Back to Day 4
WARNING #1 - In discussing some of the events I attended on this day, I will be sharing my opinions and thoughts on some very controversial topics. If you’re offended by my views, feel free to respond by email and we’ll post your thoughts in our opinion section.
WARNING #2 - The reviews for Friday and Saturday were written after Kimberly (current Editor Emeritus) resigned copy editing duties. Any and all typos found herein are the author's fault alone.
I started off my morning by finding a quiet place to spend some time with Jesus, which can actually be rather hard with the massive number of folks on the farm. (One suggestion I would have for JPUSA is that they pick some area and designate it as a quiet area for spending with Jesus. I know they have a prayer tent, but it doesn’t seem that conducive to good quiet time to me. I would lean more towards some area away from the main traffic.) I did finally find a place that wasn’t too noisy by the lake, so I got to spend some good times in the Word and journaling. So much had happened during the last few weeks that I needed some to decompress and take it all to the Lord.
After that I grabbed some lunch and headed over to the
La Cour des Miracles tent, where I spent most of my day.
Kathy Kelly from Voices in the Wilderness [www.vitw.org] was the first speaker. Her official topic was on the situation in Iraq, but she also talked about some of the key principles of non-violent direct action.
Kathy Kelly is an amazing woman who has been active in direct action against war for many years. She has backed up her beliefs with the courage needed to serve eight months in Federal maximum security prison for the crime of planting corn at a nuclear missile silo site, and by refusing to pay federal income taxes (she doesn’t want to support war financially) since 1980.
It is hard to condense down everything she said, so instead I’m just going to share some of the quotes I caught from her lecture. If you are interested in this topic, I would encourage you to read more at www.vitw.org, or at the La Cour des Miracles site at www.ballydowse.org.
The Key elements of non-violence:
- Simplicity
- Service
- Sharing
- Commitment to non-violent resistance to evil
The non-violent philosophy is that of Jesus.
The national religion is shopping. Think about the temples…
Christianity is used as a smokescreen to cover what really moves this nation.
We need to live more simply . . . We don’t all have to have cars. We don’t have to have a housing shortage in America, BUT we do need to share more of our housing together.
Later on in the lecture a member of the audience asked if there had ever been any non-violent victories.
From the audience, Dr. Korn responded by pointing out the example of Ghandi taking hundreds of thousands of Hindus to the sea to make salt, so as to avoid the heinous salt taxes, and also told about Ceasar Chavez and the great grape boycott.
I then asked Kelly, “How do we resist dehumanizing our opponents in philosophical/moral issue?”
In responding, she shared an anecdote about her arrest at the missile silo. She said that when she was waiting for the military police to come, a young soldier was first to arrive on the scene. He handcuffed her, and then had her kneel on the ground while they were waiting for her to be picked up. She could see that he was told not to speak to her, but after awhile he asked in a southern drawl, “Ma’am, would you like a drink of water?”
She said yes, and he gave her a drink. What is humorous about this is that the soldier would have had to put his gun down for him to retrieve his canteen and then to give her a drink while she was handcuffed and on her knees. As they continued to wait she told him what she was doing in planting corn at the silo tent, and then before she was taken away the soldier said, “Ma’am, I hope that corn grows.”
She explained through that story that even our “enemies” can end up being our friends. She also said it is important that we resist cartooning or oversimplifying the issues
She is so right about this. It is so easy for progressives like myself to rant and rave about those *&$^ republicans (or democrats, or whoever the enemy of the day is) instead of looking at ourselves and asking what have we ourselves done to contribute to the situation at hand.
At this point, I think it was Dr. Korn who shared a quote by A.J. Mustie that says “If I can’t love Hitler, I can’t love.” He also said that we need to realize how close we are to being the same kind of person as the aggressor.
From there Kelly told us some horrific stories from the Persian Gulf war, including one about how the US bombed the Highway of Death (the road from Kuwait to Baghdad) as the Iraqi soldier were retreating. (The Iraqis mistakenly thought a cease-fire had been declared.) After the bombing, the US sent Bradley armored vehicles to shoot down those on the road and to bury alive those who were hiding in the ditches.
She then tied that to the issue of dehumanizing the enemy by sharing a story about a man on death row. In 1995 this convicted killer wrote in a letter to his aunt that “Killing Iraqis was really hard at first, but after awhile it got easier.”
The letter was signed “Timothy McVeigh.”
From there she covered a lot of ground discussing the massive size ($300 billion) of the US military budget and questioned the use of those resources on war.
The next seminar was by Dr. Richard Korn. He started off his lecture on recommending The Brothers Karamozof by Dostevesky (spelling?), and later recommended Toleration by Voltaire.
From there he covered a lot of topics in a conversational (at times Socratic) manner. Some of the things he said that grabbed me included…
“If you love your religion, fight your clergyman.”
William Blake said “Negation is true friendship.,” or in other words, your true friends will say “no” to you.
The greatest catastrophe for a church or a movement is success.
More people have been killed in the name of God than anything else, secondly the nation-state.
Cesar Chavez said to me once, “The enemy is your future friend.”
(We need to recognize) the role of the clown in history - The great poets of history are the best.
Towards the end of the lecture, Korn reads a few poems: “In Westminster Abbey” by John Benjamin; a poem (I didn’t catch the title) that was written by Dr. Korn in 1937 when he first heard Hitler’s voice on the radio, and “September 1, 1939” by Orden (spelling?),
At the break, Andrew Mandell spoke about what the La Cour seminars were all about, and encouraged those attending to check out the La Cour des Miracles section at www.ballydowse.com.
Korn then returned to the podium to speak again. He started off by saying that the war on drugs is a way to keep the “underclass” (un/underemployed) in a “productive” place in society through the rapidly growing “prison industries.”
From there, he returned to a conversational flow. Much of the seminar session focused on the war on drugs, with both strident defenders and opponents on the current drug policy speaking their mind.
Of those comments, the one that I found to be the most insightful was made by a man from Australia. He said that in one of the states of Australia, they did research and found that 70-80% of drug offenders were found to be sexually or physically abused as children. From that knowledge, the state government is now moving towards a drug diversion policy that focuses on the root causes of addiction instead of punishment of addicts.
The seminar tag-team (I think the heat of the day necessitated the speaker rotation) continued as Kathy Kelly returned to the podium. In this session she focused on some of the impacts that the sanctions has had on the people of Iraq and also discussed the newly proposed “smart sanctions.”
Kelly dropped a rhetorical bomb on the audience by stating the US is currently using biological warfare against the people of Iraq.
She then elaborated by explaining that we destroyed the water treatment systems of Iraq during the Gulf War and now stop the parts needed to repair the systems from being shipped due to the sanctions. As a result of the lack of clean drinking water, the leading killers of Iraqi children today are diphtheria, typhus, and diarrhea.
She also spoke about how that the sanctions have created an expensive black market for medical supplies, with the rich elite not suffering, but the poor doing without the most basic of medical care. Throughout the speech she emphasized the point that Sadaam Hussein isn’t suffering from the sanctions, but rather the ordinary people.
Finally she talked about the new Bush-Powell “Smart sanctions.” She said at first look they sound good, but after further investigating them she believes that they are designed to lull the activists to sleep, and are designed to save face, not save lives.
At the close of her remarks, she encouraged those present to get involved in the cause to lift the sanctions against Iraq.
For more information on these topics, visit:
- An archive of Dr. Richard Korns’s articles can be found at http://www.sonic.net/~doretk/ArchiveARCHIVE/RICHARD%20KORN/RichardKorn.html * (Please note that some of these articles contain profane language.)
- Voices in the Wilderness - www.vitw.org
After the seminar, I went to a
press conference with Kathy Kelly & Ballydowse. Very sadly, I was the only member of the press who showed up. I had a good interview with Kelly and the members of Ballydowse (Check back next month for the story at www.exitzine.com), but it is disgusting that the members of the Christian press didn’t bother to show up for a press conference with a Nobel Peace prize nominee.
After the press conference I headed back to camp to pack and to eat some supper with my neighbors. (I forgot their names, but it was a young family who had driven to C-stone from Florida.)
The Crossing (4.9) provided a good time for all. The concert had more dancers than any other of the week. There were lots of folks dancing under the tent, but most were immediately outside the tent. Most of the time the dancers outside were in a circle, joining hands and dancing together. As the first song played the circles moved together, then a part. The scene was beautiful. The joy on the faces of the dancers reminded me of the joy of dancing at an Inter-tribal Indian powwow.
The music stirred up my Celtic blood, and so I jumped in the middle of it, attempting to dancing a gig!
After a few foot-stomping songs I found my chair. My energy was zapped but it was glorious while it lasted.
While the tribe continued to dance I’m listened to my heartbeat as it pounded out a rhythm that was almost in time with the music. As I was catching my breath, I looked up and saw the most amazing sky that God painted above me. The sky was an amazing blur of pink, blue, orange the color of peaches, and white.
My favorite songs of the show were “The Troubles” and “Endurance.”
After hearing the Crossing, I went over to
Miranda Stone’s campsite. I talked to her for a few minutes about her show the night before, and then cruised over to main stage to hear the last few songs of
Third Day (4.5).
Mac Powell is one of the greatest of Christian big-venue musicians, with his ability from the stage to make you feel like he is speaking just to you. Of course a more cynical person would say that it is only the ability to manipulate a crowd, but I think it is more than just some skill. It’s hard to explain but it does seem like he really does connect in some way with the people he is singing for.
I think it is the most packed I have ever seen Main Stage. (even bigger than P.O.D.’s huge show last year) I’m not sure if the folks came for Third Day or Stryper, but there are a lot of people here.
The encore song they did, “Hallelujah” was especially moving as the crowd was singing accapella at the end as the band left the stage. At that very moment I looked up and saw the stars. They were so beautiful.
After Third Day the
Wycliffe folks spoke again. Tonight’s speaker was very good in communicating the urgent need for Bible translations among unreached people groups, and asked that the audience pray that there would soon be a team to translate the scriptures for the
Bendi people of Tanzania. (If you’re reading this, please pray for them too.)
From the important, the intermission topics flowed from the important to the banal as
T-bone got on stage to hype a new movie,
Mageddo that was to come out on September 21st. He said it was going to be the most expensive Christian movie ever made. Forgive me for not getting excited about this one. I guess the masses can’t get enough apocalyptic thrills now that the Left Behind band-wagon has come to town.
Thankfully T-Bone didn’t speak long.
Doug Van Pelt of HM Magazine was next. He was there to introduce
Stryper (4.8). It was really cool hearing this Christian rock journalism pioneer speak about the early days when HM was a fan-zine known as Heaven’s Metal ,and how that Stryper opened lots of doors that Christian bands take for granted today.
Stryper began their show with a triumphant version of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” As they came to the stage though, we were all a bit disappointed that they were not wearing their trademark yellow and black spandex outfits. Lead singer ?name, apologized later though and said that the band members couldn’t fit the outfits anymore. (I guess it has been a few years Stryper played together.) However, the band did sport instruments with yellow and black stripes, and there was a GIANT Stryper banner behind them as they played.
For much of the show, (?Name lead singer) sang out on the catwalk. You could tell he was loving every minute of the show.
Sheesh, I forgot how good non-grunge heavy music was. This is melodic heavy metal at its finest.
There were lots of awesome moment but also lots of minor goofs (forgetting lyrics, etc.) Yet, even in the goofs there was such humility about the band that all was forgiven by their faithful fans. (It seemed that at least half of them were middle-aged guys with camcorders.)
I think my favorite part of the show was when the band did what they used to do in the 80’s, throw Bibles (and also t-shirts) into the audience. It seems kinda cheezy now, but back in the day that must have been something at their shows for them to throw Bibles into the audience at secular venues.
Musically, I was most impressed by Oz (lastname) who played guitar. His skills amaze me.
My favorite songs that Stryper did were “Lady,” a very emotional and melodic song; “Rock the people”; and of course “To hell with the devil!”
After the show was over I thought my c-stone experience was done. I thought I would take a stroll over to the merchandise tents and then head to the tent to sleep for a few hours. However, as I was heading back to camp I heard
Ballydowse playing in the underground tent. (This was not on the schedule.)
I was really tired though and convinced myself that I ought to not go. By the time I made it to my tent, I kept feeling drawn to go back, so back and went. This time though I went shirt-less because it was so stinking hot. As it turned out, this concert would be one of my fondest of C-stone memories.
This concert was entirely different than Ballydowse’s main stage show. It seemed like the band was performing a special show just for the punks, and believe me the punks were there in full-attendance. The next few hours were a glorious wonderful time with fists pumping, flags flying, crazy punk dancing (not exactly moshing, but more of this running around like mad chickens while locking arms with the other folks) and everyone singing or rather screaming along. In fact, at times Andrew would hold a mike out into the audience while a dozen punks screamed their hearts out into the mike. I danced like a crazy fool until around 2 a.m. when I simply couldn’t move any longer.
The band was still playing when I left.
After Cornerstone - In the morning I packed up my tent and hiked out to the entrance to meet the folks from
Bushnell Christian Church for a ride to Macomb. From there I (and 50 other C-stoners) took the Amtrak to Chicago.
When I got to Chicago I did some more sightseeing downtown, and then took the elevated train to the airport. I almost missed my flight (I spent too much time getting a Chicago-style hoagie before my flight.), but caught my plane a couple of minutes before the doors closed. From there it was back to Oklahoma City.
Thanks again to JPUSA, Dr. Richard Kelly, Kathy Kelly, the bands, and all of the incredible people at Cornerstone 2001. Lord willing, I’ll see you next year!
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