Amazing Grace

In these troubled times, I appreciate more than ever the spiritual Amazing Grace, especially the first stanza:

Amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now I’m found.

Was blind but now I see.

I have always found the melody grippingly moving, and always want to sing along,  but it was probably the film version of Amazing Grace, based on the true story of the movement against the slave trade in 18th century Great Britain, that imbued the song with the power it has for me. That world-shattering anti-slavery movement was led by William Wilberforce, who was inspired by English poet, clergyman, and former slave-trader John Newton (1725–1807), who wrote the song.

To me, Amazing Grace is not simply a rapturous expression of Christian faith, although Christianity was the particular vehicle embraced by John Newton to rescue him from the evils in which he had become ensnared. Rather, I see it as a song of redemption and hope that reaches out across estranging and often evilly-manipulated divisions of religion, race, gender, nationality. Also, I resonate to the idea of grace as a force and gift available to all, not restricted to people claiming a particular set of beliefs in a particular religion.

My recent fantasy was that somehow Amazing Grace could become a tenacious torrent of sound that would envelop all the pseudo-Christians, deceived disciples, and lost souls of other religions who profess love and peace but promote hatred and perpetrate violence.  And while it was at it, I hoped the torrent would sweep up all the angry, frightened, defensive, and sometimes venemous people who vilify fighters against injustice.

Among the people I would like to see swept up are those who scorn Colin Kaepernick for standing up against racism by sitting down during the playing of a national anthem written by a slave owner, originally including a stanza degrading runaway slaves, and a sadly apt metaphor for a nation awash in centuries of murderous racism.

My grand fantasy for the future is that the world, before it is too late, will replace national anthems and battle hymns of republics with Amazing Grace and other songs that honor love and redemption rather than violence and vicious victories.

 

Fallujah: Death and destruction again, Part I

By guest author Ian Hansen

As a supporter of human rights and locally-controlled democracy in Iraq, I am dismayed to see Fallujah fall to Al Qaeda.

Al-Qa'ida training manual
Al-Qa’ida training manual, CIA Virtual Museum. Image in public domain, from Wikimedia Commons

Some may see poetic justice for the U.S. in this development: the U.S. war of aggression has clearly backfired in Fallujah. But there’s no justice in it for the people of that historic city. I would have been happy to see Fallujah residents lead a nonviolent civil disobedience movement to regain control over their communities, but the ascendance of Al Qaeda there is a tragedy.

The people of Fallujah have already endured enough massacres, destruction of the city’s ancient buildings and mosques, and chemical weapons horrors from the U.S. siege in 2004. And although the draconian rule of the U.S.-aligned Iraqi Security Forces should be overthrown by local democratic rule, the siege by Al Qaeda is, if anything, a regression, not an improvement.

Al Qaeda is not a progressive organization, and there is nothing redeeming about it. It’s a violent oppressive scourge on Islam in much the same way that the Christian Coalition–and the U.S. military-industrial-ideological machine generally–is a violent and oppressive scourge on Christianity.

It is not a coincidence that Al Qaeda as a movement arises largely from the Arabian Peninsula, most of which is controlled by an oil-rich U.S.-Israeli ally (Saudi Arabia). Saudi Arabia–one of the most draconian autocracies in the Middle East–is playing a disgraceful role in the Syrian disaster right now; it just got around to abolishing slavery in 1962. Al Qaeda is at odds with the Saudi regime in obvious ways, but in other obvious ways Al Qaeda mirrors its core values.

And I don’t think that violent decision-makers in the U.S. actually want Al Qaeda to disappear (though until more evidence pours in, this is more of an accusation against our leadership’s unconscious intentions than their conscious ones).

Even at the time of 9/11, Al Qaeda was originally a pretty paltry and unpopular group. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the drone assassinations, and the other Joint Special Operation Command-CIA paramilitary killings all over the world seem to have only magnified Al Qaeda’s international presence.

Ian Hansen, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at York College, City University of New York. His research focuses in part on how witness for human rights and peace can transcend explicit political ideology. He is also on the Steering Committee for Psychologists for Social Responsibility.

Humiliation: Terry Jones and the deadliest of emotions

Poster of Terry Jones: Intolerance breeds hatred
Poster by Eric Gulliver, 2011

If you have ever been deeply humiliated—by a schoolyard bully, members of a gang, even a loved one—you know what feelings of powerlessness and rage can beset you. Humiliation is exactly what was done by Pastor Terry Jones when he followed through on his threat to burn the Qu’ran last week.

Sadly, Jones has achieved many of his probable goals: he has proven himself able to defy that bugaboo, the government; he has gained notoriety as a crusader for the supremacy of his hate-filled form of Christianity; he has incited the violence he knew he would incite, thereby making a few small groups of Muslims look like vicious animals.

The dangers of humiliation are many:

  • Amnesty International has designated humiliation as psychological torture, along with sleep deprivation, isolation, and mock executions.
  • Efforts at humiliating the enemy in times of armed conflict can also take a markedly physical form, as when the armed forces of one side rape the women of the other side.

Humiliation has been widely recognized as an experience that can lead to many forms of violent confrontation, including war and terrorism.  For example:

  • Many historians believe that humiliation of the German people at the end of World War I  led to the rise of Hitler and World War II. Allied powers were sufficiently convinced by this argument to prevent a similar humiliation of the defeated powers after World War II.
  • Perceptions of historical injustice and humiliation have been identified as factors leading to suicide bombing and other forms of terrorism. When individuals and groups believe that they have been repeatedly and unjustifiably humiliated, they may decide they have nothing to lose by committing violent and punitive acts of revenge.

Let us all work to be sure that Pastor Terry Jones does not achieve what is likely his ultimate goal–a genocidal attack on Muslims.  Let us hope that he is jailed for the rest of his life for violating international law and the dignity of adherents to Islam.

Let us also consider alternative ways to cope with people who frighten and anger us. I will have some suggestions on that topic in Thursday’s post.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology