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Elected head of Christian Coalition explains why he resigned

Jimi — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:03:09 GMT

Duck, Hunter

Rev. Joel Hunter speaks out on broadening the evangelical agenda
By David Roberts
Grist
20 Dec 2006

In July, Rev. Joel Hunter was named president-elect of the Christian Coalition of America, the legendary political advocacy organization founded by Pat Robertson.

Rev. Joel Hunter.

Last month, just before he was to formally take office, he abruptly stepped down after a meeting with the coalition's board of directors. According to Hunter, it became clear that the organization was not ready to expand its focus beyond hot-button social issues like gay marriage and abortion. (Board director and acting president Roberta Combs says they simply wanted to move cautiously and poll their members first.)

Both sides insist the split was amicable, but Hunter's departure casts a stark light on a growing split inside the conservative evangelical Christian movement. Long seen as monolithic and ascendant, the evangelical bloc is increasingly being pulled in two directions: one that would retain and consolidate gains based on culture-war concerns like abortion and homosexuality, and one that would open the agenda up to broader issues like global warming, AIDS, and poverty.

The former faction has the advantage of decades of entrenched power and an enormous fundraising machine. The latter boasts the allegiance of a new generation of evangelicals weary of the divisiveness and naked political ambition of its forebears. Hunter -- spokesperson for the Evangelical Climate Initiative and author of a new book, Right Wing, Wrong Bird -- is squarely in the latter camp. I caught up with him by phone at the Orlando, Fla., church where he preaches, in the midst of what sounds like a media frenzy with no end in sight.

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There's been some suspicion, both inside and outside the evangelical movement, that the much-ballyhooed green evangelical turn has more to do with a few high-profile leaders than any substantive change of heart at the base. Your encounter with the Christian Coalition seems to lend this notion some credence, doesn't it?

There are two ways to look at it. One is, there's a very recent, alarming cache of information; the scientific evidence is pretty recent in our history. Like any new information or suddenly appearing issue, there's going to be a lot of skepticism at first. People don't want to change. And there's a lot of suspicion on the part of conservative Christianity about anything that the broad-based media touts. So there is going to be that kind of skepticism and pushback.

From that standpoint, I would say that on a grassroots level this is not very deep, yet, in the evangelical community.

Having said that, there are two factors that will take it fairly deep, fairly quickly. One is, like most good Christianity, this is simply a reprisal of a historic concern. Christianity was at the forefront of human rights, anti-slavery, civil rights, and so forth -- that's so deep in our history, a respect for human life and a respect for God's creation. So even though it hasn't been a front-burner issue recently, it goes way back into our roots and is easily recoverable.

The other thing that's happening right now is that a number of us who have different networks are forming conversations that will have ripple effects across the church. Even the attention right now -- the [Sen. James] Inhofe-type attention, the Michael Crichton this-is-all-conspiracy kind of stuff -- isn't going to last very long in the milieu of the growing body of evidence. Conservative Christians are fairly intelligent people, believe it or not, and so over a period of time they will read the articles, read the books. We will. I don't know why I'm saying they. We will come to an accurate conclusion on global warming, and especially on the broader issue of environmental care.

The elephant in the room is that social issues -- gay marriage, abortion, and so on -- are identified as Republican and environmental issues are identified as liberal or Democratic. So there are two things green evangelical leaders could hope for: Republicans adopt the climate-change issue, or the evangelical base shifts its voting behavior. Which of those do you think is more likely?

Evangelicals are not primarily concerned with growing a political strategy. I do think there is a growing constituency -- the maturing of evangelicalism -- to go beyond the reactionary issues that were morally centered into the compassion issues that are well-being centered. As we do that, both parties are now going to be interested in what evangelicals are interested in. So I think there will be a little of each -- there will be a broadening of the Republican agenda, and the Democrats will be more interested in not just writing off the evangelical vote. They will see that we are interested in a number of issues, and perhaps they will find some more conciliatory language in order to try to interest the evangelical vote.

I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen politically, but from a conservative Christian standpoint, you just want to do the right thing and vote the best way you can. Then let the chips fall where they may.

As you know, Barack Obama was invited to speak to Rick Warren's group and there was immense backlash. So ...

There will be a staunch, focused group of Christians that see the broadening of the agenda as a threatening dynamic for achieving the more traditional goals. There are those of us, though, who believe we will get more done on the traditional issues by becoming more Jesus-like -- concerned with other issues as well. So the real question here is, how big will this growing constituency be in comparison to the traditional group focused on narrow issues? That's the intriguing part of this.

Some people might say the reason there's such enthusiasm around social issues like gay marriage and abortion and pornography is that people in the evangelical church are primarily called on to condemn other people. Once you bring in issues like poverty and global warming -- and more broadly, compassion for the least among you -- obligations turn on them. There's a little guilt. Is that too cynical?

Not at all. Let's develop this conversation at a little deeper level. In Foreign Affairs, Walter Mead talked about the difference between fundamentalists and evangelicals. We make these differentiations in our own family of believers.

Fundamentalists are always mad. They don't play well with others, and they feel tainted by any view other than the one they have. That is a pretty narrow segment, but a pretty attention-getting segment of Christianity. In terms of stereotype, that's what most people focus on when they see conservative Christianity.

By the way, I don't say fundamentalists in the pejorative sense. I believe there is a legitimate reaction to what we would see as declining moral integrity in culture.

But another reason it has been so popular is that anger is the greatest and most immediate way, not only to invoke a response and build an audience, but to raise money. We'll both be cynical here for a minute: One of the things fundamentalist churches have learned, have practiced, and continue to practice, is the best way to grow in influence and fundraising is to make people mad. And the best way to do that is to create an enemy. So from that standpoint you're right.

But from another standpoint, a much larger portion of the church really does want to be more like Jesus. And that wasn't Jesus. Jesus didn't spend his time walking around yelling at people. His concern was for the vulnerable. As I often say, unless we start to care as much for the vulnerable outside the womb as we care for the vulnerable inside the womb, we won't have a picture of who Jesus was. There's a growing number of people who want to emphasize this. They're just not the people with a lot of money, or time to be self-righteous -- there are millions of us.

Do you think the dynamic you just described was a large part of why the current leadership of the Christian Coalition shied away from what you're trying to do?

Absolutely. Again: I like these people. They're doing what they believe is right. But it's very clear to everybody that if you don't come out aggressively against something, not only might you alienate your base, but you will certainly alienate your donors. And many of these hardened or narrow right organizations have been formed specifically to react against something. That's who brought them to the dance.

So the attempt to broaden the agenda just didn't work. I thought maybe it would. They said they wanted to go into some of these other issues, but when it came time to do it, they were afraid of alienating their base.

How did the concept of morality come to attach itself exclusively to issues of private, individual behavior?

That is almost uniquely American. Our society focuses on the individual. If you go to church in the rest of the world, it is not this way. I can tell you this as a matter of fact, because we have partners all over the world. They are much more community minded and their sense of morality is much, much broader than simply personal behavior.

You're absolutely right, from a biblical standpoint. It was never merely about how some individuals behave. It was always about community. It was always about what was good for the family, good for society -- what would best represent the God that loved the world.

But even in some of your writing, you make the distinction between "moral" issues and the issues of "compassion." Why are those distinct?

I simply do it for semantic advantage. When you talk about caring for the environment, that is a pro-life issue. When you talk about justice, that is certainly a moral issue. It's a continuing theme throughout the Bible. So when I use the word "moral," I use it in the sense of "moralistic." But these [broader] issues certainly are moral issues.

Tell me how you came to be active on the subject of global warming.

One of those other 86 [green evangelical leaders] called me and said, we've got this statement about Christians' responsibility to creation care, and we're looking for evangelical leaders who will sign it.

I started to read books like [Tim] Flannery's The Weather Makers. At a National [Association of] Evangelicals board meeting, we had Sir John Houghton come in and talk to us. I became fascinated. The more I looked into it, I thought, oh my goodness, I missed something pretty significant here. I'm a more recent student, but a very convinced student.

What could environmentalists do to better reach religious communities?

Put educational materials into the hands of pastors. Just as all politics is local, all spiritual growth is local. The grassroots Christian looks to his or her pastor to understand what is important, to ask, What does God want me to do to become more like Jesus?

I was in a convocation a couple of weeks ago with some of the secular humanists, E.O. Wilson and some of those guys from Harvard and Yale who are concerned about creation. What we agreed on was, the scientists had the facts evangelicals needed in order to be credible to their constituents on the subject, but they need us for the traction. As Wilson said, you can add up all the secular humanist organizations in the U.S. and you'll come up with around 5,000 people. You take one [National Association of Evangelicals] group and you've got 30 million.

We need each other. The reason it hasn't reached the grassroots is because most pastors simply don't have the facts. They do almost always have one or two people in the congregation that have read Michael Crichton's State of Fear, or some other provocative, territorial thing. Unless they have the facts to answer that, they're going to be pretty quiet on the subject.

Would you want the evangelical community to advocate for specific policies?

I think our approach would be to educate people and give them a theological basis for taking care of the environment as a biblical and moral mandate. I don't think the place of the evangelical community is to come up with political strategies or solutions or policies.

I do think that an educated evangelical constituency will respond positively to a growing number of solutions. Certainly many of us would be willing to vote for policies that involve the government as part of the solution. We don't think the government is all of the solution. A grassroots movement -- what we can do personally, what our churches can do, what businesses can do, market-based solutions -- is also important. But many of us do believe that government is part of the solution.

I doubt that the evangelical church as a body will ever recommend policy. But I do think we will respond to recommended policy, and will vote our consciences.

When do you predict the big organizations like the Christian Coalition and the National Association of Evangelicals are going to make the turn and come out vocally behind this broader agenda of yours?

I'm on the board of directors at the National Association of Evangelicals, and we have already stated that it is part of our advocacy. On the signing of that particular statement on global warming, the president and the leaders at that time decided to make it more of a states' rights issue than it was a federal issue, so to speak, with the constituent bodies signing on if they wanted to. But there is already an emphasis on creation care, and that will continue to grow. Rich Cizik is a great leader of ours in that area.

As for the other more narrow right organizations, I would say in a few years, everybody's going to see the light on this thing. Some of them may never come out to address anything environmentally, just because that's not why they were developed. But I will be surprised in a few years if most people are not convinced that we have some responsibility to do better by God's creation than we have.

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David Roberts is staff writer for Grist.

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California Episcopal Bishop arrested during San Francisco war protest

Jimi — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 11:37:39 GMT

This is sort of old news, but many who are not Episcopalians or part of the Diocese of California might not know about it. I personally think our new bishop rocks!

California bishop arrested during San Francisco war protest

By Mary Frances Schjonberg
Friday, December 08, 2006

Bishop of California Marc Andrus protests the deaths caused by the Iraq war by blocking the entrance to the federal building in San Francisco December 7.

[Episcopal News Service] Bishop Marc Handley Andrus of the Episcopal Diocese of California was arrested December 7 for blocking the front door of the San Francisco federal building to protest the deaths caused by the Iraq war.

His participation in the protest and his arrest are "just one piece of a sustained effort" to work for peace, Andrus told ENS December 8.
Other parts of the effort include other liturgical events, diocesan participation in the upcoming release of a documentary about four soldiers who sought conscientious objector status, and the possibility of having Episcopalians participate in a Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) trip to Iran.

Andrus said that his protest sprang not just from his own convictions about the war but "from a base of considered opinion by the House of Bishops and the Episcopal Church about this war."

"It's not a capricious act, but it is my conviction that while there's widespread opposition to this war, that the elected leaders need to know that we continue to want concerted and active moves towards peace," he said.

Andrus, carrying his crosier and singing "Down by the Riverside,'' was among 250 protesters, including members of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship and people of other faiths, who had marched from Grace Cathedral, on Nob Hill, to join the monthly "die-in" on Golden Gate Avenue near City Hall.

The protest was meant to "memorialize all who have died as a result of U.S. led hostilities in Iraq," according to a November 29 invitation to the protest posted on the diocese's website.

The bishop celebrated a requiem Holy Eucharist at the plaza in front of the building. After they received communion about two dozen participants went one by one to lie down in front of the federal building's two main doors. Andrus was the first protestor to do so. Federal Protective Service officers began arresting protesters for lying down and blocking the building's two main doors.

Officers placed Andrus in handcuffs–as one said, "How are you?'' and shook the bishop's hand—according to a December 7 article on the San Francisco Chronicle's website.

Protesters applauded, cheered and sang as Andrus was photographed by another officer and led inside the building.

He and 11 other protesters were detained in a room inside the federal building for about two hours, according to diocesan spokesman Sean McConnell. They were cited for unlawful assembly and told they could either pay the charge's $125 fine or appear in court at a later date. All 12 decided to appear in court, McConnell said.

Andrus said the decision was made as a way for the group to continue its protest by pleading not guilty "because of our sense that international law and the unjust nature of this war required civil disobedience."

In the November 29 invitation, Andrus wrote that "at the Eucharistic table we become aware of this divine reality, that while humans may forget the dead — and may indeed willfully forget them — God remembers them. In the Iraq war the numbers of those who have died mounts, and is staggering. While even the numbers of the dead are unknown to many of us, our faith teaches us that God does not forget them."

A small group of protesters led by Quakers have gathered once a week outside the federal building to hold a silent vigil. Once a month the vigil is followed by the "die-in." Andrus has attended a number of the weekly vigils, but this was the first "die-in" he has been able to attend, according to McConnell.

McConnell said "a handful of people were upset that the bishop was going to do this," after the invitation was issued for people to join the protest.

Andrus said one man, a veteran of the Vietnam War, told him that the protest summoned up for him all the feelings he had about fighting in Vietnam while hearing of angry war protests at home. The bishop said he told the man that he believes that protests of the Iraq war can be and have been "completely respectful of all the soldiers."

"The Bishop of California has been called to lead all the people in our diocese and beyond on the path of peace, and this was the first and visible step on that journey," McConnell said. "As we continue on this journey, we will invite all people of all faiths to join us."

Andrus became the eighth Bishop of California in July. The Diocese of California comprises about 30,580 Episcopalians worshipping in 80 congregations in the greater San Francisco area.

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Archbishop of Canterbury Shows ECUSA the Doorknob

Jimi — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 14:28:07 GMT

The "Primates" of the Anglican Communion should find a real issue to work on -- like poverty, hunger, AIDS, global warming, or speaking out against torture and wars of aggression.

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Times Online June 27, 2006

Worldwide Anglican church facing split over gay bishop
By Ruth Gledhill

The Archbishop of Canterbury has outlined proposals that are expected to lead to the exclusion of The Episcopal Church of the United States from the Anglican Church as a consequence of consecrating a gay bishop.

The US branch of Anglicanism faces losing its status of full membership of the Anglican Church in the wake of its consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, an act which has propelled the worldwide church to the brink of schism.

Read the rest of this sad report here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2245849,00.html

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US evangelicals say beating the young is a Christian doctrine

Jimi — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 16:04:54 GMT

More evidence of the sickness at the heart of evangelical fundamentalism in America . . .

Suffer little children
US evangelists are twisting the Bible to say that beating the young is a Christian doctrine

Giles Fraser
The Guardian
Thursday June 8, 2006

Pretty much all I remember from my prep school are the beatings: that lonely wait outside the headmaster's study; the cane, the slipper, the table tennis bat. I remember my underpants filled with blood. I remember seething with frustration when they beat my brother. My mother had asked me to look after him. But there was nothing I could do as he was led towards the study in his little tartan dressing gown.

That was 30 years ago, but in time measured out by the psyche it was yesterday. Thank God such things are now illegal. But there remain those determined to turn back the clock. "We are told that in England it is a crime to spank children," writes Debbi Pearl from No Greater Joy Ministries, following a row that has erupted over the distribution of their literature in the UK. "Therefore Christians are not able to openly obey God in regard to biblical chastisement. They are in danger of having the state steal their children."

The Pearls are evangelical Christians who believe corporal punishment is "doing it God's way". With a mailing list of tens of thousands of parents, the Pearls say that the justification for their approach is in scripture: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes" (Proverbs 13:24).

Chastening begins early. "For the under-one-year-old, a little, 10- to 12-inch long, willowy branch (stripped of any knots that might break the skin) about one-eighth inch diameter is sufficient," writes Michael Pearl. With older children he advises: "After a short explanation about bad attitudes and the need to love, patiently and calmly apply the rod to his backside. Somehow, after eight or 10 licks, the poison is transformed into gushing love and contentment. The world becomes a beautiful place. A brand-new child emerges. It makes an adult stare at the rod in wonder, trying to see what magic is contained therein."

It's incredible to me that books such as this are readily available on Amazon; it is little short of incitement to child abuse. What makes the whole thing doubly sick is that it's done in the name of God. Apparently, the "proper application of the rod is essential to the Christian world-view". Note "essential". Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise. For, as evangelicals, the Pearls believe that salvation only comes through punishment and pain. God punishes his Son with crucifixion so that humanity might not have to face the Father's anger. This image of God the father, for whom violence is an expression of tough love, is lodged deep in the evangelical imagination. And it twists a religion of forgiveness and compassion into something dark and cruel.

It's terrifying how deep this teaching penetrates into a philosophy of child rearing. Just as divine anger is deemed to be provoked by the original sin of human disobedience, the beating of children is seen as punishment for rebellion. According to Ted Tripp, in his monstrous bestseller Shepherding a Child's Heart, even babies who struggle while having their nappy changed are deemed to be rebellious and need punishment.

Last month Lynn Paddock of North Carolina was charged with the murder of her four-year-old son, Sean. She had apparently beaten him with a length of quarter-inch plumbing line - plastic tubing. Like many in her church, Paddock had turned to the Pearls' resources on Biblical parenting. The Pearls say chastisement with plumbing line is "a real attention getter". Sean Paddock's autopsy describes layers of bruises stretching from his bottom to his shoulder.

What Jesus said about those who would harm children comes inevitably to mind: "It would be better for them if a millstone was hanged about their neck, and that they were drowned in the depth of the sea."

Dr Giles Fraser is the vicar of Putney. giles.fraser@btinternet.com

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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Ultra-violent "Christian" video games

Jimi — Wed, 31 May 2006 00:13:07 GMT

Many Christian activists complain that the violence contained in video games have a direct impact on American Society. But apparently killing people who are for a "separation of Church and state" is fair game. Some sick games based on the "Left Behind" series are about to be unleashed on our youth. Maybe they will be handed out at the next "Justice Sunday" event.

The Purpose Driven Life Takers
Jonathan Hutson:

"Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians.

Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.....read on: http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/5/29/195855/959

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Perpetrating economic injustice in an immoral budget

Carol — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 19:26:18 GMT

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/opinions/columnists/masterson/
Perpetrating economic injustice in an immoral budget

OK all you churchgoers, now's the time to get out of your Amen corner and in the face of national leaders who are failing to vote your values.

Were our congressmen sunning themselves somewhere exotic last August when us working stiffs heard the Census Bureau report that the number of Americans living in poverty has increased by 1.1 million to 37 million and that those without health insurance has spiraled to 46 million?

Wages are stagnant. Costs are rising. Need is up. So what does our House of Representatives do? They support $50 billion in cuts to programs like Medicaid, food stamps, child support enforcement, foster care and student loans.

If those cuts, approved by the House last month, aren't enough evidence of the Grinch-like ruling class in this country, consider that Congress is also pursuing a $70 billion package of tax breaks, most of which will benefit the top one percent of American wage earners.

On Wednesday night, concerned citizens, many of them Christians, braved the cold and snow and attended a "Vigil for a moral budget." The vigils were held at congressional offices around the country, including the new Northbrook office of Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Highland Park, who apparently believes it's OK to rob the poor to pay the rich.

"Though Rep. Kirk voted for the budget cuts previously, we hope to persuade him to oppose the cuts this time around," said Ryan Canney, organizing director for Citizen Action/Illinois. "If the federal budget is a moral document reflecting our nation's values, Rep. Kirk has a chance to ensure that Congress doesn't pass a budget that reflects the wrong priorities."

As people of faith, our priority should be those in need — including a growing number of our neighbors in Lake County.

Catholic Charities in Waukegan reports a 9 percent increase in services to the working poor over the past year. Individual requests for help with basic human necessities — food, shelter, utilities — increased from 9,285 in 2004 to 11,057 this year — a 19 percent hike. The agency also served 7,000 more meals — for a total of nearly 100,000 — an 8 percent increase over the previous year."

"These are very high numbers to try and maintain," said Teresa Denny, Catholic Charities regional representative. "People are working two and three jobs but they aren't making a living wage."

The people who will be hurt most by the proposed cuts and in both taxes and programs are those who are barely hanging on in the first place: The young mother who depends on a child-care subsidy, the disabled who depend on Medicaid for health care; those who, despite their Link cards, still don't have enough for their families to eat.

Some religious leaders have raised their voices in protest.

Ministers from the Episcopal, Presbyterian, United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran and United Church of Christ lambasted President Bush's proposed budget early last spring. They reminded our political leaders that to continue to ignore the poor will mean becoming like the "rich man" who pretended not to know the beggar Lazarus lying outside his gates.

The story in the 16th chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, the preachers said, "contains a warning that should deeply trouble those of us who live in a wealthy nation."

After the rich man dies and is sent to Hades, he implores Abraham to raise Lazarus from the dead and send him to his brothers so that they may be spared his torment.

"They have Moses and the prophets," Abraham replies. "They should listen to them." The rich man says, "No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent." And Abraham answers: "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."

The story, the religious leaders insist, makes clear that "perpetrating economic injustice is among the gravest of sins."

But Jesus recognizes our fatal flaw — a self-interest "so deeply ingrained in each one of us, that we will not renounce it, even should someone rise from the dead."

Bush's budget — the one supported by the majority Republican Congress — "takes Jesus' teaching on economic justice and stands it on its head," the pastors rail.

While agencies like Catholic Charities will continue to work in the trenches to meet the growing need among us, charitable efforts will continue to fall short in the face of incessant, grasping greed and the calculating callousness of the people we elect.

Even mercy — at least the human kind — can't make up for an immoral budget.
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Millions of people are depending on you to call -- and it only takes a minute:
Use the toll-free number to reach the Capitol switchboard. After you are connected with a staff person at the office of your Representative or Senator, tell them:

"My name is _______________ and I live in (your town/city). I would like Representative/Senator [name] to vote NO on the final version of the budget cuts (the deal between the House and Senate bills - H.R.4241 and S.1932 ) . Do not allow billions in cuts to vital services for vulnerable people, including Medicaid, SSI, foster care, Food Stamps, and child support. These cuts are the wrong priorities. I also would like the Representative/Senator to announce to constituents that he/she opposes this bill."

If you can't get through on that line, please call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

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Gropen-Fuhrer Denies Clemency to Williams

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:08:08 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051212/ap_on_re_us/williams_execution

No mercy. No consideration of redemption or rehabilitation. No taking into account the good things Williams could continue to do dismantling gangs.

Sickening.

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Is there not a moral and spiritual obligation

Sun, 11 Dec 2005 18:49:36 GMT

If you are interested I have posted an essay at http://christianurbanism.blogspot.com on the spiritual obligation of churches in regard to urban neighborhood revitalization. I would appreciate hearing your thoughts (via the blog site, Tribe, or private message).

Frank

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Bush Outrages: Let's Start A Compendium

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 22:43:29 GMT

I don't know about you, but I am starting to suffer from Bush fatigue. I'm Bushed. But I know that is just stinkin' thinkin', and I must resist such incipient sloth.

The main problem is the sheer volume of outrages and atrocities by this administration that we are confronted with every week. The number must be approaching one best expressed in scientific notation (which I never learned very well in school).

In days of yore, the public would be confronted with scant few outrages to bitch about during any given presidential administration. Only the occasional Teapot Dome (Harding), Checkers-speech-prompting fundraising scam (Nixon under Eisenhower), botched Bay of Pigs (Kennedy), trumped-up Tonkin Gulf (Johnson), Pentagon Papers (Nixon), Watergate (Nixon), botched Iran rescue (Carter), Iran-Contra (Reagan), Willie Horton ad (Bush pere), and Blue Dress Stain (Clinton) would divert our citizenry's sustained attention away from its normal producing, consuming, shitting, showering and shaving.

But W. OMG. The outrages started even before he took office. What he did to John McCain in the 2000 South Carolina primary (phoning voters with the story that McCain sired an illigitimate brown baby) set the motif for the endless theme and variations that has followed. To say that the electoral process that installed him in 2000 was an electoral process insults all presidential electoral processes that preceded it.

I would like to develop a list of the bad things this bad man has done. Just so I can keep it straight in my head, and so it all does not wash down the memory hole. I need your help with this. Let's confine the list to things that have been done or intentionally left undone during Bush's administrations (thereby omitting such matters as his hot-iron branding of frat-pledge buttocks at Yale and his AWOL National Guard status). So here goes. I will start, in no particular order of importance or chronology, and I will attribute to Bush the acts and omissions of his agents, capos, and legislative toadies (because the buck stops -- where?):

- Torture at Abu Ghraib

- Torture at Guantanamo

- Torture all over the planet in an archipelago of secret gulags

- Torture justified in ridiculous legal memorandum

- Elevation of signer of said memorandum to Attorney General

- Ignoring the pre-911 Daily Press Briefings

- Patriot Act

- Lying us into the Iraq War (no WMD, no al Qaida tie-in)

- Katrina response

- Fraudulent speech at New Orleans' Jackson Square, adding insulting hope to injury

- Outing Valerie Plame

- No-bid contracts for the likes of Halliburton

- Medal of Freedom for George Tenet

- Refusal to sign up for International Court of Justice (because he knew he would be committing war crimes)

- Use of chemical weapons at Fallujah

- Near-total destruction of Fallujah, dwarfing the My Lai incident in Vietnam

- Bombing of Al Jazeera offices in Iraq, killing reporters

- Telling Blair he wanted to bomb Al Jazeera central office in Qatar

- Letting Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora

- Assisting Bin Laden's family and friends escape the U.S. in the week after 911

- Carlyle Group (Bush and bin Laden families' golden goose for war profiteering)

- Arresting people at Bush rallies and Social Security "conversations" for their tee-shirts, bumper stickers or the cut of their jibs

- Attack on Social Security

- Diebold

- Voter purges in swing states Florida and Ohio

- Multifarious nefariousness in Ohio 2004, resulting in Kerry's ignominious, servile concession speech

- Repeal of forest protections ("Healthy Forests" initiative)

- Rollback of clear air standards ("Clean Skies" initiative)

- Effort to push through oil drilling in Arctic wildlife refuge

- Refusal to participate in international climate change discussions (or international discussions on much of anything else, preferring instead to lecture international authorities in butchered English)

- Refusal to acknowledge global warming

- The shrinking Coalition of the Willing

- "Shock and Awe"

- Over 100,000 Iraqis killed (how many more maimed?)

- Over 2100 American soldiers killed (how many more maimed?)

- Over 50,000 American troops who will come back mentally deranged from what they have seen and done (Rep. Murtha mentioned this the other day)

- Purging of CIA critics

- Firing of FBI whistleblower

- Refusal to participate in global conference on land mines

- EPA reversal of sewage standards, allowing massive dumping

- Permitting oil drilling in national parks

- Tax breaks for the wealthiest, even while marching off to war

- "Mission Accomplished" stunt

- Massive budget deficits that threaten economic collapse (even Greenspan hints at this)

- Did I mention massive budget deficits? After he was handed a huge budget surplus by Clinton. Bush has the Midas touch in reverse - everything he has ever touched has turned to caca. Every business (don't mention the Texas Rangers - he traded Sosa). Every political office (just ask Texans)

- What happened to Iraq's oil money?

- Speaking of which, what about that Wolfowitz guy (who said Iraq would pay for its own war)? Now he heads the World Bank!

- $9 billiion of Iraq money unaccounted for on Bremer's watch

- Refusal to allow meaningful stem-cell research

- Backing "Intelligent Design" fantasy

- Terry Schiavo

- Anti-gay-marriage proposed Constitutional amendment

- Numerous other instances of kow-towing to the religious right

- Enron (taking campaign contributions from "Kenny-boy" and his klepto-company)

- Indefinite detention of American citizens without counsel and without charge

- The Downing Street Memo (remember that?), showing Bush/Cheney "fixed" the intelligence around the policy

- Depleted uranium munitions

- Harriet Myers

- That Alito guy, who can be counted on to ban abortion and support torture and permanent imprisonment of non-citizens without trial

- Allowing coal companies to drop mercury on all of us

- Believing (really?) that God instructed him to kill in Iraq

- "I've got to get on with my life"

- Refusal to listen to any military brass who are unwilling to bring good news

- Refusal to talk to a grieving mother

- Refusal to attend soldiers' funerals

- Blocking photographs of coffins returning from Iraq

- Armstrong Williams

- Jeff Gannon

- Swift-boating

- Spending Dept of Education money on fascist rock and roll for high school students

- Karl Rove

I could go on, but I have run out of time just now. This list has barely scratched the surface. So help me out, won't you?

(Note to right-wing trollers: Please feel free to assemble competing lists of all the wonderful things you believe Bush has done for our country. I would really like to see that.)

posted in Social Redemption - 2 replies

Progressives and the culture of sex

joguldi — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 16:40:13 GMT

<img style = "float:left; margin:10px" src = "http://www.conservativeactivist.net/images/OneManOneWoman.JPG">Liberals want to know how to win elections. Recently, you've heard a lot more of a clever but dangerous proposition about how to form a coalition of moderate Christians free from the claws of the radical right fringe cult. The proposition runs thus: we want progressives to work with moderates to build a more powerful political coalition, so we must jettison gay marriage and abortion from the political agenda.

I should know, because I've argued for that position myself. In the autumn of last year, I was working with a gay seminarian friend, and we had reached the same conclusion: gay marriage was not going to be one of the items in our political lobby. Poverty, yes; prison reform, yes; fair trade and foreign relations, absolutely: but gay marriage was too divisive, too narrow, and too domestic an issue to touch. Marriage: one man, one woman. It's dividing churches, and the noise of churches breaking loses voters. Meanwhile, Jesus called us to serve the poor and disenfranchised; progressives have a nation to save.

Maybe we also felt, secretly, that the gay marriage debate was going to be won without us: that the courts were acting in a fashion amenable to civil rights, that the rest of American culture was committed to a practical level of civic pluralism even if our government was not; that in any case, popular culture was so far ahead of the church in accepting gay relationships, that the church could only follow once enough of its older members, wary of Ellen and Boy George, died off.

So while we separated our political crusade from our concern for gay marriage, we felt that this was no betrayal of gay rights. I come from a family of gay rights activists within the church, and my friend is seeking ordination in a church suspicious of his orientation. We both felt extremely committed towards lobbying for gay marriage -- not just blessing but marriage -- within our churches. We cited Melanchthon and Luther about the use of marriage not just to produce children but to care for the souls of the individuals; we both see marriage in a committed relationship before God and a community as serving that function, regardless of the gender of the individuals involved.

We shied away from gay marriage for practical reasons. We saw case after case where this issue, raised in the media, gave way to the most limp and meaningless discussion of marriage. Some say progressive theologians don't have their theology worked out yet. Some say that progressives in general aren't skilled enough in discussing their point of view in pithy terms without hemorrhaging emotionality. Some say the religious right's soundbites are too strong an ammunition for us. Some say that divisions within the churches cripple convicted clergy on the left from speaking their own mind. Some say that the tolerant are actually a minority in this country. Some say that tolerance is a majority virtue, but never has a chance in the world of soundbites.

My experience carrying forward the banner of "progressive values without discussion of sexuality" made me change my mind. I personally got a lot of flack -- often from moderates I hadn't expected it from, even more often from close friends and respected clergy who felt a duty to challenge me -- every time anyone asked us about our position. Those who have fought for gay rights have felt betrayed time and again by the Democratic Party and other liberal organizations that count on their vote (because liberals are better than the opposition), and then, once in power, turned Judas on their supporters. There's a great deal of righteous anger amongst gay rights supporters. There's a great deal of appropriate suspicion, to the extent that many committed activists, reading a "moderate" post such as this at CrossLeft, may simply roll their eyes and click on to the next site.

To me, there is no question about the appropriateness of gay marriage or gay relationships within the church. To me, the foes of gay marriage run dangerously close to advocating a kind of marriage in which I, as a woman, would play the role of subservient to my husband. If gender is *so* essential that commitment, love, Godliness, and community are insufficient to marriage without the appropriate gendering of one man and one woman, the only correct marriage must be one in which women act as traditional women. Traditional women are, as we know, deferent laboratories for producing infants, not permitted to be ordained.

Jesus and his apostles overturned that notion of gender long ago: there is neither man nor woman in Christ. Amongst the early Christians of the first centuries of the church, women acted as ministers and took more active roles than they had under Jewish law. When he told Christian women that they should not commit suicide just because their husband had died, Augustine advocated the independent salvation and purpose of the Christian woman in a fashion utterly radical to his pagan, Roman context.

As Christians, we have no metaphysical use for gender. Our salvation is between one individual and Christ: a Christian woman is a woman who has found out all her callings - domestic, professional, political, romantic, and social - and acts with full liberty, confidence, and discernment in each of them according to the products of her direct and ongoing conversation with God, not the pre-packaged marriage instructions of a local sewing circle.

When he went undercover amongst a cabal of billionaire right-wing Jesus freaks, journalist <a href = "http://www.harpers.org/JesusPlusNothing.html">Jeff Sharlet</a> gave a good picture of the way this minority has defaced the Christian understanding of gender by adulterating it with something more like the gospel of Liz Claiborne:

<blockquote>They wore red lipstick and long skirts (makeup and “feminine” attire were required) and had, after several months of cleaning and serving in The Cedars while the brothers worked outside, become quite unimpressed by the high-powered clientele. “Girls don't sit in on the breakfasts,” one of them told me, though she said that none of them minded because it was “just politics.”</blockquote>

As Progressives, we may understand that individuals in our world are gendered, and we may make use of institutions that help them to function spiritually and ethically within this world. We don't insist that women are only free if they stop shaving their legs or shave their hair; we understand that there are <a href = "http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~lit125/?redirect=no">a thousand different feminisms</a>, and that women as individuals pursue paths as diverse as men do. But gender and gendered living are necessary to neither our salvation nor to Christian living, and so they *cannot* be necessary to participating in marriage as a Christian sacrament (amongst Catholic churches) or Christian ceremony (amongst Protestant churches).

But when our brothers and sisters in Jesus kick the girls out of the politics meeting, they betray our heritage, our culture, and our God. Their actions take on all the more significance when considered in light of international events. <a href = "http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_051128nigeca.shtml">Gay Nigerian Christians</a> have had their first meeting ever; a sign of hope to some and naivete to others. But the British media reports that the Nigerians just sound "scared." They sound scared because they have dared to discuss their sexuality openly in a culture that deems the openly gay unfit to live. I don't need to remind our readers of other societies where <a href = "http://www.lifenews.com/nat1881.html">girl babies</a> and widows are similarly deemed unfit to live.

In the great world of feudal corporate fiefdoms and third-world dictatorships, the woes of your individual lesbian couple in California might not matter much. But they do matter insofar as more powerful nations have, in realpolitik, the opportunity to influence the protection of human rights the world over.

Gay marriage in a small town in Idaho may not be our issue: getting mired by throwing Bible verses back and forth is not the way any of us should spend our precious time on the radio and tv waves. When we look at questions of liberty for political, social, religious, and economic action for people of every gender and sexuality, the United States and Britain make statements about freedoms appropriate for all people, whether they choose them or not.

Poor families in Pakistan and Nigeria and South Carolina can choose traditional relationships, courtship, and ceremony wherever they wish, but in every democracy where the light of Christianity (or indeed the secular Enlightenment, which took many of its values) has shown, the state as the will of the majority has prevented husbands, clerics, and churches from curtailing the property rights, legal rights, or life of the individual.

Protestant Christianity has always witnessed on behalf of the laws that protect individual freedom in this way. Its theology has, in the past, pushed the government to act in ways ever more protective of individual freedoms.

Thus it is profoundly embarrassing and sad for <a href = "bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/fivelive_aod.shtml?fivelive/rowan_williams">the church to claim that it can't take a position on gay rights because its theology will take a hundred years to develop, as Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams did recently</a>; <a href = "http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/concord/web/conf-23.html">Luther</a> started us on the correct path five hundred years ago, and we have had a hundred years since <a href = "http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/HSC/fly/pre1973nonfiction.htm">Havelock Ellis and Freud</a> to understand how basic different forms of sexuality are to basic human identity.

How queer that once we have to talk about what particular acts of sex a committed couple takes part in, godfearing Christians turn pale and run away. In being asked to defend gay marriage, Christians are merely called to the same questions of individual freedom and conscience before God, to which they have dedicated themselves individuals, as married couples, and as churches.

Let me be clear: many things are not at stake here. At stake is not whether I, as a defender of my brother's freedoms, participate in them myself, am virginal or not, am married or not, wish to live in my brother's company or not, consider his choices well-advised or not, or wish to discuss his sexual life. At stake is not whether the individual priest is perfectly convinced that two people will forever adhere to the vow of chastity and commitment that they have made in due seriousness before him, although he may counsel and advise them according to his impression of the individuals in question.

At stake in whether a church marries too people is certainly not whether the individual priest judges that the individuals before him are actually going to heaven: what priest refuses marriage to the drunk or gluttonous or hate-filled man who stands before him with a future bride?

At stake is only a precept of freedom about whether the individual's rights will be curtailed on the basis of gender, a precept which has profound consequences for global freedoms in light of today's issues. We believe in a God that builds communities and sustains individuals, and an oath of marriage between two people -- any two people -- is, if nothing else, a vow to build a community as individuals who have made a free choice before God.

For in facing the question of how sexual relations are understood before God, the churches of United States and Britain have the opportunity with their theology to make a profound statement in favor of *human* rights -- including the fundamental right to life free from murder -- against regimes that devalue life merely because of an individual's gender.

For as dictatorships and corporate feudalism spread throughout Africa and South America, we stand on a precipice and look out at two futures. In one version, the discourse of women's rights and gay rights are jettisoned, as we argue instead about the necessity of traditional polygamy to maintaining the chiefs of African villages, of Sati to maintaining the wealth system of northern India, and of man-woman marriage to something vaguely called "traditional morality" in North America. In such a future, girl children will be exposed on hillsides as they were in ancient pagan empires; villages will throw screaming widows into the funeral pyres of their husbands; a tiny minority of the world's women will have legal rights over their property; the rest of the world's women will be legally subject to rape by their husbands and left penniless in case of divorce.

Remember that such was the legal condition of women in the West until about a hundred and twenty years ago -- until, that is, the age of Freud and Havelock Ellis and the modern understanding of human sexuality -- and you will understand how fragile is our concept of rights regardless of gender. You will understand how liable traditional local laws are to triumph in court and practice over the gospel of human rights.

You will understand how, in the spectrum of legal protections, gay marriage is a direct continuation of our understanding that men are free to serve God, and women are free to serve God, and traditions that restrict their freedoms because of their gender go flatly against Jesus's teachings. You will understand how discussion of gay marriage scares people away from realizing the peril in which their common values stand. You will see that, while Western Christians hesitate, the Christian-derived precept of human rights stands threatened the world over.

The other future before us is that path we were called to by Jesus, Paul, the early Christians, Augustine, Luther, and the progressives of nineteenth-century America. In this future, women the world over have the opportunity, if they desire it, to seek education, work, and political involvement. In this future, black and white marry -- even if a community deems it inadvisable, the church still supports them. In this future, a woman and a woman can marry, as can a man and a man, if their fascination with each other is romantic and sustained; if their mutual intention is towards God, and if they find a Christian community -- any Christian community -- willing to support them.

In this future, the churches of America and Britain are a safe house and a nurturing family to the African who happens to be gay or the Chinese who happens to be a woman. In this future, the Christian message of individual discernment runs so strong that it inspires freely-discerning individuals around the world to make their cause with God and face the fallen world with courage.

Rowan Williams has also spoken recently about what it means when a church says it needs leaders. Most people, he says, when they ask for leaders merely ask people to parrot back their own opinions for them. Leaders are instead individuals capable of holding together a sometimes fragile alliance for the purposes of some greater good that all have agreed upon.

Let's agree that the discussion of gay marriage in the American media has been fractious and confusing, especially to Christians and moderates. We can talk with them individually and in our communities. Church leaders will continue to huddle and argue about Bible verses.

But for political purposes, perhaps we can concede that the image of the altar, the procession, the wedding dress, the wedding ring, and the priest are so symbolically charged as to trouble people when the image is tweaked. Individuals of little experience find pictures of newlywed lesbians holding hands in San Francisco and Boston are visually jolting and confusing. Perhaps a good leader would spare them confusion, and direct them to a message that they can't be confused about: the rights of those gay Christians in Nigeria not to be lynched.

posted in Social Redemption - 0 replies

Churches Closed on Christmas Sunday!

Carol — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 00:45:09 GMT

http://mymotherlode.com/News/article/id/D8EB20N01

Some Megachurches Closing for Christmas
Tuesday, December 06, 2005 - 11:35 PM

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer

This Christmas, no prayers will be said in several megachurches around the country. Even though the holiday falls this year on a Sunday, when churches normally host thousands for worship, pastors are canceling services, anticipating low attendance on what they call a family day.

Critics within the evangelical community, more accustomed to doing battle with department stores and public schools over keeping religion in Christmas, are stunned by the shutdown.

It is almost unheard of for a Christian church to cancel services on a Sunday, and opponents of the closures are accusing these congregations of bowing to secular culture.

"This is a consumer mentality at work: `Let´s not impose the church on people. Let´s not make church in any way inconvenient,´" said David Wells, professor of history and systematic theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a leading evangelical school in Hamilton, Mass. "I think what this does is feed into the individualism that is found throughout American culture, where everyone does their own thing."

The churches closing on Christmas plan multiple services in the days leading up to the holiday, including on Christmas Eve. Most normally do not hold Christmas Day services, preferring instead to mark the holiday in the days and night before. However, Sunday worship has been a Christian practice since ancient times.

Cally Parkinson, a spokeswoman for Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., said church leaders decided that organizing services on a Christmas Sunday would not be the most effective use of staff and volunteer resources. The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday was 1994, and only a small number of people showed up to pray, she said.

"If our target and our mission is to reach the unchurched, basically the people who don´t go to church, how likely is it that they´ll be going to church on Christmas morning?" she said.

Among the other megachurches closing on Christmas Day are Southland Christian Church in Nicholasville, Ky., near Lexington, and Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, outside of Dallas. North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., outside of Atlanta, said on its Web site that no services will be held on Christmas Day or New Year´s Day, which also falls on a Sunday. A spokesman for North Point did not respond to requests for comment.

The closures stand in stark contrast to Roman Catholic parishes, which will see some of their largest crowds of the year on Christmas, and mainline Protestant congregations such as the Episcopal, Methodist and Lutheran churches, where Sunday services are rarely if ever canceled.

Cindy Willison, a spokeswoman for the evangelical Southland Christian Church, said at least 500 volunteers are needed, along with staff, to run Sunday services for the estimated 8,000 people who usually attend. She said many of the volunteers appreciate the chance to spend Christmas with their families instead of working, although she said a few church members complained.

"If we weren´t having services at all, I would probably tend to feel that we were too accommodating to the secular viewpoint, but we´re having multiple services on Saturday and an additional service Friday night," Willison said. "We believe that you worship every day of the week, not just on a weekend, and you don´t have to be in a church building to worship."

Troy Page, a spokesman for Fellowship Church, said the congregation was hardly shirking its religious obligations. Fellowship will hold 21 services in four locations in the days leading up to the holiday. Last year, more than 30,000 worshippers participated. "Doing them early allows you to reach people who may be leaving town Friday," Page said.

These megachurches are not alone in adjusting Sunday worship to accommodate families on Christmas. But most other congregations are scaling back services instead of closing their doors.

First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., led by the Rev. Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, will hold one service instead of the usual two. New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., led by the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, will hold one Sunday service instead of the typical three.

posted in Social Redemption - 0 replies

IRS selective crackdown on liberal churches

Mon, 05 Dec 2005 12:47:50 GMT

"West Wing" actor Bradley Whitford sounds of on the Huffington Post about the IRS's outrageous attack on All Saints, Pasadena:

Get The IRS Out of My Church
Bradley Whitford
Huffington Post
12.04.2005

I have been a member of the All Saints Church in Pasadena for over ten years. The recent revelations of an IRS investigation into its non-profit status as the result of a sermon given a week before the last presidential election by Rector Emeritus George Regas has outraged and galvanized our congregation.

The support we have received from across the spectrum of faith communities, including traditionally conservative evangelical leaders, has solidified our resolve—the United States government has no place in our houses of worship, and the selective targeting of churches who speak out on the issues of the day sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the religious freedom of every citizen.

The sermon in question explicitly refused to endorse a particular candidate. It did, however, hold George Bush and John Kerry up to the high standard of Christian values. Both were found wanting.

Values not put into action are meaningless, no matter how lofty they are. It is the obligation of our spiritual leaders to not just articulate those values, but to make them a reality.

We live in an age where describing oneself as a “person of faith” carries with it a tremendous political advantage. But too often in the public arena, being “religious” is defined only as a search for personal salvation and a willingness to adhere to dogma.

Declaring oneself a Christian is easy. Putting Christian values to work in a dangerous and violent world is not.

Perhaps the best response to the tragedy of 9/11 was a preemptive war against a country that had nothing to do with the attacks. Tens of thousands of deaths later, perhaps it is still the right decision.

But it is not Christian.

Perhaps it is good economics to give me, an actor on a television show, over a quarter of a million dollars in tax relief over the last five years as the poverty rate climbs, as we burden our children with structural budget deficits and cut services for our most vulnerable citizens.

But it is not Christian.

Perhaps the death penalty is an acceptable way to punish criminals.

But it is not Christian.

Jesus Christ was the Prince of Peace, not the Prince of Preemptive War. He was an advocate for the poor, not of supply-side economics. And let’s not forget that Jesus himself died in a bogus death-penalty rap. His was the original “bleeding heart,” yet I am afraid he would be described pejoratively by many today as a “do-gooder.”

President Bush proudly proclaims himself a Christian and tells us that his faith has changed his heart. Perhaps one day his faith will change his policies. Until then, I am proud to be a part of a congregation that seeks to hold all public officials to their easy— and too often empty—proclamations of faith.

posted in Social Redemption - 0 replies

Left-wing evangelical calls budget bill a "moral disgrace"

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 21:53:10 GMT

Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, made the following statement today on the narrow passage of the House Budget Reconciliation Bill.

STATEMENT BY JIM WALLIS:

The prophet Isaiah said: "Woe to you legislators of infamous laws ... who refuse justice to the unfortunate, who cheat the poor among my people of their rights, who make widows their prey and rob the orphan." Today, I repeat those words. When our legislators put ideology over principle, it is time to sound the trumpets of justice and tell the truth.

It is a moral disgrace to take food from the mouths of hungry children to increase the luxuries of those feasting at a table overflowing with plenty. This is not what America is about, not what the season of Thanksgiving is about, not what loving our neighbor is about, and not what family values are about. There is no moral path our legislators can take to defend a reckless, mean-spirited budget reconciliation bill that diminishes our compassion, as Jesus said, "for the least of these." It is morally unconscionable to hide behind arguments for fiscal responsibility and government efficiency. It is dishonest to stake proud claims to deficit reduction when tax cuts for the wealthy that increase the deficit are the next order of business. It is one more example of an absence of morality in our current political leadership.

Budgets are moral documents that reflect what we care about. Budget and tax bills that increase the deficit put our children's futures in jeopardy - and they hurt the vulnerable right now. The choice to cut supports that help people make it day to day in order to pay for tax cuts for those with plenty goes against everything our religious and moral principles teach us. It says that leaders don't care about people in need. It is a blatant reversal of biblical values - and symbolizes the death of compassionate conservatism.

The faith community is outraged and is drawing a line in the sand against immoral national priorities. It is time to draw that line more forcefully and more visibly.

I applaud those House members who have stood up for better budget priorities and fought hard all year to keep issues of basic fairness at the forefront of this debate. And I thank those on both sides of the aisle who stood up and did the right thing in voting against this bill, despite pressure from the House leadership. These strong voices provide some hope for getting beyond an ideology that disregards the role of government for the common good.

posted in Social Redemption - 1 reply

Getting down to business

joguldi — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 01:11:33 GMT

It's a sad fact that progressives get together and mope, while the Religious Right gets together and gets their people in office. Time that changed.
The fact is that we tend to mope in little clumps. I've been whizzing around YahooGroups for the afternoon, and I've seen something like two dozen separate email lists of progressive Christians -- some of them 200 names long, some of them 20; all very active, commenting on the media. But think about all that wasted energy -- twenty something discreet groups, none of them speaking to each other? It's good to talk; it's good to vent; but it's much better to organize and do something.
The CrossLeft leadership team wants to do something about that. We're putting a big push forward the next few months to recruit attention to the website. We'll be sending out mailings (please forward them!), posting around other places on the web, and encouraging folks to carry our banner and newsstream as a way of helping to get progressives in touch with each other.
We welcome your ideas. Even more, we welcome your help. If this sounds like a good idea to you, don't just sit there, help us tell people about it.
And in the meantime, to give you a sense of our commitment to helping progressive Christians find each other and meet each other, check out the "LINKS" page: http://www.crossleft.org/?q=links .
I've put up links to most of the several hundred other discussion boards, blog-sites, church sites, and columnists that feed into our StreamingChristianity newsstream -- including the half dozen YahooGroups that had public RSS-streams.
We want people to meet each other, and we're hoping that, if nothing else, vanity will lead them here as people follow the addresses that list their own sites.
It's about more than that, though. This isn't just another blogrolling site or webring. We're offering a major service with the newsstreams -- you can read the headlines that interest you the most, already put together. For instance, say you've got a lonely pastor friend, the only blue preacher he knows in a red state. Send him to our daily-updated selection of headlines from blogs by progressive clergy.
Once folks come here, we hope they'll say hello, start joining us in talking about a PATH TO ACTION for political and social change, post local progressive Christian events in their area, and help us show how large the movement could be if only we all showed up at once.

posted in Social Redemption - 2 replies

Getting the word out : podcasting, blogging, and your church

joguldi — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 18:05:51 GMT

Pay attention folks -- GodBlogCon, the conservative church blogathon in California last week, got Fox News's attention. Conservative churches understand blogging, podcasting, sharing email lists, and sharing networks. Our churches don't. Methodists don't talk to Episcopalians, UCC doesn't talk to either. CrossLeft has been trying to get progressive Christians of all denominations to talk to each other, with the end of getting better able to insist loudly that the REPUBLICAN GOD IS NOT OUR GOD. Republican churches shouldn't be the only ones in the media's attention. We need your help to spread the word.

::
Here are my suggestions:

Learn from smart conservative propagandists/networkers like PimpMyChurch.com. Daily commentary on how to convince your pastor to get a website and a blog, how to get them to link to each other and to podcast.
Consider how easy it is to podcast. Say a 3-minute prayer for the victims of Katrina and the earthquake and mudslide and post it on CrossLeft. Say a 3-minute prayer for your favorite Democrat. Say a 3-minute prayer for George Bush, that he may come to his senses and be guided to the light, despite long career on the dark side. Get your church prayer group and Bible study involved. All you need is the microphone built into your computer -- turn it on whenever you're having a good conversation!! Share it with us, and let us broadcast it to the world.
Help spread StreamingChristianity. It has 100s of progressive Christians talking in the same place. Now we need to convince 100s of progressive Christians to read it. Email your friends about it. Get your church or organization website to tack it up in a corner somewhere. It's not offensive; it's not crazy radical; it's just hundreds of clergy and laity talking about the world on their blogs, with media commentary thrown in. It's the best reminder we've got that there are actually enough of us to form a *movement*.
If you believe what I'm saying, do me a favor! Cross-post propaganda like this -- go ahead. Cut and paste it into an email to your pastor or to another activist group you like. Cut and paste it into a discussion board on Livejournal or Tribe.net. Our major mission is to get progressive Christians to talk to each other, so that building networks and finding the smart people on our side and raising up strong progressive leaders won't be so hard.

posted in Social Redemption - 5 replies

Get streaming, live, progressive Christian links!!!

joguldi — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 23:49:41 GMT

Streaming Christianity -- at http://www.crossleft.org/?q=news -- aggregates over 200 progressive Christian independent bloggers, journalists, news media sources, and internet site searches, to bring you hour-by-hour the Christian progressive movement as it reacts to contemporary political issues.

We're all about sharing information and strategies at http://www.crossleft.org. So an important way of joining up is to connect. Plug your organization or blog into our newsstream so that we'll automatically hear what your movement is up to, and plug our newsstream into your website so that others can keep in touch with what the rest of the progressive Christian movement is doing.

- Consider getting StreamingChristianity for the sidebar of your blog or the news page of your church/organization's website (directions at crossleft.org)

- If you have a blog, discussion board, email newsletter, news-site, or weekly sermon of your own, consider adding your content to our stream! (directions at crossleft.org)

RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/StreamingChristianity

posted in Social Redemption - 0 replies

A U.S. view: Who supports Bush's sinking ship? by Keith Gottschalk

cguldi — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 06:23:06 GMT

www.rabble.ca/politics.shtml
is an analysis of Bush's die-hard support in the US, an attempt to answer the question "Why is his approval rating, though an all-time low, still so high?"

posted in Social Redemption - 5 replies

Of a world coming apart at the seams.

joguldi — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 19:13:18 GMT

On September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers of New York City were attacked by two planes, toppling in flames. That date has haunted America for the last four years, outcries against war and an unjust government have been shunted in the name of God and country.

In the Fall of 2005, all that will change. Progressives begin to speak out with one voice.

On August, in the wake of Katrina, starving children, dismantled houses, the abandoned sick, and the unclaimed dead shocked the American viewing public. Could this be on American shores? Communities across America cried out in despair against the systematic dismantling of our welfare and health care system in this country that left so many of the neediest utterly vulnerable to disaster.

Hear the prophecy: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

On September 24, 2005, hundreds of thousands of protesters in Washington, London, San Francisco, and New York voiced their sustained protest against an endless war and a government equally unconcerned for the lives of its own citizens, its armed forces, and human suffering abroad.

Hear the prophecy: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

On October 13 to 15, 2005, hundreds of Christians will turn out at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, where preachers, lay-people, soup-kitchen workers, peace-protesters, prison-visitors, visitors to New Orleans, progressive journalists, and politicians of both parties, will gather to call for a reformation of the country with one voice, shouting down the government that has abandoned its poor.

Hear the prophecy: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.

BASICS

A conference on Progressive Christian Values to be held October 13-15 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC will gather Christians together to actively condemn the moral failures of the right-wing government and issue a comprehensive strategy for reform.

Panelists at the conference will present an array of ongoing faith-based media and policy responses towards Hurricane Katrina, poverty, the war in Iraq, health care, the environment, and racism.

Talks and meetings will take place at the National Cathedral, St. Alban's Church, and the Marriott Hotel. Registration is $265/head, including all receptions, meals, and a banquet with Jim Wallis. We've realized that the cost would be prohibitive for a lot of people we want to attract. The daily door fee is now at $20, or $10 for students, with a "pay what you can" clause attached.

<a href = "http://www.everyvoice.net/values">www.everyvoice.net/values</a>

BIG NAMES, BIG NETWORKS

Our confirmed participants include political and social justice figures Jim Wallis, former Senator John Danforth, Jonathan Schell, and Richard Parker; journalists E. J. Dionne, Amy Sullivan, and Steven Waldman; and intellectuals Michael Kazin and David Hollinger.

The conference will also host leaders from the major think tanks on religion and politics, including the Bliss Institute, the Henry Institute, The American Center for Progress, and the Center for Public Justice.

Leaders of the progressive Christian activist groups CrossLeft, The Christian Alliance for Progress, the Center for American Progress, The Center for Progressive Christianity, and CrossWalk America will be panelists for discussion groups on sharing local strategies for permanent, nation-wide social and political change.

<a href = "http://www.everyvoice.net/values">www.everyvoice.net/values</a>

BLOGGING AT THE CONFERENCE

One of our three major activism panels is about "New Strategies," and includes a major representation of net activists like Kaliya Hamlin, one of San Francisco's major thinkers about new kinds of community structure on the internet. She'll be giving a talk about the possibilities of linking net communities to real communities through new blog technologies like those from Civic Space Labs (which gives possibilities for sharing calendars, chatspace, etc etc to this kind of a format).

We've also wired the conference, and alerted every blogger whose email we could get that we'd like to have them there blogging.

Bloggers, famous or not, are encouraged to come, meet each other, speak out at the discussions of strategies for long-term change, and document the conference real-time. You're right that the press-release probably doesn't play up the blogosphere activity as much as it should; alas, our media effort is probably less well coordinated than it should be!

Anyone able to come is encouraged to let me know so that I can introduce myself at the event, and lend any assistance or introductions that would help! jo (at) social redemption (dot) com.

<a href = "http://www.everyvoice.net/values">www.everyvoice.net/values</a>

GRASSROOTS AND BIG CHANGE

Most of our panelists are grassroots leaders with a major presence on the internet -- the Pres and VP of the Christian Alliance for Progress, the entire leadership of CrossLeft, representatives from CrossWalk and the Center for Progressive Christianity. We've made a big deal to participants, panelists and speakers alike about the need for netroots, church, media, think-tank, and pundit to start talking to each other about a common stream of values, and a shared vision of how internet/media/politics can help us promote real social and political change.

The networking of a larger community is a problem progressive Christianity faces before it takes back the country from the radical right fringe. Conference organizers are adamant about helping the whole community start talking to each other, facilitating discussion over the internet, and enabling grass-roots groups with strategies for contacting larger media and political players.

The media panel, for instance, will offer activists information about what gets covered in the mainstream press and what doesn't. We're working from the position that most progressive Christians are sick of reading the headline "church splits over gay issues," with interviews of all the radical right-wing clergymen, every time the Episcopalian church issues a proclamation saying that they're trying to make peace between right and left without having anyone leave. How to get more even coverage? Seems like a good start.

We'd noticed, when talking to grassroots organizers around the country, that very few had access to media and politics on the one hand, or other groups of other denominations / other websites / other geographic locations on the other. Several of the activist participants are involved in longer-term initiatives to make effective the groundwork laid at the conference. CrossLeft's plan for the next year is to set up such a clearing house on the web -- with links to the different grassroots sites by geography and political initiative, with a craigslist-type information/people/needs sharing pool, and with an rss stream of progressive Christian news & blogs.

I welcome more ideas and help in spreading the word! Let's help our community to act with one initiative and reform the country.

<a href = "http://www.everyvoice.net/values">www.everyvoice.net/values</a>

-- Jo Guldi, jo (at) socialredemption (dot) com

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Free Gifts and Trojan Horses

joguldi — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 19:17:31 GMT

Reporting from my hometown of Dallas, Texas, the Washington Post reporter pondered how his colleagues were lavishing attention on the poor.
Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher of the Post give a visuals-intense description of what they see visiting the poor: free clothing, free cars, and free toys.
Athletes come to them, bestowing jerseys and autographs. Entertainers sing for them, and Bennigan's restaurants here and in Houston announced Katrina's kids could eat without paying for a while.
What emotions should this juxtaposition between great wealth and suffering create in us? Should we shift nervously, wondering whether the poor will become accustomed to taking advantage of free gifts? Should we feel nervous about the publicity, how political opportunities mask greater suffering? Should it make us feel warm and hopeful?
The American conscience is programmed to be suspicious of charity for two very different reasons, both of them religious, both of them anti-materialistic.
On the one hand is the evangelical suspicion of free gifts: both the success of the soul and the success of the body politic depend on hard work. Subverting the natural process of accruing material success through projects like welfare or government housing will, evangelicals fear, subvert the normal mechanisms of suffering, atonement, and hard work, which guide the Christian towards the heavenly kingdom.
On the other hand, the Left also has a history of suspicion towards free gifts. When the reading public of the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post look at post-Katrina church charity, they see an inadequate effort, a mere sop to great structural problems, the rafts of donated clothing and canned food hopelessly trying to repair the damage done by the dismantling of Social Security and welfare. For them, free gifts come not from the heart, but at the hands of disdainful, church-going doners who use charity to appease their own guilt for their part in the nation's political failures.
The Post adequately notes the kind of contention over fairness, worthiness, and the intentions of charity that post-Katrina America is now grappling with:
Jennifer Carter, who had been a data-entry technician for the New Orleans police department, didn't realize the fair was open to non-Katrina survivors until she noticed the nicely tailored Nora Gonzalez assert herself at the hiring table of a personnel services company. According to Carter, Gonzalez jumped in front of her, saying, "Well, I'm from Texas, this is my résumé." Fumed Carter: "They should give us an opportunity because we have nothing."
Told of Carter's perspective, Gonzalez seemed surprised. Her friend, Keyla Robinson, who was looking for clerical work, chimed in: "Why should you feel guilty? We're in need, too.
If Katrina does anything, it should make us face the reality about which the Bible preaches. We are all of us in peril: For we see that the rich, like the poor, die also, says the psalmist. To this message Christ reminded us that the poor, faced with starvation and murder, understand their vulnerability to suffering, evil, and hatred more than the rich.
Glossing Christ's parable of the eye of the needle, the early church father Saint Clement explained that the rich come closest to salvation when they participate in the suffering of the poor, not by blind charity alone, but by emotional co-participation in the vulnerability and suffering of the poor.
Nothing can minimize the suffering of disaster. Katrina ought to bring that message home to American viewers, who, like the writer herself, have found themselves turning a blind eye to disaster in Africa, India, or the Middle East when it seemed too terrible to bear recognition. So disaster offers an opportunity to recreate the world, one much grander and more important than the experiment in government-planning-free capitalism Bush envisions for post-Katrina New Orleans. Disaster offers an opportunity for everyone who views the destruction, rich and poor alike, to foreswear their worldly ambitions and take up community, fellowship, and responsibility for others in their place.
The post-disaster world is the world of nightly scandals, accidents, and warfare on CNN as well as the world post-Katrina. It has too conceivable meanings, only one of them Christian: the first is that net of vulnerability to unfair markets and corrupt individuals set forth by the Post reporters, a world that has informed American politics for the last two decades. In such a world every gift is a possible Trojan Horse in which swindles and heartbreak lie hidden.
The other message the universe may send us in disaster is a recognition of how universal opportunism, greed, corruption, and strife are in our world, a recognition that our brothers in sisters in New Orleans are the counterparts to the poor everywhere in America, to the denizens of the Twin Towers four years ago, to the AIDS orphans and starving genocide victims of Darfur, and to the war-throttled citizens of Iraq. After such a message we have no choice but to reach out, to create a better world, in small acts of charity as well as great acts of political vision. In this world, free gifts still hold a secret enwrapped deep in beneath their surfaces: a precious, forbidden conviction that each stranger we encounter really is our brother, that in every act of true charity we participate in the physical presence of Jesus Christ, that nothing else in the world can compare with the purpose and truth of God in such moments of uninhibited giving.

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Cathedral Dean Calls Sheehan A "Prophet"

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 19:42:56 GMT

Thankfully, not everyone who call themselves Christians are warmongers.

Cathedral's Dean Kowalski calls Cindy Sheehan a "prophet"

By Daphne Mack
ENS 092105-1
Wednesday, September 21, 2005

[Episcopal News Service] More than 1,000 people filled the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City on September 19, 2005, to hear anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and supporters on the "Bring Them Home Now Tour" rally support for a three-day march and anti-war protest in Washington, DC, September 24-26.

"We need to show Congress that we mean business when we say we want our troops [to come] home," Sheehan said.

Sheehan came to national attention this summer when she camped out near President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, demanding that the vacationing president explain to her in person why her 24-year-old son Casey, an Army specialist assigned to 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, died in Iraq. The effort became known as Camp Casey.

In his welcoming address, the Very Rev. Dr. James A. Kowalski, dean of the cathedral, received applause when he likened Sheehan to a "prophet."

"In the Bible there are stories about seemingly unimportant, insignificant, seemingly powerless people who out of nowhere landed in the kingdom where the king was out of control and emerged as a prophet and said to the king you have lied to your people and led them astray and Cindy Sheehan is one of those prophets," he said.

"It's an honor to have you here," Kowalski told the crowd. “A lot of people told us not to do this, not as a church especially" which didn't "make any sense to us, especially this cathedral." However, he added, "a lot of things haven't been making any sense to us."

"We asked a lot of tough questions before we went to war, and I know a lot of people disagreed, but the truth is we weren't told the truth," Kowalski said.

He urged those present to not "let people ever persuade you that just because people disagree, that they are not patriots or [that] we're not patriots." He said the "name calling and the mean spirited deception going on in the name of government and in the name of patriotism has got to stop."

Kowalski asked "what greater conversation could there be than about stopping war, and returning to peace?"

Elliot Adams, of Veterans for Peace, spoke poignantly of "the pain" he kept "inside with alcohol" for 30 years over his part in the
Vietnam War. He compared a soldier to a "crystal glass, and if you break it, you can't fix it."

Asking the audience to repeat after him, Adams stated the three point message of Camp Casey that will be taken to Washington: first, “bring them home now”; second, “take care of them when they get here”; and third, “never send our love ones to war again on a lie.”

The Rev. Osagyefu Uhuru Sekou, of Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq, said it was very appropriate to be assembled in this sacred place because there is no more sacred work than the work of peace and justice."

Sheehan told the crowd "we will not accept you not being in Washington, DC next weekend."

"We have to make the world safer and the only way we are going to do that is to get George Bush out of office," she said.

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Press Release: Values Conference

joguldi — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 14:28:27 GMT

Press Release:
Conference on Progressive Christian Values to Condemn Government Abandonment of Duty Towards the Poor

A conference on Progressive Christian Values to be held October 13-15 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC will gather Christians together to actively condemn the moral failures of the right-wing government and issue a comprehensive strategy for reform.

Panelists at the conference will present an array of ongoing faith-based media and policy responses towards Hurricane Katrina, poverty, the war in Iraq, health care, the environment, and racism. Work will center on effective strategies for faithful political organization, providing ways for participants to collaborate on the local, regional, and national level. "Focusing on values that transform the human race into the human family is essential as we live into the post-Katrina world" says the Rev. Ed Bacon, one of the key conference organizers.

The first day of the conference promises to be a major media event, demonstrating that moderate and progressive Christians have cohesive, public, strategic, unified aims for America. Expert panelists will show how the image of the church has been co-opted by a radical right and offer ways to respond.

“American political forces, in collaboration with this radical group, have corrupted Christ’s message of service towards one’s neighbor into a punitive politics of fringe interests wed to the idolatry of worldly security,” said the Rev. Rosa Lee Harden, Values Conference executive producer. “We invite journalists, clergy, laity, and the public to help us call America back from this dangerous politics, whose devastating effects we have seen so clearly in the abandonment of the poor after Hurricane Katrina.”

Further information on the conference is here:

http://www.everyvoice.net/values

- Please visit the conference PR website: http://www.everyvoice.net/values/pr
- Email the PR contacts: Elizabeth Krueger (elizabeth@everyvoice.net) or Jo Guldi (jo@socialredemption.com)

Practical Information
- The conference opens Thursday, October 13, 1pm, at St. Alban’s Church (at the National Cathedral campus) with an address by journalist E. J. Dionne.
- Six conference tracks address the politics of progressive Christianity (Thursday), economic justice, peacemaking, racism, and the environment (Friday), and family values (Saturday morning).
- The conference has places for five hundred participants. Seats are filling up rapidly, and we encourage attendees to register on our website. Registration for all sessions, banquets, and receptions being held at the National Cathedral and the Marriott is open for $255 a head ($85 for students). Registration for panels only (without banquet tickets) is $190 ($20 for students).
- Those in the DC/New York/Philadelphia area are encouraged to drop by the National Cathedral for whatever sessions most interest them. Day-attendance costs $20 ($10 for students).

Organizers and Participants
- The conference is the work of several grass-roots organized religious groups from California: Via Media, a new program of church education videos and materials based around Christ’s teachings and the concerns of progressive politics (http://www.everyvoice.net/viamedia/); the EveryVoice Network, a group of progressive Episcopalian clergy and laity (http://www.everyvoice.net); Claiming the Blessing an intentional collaborative ministry of leading Episcopal justice organizations focused on promoting wholeness in human relationships, abolishing prejudice and oppression, and healing the rift between sexuality and spirituality in the Church, (http://www.claimingtheblessing.org/); CrossLeft, a group of inter-denominational progressive Christian policy activists (http://www.crossleft.org/); All Saints’ Church, Pasadena (http://www.allsaints-pas.org/); and the Cathedral College, DC (http://www.cathedralcollege.org/).
- Our confirmed participants include political and social justice figures Jim Wallis, former Senator John Danforth, Jonathan Schell, and Richard Parker; journalists E. J. Dionne, Amy Sullivan, and Steven Waldman; and intellectuals Michael Kazin and David Hollinger.
- The conference will also host the directors of the major think tanks on religion, including the Bliss Institute, the Henry Institute, and the Center for Public Justice.
- Leaders of the progressive Christian activist groups CrossLeft, The Christian Alliance for Progress, the Center for American Progress, The Center for Progressive Christianity, and CrossWalk America will also be in attendance.
- Leaders from the Episcopal Church present will include: Robert Radtke, President of Episcopal Relief and Development; the Rt. Rev. Mark Andrus, Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Alabama; the Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, the Rev. Ian Douglas; Valerie Batts; Mike Kinman; the Rev. Dr. Sabina Alkire and many others.

History and Aims
- The Values Conference follows a series of conferences this year at which spiritual progressives have loudly protested the co-option of the values debate by religious conservatives. Religious Right agendas like “Justice Sunday” meant to stigmatize the Democratic Party have met with outrage on the part of America’s silent majority of moderate and progressive Christians. The Values Conference will build social networks and cohesive strategies where earlier conferences have already demonstrated a body of Christians united by outrage at the Religious Right. The conference tracks point to the strategies and efforts underway in politics that evidence true Christian values that actually reflect the social gospel of Jesus Christ.
- The conference will assemble a number of Christian intellectuals, journalists, policy-makers, and grass-roots activists who have generally pursued their work in isolation. We hope that these groups will now be able to collaborate in areas where their strategies overlap. Out of this conference we expect to see a more unified sense of goals, impediments, and strategies than the Christian progressive movement has hitherto demonstrated.
- A further statement of the conference agenda is available at http://www.everyvoice.net/values/pr. The conference schedule is at http://www.everyvoice.net/values.

Interviewing Participants
Journalists are encouraged to interview participants about progressive Christian reactions to Hurricane Katrina, government catastrophe, poverty, Christian values, the progressive movement, and the Values Conference agenda.

- Keynote speakers include several major political actors for political change based on progressive Christian principles. Journalists may contact them through their offices.
o Jim Wallis of Sojourners, author of God’s Politics, will deliver the banquet keynote on poverty. An interview may be arranged through Jack Pannell. tel (202) 328-8842 ext. 214, fax (202) 328-8757, jpannell@sojo.net.
o Jonathan Schell, correspondent for The Nation and author of The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People and The Fate of the Earth, will deliver the plenary address on peacemaking. He may be contacted through the Nation Institute: (212) 209-5400.
o E. J. Dionne of the Brookings Institute will deliver the opening address of the conference. He may be contacted through Katherine Moore, kmoore@brookings.edu. The front desk number of Brookings Institute may be reached by calling tel (202) 797-6000, fax (202) 797-6004.

- The conference will bring together several communities of grass-roots progressive Christians who are taking political action from their congregations.
o Jo Guldi of CrossLeft, a social historian and a Christian activist responsible for the Values Conference track on politics, is available to discuss the status and aims of progressive Christian grass-roots activism: jo@socialredemption.com.
o Dr. Ray Steiner, president of CrossWalk America in Phoenix, Arizona, can talk about building bridges between moderate and liberal churches, both equally disturbed at the religious right’s corruption of the Christian message: tel (766) 292-9255, rsteiner9@cox.net.
o Kathleen LeRoy, Vice President of the Christian Alliance for Progress in Jacksonville, Florida, can discuss the campaigns used by churches and congregations to fight for progressive values in politics: kleroy@christianalliance.org.
o Stephen Rockwell, one of the co-founders of CrossLeft, a group of activists dedicated towards political change in a progressive direction based on Jesus’s teachings, is available to discuss progressive Christian responses to contemporary politics: (215) 317-1865, steve@civicdirect.net.
o Kaliya Hamlin, an organizer of activist coalitions on the internet, is available to discuss how progressive activists are using the internet to forge networks of political action: kaliya@kaliyasblogs.com.

- The conference will bring together educators, journalists, and intellectuals who are speaking out about the co-option of the church by its radical right wing and how American progressives have traditionally defended the Christian message against its corruption.
o Ed Bacon, long-time justice activist and rector of All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, and Rosa Lee Harden, director of Via Media and rector of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church, San Francisco, are available to discuss progressive Christian education and its approach to issues of sexuality, racism, economics, politics, and social justice: ebacon@allsaints-pas.org, rosalee@everyvoice.net.
o After October 1, journalists may contact historian David Hollinger of the University of California, Berkeley, about the progressive tradition in American Christianity, the apparent fragmentation of progressive politics after the 1970s, and how new progressives are harnessing the Christian tradition: (510) 642-3402, davidhol@berkeley.edu.
o Historian Michael Kazin can talk about the intellectual tradition of progressive Christianity, its nineteenth century legacy, and its transformative power in the social gospel and civil rights movements: at work, (202) 687-0007, cell (202) 246-4440, mk8@georgetown.edu.
o Journalist Amy Sullivan of the Washington Monthly, a Democrat and a Christian, is available to discuss the progressive Christian response to current events, the community of Christian journalists, and the representation of progressive Christianity in the media: (202) 393-5155, amysullivandc@gmail.com.

For More Information
- Please visit the conference PR website: http://www.everyvoice.net/values/pr
- Email the PR contacts: Elizabeth Krueger (elizabeth@everyvoice.net) or Jo Guldi (jo@socialredemption.com)

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Church of England Apologizes to Muslims for Iraq War

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 16:40:18 GMT

The U.S. Episcopal Church should get on this bandwagon (if it hasn't already:

LONDON (AFP) - The Church of England offered to take the lead in reconciling with Muslims by apologizing to their leaders for the US-led war inIraq if the British government fails to do so.

The proposal was contained in a report, entitled "Countering Terrorism: Power, Violence and Democracy Post-9/11" which written by a working group of the Church of England's House of Bishops.

"We do believe that the church has a visionary role for reconciliation, beyond that of any government," the Bishop of Oxford, Right Reverend Richard Harris, told BBC radio.

"The Christian church in particular has a mandate to work for reconciliation," he said Monday.

The report suggests that a "truth and reconciliation" meeting between Christian and Muslim leaders would be an opportunity to apologize for the way the West has contributed to the tragedy in Iraq, including the March 2003 invasion led by the United States and Britain.

The Church of England, which lies at the heart of the worldwide Anglican communion, has been openly critical of the war in Iraq, claiming the invasion failed to meet the criteria of a "just war".

The meeting is offered as a solution to the moral dilemma that members of the church who opposed the war find themselves in.

The bishops say to pull out of Iraq without a stable democracy being in place would be irresponsible and compound the misery of the Iraqi people. But to stay suggests collusion with a "gravely mistaken" war.

If collusion is a necessary evil, the report says, there needs to be a degree of public recognition of the West's responsibility for the predicament.

The report highlights a "long litany of errors" in the West's handling of Iraq which includes its support of Saddam Hussein over many years as a strategic ally against Iran, its willingness to sell him weapons and the suffering caused to the Iraqi people by sanctions.

It goes on to say that the recent invasion appeared to be "as much for reasons of American national interest as it was for the well-being of the Iraqi people".

As Prime Minister
Tony Blair's government is unlikely to offer an apology, a meeting of religious leaders would provide a "public act of institutional repentance," it said.

posted in Social Redemption - 1 reply

Will New Orleans go Republican?

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 16:34:00 GMT

I wonder if anyone has noticed what the removal of half a million black folks from the electoral base of New Orleans portends for its political future. I bet Karl Rove has. I would not be surprised to see a Republican mayor in the next election, and more Republicans sent to Congress.

And then you'll see the whole place turn into a Disneyesque ersatz plantationville, built by Halliburton and stocked with every chain store you can name.

posted in Social Redemption - 1 reply

item donations

katie_katie — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 16:13:10 GMT

I am doing a little scouting to see where we could send actual items (like apparel). I have some friends in Texas who are going to scout it out and let me know. My daughter and I put together several boxes of quality lightly-used clothing and rather than drop it at our local Salvation Army and hope that it all gets to the survivors in a timely fashion, we're hoping to find someplace to send it immediately. Anyone have any ideas?

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Avoid "Operation Blessing"

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 19:03:01 GMT

There are various lists of charities helping in the Katrina effort. These lists often include www.ob.org. That is the website for "Operation Blessing" which is Pat Robertson's so-called charity. FEMA was even running a link to ob on their website.

Stay away from Operation Blessing unless you endorse that hate-mongering, assassination-plotting, nut-job huckster Pat Robertson.

posted in Social Redemption - 1 reply

Best Katrina Charity?

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 17:34:56 GMT

Rather than just sitting around bitching about how Bush screwed the pooch on this one, I want to get out my checkbook. I have given some money already to the Red Cross, but I hear persistent negative rumors about administrative costs, bureacracy, and what not.

I'd like to know whether people have fact-based opinions about good disaster relief charities to give to that are assisting in the Katrina effort.

And don't tell me to give to Operation Blessing. That's Pat Robertson's "charity"!

posted in Social Redemption - 4 replies

this is what's wrong with america

katie_katie — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 21:05:52 GMT

I got an email from a fundie republican pseudo-friend who has decided that the looters in Louisiana are not Americans. They're "the enemy implants". OK, mary, whatever helps ya sleep at night. sheesh
i told her i'd probably steal stuff too if my kids were hungry and thirsty. (of course i don't condone those who are shooting at rescue workers...)
Have you noticed that the people who you see in the news broadcasts are probably *not* the rich and famous??? So tell me, where was the money to do something about this when they KNEW that Katrina was coming.

posted in Social Redemption - 1 reply