#9 History Lecture Slideshow - Adventists and War

Today's post is different from all the others in the series--a history slideshow on Adventists and the military. This was originally posted on Spectrum (here):

SDA Attitudes to War - A History

View more presentations from Jeff Crocombe

I also wanted to include this video in my series, but I'm not able to embed it.

|War and Peace

I recently attended two anti-war/anti-torture demonstrations in Washington, D.C. You can read about the experience here:

• Christian Peace Witness for Iraq

• 100 Days Campaign

NOTE: Photo and videos were taken on my cell phone, thus the low resolution.

|Taxi to the Dark Side

We finally watched Taxi to the Dark Side, the last film on my list of 5 War-on Terror documentaries I've wanted to see.

While the other four (and others like War Made Easy) were disturbing, this one was especially intense because it focused on the interrogation techniques and patterns of abuse from Afghanistan to Iraq. The film loosely follows the story of a young Afghan, Dilawar, who was the 2nd prisoner to die in the Bagram facilities in a week.

At the Academy Awards, I heard director Alex Gibney say this in his acceptance speech: "This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver, and my father, a navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law. Let’s hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light" (copied from Wikipedia).

Unsolved mysteries:

(1) How a man, the president, who claims to be a Christian can advocate for extreme interrogation techniques (aka torture). WWJD?

(2) How the United States can spurn the Geneva Conventions (ICRC info).

(3) How the U.S. can reject Habeas Corpus.

|Should I Fight?

Should I Fight? Conscientious Objection & the Seventh-day Adventist Church
November 6-9, 2008
Kingsway College, Oshawa, ON
www.shouldifight.ca

Eleven papers will be presented, including these:

• Just War Theory & the Role of the Christians
• Adventists, Military Service & War
• The Beginnings of a Peace Church
• Where is Your Citizenship?
• Peacemakers at War

Also, the documentary For Conscience Sake will be shown on Saturday night.

Registration is free, but space is limited.

|War on Terror

We have now watched 4 of the 5 films on my Iraq/war-on-terror wish list.

1. No End in Sight (2007). Last night we watched this interesting little Oscar-nominated flick. Rather than focus on the tricks that got us into Iraq, it looks at the administration blunders that fueled the insurgency.
2. Why We Fight (2005). This is probably my favorite analysis of the current factors in U.S. militarism. It made my list of Eight Most Important Documentaries for U.S. Viewers.
   
3. Uncovered: The War on Iraq (2004). This primarily investigates the propaganda lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.
4. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). Again, this points the spotlight on the path to Iraq, but also includes other elements. While some argue it is heavy on hype, future investigations (see the other docs with more interview footage of key players) showed he was on to something.

The last film on my list is the Oscar winning Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) that looks at the death of a detainee at Bagram Air Base (Wikipedia). Netflix patrons will have to wait until September of this year to view it.

There are many more films on this topic, but I have other subjects of interest to follow as well.

|Jesus for President

Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw's book tour for Jesus for President kicks off tonight at 7pm at Mars Hill.




Here are some quotes from the Facebook group:

A different kind of campaign.
A different kind of party.
A different kind of Commander in Chief.

Jesus for President is a radical manifesto to awaken the Christian political imagination, reminding us that our ultimate hope lies not in partisan political options but in Jesus and the incarnation of the peculiar politic of the church as a people “set apart” from this world. In what can be termed lyrical theology, Jesus for President poetically weaves together words and images to sing (rather than dictate) its message. It is a collaboration of Shane Claiborne’s writing and stories, Chris Haw’s reflections and research, and art and design.


This is my little way of joining in the blog tour. And the book tour:

• JUNE 23 - GRAND RAPIDS
• JUNE 24 - INDIANAPOLIS
• JUNE 25 - CINCINNATI
• JUNE 26 - PITTSBURGH
• JUNE 27 - WASHINGTON DC
• JUNE 28 - NEW YORK CITY
• JUNE 29 - HARTFORD
• JUNE 30 - TORONTO, CANADA
• JULY 4 - CORNERSTONE FESTIVAL
• JULY 6 - OMAHA
• JULY 7 - DENVER
• JULY 11 - SAN FRANCISCO
• JULY 12 - FRESNO
• JULY 13 - LOS ANGELES
• JULY 15 - ALBUQUERQUE
• JULY 16 - LUBBOCK
• JULY 17 - DALLAS
• JULY 19 - ATLANTA
• JULY 20 - ORLANDO
• JULY 22 - RALEIGH/DURHAM
• JULY 23 - RICHMOND
• JULY 24 - PHILADELPHIA

Roots and Rockers

We've watched two interesting films over the past couple of weeks.

Roots, based on the book by Alex Haley, was much more intense than I had expected. Since it was a TV mini-series in the 1970s, I thought it would be somewhat tame. I was wrong.

The aspect that stood out to me the most was the sexual abuse. I had read about the emotional and physical abuse, and I knew that some slave owners did have children with their slaves, but I had never thought through the ramifications of it and what it must have been like.

The U.S. vs. John Lennon is a documentary about "John Lennon's transformation from a member of The Beatles to a rallying anti-war activist striving for world peace during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The film also details the attempts by the United States government under President Richard Nixon to silence him" (Wikipedia).

President Bush's words about Iraq are surprisingly similar to Nixon's rhetoric about the Vietnam War.

I appreciated both films. It appears that watching TV is the most revolutionary thing on my agenda these days.