By Jamilah Hoffman
May 12, 2006. Houston City Hall
A group of us decided to go down to City Hall to meet with
supporters of Battle Cry, and to engage them on what they believe and what
Battle Cry stands for. It was an interesting and harrowing experience.
We casually walked up to their protest and listened with the
intent of asking questions and trying to foster a dialogue with these young
people. They saw our signs and even remarked that they were surprised that they
had protesters. The sign that I held said: The Bible Taken Literally Is A
Horror. That drew stares and with their video and digital cameras, they took
pictures of us.
We wanted to ask questions about Ron Luce, the leader of
this Battle Cry movement. They said that this is not about Ron Luce, or even
about Bush, as we had The World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime posters as
well, but about Jesus. Well, we called them out on that point because Ron Luce
is leading this thing. He was a Bush appointee. And what they seemed to not
get, was that we are not against religion, but against a theocracy.
This brought up such statements from them as we’re not into
politics, again it’s about Jesus. But with the strong ties to politicians, it’s
hard to deny that fact.
Also, we called them out on their surrender to god, their
unchallenged submission to god, authority, as well as the bible; even when it
doesn’t make sense to them. I know from experience that this can be very
detrimental to a person. I brought up hurricane Katrina to one person and that
a theocracy in America would be blaming natural disasters on sins and not
preventing and holding accountable those who had the power to prevent such
things. I saw a flicker of understanding in her about that point.
But whenever we would demand concrete answers to questions
about the Old Testament and the violent images thereof, they would talk about
the new covenant in Jesus and the New Testament. So we’re like, “Oh, so
just give up the old testament?” And of course they would say no, it’s all
important and then we asked them to uphold the infallible word of god, old and
new and the conversation would just go around in circles.
One guy I spoke with, who had been “born again”
for about four years was very interesting. He thinks Ron Luce is this great guy
who footsteps he wants to follow in. He kept telling me that he wanted to, if
he could, take his heart and put it in my chest and that way I could see the
love that god has for me, or something like that. I had to tell him that I was
a “born again” Christian for thirteen years and that all the things
he was telling me, I already knew. In fact, I had said them myself and that I
wanted to confront reality as it truly is in order to transform it. That’s why
we were protesting, not religion, but the threat of this country becoming a
theocracy. He would say that we’re out here protesting Bush, etc, but I made
sure to bring it all back to the fact that a theocracy was very possible and
that you can have religion, I’m not against that, I am against a theocracy and
I was going to make sure I could do everything I could to make sure this country
did not go in that direction.
We did engage in a lot of back and forth and I know that we
were level headed. We brought Bibles and happened to have people on our side
who were/are Christian and actually studied the Bible so that we could confront
these youth with the same information that they were going by. But what struck
me was the condescending nature of these Battle Cry youth when they couldn’t
answer our questions, more often when confronted with the hypocrisy of their
stance against the violent images on TV with that in the Bible itself and how
very violent this war in Iraq is and how do they reconcile all these
contradictions. In fact, the young man I spoke with in length gave me an
analogy that I will quote in order that someone may be able to tell me what it
meant.
Battle Cry Youth: Do you know what happens before a
Basketball game?
Me: They huddle?
BCY: No, they practice.
Me: OK.
BCY: They have a ball and you also have a ball, but it is a
ball of lies.
Me: Huh?
BCY: And you are shooting that ball of lies, but you’re
missing the basket. That’s the problem.
Me: I don’t think I’m carrying a ball of lies.
BCY: If I could give you my heart)
Me: I have a heart, thank you very much.
At first, I didn’t want to go and debate these youth and
young adults, many my own age about religion and its effect on society and why
we must do what we can to make sure a theocracy doesn’t happen in this country.
After the hour and an half of standing at the steps of Houston City Hall rather
peacefully, minus the cop who needed to know everything was cool, (it was), I
was so glad I went. I really needed to hear, from these young people
themselves, what they were believing and why.
I want people to know that this is just the beginning. They
are mobilizing and they are holding on to a belief that they are right, and we
are just sent here from satan. Like the call of The World Can’t Wait states: ‘People
) who believe they’re on a “mission from God” will not got without a
fight’. We must be equally sure with the moral certainty that what we believe
and stand for is right because this administration is moving each day closer to
a theocracy and these young people are the ones who will be the foot-soldiers, bringing
about a society where there is no critical thought and the Bible will be taken
literally. If we don’t act now it will be a horror indeed.
A side note: One of our supporters was talking to a woman
there who was not totally in lock step with Battle Cry. In fact she agreed with
some of the things we were saying in regards to the Bush administration and
what it has done here and around the world. She actually asked to pray with
that supporter and her prayer, which I will paraphrase thanked God for bringing
the protesters here so that she could learn about a different prospective. This
woman was very sincere and while this Battle Cry movement is marching ahead,
there are people in it who are open minded, willing to listen and to search on
their own for the truth of what this administration is doing. We must reach out
to those people as well because I gather that a lot of them feel pulled in the
direction that Battle Cry is taking them and they need to know that there is an
opposition to that trajectory and that they can join us too.