I do have a play called The Predator. Not about a dirty old man but about dirty new tricks of the US Government with a drone called The Predator. You can read it at www.knowdrones.org, or www.paxchristiusa.org. Go to resources on both sites.
People around the country have been reading the play. It played this Sunday at All Saints Church in Syracuse. I would have liked to have gone but I would have needed a pass from my Probation Officer and didn't have one. I'm confined to Broome County NY - dangerous old dude, don't you know?
I protest killing, assassinations; watch out!
If you can give a plug for The Predator, that would help our effort. Those who saw the play Sunday afternoon said about 45 people were there but 15 were Muslims and want to do it again"and two students of theater from Manhattan who hope to find a small place downtown to put it on"poco o poco, say the Latinos.
JB: I don't have to plug the play, Jack. You just did! Speaking of your literary efforts, The Predator is only one of them. I understand you've written several books that also combine your literary talent with your political beliefs. Can you tell us about them, please?
JG: Sure. I have two published novels and another to be ready by late spring of 2015. Absolute Flanigan and The Wisdom Box are coming of age novels written with young men in mind. The protagonist in each novel struggles with issues of patriotism and values. In Absolute Flanigan, Peter Flanigan is a tough young Irish-American but his conscience cannot accept training to kill human beings. He has few supporters among family, friends or clergy The period of time is WWII, the war some will call the 'Good War'. Patriotism is at a fever pitch. To oppose training to kill is considered not just unpatriotic but cowardly. Peter loves his country and is no coward. He refuses to even register for the draft on his 18th birthday. Peter's adventure is just beginning.
In The Wisdom Box, a Cornell entomology professor adopts a five year old boy. The professor, an agnostic with little time for organized religion, wants her child to have strong basic values of love, compassion and respect. She works hard to do that and is favorably assisted by her secret husband, a Catholic priest with a parish in Ithaca, NY.
In her house high about Ithaca Falls, her son, Frank, is fascinated with a strange box, a family heirloom that has gold plates with questions inscribed in Spanish - questions of values and morality. Frank, deeply influenced by the wisdom box questions, is led into dangerous confrontations with powerful forces of injustice. The Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War are contemporary to The Wisdom Box.
JB: You're a busy guy! How much do you think your Quaker upbringing has contributed to your political views?
JG: I'm flattered that you thought I was a Quaker. I've gone to Quaker meetings and so respect the Quakers and other Peace Church members such as the Brethren, Mennonites, and Amish. I'm a Quaker in spirit but still on the books as a Catholic. I believe the greatest challenge in Christianity is to move Christians back to their essential beliefs prior to Constantine. That means that the Vatican has to support nonviolence. Keep in mind that the Vatican, the holder of the Just War Theory from the post Constantine period almost 1800 years ago to now, agreed to sidestep the teachings of Jesus Christ and accept the teachings of Church Fathers such as Ambrose, Augustine and Aquinas. In doing so, they overrode the nonviolent message of Jesus Christ. Christians have become the greatest killers of all religions. The Muslims don't come close.
So, yes, my upbringing as a Catholic has contributed to my political views. I refuse to accept the hypocrisy of either Church or State. The Church betrays the teaching of Christ. The United States betrays the Constitution and a system of values that the Founding Fathers emphasized, even if some of those 'men' were also hypocrites.
So, yes. Until Christian sects move away from support and involvement in killing I can't be a firm member of any of these sects. My upbringing may have been Catholic and I still believe in the essential teachings of Catholic Social Teaching that has as its first principle the respect and dignity of the individual person.
Did you ever see the photo of the Catholic Cardinal of Vienna saluting Hitler as the Fuhrer rode into Vienna during the Austrian takeover (Anschluss) in 1938? Or how about Catholic Cardinal Spellman of NY visiting American-devastated Viet Nam in 1968 and blessing our troops, tanks, planes, etc.?
I don't want to be a part of that thinking. I want to be a part of the movement to turn back the lies to the central belief of loving one's neighbors, not killing them.
But hey, our WWII national religious song wasn't Onward Christian Soldiers, it was Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.
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