Our cultural memory is so short.
We forget many events and people within 10-20 years... If it's one or two hundred years ago, we have even more trouble remembering it happened.
Then there are the events and people we want to forget. We deliberately keep them out of mind.
President Obama mentioned violence and torture justified by Christians during the Crusades and during the Jim Crow era in the US at yesterday's prayer breakfast in Washington D.C. He was pointing out that Muslim extremists aren't the only ones who have committed atrocities in the name of God.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-speech-at-prayer-breakfast-called-offensive-to-christians/2015/02/05/6a15a240-ad50-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html
Immediately there were critics saying he shouldn't talk about those things.
Yes, mentioning historical facts we'd rather forget gets you in trouble every time.
Lynchings? Burning people at the stake? Enforcing slavery with guns and whips?
Thugs in Christian cultures did these things while claiming to act in the name of God.
That's not even including the horrendous things our government has done in supposed defense of our freedom or for national security.
Thank you, President Obama, for being a truth teller.
May no prisoner detained by the US ever be tortured again.
May napalm never be dropped on soldiers and civilians again.
May the leader of another country never again be assassinated by agents paid by the US.
We forget many events and people within 10-20 years... If it's one or two hundred years ago, we have even more trouble remembering it happened.
Then there are the events and people we want to forget. We deliberately keep them out of mind.
President Obama mentioned violence and torture justified by Christians during the Crusades and during the Jim Crow era in the US at yesterday's prayer breakfast in Washington D.C. He was pointing out that Muslim extremists aren't the only ones who have committed atrocities in the name of God.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-speech-at-prayer-breakfast-called-offensive-to-christians/2015/02/05/6a15a240-ad50-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html
Immediately there were critics saying he shouldn't talk about those things.
Yes, mentioning historical facts we'd rather forget gets you in trouble every time.
Lynchings? Burning people at the stake? Enforcing slavery with guns and whips?
Thugs in Christian cultures did these things while claiming to act in the name of God.
That's not even including the horrendous things our government has done in supposed defense of our freedom or for national security.
Thank you, President Obama, for being a truth teller.
May no prisoner detained by the US ever be tortured again.
May napalm never be dropped on soldiers and civilians again.
May the leader of another country never again be assassinated by agents paid by the US.
No comments:
Post a Comment