After Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's recent remarks at the U.N., during which he referred to President Bush as "the devil," and then held up and recommended Noam Chomsky's, "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance" he told reporters, "The people of the United States should read this ... instead of the watching Superman movies."
And they are, for as of last Thursday afternoon, "Hegemony or Survival," [published in 2003] leaped into the top 10 on Amazon, and it had been ranked 20,664 the day before.

Could this be the beginning of the birth pangs of a Third Awakening? Could Chavez's book plug be the spark to ignite we the people to begin the painful questioning and confronting of our leaders about the real reasons why some people in the world hate us?

Not long ago, Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Chavez, a most un-Christ like statement. Christ taught that God was already within every human heart and the commandment 'thou shalt not kill' was always meant to be taken literally. The illogic and irony of fundamentalism that knits together disparate, obscure and vague biblical passages into literal predictions of future events, while ignoring and defying clear commands is painful for thinking Christians, and Robertson has never spoken for them.

According to a recent poll for the German Marshall Fund reported that 57% of Europeans regard American leadership in world affairs "undesirable" and not just because of Iraq. Europeans worry that Bush's foreign policy is too influenced by religion, and that "America is undergoing a religious revival...evangelical Protestantism and hard-line Catholicism are growing rapidly while 'cool' mainline versions of Christianity are declining...It is also true that Mr. Bush frequently uses religious rhetoric when talking of foreign affairs...he sees the 'war on terror' as a 'confrontation between good and evil' and remarked, "It seems to me there's a Third Awakening". [The Economist]

While Robertson does Christ no favors by claiming to be a follower, the people of America are also subjected to the likes of Lt-General William Boykin, deputy under-secretary of defense for intelligence, who toured the country telling Christian groups that radical Muslims hate America, "because we're a Christian nation and the enemy is a guy named Satan."

If we really were a Christian nation, there would be no manufacturing of WMD and the poor would be housed and fed. The Christian values that Christ taught is not the heresy Boykin preaches, for whom would Jesus bomb? No one.

We live in a nation with a media that allows the most limited and divisive of Christians a voice and little press is given to the likes of Senator Brownback who has led the fight against genocide in Darfur and Mrs. and Pastor Rick Warren, on their focusing on the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

The media has become a stronger influence in shaping American's views on foreign policy than the true tenants of religion in the 21st century. What we have in America today, is a lot of religion about Jesus, but NOT the religion Christ taught. What Christ taught that shocked his world was that God was already within, so one is to be just and merciful to all, and that would lead to working for peaceful resolutions, even to the point of returning violence with compassion.

This Christian welcomes the birth pangs of a Third Awakening, and another reformation. The pain begins when we look within at the evil that runs through our own hearts.

A third awakening would promote a theology of liberation that puts an end to the hijacking of people's faith by politicians with their theologies of empire building and global dominance and the cult of Christian empire builders that are indigenous to America. This cult embraces a modern theological and political movement of the most extreme ideological positions of Jewish Zionism.

"The Christian Zionist program provides a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism. In its extreme form, it laces an emphasis on apocalyptic events leading to the end of history rather than living Christ's love and justice today...Christian Zionist doctrines [are] false teaching's that corrupt the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation... the contemporary alliance of Christian Zionist leaders and organizations with elements in the governments of Israel and the United States that are presently imposing their unilateral preemptive borders and domination over Palestine, inevitably leads to unending cycles of violence that undermine the security of all peoples of the Middle East and the rest of the world... Rather than condemn the world to the doom of Armageddon we call upon everyone to liberate themselves from the ideologies of militarism and occupation. Instead, let [us] pursue the healing of the nations!"- Religious Leaders' Statement on Christian Zionism

In every classroom in America the World Map shows the United States in the very center. American Christianity also predisposes many to look at themselves as special, and that leads to thinking that our way of life must be maintained; even by war, and there is nothing Christian about that!

Americans have remained silent for too long and have allowed the hijacking of religion to be used for political gain. Politicians never have-and never can deliver peace and security, they must be led by the people who are the ones who must choose on a daily basis to be peaceful and neighborly.

"The fierce urgency of now" [MLK, Jr.] should compel all thinking Christians and church denominations to move beyond their man-created differences. The time is now to break the silence and speak boldly for the need of reconciliation between the families of Father Abraham in the fight against terrorism, which is also a spiritual battle. Anyone who can target and murder an innocent has allowed evil to rule them and only by people of good will pursuing justice and in support of nonviolence can we hope to change hearts and minds.

A Third Awakening will affirm that all people are created in the image of God and all are called to honor the dignity of every human being and to respect the others inalienable human right to freedom.

A Third Awakening would unite us in the rejection of all attempts to subvert and fragment the unity of the human family and to oppose every narrow world view and ideology that privilege one people at the expense of another.

No enduring peace, no security, and no reconciliation is even possible without the foundation of justice. Justice requires mercy and is always nonviolent.

"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. It isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it."-Eleanor Roosevelt

By standing on the side of justice, we open ourselves up to the hard work of peace, and working for peace is what Christ promised makes one a child of God.

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