Praying for Defeat
By: Mark D. Tooley
FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, October 05, 2007
Religious Left officials joined in a press conference on the lawn of the Methodist Building on Capitol Hill to unveil their umpteenth protest against the Iraq War. This time, it will be an interfaith “fast” to coincide both with Islam’s Ramadan season and, more specifically, with Columbus Day. The fasters prefer to call the later the “day of conquest.”
The locale, the cause, and the participants all combined to create a uniquely absurd spectacle. Participants included the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, which owns the Methodist Building, the National Council of Churches, liberal Jewish groups, some Buddhists, liberal Baptists and the Islamic Society of North America. The later is named as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the ongoing terrorism trial involving the Holy Land Foundation.
To help illustrate the fast’s interfaith theme, Gerald Serotta of Rabbis for Human Rights sounded a shofar, or ram’s horn, which Jews have used for 3 millennia as an instrument of worship. Serotta himself was introduced by Rabbi Debra Kolodny, self-professed sexual liberationist and editor of “Blessed Bi-Spirit: Bisexual People of Faith.” Rabbi Kolodny is a noted advocate of “polyamory” and the ostensible holiness of multiple sexual partners. She is not your typical rabbi. “Today, we will activate our senses,” she pronounced, right before the shofar was sounded.
But how superbly sublime that Rabbi Kolodny should be present on the lawn of the Methodist Building, taking a break from her crusade for polamory, to introduce the blowing of a shofar against the Iraq War, with her Muslim and Methodist co-belligerents. And how often is an official from the Islamic Society of North America likely to spend a late Summer morning in public solidarity with a bisexual Jewish rabbi? Only the United Methodist Board of Church and Society could facilitate such a cosmic event.
No doubt, 85 years ago, Methodism’s Old Board of Temperance had exactly this kind of event in mind when it dedicated the Methodist Building as a shrine to chaste and temperate living. Worried primarily about the destructive wages of intoxication, but also about “salacious” literature,” racy Hollywood films and the vices of the race track, the Old Temperance Board raised dimes and quarters from Sunday school classes and Methodist women’s groups across the nation. The old temperance crusaders likely never foresaw that the fruits of their labors would include the author of “Blessed Bi-Spirit,” or the Islamic Society of North America.
But the interfaith fast organizers were all about interweaving “ancient” practices into more relevant and modern political activism of the Left. "We must return to the ancient disciplines so that we will turn away from violence toward reverence," insisted Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Shalom Center. He did not explain whether “ancient disciplines” might include his fellow rabbi’s vision of polyamory.
Besides the shofar, other “ancient practices” like ringing bells and smudging ashes on foreheads were performed on the Methodist Building lawn, just across the street from the U.S. Capitol and U.S. Supreme Court. Ash smudging is a symbol of Christian repentance. And fasting is a spiritual tool for drawing closer to God. But neither repentance nor the Almighty seemed to feature very prominently in the political goals of the interfaith fasters.
"When you are fasting for Ramadan, you are enhancing your sense of compassion," instructed Sayeed Syeed from the Islamic Society of North America. "We will be asking mosques to open their doors to people of other faiths around the world on October 8 for prayer and dialogue."
Pax Christi nun Marge Clark lamented, "Our nation is engaged in a horrendous war, one destructive of civilizations and divisive of communities.” Perhaps to show how up to date the fasters are, Unitarian Universalist Alex Winnette described how Facebook.com will be a key instrument in organizing the fast. "Young people are unfairly and negatively stereotyped, Winnette said. “We believe the opposite is true. We are connecting to a global effort."
Syeed quoted from the Koran’s first chapter to conclude the performance on the Methodist Building lawn. At least somebody was quoting from the scripture of his tradition. Excepting the Muslim, nearly all of the anti-war fast enthusiasts were paladins of the Religious Left, treating the symbols of their faith like politically expedient props for the cameras.
The old Methodist temperance activists who constructed the Methodist Building were motivated by their Christian faith and love of country. Maybe with too much cultural confidence, they viewed America as the new promised land, whose sins were numerous, but whose destiny was still guided by Providence.
In contrast, the anti-war Religious Left fasters performing on the Methodist Building lawn, in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol, were a sad parody of the old Methodists. The latter were propelled forward by their faith convictions, rooted deep in the Christian Scripture and in American revivalism. The former seemed almost indifferent to their professed faith, except as channels for political attention, and weapons against a nation perceived to be insidious.
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