World Can’t Wait has been traveling across the country on a
Bus Tour as part of mobilizing a massive day of resistance on October 5th
and spreading the message of Drive out the Bush Regime, to hotspots that
vividly present the living examples of the Bush Agenda like Jackson,
Mississippi where Christian Fundamentalists attempted to shut down the last
abortion clinic in Mississippi to a Creationist Museum in Arkansas that
presents and advocates the teaching of biblical truth masked with pseudo
science as the only way to understand the origins of the universe and life.
We had the opportunity to talk with Rev. Mary McAnally, a
poet and Unitarian minister, in Fayettville,
Arkansas about religion and
resistance.
WCW: What has drawn you to the Unitarian Universalist (UU)
Church and the UU’s principles?
MM: The freedom in the pulpit and the celebration of
diversity. The UU is an open minded
community and provides a forum for people to make an impact on the world and it
tends to be a progressive oriented. I
travel and speak and fill in as a temporary minister at Unitarian Churches-
some people are critical of the services I lead that are more overtly
political. There are mixed views in the
UU church about whether or not we should include politics in our services or
tackle political issues in our programs and initiatives. My view is that it just doesn’t make sense to
think you can simply ignore the world around you – because you live in a
political world and right now a very politicized world. This is a big question in the more
progressive religious communities.
WCW: Why do you think Christian Fundamentalism, or the
Christian Right, has grown so popular in the past few years?
MM: I think ignorance and fear play a larger role. The Christian Right thrives off of ignorance
and fear and it produces ignorant and hate-filled people. Part of the draw is there are people are
tired of being out of the loop and want to feel part of the loop. It’s a populist movement, but I think it’s
still a minority.
WCW: A “minority”
of millions of people can drastically change society, especially when there are
people in high level, ruling positions that are serious about implementing
their program – in this case a theocracy.
Do you think that exists in the U.S. today?
MM: Well, yes. There
are the architects of empire. There are
“so-called” elected officials, the media and the corporations. These are powerful forces and are not immune
to a powerful ideology of the Pat Robertson-type. It’s terrible, but people like yourself of your
generation give me hope.
WCW: What role can
progressive or radical communities play in this political climate, especially
religious leaders and clergy?
MM: Speak out! Right-wing
clergy are doing it, why not progressive clergy? We can’t sit back as this government is
harming the world.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was a Lutheran Minister and German
Theologian who was part of the resistance movement against the Nazis. He wrote a book called “Ethics” and
“The Cost of Disciplineship”, that proposed that right and wrong is
not absolute. His work has had a big
impact in the Theologian community over the years. I think Dietrich’s works, along with other
similar Christian Pacifist writers, is part of why the liberal religious
community does not want to be critical of the Christian Fundamentalists or the
Bush Administration. He was quite
active, and his activities went to extreme measures that I am not so supportive
of, but people have taken relativist aspects of his theory to justify their
silence.
But there are people who see the need to take a stand now,
like in the ’60s”To be stepping out against the atrocities of empire. That is true with the religious community,
but it is the young people who are going to have to be on the frontlines.
WCW: But WHY does the religious community have to step out
and oppose the Bush Regime?
MM: It is part of the Judeo- Christian principle. It’s obvious, look at Jesus being upset about
the money-changers in the temple and overturning their tables. The profit motive is killing us all and producing
the spiritual void in society. We’re not
taking care of the world”the artic is being decimated for oil, all of what is
in Al Gore’s new film “An Inconvenient Truth” – we are losing out on
the real religious tradition.
WCW: Many people have doubts about protests in the streets
being able to affect the world. As
someone who was part of the resistance struggles in the 1960’s and currently
fighting against social injustices, what do you think about the impact a
resistance movement from below, or from the people, can have on today’s
political terrain?
MM: Well, my first arrest was in Montgomery with Martin Luther King, Jr. in
1961. I attended a student conference
put on by the WCF (World Christian Federation) and organized a Freedom Bus from
Oklahoma to Montgomery to fight against racism. That was part of my development along with
attending the Princeton Theological Seminary.
The gains made in the civil rights movement and popular sentiment
against the war in Southeast Asia that contributed to the U.S pulling out of Vietnam would
not have happened if people, hundreds of thousands of people, did not take to
the streets and protest their government’s crimes and immoral behavior. Nixon was forced out, Bush can be forced out
too – it can happen but it would have to be quick.