Good Friday's No Shame Theatre piece

Friday Nights I'm always at No Shame Theatre...last night was Good Friday and it was no exception.
Here's the piece I did last night--

Easter Greetings from the Heart of Archie
(Lights up on Archie at his desk. He is eerily calm and serene.)

Hey, I'm Archie Levine...and THIS is what I think....I think you're probably wondering where my anger is.

Why aren't my veins popping out of my head?

Why aren't I yelling and screaming?

God knows I've got plenty I could be yelling and screaming about.

There are more retired generals calling for Rumsfeld to resign than there are Americans who think Bush is doing a great job.

(Rising anger through this section)

There's Tom DeLay's resignation, there's the Homeland Security official caught in an online underage sex sting, and there's the Scooter Libby revelation that Bush was the leaker he said he'd fire for leaking the information that led to the outing of a covert CIA operative in a time of war.

There's Bush telling us that for our protection and to help America understand why he was saying what he said in his speeches about the war, he declassified the tiny part of the National Intelligence Estimate which addressed his claims of WMD in Iraq, but didn't declassify the overwhelming majority of the same classified document which contradicted that very claim...

There's the fact that even Rush Limbaugh is saying you can't execute Moussaui for not telling us something because we have a 5th amendment right not to incriminate ourselves.

There's the insane perversion of logic in the argument that Moussaui deserves to be put to death because his not telling everything he knew to the FBI was the cause of the deaths of 3,000 innocent people on September 11th....even though Bush not telling us everything he knew caused us to launch a pre-emptive war which killed at least 33,000 innocent people!

There's the Council on Family Relations who are bankrolling lawsuits by students around the country who want to use the courts to force universities with anti-discrimination codes of conduct to repeal those codes so that Christians can have the freedom to express their religion by telling fags that God hates them and will make them burn in Hell.

There is John McCain speaking at the Liberty University where Jerry Falwell is putting everything he can into the creation of a biblically based Law School so that there will be wave after wave of Dominionist End Time Theologians with the legal credentials to sweep secularists from the benches in our courts and liberals from the seats of power in our government.

(At the peak of apoplexy)

There are revelations after revelations about the lies, greed, corruption, and incompetence of our current government that are staggering in the extreme and so dangerous I can't get to sleep at night without taking a bottle of vodka to bed with me!

(Calming to serentity again)

So, why am I so calm?

Because it is Holy Week. Because instead of thinking about what the Theocratic Elite are telling me Jesus says to hate, and destroy, and punish...instead of watching Pat Robertson and Falwell and the Council of Conservative Christians try to figure out how to get God to start the End Times ahead of schedule....I had a little look at what Jesus had to say about his life, and his message...and his death...which we commemorate this day.

If I were to meet Judge Roy Moore, who said his Christianity had moved him to donate a graven stone image of the Ten Commandments to the foyer of the Alabama Courthouse in which he was the sitting Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court...I'd ask him why he didn't instead donate a stone memorial to the commandment Jesus gave, just before he was taken by the Romans?

Jesus told his disciples, "I have a new commandment for you...that you should love one another."

Wouldn't that be a world changing thing to have inscribed above every courthouse in the nation? Or, for that matter, above the front doors of every school, church, and town hall in the land? Emblazened on every drinking fountain, every fountain pen, every bumpersticker, on every lapel pin, every coin, every dollar bill, and every prison gate in America?

"I command you to love one another" --signed, Jesus.

God gave Moses Ten Commandments. Jesus gave us one.

And so, I'm trying to fulfill that commandment.

At least through Easter.

George Bush, I love you. John Ashcroft, I love you. Judge Roy Moore, I love you. Donald Rumsfeld, I love you. Dick Cheney, I love you. Zacharias Moussaui, I love you. Mohammad Atta, I love you. Osama bin Laden, I love you. Saddam Hussein, I love you.

And I love each of you, too.

Who Would Jesus Love?

It went extremely well...with strong audience response even though after all these years of yelling and screaming my voice gave out at a couple of the screechiest parts and my mouth was incredibly dry for some reason...need to remember to have a Ricola handy to suck on right before each piece I do.

One of the nicest comments I got afterwards came from a fellow who is a conservative enough Libertarian to make Neal Boortz shift uncomfortably in his seat. This guy came up to me and said he loved the piece. Another guy told me it was the best Archie Levine editorial he'd ever seen, and two others asked if I'd be putting it up on my blog...so, by popular request, here you go.

Jesus wants me to give voice to my hate...and you can't stop me!

Christians Sue for Right Not to Tolerate Policies: Many codes intended to protect gays from harassment are illegal, conservatives argue. By Stephanie Simon, LA Times Staff Writer,
April 10, 2006

The same Christians who hate the activism of the courts and frivolous lawsuits are taking to suing schools in order to eliminate anti-hate speech and anti-discrimination codes. Why? Because they feel their religion compells them to be intolerant of gays, and they want to be able to tell them that homosexuals are an abomination and headed for Hell.

They claim that because they are kept, by law, from expressing their intolerance and moral imperative to discriminate against homosexuality that they are persecuted. They, and organizations like Focus on the Family, claim religion in general, and Christianity in particular, are under attack in America. They feel they are waging a war to defend Christianity in an actual war being waged against them. 80% of evangelicals honestly believe this.

In a nation where we are more than 80% Christian, it is outrageous that extremist members of fundamentalist Christian groups can claim persecution and demand a right to persecute others. Especially when they now in control of all three branches of government. If there is a war, it is the dominionists who have declared it, and who are most actively waging it.

Please, one of you people out there who are supportive of this kind of ministry, explain to me how it reflects Christ's efforts to increase his flock? Is it the parable of the fig tree?

How about how he related with actual people?

Try living a perfect example, and stop trying to legislate your narrow idea of morality. Stop using Jesus as an excuse to hate or cause misery to your fellow human being. Please. Stop hurting Jesus.

What ever happened to that nice little song we used to sing in Sunday school? You remember..."They shall know we are Christians by our love...by our love."

Regime Change...does it Subvert God's Will?

I don't understand Dominionism.

I don't understand the current blend of End Time Theology with political power. None shall know the hour or the day...and they certainly can't hurry it along by attempting to fulfil prophecy prematurely. It doesn't work like that.

Hurrying prohpecy is as much an affront to divine authority and intelligent design by an omnisicent creator as trying to thwart prophecy, isn't it? Isn't one of the awesome things about prophecy that it takes care of itself? (I know that the inevitability of prophesy and free will seem to be at odds, but like the bible says, best not to lean to my own understanding on things like that. I sure wasn't around when the foundations of the earth were laid and measured!)

I also don't understand Conservative Christians who want to be the instrument of divine punishment. Vengeance is Mine, sayeth the Lord. That's what the bible says.

It does not say, "Vengeance is Mine," sayeth the Lord, "but I have outsourced it to the Republicans."

I don't understand how pre-emptive war is a concept accepted or tolerated by any Christian who believes Jesus said to love your enemies and to turn the other cheek.

And I don't understand a self-professed Born Again Christian who thinks Regime Change is an action sanctified by God. The bible teaches us that evil leaders are placed on their thrones by God as a punishment by God on the people. Somehow I don't think George Bush sees removing Saddam Hussein as a benevolent act designed to tell God that he's punished that people enough. Although, the argument could be legitimately made that maybe George didn't think God was punishing them enough and he wanted to take it up a notch. I'd be very interested to see the statistics on the number of people Saddam killed over his entire rulership of Iraq and the number killed since our liberation of that nation. I'd also like to see the statistics on the number of innocent children who died as a result of abortions and the number who have been killed as a result of sanctions and military action on the part of our nation which is supposedly motivated by Christian principles.

I have thought a lot about whether Bush is a punishment on our nation for its hypocrisy. I've wondered about how a just God can allow a person to gain so much political power by misrepresenting the message of his only begotten son...I've wondered why Jesus lets so many of his followers quote from the Old Covenant in order to justify hatred and punishment of what they hate rather than adhere to the message of forgiveness and tolerance at the heart of the New Covenant he died in order to bring to us. I've thought about the lies and secrecy of my government and how much God hates secrecy and lies.

This thinking has led me to believe that the punishment on our nation in the form of the leader we have allowed to sit over us is just. (Consider Nebuchadnezzar)

How can it be otherwise?

What we must do is accept that this punishment is just, but that acceptance is not in order to permanently submit to it, but to learn the lessons of that punishment and to then take action to be redeemed.

This is the big distinction between the Old and the New Testaments. The possibility of redemption and forgiveness.

As Jesus instructed, the favor of the Father is not won by good deeds or strict adherance to Law, but by taking into our hearts the spirit of the law. When we do that, we can not help but do good works because the spirit moves us to do so. Then God will lift the punishment.

So, you see, unlike a lot of liberals...I am actually inclined to accept George Bush's claim that God placed him in the Oval Office...just not for the reason he thinks. I guess we'll know when George is afflicted with a mania that has him acting like a beast of the field.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if all those people who have used their claims of faith in Jesus to gain political power and wealth were moved more by the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount than they were by the spirit of Exodus and Deuteronomy?

So, come on, America. Let's all show God we've learned our lesson and we've been punished enough.

Who did Jesus say would be called the Sons of God? The peace makers. Not the pre-emptive war makers. Don't let's make a desert and call it peace. That isn't what Jesus had in mind.

Vote for Peace Makers and show God you mean business. Be merciful and God will be mericful. Love and be loved. Offer the other cheek. Stop building wealth and start being charitable. Forgive and be forgiven.

I'm a Christian. I believe in Seperation of Church and State. I am not against having a Christian president...but by their fruit shall we know them, and if we elect Christian leaders, shouldn't we expect them to actually led by a Christian example?

I think so. Jesus probably does, too.

More reading:

• The Despoiling of America: How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State By Katherine Yurica