Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Cheap Grace

Let the Christian rest content with his worldliness and with this renunciation of any higher standard than the world. He is living for the sake of the world rather than for the sake of grace. Let him be comforted and rest assured in his possession of this grace - for grace alone does everything. Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolations of his grace!

That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sins departs.

Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must the asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.

Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Bonhoeffer

"I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that is it only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I tried to read his "Cost of Discipleship." I wasn't grown up enough to wrap myself around this text. Last night we watched the 2003 documentary about him. It's time to give him another try, especially now that I am working myself around the ability of my country to allow genocide to happen--Rwanda and Darfur.

Thank God for Molly

"It's a joke that the Right wing claims it is against 'judicial
activists.' What they want are judicial activists who agree with
them."

- Molly Ivins, syndicated columnist

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/21873

A brilliant and lucid look at the whole "activist" judges scam.

Right to Lifers

"The right-to-lifers believe that the right to life begins with conception and ends at birth."
- Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA)

Christians

"What these self-avowed Christians do not acknowledge -- and what the American public seems little aware of -- is that the war they are waging is actually against other people calling themselves Christians. To simplify: Right-wing and fundamentalist Christians are really at war with left-wing and mainstream Christians. It is a battle over both the meaning and practice of Christianity as well as over the definition and destiny of the republic. Secular humanism is a bogeyman, a smoke screen obscuring the right-wing Christians' struggle for supremacy...

"The present war within the Christian fold is perhaps more threatening to the republic than any of the previous intramural disputes. Right-wing religious zealots, working in partnership with the secularists who have advised President Bush, are a threat to the most fundamental of American principles. The founders of our nation welcomed and planned for spirited debate over public policies, including the role of the judiciary. But as sons of the Enlightenment, they looked to found a republic in which the outcome of those debates would turn on reason and evidence, not on disputed religious dogma. They planned wisely for principles that are now under wide assault.

"All Americans, of whatever religious or non-religious persuasion, need to be on the alert to preserve those principles. The burden falls especially heavily on the mainstream Christians who are slowly awakening to the gravity of the challenge facing them. Too long tolerant of their brethren, too much given to forgiveness rather than to confrontation, they need to mount a spirited, nationwide response to what constitutes a dangerous distortion of Christian truths and a frightening threat to the republic they love."


from ". . . Smearing Christian Judges" by Paul Gaston
The Washington Post
Saturday, April 23, 2005; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/
A10687-2005Apr22.html

Madison's the Man

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
- James Madison

Kierkegaard: 'A bunch of scheming swindlers'

"The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to
understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers.
We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very
well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act
accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget
everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God,
you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. Herein
lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian
scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend
itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be
good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful it
is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even
dreadful to be alone with the New Testament."

- Soren Kierkegaard

Focus on the Family

"I think what has happened is Focus on the Family has been hijacking Christianity and become an appendage of the Republican Party...

"From my point of view, they are the Antichrist of the world."
- Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO)

AMEN!

"Personal Responsibility, Republican Style" by Will Durst

"Personal Responsibility, Republican Style" by Will Durst


"Welcome back to 'Meet the Press.' In this segment we welcome as our guest the distinguished Representative from the third District of Wyoming. Congressman, as you know, the DC Police have announced today that the House Majority Leader has been found naked in a bathtub next to a dead prostitute, hugging a bloody axe, the suspected murder weapon, to his chest, with the words 'Yes, I did it. Me.' written with the victim's blood on the bathroom mirror in the Congressman's own handwriting. We've just heard a senior member of the Minority delegation voice his argument as to why the leader deserves to have at least one -- if not both -- of his hands slapped. Do you, sir, agree with this punishment which would involve the admonishment of a member of your own party?"

"Thank you, Tim. With all due respect to my good friend of long standing and esteemed associate from across the aisle, I condemn this character assassination of our revered leader, so obviously a scurrilous partisan attack, solely meant to distract we, the party of ideas, from accomplishing the tasks the good and hard working people of America sent us here to Washington to achieve. I will tell you who the true victim is here, and its not this alleged 'prostitute.' It's America, Tim. And America's crying because it is abundantly clear this is simply an assault by the radical left wing press as part of their fundamental agenda to tear down the leader's leadership in which he excels by leading...

"How do we know the leader wasn't trying to warm the woman with his body heat after her ill-fated attempt at suicide?...And I guarantee that the marching orders for this bogus partisan witch hunt can be traced directly to the desk of Hillary Clinton..."

Resistance Futile My ...

"There is no evidence that the Ratzinger family felt inclined to help the town's few remaining Jews, or the smattering of anti-Nazi resistance fighters who dared to oppose the regime.

"Elizabeth Lohner, 84, whose brother-in-law was sent to Dachau concentration camp for being a conscientious objector, recalled: "It was possible to resist and those people set an example for others." She added: "The Ratzingers were young and made different choices.""

excerpt from "Pope Benedict: His role in the Nazi years"
By Tony Paterson in Traunstein
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=631615

why do i keep going on about the pope? i'm not even catholic, although i love the pomp and ceremony of a mass. it just bothers me that a world leader bashes anyone or thing that doesn't fit his narrow view of the world. and if anyone questions his past and motivations, he just says, "well i did what i did because they made me." excuses with no responsibility. just like most conservatives i know. pass the buck the devil made me do it. that's bs! anyone with integrity owns their mistakes, takes responsibily for them, and moves on with no excuses. the pope ain't.

Pope Benedict XVI's questionable qualifications

"Will this "simple and humble worker" be able to heal a sharply divided church? In a time when the world's religious and political leaders ought to be concentrating on extending human and civil rights to those that have been historically denied, and should be rectifying the wrongs perpetrated upon the poor and the oppressed, Cardinal Ratzinger appears to represent the old guard. Will this ultraconservative Pope unite Catholics and bring them into a more enlightened twenty-first century, or will his actions attempt to return the church's 1.1 billion-members to the 16th century?"

excerpt from "Pope Benedict XVI's questionable qualifications" by Bill Berkowitz - WorkingForChange
http://www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=18929

Pope on Sexually Abusing Children

"I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offences among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower... One comes to the conclusion that it is intentional, manipulated, that there is a desire to discredit the church," - Pope Benedict XVI, 2002.

Pope Ratzinger Still Bad

May 1984: Ratzinger orders the imprimatur lifted from Sexual Morality by Fr. Philip S. Keane, published in 1977 by Paulist Press. Keane argues that homosexual conduct cannot be understood as "absolutely immoral."

1985: As head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger upbraided Seattle's archbishop for his liberal views on women, gays and doctrinal issues. In his 1985 report, Ratzinger disciplined Hunthausen for the archdiocese's ministries to gays and lesbians, including hosting services at St. Joseph's for Dignity Seattle. That's the state chapter of a national organization of gay Catholics. In one of the Vatican's most widely publicized reports, Ratzinger warned Hunthausen against politicizing the issue of women in the church, misuse of married ex-priests, marrying divorced people and giving them communion rights, giving communion in ecumenical settings, and granting general absolution of sins to large groups.

October 1986: Ratzinger publishes a document titled "On The Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons." The letter warns of "deceitful propaganda" from pro-homosexual groups. It instructs bishops not to accept groups that "seek to undermine the teaching of the church, which are ambiguous about it, or which neglect it entirely." The letter refers to homosexual orientation as an "intrinsic moral evil."

January 1987: After prolonged debate, The Catholic University of America fires Fr. Charles Curran, a moral theologian known for his dissent from official church teaching on sexual ethics. On homosexuality, Curran has written: "Homosexual acts in the context of a loving relationship that strives for permanency can in a certain sense be objectively morally acceptable."

1987: He claims that Jewish history and scripture reach fulfilment only in Christ — a position denounced by critics as “theological anti-semitism”.

December 1988: Dominican Fr. Matthew Fox is silenced by Ratzinger, citing his failure to condemn homosexuality, among a host of other issues. Fox is expelled from the Dominican order in 1992.

July 1992: Ratzinger sends a letter to the U.S. bishops supporting legal discrimination against homosexuals in certain areas: adoption rights, the hiring of gays as teachers or coaches, and the prohibition of gays in the military. In such situations, Ratzinger writes, "it is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account."

July 1998: The Committee on Marriage and Family of the U.S. bishops' conference re-issues its letter to parents of homosexuals, "Always Our Children," after making several changes demanded by Ratzinger. They include referring to homosexuality as a "deep-seated" rather than "fundamental" dimension of personality; suggesting that homosexual acts by adolescents may not indicate a homosexual orientation; adding a footnote describing homosexuality as "objectively disordered"; and deleting a passage that encourages use of terms such as homosexual, gay and lesbian from the pulpit in order to "give people permission" to discuss homosexuality.

2000: He signs a document, Dominus Jesus, in which he argued: “Only in the Catholic church is there eternal salvation”. This brands other Christian churches as deficient -- shocking Anglicans, Lutherans and other Protestants in ecumenical dialogue with Rome for years.

Ratzinger also told priests to deny communion to anyone who voted for Kerry in the 2004 elections. And he tried to cover-up the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy.

What a legacy so far.

NOTE: Info cut and pasted from various sources.

PFLAG Concerned Over Election of Cardinal Ratzinger as New Pope; Families Urged to Confront Bigotry from Religious Leaders

4/19/2005 2:43:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Taylor Thompson of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, 202-467-8180 ext. 213 or tthompson@pflag.org

WASHINGTON, April 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following statement was released today by Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) on the Election of Cardinal Ratzinger as the new Pope:

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays expressed concern today over the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new pope. For gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) Catholics and their families, this choice does not present a hopeful vision of the future or inspire optimism for affirming language, policies or outreach.

Ratzinger authored a Vatican document condemning marriage and adoption by gay men and lesbians in July 2003. Described as a "battle plan for Catholic politicians" by the Washington Blade, the document urges the Church to reject gay and lesbian families on the basis of "basic values."

PFLAG's executive director Jody Huckaby, a gay former Catholic, wonders whose values Ratzinger is really defending. "Religious leaders like Ratzinger cannot dictate to us what our family values must be, particularly when their idea of family values excludes all GLBT people and loved ones," said Huckaby. "Our PFLAG families have values of love, respect and compassion -- perhaps the most distinguishing thing about those values is that they don't exclude anyone."

Additionally, Huckaby urges GLBT people and their families to confront bigotry in the Catholic church and other faith traditions. "We cannot shy away from explaining how discrimination in organized religions can tear families apart. The fight for GLBT equality must include our willingness to challenge our religious leaders."

There is much to celebrate in the Catholic church's advocacy for the marginalized and maligned people of the world -- the poor, the politically oppressed and those in war-torn countries. Ironically, however, the Church refuses to recognize the injustices it inflicts on its own families each time leaders like Cardinal Ratzinger vilify GLBT people. We hope that, as PFLAG families reach out to leaders of their faith, members of the clergy will realize the need for responsible religious rhetoric and the strength that comes from embracing all families.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

-0-

/© 2005 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/

God's Politics

The place to begin to understand the politics of God is with the prophets, the ancient moral articulators in the Scriptures who claimed to speak in “the name of the Lord.” What were there subjects? Quite secular topics really - land, labor, capital, wages, debt, taxes, equity, fairness, courts, prisons, immigrants, other races and peoples, economic divisions, social justice, war, and peace-the stuff of politics…And whom were the prophets usually speaking for? Most often, the dispossessed, widows and orphans (read: poor single moms), the hungry, the homeless, the helpless, the least, last and lost.

-Jim Wallis from his New York Times Bestseller, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get it.

Pope Ratzinger Bad

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force On the Election of Joseph Ratzinger as Pope

"Today, the princes of the Roman Catholic Church elected as Pope a man whose record has been one of unrelenting, venomous hatred for gay people, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. In fact, during the reign of John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger was the driving force behind a long string of pronouncements using the term 'evil' to describe gay people, homosexuality, and marriage equality. As a long-time Catholic from a staunchly Catholic family, I know that the history of the church is full of shameful, centuries-long chapters involving vilification, persecution, and violence against others. Someday, the church will apologize to gay people as it has to others it has oppressed in the past. I very much doubt that this day will come during this Pope's reign. In fact, it seems inevitable that this Pope will cause even more pain and give his successors even more for which to seek atonement."

- Matt Foreman
Executive Director

The Pope Good for Peace

At least there is some good coming out of Italy.

"The ascension of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI is good news for the peace camp: he will carry on the legacy of John Paul II, whose stance against the invasion of Iraq enraged the War Party -- and inspired millions with the hope that God had not abandoned the world to the Devil. The new Pope, as head of the Congregation of the Faith, openly disdained the Bush Doctrine when it was invoked by the U.S. government as a rationale for war: "The "concept of a 'preventive war,'" he noted, "does not appear in the Catechism of the Catholic Church." You bet it doesn't, and if I were the White House I would be expecting much more along these lines. Even as the War Party was reveling in its purported triumph, the Cardinal averred that "it was right to resist the war and its threats of destruction," declaring: "It should never be the responsibility of just one nation to make decisions for the world."

"The Holy Father got that right. Even in the choice of his name, the portents are good. Pope Benedict XV was pope during World War I. He remained neutral and 'in 1917 delivered the Plea for Peace, which demanded a cessation of hostilities, a reduction of armaments, a guaranteed freedom of the seas, and international arbitration.'"

excerpt from "Benedict XVI: A Champion of Peace" by Justin Raimondo
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/index.php?id=P2013

Quotes

"We convince by our presence."
-- Walt Whitman

"The Supreme Court has held that students have a First Amendment right to free speech at school unless that speech disrupts the educational process. But for the censorship to be legal, the speech itself must be genuinely disruptive -- it can't just be censored because someone finds it offensive, or it generates discussion or the administration is worried that it might cause controversy."
-- Jeff Gamso, legal director of the ACLU in Ohio, which sent a legal warning letter to a school that banned the wearing of T-shirts that express support for gay rights.

"Do something, anything, every day to change the world. It doesn't have to be big, it could be giving a dime to a street person, planting a flower, picking up litter. Anything will change the world."
-- out gay actor and author, Harvey Fierstein (Mulan, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Sissy Duckling, Torchsong Trilogy)

"I make the films I do because I can't let the bad guys get away with it ... There are forces in this world and they have their agenda to take over, to dictate how everybody should live, and dictate what the rules are going to be ... That is why I did [The Public Families Project] - fighting society."
-- Chinese-American out gay filmmaker, Arthur Dong (Stories from the War on Homosexuality, Family Fundamentals, Licensed to Kill)

"No more lies, no more pain, no more acting, just living in our truth. We want our children to know that their fathers are proud and comfortable with whom they are. Also as they grow older, we hope society will be a more tolerant place, accepting all differences in people."
-- retired NFL player and openly gay dad, Esera Tuaolo

"Being nurturing is not a biological trait assigned to only [one] gender."
-- Lance Chen-Hayes who is gay and Chinese-American and who, with his partner, Stuart Chen-Hayes, is raising their son

The True Meaning of a Fundamentalist Christian

From "The True Meaning of a Fundamentalist Christian" by Byron Williams - byronspeaks.com

"It is impossible to be a fundamentalist Christian and not apply a strict adherence to the belief of "love your neighbor as yourself," a concept Jesus placed as a high priority. In short, a fundamentalist Christian must be a fundamentalist to love.

"A genuine definition of Christian fundamentalism would demand that love, justice, hope and opportunity be central to its understanding.

"In addition to King, Mother Teresa and Archbishop Desmond Tutu are authentic examples of a Christian fundamentalist. In fact, Gandhi's embodiment of the teachings of Jesus, as a practicing Hindu, remains far superior to the claims of orthodoxy by the vast majority of 21st century Christians.

"The challenge is to wrest the title "fundamentalist Christianity" away from those who have narrowly defined it as a tool that works in tandem with the state for its own purposes of greed, domination and a limited interpretation of morality.

"The way to accomplish this is to be living examples of a strict adherence to love, justice, hope and opportunity, thereby authentically being fundamentalist Christians in word and deed.

"Moreover, such fundamentalism is possible universally, even if one is not Christian."

http://www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=18905

Corruption

"No man who is corrupt, no man who condones corruption in others, can possibly do his duty by the community."
- Theodore Roosevelt

Negroponte Bad

"I am not prepared to describe in detail exactly how I plan to
carry out the job."

- John D. Negroponte, President Bush's nominee to become
director of national intelligence, responding to questions from
the Senate intelligence committee. Negroponte honed his
professional discretion while ambassador to Honduras, where,
reports The Washington Post:
http://go.sojo.net/ct/D7zNZZp1uX3g/, his anti-communist
convictions led him to play down human rights abuses.

Onward Christian Soldiers

Excerpt from "Onward Christian Soldiers...Toward a Theocratic Judiciary" by Mel Seesholtz
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/041205Seesholtz/
041205seesholtz.html

"For those who think beyond the Bible and who have not become willing slaves to the politicized, perverted version of "Christianity" espoused by the likes of Sheldon and Dobson and their political agents, it's clear America is headed in the wrong direction. Centuries of progress are being systematically dismantled as so-called "religious" leaders and the politicians inhabiting their deep pockets lead America backwards into the new theocracy. In her April 7 column, in The New York Times, Maureen Dowd noted that even the Rev. John Danforth—former Republican senator, U.N. ambassador, and the Episcopal minister with prayed with Clarence Thomas during Anita Hillﾒs testimony—has come to the conclusion that the Republican Party "has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement."

"The tragedy of a Florida woman well illustrated just how much the Republican Party has become "the political extension of a religious movement."

"On March 31, Terri Schiavo died. The Christian Right and their political sycophants shamelessly exploited the families' personal conflicts and tragedies for their own political purposes and fund-raising efforts. The Rev. Sheldon even bragged about it: "In acknowledging the galvanizing, check-writing effect of her case, the Traditional Values Coalition's founder, Rev. Lou Sheldon, told The [New York] Times, 'That is what I see as the blessing that dear Terri's life is offering to the conservative Christian movement in America.'"

"Exploitive, crass fund-raising aside, perhaps Bishop John Shelby Spong asked the most poignant question: "Why is it, I wonder, that those identified as secular humanists, who express grave doubts about the reality of life after death, seem almost universally to favor allowing Terri Schiavo to die in peace; while those identified as members of religious communities, who claim to believe firmly in life after death, seem so eager to keep bodies alive long after meaningful life has departed?"

"Isn't it time to repair and rebuild that "wall" between church and state Jefferson knew was essential? He and more than a few of the other Founding Fathers—Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Samuel Adams to name but a few—were Deists. Then as now, Deists accept the notion of "a Creator" and respect Jesus as a teacher, but do not believe in the second-hand, politically-motivated "revealed word" attributed to Moses and Old Testament prophets, or the dogma of New Testament authorities such as Peter, Paul and John. In the eighteenth century, Deists were particularly skeptical of the allegedly "God given" dogma created and propagated by politically motivated church leaders. The Founding Fathers were astute students of history and had learned the lesson Europe's seventeenth century religious-civil wars taught. In a very real sense, the American republic was conceived as a prophylactic against the marriage of Church and State. And for good reason . . ."

"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."—President George H. W. Bush [!!!!!!!!!!??????????]

GOP and the Courts

"Apparently, it's not enough for Republicans to rule the White House and the Congress. They want power over the independent judiciary, too. The checks and balances so vital to our democracy are for them merely an inconvenience."
Senator Edward Kennedy

Bill Maher's New Rule on Abstinence

"BILL MAHER: And finally, New Rule: Abstinence pledges make you horny. In a setback for the morals/values crowd, a new eight-year study just released reveals that American teenagers who take virginity pledges wind up with just as many STD's as the other kids. But that's not all. "Taking the pledge" also makes a teenage girl six times more likely to perform oral sex, and four times more likely to allow anal. Which leads me to an important question: where were these pledges when I was in high school?

"So, seriously, when I was a teenager, the only kids having anal intercourse, were the ones who missed. My idea of lubrication was oiling my bike chain. If I had known I could have been getting porn-star sex the same year I took Algebra 2 - simply by joining up with the Christian right - I'd have been so down with Jesus, they would have had to pry me out of the pew.

"And, let me tell you, there is a lot worse things than teenagers having sex. Namely, teenagers not having sex. Here is something you'll never hear: "That suicide bomber blew himself up because he was having too much sex. Sex, sex, sex, nonstop, all that crazy Arab ever had was sex, and look what happened." But among the puritans here of the 21st century, the less said to kids about sex, the better. Because people who talk about peepees are "potty-mouths."

"And so, armed with limited knowledge and believing that regular, vaginal intercourse to be either immaculate or filthy dirty - these kids did with their pledge what everybody does with contracts. They found loopholes. Two of them, to be exact.

"Is there any greater irony than the fact that the Christian right actually got their precious little adolescent daughters to say to their freshly-scrubbed boyfriends, "Please, I want to remain pure for my wedding night, so only in the ass... And then I'll blow you, I promise." Well, at least these kids are really thinking outside the box."

http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/new_rules/20050401.html

Focus On Your Own Damn Family!

It's Human Rights

"It is necessary for us to realize that we have moved from the
era of civil rights to the era of human rights. When you deal
with human rights you are not dealing with something clearly
defined in the Constitution. They are rights that are clearly
defined by the mandates of a humanitarian concern."

- Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated April 4, 1968.

A Senator and A Terrorist

The Nashua Advocate Calls for Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) to Resign Immediately From the U.S. Senate, Following Remarks Excusing Terrorism Against Judges

By ADVOCATE STAFF

An Excerpt with the Rest at http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/04/nashua-advocate-calls-for-sen-john.html

"In a statement on the floor of the United States Senate, Cornyn--incredibly, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee--has blamed the judicial branch of the United States government, specifically the United States Supreme Court, for the recent spate of terroristic acts on American soil which left a judge dead in Georgia and a judge's family dead in Illinois; Cornyn also intimated that the judicial branch of the federal government has become "dangerous."

"[The statement was made as part of the Republicans' ongoing effort to break with 216 years of parliamentary tradition in the United States Senate and abolish the "filibuster"--primarily as a means to push through Congress radical Rightist judges; presumably, the sort of judges who, in Cornyn's home State of Texas, found no ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution in the case of a defense attorney sleeping through a capital murder trial].

"Here is the relevant portion of Cornyn's dangerous, poisonous, and virulently inciteful remarks:

"[I]t causes a lot of people, including me, great distress to see judges use the authority that they have been given to make raw political or ideological decisions. And no one, including those judges, including the judges on the United States Supreme Court, should be surprised if one of us stands up and objects.

"And, Mr. President, I'm going to make clear that I object to some of the decision-making process that is occurring at the United States Supreme Court today and now. I believe that insofar as the Supreme Court has taken on this role as a policy-maker rather than an enforcer of political decisions made by elected representatives of the people, it has led to the increasing divisiveness and bitterness of our confirmation fights. That is a very current problem that this body faces today. It has generated a lack of respect for judges generally. I mean, why should people respect a judge for making a policy decision borne out of an ideological conviction any more than they would respect or deny themselves the opportunity to disagree if that decision were made by an elected representative?

"Of course the difference is that they can throw the rascal out--and we are sometimes perceived as the rascal--if they don't like the decisions that we make. But they can't vote against a judge because judges aren't elected. They serve for a lifetime on the federal bench. And, indeed, I believe this increasing politicalization of the judicial decision-making process at the highest levels of our judiciary have bred a lack of respect for some of the people that wear the robe. And that is a national tragedy.

"And finally, I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that's been on the news. And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in violence. Certainly without any justification but a concern that I have that I wanted to share.

"You know, it's ironic, if you look back, as we all have, being students of history in this body, all of us have been elected to other bodies and other offices and we're all familiar with the founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution itself, we're familiar with the federalist papers that were written in an effort to get the Constitution ratified in New York state. Well, Alexander Hamilton, apropos of what I want to talk about here, authored a series of essays in the Federalist Papers that opined that the judicial branch would be what he called the, quote, "least dangerous branch of government." The "least dangerous branch." He pointed out that the judiciary lacked the power of the executive branch, the White House, for example, and the federal government and the political passions of the legislature. In other words, the Congress. Its sole purpose--that is, the federal judiciary's sole purpose was to objectively interpret and apply the laws of the land...

"Had Cornyn actually read the U.S. Constitution anytime recently, his decrying of lifetime appointments for federal judges would have rung somewhat hollow, given that these appointments are explicitly prescribed by the Constitution itself: "The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour..." [U.S. Const., Art. III, sect. 1].

"For a sitting Senator to use locked-and-loaded phrases like "it has led," "it has generated," "it has bred," "some connection," and "cause-and-effect" to characterize the relationship between the constitutionally-guaranteed maxim of judicial independence and the assassination of federal judges is an abhorrence, an abomination, and an outrage of unprecedented proportion--even in the well-documented, sorry history of conservatives' open contempt for judicial independence and the rule of law (e.g., non-compliance with anti-segregation edicts in southern states; violence against abortion clinics; school-sponsored prayer in violation of standing court orders; and so on).

"Cornyn's comment is one of the few you will ever hear from a national politician which sounds significantly worse in context--a context which includes not only a dead judge in Georgia and a judges' family massacred execution-style in Illinois, but also a thinly-veiled and possibly criminal threat against the federal bench from a member of Congress and a recently-uncovered murder plot in the Terri Schiavo case directed against (no surprise, given the Cornyn-backed, G.O.P. incitement on this point) the state and federal judges on the case.

"If a man refuses to uphold the text of the United States Constitution, and indeed allows for the presence of violence against one co-equal branch of government as a sort of explicable response to constitutionally-guaranteed judicial independence, that man is no Senator."

Don't Hold Yer Breath

Thomas Jefferson said, 'If you are angry, count to 10 before you talk. If you are
very angry, count to 100.' I can't listen to Jefferson because I'd be counting to 1
million."

-- Dick Francis, a father whose son is gay, testifying before a Texas House
committee considering an amendment to the state constitution that would ban marriage
for gays and lesbians.

Lautenberg Spanks DeLay

April 1, 2005

Tom DeLay
Majority Leader
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Majority Leader DeLay,

I was stunned to read the threatening comments you made yesterday against Federal judges and our nation’s courts of law in general. In reference to certain Federal judges, you stated: “The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.”

As you are surely aware, the family of Federal Judge Joan H. Lefkow of Illinois was recently murdered in their home. And at the state level, Judge Rowland W. Barnes and others in his courtroom were gunned down in Georgia.

Our nation’s judges must be concerned for their safety and security when they are asked to make difficult decisions every day. That’s why comments like those you made are not only irresponsible, but downright dangerous. To make matters worse, is it appropriate to make threats directed at specific Federal and state judges?

You should be aware that your comments yesterday may violate a Federal criminal statute, 18 U.S.C. §115 (a)(1)(B). That law states:

“Whoever threatens to assault…. or murder, a United States judge… with intent to retaliate against such… judge…. on account of the performance of official duties, shall be punished [by up to six years in prison]”

Threats against specific Federal judges are not only a serious crime, but also beneath a Member of Congress. In my view, the true measure of democracy is how it dispenses justice. Your attempt to intimidate judges in America not only threatens our courts, but our fundamental democracy as well.

Federal judges, as well as state and local judges in our nation, are honorable public servants who make difficult decisions every day. You owe them – and all Americans – an apology for your reckless statements.

Sincerely,

Frank R. Lautenberg

Kennedy re Delay

What did Tom DeLay mean Thursday when he said that "the time will come for the men responsible" for the death of Terri Schiavo "to answer for" their actions? He wouldn't explain at a press conference held in Texas on Thursday (3-31-05).

But after a judge was killed in Atlanta and a judge's family was murdered in Chicago, Senator Ted Kennedy rightly labeled DeLay's comments "irresponsible and reprehensible." Senator Kennedy went on to say, "I'm not sure what Mr. DeLay meant when he said 'the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.' But at a time when emotions are running high, Mr. DeLay needs to make clear that he is not advocating violence against anyone. People in this case have already had their lives threatened. It is time for mourning and healing, not for more inflammatory rhetoric, and responsible national leaders should understand that and stop this exploitation."

What is DeLay thinking? Does he support vigilantism against those who don't think or believe like he does? Are only he and those of his ilk safe from attack and all others placed in open season? What is going on in my country?