Sabbatical from KBOO

After 20 months and no resolution or clarity regarding the censoring of my show and the smearing, name-calling and character assassination of Dr. Kevin Barrett, I decided to take a sabbatical from KBOO.  I wrote a letter to the appropriate staff yesterday:

"To Whom It May Concern: 

My life is taking a different path. 

I am taking a sabbatical from my volunteer duties at KBOO and will cease my contribution at this time. I am also going to be moving my show “Beloved Community” to another platform. This is effective immediately. 

I have appreciated much of my experience at KBOO. I have learned a lot and have met many marvelous people.  

I wish you all the best. 

Sincerely,  

Rev. John A. Shuck

It turned out to be my final show at KBOO. In the first 19 minutes you will hear the last sermon I preached at my congregation a few weeks ago. It was nicely edited with video accompaniment by ALIPortland.

My final sermon at Southminster, November 24, 2019

You can read the text here. In the sermon, I talk about my experience attending Arba'een and what that has meant to me. I highlighted two contemporary figures who represent to me people who follow in the spirit of both Jesus and Hussain in terms of holding to one's truth even as doing so requires sacrifice. They are Dr. David Ray Griffin and Dr. Kevin Barrett.

From 19:15-38:34 I included an interview I had with Dr. David Ray Griffin from a couple of years ago.

Dr. David Ray Griffin

From 38:35 to the end is an address (audio never before broadcast) that Dr. Kevin Barrett delivered at the conference, "The US-Saudi Coaltion: Bringing Peace or War?" at Portland State in February 2018. This event was sponsored by KBOO.

On Friday, December 13th, when the show aired, staff actually stopped the on-air broadcast during Dr. Barrett's address and played Christmas music. When I inquired, I was told that I was apparently a very bad boy for including any audio from banned Kevin Barrett.  Dr. Barrett is the only person I know who has been banned from KBOO after never having been on the radio station!

Dr. Kevin Barrett and Dr. Scott Bennett at the PSU conference,
"The US-Saudi Coalition: Bringing Peace or War?" February 2018

Now you can hear on podcast what you could not hear on KBOO.

Bottom line? It is my show.  I am moving it to a different platform, one that is not controlled by the same forces that control all of our media, including much of the supposed alternative media. Under the false pretensions of protecting us from so-called "hate speech," these forces use smear tactics, name-calling and character assassination to silence voices that are critical of wars that benefit the military-industrial complex and Israel. On that topic, here is an excellent article by David Spero Rn, "A Match Made in Hell: Israel and the Military Industrial Complex."

Why exactly does the US government go to war with so many of Israel’s enemies? Why has the US destroyed Iraq and half of Syria? The costs were enormous, the results horrible, the rewards imperceptible. The Iraq war not an outlier; it was the second in a long series of US invasions, bombings and destructions of majority-Muslim states. It’s still going on now, with Israel the only obvious beneficiary. How does this happen? Is the Israel lobby that powerful, and even if it is, why has the rest of the US establishment gone along? 

The explanation lies in the MIC and a deeply sinister marriage that has grown between them and Israel. Israel’s wars have become major parts of the MIC’s business plan. Every bomb Israel drops; every missile the US fires, every Muslim country the US invades makes money for the MIC. Israel receives over $3 billion in military aid from Washington every year. Most of this money immediately returns to US military corporations to buy weapons. They’re partners. 

Where most Americans heard Eisenhower’s speech as a warning, Israeli leaders and their militant American supporters saw an opportunity. By allying with the MIC, this group which became known as the Neoconservatives set out to reshape the world. The Pentagon and military corporations already had powerful lobbying programs in place. But industry lobbying typically takes the form of ‘Buy our product;’ ‘Try this weapon system.’ They didn’t lobby for new wars. Some Israel loyalists realized that if they could provide the wars, the MIC would reap the profits, strengthening Israel in the process.

The issue that is most important to me? Human decency. It is not right to smear people and assassinate their characters and not give them an opportunity to defend themselves. This is what saddens me most about my experience at KBOO. For 20 months I tried to work through the system to  allow Dr. Barrett to defend himself. I finally realized it would never happen.

It is also important to hold on to one's truth and to be true to yourself.

At the end of this broadcast, I left folks at KBOO the same thing I left with folks at my church:

Hold to your truth.

Hold fast to your truth.

Whatever that truth is, don’t let it go for the sake of acceptance by others.
No relationship that requires you to deny your truth is worth keeping.

Do know that if you do hold fast to what you know is true,
and this truth is in order to goodness,
it will at some point require sacrifice.

But if it is true and good, it will last.
It will resurrect beyond death.
It will live and save.