Overcoming Violence and War: November 2005 Archives

The Story: "When gold was discovered in Colorado in 1858, it resulted in a long stream of gold diggers with families going to the Rockies. This led to serious white encroachments on Cheyenne lands. To give protection to the white settlers, Fort Bent at Arkansa river got transferred into a military post, and was renamed to Fort Lyon. About 30 miles north to the fort in the inhospitable arias where the wide spread  prairie meet the Rocky Mountains, a small southern Cheyenne band  used to have their wintercamp on a  place called "Sand Creek". Their chief was Black Kettle.

Black Kettle was promised that his people would be left in peace as long as they stayed out of trouble. Black Kettle assured them that his people didn´t want any wars, all they wanted was to live in peace. He also believed that the white man and the Indians could coexist with each other.

On November 28 1864 Col. John.M.Chivington led his troup of volunteers to Sand Creek, and on the dawn of November 29 the troups had reached the sleeping Indian camp. One of the Indian women had heard the horses and sound the alarm, but Black Kettle told his people not to worry since the white officers at Fort Lyon had promised them protection. So he put up the American flag on the top of his tent to announce that this was a peacful and friendly camp.

But when the cavalry started to ride down the ridge towards the camp Black kettle realized that this wasn´t a friendly visit. Then the shooting started, the Indians were in panic, the soldiers indiscriminately killed women and children. Black Kettle who belived his people were under peace protection was helpless as his people were massacred. Over 200 Cheyenne died in this slaughter, about 75 of them where warriors the rest were mostly elderly men, women and children.

After the massacre Chivington returned to Denver where he bragged about how he fought and won the battle with the Cheyenne, and in a theatre he put up about 100 scalps to proof his victory. Black Kettle survived the massacre but was killed four years later by the 7th U.S cavalry at the Washita River."

Source is a web site of Native American History,  it seems to be an individual effort.

I was just in high school.  The Presidential election was dominating the media attention, and attracting my attention.  Who would win, Kennedy or Nixon?  I asked my mother who she would vote for, she indicated that she might not vote at all!  What?  It seemed a contradiction to my Unitarian understanding.  Well, she explained,  my Father was a Democrat and she was a Republican, and if they voted they would just cancel each other out, and so they decided not to bother.

Later it occurred to me that my Mother was not excited about Nixon and my father was not excited about Kennedy, and their no vote pack would not last until November.  They did vote, and the result indicated that the country was just as divided and nearly as uncommitted as my parents.  I grew up in a Unitarian Universalism that was politically diverse,  my congregation was made up of good religious liberals who expressed themselves as Republicans and Democrats.  Several years later as a first time voter,  I voted in the Republican primary against Goldwater, and ended up voting for LBJ.  Then,  I demonstrated against LBJ's on the day of his inauguration.  My political orientation was becoming independent and critical to the politicians of both political parties.  I am not now and never have I been a Democrat.  I was a registered Republican for a few months.  That was a long time ago.

Back in Oct 2004, on the eve of the election Rev. George F. Regas of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California preached a sermon, in which he imagined how Jesus would admonish Bush and Kerry if he debated them. Regas never urged parishioners to vote for one candidate over the other, but he did say that he believes Jesus would oppose the war in Iraq, and that Jesus would be saddened by Bush's positions on the use and testing of nuclear weapons.  In his sermon, Regas, who from the pulpit opposed both the Vietnam War and 1991's Gulf War, imagined Jesus participating in a political debate with then-candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Regas said that "good people of profound faith" could vote for either man, and did not tell parishioners whom to support.

Now the IRS is threatening his church that it may be endanger of losing its tax exemption.  The present Rector J. Edwin Bacon said the church had retained the services of a Washington law firm with expertise in tax-exempt organizations.  And he told the congregation: "It's important for everyone to understand that the IRS concerns are not supported by the facts."  The  tax law provides non profit status to religious organizations but forbids the endorsement of candidates, and pending legislation,  Speaking about public issues of concern to a religious body is protected by the Constitution.  The religious right flagrantly violates the law by specific instructions to congregants about who to votes for, and what legislation to support or oppose.  Thus this appears to be a case of political interference with a church that opposes the Bush administration.

In an October letter to the IRS, Marcus Owens, the church's tax attorney and a former head of the IRS tax-exempt section, said, "It seems ludicrous to suggest that a pastor cannot preach about the value of promoting peace simply because the nation happens to be at war during an election season."  Owens said that an IRS audit team had recently offered the church a settlement during a face-to-face meeting.  "They said if there was a confession of wrongdoing, they would not proceed to the exam stage. They would be willing not to revoke tax-exempt status if the church admitted intervening in an election."

The church declined the offer.  "I'm appalled," said 70-year-old Anne Thompson of Altadena, a professional singer who also makes vestments for the church.
"In a government that leans so heavily on religious values, that they would pull a stunt like this, it makes me heartsick."

Joe Mirando, an engineer from Burbank, questioned whether the 3,500-member church would be under scrutiny if it were not known for its activism and its liberal stands on social issues.  "The question is, is it politically motivated?" he said. "That's the underlying feeling of everyone here. I don't have enough information to make a decision, but there's a suspicion."

The above is adapted from Common Dreams Newsletter, the full story by Patricia Ward Biederman and Jason Felch