News Intelligence Analysis

 

 

 

 

Why the Bible Commands You to Be a Liberal
(And Vote for Democrats)

 

By Katherine Yurica

 

 

Formerly titled: Bloodguilty Churches 
Why Bush’s Agenda Is Immoral and an Abomination to God

 

  
January 19, 2005
Updated January 21, 2005
Updated Janurary 25, 2005
Updated August 7, 2005, with a portion of the preface from the book.
Updated August 23, 2008 with the Foreword by Dennis Crews and the title change*

 

 

 

Editor's Note: On June 3, 2008, David Klinghoffer, a senior fellow at the right-wing Discovery Institute, published a book titled, How Would God Vote? Why the Bible Commands You to Be a Conservative. We think Klinghoffer's book deserves to be answered. Rather than write a new article, however, we decided to rename this essay because there is an urgent need to quickly tell the other side of the story. We in fact originally published the biblical basis for the liberal Christian's view in January of 2005. The book, titled Bloodguilty Churches by Katherine Yurica is still available as originally written in paperback. In addition, the Ben Yehuda Press, a Jewish book publisher has announced that it will be publishing a response to Klinghoffer in August titled How Would God REALLY Vote? A Jewish Response to David Klinghoffer by Larry Yudelson

 

 

*Now, for the first time on August 23, 2008, the entire paperback titled Bloodguilty Churches by Katherine Yurica is available here for your reading, free of charge, including the newly added Foreword by Dennis Crews. Only the title has changed. To read the foreword and the preface click here. Otherwise just scroll down.

 

 

To those readers who wish to provide members of congress with a shortened version of this essay appropriate for helping legislators to know what the biblical position is on issues they will be voting on, you may send your Senators or Representatives a link to The Yurica Report's Congressional Handbook, This is a PDF file at 494 kb. The URL address is: http://www.yuricareport.com/Congress/CongressionalHandbook.pdf

 

 

 

Contents

 

NEW: The Foreword by Dennis Crews

From the Preface to the Book

In the Beginning
Invade Iraq or What's a Preemptive Strike?
Lies About the Threat of War
What Does the Bible Say About Preemptive Strikes?
The War Fairs
What Does the Bible Say About Profiting from War?
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo
Do Religious Conservatives Have the Moral High Ground?
Religious Conservatives Agenda for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid
What Does the Bible Say About How a Nation Must Treat the Poor and the Sick?
Religious Conservative's Immigration Plans
Deregulate Health and Safety and Environmental Laws
What Does the Bible Say About Rigging Devices?
Mr. Bush’s “Justice” Versus the Bible’s Justice
The Development of the Biblical Justice System
Be Careful Not to Commit Judicial Murders: The Texas Clemency Memos
Is Mr. Bush's Tort Reform Biblical?
The Bible's Criminal and Civil Code System
What Does the Bible Say About Abortions?
GOP Operatives as Slanderers and Hooligans, Scorner's and Ridiculers
What's Wrong With Today's Churches and 'Christians'?
Profile of the Man God Hates
End Notes

  

 

Or just scroll down.

 

---

 

“He that hath an ear,
let him hear
what the spirit saith to the churches.”
Revelations 2:29

 

 

Daniel Belteshazzar (D.B.) served as an advisor in three administrations, though his service was extremely brief in his last governmental position where he was called upon to read the handwriting on the wall.

It was one of those inexplicable moments: The words had appeared suddenly upon the plaster of the wall opposite to where the head of state sat during his huge celebration party.

First a hand appeared, apparition-like, and then the hand wrote the words that stunned the great hall. The celebrating ceased. The leader’s face blanched. (It was almost like the inauguration balls for a U.S. president, where enormous funds are spent to reward the war lords and corporate “lords” and “ladies,” and the priests and religious leaders, who together form the power base of a Republican regime and make up the class of nobles who rule commerce and civilian behavior, and hence the nation.)

The inscription read, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,” which literally meant, “numbered, numbered, weighed, divisions.”[1]

Our man, D.B. was called in to provide an intelligence analysis to the leader after his closest advisers, including the equivalent of the CIA and chief of intelligence, admitted their inability to fathom the meaning.

 

Then D.B. stepped up to the plate and told the head of state the following:

 

 Mene, signifies that God has numbered your government and finished it.

 

Tekel, signifies that you are weighed in the balance and you are found wanting.

 

Peres, [singular form, same root as upharsin],[2] signifies that your government is divided and given to another.[3]

 

That night the leader’s government fell. A new head of state took the oath of office and instituted a new government.

 

George W. Bush, his administration, the Republican controlled congress as well as the Republican Party itself, and most of the churches in America (including evangelical, Southern Baptist, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic), stand indicted—not by men—not by this writer—but by the very Holy Scriptures the religious-right and Mr. Bush profess to uphold.

 

Weighed against the Bible, the Bush actions are not only morally corrupt—they are unchristian and unbiblical to the core.

 

In this essay, the Bush agenda is weighed on the scale of God’s standards and it is found wanting.

 

 

In the Beginning

 

 

In the year 2000, George W. Bush filed an entirely specious complaint requesting an injunction against ballots being counted in Florida in the presidential election. Five Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States issued an emergency order halting all counting of ballots as Mr. Bush’s lead perilously dropped to only 154 votes. The Court issued its order, having found Mr. Bush would suffer “irreparable harm” if the counting proceeded. What was the “irreparable harm”? Mr. Bush would have lost the election if all the votes were counted. Thus five Justices effectively handed Mr. Bush the presidency of the United States.

 

The American churches did not rise up as one, denouncing the wickedness of the arbitrary[4] court decision. Instead, the churches either remained silent or they applauded the decision. Comments from the pulpits of America rang out with, “God intervened through the Supreme Court to take the election out of the hands of the majority to place God’s man—George W. Bush—in the White House!” It’s the first time I have heard God accused of being a conniver. (Amazingly the churches were blind to the blasphemous nature of their pronouncements.)

 

Yet the statement was met with “Amens” and applause, which shows either the degree of ignorance or the moral degeneracy of the congregations or both!

 

The situation so closely resembles an event recorded in the Bible I was stunned by what I read. The churches need to recall an ancient “election”—the first of its kind in Israel’s history, which dramatically reveals God’s dedication to the concept of free-will as expressed in the people’s choice. Had God been inclined to set aside public opinion and the preference of the people for a king, Saul would not have been “chosen by the people” to replace God’s man, Samuel.[5]

 

The significant thing about Samuel’s defeat is that it marked the end of a highly advanced if decentralized system of jurisprudence in Israel, where learned men sat as judges and interpreted and enunciated the laws of the nation. Samuel’s defeat marked a landmark change in Israel; it ended the rule of law, which was replaced by the spurious rule of men to the utter peril of the people.

 

As we shall see, the ascension of George W. Bush to the seat of power in America has brought its own challenge to the American system of jurisprudence.

 

Samuel’s disappointment was evident and God responded with words that are applicable to the churches today. Addressing Samuel, God said:

 

“They have not rejected you—they have rejected Me that I should not be King over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7 Amplified Version.)

 

Like the people living in Samuel’s time, this essay will reveal that the churches of America today have rejected the words of God in the Bible to follow and idolatrize sinners.

 

We must not forget that the people who chose Saul over Samuel paid a terrible price. It’s worth a review of the scriptures to read the warning Samuel delivered to the people. It makes one feel as if we are reliving a page in ancient history. God instructed Samuel to warn the people of exactly what would happen to them if they insisted on choosing the handsome, charming Saul[6] over God’s man. The biblical passage paraphrased says:

 

1)      This leader  “…will take your sons and appoint them to” various positions in his army;

 

2)      He will make some “commanders,” and require others to make “his instruments of war and equipment”;

 

3)      He will redistribute the wealth of the nation: he will confiscate your property and give it to his favorite followers; he will take your daughters to be cooks and bakers and he will take your servants for his own service; he will take a tenth of your grain and vineyards and give it to his officers; he will take a tenth of your flocks “and you shall be his slaves”;

 

4)      When you cry out against his doings—God will not hear you—for you chose the man for yourselves! (Derived from 1 Samuel 8:11-18 Amplified Version.)

 

Had we been able to recognize and extrapolate the truth from the past we might have seen that the scripture passage accurately warned us what would happen if a man with the characteristics of George W. Bush ever seized the White House.

 

Invade Iraq or What’s a Preemptive Strike?

 

Even before George W. Bush was selected president by the U.S. Supreme Court’s religious-conservatives, Mr. Bush supported an invasion of Iraq. [7] The plan was laid out in one of the key documents titled, Rebuilding America’s Defenses, which was written in 1998 and was authored by members of the neo-conservative think tank, Project for a New American Century (PNAC). Most of the men Mr. Bush chose for key administration positions were involved in the PNAC projects.[8] As I wrote in my earlier article, “Fraud Traced to the White House,” the PNAC documents clearly show that before George W. Bush took office, key officials of his future administration not only listed Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as ‘adversaries’ who were characterized as rushing to ‘develop ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons as a deterrent to American intervention in regions they seek to dominate,’ but Mr. Bush's neo-con group endorsed an alien concept. They put forth the doctrine of preemptive strikes against those nations believed to have hostile intent against the U.S. before such intent is manifested.”[9]

The founders of PNAC wrote:

“The history of the 20th Century should have taught us that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge and to meet threats before they become dire.”[10]

In fact, on pages 51 and 67 of the institution’s intellectual centerpiece, the PNAC authors lament that the process of transforming the military would most likely be a long one, “absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor.”[11]

In addition to the PNAC documents and Mr. Bush’s “Energy Policy,”[12] we have the eye witness account of Paul O’Neill,[13] who was Secretary of the Treasury at the time.[14] He reports a National Security Council meeting was called ten days into Bush’s term. Condoleezza Rice raised the issue of Iraq and the dangers posed by Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction.” Mr. Bush ordered Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Hugh Shelton to begin preparing “options for the use of U.S. ground forces to bring down Saddam Hussein.[15]

Lies About the Threat of War

After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the road to war was made considerably smoother. George W. Bush still had to convince the American people and Congress that Saddam Hussein represented a threat to the United States. He had to justify a preemptive invasion.[16] So Mr. Bush told Congress and the American people that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction when he didn’t;[17] Mr. Bush asserted America was in imminent danger of being attacked by Iraq when it wasn’t.[18] And Mr. Bush repeatedly linked Iraq to the World Trade Center attack when there was no connection between Iraq and the September 11th events at all.[19] Condoleezza Rice spoke of a “mushroom cloud over New York.” All these statements were false;[20] moreover, lying to Congress is a federal felony and is an impeachable offense.[21]

But the American church leaders believed Mr. Bush’s statements. And the congregations believed him. The simpleminded believed him.[22] And with the churches’ support, there were 20,753 combat sorties flown over Iraq, using 18,467 smart bombs and missiles and 9,251 dumb bombs.[23] America dropped an estimated 4,000 bombs in a 48 hour period and over 27,000 bombs by May 21, 2003. A recent survey reveals the U.S. killing efficiency. There have been an estimated 100,000 Iraqi men, women and children killed, excluding the deaths from Falluja.[24] Some sources believe Iraqi deaths may rise much higher when the deaths at Falluja are counted.[25]

Looking at the numbers, the American wrought death and destruction in Iraq is comparable to the tsunami that struck Asia in December 2004.[26] Yet did the churches mourn the loss of the innocent lives in Iraq? Did they weep? Or did they applaud?  I wrote a little about what happened:

“People on talk shows began touting the war in Iraq as “the greatest military victory in history.” A wild national fever of pride burns across the country. But what justification is there for such arrogance? Armed Iraqi soldiers were no match for the might of the American army. Pickup trucks went up against tanks. Rifles competed against heavy artillery. One U.S. Marine Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Bryan McCoy told Time magazine (April 14, 2003) reporters: ‘Let’s quit pussyfooting and call it what it is. It’s murder, it’s slaughter, it’s clubbing baby harp seals.’ McCoy’s men had just killed 92 Iraqis and taken 44 prisoners, with no injuries to the American troops. Once the peace came and protests began with Iraqis shouting, ‘Americans Go Home,’ American soldiers fired into crowds of unarmed civilians, killing many.”[27]

This was nothing of which to be proud. It makes me hang my head and ask, “Whatever happened to the church of our fathers?” If the churches do not weep for Iraqi lives, what can explain their indifference to the American casualties? The United Press International reported that American casualties are grossly underreported by the Pentagon, and now stand at over 25,000.[28]

What Does the Bible Say About Preemptive Strikes?

There are two biblical passages that deal with preemptive strikes based upon fear.[29] The first happened in Egypt prior to the Exodus. The Pharaoh observed that the children of Israel outnumbered the Egyptians and were physically stronger. Thinking shrewdly, he said “should war befall us” the Israelites might “join our enemies, fight against us, and escape out of the land.” His solution was to kill all the male infants born to the Israelites.

 

The second instance of a preemptive strike is often called The Massacre of the Innocents[30] in Matthew 2:1-18. After the three wise men visited King Herod, they told him the prophecy that a child was to be born in Bethlehem who would become “King of the Jews.” Herod, who became suddenly alarmed, felt threatened at the news and he ordered the death of all the children in Bethlehem from two years old and under.

 

Both these instances reveal the underlying warped thinking involved in the immoral preemptive murder of innocents:  “Let’s get them before they get us!” Fear is the motivator for the action. Hatred for anyone who poses even a remote future threat is the underlying psychosis of the act. The justification is always Machiavellian: the ends justify the means. The mindless Bush administration rushed into Iraq and even proclaimed the war was over before it really began. Now, according to recent reports from Iraq, the U.S. is fighting a civil war against an Iraqi army of 200,000. The U.S. is outnumbered.

 

The War Fairs

 

No sooner had Mr. Bush invaded, when trade fairs and conferences began to pop up, advertising the money to be made in ‘rebuilding’ Afghanistan and Iraq. One brochure definitely does not understate the spoils of shedding blood:

 

“Business opportunities continue to grow, as evidenced by recent pledges of U.S. and international aid. Billions of dollars have already been earmarked for the two countries.”[31]

 

Then on October 29-30, 2003, an event organized by MFM Trade Meetings of Washington D.C. was billed as the most important conference on rebuilding yet, “To date, no event has brought together all the players nor has any included involvement by the leading U.S. and international agencies involved in the rebuilding of both countries.”[32]

 

The conference scheduled “high-ranking U.S. government agency officials, representatives of international financial institutions, officials from Afghanistan and Iraq and other leading authorities.”[33]

 

The names of delegates were kept confidential to everyone but those who paid substantial amounts for the list as “sponsors.” We do know that Carl Kress, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and George P. Sigalos, Director of Government Relations for Halliburton had prominent roles in the business fair at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C.[34]  Every issue was addressed including security, financing and answers to participant’s legal questions from Pillsbury Winthrop and several other top legal firms.[35]

 

Some very profitable changes occurred following the preemptive strike against Iraq. Under the old Iraqi law, according to an international trade news brief by Pillsbury Winthrop, “foreign nationals (other than nationals of Arab countries) were not permitted to directly invest in” an Iraqi company or an Iraqi project. That all changed when Mr. L. Paul Bremer, the Administrator of the Iraq Provisional Authority signed Order Number 39, which not only abolished the old Iraqi law that prohibited anyone but an Arab national from owning a piece of Iraqi business, but eradicated the rule that limited the percentage of ownership by a foreign investor. Paul Bremer’s order now allows foreign investors the right to own 100% of an Iraqi entity or project.[36] Everything was made easy for those who wanted a part of the booty of the war.

 

How quickly the nation forgot that our “Shock and Awe” techniques of destruction not only created the opportunities to rebuild Iraq, but our occupation of the country was a necessity in order to create the legal grounds for U.S. companies to invest in Iraqi assets, including the development and processing of the second largest oil reserves in the world.[37] No wonder corporate coffers opened to Mr. Bush’s campaign drives.

 

What Does the Bible Say About Profiting from War?

 

The question that must be asked is how does a moral people respond to the acts of the Bush administration? We know that corporations have profited from the war—some of them making billions of dollars. The Center for Corporate Policy lists the top ten war profiteers.[38] Leading the way are Lockheed Martin, raking in $21.9 billion in Pentagon contracts and Halliburton, with $10.8 billion. The Center for Corporate Policy reports Halliburton’s performance on their contracts has led to multiple “criminal investigations into overcharging and kickbacks.” According to them, nine different reports reveal “government auditors have found ‘widespread, systemic problems with almost every aspect of Halliburton’s work in Iraq, from cost estimation and billing systems to cost control and subcontract management.’ Six former employees have come forward, corroborating the auditors’ concerns.”[39]

 

Bechtel, according to the Center for Corporate Policy, “was literally tasked with repairing much of Iraq’s infrastructure.” To get the job done, Bechtel hired “over 90 Iraqi subcontractors,” but bypassed Iraqi engineers and managers. The GAO reports that Bechtel was responsible for restoring electrical service in Iraq, but the electrical system fails to show any marked improvement over the “immediate postwar levels of May 2003” and in some areas, electrical transmission has worsened.[40]

 

Are there any guidelines that reveal what the Spirit says to the churches? In fact, God speaks as a father to his son, from the heart of God to his readers in this passage in Proverbs that links a preemptive attack on innocent victims with greed and the plunder of war:

 

“My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say,

 

‘Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause [and show that his piety is in vain]; let us swallow them up alive as does Sheol [the place of the dead], and whole, as those who go down into the pit [of the dead]; We shall find and take all precious goods [when our victims are put out of the way], we shall fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot among us…and be a sworn brother and comrade…’

 

“My son, do not walk in the way with them, restrain your foot from their path; for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.

 

“For in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird; but [when these men set a trap for others] they are lying in wait for their own blood, they set an ambush for their own lives. So are the ways of every one who is greedy of gain; such [greed for plunder] takes away the life of its possessors.” (Proverbs 1:10-19, Amplified Version.)

 

The prophet Isaiah describes the nation who rushed to war this way:

 

“Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths and highways.

 

“The way of peace they know not, and there is no justice or right in their goings; they have made them crooked paths; whoever goes in them does not know peace.” (Isaiah 59:7-8 Amplified)

 

Isaiah describes the man who has led his nation away from God’s way:

 

“…Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, so that He will not hear.  For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.” (Isaiah 59:2-3 Amplified)

 

 

Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo

 

 

When ancient Israel needed military intelligence, they sent spies into the land of their enemies to gather information.[41] There is not a single instance in the Bible where torture is authorized or condoned. It is always presented as something used against the righteous, and the righteous have never resorted to torturing their enemies. The word is used only once in the King James Version at Hebrews 11:35:  

 

“…Others were tortured to death with clubs, refusing to accept release [offered on the terms of denying their faith] that they might be resurrected to a better life. Others had to suffer the trial of mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death; they were lured with tempting offers [to renounce their faith]; they were sawn asunder; they were slaughtered by the sword; [while they were alive] they had to go about wrapped in the skins of sheep and goats, utterly destitute, oppressed, cruelly treated…” (Hebrews 11:35-37 Amplified Version)

 

Yet the United States, under the leadership of George W. Bush engaged in torture of the Iraqi people who were often just rounded up at random from the streets and imprisoned. Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh stated that on February 7, 2002, Mr. Bush signed a secret official document authorizing torture.[42] The statement said:

 

“I…[George W. Bush] determine that none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world.”[43]

 

He also stated in the document that he had:

 

“[T]he authority under the Constitution to suspend Geneva as between the U.S. and Afghanistan, but I decline to exercise the authority at this time.”[44]

 

In order that his readers clearly understood, Sy Hersh pointed out that Mr. Bush was determining the detainees had “no inherent protections under the Geneva Conventions” and therefore whatever happened to the detainees, “good, bad, or otherwise,” was solely at the discretion of the President of the United States.[45]

 

Significantly, Alberto Gonzales, (Mr. Bush’s choice for Attorney General in the Bush second term), made a false statement to the press and to the American people during the height of the torture scandal in which he asserted:

 

“The President had ‘made no formal determination’ invoking the Geneva Conventions before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.’”[46]

 

Mr. Gonzales’ falsehood was caught when his Memorandum for the President surfaced.[47] The memorandum was dated January 25, 2002, more than a year prior to the invasion of Iraq. In it, Mr. Gonzales wrote:

 

“On January 18, I advised you that the Department of Justice had issued a formal legal opinion concluding that the Geneva Convention III on the Treatment of Prisoners of War (GPW) does not apply to the conflict with al Qaeda.”[48]

 

Mr. Gonzalez continued:

 

“I understand that you decided that GPW does not apply and, accordingly, that al Qaeda and Taliban detainees are not prisoners of war under the GPW.”[49]

 

In an interview September 14, 2004 with Terry Gross of National Public Radio (NPR) and transcribed by the Yurica Report,[50] Hersh described an impatient Donald Rumsfeld, who wanted to take not only operational control of the war, but also wanted control of intelligence. Hersh said,

 

“After 9/11, Rumsfeld had just had it with the notion of going through the legal process” to go after people we believed were very important inside Al Qaeda.”

 

According to Hersh, Rumsfeld said in a sense, “the hell with it!”

 

“So Rumsfeld set up a secret unit.” The secrecy surrounding the unit was overwhelming. Hersh said the unit is called the ‘Special Access Program.’

 

Significantly Hersh said, “I know there was a presidential finding for it.”

 

In describing the unit he said,

 

“Everybody was under cover. They had their own aircraft. They had their own helicopters. They would hear about somebody they thought was important in the war on terrorism, somebody to interrogate. They would just get into the country, get to the guy’s house and get him out without going through any formal process. They were taking these people to Thailand, later they were taken to Egypt.”

 

Hersh’s statement that the President of the United States signed a document relating to the interrogation and torture of detainees is now verified by documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from the U.S. government that refer specifically to an executive order that made the methods of interrogation, which included torture, “legal.”[51]

 

In addition, Mr. Bush obviously required Alberto Gonzales to either directly draft legal briefs or to seek other legal opinions showing how the Geneva Convention does not apply to those labeled “terrorists,” members of al Qaeda or to “enemy combatants.”[52] The President’s prior decisions in writing (quoted above) regarding torture and the Geneva Convention appear to be an early effort to insulate the President from criminal prosecution.[53]

 

In still another draft that differed very little from the final document, the Wall Street Journal revealed a memorandum that claimed the president was not bound by domestic and international law banning the use of torture and claimed that the weight of a presidential order acted as a shield against possible criminal prosecution.[54] The report states:

 

“In order to respect the president’s inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign…(the prohibition against torture) must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations undertaken pursuant to his commander-in-chief authority…

 

“Sometimes the greater good for society will be accomplished by violating the literal language of the criminal law…In particular, the necessity defense can justify the intentional killing of one person…so long as the harm avoided is greater.”[55]

 

What American administration has ever wrapped itself so tightly in the Machiavellian blanket to make torture the means justified by the desired ends? The memo actually redefined what degree of pain and suffering must be inflicted upon a victim before the acts constitute torture. Compare this to the biblical passage above and visualize Jesus making the same argument to the Sanhedrin. I promise you the comparison will revolt your sensibilities. The degree of pain inflicted:

 

“…must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death. For purely mental pain or suffering to amount to torture, it must result in significant psychological harm of significant duration, e.g., lasting for months or even years.”[56]

 

At Mr. Gonzales’ confirmation hearings in January, 2005, Mr. Gonzales was invited to reject the ruling that the infliction of pain short of serious physical injury, organ failure or death did not constitute torture. He answered: “I don’t have a disagreement with the conclusions then reached.”[57] Although the Department of Justice has rewritten and whitewashed this August 2002 memorandum as of December 30, 2004, removing the most objectionable wording (apparently to benefit Alberto Gonzalez’s appointment as their new boss), the original document remains a heinous testimony against the Bush regime.[58] Moreover, twelve retired U.S. military leaders with exceptional credentials and stature have written an open letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, requesting that Mr. Gonzales’ appointment be denied.[59] Never has an American president and his administration resorted to such extreme forms of evil and what is worse, that evil is still going on.

 

 

Do Religious Conservatives Have the Moral High Ground?

 

 

The GOP, joined by a chorus from the religious-right and the neo-conservatives who have sought to advance Mr. Bush’s power have all watched admiringly as he struts across the stage of America’s political theatre. Lassoing and exaggerating the importance of three issues highly susceptible to emotion baiting and a charged current of fear and irrationality, clever men have hijacked the churches into believing they have taken the moral high ground in America.[60]

 

The churches laud Mr. Bush as a “moral man” simply because he is against any legal union between gays, against any abortion and essentially (for all practical purposes) against stem cell research.

 

Sadly the churches and Mr. Bush have no knowledge of God. They are completely ignorant that in the Bible, the existence of ten righteous people in one of the cities would have been sufficient to spare Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction,[61] but ten righteous people are insufficient to spare the nation that refuses to defend the rights of the needy![62] And what is perhaps even more significant, God equates the lying of church leaders—the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day, their adultery, and their encouragement of evil doers to be no different than the sins of those living in Sodom and Gomorrah.[63] The problem with today’s church leaders is that they refuse to confess their own adulterous acts while condemning the most hated and reviled members of American society—like poor Matthew Shepard—heaping vile abuse and death upon others so the eyes of churchgoers are always directed away from themselves, insuring that others will always be the scapegoats.[64]

 

Roman Catholic Bishops, while urging and even threatening their parishioners to vote only for those candidates who oppose abortion and gay unions, [65] hid active pedophiles from discovery and refuse to subject priests to prosecution for their criminal acts. If that is not enough, the Bishops have removed the churches’ auditing program on known pedophiles.[66] One is forced to ask, which sin is the greater—or which act does the most damage—the pedophiles or the consenting adult gays? [67]

 

Nor do the protestant churches have any excuse; they are shepherds over flocks living in the Bible belt where the towns, counties and states have the largest number of divorces in the nation. While Jesus was silent about homosexuals, he was not silent about divorce. He called divorce a sin unless adultery was the reason for it.[68]

 

According to columnist Andrew Sullivan, “the states with the highest divorce rates in the U.S. are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas,” which just happen to make up so-called “red” states which overwhelmingly support George W. Bush.[69] On the other hand, the states “with the lowest divorce rates are: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.” Sullivan points out, “Every single one of the low divorce rate states went for Kerry. The Bible Belt divorce rate…is roughly 50 percent higher than the national average.”[70]

 

Sullivan says, “A staggering 23 percent of married born-agains have been divorced twice or more.”[71] And who has the most teen births? In the state where preaching against teen sex is the strongest—teen pregnancies are the highest: Sullivan says, 16.1 percent of all births are teen births in Texas, but in liberal Massachusetts, “it’s 7.4 almost half.”[72]

 

How dare the churchgoers think of themselves as a moral army, preparing America for their rule! Yet they protect pastors accused of adultery and homosexuality,[73] while they condemn without mercy “humanists” and “liberals” in America who follow the teachings of Jesus and seek to protect and provide for the poor and do justice.

There's a grave discrepancy between what the Bible says and what the churches are doing: the Bible makes it clear that Christians can associate with anyone who lives in this world. And what is even more significant, a Christian may not judge non-Christians! Even if Christians are the majority, they may not make laws that deny civil liberties to people because of alleged sexual sins. St. Paul makes it clear: a Christian's area of influence in such matters is restricted to the confines of church membership where members must expel an immoral offender from their midst: slanderers, liars, deceivers, the fearful and those involved in adultery or pedophilia comes to mind. Those members may not keep their church membership (1 Corinthians 5:9-13). The churches in America, however, have it just the opposite: they point their accusatory fingers at everyone outside their churches, and they seek to deny non-members civil rights, but never even look at their own hearts and guilty souls.

 

 

Religious Conservative's Agenda for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid

 

 

Mr. Bush said in remarks at the State Department in 2001:

 

“It is a part of our government's desire to support the armies of compassion. We don't want government to take the good Father’s place.[74] We want the government to stand side-by-side with the good people of SOME[75]  and programs like it all around the country.” [76] (Emphasis mine.)

 

In both criticizing and equating government as standing in the place of God, Mr. Bush transfers social assistance programs from national interest and responsibility to private charities, which do not have the resources necessary to feed, clothe, shelter and pay for the medical costs and care for the 35.9 million Americans who live in poverty.[77] Of the 35.9 million 12.9 million children now live in poverty. Moreover, the number of people in America without health insurance grew last year to 45 million. In 2003 the average poverty line was drawn for an individual at $9,393.[78] Those who earned more were marginally okay, those who earned less were impoverished. It becomes clearer when one realizes that the median household income in America is $43,318.

 

In the face of the overwhelming numbers of poor and needy in America, Mr. Bush proposes to weaken and eventually eliminate the only programs that really help the sick, the elderly, and the poor. Let’s look at Mr. Bush’s record and the programs themselves.

 

For nearly four decades, the Medicare program in the U.S. has been extending and improving the lives of tens of millions of older Americans. Congressman Tom Allen of Maine said, “The program has been protecting seniors from impoverishment due to devastating medical costs and providing peace of mind to them and their families.”[79]

 

In 2003, the administration forced through a new Medicare Prescription Drug program that has had a negative impact upon America’s elderly.[80] Tom Allen said at the time, “The House and Senate Medicare bills offer the illusion of prescription drug coverage, but both are in fact riddled with inequality, complexity, uncertainty, gaps in coverage and hidden costs.”[81]

 

Rep. Allen said, “Even more appalling, the House bill transforms Medicare into a privatized ‘voucher’-type system in 2010, ending the guaranteed benefits Medicare has reliably provided to seniors since 1956.”[82]

 

It appears now that the congressman was only too right. Significantly, most religious leaders who support Mr. Bush in America quietly allowed the passage of the Medicare Drug law even though the bulk of the benefits were being transferred to corporations. A study prepared by Alan Sager and Deborah Socolar, Directors of the Health Reform Program at Boston University showed: “Sixty-one percent of Medicare’s prescription drug subsidy is going to the drug companies,” [83] while many of America’s poorest and weakest citizens were allowed to slip through what researchers have dubbed the “doughnut holes.”

 

Most seniors found they had little or even less financial relief from the program.[84] Yet the churches allowed it! One hates to suggest it, but perhaps the acquiescence of the churches has something to do with the fact that they have been bought off. For according to documents the White House provided to the Associated Press, the so-called “faith-based” groups, (which include churches) received $1.17 billion in grants from federal agencies in 2003 alone.[85] And do note this: congress didn’t pass this program—Mr. Bush rewrote the federal rules based upon his own self-appointed authority.[86]

 

Just as senior citizens learned that they had not gained a penny by the Bush Prescription Drug program, Mr. Bush announced the largest increase in premiums—a whopping seventeen percent increase—the largest increase in the program’s 40-year history.[87]

 

The next target was announced by the GOP. It intends to make drastic cuts in Medicaid (the program that provides medical attention to the poorest citizens). Medicaid is being targeted because it has become the largest government health care program. According to Lawrence O’Rourke of the Sacramento Bee, Medicaid “serves about 53 million people. It pays for nearly half of all nursing home care in the United States. It pays the health-care costs of one in four children in America and it pays more than forty percent of the cost of caring for children in hospitals.”[88]

 

Fears that Mr. Bush plans to shift more Medicaid costs to the states, brought the nation’s governors out to mount a bipartisan lobbying effort to stave off new federal cuts in the program.[89] But Mr. Bush has squeezed the government’s bank accounts like lemons, hoping to drain the very last drop of excess from them by granting the top one and two percent of the wealthiest Americans huge tax cuts that forced the full weight of the tax burden upon the middle class and harmed the poorest and neediest of Americans.[90]

The President's brother, Jeb Bush has introduced a plan in Florida to privatize Medicaid. "It's very radical," said Joan Alker, senior researcher for the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University. "It seems clear that the intent is really based on the notion that the H.M.O.'s and private insurers will have substantial flexibility to make a profit at the expense of the Medicaid beneficiary, who essentially assumes the risk of not getting the services they need. That's unprecedented in Medicaid, really."

 

The persistent attack by the Bush administration against the poor is revealed in a report written jointly by the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which shows how Mr. Bush has hurt the poor and needy in every aspect of life, including health care, education, and the creation of jobs. [91]

 

Do not err, Mr. Bush’s programs are also an indictment against the religious leaders of America who not only condone the weakening of the entitlement programs, including Social Security, but some like Pat Robertson, have openly advocated the destruction of such programs.

 

It is significant that Mr. Bush is following Robertson’s sketch of how to “privatize Social Security.” [92]  Robertson laid it out and went through the motions on his 700 Club in 1985: First, according to Robertson’s lead, one begins by trying to scare everyone into thinking that Social Security is running out of money and it must be revamped in order to save it. Polished to perfection, the technique is another example of the usefulness of lies that create fear, that create a stampede, and then work to push the passage of questionable bills. But if one reads and thinks, one will know that Mr. Bush is fabricating again. [93] The truth is, Social Security is in no danger unless Mr. Bush gets his hands on it.[94]

 

Make no mistake there is an underlying cruelty that is manifest in Mr. Bush’s agenda. The privatizing of Social Security will be accomplished by transferring material wealth to Wall Street and to corporations. As Pat Robertson pointed out on his show in 1985, the funds now going to the elderly will be transferred into the pockets of corporations.[95] Robertson exclaimed in glee, “Imagine …$100 billion dollars a year flowing into American industry! It would be marvelous.” [96]

 

Under the twisted notions of the Dominionists, Medicare and Medicaid, along with Social Security are considered to be programs that rob the rich to help the poor. Religious right leaders actually label these programs as “immoral” and point to them as examples of “thievery.” Here’s a sample of a portion of an interview I quoted in The Despoiling of America with an economist, Dr. Walter Williams, professor of economics at George Mason University who appeared on Pat Robertson’s 700 Club in 1985:

 

“…What the government is doing in order to help these older citizens is not charity at all. It is theft. That is, the government is using power to confiscate property that belongs to one American and give, or confiscate their money, and provide services for another set of Americans to whom it does not belong. That is the moral question that Christians should face with not only Medicare, Medicaid. But many other programs as well….”[97]

 

If one thinks that no one else would make such statements today, read the comments of David Holcberg, research associate at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California:

 

“…The wealthiest people on earth are expected to sacrifice (voluntarily or by force) the wealth they have earned to provide for the needs of those who did not earn it.”[98]

 

We have lived in a time in the last twenty-five years when so-called “Christian” book publishers and “Christian” bookstores distribute books written by people who have devoted their time and resources to dispelling the truths of the Bible.

 

One book, Idols for Destruction by Herbert Schlossberg, (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983) quotes Irving Kristol, the founder of the neo-conservative movement, and then goes on to attack the very idea of the existence of poverty in America, calling it a “lie.” Schlossberg asserted “that the poor receive medical attention equal or superior to other groups” by claiming for proof that families earning less than $5,000 annually, “accounted for 1,141 days of hospital care per thousand persons in the 1980’s while those earning more than $25,000 annually received only 679 days of hospital care.”[99]

 

After a man has said that, why need anyone tend to anything else he has to say?  The number of days spent in a hospital is no indicator of the quality of care the poor receive—but it is a pointer to the fact the poor are sicker more often than those who can afford to go for checkups at their physician’s offices and receive preventive care help. (Sadly, most physicians in my town now refuse to accept Medicare patients.)

 

Too many Americans have been reduced to abject poverty. Too many are homeless—living with their children on the streets of American cities, shivering in the cold. In a time when Mr. Bush has lost more jobs than any other president since Herbert Hoover, attitudes have hardened against the poor and needy. There have been reports and interviews on Air America Radio that reveal even returning Iraq vets cannot find work—their old jobs have been given to others and accounts are surfacing that returning Iraq war veterans are living on the streets. Where is the GI Bill from this president who relies entirely on the charitable “works” of the churches who give out free meals, but have no funds to provide income sufficient for housing and clothing and medical help?

 

Following the tsunami on December 26, 2004, President Bush first pledged only $15 million to help the victims. Then when the U.N. began to complain, Mr. Bush upped America’s contribution to $35 million. It took an uproar among Americans and newspaper editorials like the New York Times for Mr. Bush to express his sympathy to the leaders of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia and to speak publicly about the devastation, [100] and to finally pledge $350 million.[101]

 

Nicholas Kristof asked in his New York Times column, “Is the U.S. stingy about helping poor countries?” The answer is—we are extremely stingy. “The bottom line is that this month and every month, more people will die of malaria (165,000 or more) and AIDS (240,000) than died in the tsunamis, and almost as many will die because of diarrhea (140,000).” Kristof points out that Americans gave 15 cents per day per person in official development assistance to poor countries. Compare that to Denmark which gave 84 cents, the Netherlands which gave 80 cents, Belgium gave 60 cents and France gave 41 cents.[102]

 

 

What Does the Bible Say About How a Nation Must Treat the Poor and the Sick?

 

 

But does the Bible say anything about Professor William’s accusation that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are actually immoral programs because they rob from the rich to give to the poor who haven’t earned it?

 

To the contrary, in fact the Bible requires a portion of the wealth of all the people of a nation to be set aside and transferred to the poor and needy! Clearly Mr. Bush and the Republicans in Congress are trying to destroy what God has established.

 

Deuteronomy 26:12-13 establishes a holy tax (called a tithe) for the nation of ancient Israel, which transfers wealth to a group of people who did not earn it. In this scripture the payments were made every third year to the Levites, who were our equivalent of civil servants and to “the stranger and the sojourner, the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your towns and be filled.” (Amplified.)

 

Similarly Deuteronomy 24: 19-22 (Amplified) creates both a form of taxation as well as a transfer of the wealth on an annual basis to the poor: the stranger and sojourner, the fatherless and the widow. The scripture requires that a portion of three different crops be left for the poor and needy: the harvest from the fields, oil from the olive trees, and the grapes from the vineyard.

 

Moreover, in the Bible, refusal to defend the rights of the needy and the widows and orphans (and here I’m thinking of the widows and orphans of the September 11, 2001 tragedy) is a very big deal.[103] For it was sufficient cause for God to allow that nation to be destroyed and its people carried away into slavery. The book of Jeremiah speaks to the issue and God begins to sound more and more like a good liberal Democrat:

 

“For among my people are found wicked men; they watch as fowlers do who lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.

 

“As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit and treachery; therefore they have become great and grown rich,

 

“They have grown fat and sleek. Yes, they surpass in deeds of wickedness. They do not judge and plead with justice the cause of the fatherless that it may prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy. (Emphasis mine.)

 

“Shall I not punish them for these things? Says the Lord. Shall not I avenge myself on such a nation as this?” (Jeremiah 5: 26-29 Amplified Version.)

 

Jeremiah goes on in the 2nd Chapter:

 

“Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the persons of the innocent poor. You did not find them house-breaking, nor have I found it out by secret search, but it is because of [your lust for idolatry that you have done] all these things…Behold, I will bring you to judgment and will plead against you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’” (Jeremiah. 2: 34-35. Amplified Version.)

 

Jeremiah tells the nation what God’s terms are if they are to be spared from destruction and from being carried away as captives:

 

“If you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly and truly execute justice between every man and his neighbor,

 

“If you do not oppress the transient and the alien, the fatherless and the widow, or shed innocent blood [by oppression and by judicial murders]…

 

“Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers…” (Jeremiah 7:5-7. Amplified Version.)

 

Amos the prophet addresses a nation who continues to mistreat the poor:

 

“Hear this, O you who would swallow up and trample down the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail and come to an end, Saying,

 

‘When will the new moon festival be past, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, making the ephah measure small, and the shekel measure great, and falsifying the scales by deceit, that we may buy [into slavery] the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals; yes, and sell the refuse of the wheat [as if it were good grade]?’

 

“The Lord has sworn by [Himself Who is] the glory and pride of Jacob, ‘Surely I will never forget any of their …deeds.’” (Amos 8:4-7. Amplified.)

 

Amos makes it clear that if a nation places burdens upon the poor, allows the powerful to take advantage of them and denies the poor not only their day in court but true justice and equity, that nation will not partake of its own bounty. Amos 5:11-12. Other verses in Proverbs extend God’s blessings to those who help the poor:

 

“He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and that which he has given He will repay to him.” (Proverbs 19:17. Amplified.)

 

“He who gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes [from their want] will have many a curse.” (Proverbs 28:27. Amplified.)

 

Here is what God says about medical assistance through the prophet Ezekiel as God addressed the spiritual “shepherds”:

 

“The diseased and weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the hurt and crippled you have not bandaged, those gone astray you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought to find; but with force and hardhearted harshness you have ruled them.” (Ezekiel 34:4 Amplified)

 

And because the churches and the false spiritual leaders failed in their responsibility to the sick and infirm of the nation, Ezekiel quotes God:

 

“I am against the [spiritual] shepherds; and I will require My sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease feeding the sheep…I will rescue My sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.” (Ezekiel 34:9-10 Amplified)

 

Another poignant scripture that reveals Jesus’ own attitude toward the nations and people who have ignored the plight of the poor, sick and needy is from the book of Matthew. Notice that the separation of the people is done on a national basis. This must be read as an indictment of national political actions as well as personal actions. The individuals who supported false leaders and their agenda toward the poor and needy are clearly going to be held responsible for their votes:

 

“All nations shall be gathered before him, and he will separate the people…And he will cause the sheep to stand at his right hand, but the goats at his left….Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Be gone from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!’

 

‘For I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you did not welcome me…I was naked and you did not clothe me; I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me with help and ministering care.’

 

“Then they also [in their turn] will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’

 

“And he will reply to them, ‘Solemnly I declare to you, in so far as you failed to do it for the least of these [in the estimation of men] you failed to do it for me.” (Matthew 25:31-45. Amplified Version.)

 

Though evil men may try to obliterate the words and impact of the Scriptures, they will never succeed. Their immorality and sins must be overwhelmingly rejected by all Americans, lest this nation fall under the condemnation of God—if it is not under condemnation already for the deeds of Mr. Bush.

 

 

Religious Conservative's Immigration Plans

 

 

In January of 2004, George Bush introduced his Temporary Worker Program.[104] He listed four points:

 

“First, America must control its borders…”

 

“Second, new immigration laws should serve the economic needs of our country. If an American employer is offering a job that American citizens are not willing to take, we ought to welcome into our country a person who will fill that job.

 

“Third, we should not give unfair rewards to illegal immigrants in the citizenship process or disadvantage those who came here lawfully, or hope to do so.

 

“Fourth, new laws should provide incentives for temporary, foreign workers to return permanently to their home countries after their period of work in the United States has expired.”[105]  (Emphasis mine.)

 

However, the key give-a-way in Mr. Bush’s speech was that he identified the program with the words underlined above, “incentives for temporary, foreign workers to return permanently to their home countries.” In other words after an immigrant worker fulfills his sign-up periord of three years, he can either re-enlist or he will be forced to leave the U.S.

 

It appears Mr. Bush is resurrecting nothing less than a return to the temporary worker program that prevailed during World War II. It was called the “Bracero program,” which allowed Mexican workers to come to the United States legally for a specific period of time. This brought in cheap farm labor, but the workers suffered under cruel and harsh conditions, frequently not receiving any pay and when their term was up, they were forced to leave the United States.

 

The first Bracero program favored the rich land owners over the poor and needy aliens, who literally became indentured servants to employers who treated them as if they were property or prisoners. Mr. Bush is unlikely to insert regulations into his legislation that will protect the health, life, and working conditions under which the poor sojourners will labor. We are about to see that his program violates the explicit edicts of Scriptures and will bring upon the U.S. the wrath of God.

 

In addition to the Hispanics another group of sojourners have become objects of prejudice, scorn and hate from Mr. Bush, his Republicans and the churches.

 

Almost half of America has waged a war of hatred directed at immigrant and native Muslims living within America’s borders.[106] A poll taken recently (December 2004) found highly religious people believe that American Muslims should be treated differently than the rest of the people living within the U.S. The poll found nearly half (47%) of Americans want to curtail the legal and civil rights of Muslims in America and 42% of Christians with a high level of religiosity believe “that Muslim Americans should register their whereabouts with the federal government” and 65% of the highly religious “believe that Islam is more likely to encourage violence compared to other religions.”[107]

 

If, as is apparent from the poll, so-called Christians are exhibiting unwarranted prejudices against Muslims, it is even a further grief to realize how the Church in America has transgressed express biblical sanctions regarding immigrants and temporary residents living within the borders of this nation. And here I need to make it clear that the biblical edicts extend to Hispanics and to every color, race, accent, religion and country of origin.

 

One of the most fundamental biblical principles in the Bible deals with how believers must treat outsiders in their land.

 

Let those who can hear what the Spirit saith to the churches weep in repentance:

 

“For the Lord your God…loves the stranger or temporary resident and gives him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger and sojourner…” (Deuteronomy 10:17-19. Amplified.)

 

God actually instructs us by making reference to the forerunner of our tax system that funds are to be used to feed and clothe the aliens among us as well as the poor, the orphans and the widows:

 

“…and the stranger or temporary resident, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are in your towns, shall come and eat and be satisfied; that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.” (Deuteronomy 14:29. Amplified.)

 

“And if a stranger dwells temporarily with you in your land, you shall not suppress and mistreat him.

 

“But the stranger who dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you; and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Leviticus 19: 33-34. Amplified Version.)

 

“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 22:21. Amplified.)

 

In fact, as we’ve seen, the scriptures establish that a nation can only escape destruction if it follows God’s rules, one of which is that it does not “oppress the transient and the alien…” (Jeremiah 7: 5-7. Amplified)

 

The prophet Jeremiah exhorted:

 

“Thus says the Lord: And do no wrong; do no violence to the stranger or temporary resident, the fatherless or the widow, nor shed innocent blood…” (Jeremiah 22:3 Amplified.)

 

God warns that the voices and cries of those innocents killed, robbed, oppressed, ridiculed and ignored will rise to the throne of heaven—and woe be the nation who caused it.

 

 

Deregulate Health and Safety and Environmental Laws

 

 

Regulation of commerce is one of the issues addressed by Martin Luther’s “Sermon on Trade and Usury,” delivered in 1520.[108] Luther stated unequivocally that business cannot be conducted without government regulation! Luther argues a benevolent government is necessary to prevent tricks, defrauding, monopoly, market manipulation and other manifestations of greed and cupidity. His position was entirely biblical. We are about to see how George W. Bush trampled upon the biblical ethics.

 

From the moment George W. Bush took over the reins of the presidency, he began to de-regulate every health and safety measure he had the power to destroy. Here are a few of the swings of his axe on the road to breaking apart every protective regulation in sight, beginning on his first day in office. (The list was compiled by Craig Aaron, Senior Editor In These Times and his complete list is available.)[109]

 

 

“January 20, 2001: Chief of Staff Andrew Card issued a sixty-day moratorium halting all new health, safety, and environmental regulations issued in the final days of the Clinton administration.

 

“March 7, 2001: Bush urged congress to repeal ergonomic regulations designed to protect workers from repetitive-stress injuries.

 

“March 14, 2001: Bush abandoned his campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

 

“March 20, 2001: Bush administration moved to overturn a Clinton regulation reducing the allowable level of arsenic in drinking water.

 

“March 28, 2001: Bush backed out of the Kyoto treaty on global warming.

 

“April 4, 2001: United States Department of Agriculture proposed lifting a requirement that all beef used in federal school lunch programs must be tested for salmonella; the proposal was dropped two days later.

 

“On April 29, 2001 George W. Bush met with California governor Gray Davis but refused to impose federal price controls to curtail California’s energy crisis.

 

“May 11, 2001: Bush administration abandoned international effort to crack down on offshore tax havens.

 

“July 9, 2001: Bush administration opposed UN treaty to curb international trafficking in small arms and light weapons.

 

“July 26, 2001: Bush administration rejected international treaty on germ warfare and biological weapons.”

 

Here from the Yurica Report collection are two of the latest swings of the Bush axe that have cost even more lives:

August 15, 2004: Bush guts tuberculosis regulations. Tuberculosis was reappearing with alarming frequency across the United States. The government began writing rules to protect five million people whose jobs put them in special danger. Bush canceled the rules that would save lives.[110] 

September 19, 2004: GOP deregulates every type of gun in D.C. making it a wide open city. The nation's capital city will soon suffer a brazen insult at the hands of the House of Representatives as a legislative majority prepares to vote for the decontrol of guns in the city - that's right, a majority of lawmakers, sworn to "insure domestic tranquility" for the nation, would make D.C. stand for Dodge City.

As is apparent, George W. Bush favors “deregulation” of the market place. What a sanitized word! And he favors the dismantling of “environmental controls”—which is just another way of saying, “deregulation.” But those sanitized words have cost Americans a heavy price. Those who feel nothing at the deaths of the innocent Iraqi civilians and the people slaughtered by the 2004 tsunami ought to calculate the cost Americans are paying for their president’s policies.

 

Scientists estimate that over 100,000 Americans will die prematurely because Mr. Bush has deregulated environmental controls.[111] The average number of life-years lost by individuals dying prematurely from exposure to the particulate matter Mr. Bush is allowing Americans to breathe—is fourteen years.[112] The estimated amount that Mr. Bush’s Clear Skies-related health problems will cost taxpayers, per year: $115 billion.[113] The extra money earned by the polluting corporations has made its way into the pockets of Republican candidates. During the 2000 election: it was $8 million.[114]

 

Senator James Jeffords of Vermont said, “I expect the Bush administration will go down in history as the greatest disaster for public health and the environment in the history of the United States.”[115]

 

Let no one think that the Bible has nothing to say about pollution and premature death due to it in the twenty-first century. Polluting is one of man’s worst sins. And one ignores the biblical injunctions against it at his own peril. The following is quoted from, Who Really Wrote the Bible? an unpublished book by Katherine Yurica:

 

“The Health and Safety Code of Leviticus was the forerunner of all modern sanitation laws, and its implementation in 1847 in Vienna hospital obstetrical wards by Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, cut the death rate by one-half. One out of every six women died in the maternity wards prior to the application of the Levitical laws which are now standard procedure in all hospitals.[116] In the fourteenth century the Black Death took the lives of one out of every four persons in Europe. Yet historians tell us that it was the implementation of the laws of Leviticus: segregation and quarantine of the victims of infectious diseases that destroyed the lethal plagues of the Dark Ages.”[117]

 

Sanitation is still the basic issue today. Just as our hospitals and our homes must be sanitary, our air and our water must be free of filth that spreads diseases. Bill Moyers in one of the most powerfully written essays I have read recently, and which I encourage my readers to read in its entirety, wrote the following:

 

“…the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declared the election a mandate for President Bush on the environment. This administration wants to rewrite the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act protecting rare plant and animal species and their habitats, as well as the National Environmental Policy Act that requires the government to judge beforehand if actions might damage natural resources. They want to relax pollution limits for ozone; eliminate vehicle tailpipe inspections; and ease pollution standards for cars, sports utility vehicles and diesel-powered big trucks and heavy equipment.

 

“They want a new international audit law to allow corporations to keep certain information about environmental problems secret from the public.

 

“They want to drop all of the government’s new-source review suits against polluting coal-fired power plants and weaken consent decrees reached earlier with coal companies.

 

“….the Environmental Protection Agency planned…to pay poor families to continue to use pesticides in their homes, pesticides that have been linked to neurological damage in children. Instead of ordering an end to their use, the government and the industry were going to offer the families $970 each, as well as a camcorder and children’s clothing, to serve as guinea pigs for the study.”[118]

 

It is very important to realize that the God of the Bible is concerned with the well being of the entire world: there are environmental laws in the Bible that affect the health and well being of mankind. There are laws concerned with ecology and conservation,[119] protecting wild life,[120] and legislation ordering care for animals,[121] and rest for the land.[122]

 

Believers may not allow others to die or participate in poisoning the atmosphere and in destroying the earth without falling under the judgment of God. There is no authorization in the Bible whatsoever for believers to junk the biblical standards because of their fallacious reasoning, “We’re living in the last days.” What pitiful ignorance of the laws of God and lack of knowledge of the Word! The scriptures declare that we have been living in the “last days” since Luke quoted Peter on the day of Pentecost nearly 2000 years ago:

 

“This is…what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days said God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh…’” (Acts 2: 16-17 Amplified) (Emphasis mine.)[123]

 

It is unbelievable that the churches who claim to know the Holy Scriptures would endorse a man with Mr. Bush’s agenda. It is unbelievable that a man who leads a nation would deliberately become an advocate for the spread of filth in the air and water and dare call himself a “Christian,” while the churches of America tape their mouths shut from condemning what God has already judged as evil.

 

As we look over the list of the regulations Mr. Bush has decimated, it is clear his intent is to create an environment in which the greedy prosper at the expense of the people—even if it means the people will die or be injured by his actions. For where regulation is absent, wholesale thievery, injury and death are present.

 

 

What Does the Bible Say About Rigging Devices?

 

 

As we are about to see, the God of the Bible gets involved and concerns himself with fairness in the marketplace of a nation. One of the most significant areas of regulation established by the Bible is the regulation of all devices that measure, weigh and count. 

 

But from 2002 through 2004, Republicans in Congress refused to investigate allegations that voting machines were rigged in the 2002 mid-term elections by the unscrupulous. In fact, Republicans continue to fight any investigation and to fight attempts of other parties to recount the votes in the 2004 elections. So pervasive is the Republican indifference to voting fraud—that the New York Times editors call the party’s indifference “depressing.”[124]

 

The failure of new voting machines to accurately count the votes has been well documented.[125] The problems inaccurate vote counting devices create are similar to the effects of deregulation. Simply put, in either case, the public ceases to be protected by its government. So it is not surprising that the Republican Party as a whole refuses to create laws that will protect the public from unscrupulous operators: creating laws that regulate commerce are diametrically opposed to their agenda.

 

Bills have been introduced in Congress by Democrats to investigate and stop the states from using defectively programmed voting machines or machines that lend themselves to manipulation. A bill was introduced by Democrats that requires each voting machine to print out a voting receipt, listing the voter's choices. These bills have been refused or ignored by the Republicans, the Christian Right and the churches of America. The so-called “Christian” Republicans in congress have either opposed the bills or remained silent. The Democrats cannot even get their bills to the floor for a vote. The churches continue to remain silent over the issue. Yet there is a strong biblical prohibition against allowing deceptive measuring devices. The biblical injunctions are so forceful there can be no doubt that God requires the regulation of commerce! The biblical injunctions begin in Leviticus:

 

“You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have accurate and just balances, just weights…and measures.” (Leviticus 19:35-36. Amplified Version) (Emphasis mine.)

 

In another passage in Proverbs the scripture declares God’s intense feelings about false measuring devices:

 

“A false balance is an abomination to the Lord.” (Proverbs 11:1, King James Version)

 

In still another passage we find a more comprehensive prohibition:

 

“Diverse weights [one for buying and another for selling] and diverse measures, both of them are exceedingly offensive and abhorrent to the Lord.” (Proverbs 20:10, Amplified Version)

 

This corresponds to a passage in Deuteronomy that prohibits rigging for some transactions and true results for others:

 

“You shall not have in your bag true and false weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house true and false measures, a large and a small. But you shall have a perfect and just weight, and a perfect and just measure…” (Deut. 25:13-15 Amplified Version)

 

Similarly, in the book of Jeremiah, the prophet demonstrates why regulation of the instruments of commerce is necessary. The prophet exposes the extent an entire nation “from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.” Jeremiah 6:13 (Amplified Version) The same verse describes the people: “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness—to greed for unjust gain.”

 

The prophet Micah also cries out against unregulated market places and warns of punishment to the nation that so imbibes:

 

“Are there not still treasures gained by wickedness in the house of the wicked, and [a false measure for grain] a scant measure that is abominable and accursed?

 

“Can I be pure myself [and acquit the man] with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?

 

“For the city’s rich men are full of violence, and her inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

 

“Therefore I have also smitten you with a deadly wound and made you sick, laying you desolate, waste and deserted because of your sins.” (Micah 6:10-13. Amplified Version)

 

Deregulation means removing the legal controls that protect the public. After reading these verses, there can be no doubt that the Bible prohibits vote rigging in all its forms![126]

 

We need a new Joseph N. Welch to rise among us and face the McCarthyites of this age and cry, “Have the churches no shame? Have Republicans no shame? Mr. President, have you no shame? Have you no honor? For what man of honor would brag that he has a mandate to act on his agenda when any mandate that he has may have come entirely from false and rigged machines?”[127]

 

 

Mr. Bush’s “Justice” Versus the Bible’s Justice

 

 

The biblical system of jurisprudence is built upon the principle that we are ruled by laws and not by men. But for the first time in the history of the United States, we are facing an opposing ideology that seeks dominance over us: the Republican Party and its scorners teach: we are to be ruled by men and not by laws! This is heresy.

 

We have already seen in this essay how Mr. Bush, Mr. Gonzales and the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Mr. Gonzales’ direction, reinterpreted the laws on torture and wrote legal memos that empower the president to order torture in violation of U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions which also immunize the torturers from punishment. This is a clear example of evil—mere men placed themselves above the law. We are about to see why Mr. Bush’s attitude is repugnant to the God of the Bible.

 

In the books Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the very foundations of Western civilization were laid. Here are the codes of law that form the backbone of the judicial system of our world. Here the adversary system of justice was established over three millenniums ago, complete with the cross-examination of witnesses.[128]

 

Here in the Bible were the beginnings of our rules of evidence: proofs of fact had to be produced before the judges in the form of concrete evidence, mere conjecture was unacceptable.[129] Here was the beginning of forensic medicine: the examination of the remains of an animal was required in order to determine whether it was mauled to death by a wild beast.[130] Here evidence had to be conclusive. And here there was a presumption of innocence: for the law required two or three witnesses to establish a charge against an individual.[131] The word of one witness was insufficient proof of the existence of a wrong doing. Here the burden of proof was on the party asserting the affirmative of the issue.[132] And here too was the forerunner of the subpoena of witnesses.[133]

 

When we leave the sacred pages and examine the path of George W. Bush, we find that he might be completely ignorant of the biblical standards of justice, but even if he is fully informed of what the Bible says, he has a peculiar interest in overriding the Bible’s rules on justice. The reason is this: Mr. Bush wants to appoint base judges who have already made up their minds on cases before they hear them. This is a perversion of justice. Mr. Bush, however, is an advocate of the false way: he wants man to rule and not law. He represents Saul not Samuel!

 

As another example of his ideology, he seeks to appoint judges who will view the world through his eyes—he sees big business and big corporations as his “base.”[134] He pushes the rights of corporations over individuals.[135] He prefers not to punish corporation executives who have donated huge sums to Republican coffers even though their companies were awarded contracts without competitive bidding, or were involved in rigging prices or mismanagement in Iraq or defrauding Californians in an energy crisis.[136] He is against regulating the market place. So he wants the courts to adhere to his philosophy. In other words, he wants to interject partiality into the judging process. He’s been granted millions of dollars from corporations for his campaigns—it is a form of bribery, prohibited by the Bible and he wants judges who will respect the system of “contributions,” that are the equivalent to “bribes.”

 

Another example of his desire to interject partiality into the process of judging is the fact that he consistently names right-wing ideologues. Is that not evidence he wants to please the religious right who are devoted to him? It is only natural for him to want to appoint judges who will overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that essentially legalized abortions that were of the type hitherto criminalized. In fact, he admitted as much during the debates with John Kerry, when he made reference to the Dred Scott decision, which scores of writers have described to be code for Roe v. Wade.[137] Peggy Noonan reveals how the interchangeability of the two decisions works in her column in January, 2003:

 

“I think, as many do, that Roe v. Wade was as big a travesty as the Supreme Court decision on Dred Scott, which in 1857 declared that descendants of slaves could not become U.S. citizens. All Americans would now see that decision as terribly wrong, but back then the Court had spoken and Dred Scott was forced to continue to live in slavery.”[138]

 

If a nominee admits to his Senate questioners that he will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, he has admitted that he is prejudiced and partial in advance—therefore he is not qualified to serve as a judge. So he must be willing to lie. This is, of course, a most unrighteous quality for a judge and a sure track toward the perversion of justice itself.

 

This means Mr. Bush seeks to appoint base judges who are willing to lie about their own convictions, or who will put on an indignant show against any attempt to uncover his or her true judicial prejudices, hoping their performance will force the questioning Senators to back off. Thus Mr. Bush makes a circus out of his judicial nominees. And his nominees have demonstrated not only an ideological bent to the extreme religious right and toward Dominionism,[139] but they have lacked the impartiality and search for truth that a righteous judge must nurture and reach for every day of his or her life on the bench. In short, Mr. Bush’s nominees lack judicial humility. Moreover, Mr. Bush’s nominees are evidence enough that he wants judges that reflect his philosophy—not God’s. As we shall see, he has set out to appoint judges who will pervert justice.

 

 

The Development of the Biblical Justice System

 

 

Just as we saw that the God of the Bible has taken a special interest in public health and safety laws, inspiring the code against pollution, the Bible has a very special interest in justice. The Bible contains the rules of evidence and the code of behavior for judges.

 

The system of jurisprudence in ancient Israel began as follows:

 

“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

 

“You shall not misinterpret or misapply judgment; you shall not be partial, or take a bribe; for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous.” (Deuteronomy 16:18-19. Amplified.)

 

“Keep far from a false matter; and [be very careful] not to condemn to death the innocent and the righteous, for I will not justify and acquit the wicked.” (Exodus 23:7. Amplified)

 

Today, justices of the Supreme Court take an oath based essentially on the following biblical edict:

 

“You shall do no injustice in judging a case; you shall not be partial to the poor or show a preference for the mighty, but in righteousness and according to the merits of the case judge your neighbors.” (Leviticus 19:15. Amplified Version)

 

According to Title 28, Chapter I, Part 453 of the United States Code, each S