In this Issue:

Questions We Should Ask: Commentary by Rev. Michael Piazza
Bush sees no end to War on Terrorism
Rev. Piazza to Release Sixth Book: The Real Anti-Christ due in October
H4PJ Offers Peace training classes: Program scheduled for Dallas

Questions We Should Ask
Commentary by Rev. Michael S. Piazza

The arrest of two dozen middle-class British citizens who were planning to become suicide bombers is one of the most disturbing realities in my lifetime. While law enforcement and intelligence officials deserve our admiration and appreciation, there is a major conversation that does not seem to be taking place anywhere in this country. No one here is talking about why.

British media outlets and political leaders have broached the subject, but no one in this country is asking why young, middle-class British citizens were willing to board planes and construct bombs that would lead to their deaths and the deaths of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other innocents. In the wake of the events of September 11, we seemed unable, or unwilling, to honestly ponder why the terrorists did what they did. They were dismissed as evil, and the only options considered were military ones. Our leaders have yet to seriously consider the circumstances that gave rise to such pathological hatred. Clergy and other moral leaders have also been remiss. Thus, there is little hope that we will ask introspective or self-critical questions this time around.

President Bush’s response following the foiling of the British plot was simply that this was proof of our need to be vigilant. Immediately, we reverted to his formulaic good/evil assessment. We cannot continue to live in a multicolor world and see these situations purely in terms of black and white. Our president prides himself on avoiding self-reflection, but surely the media, political leaders and citizenry of the United States must see the value of asking these questions.

One can understand the current administration’s avoidance, since they may be forced to admit that the war in Iraq and our current Middle East policy are actually manufacturing terrorists. If the British plot reveals nothing else, it provides evidence that we have created the most powerful tool for recruiting and motivating mainstream, middle-class women and men as terrorists. The recent arrest of Al Qaeda suspects in Iraq received some media coverage; however, not a single report observed that prior to our invasion there was not a single terrorist, suicide bomber or member of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Regardless how one may feel about the justification of the war, it seems obvious to all, that the world is a significantly more dangerous place now than it was before our invasion. In the Muslim world the war, coupled with current U.S. policy toward Palestinians, is evidence that we are their enemy. When the war in Iraq is factored in, U.S. military spending exceeds all of the rest of the world combined. What if we had made different choices? What if we had decided that we didn’t need to spend seven times as much as China on the military? Maybe two or three times the amount the second ranking country spends would be enough. With some of the hundreds of billion of dollars we save, perhaps we could relieve poverty and suffering in the Arab world.

Feeding the elderly, educating children and providing medication for the sick just might provide an antidote to the hatred that has fueled terrorism. What is clear is that we are now creating terrorists faster than we can arrest them. People in recovery programs are fond of saying that the very definition of crazy is doing the same thing and expecting different results. There is an ancient book that offers a bit of wisdom that might guide us in this situation. The Bible says, “What you sow, you shall also reap.” Why, then, should it surprise us that our policy of sowing war is reaping a violent harvest? As the fifth anniversary of September 11, 2001 approaches, now might be a good time to ask some of the questions we should have asked before setting out on this course:

• Why do they hate us so?
• What is the antidote for that hatred?
• How can we create more friends rather than more terrorists?

This week my children started back to school in a world that is significantly less safe than the one in which they were born. If we don’t find the courage to ask some challenging questions there may not be a world for my grandchildren to inherit.

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Bush Sees No End to War on Terrorism
Originally Published by the Associated Press

President Bush said Tuesday that the foiled plot to blow up flights between Britain and the United States is evidence the U.S. could be fighting terrorists for years to come.

"America is safer than it has been, yet it is not yet safe," Bush told reporters at the National Counterterrorism Center just outside Washington. "The enemy has got an advantage when it comes to attacking our homeland: They’ve got to be right one time and we've got to be right 100 percent of the time to protect the American people."

The counterterrorism center is located at an undisclosed site in Northern Virginia known as Liberty Crossing. It merges hundreds of government experts and more than two dozen computer networks from various federal agencies focusing on potential threats.

Its high-tech, 24-hour operations center is among the most sophisticated in the U.S. government.

Bush received a briefing from his National Security Council and Homeland Security Council and had separate sessions with each team, attending lunch with all the officials in between.

Bush spokesman Tony Snow said the meetings focused on improving and streamlining efforts to more effectively fight terrorists. He declined to be more specific, saying that would just give notice to al-Qaida.

Bush credited the workers at the center with helping to bring about last week's arrests of more than two dozen people in England and Pakistan in what officials say was a plot to blow up as many as 10 passenger planes between Britain and the United States.

"That plot and this building and the work going on here is really indicative of the challenge we face — not only this week, but this year and the years to come," he said.

Snow said it is still not clear whether al-Qaida was involved with the plot.

"The characterizations in the past has been it has the looks of al-Qaida," Snow said. "And I'm aware of reports from other governments that it's al-Qaida. But our intelligence, at this point, does not permit us to say with confidence that that was the case."

The nation's safety looms as a major issue in the midterm elections Nov. 7. Both Republicans and Democrats are maneuvering for the political advantage in an election where control of Congress is at stake.

Democrats blamed Bush administration policies for making the country more vulnerable to outside threats.

"Five years after 9/11, al-Qaida has morphed into a global franchise operation, terror attacks have increased sharply across the world and the president has shut down the program designed to catch Osama bin Laden," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a statement following Bush's remarks.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in a teleconference with reporters Tuesday, accused the Bush administration of "stubbornness" and of holding an "oversimplistic" view of how to resolve Middle East tensions.

"One of the great failures of this administration has been a refusal to consider new approaches to problems," he said.

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Rev. Piazza to Release Sixth Book
The Real Anti-Christ due in October

Since September 11, 2001, the Religious Right has used fear to manipulate America. It has used 19 terrorists to make us so afraid that we are willing to abandon our values and do things that are virulently anti-American and un-Christian. The sale of millions of books in the Left Behind series, which portrays the Religious Right’s apocalyptic vision, is just one example of how fear-based religion is foundational to what is going on in this country. That demon has to be named and called out if we are to be free of it.

Rev. Michael S. Piazza, President of Hope for Peace & Justice and Dean of the Cathedral of Hope, will do just that in his new book, The Real Anti-Christ. “There IS an anti-Christ and it isn't Russia or Osama bin Laden,” Rev. Piazza says. “It isn't even George W. Bush. I believe the real anti-Christ is the way in which America, and in particular the evangelical church in America, has come to embody a vision and values that are diametrically opposite of Jesus, therefore, ‘the Real Anti-Christ.’”

Rev. Piazza will take the various issues of concern to and talk in lay terms about:

• Where we are as a country on these issues;
• The reasons why we are there;
• Where we ought to be, based on the teachings of Jesus; and
• A strategy for getting there.

To read the book’s introduction and to preview a chapter, please go to www.therealantichrist.com.

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H4PJ Offers Peace training classes
Epowering Cultures of Peace scheduled for Dallas

Hope for Peace & Justice will be offering a basic training experience for people interested in becoming peace practitioners on Wednesday nights at the Cathedral of Hope starting August 2nd. “Empowering Cultures of Peace: A Basic Training Seminar for Peace Practitioners” will be offered in two parts. Part One (8/2-8/30) will help the participants understand and identify the qualities and compenents that are essential for the creation and sustainability of cultures of peace. Participants will learn about:

• The nature and sources of conflict
• How to understand conflict personally
• The potential violence contained in conflict
• Conflict as transformation
• Types of conflict
• Developing personal conflict transformation skills

Part Two, “Meditation Training: A Skills Based Experience” will be offered September 6 thru October 26. In this segment, participants will learn the essential skills for being peace practitioners. You will learn how to actualize some of the theories you learned in Part One. Both parts of this training seminar are designed to help us learn about, and practice, the “things that make for peace,” and to learn and practice the skills that will translate our learning into transforming action. For more information, please contact Rev. Shelley Hamilton at shamilton@h4pj.org.

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