Who Would Jesus Let Die? (a.k.a the spineless and hypocritical silence of Progressive Christians United OC on drug policy reform and the War on Drugs)

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Who Would Jesus Let Die?

I was going to use this post to talk about the annual celebration of our country’s first illegal immigrant that justifies closing our financial markets, government offices and banks, but I feel that we have enough anti-Columbus Day sentiment from enough of the bloggers here at the Orange Juice that you don’t need a voice from the indigenous population to weigh in. Here’s my three word comment for what it is worth. Fuck Christopher Columbus. Good, I finally got that out of the way.

There is an issue that has weighed on my mind for quite some time regarding so-called “progressive Christians” in Orange County (specifically the Orange County chapter of Progressive Christians Uniting) and their awful silence on the issue of the War on Drugs here and in Mexico, our growing prison population and their enthusiastic support of political candidates that favor restricting people’s safe access to the medication of their choice (spec. cannabis sativa) even though they claim that they support “universal heath care access for all.” With the Department of Justice seeking to escalate their war on compassionate caregivers/marijuana dispensaries in California and in other states where medical marijuana is legal, I asked myself where are these “progressive Christians who favor universal access to health care on this issue? Is universal access OK as long as it favors the whims of Big Pharma companies and the poisons that they continue to peddle?

Last year during the Yes on 19 campaign, I reached out to several members of the faith community on this specific issue of cannabis prohibition and the War on Drugs. A good percentage of us on the Yes on 19 campaign worked with a lot of these progressive faith leaders to help defeat Proposition 8 in 2008 when the call came from them to stand up and help preserve the dignity and respect of the LGBT people who wish to lead their lives in peace and dignity. So I foolishly thought that some of these same faith leaders who begged and pleaded with us to defeat Proposition 8 in 2008 would be more than willing to stand with us when it came to helping bring an end to cannabis prohibition. I asked members of PCU-OC for several opportunities to talk to them as a group about this issue and how the faith community could be a force in standing up for reforming our drug policy. A policy that has led to creating a permanent underclass in ethnic minority communities, a growing population of non-violent drug offenders (mostly ethnic minorities) in the prison industrial complex and several thousand deaths in the United States and Mexico (30,000 and counting) thanks to the escalating War on Drugs here and abroad. A war that costs us billions of taxpayer dollars every year and that is continuing to bankrupt us as a nation.

Remember....It's all about the children!

You think that it would have been a natural fit for a alliance to be forged between the Yes on 19 campaign and Progressive Christians United-Orange County since there are a number of relevant “social justice” issues when it comes to addressing ending the War on Drugs. They like to talk about how they like to stand up for the poor and oppressed. They love to talk about universal heath care access for all as a human right. You would think that their rhetoric would match up with their actions. “Silence kills,” right? I mean, they seem like pretty nice people.

More like pretty nice, ignorant fools that have aided and abetted in the deaths of thousands of men, women and children in the United States and Mexico and a growing prison population of non-violent drug offenders over the last several years. The “progressive” faith community in their silence on the issue of drug policy reform and their refusal to take a stand against our country’s Drug War and the Federal government’s harassment of compassionate caregivers and sick people has enabled our government to waste taxpayer resources and help create a permanent underclass in our country and in Mexico. Of course, if this was done under the guise of the Bush Administration, they’d be marching in the streets. The last time I checked, Alberto Gonzalez is no longer the Attorney General and the mealy mouthed Texan is golfing somewhere or putzing around with his horses on his ranch in Crawford. So if Obama and Holder lead the raids, it must be OK? I mean it is all about “the children.”

So what was I told by one of these clergy? It’s about attracting families and children. Wait a minute, I’m a parent of a 5th grader who probably knows more about this issue than some of these people. And yes, we have had that talk about drugs and what misinformation she may hear in her compulsory D.A.R.E. class next year. No, it’s about drugs they told me.

So, to the members of the “progressive” faith community. Let me get this straight. It doesn’t matter to you that:

Our prisons are overcrowded and filled with non-violent drug offenders.

That drug cartels continue to wreak havoc in our inner cities and our schools.

That thousands of men, women and children have died at the hands of drug cartels and rogue law enforcement personnel as a result of our War on Drugs.

That the civil liberties of our people continue to be violated as a result of the War on Drugs

That sick people are denied access to the medicine of their choice

That compassionate caregivers are being harassed by the government for providing people with alternative medical treatments that have been proven to be safe and non-toxic as opposed to the poisons that are distributed by clinics and are deemed safe by the FDA and their enablers in the Big Pharma lobbies

And yet you have the gall to tell me that “silence kills?” Let me provide you with some pictures that are the results of your silence on this issue.

The end product of the silence of Progressive Christians Uniting on the issue of the War on Drugs. Silence kills, right?

But it must be God’s will right? Isn’t that what they taught you at Harvard Divinity School or Claremont?

So if that’s the case, everyone must be worthy of God’s love as long as they don’t use cannabis to deal with chronic pain or the aftereffects of chemotherapy? Am I right? Is that what you are trying to tell us? Or does your silence and refusal to take a stand on these specific issues reveal the fact that the whole lot of you “progressive” Christians are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites and frauds? In short, your actions don’t match your rhetoric. Don’t worry, its a common trait among aspiring politicians from the Republican and Democratic parties. After all, the Obama Administration can do no wrong even though they made every effort to block legislation that you claim to favor. (See their action’s on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as an example) Wasn’t this your man who said that he would not harass medical marijuana caregivers in 2008? Is this the “change that we can believe in?”

Of course, these where all rhetorical questions that I am asking. In closing I have one question left for you on this issue regarding your silence and refusal to take a stand on this issue. We stood with you on opposing Proposition 8 in 2008 and yet when we asked for your help and your support on Proposition 19, you remained silent. Even members of Saddleback Church’s AIDS ministry stood with us on this issue (Yes, the Saddleback Church led by Rick Warren. Remember Slick Rick? The one you despised for his support of Prop 8.). But you remained silent. Why? You, the people who claim to be the carriers of Jesus Christ’s true message of love and tolerance.

You tell me that “silence kills?” Let me leave you with one final image of your silence on this issue. Besides, ethnic minorities are only effective when you are pining for universal health care or immigrant rights. Am I right? In your silence on the Drug War, your silence leads to horrific things such as this.

More byproducts of the "progressive" faith community's silence on the Drug War. Or as they like to call it "collateral damage."

Let me ask you this one final question, you followers of the more “loving and compassionate” Jesus. Who Would Jesus Let Die?