So what do I want?

I hammer the church on a regular basis in this little space. I think it is deserved with a church that seems to be more in line with the wealthiest Americans than those left out of the system. I started reading Bruce Bawer's Stealing Jesus and he made a great point about Jesus pointint to loving your neighbor as the greatest of the comandments. Wow. If I thought Roy Moore's impulse was anything close to that, I might support him instead of thinking he is a raving lunatic. Likewise if I saw a hint of loving your neighbor from this administration, I would not be nearly as harsh. But I don't. I see love for wealth and power--and half-assed thoughts about self-sufficiency to cover for reducing wealthy individuals responsibility to their fellow man.

So, what do I want? Starting with that first paragraph is a good place. What else? Do we agree on anything? Sure. I like life and moral values.

Let's start with life. I respect the right for claiming to value life. I puzzle with forcing a woman to give birth, but respect the impulse to protect and save life. I would like it even more if it continued after birth with a dedicated support to reducing infant mortality in our poorest neighborhoods. (Speaking of that, some attention to the environmental problems that poor people experience more than the wealthy would be a good thing.)

Ok, so we agree that we don't like abortion. I don't think you can do that and stand behind this administration's assinine "abstinence only" policy. Study after study proves it doesn't work, and only makes those kids more susceptible to unwanted pregnancies or disease. You want to encourage kids to abstain? Fine, but do it with your head up and the realization that kids are going to, and have always had sex. Not everyone, but many. Stating that abstinence is the only way to make sure is fine, but good sex ed and awareness about contraceptives is necessary as well. And conservative evangelicals? You aren't doing this. You are fighting sex ed and contraceptive programs everywhere despite the evidence. For us to move forward, you are going to have to compromise.

Speaking of compromise and a dedication to life, this capital punishment idiocy has to stop. Everywhere you see evidence that we are executing people on racist and class-based grounds. DNA evidence suggests heavily that we have executed innocent people in the past and continue to convict people using the worst circumstantial evidence. Your fears of criminals are understandable, but you can't claim to value life and casually accept this horrific system. Stand up, dammit, and acknowledge that whatever mythical moral grounds you are using here, we are not executing people in a perfect system. And the consequences are too dire. In your attempt to send a message that life is sacred, you actually trivialize life.

And lastly, but back to life. If you believe in life and creation, you have to show more concern for our enemies than you do right now. Talking about this as a spiritual battle between God and Satan (thank you General Boykin) is irrelevant to the reality of innocent lives lost at our hand. As people who, again, trumpet the "culture of life," it sounds incredibly hollow when you ignore 100,000 possible Iraqi deaths, or justify torturing these enemies on some trumped up Biblical world view.

And btw, you liked to sell and buy the WWJD bracelets and shirts, right? Let's actually ask that question and mean it. Who Would Jesus Bomb? Who Would Jesus Torture? Who Would Jesus sentence to Death and then Mock?