SPEAKING OUT:

Militarized America Is Approaching Spiritual Death

King knew of the atrocities that our GIs were ordered to commit in the name of “anti-communism.” He saw the connections between the killing of dispensable “gooks” on the battlefields of Southeast Asia and the oppression, impoverishment, imprisoning and lynching of “dispensable blacks” in America.

King knew that the opposition to his nonviolence movement was formidable: from cruel Klan members and their sympathizers in the fascist south, to King’s conservative Southern “Christian” clergy colleagues, to indifferent bystanders everywhere to J. Edgar Hoover’s racist FBI in the north. Those forces were dangerous enough, but by speaking out he was opposing an entrenched pro-war system with the capability for unleashing enormous violence against any and all perceived enemies, domestic or foreign.

Tremendous fortunes are made in every war, and the Viet Nam War was no exception. Weapons manufacturers thrived, becoming more deeply entrenched with every passing year. Huge expenditures were made for weapons research and development. Huge numbers of workers were hired in the weapons development and manufacture. And the economy boomed—but on borrowed money. And so the war was popular with investors, the elite, right-wing Christians, the Pentagon, the CIA, the politicians, the defense industries and the people who needed the work. But King’s anti-war stance threatened those groups' self-interests, and exactly one year later he was dead.

King’s April 4, 1967 speech at the Riverside Church in New York City was too truthful for the masters of war who had up to that time brain-washed the populace to believe that the Viet Nam War was just. And so at first they tried to silence him by a massive disinformation campaign, as has been done to idealistic and, therefore dangerous, progressive thinkers such as Jesus of Nazareth, Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Paul Wellstone. The easily brain-washable public bought the lies, and support for King and his civil rights movement waned. The U.S. Army, the FBI and various law enforcement officials led the campaign to discredit King and, on April 4, 1968 a hired assassin pulled the trigger that ended the life of another in a long string of liberal prophetic voices.

King was right about a lot of things, including his prophecy that America was losing its soul. Violence of all types is epidemic, especially the violence of poverty and racism. Gun violence, from homicide to suicide, is also epidemic. Those making obscene profits in the weapons industry have sabotaged even the most modest handgun and assault rifle controls—all the while flooding America and the world with increasingly lethal weapons. It may be too late now to stop the coming carnage.

The 1980s and 1990s, the American Decades of Greed I and II, were spent trying to attain wealth and power, whatever the cost. Greed blows out the spark of the divine in all those who succumb to it, and the inevitable loss of compassion in both the winners and losers worsens the plight of the suffering billions of victims who live in the developing world—whose resources have been stolen from them, and are being stolen from them at this very moment.

At the end of his Viet Nam speech, King concluded:

"War is not the answer. We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace and justice throughout the developing world—a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality and strength without sight.

"Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter—but beautiful—struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons (and daughters) of God, and our brothers (and sisters) wait eagerly for our response.”

America’s spiritual corpse is being hoisted up on top of the idolatrous altars of godless, soulless capitalism, compassionless militarism, excess luxury wealth, blind patriotism and the decidedly un-Christ-like God of War.

Is it too late for a resuscitation attempt on the hulk? Is there the political will to even try?