"God is not a Republican or a Democrat'"

"It is the responsibility of every political conservative, every evangelical Christian, every pro-life Catholic, every traditional Jew...to get serious about re-electing President Bush." - Jerry Falwell, The New York Times, July 16, 2004

"I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. The Lord has just blessed him.... It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad." - Pat Robertson, AP/Fox News, January 2, 2004

These statements activated Sojourners to put a full-page in today's New York Times. Check out the ad.

Growing up in a home with a Republican dad and a Democrat mom convinced me that there is not just one way to view politics. Folks of good heart and mind can disagree on partisan politics. I am a healthy happy independent who has lived, worked, and worshipped among conservative Republicans for the last 30 years. Sojourners gives voice to many of my concerns.

"Al tikrar biallem il hmar"*

My soul shudders when I see clips on CNN of the midrasas in the far reaches of Pakistan where young children absorb a combination of Islam with a virulent strain of anti-US hatred. The other day I was reflecting on this disturbing aspect of "that culture," when the images from the film with Robin Williams called Toys came to mind. Remember the Christmas-time flick from a few years back which portrayed an intentional military-toy industrial complex conspiracy to train Americans children to kill with video games and other toys? We recoil in horror at the training given to a portion of a generation of Arab-Muslim children, but how much pause do we give the training our young ones receive while playing video games? And to what extent does our media machine inculcate a strain of potentially virulent anti-Arab messages?

I started thinking about an article I once shared with my government classes. U.S. army officer and expert in the psychology of killing, David Grossman, made a case for banning certain video games from mainstream society because they were training kids to kill. The story ran as the Christianity Today cover, August 10, 1998, "Trained to Kill."

I mentioned this to a psychologist friend of mine who immediately poo-pooed this concern, but I hold to it. Just because, thankfully, he and his family don’t train their children to direct the killing skills of these video games to a certain ethnic or religious groups doesn’t mean that these games are not training American kids to be killers. I might add that for all of his family’s loving ways—there are millions who do articulate hatred for a variety of folks—especially those who appear to be among our country’s enemies.

Combine this concern with the one I heard raised last week in a recording of a book signing by Jack G. Shaheen, author of Reel Bad Arabs; How Hollywood Vilifies a People. In a study of 900 films, he tells of “the persistent and prolonged vilification of Arab peoples in mainstream Western movies.” (Okay, so I watch C-Span book reviews...) Shaheen expresses in a most articulate and passionate way his concern over the way slanderous stereotypes Americans have affected honest discourse and public policy." In his opening pages he quotes an *old Arab proverb, Al tikrar biallem il hmar-By repetition even the donkey learns. He decries a century of Hollywood "tutoring movie audiences by repeating over and over, in film after film, insidious images of Arab people."

I wonder--between Disney's Alladin and the evening news-- what images are being repeatedly given to our children of Arabs without any counterbalance? Could this be an unintentional parallel to the midrasas?

What prompted me to write was this weekend's New York Times Magazine story on "The Making of an X Box Warrior". Read it and speak. Is the American media machine from video games to the cinema not training our kids to kill and hate but in our own special way?

Consider this quote:

"Some military experts argue that while it is possible for the games to provide useful training for terrorists, the benefit of some of these games to the Army far outweighs any potential security hazard its theft might pose. ''This is going to give us a bigger edge than it gives to somebody else,'' said William Davis, who heads the lab that created the virtual weapons for the recruitment game America's Army. "

Dowdy days of avocado and peach

Ken and Bev 70s

As the evening sun filtered through the 60s styled stained windows the soft colors dappled over the avocado green carpet and drapes. The mellow baritone voice of Ken Dowdy filled the air.

“You see, I’d like to share my life with you
Show you things I’ve seen
Places that I’m going to, places that I’ve been
To have you there beside, never be alone
And all the time that you’re with me
We would be at home”
(Song by John Denver)

“I’ll love you forever and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we’re together
Love you when we’re apart…
Sing it loud so I can hear you
Make it easy to be near you
For the things you do endear you to me
Oh, you know I will, I will."
(Song by the Beatles)

The congregation sang.

For the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the skies
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies
Lord of all to thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.

The girls in apricot and the guys in beige tuxedoes with apricot ruffled shirts stood up with us, sang to us, sang with us, and prayed with us. The parents, sans my Daddy who would have loved Ken Dowdy, blessed us. Our friends and family celebrated with food and fun for hours.

The fashion police and the music critics might cringe at a reprise of that wedding of 30 years ago, but there is nothing in this world I would trade for all the Dowdy days I have reveled in Ken’s love.

30th Anniversary 

This is what 30 years of marriage can get you.