were stated in the CPT’s statement of Conviction:
“We reject the use of violent force to save our lives should we be
kidnapped, held hostage, or caught in the middle of a violent
conflict situation. We also reject violence to punish anyone who
harms us. We ask for equal justice in the arrest and trial of
anyone, soldier or civilian, who commits an act of violence, and we
ask that there be no retaliation on their relatives or property. We
forgive those who consider us their enemies. Therefore, any penalty
should be in the spirit of restorative justice, rather than in the
form of violent retribution.” Love thy neighbor. Tom lived and died
by this biblical credo.
Contrast this mission statement, signed by Tom Fox, with the actions
of George Bush. Consider the scale of the horror and bloodshed this
man has wrought on hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Ponder,
if you can, the unspeakable horror he has visited upon countless
thousands of families, under the fallacious moral authority of a
stolen Christianity he neither owns nor comprehends. It is plain to
see who the Christian is and who is the impostor.
In a piece called “Fight
or Flight?” written on November 30, 2005,
Tom Fox made an important distinction between real Christians and
the much more common impostors who misuse religion to serve empire
and material conquest. He wrote, “The French theologian Rene Girard
has a very powerful vision of Satan that speaks to me: Satan
sustains himself as a parasite on what God creates by imitating God
in a manner that is jealous, grotesque, perverse and as contrary as
possible to the loving and obedient imitation of Jesus.”
How could any words define George Bush and his followers more
perfectly or succinctly? What must Tom Fox have thought of this evil
little man? No doubt, his reaction was not one of malice or hatred;
but of pity and forgiveness. It requires inner strength and a
generous spirit to forgive such malicious behavior—strength of
character that I find sadly lacking in myself most of the time. Tom
Fox was a far better man than I.
The astute observations of Rene Girard that so impressed Tom Fox
defines exactly what George Bush, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell
are. They are parasites of God masquerading as men of God for evil
purposes. They imitate God in order to fool their sheepish cohorts
into following what are in essence satanic policies. Their motives
are betrayed by their hateful rhetoric, by acts of unprovoked
violence against innocent civilians and the systematic killing of
hope. Their allegiance is to Satan, not to God, as they profess.
Have we become so indoctrinated by the language of empire that we
can no longer see the disconnect between these acts of terror and
the non-violent teachings of Christ? Why are so many who call
themselves Christians worshiping the parasites of god and empire,
while shunning and betraying the genuine article?
George Bush, Pat Robertson, Falwell and the rest, have not so
cleverly donned the garments of Christianity in order to
deliberately mislead their helpless flocks, to press them into the
service of Satan, while convincing them they are doing the will of
God. Bush, just as he did when he appeared on the deck of that air
craft carrier years ago wearing a leather flight jacket, betrays his
ignorance about what the wearing of such garments entails. Donning
an air force flight jacket does not make one a warrior, although it
may make them look like one. Neither does donning the robes of
Christianity make a man Christian, a servant of god.
Tom Fox understood the kind of devotion and service to humanity,
particularly to the poor and the oppressed, that wearing the
garments of Christianity required. Bush, a man born of wealth and
privilege has no conception about what it means to labor, to
sacrifice and to serve others. He is all about serving those of his
kind—the enemies of peace, the violent oppressors of the poor and
the just. Bush, like his predecessors, is taking from the poor and
giving to the rich; he is fomenting violence and death all over the
world—his actions, his life, cannot be reconciled in any way with
the teachings of Jesus Christ. Bush is an apostle of class elitism,
of wealth and empire, not of god.
Just as when he donned that flight jacket years ago—a jacket he did
not earn the right to wear with honor by service—Bush dishonored all
of those who genuinely earned theirs’. Similarly, he dishonors true
Christians, men like Tom Fox, each time he dons the mere garments of
Christianity and uses them in the service of Satan and empire
building. Tom Fox devoted his life to the service of his god by
intervening on behalf of the oppressed and the traumatized—the
victims of George Bush’s military machine. A man cannot serve two
masters.
It is difficult to fathom how easily people of faith can allow
themselves to be deceived by the cheap imitations embodied by George
Bush and his followers. We must learn the difference between the
parasites of God and the servants of God—the two bear no resemblance
to one another. It requires not only gross ignorance to brazenly don
the garments of religion, without the years of service and self
sacrifice they require of their wearer—it requires enormous hubris
and contempt for integrity and honor. Balls without brains and
conscience is a pitiful and grotesque sight.
Beware of any man who relies upon tricks and illusions to persuade
people to follow him. That man is without substance—without heart
and soul. Truth and justice are his enemies. He will go to great
lengths to destroy them because they are all that keep him afloat
upon the sea of lies he has created around himself. Such men sneak
and cower and operate in secrecy. They must cloak their sinister
purposes in euphemistic language to keep their crimes hidden from
humanity. They are not what they appear to be. They don the garments
of religion, the clothes of human decency, to conceal who they
really are. Judge them not by what they say, by the clothes they
wear; but by what they do and whom they serve. Follow the money
trail and you will know who they are. They are fattened camels
expecting to pass through the eye of a needle.
It is not hard to tell the real Christians from the parasites of
God. Contrast the lives of Tom Fox and George Bush. Nothing in the
personal history of George Bush suggests anything other than a
parasitic connection to God. Hubris, sadism, the exploitation and
abuse of others, are not characteristics of a man of god. They are a
contradiction of God, an abomination. The president is a pathetic
little stooge in pursuit of wealth and temporary power. History will
not remember him kindly. By contrast, Tom Fox was a man of God who
willingly gave his life trying to undo the damage caused by Bush and
his followers. God will not confuse them and neither should we.
In fact, Mr. Bush lacks the grounding in reality to know the
difference between playing soldier and being a soldier. Likewise, he
believes that donning the mere robes of Christianity, without doing
the often painful work required of Christianity makes him an apostle
of Jesus. Only in America could such a pathetic, shallow, moronic
imbecile become president. One wonders when this comic tragedy will
end and how many will be dead when it does.
Charles Sullivan is a photographer, social activist and free lance
writer living in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He can be
reached at
earthdog@highstream.net.
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