Jeremy Beaudry
Projects, Research & Texts

Moral Absolutism V. Pragmatic Compromise

Posted on November 1st, 2004 in activism and

My uncle D. writes:

The “wall of separation” created by the Founders and lodged in the Constitution is the key to free religious practice and to the degree that wall is assaulted that very freedom is threatened. For it is in the very nature of religion to be intolerant since it is based on beliefs of immutable truth. Our civic democracy is driven by pragmatic compromise, not moral absolutes.

Who would Jesus bomb?

Posted on October 21st, 2004 in activism and

Today while driving around town, M. spied a mini-van with two very telling bumper stickers: the slickly corporate and familiar “Bush Cheney 04″ beside which was boldly placed the “Who would Jesus bomb?” Strangely, this individual missed the memo the Left sent out claiming this particular slogan as a sarcastic jab at Bush, calling attention to certain inconsistencies in the behavior of the self-proclaimed appointed-by-God sun-king president. The brazenness of this person’s embrace of the the slogan was enough to send M. into a fury of road-rage-like distraction! I can’t discern whether this bumper sticker represents an isolated sentiment in the Christian/Bush community, or maybe the person was being really ironic, or maybe just plain wacko. But it does bring to mind the very real inconsistencies in the so-called faith of George W. Bush, something that a lot of Christians seem to gloss over, or not even perceive.

How can a Christian…

decimate the earth by refusing to not only protect it but actively seeking to harm it?
seek to codify discrimination in the Constitution, a document intended to guarantee rights, not restrict them?
mislead a country into killing thousands of people and then lie about that misleading?
hand the country over to his corporate pals, an oligarchy who’s only god is profit and greed?
play politics with growing numbers of Americans sinking into poverty by pursuing a plan calculated to cut as much from our entitlement programs in exchange for increased federal spending on such admirable programs as nuclear weapons?
How can a Christian so decidedly lack one of the principal characteristics of the faith: Humility?

Of course, history is full of Christians, Muslims, Jews alike all doing these same things in the name of their respective Gods–that’s what we do. But, faced with a choice, I just don’t get how Bush gets all this support from the “faithful”? The core of the Christian message–the one that I was taught growing up–flies in the face of George W. Bush.

UPDATE October 25, 2005

This commentary by a Christian woman is quite moving.

Chavez and Venezuela: Why should we care?

Posted on August 16th, 2004 in activism and

Somebody says Chavez supports Castro and that’s no good. Somebody else says Chavez is bad for oil (meaning our oil) and that too is no good. Somebody says Chavez came to power in a coup d’etat and that’s not right.

But somebody else says some other things about Chavez in this article that sound pretty ok.

Chavez himself handed me a copy of the “socialist” manifesto that so rattled the man in the Jag [a wealthy hacendado; 77% of Venezuela's farmland is owned by 3% of the population, the hacendados.]. It was a new law passed by Venezuela’s Congress which gave land to the landless. The Chavez law transferred only fields from the giant haciendas which had been left unused and abandoned.

"Give Us Back Our Democracy"

Posted on April 21st, 2003 in activism and

“Give Us Back Our Democracy
Americans have been cheated and lied to on matters of the gravest constitutional importance”
by Edward Said

amen.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"

Posted on April 7th, 2003 in activism and

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d:
Their’s not to make reply,
Their’s not to reason why,
Their’s but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

from Alfred, Lord Tennyson,
The Charge of the Light Brigade