End The Charade

Letter to the editor by Glen Stovall, published in The Salina [Kansas] Journal, November 15, 2006


End the charade

We cower in fear and silence and with blood on our hands when our "Christian" leader systematically redefines what it means to be a Christian and to be an American, all because of Jesus and 19 men with box cutters.

We cower in fear and silence and with blood on our hands even in knowing that we have killed 650,000 Iraqis -- for oil and lies -- and have condemned generations to come because of depleted uranium, napalm and white phosphorus, all because of Jesus and 19 men with box cutters.

We cower in fear and silence and with blood on our hands after we learned of torture and secret gulags around the world, all because of Jesus and 19 men with box cutters.

We cower in fear and silence and with blood on our hands after we gave our "Christian" leader the right to torture and to imprison any of us without any recourse, all because of Jesus and 19 men with box cutters.

We cower in fear and silence and with blood on our hands knowing full well that loving your enemies does not mean killing them and knowing that living by the "golden rule" can never mean we torture anyone, all because of Jesus and 19 men with box cutters.

I hold out hope, faint though it is, that our ministers, priests and Christians everywhere will demand an end to this charade that calls itself "Christian."

-- GLEN E. STOVALL, Salina, Kansas