by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party
Revolutionary Worker #1191, March 16, 2003, posted at http://rwor.org
It is well-established that, as a communist, I am an atheist. But it is also a principle of communists, and a deeply held conviction of our Party, to unite all who can be united, of many different viewpoints, in the fight against oppression and injustice, including unjust war. In this light and in this spirit, I wanted to make the following suggestion to progressive religious people, and in particular Christians:
Given the determination of Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice and the rest to unleash a war against Iraq, and the lies and confusion they have spread in the effort to justify this unjust war, there would seem to be great relevance to the metaphor in Matthew 7:3-4: "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your own eye?"
The weapons of mass destruction that the Hussein regime is alleged to possess and the actual crimes it has committed represent but a speck compared to the log that is represented by the arsenal of mass destruction weapons that are possessed, and brandished, and the monstrous crimes that have been carried out, from one part of the globe to the other, by the U.S. government. This is something that is very important to help people understand, and this is especially so with regard to people in the U.S. itself--for whom, as Not in Our Name has very rightly emphasized, opposing the crimes committed by their own government, in their name, is a special and paramount responsibility.
This point could be driven home, by pastors and priests and lay people, through sermons and in many other ways; and this could make an important contribution to rallying people to resist and to act to stop this unjust war.
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
http://rwor.org
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