“Help me be the living water of forgiveness, God. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.”

It’s September of 2008 and I’m feeling very hopeful about the future of our country because so many people of faith have embraced Barack Obama.

Many have recognized that the policies of the Bush administration, in their essence, have been anti-Christian. (Really, now, would Jesus have started a war in Iraq?)

Still, as with everyone else, we must forgive those who deceived us, including President Bush who will, “strut out of office leaving the nation in roughly the same shape as a toddler leaves a diaper,” to paraphrase the editor in the June 2008 issue of Vanity Fair.

Because even when the current administration leaves office, we will not be out of the fire and we cannot waste any more energy on reciting the president’s ”sins” as they are endless.

We are called, instead, to forgive and visualize healing for the nation and the world.

Bin Laden’s Driver Tortured and Scapegoated

Yet, while I’m no longer angry about the mindless damage inflicted upon the country and upon Iraq, a story from a couple of weeks back about bin Laden’s driver being made a scapegoat for 9/11 made me flinch.

The man, whose name is Salim Ahmed Hamdan, has a fourth-grade education and was described during his trial as a “more primitive (Bedouin) person” who didn’t even believe in bin Laden’s ideology, but drove for him for the paycheck.

Of course he was tortured, to get a confession.

Yet, really, what did that driver do that most of us have not done? He went along with a powerful and wealthy person who was calling the shots.

His crime is that he didn’t try to stop anything. He just let things unfold and kept his eyes on his own small picture, his paycheck.

Who do you know who doesn’t do that?

Who pays attention, doesn’t close his eyes and speaks up when a wrong is about to be done even if it means he’ll lose his job, be shunned, threatened or even killed? [Read more →]