A Framework For Understanding And Opposing Religious Extremism In The World

by Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director - LoveAllPeople.org

HTML version of this message, with more links, is located at http://www.loveallpeople.org/frameworkextremism.html

Religious extremism -- based on a very few false beliefs -- is a major contributing factor behind the most dangerous problems in the world today. This article briefly describes the situation and provides a starting point for correction and improvement.

THE MOST DANGEROUS FALSE BELIEFS

Muslim religious extremism falsely believes that God desires the suppression of all religions but Islam -- by force, if necessary. This justifies and encourages Islamic violence and conquest everywhere. In particular, this false belief is used to justify the 9/11 attacks in the USA and Islamic Terrorism throughout the world.

Jewish religious extremism falsely believes that the people of Israel are entitled by God to do whatever they choose to do to protect and expand the state of Israel. This leads to a willingness to murder/ torture/smash/kill/invade/defeat/overthrow/suppress/destroy anything which threatens the state of Israel in any way -- such as Iraq or southern Lebanon or the Palestinians.
Christian religious extremism falsely believes that the state of Israel can do no wrong, and that God is planning a Third World War, starting in the Middle East, prior to the return of Jesus Christ to rule the world. These two false beliefs -- widely held by right-wing Christians in the USA -- led directly to Bush's Crusader War in Iraq, and they will lead to a Third World War if they are not corrected.

HOW DID THESE FALSE BELIEFS ARISE?

In each case, the extremists developed these false beliefs by misreading selected obscure verses in their Holy Book, then by ignoring other clear and authoritative verses which contradicted their flawed understanding of these obscure verses.

The Muslim extremists misread passages about spiritual struggle to conclude that God permits armed struggle -- including murder -- against peaceful non-Muslims. This completely ignores Qur'an 2.256, which clearly states that there shall be "no compulsion in religion." If they believe that the Qur'an is the infallible word of God, why do they ignore this clear prohibition against using force to establish Islam?

The Jewish extremists misread passages about God's love for Israel to conclude that He allows them to do anything they choose to do, including "targeted assassinations" (murder) of their supposed enemies and bombing civilian apartment buildings because they think some "terrorists" might be inside. This completely ignores Exodus 20:13 -- one of the Ten Commandments -- which says "You shall not murder." If they believe that the Ten Commandments are God's basic Law, then why do they ignore this Commandment?

And the Christian extremists misread parts of Revelation, which is by far the most obscure and hard-to-understand book in the Bible, to conclude that a Third World War is necessary and desirable as part of God's will. This completely ignores the clear and authoritative command in Romans 12:18 -- "If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live at peace with all people." So how can they disregard this clear command to live at peace, and then choose to follow their own imaginative interpretation of a mystical vision in Revelation, which leads them directly into war?
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO CORRECT THESE FALSE BELIEFS?

The first thing is to recognize these false beliefs and understand the serious problems they create. This we have begun to do, above.

The next thing is to begin a Battle Of Ideas against these false beliefs: all of them, not just the Muslim ones. I propose that the verses I have identified above -- Qur'an 2.256, Exodus 20:13 and Romans 12:18 -- be used as the basic weapons in this Battle Of Ideas. I now call upon the serious, truth-seeking scholars of all religions to develop more and better ideas to combat these false beliefs which are causing so much trouble in God's world. And I call upon all journalists, politicians, and other opinion leaders to do everything they can to undermine and eliminate these false beliefs which support religious extremism and its resulting violence in the world.

Blessings to you. May the One God, Who created all things, help all of us His children.

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HTML version of this message, with more links, is located at http://www.loveallpeople.org/frameworkextremism.html

http://www.LoveAllPeople.org


Rev. Bill McGinnis is an Internet Christian minister, writer and publisher. He is Director of LoveAllPeople.org, a small private think tank in Alexandria, Virginia, and all of its related websites, including http://InternetChurchOfChrist.org - http://CommitteeForTheGoldenRule.org - http://CivicAmerican.com - and http://AmericanDemocrat.net. His agenda is to help maximize the happiness and well-being of all people

By Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director - LoveAllPeople.org

I am speaking now as an Internet Christian minister, to all those American voters and elected officials who consider themselves to be Christians. In particular, I am speaking to those Conservative Protestant Christians who have in the past been the most reliable supporters of President Bush, no matter what he has tried to do.

And here is my message to you: "Torture of prisoners is an obvious sin which no Christian should ever support." In case you think otherwise, here are the Scriptures which make this fact absolutely clear. I am quoting from the three Bible versions which are most favored by Conservative Protestant Christians: The the King James Version (KJV), the New International Version (NIV), and the New American Standard Version (NASB). All of these Bible quotations are provided by http://BibleGateway.com , a long-established trusted Christian source.

First, I cite Matthew 7:12, from Jesus' "Sermon On The Mount." In this Scripture, Jesus teaches us that all of "the Law and the Prophets" is summarized in this one verse. Please read it carefully, and then try to see how this Scripture permits torture of prisoners:

Matthew 7:12

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. (KJV)

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (NIV)

In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (NASB)

If you were a prisoner, would you like to be tortured? Obviously not. Therefore you should not torture your prisoners, if ever you have any. And we should not permit our Government to torture our prisoners, either. In America, We The People are the Government. Bush is our employee, and we can remove him from office by impeachment if we choose to do so, acting through our elected representatives in Congress. Therefore, his sins are our sins, unless we oppose him as strongly as we can.

Next, I cite Galatians 5:14, where the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is writing to the first-century Christians in Galatia (now part of Turkey.)

Galatians 5:14

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (KJV)

The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (NIV)

For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." (NASB)

And who is my neighbor? Jesus answered this exact question by telling the story of "The Good Samaritan," which teaches us that everyone is our neighbor. Also see
http://www.google.com/search?&q=%22the+good+samaritan%22&btnG=Google+Search
Also please notice that Matthew 7:12 and Galatians 5:14 both give the same instruction to us, namely, to treat all people with love, just as we would like to be treated in a similar situation.

But some people may say, "Yes, I know it is a sin to torture prisoners. But maybe it is necessary to accomplish the greater good of saving innocent lives."

In response to this, I cite First Corinthians 10:13, where Paul is filled with the Holy Spirit, writing to the Christians in Corinth. He teaches them that God will always give us a way to accomplish any good purpose without the need to sin.

1 Corinthians 10:13

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (KJV)

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (NIV)

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. (NASB)

If we want to avoid sin, God will always make a way for us to do so. Hungry people do not need to steal food. Cold people do not need to steal clothing. Lonely people do not need to have sex with another person's wife. Poor people do not need to covet another person's possessions. Fearful people do not need to bomb apartment buildings or torture their prisoners. Oppressed people do not need to murder innocent civilians.

God will always make a way for our legitimate needs to be met without causing us to sin. Count on it! Sin is always avoidable. It is never necessary for any of us to sin against other people or against God. If we keep on looking, trusting God to give us what we need, He will always provide us with an acceptable way to accomplish any good purpose.

THE TICKING BOMB

"Yes," you may say. "But what about the Ticking Bomb scenario, where a nuclear bomb has been planted, set to go off in an hour. You have captured a prisoner who knows where the bomb is located. If you don't torture the prisoner, to make him tell you where the bomb is located, a million innocent people will surely die."

This is the kind of situation most frequently given by those who feel it is necessary to use torture to extract information. "Isn't it better to torture or kill one person than to allow a million other people to die?"

In reply, let me point out that people being tortured will tell you anything they think will stop the pain, whether it is true or not. During the Satanic period of medieval Christianity -- when they had the Inquisitions and the Crusades -- Christian priests would routinely torture suspected witches in order to extract "information" about other witches. As it turned out, most of this information was completely wrong, because the tortured prisoners would simply start naming innocent people in order to stop the pain. And thousands of non-witches were burned at the stake as a result. For details see http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=inquisition&btnG=Google+Search


Similarly, in the Ticking Bomb scenario, the tortured prisoner could very well give false information, just to stop the pain: "The bomb is in the big green barn in the next town." You go running off to the big green barn to disarm the bomb, but it's not there! Meanwhile, at the true location of the bomb, it goes off as planned, killing the million people. Your torture has gained you nothing.

And so it is in our present situation. Our badly-advised President truly believes we need to torture our prisoners to extract needed information to protect innocent Americans. (Disregard the obvious lie that "what we are doing is not torture." Of course it's torture. Are you blind?)

But he is wrong. And it is the moral obligation of every Christian to oppose him in this sinful, needless pursuit.

When Judgment Day comes for you, and the Lord asks you, "Why did you let them torture the prisoners?" - what are you going to tell Him, "The President said we needed to do it?" I hope not.

Blessings to you. May God help us all.

Html page is located at
http://www.loveallpeople.org/tortureofprisonersisanobvioussin.html

Labels: Bush, prisoners, terror, torture

As described in a Princeton University report released Sept. 13, 2006

News Release By Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director
LoveAllPeople.org and ElectionFraudPrevention.com


Researchers at Princeton University have released a new "Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine," which finds many possibilities for election fraud in these particular voting machines. Their report also recognizes that similar problems likely exist with other Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines, saying, "Simply put, many computer scientists doubt that paperless DREs can be made reliable and secure, and they expect that any failures of such systems would likely go undetected."

Here is a direct quotation from this report, describing some of the ways by which the next election could be stolen (most footnotes removed) . . .

2.2 Injecting Attack Code

"To carry out these attacks, the attacker must somehow install his malicious software on one or more voting machines. If he can get physical access to a machine for as little as one minute, he can install the software manually. The attacker can also install a voting machine virus that spreads to other machines, allowing him to commit widespread fraud even if he only has physical access to one machine or memory card.

2.2.1 Direct Installation

"An attacker with physical access to a machine would have least three methods of installing malicious software. The first is to create an EPROM chip containing a program that will install the attack code into the machine's flash memory, and then to open the machine, install the chip on its motherboard, and reboot from the EPROM.

"The second method is to exploit a back door feature in Diebold's code to manually install the attack files from a memory card. When the machine boots, it checks whether a file named explorer.glb exists on the removable memory card. If such a file is present, the machine boots into Windows Explorer rather than Diebold's BallotStation election software. An attacker could insert a memory card containing this file, reboot the machine, and then use Explorer to copy the attack files onto the machine or run them directly from the card.

"The third method exploits a service feature of the machine's bootloader. On startup, the machine checks the removable memory card for a file named fboot.nb0. If this file exists, the machine replaces the bootloader code in its onboard flash memory with the file's contents. An attacker could program a malicious bootloader, store it on a memory card as fboot.nb0, and reboot the machine with this card inserted, causing the Diebold bootloader to install the malicious software. (A similar method would create a malicious operating system image.)

"The first method requires the attacker to remove several screws and lift off the top of the machine to get access to the motherboard and EPROM. The other methods only require access to the memory card slot and power button, which are both behind a locked door on the side of the machine. The lock is easily picked -- one member of our group, who has modest locksmithing skills, can pick the lock consistently in less than 10 seconds. Alternatively, this slot can be reached by removing screws and opening the machine. Some attackers will have access to keys that can open the lock -- all AccuVote-TS machines in certain states use identical keys, there are thousands of keys in existence, and these keys can be copied at a hardware or lock store.

"A poll worker, election official, technician, or other person who had private access to a machine for as little as one minute could use these methods without detection. Poll workers often do have such access; for instance, in a widespread practice called 'sleepovers,' machines are sent home with poll workers the night before the election.

2.2.2 Voting Machine Viruses

"Rather than injecting code into each machine directly, an attacker could create a computer virus that would spread from one voting machine to another. Once installed on a single 'seed' machine, the virus would spread to other machines by methods described below, allowing an attacker with physical access to one machine (or card) to infect a potentially large population of machines. The virus could be programmed to install malicious software, such as a vote-stealing program or denial-of-service attack, on every machine it infected.

"When the machine is rebooted, it normally emits a musical chime that might be noticed during a stealth attack; but this sound can be suppressed by plugging headphones (or just a headphone connector) into the machine's headphone jack.

"To prove that this is possible, we constructed a demonstration virus that spreads itself automatically from machine to machine, installing our demonstration vote-stealing software on each infected system. Our demonstration virus, described in Section 4.3, can infect machines and memory cards. An infected machine will infect any memory card that is inserted into it. An infected memory card will infect any machine that is powered up or rebooted with the memory card inserted. Because cards are transferred between machines during vote counting and administrative activities, the infected population will grow over time.

"Diebold delivers software upgrades to the machines via memory cards: a technician inserts a memory card containing the updated code and then reboots the machine, causing the bootloader to install the new code from the memory card. This upgrade method relies on the correct functioning of the machine's bootloader, which is supposed to copy the upgraded code from the memory card into the machine's flash memory. But if the bootloader were already infected by a virus, then the virus could make the bootloader behave differently. For example, the bootloader could pretend to install the updates as expected but instead secretly propagate the virus onto the memory card. If the technician later used the same memory card to 'upgrade' other machines, he would in fact be installing the virus on them. Our demonstration virus illustrates these spreading techniques.

"Memory cards are also transferred between machines in the process of transmitting election definition files to voting machines before an election. According to Diebold, 'Data is downloaded onto the [memory] cards using a few [AccuVote] units, and then the stacks of [memory] cards are inserted into the thousands of [AccuVote] terminals to be sent to the polling places.'

"If one of the few units that download the data is infected, it will transfer the infection via the 'stacks of [memory] cards' into many voting machines."


You can download a complete copy of this report in PDF format by clicking => http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/ts-paper.pdf

You can visit the report's main website at http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/
HTML version of this page at http://www.loveallpeople.org/howtostealthenextelection.html

Blessings to you. May God help us all.


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http://www.loveallpeople.org

http://www.loveallpeople.org/electionfraudprevention.html