[Vision2020] Change of Perspective, Limited Apology

[donald huskey]

Dear Kerry Becker and Visionaries:

 

Of the thousands of messages I have read over the years on V2020, none has
touched me as much as Kerry's.  The grace, sincerity, and dignity he
exhibited in his email is an inspiration to me.  Clearly, courage in the
face of the enemy doesn't stop when one retires from the military.  Take
care of yourself, Kerry, and watch your back.  After years of experience, I
can pretty accurately predict what will follow.  A former military officer
from the Kirk will be assigned to you.  You'll be invited to dinner, for a
beer, what ever.  Then your minder will tell you how you have misunderstood
what you read, or how the "enemies" of the Kirk have tainted and
deliberately lied about Doug.  Your minder will stay in touch for several
months, always being friendly, generous, and apparently "open-minded" until
he finally thinks you are beyond salvation, and then the personal attacks
will start.  I have no doubt that you are more than capable of handling
them. Thank you again for your courage and integrity.

Rose Huskey

 

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Kerry Becker
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 11:37 AM
To: Vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Change of Perspective, Limited Apology

 

Faithful Readers,

I am now about to do something that is hard for anyone, but especially hard
for an old soldier like myself.  I admit that I have been wrong in some of
the opinions that I have previously expressed on this forum. 

Over the past several weeks I have been on an extended vacation during which
I have visited many fellow officers with whom I have served during my career
of thirty plus years in the military.  Those with whom I visited are all,
like myself, conservatives, and think of ourselves as libertarians.  The
defense of the freedoms guaranteed by our unequaled U.S. Constitution was a
main reason for many of us to chose careers in the military.

Make no mistake.  Do not be tempted to make any misinterpretation.  In what
I am about to say I having no intention of lessening my belief in freedom of
speech, religion, press, etc.  These freedoms make our great country truly
unique.  One need only look at the countries of our enemies to see how
different they are from us in this regard. 

Freedom of speech and the press are our main means to seek the truth in the
complex world we live in.  Anyone who expresses a belief of any kind does
not enjoy any immunity from comment on the truthfulness or inanity of such
expression.  To allow immunity in any way would be to emasculate the pursuit
of truth. 

To make my point tersely.  I have previously been a staunch supporter on
this forum of Christ Church and its various personages and their actions.
While I still strongly support their right to their beliefs and to the
expression of their beliefs, I no longer am able support those beliefs
themselves or the actions which are begot by such beliefs. 

I have previously believed that Christ Church was a Godly institution which
was trying to honestly bring goodness and Godliness into the world.  I do
not believe this anymore.  

I confess to two things that helped bring about this change of perspective. 

First, every fellow retired officer with whom I visited on my vacation
believed as libertarians in the separation of church and state.  The history
of the world as we know it tells us of the disastrous inhumanity, cruelty,
intolerance, suppression of personal liberty, and injustice that occurs when
one or another set of religious beliefs are advocated and enforced by a
government.  But we need not depend on history for this lesson:  newsreaders
today can see the horrible results on personal liberty by the religious
tyranny enforced by many mid-eastern and eastern nations regardless of the
name or nature of their particular religion. 

My officer friends put it this way.  "There greatest threat to personal
liberty today are those organized religious movements who seek to impose
their particular strictures on our freedom of thought, expression, and
actions via political and governmental intervention in our lives."  Those
kind of actions by the government in England were the motivation for the
founding of our country.  Let us not forget that, ever. 

This is hard for me to say.  I have been wrong about homosexual practices
and homosexual marriages or civil unions.  While I personally find
homosexual relations distasteful to contemplate, I see now the the choice of
partners and pleasures is a matter of personal liberty guaranteed by the
right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as stated in our
Declaration of Independence.  I see now that I have no more right to dictate
another's gender preference and the concomitant unions that might follow
than I have to dictate what nail polish color someone might chose, whether
such choice of color offends me or not. 


Second, my officer friends, who know naught of Christ Church, urged me to
re-evaluate the statements of those opposed -- to try to find out for myself
if those running Christ Church are honest and well-intentioned, and to see
if they seek to impose strictures based on their particular religious
interpretations on the rest of us that would lessen our personal liberty. 

I have done so.

I have found the statements of Christ Church as found in various of their
writings show them to be dangerous theocrats who, among other greatly
limiting things, seek to impose eventually the most harsh measures on all of
us who do not share their beliefs.  

Especially disturbing to a libertarian is their intention to impose the
death penalty on those they consider heretical -- anyone who would criticize
their particular religious tenets.  This is America.  Not Saudi Arabia or
Iran.  The denial of the right to question any belief is the most dangerous
and arbitrary stricture a government can impose on its citizens.  It is the
denial to continue to seek the truth, wherever it might lead. 

(God, this old soldier hates to say this since he has been so critical of
some of Christ Christ's critics, and hates to admit that he has been
hoodwinked due largely to his own ignorance and lack of diligence...)  I
have found that Christ Christ is neither a Godly nor a benevolent
institution.  Their leader and many of their upper echelon are now in my
informed opinion, liars, hypocrites, manipulators, blood-suckers from their
congregation, and exceedingly unchristian, intentionally veering quite far
from the basic, plain moral teachings of Christ found in the most
historically accurate parts of the New Testament. 

To the extent that my previous posts have defended Christ Church's right to
hold and to defend their beliefs, I offer no apology.  They, and all of us
have that right.  It is called freedom.

To the extent that any of my previous posts have defended any particular
tenet or theological aberration of Christ Church, or any of the many
despicable actions that such have begotten, I humbly apologize for my
previous ignorance, lack of critical thought and investigation, and for my
unjustifiably overbearing attitude. 

Kerry Becker

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