Here’s a highly provocative article by CNN on how the majority of evangelical Christians support torture. Here’s my provocative response.
I’m afraid pictures speak louder than words on how I feel about this issue, I’m sure you see the point I’m making. If you’re a Christian and offended, guess what? I am too.
I would also like to correct something that I noticed a little over a week ago. The reports that the government misused the Patriot Act to arrest Ashton Lundeby were fabricated by his mother to get media attention on the issue. One of the schools that was called in with a bomb threat was Mill Valley High School in Shawnee, Kansas. I know several students at that school and I apologize for bringing publicity to this issue. He’s obviously guilty, well known online as “Tyrone” for making prank phone calls in the past. That being said, he still deserves fair justice and, while being fake, still draws attention to why the Patriot Act needs to be reworked.
As my readers know, I’m Christian. As such, I do believe in the Grand Commission to spread the faith to those who don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ, but this is an example of where I would draw the line.
The Constitution and military guidelines prohibit prosyletizing any “faith or action” to a group of people being occupied by U.S. forces. So why then are some evangelicals in our army doing just that? With some clever wording, apparently they can.
Despite their actual actions of spreading the faith being peaceful, it is hardly under nonviolent circumstances. If taken the wrong way, which can easily be done, Muslims (and other religions) could view this as violently forcing the Christian faith on the local populace. I can recall a particular moment when the religious views of the Muslim faith were forced upon us as they “spread the faith by the sword.”
So why should Christians be getting mad about this? Though they were erroneous, the Newsweek reports from a few years ago that Qu’rans were being flushed down the toilet hardly left a warm fuzzy feeling with the Muslim community either. This is honestly an instance where I have to say what comes around goes around. To my Christian brothers and sisters, welcome to the feeling that those in Afghanistan and Iraq must feel about us being there. Kinda stinks, doesn’t it?
I would hardly call how the army disposed of the Bibles as disrespectful, but more as a matter of necessity. Troops are required to burn trash while they’re occupying countries, and while the Bible isn’t trash, they needed to be gotten rid of to protect the best interests and intent of the army. If they had sent the Bible’s back to the organization they were donated by, it is likely they would have been redistributed giving the impression that the army was funding the operation.
I’m sure God will forgive us.
As the Space Shuttle Atlantis prepares to launch this afternoon at 1 PM, a curious sight has unfolded at the Cape that will be the last such sight during the shuttle program - there are two shuttles on their respective pads at the same time. It’s a sight that has occurred before, but never under these circumstances.
The second shuttle, Endeavor, is on the pad not just for its upcoming trip to the ISS, but it is also serving as a potential rescue ship for Atlantis should the ship be irreparably damaged while on orbit. The risks are slightly hightened for the STS-125 mission as it visits the Hubble Space Telescope for the last time as it is in a higher orbit with more debris. As the Columbia tragedy taught us, it doesn’t take much for the shuttle to be damaged in the wrong place for the whole mission to be compromised.
Other shuttle missions since the accident have all visited the station which can act as a save haven if something were to happen to a shuttle. There, the astronauts have enough resources to survive for months while a rescue mission could be mounted. At Hubble, the time is measured in weeks, far too short for a rescue shuttle to not be on the launch pad.
If the rescue mission needs to be mounted, it will be called STS-400 and will involve a skeleton crew being launched on Endeavor to rondezvous with Atlantis in orbit in a matter of a few days following the discovery of any damage. Once near each other, their robotic arms would interlock and a tether strung between the two airlocks. A series of three spacewalks would then transfer the 7 astronauts on Atlantis to Endeavor to join the 4 astronauts on board there. The crews would return to earth on Endeavor and Atlantis would be ditched over the Pacific Ocean where the debris could fall away from population centers. If STS-400 does happen, it would be one of the riskiest missions in NASA history, rivaling the Apollo 13 mission. Space shuttles have never flown simultaneously and a rondezvous would be unprecedented.
My thoughts and prayers are with STS-125 and that STS-400 never has to happen.
God Speed Atlantis!
As if the case of Ashton Lundeby isn’t enough to fuel the fire of an apparent decline in the justice system here in the United States, take a look at this story about a man who spent 83 days in jail for failing to show up to jury duty. He couldn’t afford the $1,500 bail and his requests for a public defender were denied. Further, the judge who initially issued his arrest warrant in 2003 has since retired and the case was then placed under the jurisdiction of his replacement, but the case but the offense didn’t fall under that courts responsibility.
If the man, Douglas Maupin, hadn’t written to a local newspaper about his plight, how long could he have ended up spending in the county jail? Even the current judge thought the time he spent was “unacceptable.” Thankfully in Maupin’s case, it will be investigated further.
On a side note, some people question why I’m a liberal. This is the reason why. Here you have a man who, even after contacting family members, can’t afford his bail, and he spends months in jail. It’s $1,500 and/or a public defender who could have had everything resolved fairly quickly, at I would presume a lower cost than it was to keep him alive in jail. Is it greed or just mistreatment of the poor, or even a combination of both? Either way, it is unacceptable and for a country that prides itself on its legal system, this is yet another travesty.
I believe that we can’t sacrifice liberty for increased safety, and right below that on my list of things that shouldn’t be sacrificed is justice for the sake of anything. A court system that does not distribute justice fairly would constitute a power far greater than the government, making this not a country of the people or politicians but of the judges and where their verdict lands. This is a dangerous pattern America, I hope these stories are just unusually close to each other, as news stories tend to do.
It has been 66 days since Ashton Lundeby was taken into custody by federal authorities and he has not seen any justice.
Free Ashton Lundeby!