Reading notes

Wow, if churches around me had adopted this stance from the beginning, everything now would be different for me. And likely, I think, for all of us:

One-third of the professors at an evangelical Christian college [Calvin College] in Grand Rapids, Mich., are taking out a large ad in a local newspaper Saturday to protest President Bush’s commencement speech.

“As Christians, we are called to be peacemakers and to initiate war only as a last resort,” the ad will say. “We believe your administration has launched an unjust and unjustified war in Iraq.” …

“No single political position should be identified with God’s will,” says the ad, which also chastises the president for “actions that favor the wealthy of our society and burden the poor.”

Christians are to be characterized by love and gentleness, it adds, but “we believe that your administration has fostered intolerance and divisiveness and has often failed to listen to those with whom it disagrees.”

Moreover, says the letter, set to run in the Grand Rapids Press, the Bush administration’s environmental policies “have harmed creation,” and it asks the president “to re-examine your policies in light of our God-given duty to pursue justice with mercy.”

Personally, I think this is the only stance a Christian can take and still be worthy of the name Christian. It is the only Christian stance with integrity.

The damage done by supporting BushCo’s diabolical behavior, especially any part of the Church Universal supporting it, is incalculable.

But turn, turn, turning is still possible and is, I think, the first step toward redemption. That the option is still open implies to me a mercy beyond my understanding.

[via Semper Fi]

2005-05-27 update:
Neo alerts me to the following informed and articulate analysis intended to be “the first of a four-part series by Neo Prose on the events at Calvin College”:

Christians of Conscience Stage Insurrection at Calvin College (May 24, 2005)

Just read it. You go, Neo.