I had to laugh over Memorial Day weekend 2021. I happened to be someplace where I had access to television and so I couldn't help it – I took in some FOX news. It's like the ghost that hovers over the American Church, the proverbial elephant in the room. It's eye-opening to observe this channel which continues to wield such sway over the minds of many who are supposedly renewed in their minds.
The story of the hour was the Kamala Harris tweet.
She encouraged everyone to enjoy the long weekend. The
general response from the FOX universe can be summed up as follows:
How dare she! She
neglected to mention that everyone needs to remember the real reason for
Memorial Day is to commemorate the dead soldiers who died so that we can be free.
Obviously she does not properly revere America nor understand its greatness.
Aside from the absurd sloganeering and the false premise
regarding the deaths of American soldiers (who died for empire and domination,
not anyone's freedom), I was struck by the blatant political correctness of the
Right.*
Wait a minute. Political Correctness is a Leftist issue,
right? Hardly. The Left has its issues and the Right has its own. The two sides
are no different. Well do I remember all the oppressive Right-wing political
correctness in the aftermath of 9/11 and in the days leading up to and after
the Iraq invasion. No one was allowed to question the official narrative. If
you did, you were excoriated and marked forever – a friend of the terrorists.
Ask Ward Churchill. He broke with orthodoxy on the interpretation of 9/11 and
was effectively blacklisted.
And speaking of blacklists, have we all forgotten the Far-Right
campaign of Joseph McCarthy? McCarthyism is in fact alive and well it would
seem and presently operating within the political context of both Establishment
US political parties.
The Right has its own version of political correctness and
they are quick to employ it especially when pursuing one so hated as Kamala
Harris. They have most recently attacked her on the border issue – even when
she (on a trip to Latin America) never had any intention of visiting the
border. But she 'ought' to have they would argue. FOX then ran this through its
meat grinder and turned it (in reality nothing) into a major story – the other
networks eventually having to pick it up. The same is true of the now famous
'tweet'.
It would seem some editors sat down and made a conscious
decision to spin the issue and run the coverage hard over the holiday weekend.
From what I saw of FOX over those couple of days all the coverage was devoted
to patriotic propaganda (which doesn't belong on a 'news' station) and
spin-coverage of the Kamala tweet. It was clearly an orchestrated campaign.
FOX pulled out similar spin during Iraq and the need to
'support the troops' – whatever that means. The appeals were made to the
Vietnam era and the fact that the 'troops' were not supported by the public.
While some returning legions were mistreated to be sure, the magnitude and
scope of this has grown exponentially in the years after. It has in fact become
something deeply engrained in nationalist mythology and its part of a
determined propaganda campaign to ensure the US public supports the troops – no
matter what they do, no matter what evil they might engage in.
That's neither a moral position, nor a Christian one, but try
telling that to the masses of Right-wing FOX devotees sitting in the pews on
Sunday mornings. For many the flag up front is most definitely there for
religious reasons – though if pressed many will deny it. They are idolaters to
be sure but some still possess a twinge of conscience when pressed. Or to put
it another way, most I engage with on this point are caught in traps of
self-deception.
Another point of political correctness is quickly discovered
when one dares to question the propriety of the pledge of allegiance – let
alone when promoted from within the Church itself.
These are non-negotiable ideas and narratives in which you
had better toe the line and get your word usage correct. Even your thoughts
will be policed.
Did Harris mean to 'disrespect' the troops over Memorial Day?
Of course not. I on the other hand do.
I was attempting to explain my position on Memorial Day to
someone I was working with in the lead up to it. My wife has family in
cemeteries for miles around and on that weekend she and sometimes her siblings
will visit graves. It has nothing to do with remembering fallen soldiers. It's
simply a family-memorial occasion. I will happily go along and use the time to
explore old cemeteries (which I enjoy) and also use it as an occasion to teach
my kids and contextualise the history of their ancestors on their mother's
side. If it was made into some kind of patriotic or military-focused endeavor
then I would have nothing to do with it.
At that point I was interrupted and reminded the day is
actually meant to be devoted to military dead. In response I again emphasized
that if that was the case I would have nothing to do with it as I do not
celebrate or commemorate their deaths.
I was then reminded that I should be thankful as I wouldn't
be able to practice my religion if they hadn't died so that we could be free.
At which point I responded, 'Pure Rubbish', and pointed out that they did not
die to secure our freedoms. They died for empire, for American domination and
for the American system. They died for Wall Street among other things I said
appealing to Smedley Butler's argument in War
is a Racket. I also pointed out that most of the world enjoys substantive
religious freedom. There are exceptions of course but those freedoms or lack
thereof rarely have anything to do with soldiers dying or failing to do so. And
as a Christian I would never call on the military to kill so that I can
worship. Rather I will worship regardless – even if under threat.
Having frustrated my co-worker I was then told that if it
wasn't for the troops we'd probably be speaking Japanese. I laughed, dismissed
the baseless argument but then further I shut down the discussion by saying,
"So what?" It doesn't matter. But to the Trumpite I was arguing with,
there was nothing to say. To be fair, he's someone I've known a long time and
he's not up on his history and so he disengaged – offended I'm sure but used to
it as we've worked together on and off for almost twenty-five years.
The US has faced no existential threat since the War of 1812
and I wouldn't care if it did. As far as World War II goes while great evil was
certainly unleashed in terms of Germany and Japan, the larger story
demonstrates it's not that simple. Hitler and Mussolini were supported early on
– and why? Because their politics, far from being offensive were actually quite
attractive to those opposing communism. At this point we lose many in today's
audience because such realities make no sense to them. They are unable to grasp
them as their propaganda-masters have conveniently (but disingenuously)
conflated many of these terms rendering them indecipherable and meaningless.
Additionally Japan was encouraged to expand in the early
years of the 20th century and yet WWI and the years after brought
about a shift in American policy. Japan became a rival (and then a threat) and
then the US did all it could to manipulate them into firing the first shot in
the lead up to 1941. While US territories came under threat, the mainland US
never faced any kind of serious danger from any of the Axis powers. Japan
struck at the Philippines and Hawaii, American territories that Washington had
itself stolen and brutally conquered. While I would never defend Japan's
actions, the truth of the story is far more complicated and America's own moral
standing both in Europe and Asia is more than a little dubious.
So again, I do not support the troops. I understand why
Washington ultimately entered WWII but I also understand the context before the
American entry and what the US sought in its placement after 1945 – essentially
mastery of the world. Washington's actions do not paint the Americans as 'good
guys'.
I do not despise the troops that fought in WWII, or even
those who participated in Korea and Vietnam. But as a Christian I will not
honour them and thus for me Memorial Day is little more than a long weekend
that I can take or leave. Sadly because of the dominant idolatry and apostasy
within Evangelicalism, the Sunday before the holiday is one I usually skip – as
it's usually given over to wickedness in the Church.
Rather, I applaud the recent comments of Minnesota
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar who has received a great deal of grief from her own
supposedly Leftist and America-hating party. And I'm sorry to say that she
quickly (but expectedly) caved and yet I do draw moral equivalence between the
actions of America and Israel with those of Hamas and the Taliban. In fact
American and Israel have been (in the grand scheme of things) far more brutal
and deadly and their claims to democracy and Liberalism are hypocritical, even
a joke. The US and Israel are not just terrorist states they are the preeminent
examples of the concept and far more deadly than a nation like Iran, let alone
Taliban Afghanistan which had little interest beyond its borders.
As Christians we're not Left (or Right) and I don't support
Harris or Omar, let alone anyone within the GOP and its trending fascism. As
Christians we must think outside the proverbial box and reject the way the
world would frame such questions. All nations and governments are evil. All
cultures are fallen. Some are better than others but those that masquerade as
Christian in some capacity are (spiritually speaking) the most dangerous.
They're still evil but are able to overlay their evil with a veneer – one that
(it would seem) is easily able to deceive Christians. In many respects these
regimes are the ones that must be judged in harsher and more direct terms –
because of their claims. We all know what the ayatollahs in Iran are, but how
many are deceived when it comes to the US system and its leaders? How many
Christians have sold themselves out to nationalism, empire worship, mammonism
and now Trumpism? This is the real fear and so if a lost person like Omar
happens to speak truth – I'll applaud and yet also recognise it for what it is
and that's judgment. Christians should have been speaking those words, not in a
political capacity but to each other and within the confines of the Church –
for ears that will (or at least should be able) to hear it.
Instead it comes from a lost person. When the lost have a
stronger moral compass and discernment than the professed saved – that's Divine
Judgment. Make no mistake about it.
And when Christians have sold themselves out to an
organisation like FOX which is fundamentally rooted in chicanery, smut, and deceit
(and always has been) – then the Church had better beware. Antichrist is
flourishing in its midst and the canker of apostasy is greatly advanced.
I laughed at the ridiculous coverage of the 'tweet' and
Memorial Day in general but then was sobered and grieved as I realized just how
many Christians would be affected and shaped by it.
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*Smedley Butler's War is a Racket (1935) is the seminal work on this subject that is still relevant today. If anything today, the situation is much worse and even more corrupt.