Since some are interested in out-of-town news....this was in the Poughkeepsie Journal from the other end of NYS.

I know this isn't directly related to Niagara County's environment but I thought it would be good to share Reverand Daniel Berrigan's ideas on war and God. Bob Dylan's lyrics said it best in the song "With God on our side," Everyone at war believe that they are right, true and just. Sure. Reverand Berrigan is right on with his assessment.

This Mr. Berrigan is a dynamic speaker and person. I believe he is the brother of the late activist Philip Berrigan, who was a champion of all things right and just and also a dynamic thoughtful human being.
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http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060320/NEWS01/603200325/1006

Activist: Don't link God to war
Religion can't support conflict, priest stresses

By Nik Bonopartis
Poughkeepsie Journal

PLEASANT PLAINS -- In a speech to a packed church Sunday, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan said there's a common trait among politicians who launch wars "they fervently believe they have divine backing."

"We have a constant drumbeat of 'God is on our side,' " Berrigan told the attendees.

The crowd, about 100 people; including prominent local activists and clergy; who squeezed into the wooden pews of the Pleasant Plains Presbyterian Church, responded with their own conviction; God, they said, is undoubtedly on their side.

The speech and the response from those who came to hear it underscored the fundamental disagreements among Christians about how to interpret and reconcile matters of war and peace with the scriptures they believe are the word of God.

Violence focus of speech

Berrigan's speech was publicized as a commentary on the Iraq war, but the priest addressed the greater issue of violence and "a spiritual malaise" under world leaders who he said are out of touch with thei humanity and willing to "waste the Earth in favor of power and control."

And Berrigan; a famed activist who was once one of the FBI's 10 "most wanted" fugitives for his anti-war activities; didn't restrain his criticism to political leaders. After one man asked him why Catholic leaders haven't been more vocal in their criticism of the war in Iraq, Berrigan said "we're smelling the rot of church and state ... religion goes down with the culture."

In January 2003, two months before the American invasion of Iraq, Pope John Paul II said an invasion of Iraq should be only a "last option" and, perhaps recalling his experience of living through the Nazi invasion of his Polish homeland, said war "is always a defeat for humanity."

The church has never officially said whether the Iraq war meets its "just war doctrine," and that point has been a subject of considerable debate among lay Catholics and clergy for some time.

Before he was elected pope, Benedict XVI publicly said he did not believe a preventative invasion of Iraq qualified as a just war under the conditions required by the Catholic Church.

Still, those who came to hear Berrigan said they were frustrated by the use of Christianity by some to justify the war. They invoked the terms "the religious right" and "the Christian right," and one woman who quizzed Berrigan blamed "some people who consider themselves Christians."

The Rev. Bill White of St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Pine Plains said he believes "the leadership of our church has been reshaped deliberately" in favor of political conservatism.

"It strikes me as something sinister coming from the very center of our church," White said.

It was a point that resonated with Marjorie Regan of Kingston, at least in terms of American church leaders.

"It's absolutely true," Regan said. "The church, at least in this area and this diocese, has become much more conservative."

Berrigan was forceful in his beliefs on the war, and said there is no ambiguity about the morality of conflict, no matter the justifications used. Terror, he said, is "a more honest word than deterrence, but the same word."

"One cannot be violent and non-violent any more than one can be worshipful and blasphemous," the priest said.

Nik Bonopartis can be reached at nbonopar@poughkeepsiejournal.com
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GOD BLESS those Presbyterians! Sound logic, solid reasoning and realistic down to Earth folks those Eastern NY Presby's.
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Dylan's Lyrics--WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead (March 20, 2006 death toll US soldiers 2311)
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.

Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music
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GOD BLESS Bob Dylan too!

-- Edited by nuclearlou at 06:37, 2006-03-20