A response to a letter from one of our readers, David McClanahan
It’s not often I’m compelled to respond to a letter from one of our readers. However, in light of the recent election and the extreme turn to the right of our government, I must respond to one of our reader’s letter about our commentary of Patrick Henry “Christian Bible” College. The reader writes:
“You can't even get the name of the college right - it morphs from "PH Christian College" to "PH Bible College" in the first paragraph. In the fifth paragraph, you finally get the name right (Patrick Henry College),” writes David McClanahan.
The reader doesn’t get it. Why do we refer to this “College” by different names? To expose the truth about Patrick Henry College as merely a front name for what it truly is, a conservative fundamentalist right-wing extremist Christian college, using the name of a famed American patriot to disguise its true mission. Its mission of course is to prepare students who will “encourage government to adhere to principles of biblical morality.” It’s a mission, no different than what is taught at right-wing conservative fundamentalist extremist Islamic Madrasas to “implement Islam in all matters of government and society.”
Neither group considers itself wrong. So, which one is right? Or are they both wrong?
First we must recognize that there are conservative, "fundamentalist extremist," trends in all religions. They tend to be exclusionary, arguing that anyone who does not share their faith is destined to roast in hell. They are fanatic in their beliefs, and try to convert everyone else to their particular dogma. They believe in the literal interpretation and absolute truth of every word of their sacred texts.
How did the teachings of the Grand Ayatollah Imam Muhammad Shirazi who wrote, “the fundamental and elementary nature of freedom in mankind...freedom of expression, political plurality, debate and discussion, tolerance and forgiveness,” become so distorted that today they almost seem nonexistent in the Middle East?
Similarly, how can such a simple teaching by Jesus to“love your neighbor as yourself” have been dismissed with excuses of treating “unlawful combatants” as if they were less than human? How did Jesus’ teachings of tolerance lead to today’s Christians embracing “zero-tolerance?”
It’s this fundamental fanaticism that has currently overpowered Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. It’s causing our worlds to clash thrusting us into perpetual war. All the while each is proclaiming their triumphant march towards a utopia of peace and harmony, as long as it’s done under their religious dogma. And while they battle it out, we are all forced to suffer the tyranny of the “Religious Reich.”
Who’s afraid?
David Callahan writes, “You may be afraid of PHC graduates making our country into some sort of "military industrial theocracy." As long as kids are as well educated as those at PHC are, I doubt that that will happen. However, if the general public is as poorly educated as your article suggests that you and your fellow writer may be, then they will be a sitting duck for any powerful leader or ideology that comes along.”
The reality and fact is that we’ve already had examples of several decades of well-educated students who turned into tyrants. Students from around the world were trained in the United States’ School of the Americas, the stated goal was and remains to develop leaders who would embrace democracy and take those teachings back to their native lands, mostly in Latin America. Instead they took back and exercised what they were taught, brutality, torture and the violent overthrows of democratically elected governments. In effect they became puppet totalitarian governments for the United States.
Yes, there is reason to be afraid!
Still, it’s those well-educated “kids” from PHC who are being prepared to work for the Republican Reich’s CIA that is most menacing. These are kids who will do what they are told. No questions asked. They will be the ones who will carryout, as did their predecessors, the murder of democratically elected presidents like, Salvador Allende of Chile. What was Allende’s crime? He posed an ideological "threat" i.e., psychological —"threat of a good example" of a democratically elected socialist who honored Chile’s constitutional government. And what followed after the CIA killed Allende? It was the dictatorship of Agusto Pinochet that lasted more than two decades. In fact, it was SOA and CIA trained operatives that are to blame for the 1976 car bomb explosion in Washington, DC, which killed Allende’s exiled foreign minister Orlando Letelier, and his aide, American Ronnie Moffitt. Will the “kids” from PHC be any different? If they follow in the footsteps of their leadership, like Ashcroft, then we should all be afraid. Very afraid! Putting fear aside, we must be courageous and brave to expose and stop these religious fanatics!
This is not merely an exercise in rhetoric. Michael P. Farris the President of PHC writes in his greeting on their website, “As President of Patrick Henry College, I believe…in our efforts to build America's newest Christian college…. There is a leadership vacuum in America, but with the opening of Patrick Henry College, we are beginning to train many who will fill that vacuum at the highest levels. Many people have invested significantly and sacrificially in Patrick Henry College with no other purpose than a passion to rebuild America for Christ.”
So when our reader doesn’t understand why we write Patrick Henry Christian College, it’s because its President describes it as “America’s newest Christian college.” So, call a spade a spade. That’s what we did.
It is frightening however, that fundamentalist conservatives like Farris and Bin Laden are the driving force of today’s students of these two ancient religions. Both these men drape themselves in robes and speak in the name of “God” but they are a far cry from god-fearing or god-loving men. They are nothing more than religious fanatics throwing secular pluralistic and multicultural governments into chaos. All in the name of their “God.”
Still yet, if there is any doubt that PHC students are similar to Madrasa students then this statement from Naseem ur-Rahman, an Indian Madrasa Graduate who said, “In the madrasas, teachers constantly tell their students that they are being groomed to become leaders of the community, arguing that the right to leadership rests with them,” so clearly one can see it’s the same rhetoric that is being taught at PHC.
In yet another interview by a prominent Indian scholar Dr. Yoginder Sikand with Maulana Asrar ul-Haq Qasmi, a graduate of the Deoband Madrasa and founder of the Delhi-based All-India Ta'limi-o Milli Foundation, Mr. Qasmi states:
“Madrasas have had a long history in India, of almost a thousand years, and they are thus not a new phenomenon. Madrasas see themselves as preserving, transmitting and promoting the Islamic tradition. They also seek to instill in their students certain basic moral values. We believe, in accordance with the teachings of Islam, that God is the Lord of all the worlds and of all the creatures in it.”
The President of PHC, Farris goes on in his online statement, “I believe that God is indeed at work here at Patrick Henry College. His hand is evident in every facet of the college, from the grandeur of the building to the deep and meaningful friendships formed…. It is seen in the invigorating debate and discussion that reflect the "iron sharpening iron" described in Scripture… And it resonates in daily chapel, where the truth of God's Word is applied to the issues of today.”
PHC's Foundational Statements, say that "Some governments are not legitimate; some authorities are not lawful..." The same as the Madrasas do. What is PHC's remedy to these illegitimate governments? Why... its the death or overthrow of that government, the same as extremists madrasas' remedy is. Is the hand of God in PHC in this also?
But when such a government 1) commands disobedience to God, 2) enjoins the right and duty of human beings to worship God, 3) denies other God-ordained rights by extreme oppression and tyranny, or 4) "when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object (tyranny), evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism" it is the right and duty of godly men and women "to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security." Importantly, this action must be taken in accordance with God's laws and in submission to other legitimate authorities, anarchy being as illegitimate as tyranny. (Jeremiah 32: 32-35; Acts 5: 29 if you don't know what this scripture says, please click now to actually READ it.)
(editors note: readers wishing to enlighten the unlearned of the christian "right" to overthrow governments, please Do write in and explain your view)
To me it’s clear as day that these are two competing ideologies and both think that they are better than the other, The One and The Only Way. The result? Chaos – Tyranny - Oppression and War.
But what I find as most frightening is that the fundamentalists in America are using nationalism and patriotic rhetoric to hide like wolves in sheep’s clothing. They have taken the name of Patrick Henry who is most famous for the final words of a speech he made in Congress when he said, “Give me Liberty, or give me death” and are using it to do exactly the opposite of what he believed in. Thus, I take the liberty to excerpt some of Patrick Henry’s most famous speech:
“No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The questing before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate…”
Freedom to debate
It is this critical freedom that both PHC and Madrasas are stealing from their students. Students in both are being stifled from freely debating theological issues separate from secular governmental issues. They are required to form only one opinion, that opinion agreeing only with their respective scriptures. No questions asked. This is not what Patrick Henry wanted. He wanted the “Freedom of the debate.”
Furthermore, concerning worldly issues, in the face of empirical data, should that data disagree with scripture...of either religion....that religion, refuses to acknowledge the data. Hardly any freedom there is there?
He (PH) goes on to say, “Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country.”
Think about this for a moment. Think about how the current Bush administration and the Republican Reich is doing everything to stymie the free flow of opinions by calling those of us who question their fanatical zeal as “unpatriotic.” Not to forget that one day soon the graduates of PHC will be doing the very same thing, stifling the free flow of opinions and debate. Especially when it comes to questioning their allegiance to Christ, the separation of faith-based organizations from government, a Republican Reich President or to the Constitution of the United States.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
The Truth:
“Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things that so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.”
To know the truth, the whole truth; to know the worst…something that President Bush and his team, along with the interns from PHC are so desperately trying to hide from the American people and the world, the truth.
The reader is correct in one thing, the general public is “a sitting duck for any powerful leader or ideology” to take them away. It’s clear that Bin Laden has taken his people and hoarded them like sheep and clearly Bush/Cheney have done the same.
No questions asked.