From the Washington Post:
Army Spec. Jeans Cruz helped capture Saddam Hussein. When he came home to the Bronx, important people called him a war hero and promised to help him start a new life. The mayor of New York, officials of his parents' home town in Puerto Rico, the borough president and other local dignitaries honored him with plaques and silk parade sashes. They handed him their business cards and urged him to phone.
But a "black shadow" had followed Cruz home from Iraq, he confided to an Army counselor. He was hounded by recurring images of how war really was for him: not the triumphant scene of Hussein in handcuffs, but visions of dead Iraqi children.
In public, the former Army scout stood tall for the cameras and marched in the parades. In private, he slashed his forearms to provoke the pain and adrenaline of combat. He heard voices and smelled stale blood. Soon the offers of help evaporated and he found himself estranged and alone, struggling with financial collapse and a darkening depression.
....
At a low point, he went to the local Department of Veterans Affairs medical center for help. One VA psychologist diagnosed Cruz with post-traumatic stress disorder. His condition was labeled "severe and chronic." In a letter supporting his request for PTSD-related disability pay, the psychologist wrote that Cruz was "in need of major help" and that he had provided "more than enough evidence" to back up his PTSD claim. His combat experiences, the letter said, "have been well documented."
The evaluators turned down Cruz' request for disability pay, because they said that his condition pre-existed before he joined the Army and because he had not proved that he was in combat. So now the troops must prove that they were in combat? Does no one in the Army keep records?
Once celebrated by his government, Cruz feels defeated by its bureaucracy. He no longer has the stamina to appeal the VA decision, or to make the Army correct the sloppy errors in his medical records or amend his personnel file so it actually lists his combat awards.
"I'm pushing the mental limits as it is," Cruz said, standing outside the bullet-pocked steel door of the New York City housing project on Webster Avenue where he grew up and still lives with his family. "My experience so far is, you ask for something and they deny, deny, deny. After a while you just give up."
We send the troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, put them in danger of death and maiming, and then, if they get home in one piece, but require emotional or psychological help, we deny them the treatment they need.
Along with the recent exposés of conditions in military facilities, such as Walter Reed, comes the story of the lack of care for those wounded emotionally and psychologically. The story is not really new. It's been floating around for a while, but the WP pulls it together well.
Perhaps, the WP redeems itself a little for front-paging many stories beating the war drums in the run-up to the Iraq War and burying in the inside pages, Walter Pincus' stories about those who offered dissenting views to the rush to topple Saddam. The dissenting stories were there; I was reading them, but, apparently not enough others were paying attention to slow the madness.
"The paper was not front-paging stuff," said Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks. "Administration assertions were on the front page. Things that challenged the administration were on A18 on Sunday or A24 on Monday. There was an attitude among editors: Look, we're going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?"
See how that goes? Good for them that we have this story of the denial of mental health care to veterans laid out on the front page. I don't know about you, but a story like this is nearly unbearable for me. The word comes from on high, "Deny, deny, deny."
Veterans Affairs will spend $2.8 billion this year on mental health. However, we spend $200 million per day on prosecuting the war in Iraq.
They occupy every rank, uniform and corner of the country. People such as Army Lt. Sylvia Blackwood, who was admitted to a locked-down psychiatric ward in Washington after trying to hide her distress for a year and a half [story, A13]; and Army Pfc. Joshua Calloway, who spent eight months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and left barely changed from when he arrived from Iraq in handcuffs; and retired Marine Lance Cpl. Jim Roberts, who struggles to keep his sanity in suburban New York with the help of once-a-week therapy and a medicine cabinet full of prescription drugs; and the scores of Marines in California who were denied treatment for PTSD because the head psychiatrist on their base thought the diagnosis was overused.
We have a shameful history in our treatment of Vietnam veterans, and we should know better the consequences of denying help that is urgently needed.
Jeans Cruz and his contemporaries in the military were never supposed to suffer in the shadows the way veterans of the last long, controversial war did. One of the bitter legacies of Vietnam was the inadequate treatment of troops when they came back. Tens of thousands endured psychological disorders in silence, and too many ended up homeless, alcoholic, drug-addicted, imprisoned or dead before the government acknowledged their conditions and in 1980 officially recognized PTSD as a medical diagnosis.
So why do I bother taking note of this story? The WP has many more readers than the small band who gather here, folks who very likely agree with me already. Maybe I do it for me, because I find the story so hard to take in, so hard to bear, that writing about it helps a little.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Happy Father's Day!
HIGH FROM THE EARTH I HEARD A BIRD
High from the earth I heard a bird;
He trod upon the trees
As he esteemed them trifles,
And then he spied a breeze,
And situated softly
Upon a pile of wind
Which in a perturbation
Nature had left behind.
A joyous-going fellow
I gathered from his talk,
Which both of benediction
And badinage partook,
Without apparent burden,
I learned, in leafy wood
He was the faithful father
Of a dependent brood;
And this untoward transport
His remedy for care,—
A contrast to our respites.
How different we are!
Emily Dickinson
High from the earth I heard a bird;
He trod upon the trees
As he esteemed them trifles,
And then he spied a breeze,
And situated softly
Upon a pile of wind
Which in a perturbation
Nature had left behind.
A joyous-going fellow
I gathered from his talk,
Which both of benediction
And badinage partook,
Without apparent burden,
I learned, in leafy wood
He was the faithful father
Of a dependent brood;
And this untoward transport
His remedy for care,—
A contrast to our respites.
How different we are!
Emily Dickinson
Saturday, June 16, 2007
What A Scoop!
Tad Lincoln in James Prideaux's The Last of Mrs. Lincoln with Julie Harris, at the Kennedy Center Opera House and the ANTA Theater on Broadway (1972-3)I do believe I missed my calling as a journalist. Of course, this one was thrown into my lap by the subject himself. Once I had the first bit of information, all it took was a little stalking on the internet to find the picture above.
Here I was thinking, "What on earth will be the subject of my next post? I have nothing. Is my life as a blogger finished, done?" I wasn't in the mood to post about the feast day of Joseph Butler, the sermon-writer and refuter of Deism. We had so many feast days this week, that I was worn out with dealing with saints.
Then I find this in my comments:
In the shameless past-self-promotion vein... in my former life as an actor I performed ages ago (1972) before our nearest thing to royalty: Pat Nixon and Julie Eisenhower, who sat in the presidential box at the Kennedy Center opera house in DC. The play, in its pre-Broadway run, was about another First Lady: The Last of Mrs. Lincoln, with Julie Harris in the titular role. I was Tad Lincoln, the youngest surviving son, who died towards the end of act one. In any case, after the performance, Miss Harris was whisked away by the Secret Service to meet the "royalty" and had her picture taken with them (they both towered over her). When the framed photo arrived some weeks later at the theater in NY, I happened to be present as Julie unwrapped it. She smiled and said, "This will prove to my mother that I've finally made it!"My friends, the picture is of Tobias Haller, with none other than the great actress, Julie Harris, Yes, the Tobias whom many of us know and love, exercising another of his many gifts. As I told him one day in the comments at his blog, In A Godward Direction, God had chosen to give him an unfair share of gifts. He's a parish priest, a theologian, an artist, a poet, a musician and composer of music, and, his learning notwithstanding, he preaches lovely, accessible sermons. And he's nice to old ladies. I'm sure I'm leaving out a gift or two.
Thanks for evoking these off-topic memories, and I hope you don't mind the sharing... and glad to hear the other Julie is perhaps having a change of heart about the direction taken by the GOP -- the party of Lincoln!
Now we learn that in another life, Tobias was an actor and got to associate with celebrities. It's just too much. Life is surely not fair. However, Jesus had no patience with his followers who complained about the lack of fairness. Remember the parables of the prodigal son and the laborers in the vineyard?
Also, as I said when I complained to him about unfairness, Tobias gives his gifts freely, which is the very reason that God gives each of us gifts.
Tobias, I didn't ask you about this first, because I wanted to surprise you, or shock you, or something. If you don't like it, I will take it down
Friday, June 15, 2007
Feast Day Of Evelyn Underhill
This is late and borrowed, but I want to take note.
From James Kiefer at the Lectionary:
Evelyn Underhill was born in 1875 and grew up in London.
....
Miss Underhill (Mrs. Hubert Stuart Moore) taught that the life of contemplative prayer is not just for monks and nuns, but can be the life of any Christian who is willing to undertake it. She also taught that modern psychological theory, far from being a threat to contemplation, can fruitfully be used to enhance it. In her later years, she spent a great deal of time as a lecturer and retreat director. She died on June 15, 1941.
Poetry by Underhill
To go up alone into the mountains
and come back as an ambassador to the world,
has ever been the method of humanity's best friends.
The windows of Christ's Mysteries split the [Light] up into many-coloured loveliness, disclose all of its hidden richness...make its beauty more accessible to us...And within this place we too are bathed in the light transmitted by the windows, a light which is yet the very radiance of Eternity.
The readings for the feast day are particularly beautiful. Here are excerpts:
From Psalm 96
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord; for he is coming,
for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with his truth.
From Wisdom 7
For wisdom is more mobile than any motion;
because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.
For she is a breath of the power of God,
and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;
therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
For she is a reflection of eternal light,
a spotless mirror of the working of God,
and an image of his goodness.
From John 4
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’
PRAYER
O God, Origin, Sustainer, and End of all your creatures: Grant that your Church, taught by your servant Evelyn Underhill, guarded evermore by your power, and guided by your Spirit into the light of truth, may continually offer to you all glory and thanksgiving, and attain with your saints to the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have promised us by our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.
I am so very pleased that the Book of Wisdom is included in the Lectionary in the Episcopal Church.
READINGS:
Psalm 96:7-13 or 37:3-6,32-33
Wisdom 7:24--8:1
John 4:19-24
From James Kiefer at the Lectionary:
Evelyn Underhill was born in 1875 and grew up in London.
....
Miss Underhill (Mrs. Hubert Stuart Moore) taught that the life of contemplative prayer is not just for monks and nuns, but can be the life of any Christian who is willing to undertake it. She also taught that modern psychological theory, far from being a threat to contemplation, can fruitfully be used to enhance it. In her later years, she spent a great deal of time as a lecturer and retreat director. She died on June 15, 1941.
Poetry by Underhill
To go up alone into the mountains
and come back as an ambassador to the world,
has ever been the method of humanity's best friends.
The windows of Christ's Mysteries split the [Light] up into many-coloured loveliness, disclose all of its hidden richness...make its beauty more accessible to us...And within this place we too are bathed in the light transmitted by the windows, a light which is yet the very radiance of Eternity.
The readings for the feast day are particularly beautiful. Here are excerpts:
From Psalm 96
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord; for he is coming,
for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with his truth.
From Wisdom 7
For wisdom is more mobile than any motion;
because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.
For she is a breath of the power of God,
and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;
therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
For she is a reflection of eternal light,
a spotless mirror of the working of God,
and an image of his goodness.
From John 4
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’
PRAYER
O God, Origin, Sustainer, and End of all your creatures: Grant that your Church, taught by your servant Evelyn Underhill, guarded evermore by your power, and guided by your Spirit into the light of truth, may continually offer to you all glory and thanksgiving, and attain with your saints to the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have promised us by our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.
I am so very pleased that the Book of Wisdom is included in the Lectionary in the Episcopal Church.
READINGS:
Psalm 96:7-13 or 37:3-6,32-33
Wisdom 7:24--8:1
John 4:19-24
TGIF
Voila! I have just returned from my monthly visit to my hairdresser for a wash, cut, and style for a grand total of $18, $15 for the service and a $3 tip. If I may say so myself, I look quite nice. I wish I could fix my hair as my hairdresser does, but I have no gift for styling hair. My poor daughter had to learn to do her own hair at a young age, because her mother was so lacking.
Well, TGIF, and we don't have to be deeply serious and hard at work all the time. However, I must say that since I've retired, the days seem to run together, except for Sunday, the go-to-church day. We retirees can be thankful for every day.
Of course, I know that some of you out there love your jobs, and never think TGIF. And there are those among you who work weekends, like the many priests and pastors in my vast readership, and others who toil away for the benefit of the rest of us, like our staunch Presbyterian friend Ed, the simple village organist.
While I was at the beauty shop today, a young woman with a little boy toddler was there. My hairdresser had a lavender plastic spritzer bottle on her counter. The young boy wanted that bottle badly. He kept going back to try to get it, as his mother repeatedly told him that he could not have it and led him away.
Now, I'm going to get serious again. Is the young boy toddler's intense desire for the lavender spritzer bottle proof-positive that he will grow up to be gay?
Well, TGIF, and we don't have to be deeply serious and hard at work all the time. However, I must say that since I've retired, the days seem to run together, except for Sunday, the go-to-church day. We retirees can be thankful for every day.
Of course, I know that some of you out there love your jobs, and never think TGIF. And there are those among you who work weekends, like the many priests and pastors in my vast readership, and others who toil away for the benefit of the rest of us, like our staunch Presbyterian friend Ed, the simple village organist.
While I was at the beauty shop today, a young woman with a little boy toddler was there. My hairdresser had a lavender plastic spritzer bottle on her counter. The young boy wanted that bottle badly. He kept going back to try to get it, as his mother repeatedly told him that he could not have it and led him away.
Now, I'm going to get serious again. Is the young boy toddler's intense desire for the lavender spritzer bottle proof-positive that he will grow up to be gay?
Eisenhower's Warning
Periodically, I feel the need to drag out Dwight Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the nation.
Not starting at the beginning:
We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.
Throughout America's adventure in free government, such basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among peoples and among nations.
To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people.
Any failure traceable to arrogance or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us a grievous hurt, both at home and abroad.
....
The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their Government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well in the face of threat and stress.
But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise.
Of these, I mention two only.
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
....
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.
Eisenhower spoke these wise words 46 years ago, and we have not paid attention. The military-industrial monster has taken on a life of its own, and it is out of control. The monster is always hungry and demanding to be fed, therefore we must have wars - whether they're called "incursions", or "spreading freedom", or "bringing democracy" to another country.
One huge difference between Eisenhower and the leadership today is that he know from experience that "war is hell".
Not starting at the beginning:
We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.
Throughout America's adventure in free government, such basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among peoples and among nations.
To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people.
Any failure traceable to arrogance or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us a grievous hurt, both at home and abroad.
....
The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their Government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well in the face of threat and stress.
But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise.
Of these, I mention two only.
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
....
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.
Eisenhower spoke these wise words 46 years ago, and we have not paid attention. The military-industrial monster has taken on a life of its own, and it is out of control. The monster is always hungry and demanding to be fed, therefore we must have wars - whether they're called "incursions", or "spreading freedom", or "bringing democracy" to another country.
One huge difference between Eisenhower and the leadership today is that he know from experience that "war is hell".
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Oysters Amore
From the Times-Picayune in New Orleans by Chris Kirkham:
Legend holds that oysters are nature's foremost aphrodisiac, but an Australian oyster farmer is pumping up his crop with a more modern libido booster: Viagra.
Word of the so-called "Viagra Oysters," stored in tanks full of the crushed-up erectile dysfunction drug, made global headlines last week and raised health concerns.
In Louisiana, which produces more oysters than any state in the country, industry representatives wonder why the additive is needed for an already-sensual shellfish.
"You don't need Viagra in our oysters over here; they work," said Mike Voisin, an oyster distributor in Houma and chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force. "It's the Cajun Viagra."
Voisin shipped five-dozen Louisiana oysters in dry ice Friday to Australia's minister of health and aging, Tony Abbott. As of midday Tuesday Australia time, Abbott's office said it had not received the oysters and weren't sure whether they would make it through Australian customs.
Posted without comment.
Legend holds that oysters are nature's foremost aphrodisiac, but an Australian oyster farmer is pumping up his crop with a more modern libido booster: Viagra.
Word of the so-called "Viagra Oysters," stored in tanks full of the crushed-up erectile dysfunction drug, made global headlines last week and raised health concerns.
In Louisiana, which produces more oysters than any state in the country, industry representatives wonder why the additive is needed for an already-sensual shellfish.
"You don't need Viagra in our oysters over here; they work," said Mike Voisin, an oyster distributor in Houma and chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force. "It's the Cajun Viagra."
Voisin shipped five-dozen Louisiana oysters in dry ice Friday to Australia's minister of health and aging, Tony Abbott. As of midday Tuesday Australia time, Abbott's office said it had not received the oysters and weren't sure whether they would make it through Australian customs.
Posted without comment.
Feast Of St. Basil The Great
Padre Mickey has a lovely tribute to St. Basil the Great, one of the four Greek Doctors of the Church. I have learned to leave the early saints to him, because he does such a fine job with them.
PRAYER
Almighty God, who has revealed to your Church your eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like your bishop Basil of Caesarea, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; who live and reign for ever and ever.
READINGS
Psalm 139:1-9 or 34:1-8
1 Corinthians 2:6-13
Luke 10:21-24
New Member Of Anglican Alphabet Soup
Ormonde Plater at Through The Dust is applying to become bishop to head up a new group to be formed in the US as an alternative to the Episcopal Church. I can personally vouch for Ormonde's qualifications for the position.
UPDATE: From Ormonde Plater in the comments: To be specific, I was applying to the Botswana Anglicans in North America League (BANAL). They seem disorganized, though, and do not yet have a web site.
UPDATE 2: From Lapinbizarre in the comments: Inquiry on Thinking Anglicans into the ground rules for valid consecration in absentia mined the following nugget, posted by "cryptogram". I trust that it will inform and entertain:
"I was told a story years ago about some bishops in the Coptic church who were unable to attend an episcopal consecration in Egypt because the Nile was in spate. So they all breathed into a pig's bladder (the form of ordination being insufflation) and the bladder was sent by boat down the river, to be uncorked over the candidates. Sadly, en route it burst, thus consecrating a couple of goats as bishops in the church."
What a mine of information my commenters are.
UPDATE: From Ormonde Plater in the comments: To be specific, I was applying to the Botswana Anglicans in North America League (BANAL). They seem disorganized, though, and do not yet have a web site.
UPDATE 2: From Lapinbizarre in the comments: Inquiry on Thinking Anglicans into the ground rules for valid consecration in absentia mined the following nugget, posted by "cryptogram". I trust that it will inform and entertain:
"I was told a story years ago about some bishops in the Coptic church who were unable to attend an episcopal consecration in Egypt because the Nile was in spate. So they all breathed into a pig's bladder (the form of ordination being insufflation) and the bladder was sent by boat down the river, to be uncorked over the candidates. Sadly, en route it burst, thus consecrating a couple of goats as bishops in the church."
What a mine of information my commenters are.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Iraqi Christians Flee To Sweden
Sister Mary Clara in the comments, called to my attention this article from the New York Times on the destruction of small Christian communities in Iraq. Now when Sister gives me a push, I dare not refuse to follow through. However, I have previously expressed my concern about Christians in the Middle East and linked to a story about the Christian communities in Pakistan that are disappearing.
Our president, who took us into the war on the basis of lies and deception, claims to be a Christian who prays to God every day. The Iraqi Christians are fleeing the country under threat of death, kidnapping, and forced conversion to Islam. And where do they go? For the most part, not here in the US. Does the plight of Iraqi Christians break through the bubble that our Christian president lives in?
The citizens of one small Swedish town, Sodertalje, are living out the compassion that Jesus called for in the Gospels:
Walking down the carpeted aisle of Sodertalje’s low-slung St. John’s Church on a recent morning, Anders Lago’s broad, blond features looked out of place among the crowd of hundreds of black-clad Iraqi mourners at a memorial service.
Mr. Lago is the mayor of this scenic Swedish town of 60,000 people, which last year took in twice as many Iraqi refugees as the entire United States, almost all of them Christians fleeing the religious cleansing taking place next to Iraq’s anti-American insurgency and sectarian strife.
So the mourners are now part of Mr. Lago’s constituency, and their war is rapidly becoming Sodertalje’s war — to the mayor’s growing chagrin. Sodertalje, he says, is reaching a breaking point, and can no longer provide the newcomers with even the basic services they have the right to expect.
Imagine! A small town in Sweden welcomes more Iraqi refugees than the whole of the US, the country responsible for the conditions that force the Iraqi Christians to flee.
Mariam, a 36-year-old teacher from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, came to Sodertalje in late March. She told of being grazed by a gunman’s bullet while trying to leave Mosul with her family, and seeing one of her sons shot in the stomach.
“We left everything to be safe, and we came here to start a new life,” said Miriam, an Assyrian Christian who did not want her full name used because her husband and two of her three sons had not yet managed to leave Iraq. “In Iraq, we were deprived of even the simple right to go to church, and we want to hold on to our religion.”
So. The US went to Iraq to "spread freedom and democracy," and one of the consequences is the destruction or displacement of ancient Christian communities. But how can this be? I have heard so often that the US is a Christian country.
According to a survey done by the University of Michigan, in the late 1990s, weekly attendance at religious services in the US stood at 44%, while in Sweden the number is 4%. Yet, which country seems to be living the Christian Gospel message? Why its the Swedes, who have so often been held up as examples of a godless way of life by the ultra-right religious groups in the US.
Sweden grants asylum to all Iraqis except those from the relatively stable Kurdish areas, and the immigration authorities do not even register their religious affiliation.
Not that it's all rosy once the refugees arrive in the town:
Most who make it here were relatively affluent — almost all have paid $10,000 to $20,000 to get the papers they need to get out of Iraq — and they are often highly educated. But work in Sodertalje is scarce, especially for those with little knowledge of Swedish, and Iraqis who arrive now will have to wait several months to start regular Swedish classes.
....
And even here, 2,000 miles from Iraq, the war continues to make its presence felt, as with Hazim, a wealthy, 50-year-old businessman who fled from Baghdad in March. Sitting among a group of compatriots in the Ronna apartment recently, he received a threatening cellphone call from Baghdad.
“For us, Iraq is a never-ending story,” he said. “We came here, and we are still followed by the war.”
And then there are Swedes like Mr. Lago, who learn about the horrors of Iraq as a part of their job.
The service in St. John’s Church, where Mr. Lago was a guest, was held in memory of the Rev. Ragheed Ganni, 35, a Chaldean Catholic priest from Iraq who worked at the church until last fall. In November, he decided to follow the tracks of those leaving Iraq for Sodertalje, but in the opposite direction.
On June 3, Father Ganni was shot to death, execution style, after celebrating Mass at the Holy Spirit Church in Mosul.
From the BBC:
Christians have inhabited what is modern day Iraq for about 2,000 years, tracing their ancestry to ancient Mesopotamia and surrounding lands.
Theirs is a long and complex history.
Before the Gulf War in 1991, they numbered about one million, but that figures is now put at about 800,000 and falling.
Under Saddam Hussein, in overwhelmingly Muslim Iraq, some Christians rose to the top, notably Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, and the Baathist regime kept a lid on anti-Christian violence.
....
The secular government of Saddam Hussein largely suppressed anti-Christian attacks, but it also subjected some communities to its "relocation programmes".
For Christians, this was particularly marked in the oil-rich areas, where the authorities tried to create Arab majorities near the strategic oilfields.
Christians live in the capital, Baghdad, and are also concentrated in the northern cities of Kirkuk, Irbil and Mosul - once a major Mesopotamian trading hub known as Nineveh in the Bible.
Most Iraqi Christians are Chaldeans, Eastern-rite Catholics who are autonomous from Rome but who recognise the Pope's authority.
Chaldeans are an ancient people, many of whom still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
....
The other significant community are Assyrians, the descendants of the ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia.
After their empires collapsed in the 6th and 7th Centuries BC, the Assyrians scattered across the Middle East.
They embraced Christianity in the 1st Century AD, with their Ancient Church of the East believed to be the oldest in Iraq.
Assyrians also belong to the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Chaldean Church, and various Protestant denominations.
Once again, I am reminded of Arthur Miller's words from Death of a Salesman, spoken by the character, Linda Loman, Willy's wife, "So attention must be paid."
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Our president, who took us into the war on the basis of lies and deception, claims to be a Christian who prays to God every day. The Iraqi Christians are fleeing the country under threat of death, kidnapping, and forced conversion to Islam. And where do they go? For the most part, not here in the US. Does the plight of Iraqi Christians break through the bubble that our Christian president lives in?
The citizens of one small Swedish town, Sodertalje, are living out the compassion that Jesus called for in the Gospels:
Walking down the carpeted aisle of Sodertalje’s low-slung St. John’s Church on a recent morning, Anders Lago’s broad, blond features looked out of place among the crowd of hundreds of black-clad Iraqi mourners at a memorial service.
Mr. Lago is the mayor of this scenic Swedish town of 60,000 people, which last year took in twice as many Iraqi refugees as the entire United States, almost all of them Christians fleeing the religious cleansing taking place next to Iraq’s anti-American insurgency and sectarian strife.
So the mourners are now part of Mr. Lago’s constituency, and their war is rapidly becoming Sodertalje’s war — to the mayor’s growing chagrin. Sodertalje, he says, is reaching a breaking point, and can no longer provide the newcomers with even the basic services they have the right to expect.
Imagine! A small town in Sweden welcomes more Iraqi refugees than the whole of the US, the country responsible for the conditions that force the Iraqi Christians to flee.
Mariam, a 36-year-old teacher from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, came to Sodertalje in late March. She told of being grazed by a gunman’s bullet while trying to leave Mosul with her family, and seeing one of her sons shot in the stomach.
“We left everything to be safe, and we came here to start a new life,” said Miriam, an Assyrian Christian who did not want her full name used because her husband and two of her three sons had not yet managed to leave Iraq. “In Iraq, we were deprived of even the simple right to go to church, and we want to hold on to our religion.”
So. The US went to Iraq to "spread freedom and democracy," and one of the consequences is the destruction or displacement of ancient Christian communities. But how can this be? I have heard so often that the US is a Christian country.
According to a survey done by the University of Michigan, in the late 1990s, weekly attendance at religious services in the US stood at 44%, while in Sweden the number is 4%. Yet, which country seems to be living the Christian Gospel message? Why its the Swedes, who have so often been held up as examples of a godless way of life by the ultra-right religious groups in the US.
Sweden grants asylum to all Iraqis except those from the relatively stable Kurdish areas, and the immigration authorities do not even register their religious affiliation.
Not that it's all rosy once the refugees arrive in the town:
Most who make it here were relatively affluent — almost all have paid $10,000 to $20,000 to get the papers they need to get out of Iraq — and they are often highly educated. But work in Sodertalje is scarce, especially for those with little knowledge of Swedish, and Iraqis who arrive now will have to wait several months to start regular Swedish classes.
....
And even here, 2,000 miles from Iraq, the war continues to make its presence felt, as with Hazim, a wealthy, 50-year-old businessman who fled from Baghdad in March. Sitting among a group of compatriots in the Ronna apartment recently, he received a threatening cellphone call from Baghdad.
“For us, Iraq is a never-ending story,” he said. “We came here, and we are still followed by the war.”
And then there are Swedes like Mr. Lago, who learn about the horrors of Iraq as a part of their job.
The service in St. John’s Church, where Mr. Lago was a guest, was held in memory of the Rev. Ragheed Ganni, 35, a Chaldean Catholic priest from Iraq who worked at the church until last fall. In November, he decided to follow the tracks of those leaving Iraq for Sodertalje, but in the opposite direction.
On June 3, Father Ganni was shot to death, execution style, after celebrating Mass at the Holy Spirit Church in Mosul.
From the BBC:
Christians have inhabited what is modern day Iraq for about 2,000 years, tracing their ancestry to ancient Mesopotamia and surrounding lands.
Theirs is a long and complex history.
Before the Gulf War in 1991, they numbered about one million, but that figures is now put at about 800,000 and falling.
Under Saddam Hussein, in overwhelmingly Muslim Iraq, some Christians rose to the top, notably Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, and the Baathist regime kept a lid on anti-Christian violence.
....
The secular government of Saddam Hussein largely suppressed anti-Christian attacks, but it also subjected some communities to its "relocation programmes".
For Christians, this was particularly marked in the oil-rich areas, where the authorities tried to create Arab majorities near the strategic oilfields.
Christians live in the capital, Baghdad, and are also concentrated in the northern cities of Kirkuk, Irbil and Mosul - once a major Mesopotamian trading hub known as Nineveh in the Bible.
Most Iraqi Christians are Chaldeans, Eastern-rite Catholics who are autonomous from Rome but who recognise the Pope's authority.
Chaldeans are an ancient people, many of whom still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
....
The other significant community are Assyrians, the descendants of the ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia.
After their empires collapsed in the 6th and 7th Centuries BC, the Assyrians scattered across the Middle East.
They embraced Christianity in the 1st Century AD, with their Ancient Church of the East believed to be the oldest in Iraq.
Assyrians also belong to the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Chaldean Church, and various Protestant denominations.
Once again, I am reminded of Arthur Miller's words from Death of a Salesman, spoken by the character, Linda Loman, Willy's wife, "So attention must be paid."
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
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