Today Trinity played host to two women from Colombia. They spoke of the horror that the last 40-50 years of fighting have caused in thier country. Guerilla fighters and a paramilitary organization are overrunning the civilian locals. They force them to grow coca (a key ingrediant for cocaine) for them to sell to finance the war.
The worse news is that the United States Government is helping to fund this war. Under the guise of a war on drugs, the US has sent 1.3 billion dollars to Colombia for each of the last two years. Almost all of this money goes to the military. One of the most dastardly things that they do with this money is fumigation. The military drops the herbicide glyphosate over the country's crops in an effort to kill the coca plants. In the process they also kill the food crops that the farmers need in order to survive. Recently, sicknesses tied to the fumigation have begun to appear in humans and livestock.
Very recently a letter signed by several dozen Christian organizations was given to both Bush and Kerry asking for a change in US foreign policy. You can view a copy of this letter, and find links contact info for congressional representatives, at this site.
Stand with people of faith asking for a new policy in Colombia.
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3 comments:
we've done more than give them money. we brought them here and trained them. it's called the western hemisphere institute for security and cooperation, in fort benning, ga. its critics still like to call it the school of the americas. it was the church that first told me about it, which was why i brought it to drew.
so think about it. your tax dollars helped, however indirectly, to kill bishop oscar romero twenty years ago. and our tax dollars today, continue to fund terrorism, state-sponsored and state-conducted terrorism; that of latin american governments against their own people.
bono, the lead singer of u2, has frequently expressed his love for and yet anger with the united states. to paraphrase him, it's a great country with such great ideals, but it's also been responsible for so much wrong in the world.
what makes me really sad is that most americans refuse to see what america is doing, both within and without its borders.
where are the prophets of today?
Fred Phelps considers himself a prophet. Do you agree?
People of all faiths and beliefs are horrified at what the US has been capable of throughout our short history. However, those of us who choose to speak up and demand change are shouted down, and called treasonous, leftist, communist, and some other epithets that shouldn't be printed. I think it is high time in the church for the spirit of people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer (remember "The Cost of Discipleship"?) be revived and aimed at a government gone wrong. Unfortunately, there is a push by right wing Christians to embrace a political party that marches under the banner of Christ, to hide horrendous foreign policy, murder, destruction, and greed. My spirit cries for Christians everywhere to remember what Christ taught, and leave the hate and ignorance for the Pharisees.
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