March 21, 2006

Published in Fayetteville Observer, March 30, 2006

Barbara Zelter, Program Associate

NC Council of Churches

1307 Glenwood Avenue, Suite 156

Raleigh, NC 27605

919-828-6501

This is a story of faith, love, and betrayal. Army vet and CIA intelligence analyst Ray McGovern says his Army and country have lost their way. In a Raleigh church March 19, he asked America to wake up. He’s a humble prophet, and we need to heed his call.

Before becoming co-director of the Servant Leadership School of the Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C., McGovern served as a CIA intelligence officer for 27 years. During the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations, he gave the morning White House briefings. He saw his Army as one of integrity. But on the Sunday after peace rallies in Fayetteville and around the world marked the third anniversary of the U.S war on Iraq, McGovern agreed with those protesting this misadventure, which a majority of Americans now say is wrong.

McGovern is among the chorus that challenges us to drop our delusions and remember that Iraqis have names and lives of equal value to ours. That bombs and torture are as horrible to them as they would be to us. And that we need to be very, very concerned, when our country’s central values of human dignity and fair process are being systematically and cynically gutted.

As a captive in Vietnam, McGovern said, John McCain gained strength from knowing that his own Army had rules against torturing their prisoners. But Christian Peacemaker Tom Fox, tortured and killed in Iraq, could hold no such sustaining pride. We had become what we reviled.

To unveil this corruption, McGovern founded the group Veteran Intelligence Officers for Sanity in 2003. This is a faithful remnant of intelligence officers who are angry as their agencies now dance like puppets on political strings. As McGovern declared, “A rotten apple at the top seeps juice that infects the apples down below.” Stringing verified facts, he named the steps this Administration took, which poisoned our core.

Plainly put, the Administration lied about Iraq’s threat in order to to justify a pre-planned war for oil. It used legal chicanery to allow torture, ending four decades of Geneva Convention protocol. It ignored wise advice that predicted disaster from preemptive war. We sold our nation’s honor for a tank of gasoline. And for naught; the prices still rise. What we have gained, though, are bloody hands. We need to repent and come clean.

When biblical prophets spoke, the kings often punished the teller; the truth hurt. We, too, run away from hard news about our national sins and hush up our own prophets.

The North Carolina Council of Churches has joined with religious bodies, individuals of faith, and others all over the world in formally condemning our nation’s use of torture and calling for Christians to speak out against the violent, dehumanizing, and destructive actions our leaders take in our names.

Ray McGovern recounted a scene in a posh Milwaukee suburb, where a man claimed it was fine with him that we sacrifice a few Americans a week so we can have enough oil. Small cost for big gain. “Would it be OK with you if one of those five killed each week were your son?” Mc Govern asked. “”Oh, that would never be my son,” the man of comfort said. “Are you a person who believes the Ten Commandments should be in the public square?” McGovern returned. “Yes!” exclaimed the man. “Oh,” said McGovern. “Then you agree that we should not covet our neighbor’s oil, and should not kill, and should not lie, and should not use God’s name in vain.”

Christians of serious faith can only be sickened by the gloss of religiosity that covers this Administration’s unholy war. We know the difference between right and wrong. It is wrong to drain our public purse to pay Halliburton for the water it is not even delivering in Iraq. It is wrong to drop bombs and depleted uranium and avoid the reality of carnage. It is wrong for Aero contractors at a Smithfield airport to secretly host CIA flights of extraordinary rendition—moving prisoners for torture outside of this country. It is wrong to give motley justifications, all false, for preemptive war.

We Christians who, like McGovern, feel betrayed, join him and like-minded allies everywhere who say it’s time for us all to peel the blinders from our eyes. What on earth are we doing? Our tax dollars fund the slaughter of innocents while we watch TV. Lord, have mercy. The prophets call.