US Soldier Sentenced to 90 Years in Rape Case

James Barker testified to his part in the brutal gang rape of a 14 year old Iraqi qirl and the killing of her family.

When this young man was 16, do you think he had rape and murder in his heart? I doubt it. However, terrible situations do terrible things to people. The 1971 Standford Prison Experiment showed what can happen to young men when they are put in powerful and powerless situations http://www.prisonexp.org/. In this experiment, perfectly healthy young men volunteered for an experiment in which 1/2 of them played guards and the other 1/2 prisoners in a pretend prison in the basement of a building at Stanford University. Within hours, the guards became brutal and the prisons brutalized.

Young soldiers are both powerful, they carry guns, and they are powerless, lurking around corners are insurgents waiting to kill them.

Their actions were wrong and they deserve to be punished. My only caveat is that such young men need closer supervision. Someone should have realized how desparate they were becoming, how hate filled they were becoming, and how out of control they were becoming.

Morally, these young soldiers are culpable. At the same time, the military leadership has to keep in mind that some young men and women (e.g. Abu Ghraib) crack under such circumstances and that all efforts should be made to prevent it.

Islam: One's Christian's Opinion

For several years, I was a member of an interfaith dialog with Muslims. I learned a great deal and many of my preconceived ideas about Islam were overturned. Many years ago, a well educated Christian leader with a PhD in comparative religion told me that Islam was essentially a militant brotherhood. The Imam who participated in the dialog was no militant. He was a kind clergyman who tended gently to his flock. He taught a peaceful form of Islam that embraced dialog and respected his Christian and Jewish neighbors.

When Christians complain that Islam is taken over by militant Jihadists, I think of the words of Jerry Falwell blaming 9-11 on lesbians and liberals. I think of Franklin Graham saying that Islam is a terrible religion. I think of the Southern Baptist leader who called Muhammed a pedophile. I think of the General who proclaimed that he had won battles in Afghanistan because the Muslim God was false but the Christian God was not.

Radical militant Muslims are a threat to their own societies and to ours, but Islam itself, the peaceful gentle religion is no threat. Many of my colleagues in the university and in human services consider Christianity a threat to human well-being. However, I have to assure them that Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and others do not represent the peaceful voice of Jesus - they do not represent the Jesus whose teachings I try to follow.

Inshallah

Iraq: The Hubris of Muscular Christianity

Why is it that conservative religious people ignored all the warnings of disaster in Iraq and pressed ahead for this war? What compelled them to ignore the experts on Iraqi culture and think that the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds could get along? Did they really think that the mere presence of young Americans on their soil would erase centuries of religious and ethnic distrust?

A friend of mine said that this ignorance, this hubris comes from the same strain of thinking that generated the doctrine of Manifest Destiny in earlier American history. I think he is onto something. Conservative Christian churches seem to get captivated by triumphant images of US military power. I think it comes from a preoccupation with end time, millenialist beliefs that Christians will rule the Earth with Christ for 1,000 years. Notice, this triumphal thinking, this emphasis on power, this emphasis on being at the right hand of Christ.

Is this what Jesus taught? I don't think so. He taught us to be humble, to feed the hungry, to care for the sick, to clothe the naked.

Judas and others wanted a muscular Messiah who would take up arms and throw the Romans out of Israel. Jesus taught, "Blessed are the peacemakers..."

One of Jesus disciplines cut off the ear of the Roman soldier when Jesus was arrested, but Jesus healed the soldier.

I am not a pacifist. We need to defend ourselves, but invading another country that has not attacked us does not qualify as "blessed peacemaking." Thinking that we can inculcate democracy, cooperation, political compromise, and respect for the rule of law in a country with no history of democracy is just plain dumb. Thinking that we would be welcomed as liberators in a society whose culture and religion is so vastly different from our own is painfully idiotic.

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Love Wins out: The church and its gay members & friends

In the somewhat conservative church I attend, their are a number of families with gay or lesbian members. People in the church know this and embrace these children and their families. Many church members may not be ready to vote for gay marriage, but ideology melts away and love wins out when the people of the church have watched these young people grow up in their midst. They know the parents, they know their sisters and brothers, they know their friends, and they continue to love and care about the young person whether homosexual or heterosexual.

The previous pastor of this church tried to run such people out of the church. He dis-invited people from the church if he thought they were engaged in sex outside of marriage. He turned his back on people who did not think or believe as he did. He was a rule-based Christian, not a love based Christian.

Christ and Culture or Christ versus Culture? The church has always had to respond to changes in the culture and accomodate to changes in our scientific understanding of the world. Churches who tout a world view that rejects modern scientific understanding of sexuality and sexual behavior do themselves no favor in the long run. Many of the so called "evangelicals" embrace many aspects of modern science, but reject the findings of science that threaten their worldviews.

What do we have to fear? The truth shall set you free. As a scientist I seek the truth or at least a better understanding of the social phenomena I study. My Christian faith is not about embracing a world view current 2000 years ago, it is about living in love now. It is not about holding up a moral yardstick to see if other's measure up, probably because I know that I would not measure up myself now would my friends and family. The Christian metaphor boils down to this, at the center of the universe is love. It is a conviction, a choice, a commitment to live as if life has meaning, as if life is a gift. It is about living with no guarantees, but it is about living in a community that values you and values others. This life is a gift. To say that God sent his son, is to say that this love at the center of the universe reaches out to touch human life and to bless it as sacred and meaningful in its own right.

If love is at the center, then we need not fear those who seek love in ways that are different from our own.

Being a Christian, Being the Buddha

I've found myself very intrigued by Buddhist thought and practice. Reincarnation does not appeal to me, but the concept of mindfulness is the route to the mind of Christ. The Bible has many passages about not worrying and trusting in God. However, the Christian religion is full of thought, so many in fact, that parishoners are often over thinking their faith. Mindfulness offers a way to focus the mind on what is really important.

I'd encourage you to read the Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Naht Hahn. This book is a quick introduction to the beauty of being, to settling into oneself in order to reach out to others, to letting go of troublesome thoughts and refocusing on more helpful thoughts.

In future Blogs, I'll write more about this. The reader should know that a great deal of research is showing that learning mindfulness can help prevent relapse in depression and help people manage anxiety.

You don't have to be a Buddhist to benefit from mindfulness.

Does Gay Marriage Threaten My Marriage?

So, gay marriage is a threat to heterosexual marriage? Hmm, I'm trying to think. Am I going to leave my wife and run off with a man because I'm suddenly allowed to marry another man? Given my difficulty not to stare at every young coed who walks around the college campus where I teach, I doubt it. I'm heterosexual, I like women. I like how they look, how they feel, how they make me feel. I came home from work today upset and angry about something that happened. I just wanted to crawl in bed with my wife and be held and comforted. OK, we had sex too, but I was really into it for the cuddling.

My point is, straight people's marriages are in no danger from gay marriages. Personally, I'm more offended by the promiscuity in the gay community. I think we need to engage the same social structures of society that help hold straight marriages together in holding gay and lesbian relationships together. (Of course, how well is that working with a 50+% divorce rate? Well, it was a good thought anyway.

Evangelical Pastor Ted Haggard Accused of Gay Sexual Tryst

Evangelicals have for some time preached a version of morality that is unattainable for most people. They often teach that sexual thoughts are unnatural. Homosexual urges are evil. Because of this approach to dealing with complex human feelings and thoughts, evangelicals often do not know how to work through such sexual feelings. If a young person raised in an evangelical environment has homosexual thoughts, to whom can he or she turn without receiving condemnation?

In psychology, we have a term called "reaction formation." This is a psychological defense mechansm in which we "protest too much" against things that are threatening to us because inside we are experiencing this same thing.

A recent psychological study demonstrated that the more homophobic young men were, the more aroused they became when they watched gay pornography. Hmm, makes you think doesn't it.

We need to take a benevolent approach to our own sexual feelings. Maybe would could avoid creating more Teg Haggards who have probably struggled with gay sexual feelings for some time, but was never able to work through them given his religious beliefs.