"Sorry, Mr. president, you don't serve the God who liberates through grace and patience, love and affection. You serve a god with Texan features..You have dishonored thousands and tens of thousands of fathers and mothers.. Mr. president, be not anxious.".
Pamphlet against the False Prophet, George W. Bush
By Juergen Fliege
[This article is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.juergen-fliege.de/archiv/prophet.htm. Juergen Fliege’s recent book “Streitschrift wider den falschen Propheten George W. Bush” is already in its 17th edition.]
The Iraq war is over. However George W. Bush is planning the next stages in the “crusade against evil” and sees himself called as “God’s instrument”. Juergen Fliege sees the Levite in the American president. The main reproach is that George Walker Bush poisons faith and misuses the Bible. In the tradition of Martin Luther, Fliege beats the sanctimonious president at his own game, the Bible.
The dreadful Iraq war is over, thanks be to God. The US government appeared “deeply satisfied” with the course of its expedition, a news reporter said on the radio. I am deeply alarmed, not deeply satisfied. Firstly, far too much suffering was inflicted on innocent people. Secondly, the belligerent single-handed effort in the Wild West style oblivious to international law will have terrible consequences for future world peace. Thirdly, George Walker Bush, the president of the most powerful state of the earth, will interpret this victory as a proof of his faith. This is fatal and will drive him further in his false faith. I belong to the people who have lost something: people, orders and hope.
What could bring the most powerful man of the world back to humility? The pamphlet of a German pastor? Hardly. I write this warning of the false prophet George W. Bush Jr, this blasphemer, so many may not be thrown in confusion with his sanctimonious speech about a false god.
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
You, Mr. President, roam like a wolf in the pious sheep’s clothing of our Christian flocks and try to win them for your interests. You are somewhat successful in your own land. In speaking of your “good conscience”, you said you were “in complete peace” with your decision for war against Iraq.
You grant access in the White House to the dear God, Mr. President, in daily Bible studies. Could it be that the one who really appears at your invitation is not the Lord of hosts?… Whoever says God need not mean God. What you do, Mr. President George W. Bush, is cry “Lord, Lord” but mean “America, America”.
In 1985 you came “to personal faith” through the conversion preacher Billy Graham. You were a slave to alcohol at that time. Could it be that you exchanged one drug for another, one dependency for another?
Remember the feeling, one drinks and feels one with the world. This is a wondrous feeling, a religious feeling. Feeling one with God and nature can be produced through many kinds of drugs, through tablets, alcohol, narcotics and also through faith. None of these including the last must involve God. Could your sanctimonious idol be your new Johnny Walker that keeps you from really understanding the teaching of the man from Nazareth?
The great heavenly Father could have defeated evil in a second dramatic act after the gigantic dramatic act of the good creation. However the story of Noah’s ark ended very differently than expected. God did not stamp out evil with the greatest flood of all time. Evil continued in Noah’s family.
The Father God of our ancestors was and is capable of learning. He remembered an opposite tactic. He showed the patience of an angel. Patience is the true demonstration of piety. Although evil exists, God will not send punishment any more “as long as the earth stands”.
If God didn’t succeed, how can the “axis of evil” be broken by you, George Walker Bush, one of 1.9 billion Christians?
The Shattering of the Ten Commandments
When one of us runs about enlightened without seeing the others, the ancient biblical texts must be on the table. The new spirit must be measured by the ancient documents, above all by the Ten Commandments. Brother Bush, with all due respect, you have broken all of them with one blow.
You shall not covet. You seduced your oil barons and their partners: …”I want more, more, more!” You are the president of the greediest land of the earth. Do you know that? Stop the greed! Greed is quasi the ;original sin. You must unmask this deadly sin, Mr. President.
You shall not bear false witness. Whoever renounces greed must learn to reject lies. Lies are inseparably part of the war trade. Wars begin with lies. Wars are waged with lies. The victor returns home with lies to celebrate himself.
You shall not steal. The history of the Bush family and their friends is the history of oil traders who earned their livelihood with black gold. Haven’t we advanced further in the last years than the battle at Little Big Horn where your ancestors took Indian land with all its treasures? That the energy conglomerates financed your election campaign and propelled you to the most decisive office of the world doesn’t astonish me.
You shall not commit adultery. You are married. Without your wife, you would not have mastered your many personal life crises. Hats off to your wife! However you have not only broken one marriage. You have broken thousands and thousands of marriages! Martin Luther, the Reformer from old Europe, warned that a general who takes the wives of men killed or slain breaks their marriages.
You shall not kill. The wilderness God on Sinai didn’t mean murdering. God meant killing and forbad any commentary…To increase your election chances as president, you killed more people in a short time than ever in the history of Texas. Now there is killing in Iraq! In Syria, the fear of people rises of becoming the next victims of your death sentences.
You shall honor your father and your mother. The Fourth commandment doesn’t only involve your own father and your own mother. You have dishonored thousands and tens of thousands of fathers and mothers. You have taken the crowns of their life by taking their sons and daughters. Parents are dishonored when their children must be buried under the earth – whether US citizens or Iraqis.
It isn’t time to be on the lookout for God’s signs in the stillness of the Sabbath. The first three commandments accuse you, Mr. President. The battle noise and the victor’s frenzy are great. The other gods you serve, power, wealth and fear, can only be outlined here. What does it mean when “Almighty” is inscribed on a gun barrel of your army and your tanks bear the name of the father of our faith, Abraham? Sorry, Mr. president, you don’t serve the God who liberates through grace and patience, love and affection. You serve a god with Texan features.
As a reasonable person, one cannot assume that the deity accepts the proposals from the Oval Office or anywhere else on earth as improvement proposals of a higher world order. What kind of naivety prays to the dear God to march into war? This is a religiosity on the level of a child’s prayer, more exactly the spiritual level of a pre-pubescent child. I fear that you never need to justify yourself for your action on earth. However in our Christian creed, we remember for almost two thousand years that a special judgment awaits each of us at the end of our life. I will stand there just like you, Juergen from Tutzing (Bavaria) alongside George Walker from Midland (Texas). Our Father sits on the heavenly throne. Our defender, Mr. President, Jesus of Nazareth, is at his right hand. Do you remember? The Sermon on the Mount spoke in an incredibly naïve way about love of the enemy.
Mr. President, be not anxious. Jesus defends and doesn’t condemn. He is your intercessor and my intercessor, our advocate. The Father of life remembers and doesn’t punish. Jesus will also help you up, Mr. President, when guilt chokes your throat. He will stand behind you and put his hand on your shoulder when you must hear and endure the tales of woe of your victims.
Whoever has a presentiment of this great last judgment begins with “humility”, the lesson of life and faith. Humility is the behavioral pattern of people who feel that a greater one rules over us on whose grace we depend. Humility is courage to serve – that power that patiently preserves the world with all its Muslims and Christians, Jews and Buddhists, esoterics and atheists, fundamentalists and liberals, Bushs and Flieges.
If some think they must resort to weapons, we must draw others into peace… We can do this in every relation, every marriage, every neighborhood and every job. Everyone can strive for more peacefulness so evil and conflict in the world don’t become excessive.
I am more and more determined to join in a real crusade for peace. As long as thousands and tens of thousands march to war to kill for whatever good or bad cause, I will set out for peace in a new way everyday. I hope you will come along with me!
Original: Pamphlet against the False Prophet, George W. Bush