“How could the German populace claim ignorance of the slaughter of the Jewish people. How could the townspeople, railroad conductors, teachers, doctors, claim they knew nothing about concentration camps and human carnage. How can people who were neighbors and maybe even friends of the Jewish citizen say they weren't there when it happened.”

“The school was alive with conjecture and curiosity. It affected everyone. The school cook asked what a Third Wave cookie looked like. I said chocolate chip of course. Our principal came into an afternoon faculty meeting and gave me the Third Wave salute. I saluted back. The Librarian thanked me for the 30' banner on learning which she placed above the library entrance. By the end of the day over two hundred students were admitted into the order. I felt very alone and a little scared.

Most of my fear emanated from the incidence of "tattletaling". Though I formally appointed only three students to report deviate behavior, approximately twenty students came to me with reports about how Allan didn't salute, or Georgine was talking critically about our experiment. This incidence of monitoring meant that half the class now considered it their duty to observe and report on members of their class. Within this avalanche of reporting one legitimate conspiracy did seem underway .…

Three women in the class had told their parents all about our classroom activities. These three young women were by far the most intelligent students in the class. As friends they chummed together. They possessed a silent confidence and took pleasure in a school setting that gave them academic and leadership opportunity. During the days of the experiment I was curious how they would respond to the equalitarian and physical reshaping of the class. The rewards they were accustomed to winning just didn't exist in the experiment. The intellectual skills of questioning and reasoning were non existent. . .

In telling their parents of the experiment they set up a brief chain of events. The rabbi for one of the parents called me at home. He was polite and condescending. I told him we were merely studying the German personality. He seemed delighted and told me not to worry. He would talk to the parents and calm their concern. In concluding this conversation I envisioned similar conversations throughout history in which the clergy accepted and apologized for untenable conditions. If only he would have raged in anger or simply investigated the situation I could point the students to an example of righteous rebellion. But no. The rabbi became a part of the experiment. In remaining ignorant of the oppression in the experiment he became an accomplice and advocate.

By the end of the third day I was exhausted. I was tearing apart. The balance between role playing and directed behavior became indistinguishable. Many of the students were completely into being Third Wave Members. They demanded strict obedience of the rules from other students and bullied those that took the experiment lightly.”

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
. . constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights 
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc. 
4. Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. . .
5. Rampant Sexism
. . .Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.
6. Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes the media are directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media are indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy . . often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed. 
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. . .
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. . .
14. Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections. 

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

. . . what I need to convey is that a 'fascist shift' in a democracy is incremental.
It does not progress like a diagonal line going straight across a chart; it progresses in a buildup of many acts assaulting democracy simultaneously that then form a critical mass, that suddenly erupts the nation into a different kind of reality; the nation `stablizes'; then this process begins again at that elevated level of suppression; and eventually there is no turning back. It is more like a series of `tipping point' progressions than an arithmetic one. If you mapped it on a chart it would look more like a series of steps. Each critical turning point marks a vertical line in a 'step'.
Historian Richard Evans points out that the Nazi ascension to power came about in a series of tactics, and that there were many points early on at which the German people could have said, 'enough!' and together derailed the escalation. Needless to say, that didn't happen. Evans also points out that part of this passivity had to do with the fact that no one in the Germany of 1933 could see what was coming later in the decade.”

“Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, has announced a series of hearings titled “The Constitution in Crisis: The State of Civil Liberties in America.” Topics to be covered by the hearings include:

– The National Security Agency’s wiretapping program and proposed expansions;
– The erosion of Habeas Corpus through the Military Commissions Act;
– The sanctioning of torture through the Military Commissions Act and other government policies;
– The practice of “extraordinary rendition,” or government sponsored kidnapping;
– PATRIOT Act threats to privacy rights, including the FBI’s abuses of the National Security Letter authority and intrusions into Americans’ “Freedom to Read”;
– Government surveillance of First Amendment-protected activities; and
– The gutting of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights and Voting Rights Divisions.“

Hope must come not with what we can do, but with continued resistence. We must, onthe one hand, face the gravity of the moment and not sugar coat it with false hope. It is not good. But to give up is to be defated, not just in a material sense, but a spiritual sense. For me real spirituality comes with resistence, even when times are bleak. This is what gives life meaning and integrity. Martin Luther King and Bonhoeffer wrote about this eloquently. To fight, no matter what the odds, is to win, to give hope, so sustain the divine spark which is love and compassion and tolerance. Chris

Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school
Grads influential in Justice Dept.

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | April 8, 2007

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The title of the course was Constitutional Law, but the subject was sin. Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a 10-minute devotional talk, completed with "amens," about the need to preserve their Christian values.

"Sin is so appealing because it's easy and because it's fun," the law student warned.

Regent University School of Law, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson to provide "Christian leadership to change the world," has worked hard in its two-decade history to upgrade its reputation, fighting past years when a majority of its graduates couldn't pass the bar exam and leading up to recent victories over Ivy League teams in national law student competitions."

"It used to be that high-level DOJ jobs were generally reserved for the best of the legal profession," wrote a contributor to The New Republic website . ". . . That a recent graduate of one of the very worst (and sketchiest) law schools with virtually no relevant experience could ascend to this position is a sure sign that there is something seriously wrong at the DOJ."

In a recent Regent law school newsletter, a 2004 graduate described being interviewed for a job as a trial attorney at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in October 2003. Asked to name the Supreme Court decision from the past 20 years with which he most disagreed, he cited Lawrence v. Texas, the ruling striking down a law against sodomy because it violated gay people's civil rights.

"When one of the interviewers agreed and said that decision in Lawrence was 'maddening,' I knew I correctly answered the question," wrote the Regent graduate . The administration hired him for the Civil Rights Division's housing section -- the only employment offer he received after graduation, he said.

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

"A reader demands to know how I contracted the infectious conservatism for which he plans to horsewhip me. So if you have tears, gentle reader, prepare to shed them now as I reveal how my gloomy temperament received its conservative warp from early and prolonged exposure to the Chicago Cubs.

The differences between conservatives and liberals are as much a matter of temperament as ideas. Liberals are temperamentally inclined to see the world as a harmonious carnival of sweetness and light, where goodwill prevails good intentions are rewarded, the race is to the swift, and a benevolent Nature arranges a favorable balance of pleasure over pain. Conservatives (and Cub fans) know better.

Conservatives know the world is a dark and forbidding place where most new knowledge is false, most improvements are for the worse, the battle is not to the strong, nor riches to men of understanding, and an unscrupulous Providence consigns innocents to suffering. I learned this early."

a liberal is a. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry. b. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

A conservative is a. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change, b. Traditional or restrained in style: a conservative dark suit. c. Moderate; cautious.

“ . . we are only at the beginning of the road to the Great Society. Ahead now is a summit where freedom from the wants of the body can help fulfill the needs of the spirit.
We built this Nation to serve its people.
We want to grow and build and create, but we want progress to be the servant and not the master of man.
We do not intend to live in the midst of abundance, isolated from neighbors and nature, confined by blighted cities and bleak suburbs, stunted by a poverty of learning and an emptiness of leisure.
The Great Society asks not how much, but how good; not only how to create wealth but how to use it; not only how fast we are going, but where we are headed.
It proposes as the first test for a nation: the quality of its people.
This kind of society will not flower spontaneously from swelling riches and surging power.
It will not be the gift of government or the creation of presidents. It will require of every American, for many generations, both faith in the destination and the fortitude to make the journey.”

A NATIONAL AGENDA

I propose that we begin a program in education to ensure every American child the fullest development of his mind and skills.
I propose that we begin a massive attack on crippling and killing diseases.
I propose that we launch a national effort to make the American city a better and a more stimulating place to live.
I propose that we increase the beauty of America and end the poisoning of our rivers and the air that we breathe.
I propose that we carry out a new program to develop regions of our country that are now suffering from distress and depression.
I propose that we make new efforts to control and prevent crime and delinquency.
I propose that we eliminate every remaining obstacle to the right and the opportunity to vote.
I propose that we honor and support the achievements of thought and the creations of art.
I propose that we make an all-out campaign against waste and inefficiency.”

“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
To that new order we oppose the greater conception--the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.”

To the citizens of this proud Nation. I apologize for the shameful way I have conducted the affairs of this country for the past six years. I hereby pledge the following priorities for the next two years or however long it takes:

The war in Iraq, at least our part in it will end forthwith. We will put in place all the operational personnel and equipment needed to affect a swift and careful redeployment of our troops. We will work with neighboring nations and the UN to help them establish a peace-keeping force to stabilize Iraq and allow for the rebuilding of that devastated country. At home we will provide for the needs of our returning military by fully funding the Veterans Administration and see to it that the physical and emotional needs of our brave service men and women are provided.

The rule of law will be re-established respecting the worth and dignity of every person. The Attorney General will be directed to reinstate the honest hard working prosecutors who have been dismissed because they have been attempting to investigate members of congress and the administration who have been committing crimes. The right of habeas corpus will be extended to all on our shores and in our care abroad. Every detainee will be treated with respect and have access to council. Those for whom we have a reason to believe have committed crimes against this country will receive fair trials according to the Constitutional rule of law. Those for whom we have no solid evidence will be released from custody with our apologies and transportation to their homes. Should restitution be needed, we will provide for it.

We will begin the serious work of diplomacy and peace-making between nations. We will call upon the most gifted and talented among our citizens to help in this endeavor. We will listen with open hearts and minds and work unsparingly to find common ground and equitable solutions to the problems that nations around the world are facing. We will work with the World Bank to find ways of alleviating poverty, firstly in the war torn nations as we know that poverty leads to despair and often to violence.

We will begin immediately with implementing the programs of the Apollo Alliance that have outlined a ten year plan to make this country energy self-sufficient. This will involve industries and creative thinkers across the board re-imagining how it is that we create and use power. If we can combine our efforts to send a man to the moon, we can do this as well. This program will also include the reduction of greenhouse gasses to pre-1990 levels. It is time to begin the long process of reversing the damage we have done to the environment.

We will concentrate efforts in scientific discovery in the prevention and fighting of disease. With that we will also begin the planning of a single-payer health plan modeled after Medicare so that every man, woman, and child in this nation will have access to excellent medical care without worry about the cost. Prescription drugs will be available to all in need through a plan that will set fair prices and reasonable costs.

We will respect your privacy in all matters. Who you choose to love and marry, how and when you choose to have children, how and where you choose to pray will be matters dictated by your own conscience without interference of the government.

We will introduce the federal funding of elections so that candidates no longer have to spend a large portion of their time raising funds for reelection. They will no longer be beholden to the corporations. We will also federalize the machinery used for elections. There will be verifiable paper trails for all voting machines and the source code will be open for inspection. Voter harassment or intimidation will be met with stiff fines and jail terms. Election fraud will not be tolerated.

The FCC will be further empowered to do all within its purview to reverse the media consolidation that has led to a dominance of the airwaves by one side of the political spectrum. We need to hear all voices and all opinions as we wrestle with the difficult challenges facing us. We will also move to restore the Fairness Doctrine providing equal time for the airing of issues and the interviewing of candidates.

There is much more to do, and things I forgot to list, but this is a start. And knowing that everything that is laid out above is antithetical to who I am as a human being and to the principles adhered to by the current administration, therefore I further announce that I, the Vice President, and the entire Cabinet are submitting our resignations so that a new administration can be elected to carry out this work.

Let us proclaim the sacred power of this day;
it is awesome and full of dread.
For on this day Your dominion is exalted,
Your throne established in steadfast love;
there in truth You reign.
In truth You are
Judge and Arbiter, Counsel and Witness.
You write and You seal, You record and recount.
You remember deeds long forgotten.
You open the book of our days,
and what is written there proclaims itself,
for it bears the signature
of every human being.

On Rosh Hashanah it is written,
on Yom Kippur it is sealed:
How many lives shall pass on, how many shall come to be;
who shall live and who shall die;
who shall see ripe age and who shall not;
who shall perish by fire and who by water;
who by sword and who by beast;
who by hunger and who by thirst;
who by earthquake and who by plague;
who by strangling and who by stoning;
who shall be secure and who shall be driven;
who shall be tranquil and who shall be troubled;
who shall be poor and who shall be rich;
who shall be humbled and who exalted.

But REPENTANCE, PRAYER, and CHARITY temper judgment's severe decree.

West Wing Episode 19
“Let Bartlet be Bartlet”
Aaron Sorkin, writer

Sam is in a conference room with representatives from the military and congress hashing out, yet again, the issue of gays in the military. He is arguing specific cases of service men and women who have been “outed.”

An army Major says:
“A lot of the cases you are talking about of gays being discharged came from voluntary statements”

Sam replies

“They were not voluntary statements. Not by any definition given in any civilian court in this country.

It is not a voluntary statement when it is given to a psychoteherapist as in the case of Marine Corporal David Blessing.

It is not a voluntary statement when its made in a personal diary as in the case of former West Point Cadet Nicole Garrison.

]]>revdeb@progressivepulpit.orgGBLT Rights2006-07-13T09:15:56-04:00http://www.progressivepulpit.org/files/6558629efee18632164eb39e24a69402-3.html#unique-entry-id-3http://www.progressivepulpit.org/files/6558629efee18632164eb39e24a69402-3.html#unique-entry-id-3

It was a hot sticky, sometimes rainy day in downtown Boston today. My Episcopal priest friend Anne said that someone from the group Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry asked if we knew what a "mitzvah" was (probably one of the rabbis). They answered the question themselves, "a mitzvah is wearing a collar on a day like today." Yes, there were a few of us in our clerical collars. I didn't consider it a mitzvah, just "suiting up" for what needed to be done.

Floating around the halls inside the State House were a number of nuns in full length wool habits. None of us could figure out what they were doing there or what statement they were making. They weren't hanging out across the street with the anti-marriage folk. They had no buttons on showing any "side." They could have been at the State House for any reason.

Then there were the blonds wearing pearls . . . .

]]>revdeb@progressivepulpit.orgWar and Peace2006-07-10T11:13:45-04:00http://www.progressivepulpit.org/files/627fc185b7dfd18fd6d119a0636c85d3-2.html#unique-entry-id-2http://www.progressivepulpit.org/files/627fc185b7dfd18fd6d119a0636c85d3-2.html#unique-entry-id-2

1990 was my first year of ministry. I was ordained in May and spent the summer packing and moving to Portland OR where I had done my internship. I was returning to Portland to begin a new church start-up in the western suburbs. The planning for that would take a year. In the mean time I got a part-time job serving a small congregation on the east side of town.

Even though it was my second career, it was the first year of engaging in what in anyone's estimation is a challenging profession. Then along came January of 1991 and we were on the brink of war.

]]>revdeb@progressivepulpit.orgPolitical2006-07-06T09:08:22-04:00http://www.progressivepulpit.org/files/19eb1177da097fb15bec958fcdf01e29-1.html#unique-entry-id-1http://www.progressivepulpit.org/files/19eb1177da097fb15bec958fcdf01e29-1.html#unique-entry-id-1

"Milton Mayer went back to Germany after the war to interview the citizens who were once his friends, to ask how it could have happened. His friend the baker explained, "One had no time to think. There was so much going on."
People reported that they had become separated from their government with every new crisis or reform. Gradually they accepted decisions made in secret because they trusted Hitler and others who they felt knew more than they did."

]]>revdeb@progressivepulpit.orgWar and Peace2006-06-30T21:13:54-04:00http://www.progressivepulpit.org/files/5bd587bcb66cc62a7327350852c3c5da-0.html#unique-entry-id-0http://www.progressivepulpit.org/files/5bd587bcb66cc62a7327350852c3c5da-0.html#unique-entry-id-0

It was ninety years ago that the the Battle of the Somme began. We are well past the days and years of those who lived to tell the tale, but the story lives on. Why does it so strongly grab our emotions and our imagination? ]]>