My name is Ed Frey. I speak on behalf of the many voters and future voters who are exercising their constitutional right to intervene in politics and elections. Our work seeks to create Open and Accountable Government. We can be found at www.Voters-Intervene.org, We are starting now, on Labor Day 2024, right here on Mt. Hermon Road in Scotts Valley, the city with the highest proportion of Christians in Santa Cruz County.
We chose a largely Christian community because 2/3rds of all Americans claim to favor Christianity, and we hope that, once we reveal here, in this sermon, what is generally considered to be the best kept secret in Christianity (according to leading theologians), that revelation alone will set off a massive attitude shift among Americans, the kind of change that Barack Obama seemed to be talking about in 2008 when he was running for a first term in the White House: Over and over again during that fateful campaign he said, and I quote his exact words: “I want to not only get us out of Iraq – I want to change the mindset that got us into Iraq.”
The two current major-party candidates for President, though, are sending the traditional American message to voters, that our armed forces are vital to protect us all from harm – one candidate is even assuring everyone that our military forces will always remain “lethal”. We can’t claim surprise at these messages – our military power has been used aggressively throughout our history for many corrupt causes, and nearly all Americans seem to assume that we will always use our military that way, especially now that we maintain over 800 military bases in other countries all around the world. By way of comparison, China has only one or two such bases outside its borders.
So, here is that best-kept secret: Jesus Christ stood up one day in front of a group of his followers and uttered the following command: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy: But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you …” You can look it up, it’s right there in the New Testament, Matthew, Chapter 5, Verses 43 and 44, the crucial, but well-suppressed, passage of the Sermon on the Mount.
Martin Luther King wrote about Christ’s message; here is part of what he said: “Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, the command to love one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival. Love even for enemies is the key to the solution of the problems of our world. Jesus is not an impractical idealist; he is the practical realist … when Jesus said ‘Love your enemy’, he was not unmindful of its stringent qualities. Yet he meant every word of it.”
Our intervention focuses on the Congressional races; Congress is the place where our laws get written. The Speaker of the House claims to be a devout Christian, and so do most other incumbents and candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives. We therefore challenge every one of those politicians to take a firm stand: “Do you or do you not honor Christ’s command to love your enemies?” And if you do, is it not your duty to reject any proposal to declare war or pay for war? Taking such a stand would not violate the separation of church and state – it would be a politician merely confirming support for an ancient principle of ethical behavior.
As Dr. King said, this command has its “stringent qualities.” To follow it, one has to make a conscious decision to never, under any circumstance, treat anyone as an enemy, but instead open up your heart and seek peace.
In a world beset by vicious warfare and the ultimate threat of nuclear annihilation, the most urgent task facing humankind is to finally, once and for all, establish a reliable system for the peaceful resolution of mass conflicts. The command to love one’s enemies is a compelling argument to support that task.
We need to focus in on Obama’s “mindset that got us into Iraq”, the widespread human tendency that starts at a very tender age to throw a fist, a brickbat, a bullet, a missile or some other weapon at anyone who offends us. We can call that affliction “projectile dysfunction”, and banishing this human trait seems more important to the cause of peace than trying to control the ownership of guns. Americans alone own about 400 million guns, and they will be more amenable to attitude control than to gun control or government confiscation of their weapons.
The Declaration of Independence teaches that government must be guided by the “CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.” The best way for The People to express their consent is by demanding ongoing public dialogue, the missing ingredient almost everywhere in the world. Regular 30-minute televised conversations every month between politicians and citizens (or the citizen’s proxy spokesperson) is the best remedy for our lack of public dialogue. This process could lead to national consensus on the big issues, and our government would be guided by the consensus, i.e., this expression of “Consent”. We can ask every politician: “Do you support this kind of Open and Accountable Government, as defined at http://www.Voters-Intervene.org?”. For the politicians who fail to respond positively, we can challenge them, on this question and also on their devotion to love of enemies. This will allow us to hold them fully accountable in public. Finally, we must claim our First Amendment right to receive information. We need reliable information about what’s going on between paid lobbyists and politicians, so we need a law that makes all their communications public, oral and written communications. Then, and only then, will we have due process in lawmaking. If you agree with these thoughts, please help spread the word: http://www.Voters-Intervene.org.
Voters Intervene 