Christian Fatwa

[alisenjafi]

In the interst of not hijacking the matty thread, the christian church's stance on AIDS, like womens' issues leaves something to be disired. Unless you fall into line!

Bush's Christian Fatwa

    Example: "Reverend" Herbert Lusk


Bush Abstains From Appointing HIV Experts
   by Lucile Scott   POZ

March 15, 2006—An antigay pastor with no HIV-related experience is to be sworn in tomorrow in Washington to help advise President George W. Bush on how best to fight the epidemic. The president hasn’t been one to shy away from making openly political appointments to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA)—or from otherwise beefing up “abstinence-only” influence on government policy and funding. But some of his critics say he has gone too far in choosing the Reverend Herbert Lusk.

“The appointment of a minister who is essentially homophobic is very disturbing,” says Ronald Johnson, a PACHA member under President Clinton who is now associate executive director of New York’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). Adds Julie Davids, head of the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), “[Lusk’s] positions will lead to more infections, more stigma and more marginalization.”

The reverend, who presides over the Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia, is on the board of the antigay group Alliance for Marriage and has worked alongside Focus on the Family, one of the nation’s most politically powerful right-wing Christian groups. What advocates like Johnson and Davids are asking is this: How will Lusk square his abstinence-till-marriage and anti-same-sex-marriage crusades with PACHA’s mission to develop programs for a disease in which the majority of infections are still among gay men?

Carrie Gordon Earll, senior policy analyst for bioethics at Focus on the Family, told POZ of Lusk, “It’s a free country, and he can oppose same-sex marriage if he wants to. It’s a stretch to assume he cannot help people in this community just because of that.” Lusk himself did not respond to an interview request.

Four other new PACHA panelists will join Lusk at tomorrow’s swearing-in, including Alan Homer, former president and CEO of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)—the nation’s largest drug lobby, with a long record of battling efforts to distribute less expensive, generic HIV drugs.

What makes PACHA members different from most other presidential appointees is that they are selected and continue to serve without any congressional input. That wasn’t always a problem. When the panel was founded under President Reagan in 1987 (at first, as the President’s Commission on the HIV Epidemic), it was considered a more balanced and science-driven body. Effectiveness often won out over political expediency—to the point where PACHA publicly lambasted Reagan’s HIV policy. Bush Sr. continued that tradition with the appointment of an outspoken Magic Johnson, and Clinton followed suit.

“The [Council] was independent,” recalls Ronald Johnson of his time on PACHA. “We directly challenged President Clinton; and at one point, even gave his prevention policies a public F, because he wouldn’t legalize needle exchanges.”

All that changed with George W.—starting with the day in 2001 that he threatened to disband the body completely. “It’s not even worth discussing what role this committee could serve,” says Davids of PACHA’s panelists now. “Because all they are is a rubber stamp for bad administration policies.”


more irreverences from Herbert Lusk >>>


 Is Rev. Herbert Lusk a Blip? Blip This!
  by Jim @ 3:14 pm. Filed under George W. Bush, Religion, Politics

J. Clifford has been writing about the following recent statement of the Reverend Herbert Lusk at the well-publicized, heavily attended Religious Right Conference Justice Sunday III:

“I want to say, first of all, be careful how you fool with the church. You mess around with the church, something stirs up inside of me! You be careful because the church has surviving power. My friends, you know this and know this well. Don’t fool with the church because the church has buried many a critic, and all the critics that we have not buried, we’re making funeral arrangements for them!”

http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2006/01/13/is-rev-herbert-lusk-a-blip-blip-this/

1/11/2006
Two days ago, at a gathering of activists from the Religious Right entitled Justice Sunday III, Reverend Herbert Lusk of the Greater Exodus Baptist Church in North Philadelphia shouted out the following message to an audience that gave applause in response:
 
“I want to say, first of all, be careful how you fool with the church. You mess around with the church, something stirs up inside of me! You be careful because the church has surviving power. My friends, you know this and know this well. Don’t fool with the church because the church has buried many a critic, and all the critics that we have not buried, we’re making funeral arrangements for them!”

That sounds like an incitement to violence to me. That sounds like a death threat. That sounds frighteningly similar to the fatwas issued by Muslim clerics against their critics, against people like Salman Rushdie.

I think that every secular American deserves an explanation from Reverend Herbert Lusk. I’m a critic of your church, Reverend Lusk. Are you making funeral arrangements for me? Are you issuing a fatwa against me, Reverend Lusk?

Justice Sunday III was not just a gathering of a few disgruntled cranks. The Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, two organizations that are closely allied with the George W. Bush and the top Republicans in Congress, were the sponsors of the large gathering. Republican Senator Rick Santorum was there, listening to Reverend Lusk’s death threat, and clapped along with everyone else.

Now, read that passage again and tell me that there is no threat of theocracy in the United States of America.

http://www.irregularbin.com/senate/senSantorumPA.html

Irregular Times: News Unfit for Print » Blog Archive »
A Christian Fatwa: The Lusk Test

"A Christian Fatwa: The Lusk Test
by jclifford @ 10:43 am. Filed under General, Religion, Media

Two days ago, I wrote about the violent threat made by Reverend Herbert Lusk this week at the Religious Right’s Justice Sunday III gathering. Justice Sunday III had some of the most powerful members of the Religious Right in attendance at Reverend Lusk’s Greater Exodus Baptist Church in North Philadelphia: People like Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and Tony Perkins, who have the ear of the White House. Many right wing politicians were in attendance too, people like Senator Rick Santorum and Brian Bosma, Speaker of the House in Indiana’s state legislature.

So, it was pretty frightening to consider that all of these powerful Republicans applauded when Reverend Herbert Lusk made a threat of violence against critics of Christianity. Lusk told the audience,

“I want to say, first of all, be careful how you fool with the church. You mess around with the church, something stirs up inside of me! You be careful because the church has surviving power. My friends, you know this and know this well. Don’t fool with the church because the church has buried many a critic, and all the critics that we have not buried, we’re making funeral arrangements for them!”

You read that correctly. Reverend Lusk said the Christian church has buried many of its critics, and for those critics it has not yet buried, it is preparing funeral arrangements. Funeral arrangements. That’s the kind of statement that one would expect from a member of the mafia, or an imam allied with the Taliban.

In response to my posting of this statement by Reverend Lusk, we’ve received many comments, with a large number from a Republican reader of ours. He says that it’s not fair to say that Reverend Lusk’s comments reflect poorly on Christianity, because people who do bad things in the name of Christianity are not really Christians because Christianity is about doing good things.

The circular logic in that argument made my head spin. I was also a bit dizzy from the claim that Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and Rick Santorum are not Christians.

There’s a larger issue at hand, though. The question is, how representative of American Christianity are the violent comments Reverend Lusk made this week?

I myself would never claim that that Lusk’s comments are representative of all American Christians. Heck, nobody represents all Christians. Not Reverend Lusk. Not Pope Benedict XVI. Not even Jesus (especially if you consider the Unitarians). I think it’s there’s an open question of whether Reverend Lusk’s comments accurately reflect the majority of American Christians, when measured in raw numbers.

However, when one looks at the public face of American Christianity, it’s another matter altogether. The violent threats of Reverend Herbert Lusk were not just heard by a huge crowd physically present at his church for Justice Sunday III. His words were broadcast over the Internet. There was a nationwide simulcast of his threats to appreciative audiences all across America. Lusk’s angry speech was telecast to enthusiastic supporters again just yesterday. The Family Research Council, a powerful Republican interest group that sponsored the Justice Sunday III event, is selling DVDs that include Reverend Lusk’s threat to make funeral arrangements for people who dare to criticize him. The total American Christian audience for Reverend Lusk’s fatwa against non-believers was huge.

What other Christian groups have that kind of power in America, outside of the Religious Right? None. What moderate or liberal Christian organizations in America have anything that comes close to that kind of voice? None.

The sad fact is that, even if a majority of American Christians disagree with Reverend Lusk’s violent threats, they are doing so privately, in their hearts, or in quiet conversations with a few friends. There is no strong alternative Christian voice in America to counter the Religious Right. There are no liberal or moderate Christian cable TV channels, no liberal or moderate Christian radio networks, no liberal or moderate Christian national gatherings that bring political leaders to kow tow, with Internet simulcasts, telecasts, radio coverage, and DVD sales.

So, the radical right wing version of Christianity has come to possess a nearly exclusive voice representing American Christianity to the American nation, and to the world. The voice of American Christianity has largely become a right wing voice.

Don’t believe it? That’s okay. I don’t ask that you believe everything that I say. But, if you don’t believe me, I ask you to conduct a simple test.

Find one example of a Christian who has denounced Reverend Lusk’s violent threat on a natiowide radio or television broadcast, or in a nationally syndicated newspaper column. Go ahead and look.

You won’t find a single one. The silence is damning.

Edmund Burke, an Irish philospher who lived in the 1700s, is reputed to have said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” In America today, the only thing necessary for the complete triumph of violent right wing Christians is for good Christians to do nothing.

http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2006/01/13/reverend-lusk-burke-quote/

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Irregular Times: News Unfit for Print » Blog Archive »
Was it Reverend Lusk?

"Here’s the original article I wrote about Reverend Lusk’s threats of violence, January 2006:

“Some Americans are uncomfortable when their secular neighbors warn of the threat of American theocracy from the activists Religious Right. They say that no Christian would ever try to impose religion on anyone else. They say that theirs is a religion of peace, and that we progressives need to learn to accomodate ourselves to the language and beliefs of the Religious Right. They say that mixing religion into politics is a good, healthy thing.

Take a look at the consequences of mixing religion and politics, and then you can be the judge.

Two days ago, at a gathering of activists from the Religious Right entitled Justice Sunday III, Reverend Herbert Lusk of the Greater Exodus Baptist Church in North Philadelphia shouted out the following message to an audience that gave applause in response:


“I want to say, first of all, be careful how you fool with the church. You mess around with the church, something stirs up inside of me! You be careful because the church has surviving power. My friends, you know this and know this well. Don’t fool with the church because the church has buried many a critic, and all the critics that we have not buried, we’re making funeral arrangements for them!”

That sounds like an incitement to violence to me. That sounds like a death threat. That sounds frighteningly similar to the fatwas issued by Muslim clerics against their critics, against people like Salman Rushdie.

I think that every secular American deserves an explanation from Reverend Herbert Lusk. I’m a critic of your church, Reverend Lusk. Are you making funeral arrangements for me? Are you issuing a fatwa against me, Reverend Lusk?

Justice Sunday III was not just a gathering of a few disgruntled cranks. The Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, two organizations that are closely allied with the George W. Bush and the top Republicans in Congress, were the sponsors of the large gathering. Republican Senator Rick Santorum was there, listening to Reverend Lusk’s death threat, and clapped along with everyone else.

Now, read that passage again and tell me that there is no threat of theocracy in the United States of America. “

http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2006/02/19/was-it-reverend-lusk/

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Herb Lusk

The host of Justice Sunday III and former NFL benchwarmer known as "the praying tailback" used to be a Democrat. Then, thanks to the aggressive lobbying of Sen. Rick Santorum, George W. Bush's Office of Faith Based Initiatives began bankrolling Lusk's operations, starting with an grant of over $900,000 in 2002. Like magic, Lusk became a rock-ribbed Republican.

Lusk's hosting of Justice Sunday III is not the first time he's provided political assistance to his paymasters. In 2000, in possible violation of IRS laws, Lusk delivered the invocation at the Republican National Convention. Four years later, he hosted the President at his church for a speech praising abstinence as the best -- and perhaps, only -- way to prevent AIDS. Lusk also provides much-need cover for Santorum, allowing him to highlight their work together whenever his support for tax cuts for the rich, Walmart, and opposition to the Family Leave Act and affirmative action are criticized. As Santorum's possibly doomed re-election campaign kicks into high gear, he is joining Lusk at Justice Sunday III.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/who-are-justice-sundays-_b_13348.html