The Rev. Chuck Currie

Pandemic Level Now 5; Churches Must Respond

Moments ago the World Health Organization raised the Pandemic Alert Level to 5.  This means that a pandemic is imminent.

WHO's Dr.Maragaret Chan called the possibility of such a pandemic a "threat to humanity."

“Faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs) will be essential partners in helping to ensure that people in need are provided for and that care is given in a way that minimizes stigma and other negative social responses,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Is your congregation ready for such an emergency?

Click here for the HHS report “Faith-Based Organizations and Pandemic Preparedness” to learn about the steps we will all need to take to be equipped for a pandemic. There is no reason for panic but many reasons to be ready.

Additional information on how churches can respond to the possibility of pandemic have been made available on the website of the National Council of Churches.

This Sunday at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ here in Portland, Oregon we will begin preparing emergency preparedness kits for elderly members or other members that might not be able to obtain such kits for themselves.  The Red Cross has on their website information about what items are needed in such kits. 

My prayer is that such kits will not be needed and no pandemic will actually develop but we must keep all those currently ill in our prayers.  They are God's beloved children and we pray for healing.

Related Link:  Church World Service Swine Flu Info  

Church Leaders Should Meet With President-elect; Offer Agenda

Mainline church leaders should develop an agenda and present it to the president-elect.

Government Conspires With Military Analysts For Positive Iraq Coverage

The Iraq War has been opposed since the start by the leadership of the United Church of Christ and religious bodies from the World Council of Churches to the Vatican. But how can our voices compete with this?

"We Can't Just Wish For Peace"

4000 Americans Now Dead In Iraq

Related Link:  What Should Christians Do?

Related Link: NCC laments a ‘disastrous’ war, now entering its sixth year

Video Credit:  Andrew Stelzer

Christian Principles in An Election Year

As the election season heats up the National Council of Churches USA has re-issued their Christian Principles in An Election Year.  Check this out before you vote.

"Veteran ecumenist Michael Kinnamon is installed as National Council of Churches General Secretary"

This week the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches USA voted to approve the nomination of The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon to serve as NCC's new General Secretary:

Click here for the full post.

Institute on Religion and Democracy Attacks Michael Kinnamon Nomination

It didn’t take long.

Today the Institute on Religion and Democracy criticized the nomination of Michael Kinnamon to serve as the new General Secretary of the National Council of Churches.

In a statement, IRD president Jim Tonkowich (a minister in a Presbyterian schism group opposed to the ordination of women) called Dr. Kinnamon “outside of the mainstream.”

Why does IRD care who serves as the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches?

FULL POST

Michael Kinnamon Nominated As New General Secretary of the National Council of Churches

The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon has been tapped to serve as the new General Secretary of the National Council of Churches. Official word came just moments ago from UCC-related Eden Theological Seminary, where Dr. Kinnamon has served as the Allen and Dottie Miller Professor of Mission and Peace, and from NCC.

FULL STORY

"Churches remain faithful to Gulf Coast rebuilding"

Reprinted from the National Council of Churches

New Orleans, August 29, 2007 – "If it had not been for the Church, we would be in even worse shape than we are now."

So said the Rev. Patrick Keen, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in New Orleans. He was addressing 50 volunteers from 14 Christian churches taking part in Ecumenical Work Week (Aug. 19-25) sponsored by the National Council of Churches (NCC) USA’s Special Commission for the Just Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. Bethlehem Lutheran hosted volunteers for the week and provided dinner during the week.

"The people of God from all around the country have come to help," Pastor Keen said.

The work week was held last week in New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss. In addition to the six houses the workers helped to repair and rebuild, the week was intended to point out the ongoing need for volunteers and the work done by church volunteers and organizations in the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina two years ago today.

In a survey conducted by the Special Commission of the NCC's 35 member communions it was estimated those churches sent more than 120,000 volunteers. They donated 3.6 million hours in helping victims put their lives back together. Those churches sent an estimated $250 million in financial aid to local churches and relief agencies. The survey was compiled by Tronn Moller, the Special Commission’s Gulf Coast consultant.

"The Road Home has been a bureaucratic nightmare," said Bishop Thomas Hoyt, co-chair of the Special Commission and past president of the NCC.

He said the money sent by government agencies has not been shared equitably among the victims nor has it been managed properly. The Rev. Michael Livingston, current NCC president, co-chairs the Special Commission with Bishop Hoyt.

"The task ahead is still a mammoth one," said Bishop Hoyt. "We need people to stay with us." More volunteers are needed to help people struggling all along the Gulf Coast, Hoyt said.

"We didn't come here to get noticed," said the Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, NCC's associate general secretary for justice and advocacy. "We came here to give notice that we will be here until the work is done."

In Biloxi, the volunteers worked to repair two homes, including the home of Myrtle Davis. She was born in the house 81 years ago as was her brother who will be 85 next month.

During a lunch break the workers heard from representatives of two dozen different organizations. The message from each was please keep sending volunteers. They warned of a pending housing crisis if the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) begins to evict residents of FEMA-supplied trailers. The temporary housing was designed for only 18 months to 2 years.

At a Tuesday night prayer service the Rev. Dr. Bob Hill, pastor of Community Christian Church in Kansas City, Mo., preached following a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. In describing his emotions he said he felt angry but did not share that out loud until he realized, "anger is always an appropriate response when our values have been violated."

Bishop J.D. Wiley of Life Center Cathedral in New Orleans and the Rev. C. Dan Krutz, executive director of the Louisiana Interchurch Conference in Baton Rouge, La., also preached at nightly prayer services.

While much of the media attention leading up to today's anniversary has focused on the Lower Ninth Ward, volunteers also saw other neighborhoods where little seems to have been done in two years. Gentilly, Lakeview and New Orleans East, were also areas the workers saw that are still struggling to rebuild and virtually uninhabited.

In addition to the work of the 50 volunteers, visiting clergy spent two days on a listening tour about the environmental impact of the post-Katrina flooding of this city and what still needs to be done in the area. The tour was coordinated by Cassandra Carmichael, NCC's director of eco-justice programs.

In February of this year the Special Commission issued a report card on the status of recovery efforts. After more than a half a dozen post-Katrina trips to the Gulf Coast region and extensive on-the-ground analysis, the NCC's Special Commission on the Just Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast gave low marks across the board to local, state and federal governments. The report card reviewed response and rebuilding efforts in the city of New Orleans, the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and the federal government in areas such as transportation, healthcare, housing, schools, insurance, and environmental justice.

The NCC's Special Commission was formed in September 2005 in response to the spiraling neglect present in the Gulf Region after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Commissioners representing NCC member communions convened for the first time in Louisiana in November 2005, a few months after the storms ravaged the Gulf Coast, to analyze on-the-ground progress post-Katrina. The Special Commission has since toured the Mississippi coast, met with religious leaders and community activists and government officials in New Orleans and Mississippi, including Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. In addition, the Special Commission has met with members of Congress and officials at FEMA about efforts to rebuild.

The ecumenical work week was organized for the Special Commission by Moller and the Rev. Leslie Tune, NCC's associate director for justice and advocacy. Work projects were coordinated through the United Church of Christ disaster relief, Episcopal Disaster Relief and Disciples of Christ Disaster Relief in New Orleans. In Mississippi the work was coordinated with Episcopal Disaster Relief.

"It was not a sacrifice for us to be there. It was an immense honor and privilege to be the hands and feet of God and to help people rebuild," said the Rev. Tune. "It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life that people allowed us in their homes and trusted us to help them get things back in order."

The volunteers and clergy came from NCC and other denominations: African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, American Baptist Churches USA, Armenian Orthodox, Christian Methodist Episcopal, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church, International Council of Community Churches, Presbyterian Church USA, Progressive National Baptist Convention, Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ; as well as members of Roman Catholic and Full Gospel Baptist churches plus FaithfulAmerica.org.

"NCC’s Edgar departs for Common Cause; Interim Named"

The Rev. Bob Edgar will be stepping down soon as the general secretary of the National Council of Churches In Christ USA (NCC).  The council has grown under his leadership and become a more effective voice for Christians in the United States.  As a United Methodist minister, former seminary president, and former U.S. Congressman he brought a unique set of skills to his job.  When he took the helm at NCC no one knew if the organization had the capacity to survive into the future.  Bob leaves the council with the budget deficit erased and on a stable footing.  More importantly:  NCC has been a prophetic voice on issues like the environment, the war in Iraq, and on a range of poverty issues.  It has been a pleasure for me to get to know Bob over the last several years.  He will be missed after two-terms of visionary leadership.

Related Link: Podcast Interview: The Rev. Bob Edgar On "Middle Church"   (Sept. 18, 2006)

Related Link: Podcast Interview With Bob Edgar: The National Council Of Churches Urges An Increase in The Minimum Wage (November 7, 2005)

Related Link: The Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar Talks About The National Council Of Churches, Iraq, and Voter Registration (June 30, 2004)

Press Release from the National Council of Churches

New York City, August 20, 2007 – The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary at the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) since January 2000, departs at month's end for Common Cause.   He will then assume fulltime responsibilities as the nonpartisan advocacy group's president.

Anticipating Edgar's departure the NCC's executive committee has appointed Clare Chapman, NCC's deputy general secretary for finance and administration, to be Acting General Secretary.

"We are blessed to have the administrative gifts and talents in Clare Chapman to manage the day-to-day leadership of the NCC," said the Rev. Michael Livingston, president of the NCC.  "Clare will carry us through to the end of the year when we expect to have our next General Secretary in place."

A search committee has been considering candidates for the General Secretary position for several weeks.

"The NCC and its member communions continue to be in ministry together, striving for the unity to which Christ calls us," said Chapman.  "The Council has strong leadership in its Governing Board and Executive Committee and I look forward to working with them in a new way in this leadership transition.  While we all acknowledge the improvement in financial stability that has occurred in Bob's tenure, his strong leadership in advocating for peace, working for environmental justice and helping those living with poverty is his real legacy," Chapman said.

Edgar's nearly eight years of leadership at the NCC saw numerous events that called upon the churches to speak out and witness to the gospel.  A photo retrospective produced and written by Philip Jenks, NCC's director of interpretation, is available online http://www.ncccusa.org/bobedgar/.

Edgar is returning to Washington, D.C. to head up Common Cause, a grassroots, non-partisan advocacy group with 36 state organizations and nearly 300,000 members.  Edgar lived in the Washington area for 12 years while he served as a Member of Congress from Pennsylvania, 1975-1987.

The National Council of Churches USA is the ecumenical voice of 35 of America's Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, historic African American and traditional peace churches.  These NCC member communions have 45 million faithful members in 100,000 congregations in all 50 states.

"Summer time, and the water is sacred"

Statement from the National Council of Churches

Washington, August 3, 2007 – During the hot and dry months of August and September, the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program is asking churches to use water wisely as part of their Adamah Congregations quarterly action program.

The NCC hopes to reach people in the pews through organizing bible studies on water across the nation. Churches can register to host a bible study at www.nccecojustice.org/adamahh2o.html.

“The sacredness of water in our faith tradition is stated clearly throughout the Bible," says Cassandra Carmichael, Eco-Justice Programs Director.

"The average American uses 80-100 gallons of water per day. We pray that as congregations study the scripture that they will be moved to protect this precious gift.”

The Adamah Congregations program started in January 2007 as a way to engage congregations in taking simple actions to “green” their church.

Previous actions include asking churches to switch to a fair trade coffee hour and replacing incandescent bulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.

The Eco-Justice Programs office of the National Council of Churches works in cooperation with the NCC Eco-Justice Working Group to provide an opportunity for the national bodies of member Protestant and Orthodox denominations to work together to protect and restore God's Creation. 

The Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry Calls For Living Wage As Minimum Wage Gets Bumped Up

Last week low-income working Americans finally got a raise when the federal minimum wage was increased after years of growing poverty levels. Pehaps no one was more responsible for this than The Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry, the founder of Let Justice Roll, a project of the National Council of Churches, and the former general minister and president of the United Church of Christ.  At a press conference held this week with Congressional leaders he said: 

This is a good day, isn't it? After ten long years, America's low wage workers and families are getting a break. It's about time -- and Let Justice Roll is very glad to be part of it. Let Justice Roll is a nonpartisan coalition of over 90 faith-based, community-based, labor and business organizations united around one single goal -- working together to establish a living wage for all of our country's working people.

We have worked alongside many others to raise the minimum wage in a growing number of states -- Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia. We have worked in support of city and county-wide living wage ordinances. And we have worked in support of the federal legislation we celebrate today. All with one purpose: reaching a living wage for all of America's working people -- a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.

We believe that a job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.

With Martin Luther King, we believe, "There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American (worker) whether he (or she) is a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid, or day laborer."

And with the prophet Amos, we envision a renewed society wherein "justice rolls down like living waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream." That is the very definition of a good and decent society.

Yes, today is a good day. But, even as we celebrate, we know that we have a long way to go if justice is to be done for America's low wage working people.

Even at $7.25 an hour in 2009, the minimum wage, in inflation adjusted dollars, will be more than $2 below what it was in the year 1968 -- four decades ago. We do have a long way to go.

In the meantime, low wage working families will continue to struggle mightily with the ever increasing costs of health care, housing, education, and so much else.

When the Fair Labor Standards Act was established, way back in 1938, the Act was designed "to eliminate labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for the health, efficiency and general well-being of workers." The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which Dr. King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, called for a national minimum wage act that will give all Americans a decent standard of living. How far we are from those noble and visionary goals. We do have a long way to go.

A just minimum wage is not only ethically right; it is also economically right. A just minimum wage is good for workers. A just minimum wage is good for business and the economy. Speaking of business, nearly 800 business owners and executives representing every state in the nation have signed a statement endorsing a minimum wage increase at www.businessforafairminimumwage.org.

A just minimum wage is good for our common future. So, we dare not and we will not cease our efforts until all working people receive a living wage.

Let Justice Roll will work, along with many others, in support of future federal legislation to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. We will work in support of minimum wage legislation at the state level and for living wage ordinances at the local and state level -- places like Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma and Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

We will continue to make the case that raising the minimum wage is a central moral and economic issue of our time. Morality demands that a job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.

Yes this is a good day, a day to celebrate. On this day, even as we celebrate, let us look forward to an even better day. A day when all working people will receive a truly living wage -- a wage that will give all of America's families a decent standard of living. On that day, justice will roll down like living waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Let's do it!

Congratulations to all who worked hard for this victory.  Now let's all get back to work.  My friend Rev. Sherry is right that we still have along way to go. 

"NCC joins faith leaders' call for child health plan"

Statement from the National Council of Churches

Washington, D.C., June 12, 2007 – The National Council of Churches USA (NCC) is among more than 20 faith groups pressing for health insurance coverage for many of the nine million uninsured children in America.

Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Episcopal, Evangelical and Orthodox leaders sent a letter to Senator Max Baucus, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, urging them to produce the $50 billion needed in legislation to expand the successful State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

"The faith community worked hard to win $50 billion in new funding in the budget resolution. We expect Congressional leaders to use these funds to reach millions of uninsured children in our nation," said the Rev. John Bauman, S.J., executive director of PICO National Network.

The letter, signed by the religious leaders, asks Baucus and Reid to keep their commitment to spend $50 billion over five years to cover as many as six million uninsured children. The letter from faith groups representing 50 million Americans comes during intense closed door negotiations over SCHIP in the Senate. National clergy leaders are making personal appeals to key senators during a week of intense advocacy for children.

PICO National Network and the NCC have generated 9,000 letters to key senators over the past week and organized SCHIP clergy coalitions in key states such Indiana, Kansas and Missouri.

"We want Congressional leaders to understand that people of faith see covering children as our highest legislative priority this year," said the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the NCC. "In our Christian tradition we follow a Jesus who said, 'Let the little children come to me...'(Luke 18:16). The most vulnerable were priorities for Jesus. Today, our uninsured children are among the most vulnerable."

In addition to Edgar, leaders in ten NCC member communions signed on to the letter. They are: Rev. Michael Livingston, executive director of the International Council of Community Churches (and NCC President); Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (and NCC President-elect); Rev. John H. Thomas, general minister and president, United Church of Christ; Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop, The Episcopal Church.

Also, Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; James Winkler, general secretary, General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church; Rev. A. Roy Medley, general secretary, American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A..

Also Rev. Dr. William J. Shaw, national president, National Baptist Convention, U.S.A.; Bishop John Richard Bryant, presiding bishop, 5th Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal Church; the Rev. O.C. Edwards, Jr. (Episcopal Church), executive committee and co-chair, NCC's Faith and Order Commission; M. Garlinda Burton, general secretary, General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, United Methodist Church; and Virginia R. Holmstrom, executive director, American Baptist Women's Ministries.

Testimony from The Rev. Chuck Currie Before Portland City Council In Support Of Returning American Veterans

This afternoon the Portland City Council will consider a resolution (put forward by all five members of the Council) welcoming home veterans from the Iraq War and offering support for all those having difficulty reintegrating after deployments. I have been asked to give testimony at the hearing. Below are my prepared remarks:

Testimony from The Rev. Chuck Currie

Before Portland City Council In Support Of Returning American Veterans

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Members of the Council:

My name is Rev. Chuck Currie. I currently serve as the interim minister of Parkrose Community United Church of Christ and live in Portland’s Grant Park neighborhood.

Today I am here to offer support for the resolution before council welcoming back returning veterans from the Iraq War.

Twenty-one years I began working at a shelter in Portland called Baloney Joe’s. Each day we served hundreds of individuals suffering from acute mental illness, people who had lost their jobs because of the declining timber industry, those battling alcohol and drug addictions, and veterans who severed our nation in the Armed Forces only to be abandoned to the streets.

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans reports:

In addition to the complex set of factors affecting all homelessness -- extreme shortage of affordable housing, livable income, and access to health care -- a large number of displaced and at-risk veterans live with lingering effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and substance abuse, compounded by a lack of family and social support networks.

No one should be homeless in the richest nation on earth. But Americans have a special burden to ensure that those who have served the nation are not left without services and support. Tragically, after the Vietnam War our veterans were simply cut loose and many ended up in shelters like Baloney Joe’s. Our shelter, which received only limited government support, operated counseling programs, a medical center, a jobs program, and SRO housing centers in Old Town. We were so unpopular in serving this population that Mayor Frank Ivancie once famously said in the early 80s he’d rather wed his garden then visit Baloney Joe’s. As many as one-third of the people we served were Vietnam veterans.

You would have thought a lesson had been learned by the way Vietnam veterans had been treated but already veterans from Iraq are ending up in shelters and we have seen the shameful way veterans in medical facilities like Walter Reed have been treated. “While an estimated 500,000 veterans were homeless at some time during 2004, the VA had the resources to tend to only 100,000 of them,” reported The Christian Science Monitor in a 2005 article chronicling the increase of veterans from Iraq seeking emergency shelter.

The General Assembly of the National Council of Churches adopted a statement last year that read it part:

We urge our government to give meaningful support to U.S. troops. This meaningful support includes: bringing active and reserve forces home from this war; providing soldiers still in harm's way with adequate armor to protect them from gunfire and explosive devices; giving earned benefits to veterans, especially injured veterans, of this war in which they have valiantly served; and honoring the sacrifice made by those who have died in this war by making adequate provision for surviving family members and creating a withdrawal plan that brings such sacrifices to an end.

War is contrary to the will of God and we are called to be peacemakers. We are also called to be a compassionate people concerned with the “least of these” in society. I urge all Portlanders to do everything in our power to avoid the mistakes of the Vietnam era and to welcome home our veterans with open arms.

Church World Service "urging action on immigration reform with "Take 5" campaign"

Action Alert from Church World Service

NEW YORK -- Humanitarian agency Church World Service is calling on its constituents to advocate for humane, equitable immigration reform with its June 5 - 8 "Take 5 for Immigrants" campaign.

Participants will take five minutes on each of those days to call their senators about key amendments being voted on that very day. "Action alerts" will be available by 11 a.m. (Eastern) each day at www.cwsspeakout.com

"The week of June 4 could be crucial in determining what kind of immigration reform the U.S. Senate will pass," said Joe Roberson, Director of the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program. "If all goes according to plan, senators will be voting on different parts of the bill (S. 1348) each day, aiming toward final action as early as June 7."

The goal of the "Take 5 for Immigrants" campaign is to proactively bring to the immigration reform debate the values of the U.S. ecumenical community to promote family unity, a workable immigration system, and the humane treatment of all individuals.

"There is so much at stake in every section of the bill that it would be irresponsible for us not to educate and advocate about each part as it comes before the senate for action," Roberson said. "Members of Congress need to bring their common sense, human empathy, realism, and fairness to the immigration policy debate."

Since the beginning of the debate, Church World Service has been calling for reforms that would:

• Improve our family-based immigration system to significantly reduce waiting times for separated families who currently wait many years to be reunited.

• Create legal avenues for immigrants to safely and legally work in the United States, with their employee rights fully protected.

• Provide an opportunity for earned legalization for all persons who already contribute to our economy as a necessary way to keep families together and remedy the abuse of undocumented workers.

• Implement smart, targeted enforcement, not fences.

• Safeguard asylum seekers by ensuring a fair legal process without penalizing them with increased, unnecessary bureaucracy.

Church World Service is the relief, development and immigration and refugee resettlement agency supported by 35 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican denominations in the United States.

Rev. Bob Edgar To Head Common Cause

The Rev. Bob Edgar, out-going general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, will become the new president of Common Cause:

Robert William (Bob) Edgar, the general secretary of The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC), and a former congressman who represented eastern Pennsylvania from 1975 to 1987, was elected president and chief executive officer of Common Cause by the organization's National Governing Board. Edgar succeeds Chellie Pingree, who stepped down in February.

"With devastating consequences, powerful special interests distort and disrupt the democratic process in ways that shift political power away from the American people," Edgar said. "I look forward to carrying on (Common Cause founder) John Gardner's vision of Common Cause as a people's lobby both in Washington, DC and in the states."

"Bob Edgar brings to Common Cause an outstanding record of leadership and service," said Martha Tierney, interim chairwoman of Common Cause's National Governing Board. "He has a demonstrated ability to inspire people to think and work creatively. We are thrilled he will be focusing his efforts on issues such as campaign finance reform, government ethics and election and media reform that mean so much to Common Cause."

Edgar, 63, comes to Common Cause with a rich and long history of public service and leadership. In 2000, he took office as general secretary for the National Council of Churches USA, a 50-year-old organization representing 35 member communions and their 45 million members who work to promote unity and justice. 

Under Edgar's leadership, the Council focused on major initiatives that included overcoming poverty, protecting the environment, fostering interfaith understanding and working for peace worldwide. He came to the Council from the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, Calif., where he was president from 1990 to 2000.

Edgar was elected to the US House in 1974, the first Democrat since before the Civil War to represent the heavily Republican 7th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, an area outside of Philadelphia. Part of the Watergate class in Congress that helped pass sweeping ethics and campaign finance reforms, he led efforts to improve public transportation, fought wasteful water projects and authored the community Right to Know provision of Super Fund legislation. He also served on the House Select Committee on Assassinations that investigated the deaths of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and President John F. Kennedy.

Edgar ran for the US Senate in 1986, losing to Republican Sen. Arlen Specter. He grew frustrated in that race with the undue influence of money in politics and became an active supporter of clean elections and campaign finance reform, issues that have been Common Cause's hallmark.

Edgar has served on Common Cause's National Governing Board since 2005. He also serves on the boards of Independent Sector, another organization founded by Common Cause founder Gardner, the National Religious Partnership for the Environment and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, an independent non-profit organization Congress uses as a resource for environmental and energy issues.

Edgar has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa., and a master of divinity degree from the Theological School of Drew University in Madison, NJ. He also holds four honorary doctoral degrees.

He has received awards for his work from a number of national organizations, including the American Legion, Vietnam Veterans of America and the National Taxpayers Union.

As president and chief executive officer, Edgar will oversee all program activities, finances and communications for Common Cause, a non-partisan citizen lobby with more than 300,000 members and supporters. Common Cause has a 35-year history of helping citizens to effectively engage in the political process through reform advocacy on issues such as campaign finance reform, government ethics, election reform and media reform.

Common Cause will be well served by Bob's leadership. It has been a pleasure for me to work with NCC while Rev. Edgar has been the general secretary and I've enjoyed the times he has agreed to be interviewed for this blog.

Mission Accomplished In Iraq? Wishful Thinking.

Today marks the 4th anniversary of President George W. Bush’s declaration that major combat operations had ended in Iraq under a banner that read “Mission Accomplished.” A more realistic slogan for the president’s banner would have been “Wishful Thinking.”

Today The Washington Post reported:

The deaths of more than 100 American troops in April made it the deadliest month so far this year for U.S. forces in Iraq, underscoring the growing exposure of Americans as thousands of reinforcements arrive for an 11-week-old offensive to tame sectarian violence.

Over 3,300 Americans have now been killed in Iraq and as many as 600,000 civilians have lost their lives.

National Public Radio reports today that the armed forces have to accept higher numbers of high school drop outs and ex-cons to meet recruiting goals.

Terrorism is on the rise.

The United States Congress will present legislation today to the president that requires the U.S. to start a withdrawal from Iraq by October 1. The president (whose popularity has fallen to as low as 28% in recent polls) has promised to veto the legislation.

Religious leaders across the globe have been calling on the U.S. to leave Iraq.

The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, said this spring:

Leaders from Christian churches and other faith traditions sought peaceful solutions before the March 19, 2003 invasion. A delegation went to Iraq in December 2002. They met with government officials and prayed with Iraqi Christians.

At the same time 46 religious leaders, many from the member communions of the National Council of Churches USA (NCC), representing millions of faithful Americans, sought a meeting with President Bush to discuss the threat of war. Exactly two weeks before the invasion a letter from the White House stated the president's schedule would not permit such a meeting.

The leaders of nearly every major religious body in the U.S. had spoken out against the Iraq war. The NCC delegation called such a preemptive war, immoral, illegal and theologically illegitimate.

It is the life and ministry of Jesus Christ that prompted our stand then and compels us now to reiterate the continued prosecution of this war is immoral. It should be ended as quickly as possible. Our troops should be brought home and cared for in decent military hospitals to repair their broken bodies and damaged minds.

Our churches will offer our returned soldiers safe places to soothe their souls. Our churches will offer millions of dollars to relief agencies to help rebuild Iraq and comfort the innocent victims of a war they did not ask for. Our churches will continue to pray for peace. And we will pray for forgiveness and seek repentance for our nation for the unnecessary deaths and destruction caused to God’s family.

Pray for our country to have the wisdom to end the occupation of Iraq and pray for the world to have the wisdom to seek peace in the wake of so much destruction and death that has been caused by terrorists and nation-states alike. Lord have mercy.

"Virginia Tech tragedy demands gun control"

Statement from the National Council of Churches USA

"My pastor's heart breaks for the families of those who died today," said NCC General Secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar following today's fatal shooting at Virginia Tech University. Edgar also renewed the NCC's call for meaningful legislation to prevent such gun violence. "Faith leaders have spoken up continually about the epidemic of gun violence in our country," Edgar said. "Despite repeated calls from faith and community leaders to Congress and presidents nothing ever seems to get done to stem the tide."  Edgar, himself a former Member of Congress, lamented that the issue of gun violence seems to get such little attention from those who have the power to do something about it. "How many more will have to die before we say enough is enough?  How many more senseless deaths will have to be counted before we enact meaningful firearms control in this country?  How many more of our pastors, rabbis and imams will have to preside over caskets of innocent victims of gun violence because a nation refused to stop the proliferation of these small weapons of mass destruction?," said Edgar. More.

Note:  Toby Harnden from The Daily Telegraph (UK) is linking to this post today in his on-line column,  Welcome to all our UK visitors.

UPDATE:  After Virginia Tech Churches Need To Jump Start Gun Control Debate  

CBS set to air interfaith special on the arts

From the National Council of Churches USA

The Arts Within Religion,' a CBS interfaith religion special, will be  released Sunday, April 22 to television affiliates across the nation as part of the network's quarterly Religion and Culture series. The program is produced by CBS in cooperation with Interfaith Broadcasting Commission, whose members  include the National Council of Churches USA, The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Islamic Society of North America, Union for Reform Judaism and the New York Board of Rabbis. Included in the special is a profile of an Islamic Hip-Hop group called Native Deen, who use rap music to promote a message of tolerance and understanding while maintaining their religious and cultural identity. The members, Joshua Salaam, Naeem Muhammad and Abdul-Malik Ahmad call themselves "Native Deen" drawing from the Arabic word "deen" meaning "religion."  Their music and lyrics are meant to inspire peace among Muslims and non-Muslims alike. More.

5 AM On Easter Morning On Portland's KATU

Press Release from the National Council of Churches USA

Cleveland, Ohio, March 21, 2007 – "Joy Dawned Again," an Easter TV special, will air on many ABC-TV stations on or near Easter Sunday, April 8.

(Note: The program will air here in Portland on KATU at 5 am - for other listings around the country click here.)

The hour-long special, produced for the National Council of Churches USA (NCC) by the United Church of Christ (UCC), was filmed on March 3 at Dover Congregational UCC in Westlake, Ohio. It included a diverse congregation comprised of Dover UCC members and others from across the UCC's Western Reserve Association.

About 200 people, including a 35-member choir, took part in the filming, an experience described by many as transforming.

"Everyone just belted out the singing and the responses," said Jean Robinson, UCC video producer. "I've never had the experience of being in a church where everyone did that."

Religious documentaries and specials air on the three major TV networks under an arrangement with the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission (IBC) of which the NCC is a founding member.

"The whole experience actually worked as worship, and we did it all in one take," said the Rev. Cliff Aerie, the UCC's minister for special events, creativity and the arts. "People really did have a worshipful experience."

The UCC's worship special focuses on a picturesque UCC congregation as it gathers on Easter Sunday morning. Before long, the worshipers experience the power of the resurrection in unexpected ways as current reality intersects with the ancient narrative.

Seven years ago, the UCC produced a similar Easter morning special that aired on about 90 percent of ABC-TV stations, says the Rev. Robert Chase, the UCC's communications director and chair of the NCC's communication commission.

Click here for the full press release.

Waging War on Minimum Wage

There is politicking going on in Congress of the worst kind:

The General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA (NCC) today called on Congress to account for linking federal minimum wage legislation with the bill to fund the Iraq war.

"It is reprehensible for Congress to attach the federal minimum wage to a funding request for what most religious leaders in America have called an immoral war," said the Rev. Bob Edgar in a message to the more than 105,000 members of FaithfulAmerica.org, NCC's online advocacy community. Edgar urged the online members to email their Congressional representatives.

"Whatever the political maneuvers that led to this situation, it is clear Congressional leadership has lost sight of the value of working men and women in our nation who have gone too long without a raise," said Edgar.

Edgar also reiterated his opposition to linking a minimum wage increase to tax breaks or other incentives to businesses who may hire minimum wage workers.

Send Congress a message today demanding that they “restore a clean bill, a just bill, a moral bill on increasing the federal minimum wage, without amendments or add-ons or tax incentives for anyone. We need a measure that is fair, just, and moral. Most importantly, our nation's poorest must never be used as bargaining chips for military spending.”

"Let Justice Roll coalition thanks Senate for vote to raise the minimum wage"

Press Release from the National Council of Churches USA

Washington, February 1, 2007 – The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, a national coalition of 91 religious, labor, and community organizations, thanks the Senate for voting to raise the minimum wage. This is a long-overdue step forward for millions of American workers and their families. We are grateful the Senate heard the voices of millions of working people and their allies in faith, labor and community groups such as ours.

While Let Justice Roll is very pleased with the vote, we are aware that harmful and extraneous items were also included in the bill. We are concerned that these provisions will hurt many of the workers the bill aims to help such as leased employees. The bill also includes unnecessary business tax breaks. We look forward to working with Senate and House leaders on a clean, final bill that will swiftly land on President Bush's desk and be signed into law.

Raising the minimum wage is good for workers, businesses, and our communities. Executives from businesses large and small worked with Let Justice Roll on the campaign to raise the minimum wage. But the minimum wage is a moral issue as well as an economic one. In a recent Let Justice Roll statement to Congress, over 1,000 faith leaders noted the unconscionable and immoral reality that our nation's wealth is built on the backs of those who are working and poor.

The Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry, Let Justice Roll national coordinator, calls the Senate vote, "a significant step toward the day when all American workers earn a living wage, the day when a job will keep you out of poverty, not in it. But we still have a long way to go."

The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign is a fast-growing coalition of 91 faith-based, community, and labor organizations working to support legislation to raise the minimum wage at the federal level and in selected states.

National Council Of Churches: No More Troops

The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, made remarks today about the president’s call for more troops in Iraq. Ekklesia reports:

"This escalation of troop presence only promises to guarantee an escalation in American and Iraqi deaths", says the Rev Dr Bob Edgar of NCCUSA today. The council brings together mainstream American denominations with a combined membership of 45 million.

He continued: "Particularly in the wake of the barbaric execution of Saddam Hussein - an act that reflects not the ideals of democracy and justice, but rather mocks them - and an act that promises only to breed more violence, as only a violent act can - one would think that the United States would immediately seek to bring about a change of policy. Sending more troops is not a change in policy, nor is it even a change in strategy; it is more of the same…"

"It is time for moral strength, not military power, to take precedence in the US plan for Iraq.

"It is time to recognize the failure of a military policy that is not promoting freedom, not ending terrorism, not building up the Iraqi nation, not bringing security to the region, and not making the world safer.

"It is time - and here we agree with the President - to insist on political benchmarks for the Iraqi government, and to provide reconstruction aid to the Iraqi people, if it is not already too late. But the benchmarks must be achievable, and this time the disbursement of aid must be transparent."

Click here for the full story.

Institute on Religion on Democracy Report Written By Bush Campaign Worker

Yesterday the Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion on Democracy (IRD), a group funded by right-wing extremists, released a "report" critical of funding sources relied on by the National Council of Churches USA.

"The institute, a Washington-based think tank, is allied with conservative groups on issues such as same-sex marriage. From its founding in 1981, its primary effort has been to challenge what it calls the "leftist" political positions of mainline Protestant denominations, such as the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)," reports The Washington Post.

IRD has long opposed positions taken by the NCC on issues ranging from anti-poverty efforts (IRD promotes policies that benefit the wealthy at the expense of the "least of these" in society) to issues around war and peace (IRD strongly advocates the use of U.S. military force to resolve nearly all international disputes).  The group even questions the existence of global warming. 

IRD's leaders often confuse the Republican Party platform with the Gospel teachings of Jesus. 

The Washington Post, in their article on the release of IRD's report, reported today that:

...the institute released a 90-page report, titled "Strange Yokefellows: The National Council of Churches and Its Growing Non-Church Constituency." It argued that the council in recent years has faced diminishing contributions from its member churches and has made up the shortfall with grants from such "left-leaning" groups as the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, the Ford Foundation and the Sierra Club.

"Several of these [non-church] groups that the NCC has turned to for financial and other forms of support are so blatantly partisan that they can be accurately described as . . . the shadow Democratic Party," the report's main researcher, John Lomperis, told reporters.

The article did not mention that Lomperis worked on the Bush 2004 campaign. 

However, The Washington Post did report that:

James Tonkowich, the institute's president, said that about 60 percent of its roughly $1 million in annual revenue comes from individual donors and about 40 percent from conservative foundations, such as the Scaife, Bradley, Coors and Smith Richardson family charities.

Tonkowich also acknowledged that his organization has made public less information about its funders than the NCC has.

NCC, under the leadership of The Rev. Bob Edgar, has diversified their funding sources and turned a nearly $6 million deficit into a balanced budget.  The council has also worked with bi-partisan leaders in the United States on several issues and been critical of both democrats and republicans when needed.  Unlike IRD, the NCC is not beholden to partisan political interests.

   

Click on the photo to see John Lomperis on the job for the Bush campaign.

Religious Leaders Call For Increase In Federal Minimum Wage

Today over 1,000 religious leaders from across the United States (including this blogging minister from Oregon) delivered a letter to Congress calling for an increase in the minimum wage.

Let Justice Roll reports:

Washington, DC -- Let Justice Roll, a nonpartisan coalition of ninety faith and community organizations, today sent a letter to members of Congress signed by more than 1,000 Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith leaders from across the country. Anticipating House debate on minimum wage this Wednesday, Jan. 10, faith leaders urge congressional support for The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 (HR 2), which would increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 from the $5.15 level set in 1997.

"As people of faith, we believe there is no better way to urgently address the poverty that afflicts so many low-wage working people and their families than by raising the minimum wage," said Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry, National Coordinator of Let Justice Roll and co-author of "A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future." Sherry added, "A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it. That conviction is at the very heart of the faith we proclaim."

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, said, "We seek a just community for all people. We are a decade late in even beginning to raise the minimum wage toward a living wage. We call on Congress to remember the least among us, and raise the minimum wage without any further delay."

In December, the nation broke the record for the longest period in history -- more than nine years -- without a minimum wage raise, while Congress's ninth pay raise since 1997 is scheduled to take effect in February. Today, a full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour makes an unconscionable $10,712 annually. Although worker productivity and corporate profits are both way up, the buying power of today's minimum wage is lower than it was in 1950.

As the faith leaders' letter states, "The strong victory on all the minimum wage ballot initiatives is evidence that there is strong and widespread support from Americans for a prompt, clean minimum wage increase at the federal level."

Click here to see the list of religious leaders who have endorsed the letter.

Better yet:  take action and call Congress on Tuesday, January 9th and tell your member to support The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 (HR 2).  Click here for all the information you need to make that call. 

Rebuild Iraq Before Leaving

Everywhere you go the talk is about the "surge" - a proposal under consideration by the White House to dramatically increase U.S. troops in Iraq to stem the tide of chaos (the "McCain doctrine" says John Edwards).  Our newly installed House and Senate leadership have appropriately condemned the proposal.   

But I reject out of hand any suggestion that American troops be hastily withdrawn.  Whether or not we like it - and I don't - we are in Iraq and we created the mess.  We have to do whatever we can and spend whatever it costs to help rebuild Iraqi society.  We cannot, as the U.S. did at the conclusion of the 1991 Iraq War, simply withdraw and allow the humanitarian crisis there to escalate.  Multinational troops will be needed in Iraq for many years to help with basic security.  Hopefully, other nations will contribute more if they see evidence the U.S. is willing to adjust policy. 

It was the height of political stupidity not to follow-up the invasion of Iraq with a Marshall-type plan for putting the nation back together.   

This fall the National Council of Churches USA released a pastoral letter calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops but wisely linked any such move to the rebuilding of Iraq.

...we call upon the U.S. Government to recognize that the continued presence of occupying forces has not provided meaningful security for Iraqi citizens and only exacerbates escalating violence, and begin an immediate phased withdrawal of American and coalition forces from Iraq with a timetable that provides for an expeditious final troop withdrawal.  And we further call upon our government to link this withdrawal plan to benchmarks for rebuilding Iraqi society, since the reconstruction of infrastructure, the restoration of essential services, and a foundation for economic growth are necessary to nurture Iraqi hopes for a stable future, and to steps to meet the security concerns of all Iraqis, including the more vulnerable, smaller ethnic and religious communities. (Emphasis added)

We know what happens when powerful nations invade and then abandon countries where the economy and the infrastructure are destroyed.  Think Afghanistan post the Soviet Invasion.  Or dust off your old history books and remember how Hitler and the Nazis where able to turn Germany's humiliation and devastated economy into an opportunity to gain power. 

Progressives who fought to stop this war from ever happening (the good guys) need to start better articulating a vision for how to bring this war to a close without causing even more harm to the Iraqi people.  The letter from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to President Bush never mentions rebuilding Iraq.  Our obligation to Iraq cannot simply end with the withdrawal of troops.

The Iraq Study Group Report, A Response by the National Council of Churches USA

Statement from the National Council of Churches USA

The National Council of Churches USA urges President George W. Bush to heed the recommendations in the Iraq Study Group Report. While no set of recommendations can right all of the wrongs evolving from the Iraq war, this report does lay groundwork for an end to the war that all sides can find acceptable. The president, as well as the newly-elected Congress, needs to understand the opportunity presented by this report.

The recommendations in the Iraq Study Group Report generally resonate with recommendations made by church leaders through the NCC. In "Pastoral Message on the Iraq War" issued at its November general assembly, the NCC called for a withdrawal of US troops, benchmarks for rebuilding Iraqi society, and steps to meet the security concerns of all Iraqis, including the more vulnerable, smaller ethnic and religious communities.

The Iraq Study Group Report likewise calls for a draw-down of US forces, as well as milestones for Iraqi national reconciliation, security, and governance. While the NCC would have liked to have seen more specificity with regard to a timetable for withdrawal, the fact that the Report redefines the mission of US troops in such a way that makes room for their withdrawal by early 2008 is a step in the right direction. Indeed, the Report’s suggestion of such a withdrawal, even coupled with an increase in the number of troops assigned to the training of Iraqi forces, is a realization that the occupation of Iraq is an ever-deteriorating situation and therefore must end.

The NCC commends the Iraq Study Group Report for its encouragement of multilateral engagement in addressing the situation in Iraq, a move also called for by the NCC's "Pastoral Message." The Report's recommendation that such engagement would include diplomatic initiatives with Iran and Syria, as well as involving the United Nations and other international partners, is consistent with other statements made by the NCC in recent months and years. Also consistent with the NCC's viewpoint is the Report's conclusion that the situation in Israel / Palestine is integrally related to the situation in Iraq, and indeed that a solution to the Israeli - Palestinian conflict is central to the solution of all problems in the Middle East.

In its "Pastoral Message," the NCC lamented the lapse in US moral leadership "as it pertains to our country's justification and conduct of this war in Iraq." The Iraq Study Group Report enables the US to take a step in reclaiming this moral leadership, by stating: "Because of the role and responsibility of the United States in Iraq, and the commitments our government has made, the United States has special obligations." The path our country takes in meeting these obligations can only be determined if we find consensus, as is hoped for in this Report. It is the view of the NCC that this Report offers the best opportunity at this time in our nation's history to find such consensus.

For information, please contact Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, Associate General Secretary for International Affairs and Peace, at 212-870-3422, or tkireopoulos@ncccusa.org.

At The Lord's Table: Everyday Thanksgiving

Oregonian Chloe Schwabe, now working as an Ecojustice Specialist for the National Council of Churches Ecojustice Program in Washington, D.C., sent along this information earlier today:

Thanksgiving evokes the tastes of turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. As we thank God for the glorious bounty of the harvest, we can look at ways to be good stewards of farms and farming communities. For Thanksgiving and the harvest season, the NCC Eco-Justice Program is offering a new resource entitled, At the Lord’s Table: Everyday Thanksgiving.

This resource highlights the need for justice for the land and farming communities and includes sermon starters, liturgical pieces, adult and youth education materials, and ideas for action.

Sign up through the NCC Eco-Justice Network to download your free copy at www.nccecojustice.org/network from the NCC Eco-Justice network site.

There is perhaps no greater cause right now than the protection of God’s creation.

Send Washington Your Hopes

FaithfulAmerica.org - the online advocacy arm of the National Council of Churches - is gathering signatures for a petition to be presented to the new Congress:

Dear Members of Congress:

Elected leaders are privileged to represent all the citizens of this nation and to be lights of hope for all the nations of the world. We call upon both parties and all who will join them to be a sign and a living witness that only  justice for all will prevail, ultimately, in all aspects of our lives.

Persons of faith, whose votes reflect their deepest values, ask those whom they elect to honor those values by embracing a spirit of cooperation, commitment, and personal conduct that is conducive to the highest and best within us.

We ask that instead of political power mongering there be a commitment to serve the common good, instead of suspicion, an atmosphere of trust, instead of personal attack, a spirit of cooperation.   When tempted to stray from our nation's fundamental values, we call upon you to pledge anew to engage your power to serve, protect, and uphold the least among us.

People around the world will watch closely what we do.   Mindful of the opportunity to model and advance an ideal of public service that reflects our highest moral values, we ask that you work to usher our nation into a new day for life in America.

Click here to sign.

U.S. Churches To Bush & Congress : Bring Troops Home

The General Assembly of the National Council of Churches USA voted today to call on the president and the Congress to end America's involvement in Iraq:

In the months preceding the United States' invasion of Iraq, leaders of member communions within the National Council of Churches USA, along with Roman Catholic and other Church leaders worldwide, expressed the conviction that the war with Iraq was not warranted, even as our country was involved in what was termed by the U.S. Government as a global "war on terror."  Since that time, many justifications have been given for this war:  the need to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction; the desirability of planting a new democracy in the Middle East; the need to destroy a major base for terrorism; and Iraq's connection to the 9/11 attacks against America.

All of these justifications have been revealed as false or ill-considered.  For this reason, the National Council of Churches USA repeats its call that this war must be brought to an end.

"Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for ecumenical cooperation among Christians in the United States. The NCC's member faith groups -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation," according to NCC's website.

The United Church of Christ is a member of the council.

The rest of the statement is below:

Church-backed Minimum Wage Campaigns Win In Landslides

Good news from the Let Justice Roll campaign:

Minimum wage hikes won in every state they were on the ballot, winning by a resounding 76 percent in Missouri, 73 percent in Montana, 69 percent in Nevada, 66 percent in Arizona, 56 percent in Ohio and 53 percent in Colorado (latest totals).

Let Justice Roll is a project of the National Council of Churches and is led by The Rev. Paul Sherry, former general minister and president of the United Church of Christ.

More on this tomorrow.

Update: UCC plays key role in minimum wage victories Reprinted from United Church News Written by J. Bennett Guess

Wednesday, 08 November 2006

Mainline Protestant activism, led by a former UCC president, helped fuel successful minimum wage campaigns in six states on Nov. 7. “Across the country, churches played a key role in getting the initiatives on the ballot, getting people to know about the seriousness of the issue and getting people out to the polls,” said the Rev. Paul Sherry, who led the national “Let Justice Roll” effort that helped produce a clean sweep of voter-approved wage increases in Ohio, Colorado, Montana, Missouri, Arizona and Nevada. “This has become the key values issue in the 2006 election,” Sherry said. “A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.” Sherry, who served as president of the UCC from 1989 to 1999, took up anti-poverty work shortly after “retiring” seven years ago. He then began organizing full-time to build grassroots support for a minimum-wage increase and, in 2005, co-authored “A Just Living Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future,” a 76-page manual to help churches better understand the issue. “There’s a well of integrity and decency in this country,” Sherry said, “and when linked to the needs of poor workers, that well of decency expands.” “Let Justice Roll,” which Sherry leads, is now a national nonpartisan partnership of more than 80 organizations working to raise the minimum wage at the state and federal level. Participating groups include the National Council of Churches, Interfaith Worker Justice, UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries, American Friends Service Committee, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and Union for Reform Judaism, among others. Sherry said churches have not been the only groups involved in successfully boosting the minimum wage, “but we have been a significant actor.” Sherry cites, as an example, the work of Euclid Avenue Congregational UCC in Cleveland where, earlier this year, 34 local church volunteers gathered 1,700 signatures to help get the initiative on Ohio’s November ballot. The Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC’s current General Minister and President, said religious leaders are sending a message to politicians that overcoming poverty is a bipartisan concern. “I hope politicians hear the clear message of this election day that overcoming poverty is a bipartisan issue in America,” Thomas said. “I'm thrilled that Republicans and Democrats joined together to say that the minimum wage should be a living wage, and I’m very proud that the UCC’s own Paul Sherry played such a key role in getting these initiatives passed.” Edith Rasell, the UCC’s minister for labor relations and community economic development, described the approved initiatives as “a victory for justice.” “It’s a victory for low-wage workers,” Rasell said. “It’s a victory for the many members of our congregations who have worked so hard to pass these initiatives.” More information is available at www.letjusticeroll.org

How Would Jesus Vote in 2006?

From time to time Americans are dragged kicking and screaming to the polls where we are asked to consider which candidates for public office we most trust with the future of our nation and which issues we consider most important. No matter our background we bring with us certain experiences that help to shape the decisions we make. For millions of Americans it is our experience as Christians that help define how and why we vote for certain candidates. Author Jim Wallis tells us that God is not a Republican… or a Democrat.  But we also know that God is involved in the life of creation. Jews and Christians remember through Scripture how God set in motion the events which led to the liberation from slavery in Egypt and Christians remember the price of death God’s own son was dealt by the Romans for preaching the justice of God’s Kingdom. God cared then and God cares now. Our obligation in this time is to discern for ourselves what causes and issues God wants addressed. There is a political dimension to God and we will have to find a way to express that in the 2006 mid-term elections.

The Religious Right has painted God into a corner. I recently said in an interview that if you bring up the term “Christian” many Americans will associate the word with people such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. The Religious Right has been able to convince the media and many in the general public that their positions on social issues are the only legitimate Christian views to hold. However, Christianity has always been a diverse religion and for much of history the Christian voice has been one prophetically calling for social justice on behalf of those Jesus called “the least of these.” Christians across the globe, for example, opposed the US invasion of Iraq and Christians in many nations have been at the forefront of movements for economic justice, opposition to the death penalty, and for environmental protection. Christianity is not liberal or conservative. Those are modern political terms. Sadly, some have tried to co-opt Christianity to advance their partisan political agendas.

Those who narrow God’s message down to one issue – say gay marriage - miss the essence of our faith message. God calls on us to be a people of reconciliation and justice. Can Americans today claim to be following God’s will? We have a president in office that seems to believe that he was divinely installed in the White House and yet he peruses economic policies that have resulted in higher rates of both poverty and hunger in the United States. Rather than challenge current administrations policies that seem in area after area to be in conflict with Biblical teachings the Religious Right works to warp Jesus into a Republican spokesperson. Christians ought to be challenging both political parties on moral issues and not claiming that one or the other is godlier. No political part has ever advanced a Kingdom-centered platform.

Our nation (and the world for that matter) is racked by debates over the appropriate role of religion in public life. There are those who would argue that the United States is and always has been a Christian nation and that our government should be run on Christian principles. Some in the Religious Right would replace America's historical respect for religious pluralism and democracy with a theocracy. Are the teachings of Jesus a guide in this debate? Jesus “directly and repeatedly challenged the dominant sociopolitical paradigm of his social world and advocated instead what might be called a politics of compassion. This conflict and this social vision continue to have striking implications for the life of the church today,” wrote Marcus Borg in his 1994 bestseller Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. Christians today should emulate the Jesus-model of non-violently speaking out against the dominate culture in a way that serves the cause of lifting people up and building community. We should always reject theocracy and embrace the democratic values that have allowed our admittedly imperfect society to thrive. In a pluralistic society “churches should not seek to use the authority of government to make the whole community conform to their particular moral codes. Rather, churches should seek to enlarge and clarify the ethical grounds of public discourse and to identify and define the foreseeable consequences of available choices of public policy,” read the United Methodist Social Principles.

My hope is that Christians can constructively engage in the political debates of the 2006 mid-term elections. Not all Christians think alike, of course, and not all will discern God’s will in the same terms. Are there, however, issues that the majority of Christians can (perhaps should) agree on as we consider our votes?

“Our Christian faith compels us to address the world through the lens of our relationship to God and to one another,” said the National Council of Churches (NCC) USA when that ecumenical body representing over 45 million American Christians issued a statement on Christian principles during the 2004 elections.

This blog entry – How Would Jesus Vote 2006 – is meant to help jump start conversations among Christians about what it means to be faithful to God in the voting booth. It is not my intention to tell readers exactly how Jesus would vote on any one issue but rather to raise some of the most controversial issues facing voters from one Christian perspective. Not all Christians will agree with the conclusions that I make about God’s will for us (though many certainly will) but I hope at least that all of us that claim the title Christian will see this election as an opportunity to focus on reconciling ourselves to one another and to the world.

So what are the issues Christians should be most concerned with?

During the last election cycle The Rev. James Forbes and Riverside Church of New York City issued a set of Prophetic Justice Principles.  These principles, similar to the ones issued by the National Council of Churches USA, help define some of the most critical issues we face and are worth considering this year:

We, the members of faith communities in the United States, inspired by the Hebrew prophets, lift up the following questions to test public policy against the principles of righteousness and justice in our society. We ask the citizens and leaders of America to bear the following issues in mind as they seek to restore the spiritual, moral, and democratic values upon which our nation was built.

1) Does the policy represent the common good of society rather than the interest of an elite few?

2) Is the policy based on a true analysis and does it disclose its true intention? How likely is the outcome to achieve its proposed purpose?

3) Does the policy hold the prospect of reducing the polarization and fragmentation of the society due to race, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin?

4) Does the policy have the capacity to be good news for the poor? Does it reverse the trend toward widening the gap between rich and poor?

5) Is the policy good for children, the elderly, and the disadvantaged? Does it show sensitivity to the spirit of the golden rule?

6) Does the policy refrain from the arrogant assumption that the powerful have the right to ignore the interests and subsistence needs of the less advantaged segment of the society?

7) Does the policy provide for free press, free discussion, and the expression of dissent, along with fair and just methods of participation in the democratic process?

8) Does the policy encourage respect for persons and nations other than our own? Does it respect the right of self-determination of other nation-states?

9) Is the policy based on a commitment to a global vision of cooperation and mutuality of respect rather than relying on unilateral military actions for empire-building and domination strategies? Does it use diplomacy as a valued instrument of statecraft in resolving international conflicts?

10) Is the policy supportive of strong measures to insure ecological responsibility and sustainability?

If you want to know how Jesus would vote start with these questions.

NCC condemns N. Korean nuclear test, urges diplomacy

Press Release from National Council of Churches USA

New York City, October 9, 2006--The North Korean nuclear test today was condemned by the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA.  He urged an immediate return to the negotiating table, the so-called "six party talks" that have been stalled.

"Nuclear proliferation can not be good news for the planet," Edgar said in a statement.  "I have seen firsthand the effects of nuclear testing on human beings and God's planet when I visited the Marshall Islands [http://www.ncccusa.org/news/04nucleardisarmament.html] where the U.S. government tested nuclear weapons after World War II.  These are weapons of mass destruction of the worst kind imaginable," said Edgar.

Edgar urgently reaffirmed the NCC's call for the "prompt reconvening of talks with North Korea leading to a non-aggression pact between North Korea and the United States" made in 2003 at a Korean Consultation in Washington, DC, sponsored by the NCC.  [http://www.ncccusa.org/news/koreaconsultationconcludes.html]

The NCC and many of its 35 member communions have been active for more than two decades with churches on the Korean peninsula.  The Korean Presbyterian Church in America is one of the NCC's member churches.  Other NCC member communions have Korean ministries within their churches.  There are 45 million members of the Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, historic African American and peace churches that make up the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.
---
Statement of the Rev. Bob Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Churches USA on news of the North Korean nuclear test

The news of the test by North Korea of nuclear bomb is heartbreaking.  Time and time again the National Council of Churches USA and several other religious organizations have spoken up for nuclear disarmament.

"Today I set before you life and death," says the author of Deuteronomy (30:19).  Nuclear weapons are the ultimate weapons of mass destruction.  No good can come from their use.  No good can come from their testing.  Nuclear proliferation can not be good news for the planet.

I have seen firsthand the effects of nuclear testing on human beings and God's planet when I visited the Marshall Islands where the U.S. government tested nuclear weapons after World War II.  These are weapons of mass destruction of the worst kind imaginable.

We urgently reaffirm our 2003 call for the prompt reconvening of talks with North Korea leading to a non-aggression pact between North Korea and the United States, renouncement of pre-emptive attack and negotiation of a peace treaty replacing the present Armistice Treaty of 1953 and the establishment and exchange of liaison offices between the United States and North Korea as a sign of good faith.

"Choose life," our Deuteronomy author concludes and therefore we should choose a new path with North Korea that leads to peace, nonviolence and a reduction of tensions on the Korean peninsula.  This is a critical time in the history of the modern world.  God is watching to see what kind of stewards we will be of that world with which we have been entrusted.

NCC's Bob Edgar will not seek third term as General Secretary

It was announced today that The Rev. Bob Edgar will not seek another term as the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA. Edgar has already served two four-year terms. During his tenure the council stepped back from the brink of financial ruin and boldly proclaimed the Gospel message both faithfully and prophetically. Conservative political groups - and their leaders -upset over NCC's peacemaking and anti-poverty work have targeted Edgar over the years but he has remained steadfast in his commitment to God’s church and ministry. This is an appropriate moment for him to take his leave from the council and to allow new leadership to govern the ecumenical movement in America. My own hope is that the council calls a noted ecumenical leader with a demonstrated and deep commitment to justice issues to serve as the next General Secretary.

Related Post:  The Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar Talks About The National Council Of Churches, Iraq, and Voter Registration (2004)

Related Link:  Podcast Interview With Bob Edgar: The National Council Of Churches Urges An Increase in The Minimum Wage (2005)

Related Link:  Podcast Interview: The Rev. Bob Edgar On "Middle Church" (2006)

Press Release from the National Council of Churches USA

New York City, October 3, 2006 — The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, told the governing board and staff of the Council Monday that he will not seek a third four-year term as chief administrative officer of the nation's leading ecumenical body.

He will conclude eight years of service when his present term ends December 31, 2007.  A third term would have been unprecedented in length of service in the general secretary position.  Edgar's action clears the way for a seamless transition process to begin.

"I care deeply about the Council and have invested my best self in the work. The Council has been returned to financial stability and has reclaimed its place as a prophetic ecumenical voice heeding Christ's call to serve the least among us," Edgar said.

The Rev. Michael Livingston, current president of the NCC, expressed appreciation for Edgar's leadership, which brought the Council out of prolonged financial deficits to a dramatic turnaround, with four consecutive years of positive cash flows and the addition of more than $8 million in reserve funds.

"During Bob Edgar's watch, we have worked to build unity among our diverse families of faith and a strong witness within the wider society. All of the Council's programs have undergone renewal and expansion, and important concerns such as poverty, the environment, human rights and peacemaking have been addressed. We will have much to thank Bob Edgar for when his time of service becomes part of the Council's honored history," Livingston added.

A search committee for a new General Secretary will be named this fall and will begin its work in early 2007, Livingston said.

Edgar, an ordained United Methodist elder, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1987 as a Democrat elected to six consecutive terms from a predominantly Republican district of suburban Philadelphia.

He later served ten years as President of Claremont School of Theology, a United Methodist graduate school in Southern California.   He has also been a pastor, a campus minister, and head of a public-policy think tank, and is a frequent guest on national TV and radio discussion programs.

His recent book, "Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right," was published last month by Simon and Schuster.

The National Council of Churches is a joint ministry of 35 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, historically African-American and Living Peace communions, whose 100,000 local congregations encompass 45 million adherents in all 50 states.  It was founded in 1950 and has offices in New York City and in Washington, DC.  A sister agency, Church World Service, is an international humanitarian ministry of the NCC’s member communions.

"Senate Bill Turns Houses of Worship into Political Convention Halls"

Republicans in Congress are keeping up their attempts to shred the Constitutional principle of the separation of church and state. The Interfaith Alliance reports:

(Washington, D.C.) Today Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), in an election-year appeal to the Religious Right, introduced a bill that would compromise the sanctity of religion. The bill, S. 3957, would amend the IRS Code to allow houses of worship to endorse candidates from the pulpit and engage in partisan political activity without harming their tax-exempt status.

“Senator Inhofe wants to turn houses of worship into political convention halls,” said Interfaith Alliance President, the Reverend Welton Gaddy. “This bill would allow politicians to exploit the moral authority of the pulpit to advance a partisan agenda. When religious leaders endorse candidates for office, they compromise their prophetic voice. The very sanctity of religion is at stake in this debate,” he said.

Inhofe’s bill is similar a H.R. 235, introduced in the House by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC). At last weekend's Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit in Washington, Senator Inhofe spoke in favor of the Jones bill and promised action on the Senate floor before Congress adjourned to home for the November elections. The Interfaith Alliance has been successful in bottling up the Jones bill through the dedicated grassroots efforts of its 185,000 members.

In addition to endorsements of candidates, Inhofe’s bill would also allow houses of worship to make political contributions to candidates and political parties.

The House bill has been opposed by the National Council of Churches USA (representing over 45 million Christians in the U.S.) and interfaith leaders. Only extremists in the Religious Right – a group that routinely confuses the Republican Party Platform for the Gospel teachings – support the legislation advanced by Jones and Inhofe.

Don’t let them turn our churches into Republican Party chapters.

Podcast Interview: The Rev. Bob Edgar On "Middle Church"

This morning I was joined on the phone by The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, to discuss his new book Middle Church and the work of the council. We touched on a range of issues: the place of Scripture in driving our public policy advocacy, environmentalism and the new energy on that issue from conservative evangelicals, living wage campaigns, biotechnology and how we mentor new leaders.

Use the below link to download the podcast of this interview for your iPod or personal computer.

Download MiddleChurch.m4a

(click with the RIGHT mouse button on the hyperlink and choose "Save Target As" and save to your desktop or other folder - once downloaded click on the file to listen).

Make sure you also visit Rev. Edgar's new blog.

"NCC leaders say memory of 9/11 attacks 'still stings,' but U.S. is not focusing on the sources of terror"

Press Release from the National Council of Churches USA

New York, September 11, 2006 – Five years after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the horror of that day still stings the hearts of men and women of goodwill throughout the world, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches said today.

“Along with all Americans,” said the Rev. Bob Edgar, “as we think of the victims in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, on the airliners and the rescue teams, we believe that, despite the horror that marked their deaths, our loving God has granted them a place of peace, where the troubles and sorrows of this world can touch them no more.”

Edgar said: “We also pray that the families and friends they left behind will one day find divine healing and comfort.”

Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, NCC associate general secretary for International Affairs and Peace, also recalled the heroism of rescue teams, police and civilians that day. “In the midst of tragedy came an unprecedented wave of national unity,” he said.

Kireopoulos expressed concern that the nation’s early resolve to root out the sources of terror in Afghanistan and elsewhere has given way to the distractions of the war in Iraq.

“The United States government has offered a series of justifications for the war in Iraq, “including the need to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the desirability of planting a new democracy in the Middle East, and the need to destroy a major base for terrorism, all of which have been proved false or ill considered as events unfolded.”

The NCC point of view of this war in Iraq is informed by our belief that all war, though sometime used to overcome a greater evil, is contrary to the will of God, and an affront to God’s creation. If scripture is our guide, then we are called to seek peace (Matthew 5:9) and to turn our swords into plowshares
(Micah 4:3-4.)

Kireopoulos called upon the U.S. to develop, by the end of the year, a plan for the phased withdrawal of American and coalition forces from Iraq. Such a plan should be linked to benchmarks for the rebuilding of Iraqi society, he said.

He also called for meaningful support of U.S. troops in Iraq. This would include providing soldiers with adequate armor to protect them from gunfire and explosive devices as well as giving earned benefits to veterans, especially injured veterans.

But the best way to support the troops is by “creating a withdrawal plan that brings their sacrifices to an end,” Kireopoulos said.

He called on the U.S. to commit the necessary resources to finding the actual perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, and bringing them to justice through internationally recognized judicial processes in the U.S.

Edgar also said the U.S. should not “contemplate another invasion, another war,” by confrontation with Iran as it seeks to develop a nuclear program.

On the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, “we must take a higher road, breaking cycles of violence and pursuing peace,” Edgar said. “In this way we will truly honor the memory of those who died on September 11, 2001.”

A Sin Against God

"I'm not aware of any situation in the world where there is a system of jurisprudence that is recognized by civilized people where an individual can be tried and convicted without seeing the evidence against him," Brig. Gen. James Walker, U.S. Marine Corps staff judge advocate told a Congressional hearing. - Reuters

As a Christian, I am called to seek non-violent responses and agree with those who assert that war is contrary to the will of God.  That is not to say that I believe violence is never justified as a defense.  But I do believe that violence - particularly state violence - nearly always represents a failure of our response to God's will for us.

Many Christians have spoken out against the U.S. use of torture in the on-going conflicts associated with Islamic fundamentalism.    In fact, the invasion of Iraq was opposed by the Vatican and the World Council of Churches.  The National Council of Churches USA (NCC) helped led domestic opposition to the war. 

This week the president of the United States announced - as human rights groups had previously charged - that the CIA has run secret prisons where detainees are stripped of all rights.  In response, NCC "reaffirmed its abhorrence of secret prisons operated by the United States and called upon the government to bring American prisoners to trial."

The president now wants prisoners to go to trail but does not want them to have access to evidence against them or other basic rights.

"Pentagon lawyers balked at Bush's proposal to limit the terrorism suspects' access to evidence," reports Reuters. 

"I'm not aware of any situation in the world where there is a system of jurisprudence that is recognized by civilized people where an individual can be tried and convicted without seeing the evidence against him," Brig. Gen. James Walker, U.S. Marine Corps staff judge advocate told a Congressional hearing.

Back in 1965 NCC offered theological language that addresses the rights of prisoners during a time of war.

"Christians believe that man is made in the image of God, that every person is of intrinsic worth before God, and that every individual has a right to the fullest possible opportunity for the development of life abundant and eternal. Denials of rights and freedoms that inhere in man's worth before God are not simply a crime against humanity; they are a sin against God."

Human rights groups are also concerned with the president's plans. 

Legislation proposed by the Bush administration and introduced in Congress yesterday would recreate a system of fatally flawed military commissions akin to those that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down on June 29, 2006 in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Human Rights Watch said today.

Moreover, the legislation would decriminalize the use of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by civilian interrogators. This would rewrite the standards of basic humane treatment that have guided U.S. policy since the Second World War. 

"The last thing the U.S. needs is for public attention to focus on the unfairness of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad's trial rather than the seriousness of his alleged crimes," said Jennifer Daskal, U.S. advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "The U.S. should be seeking justice - not preordained convictions."

Clearly, the president is on a campaign to stoke fear among the American people in advance of the November elections and the debate - as it always is with Bush - has been couched in language that boils down to you're either with the president or for the terrorists.

Several key Republican leaders seem ready to buck the president and align themselves with religious leaders and human rights groups opposed to the president's plan.  Brig. Gen. James Walker provided a great service to the nation with his testimony before Congress. 

What happens this week in Congress will speak volumes about our relationship with God.  Are we a people of faith committed to Biblical principles of justice or have we abandoned our most sacred values for political expediency?  The president has already answered the question for himself.  Where does the Congress stand?   

Read the comments on this post from Street Prophets

Bob Edgar's New Book & Blog

Note:  Bob Edgar will be doing an interview on this site later in the month about his new book.  Stay tuned!

Press Release from the National Council of Churches USA

New York City, September 5, 2006--When media turn to Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell to speak for Christians, who do they represent?  You?

A new Simon & Schuster book in bookstores today claims the media seek out the most extreme religious spokespersons - many of them on the far political right - to speak for Christians who worship in peace churches, historic African American churches, Orthodox churches and others that often recoil at what the far right is saying.

Most U.S. Christians, says the Rev. Bob Edgar, author of "Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right", are neither right nor left.  They reside in the great American middle.

The same goes for non-Christian persons of faith, Edgar writes. "'Middle Church, Middle Synagogue, and Middle Mosque' ... (are) often drowned out by the far religious right," he says.  Americans who believe their God and their scriptures call for peace, justice, care for God's creation and relief for the poor do not generally end up in the far right camp.

But Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, a former seminary president and six-term member of congress, believes the voice of the majority has been muted by politicians and religious reactionaries who support war, exploitation of the environment and lower taxes for the rich at the expense of programs that help the poor.

"This faithful majority must have the courage to confront their government when it makes bad decisions," Edgar writes. "My goal is to challenge them to read deeply their entire religious texts, to discover God's prophetic call to all humanity, and to work collaboratively and be faithful stewards of our limited resources."

The 238-page hardcover book has struck a resonant chord with many religious people, including a former president of the United States.

"Middle Church is a stirring call to American believers who resent their spiritual beliefs being co-opted for a political agenda contrary to their faith," writes Jimmy Carter. "Bob Edgar reminds us that faith belongs in the public realm - not to advocate war, privilege, and environmental degradation, but to promote peace, the eradication of poverty, and the preservation of our fragile planet."  Others are adding their response to the book at middlechurch.net, a weblog featuring daily discussions with the author.

The book is part biblical reflection and part autobiography.  Edgar, a United Methodist clergyman, writes that his life "has been a series of 'Forrest Gump' moments at which I somehow find myself in the middle of places or events that seem bigger than I am."

Edgar met Martin Luther King, Jr. shortly before the civil rights leader's assassination and later, as a member of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, interviewed King's convicted murderer, James Earl Ray.  As a young congressman, Edgar went to the White House to meet President Ford and, later, President Carter.  After he left Congress, he was finance director of Senator Paul Simon's unsuccessful presidential campaign.  He also ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate against Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), and was president of the Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, Calif., from 1990 to 2000.

Edgar also cites scripture that has inspired him and molded his politics and his faith. In a chapter on church reaction to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, "Deny Them Their Victory," he repeats the story in Luke 4:18-19 in which Jesus reads a scroll from Isaiah in the Nazareth synagogue: the Lord "has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

"The poignant and powerful simplicity was, I think, Jesus' way of teaching that all we need to live by contained in those words," Edgar writes. "And there is a great deal of wisdom for overcoming terrorism, too."

Statement of the National Council of Churches USA’s Special Commission on a Just Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast – August 29, 2006

Reprinted from the National Council of Churches USA

One year later the struggle to rebuild and reconcile after Hurricane Katrina, Rita and Wilma’s indiscriminate destruction is still a tangible reality in the daily lives of people who experienced firsthand the devastation of the storms. 

As we mark the one-year anniversary Hurricane Katrina, we do so with a mix of profound joy and equally profound sadness. We are deeply grateful the hurricane forecast for more damaging storms has not come true. We continue to pray to God that there will not be another devastating storm this hurricane season. It is hard to imagine how those who are continuing to struggle for justice and to rebuild their lives, homes and communities would be able to bear another storm when the vestiges of the last ones are still a haunting presence on the streets of New Orleans as well as along the entire Gulf Coast in communities such as Pass Christian, Biloxi, Gulfport, Bay St. Louis, and Waveland. 

We recognize the key role churches have played in response to the suffering and pain. The faith community has served as first responders and ongoing community rebuilders.  We are also thankful for the many long hours of hard work and sacrifice of those in our congregations as well as in synagogues, mosques and community organizations, who have stepped in to help in the efforts to rebuild. There have been countless hours of work donated by mission trips or work visits by our 35 member communions. We have sent financial help. We have provided food and shelter. We have prayed with and for the people.

We have advocated for justice for the people of the Gulf Coast region especially those who traditionally have had no voice in the halls of government. We have witnessed for the needs of too many human beings, all created in the image of God, who seem to have been overlooked as plans to rebuild have been developed. We have taken steps to cleanup mold and to make sure that efforts to rebuild are environmentally-friendly so that a rebuilt Gulf Coast is a sustainable one.

Indeed, the people of the Gulf Coast region have been steadfast and unmovable in their determination to rebuild their homes, lives and communities in spite of the fact that they have not had much help from government agencies and very little assistance from the insurance companies whose policies were supposed to protect them.

While we can celebrate the many stories of overcoming incredible obstacles and persevering through the devastation, we are profoundly grieved by the work that still needs to be done. The continuing tragedy is the incredibly slow response by the federal, state and local governments to send the assistance that was promised to the people of the Gulf Coast in the days following the hurricanes.

Many said that they would not forget and yet many have been forgotten. 

Our Christian faith teaches us that the Lord requires us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). And, Jesus teaches us that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us (Matthew 7:12). Which of us would want our lives to lay in ruin while those who are supposed to help are busy fighting over politics, power and property that does not belong to them? 

The time for restoration and reconciliation in the Gulf Coast region is long overdue. As we remember the devastation, let us remember the faces and the images that played across our television and computer screens beginning on Aug. 29, 2005, and the days that followed.  Let us remember the sorrow, the anger and the other strong emotions that we felt upon hearing about the New Orleans Convention Center and people stranded on rooftops, bridges and bypasses. And, as we remember let us rededicate ourselves to advocating for justice in the Gulf Coast region.  Let us say, “Never again” this time and finally mean it.  Let us commit to working toward a rebuilt and restored Gulf Coast region for all people—regardless of their race, ethnicity, economic status or political affiliation.  The citizens of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas deserve no less.

Let us be unwavering and resolved in our pledge to make sure that this time next year, the Gulf Coast will be much better off than it is now—one year later.

Mark Tooley's Election Year Lies

Leave it to Mark Tooley, the former CIA worker turned staffer for the Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy (and political companion of right-wing icon David Horowitz), to use the conflict in the Middle East to score cheap political points against mainline Christians by simply making stuff up. 

Consider this false charge made today by Tooley:

The anti-Israel divestment campaign among U.S. churches has been largely defeated. But in the midst of the terrorists' war on Israel, the Religious Left's hostility to Israel continues.

Religious Left church officials have responded to the conflict between Israel and Hezballah with their usual lamentations over "the violence." But it is "the violence" by Israel that exclusively concerns them. Typical among them has been the reaction of United Church of Christ president John Thomas.

"We watch with horror and outrage as Israel punishes an entire population for the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in Gaza, and as belligerence escalates with Hizb Allah's attack on military personnel near Lebanon," Thomas wrote in a letter to "Palestinian Friends and Partners." He continued, "While we pray for the Israeli soldiers' release and safe return to family, we also know that these incidents have become an occasion for the further oppression of the Palestinian community, for the massive destruction of economic infrastructure and for the tragic loss of much innocent life."

As noted on this site, Thomas and other mainline Christians have clearly condemned violence on both sides.  "We call on Hezbollah to release the Israeli soldiers in its hostage and end its provocative attacks and hatred against Israel. Hezbollah's rocket attacks against northern Israel, while effecting little military advantage, have instilled terror in civilian populations, killing and wounding many innocent people, and providing Israel with a pretext for pursuing its own attacks," wrote Thomas just yesterday. 

Tooley ignores these comments in his post on Frontpagemag.com (Horowitz's site) and claims that any condemnation of Hezbollah will only be made by the "Religious Left" to "rhetorically facilitate its more heartfelt condemnation of Israel."

Christians are called to be peacemakers.  IRD, a group that has long advocated the liberal use of American military power against other nations, ignores what many consider to be the basic teachings of Jesus. 

It is also simply false that the UCC - as suggested by Tooley - has endorsed or encouraged divestment against Israel.  The General Synod of the UCC has instead called for church resources to be leveraged through investments in corporations that support peace efforts.  Divestment - a tactic only considered as a last resort - has not been targeted at Israel but at corporations (American included) that profit from war in the Middle East.  Like the Pope and groups such as Human Rights Watch, the UCC has condemned violence and advocated reconciliation among all the parties in the Middle East.         

Tooley's IRD was set-up and is funded by voices in Republican Party that hope to undermine the mainline Christian tradition of prophetically speaking out on issues of war, peace and economic justice.  God is not a Republican or a Democrat, as Jim Wallis likes to say, but IRD confuses the Gospel message with the Republican Party platform on each and every issue. 

Don't be surprised to see the Religious Right and their allies float more lies like Tooley's as they seek with intention to drive a wedge between Jews and mainline Christians during this difficult time.

After all, the mid-term elections are coming up and Tooley and other conservative political activists are worried about the outcome.  Division and distortion may be the only tactics they have left to bring voters to their side.

Read the comments on this post from the UCC Forums

UCC Leaders Call For End To Violence

A new statement was released today by top leaders of the United Church of Christ calling for an end to the violence in Lebanon and Israel.  UCC General Minister and President John H. Thomas and Wider Church Ministries Executive Cally Rogers-Witte wrote:

We call on Hezbollah to release the Israeli soldiers in its hostage and end its provocative attacks and hatred against Israel. Hezbollah's rocket attacks against northern Israel, while effecting little military advantage, have instilled terror in civilian populations, killing and wounding many innocent people, and providing Israel with a pretext for pursuing its own attacks. We call on Israel to release the thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians it is holding in administrative detention, and to cease its disproportionate assault on Lebanon. While Israel has the right to defend itself, its retaliation has far exceeded efforts to release the soldiers or incapacitate Hezbollah; it is in fact destroying Lebanon. Beyond bombing intended Hezbollah targets, Israel's military has attacked Lebanese infrastructure and residences, killing hundreds and wounding thousands more. The human catastrophe is enormous. Touring Lebanon, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland declared "It's very bad, and deteriorating by the day... I've seen too many wounded children, and too many desperate civilians fleeing from the fighting." No equation of war can justify firebombed children as acceptable casualties.

Perhaps the most important part of the US-Christian denominational statement was the call made by Thomas and Rogers-Witte for American political and religious leaders to support peace:

We are dismayed at the audacity of both Israel and Hezbollah to commit to continued violence. We are troubled that the U.S. leadership has sent advance-shipments of bombs to re-arm Israel and encouraged Israel to take due time to bomb Hezbollah despite the disproportionate impact on the Lebanese people and landscape. We are troubled by those in the U.S. Congress who call for a wider war with Syria and Iran. We are especially distraught that some in leadership twist the label Christian, and use the name of the Prince of Peace, to assert that this violence is ordained and justified because their biblical lens views Israel in an apocalyptic drama and any criticism as blasphemy. In the Senate debate on the escalating fighting, Virginia Senator John Warner called for balance and diplomacy: "[O]ur support for Israel is very strong, Mr. President, but it cannot be unconditional."

Click here for the full statement and news release.

In related news, the National Council of Churches USA launched a new web site today - www.seasonofprayer.org - that "compiles prayers, litanies, scripture texts, hymns, poems and other prayer aids from many religious traditions, appropriate to the current crisis in the Middle East," according to NCC.   

"Christian leaders worldwide united in calls for end to Mideast violence"

Press Release from the National Council of Churches USA

New York City, July 20, 2006--Christian leaders representing millions of Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and Roman Catholic faithful are joining the National Council of Churches USA in calling for an end to the violence in Lebanon and Israel.  Church leaders, many of whom have personal relationships with Middle East church officials, are also offering continuing prayers for those caught up in the spiraling violence.

"The escalating violence and regional dimension of the conflict is alarming," said Churches for Middle East Peace in a letter today to President Bush.  "It is urgent that you call on all the parties to restrain from using force and, rather, to trust a diplomatic process."

CMEP's letter referred to a July 7 statement from Patriarchs and heads of local Christian Churches in Jerusalem.  "The violence and aggression of this present moment is without proportion or justification," wrote the Orthodox, Protestant, Catholic and Anglican leaders nearly two weeks ago.  "It is against law and reason to keep going in the way of death.  The moral imperative is clear. Stop all the violence. Stop the killing.  Protect the life and dignity of the people. Begin negotiations. Break this murderous chain of violence in which we are ensnared," wrote the Jerusalem church leaders.

"The Middle East Council of Churches," in a July 18 statement issued from Beirut, Lebanon, "calls upon the Churches worldwide to intervene firmly with their governments, urging them to exercise pressure for an immediate cease-fire in order to end this dangerous escalation of violence which threatens the whole region.  It also calls on all to assist relief efforts by sending the necessary aid to the displaced families."

Pope Benedict XVI today called for "an immediate cease-fire" to allow humanitarian aid to get to the innocent victims of the violence.

"In reality, the Lebanese have the right to see the integrity and sovereignty of their country respected, the Israelis the right to live in peace in their State, and the Palestinians have the right to have their own free and sovereign homeland," the pope said in a release from the Vatican Information Service.  "At this sorrowful moment, His Holiness also makes an appeal to charitable organizations to help all the people struck by this pitiless conflict," his statement read.

The Holy Father also "proclaimed this Sunday, July 23, as a special day of prayer and penance, inviting the pastors and faithful of all the particular Churches, and all believers of the world, to implore from God the precious gift of peace."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, in a letter yesterday to the leaders of Christian churches in the Mideast said, "My condemnation of this resort to violence is unequivocal. I offer you every support in your efforts to bring it to an end and allow Lebanon to be, once again, a living message of co-existence and solidarity between different religious communities."

The National Council of Churches USA and its partner relief agency, Church World Service, last Friday (July 14) called for an immediate end to the current violence.  And they called for humanitarian aid to the innocent victims in Lebanon, Israel and Gaza.  The NCC also voiced its support of the recent G8 leaders' statement on the Middle East violence.

"These extremist elements and those that support them cannot be allowed to plunge the Middle East into chaos and provoke a wider conflict," said the leaders of eight of the world's most powerful nations.  "The extremists must immediately halt their attacks."

Last Sunday's statement was welcomed by Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, NCC's associate general secretary for international affairs and peace.

"We were glad to see that the G8 leaders...calling on all parties to stop the fighting, including Israel as well as Hezbollah and Hamas, and to see that their actions not lead to further destabilization of the region," Kireopoulos said on Monday echoing the sentiments of Christians in the region.

Other religious leaders in the United States this week expressed continuing concern as the violence seemed to wage on unchecked.

"The escalation of the conflict moves the Middle East further away from a just and lasting peace for which we have been praying and working," wrote Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson in a July 17 pastoral letter to his Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

"I continue to call on the international community and the U.S. administration to do everything possible both to negotiate an immediate stop to the violence that has caused the killing and suffering of innocent people and to urge all parties to resolve the conflict through dialogue."

The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America was holding its annual summer conference in Atlanta when the recent hostilities broke out.  A caucus of their membership on July 14 said, "Although we condemn the actions of Hezbollah, the principle of proportionality has been violated by Israel in its attacks upon Lebanon, which constitute the heaviest bombing of that country in 24 years, since Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The targeting of a civilian population is not in keeping with the values of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, and must not be accepted. It is not defensive behavior, but is an offense against the high principles of all of these religions."

"We join others who deplore the escalating violence in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon," Houston, Texas Methodist Bishop Janice Riggle Huie told the United Methodist News Service, "and urge parties to mediate the conflict and end the mounting casualties among the innocent."  The President of the United Methodist Council of Bishops said, "We also join those who urge President Bush to use the strength and authority of his office, with the support of other leaders, to bring the parties together for mediation."

"The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has long been committed to working for a just peace in the region. Over the last fifty-six years we have consistently expressed our concern for peace between Israel, the Palestinian people, and the Arab states," wrote Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in a letter to President Bush.

"The people of the Middle East, the birthplace of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, are groaning under the burden of war and desperately desire peace," Kirkpatrick wrote July 14.  "We implore you to not allow the extremists of the region to dictate the reality and final outcome of this situation. What is needed now is a sane and diplomatic voice, which the United States can provide. Please use all diplomatic means available to you to restrain the violence and calm the situation--for the sake of Israel, the United States, and all the peoples of the Holy Land and the wider region."

A litany was offered yesterday by John H. Thomas, general minister and president, United Church of Christ, entitled, "A Prayer for the Middle East at a Time of War." It concludes:  "While leaders in Tel Aviv and Damascus, Tehran, Washington, and southern Lebanon pander to ancient fears, claim the mantle of righteous victim, and pursue their little empires in the name of gods of their own devising, the people of Lebanon and northern Israel are made captive to fear, true victims whose only advocate is You.  Save us from self-justifying histories and from moral equations that excuse our folly.  Search our hearts for our own complicity.  Spare us from pious prayers that neglect the prophet's angry cry.  Let us speak a resounding 'no' to this warring madness and thus unmake our ways of death, so that we may be made more and more into your image."

Compete statements of these and other religious leaders are linked from the National Council of Churches USA website at councilofchurches.org.

"Making a Democratic Ass of Jesus"

Another attack against progressive Christians came out today and it wasn't from the Religious Right.  It was the Rolling Stone magazine blog.  Tim Dickinson wrote:

CBS has an intriguing story about the growing momentum of the "Religious Left."

It quotes Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, as saying:

"Jesus never said one word about homosexuality, never said one word about civil marriage or abortion."

Adds the Rev. Tony Campolo:

"We are furious that the religious right has made Jesus into a Republican. That's idolatry. To recreate Jesus in your own image rather than allowing yourself to be created in Jesus' image is what's wrong with politics."

So what's the Religious Left's answer to this `idolatry'? Why, to turn the Lord into a liberal Democrat, of course:

The Christian left is focusing on:

Fighting Poverty
Protecting the environment
Ending the war in Iraq

Did I miss the gospel where Jesus said, "No Drilling in ANWR"?

The remarks show more ignorance about the Christian faith than anything else.  Dickinson is correct that Jesus never mentioned drilling in ANWR but the Scriptures are filled with God's call for us to be responsible stewards of creation and to be peacemakers. 

The risen Christ still speaks to us today as we attempt to discern God's will on contemporary issues through Scripture, reason and our own experiences. 

It would be wrong if the "Religious Left" turned Jesus into an instrument of partisan political warfare in the way that the Religious Right has done for the Republicans. 

But as far as I know no one in the progressive Christian has suggested such a thing. 

It isn't liberal or conservative to talk about fighting poverty, protecting the environment or ending wars.  All we are doing is articulating how we understand Jesus' teachings.  The Religious Right (which is a political movement more than a religious one) by and large argues against environment protections, supports U.S. military campaigns without questions, and argues in favor of economic policies that abandon the poor to market forces. 

Anyone who places emphasis on Jesus' teachings on the environment, poverty and peacemaking would seem to take Scripture more seriously than those who argue the Bible is simply a manual on sexual relations.   

Dickinson and his colleagues at Rolling Stone would better serve their readers if they spent more time studying Scripture instead of mocking those who attempt to faithfully follow the teachings of God.   

Read the comments on this post from Street Prophets

"NCC joins CWS calling on President Bush to not stop aid through the Cuban Council of Churches"

Press Release from the National Council of Churches USA

Washington, D.C., July 7, 2006--The National Council of Churches USA has joined Church World Service, its sister humanitarian organization, in opposing a recommendation in a draft report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba.  It proposes the U.S. Commerce Department no longer grant licenses for humanitarian aid to the Cuban people that would go through the Cuban Council of Churches, because it violates religious freedom [http://churchworldservice.org/news/archives/2006/07/503.html].

NCC is urging its member denominations, state councils of churches and others to send an urgent message to President Bush with copies to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez urging them not to ban aid through the Cuban Council of Churches, an organization that they have partnered with for decades. Rice and Gutierrez co-chair the commission.

The report is in its second draft and expected to be officially released within the next week. These new restrictions are alarming because they would infringe upon religious freedom and jeopardize the Cuban people, especially children, by limiting aid to reach those most in need.

In 2004, the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba issued its first report.  It resulted in severe new restrictions on family, educational and religious travel to Cuba, and decreased the allowable remittances that Cuban-Americans were allowed to send to their families on the island.

"We have had an ecumenical relationship with the Cuban Council of Churches for a long time, as have churches and councils of churches around the world," said Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, associate general secretary for international affairs and peace at the NCC.

"If these recommendations are accepted by President Bush it would indicate that this administration is trying to dictate who our church ecumenical partners can be and how our humanitarian agencies can deliver aid to people who need it. That is an incredible intrusion into free exercise of religion," said Kireopoulos.

The report recommends that the Department of Commerce "[t]ighten regulations for the export of humanitarian items, other than agricultural or medical commodities, to ensure that exports are consigned to entities that support independent civil society and are not regime administered or controlled organizations, such as the Cuban Council of Churches."

Although the recommendation appears to make an exception for food and medicine--some of CWS's main shipments to the island nation--there is a great deal of concern that the implementation itself might not make room for such exemptions in the case of the Cuban Council of Churches.  Furthermore, other humanitarian items, such as blankets, school kits and sewing supplies, and any other non-food and medicine aid will certainly be off-limits to the CCC.  With the expectation that this will be one of the worst hurricane seasons ever, this seems especially unreasonable.

This new recommendation coupled with new restrictions on travel implemented in 2005 is viewed as an attack by the current administration on ecumenical relations that have existed for years. In addition, NCC is particularly concerned that the Cuban Council of Churches has been singled out, which could set a dangerous precedent internationally.

According to the letter being sent to the president, "It is completely inappropriate for the U.S. government, or any government, to determine who is and who is not a legitimate national council of churches, and to restrict or deny Christian fellowship and humanitarian assistance to any particular national church council, including the Cuban Council of Churches."

Rev. John L. McCullough, CWS executive director, said, "Ecumenical bodies have a right to determine their partners and to relate internationally. This raises grave concerns apart from the politics of U.S.-Cuban relations."

To view a copy of the letter being sent to administration officials or for those who wish to take action and urge the U.S. not to implement this recommendation visit www.faithfulamerica.org.

National Council Of Churches Backs Obama Speech

From the National Council of Churches USA:

Washington, June 29, 2006 --The National Council of Churches USA and other faith groups applauded remarks Wednesday by Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) testifying to his faith in Christ and calling upon progressive politicians to reach out to evangelical Christians.

"You need to embrace Christ precisely because you have sins to wash away -- because you are human and need an ally in this difficult journey," Obama told Call to Renewal's Pentecost 2006. "It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street in the Southside of Chicago one day and affirm my Christian faith ... The questions I had didn't magically disappear. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt that I heard God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.

That, said Obama, is "a path that has been shared by millions upon millions of Americans - evangelicals, Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims alike; some since birth, others at certain turning points in their lives. It is not something they set apart from the rest of their beliefs and values. In fact, it is often what drives their beliefs and their values."

An NCC spokesperson said, "The senator speaks a profound truth for all Americans, and I hope all Americans read his address."

Related Post: Barack Obama Takes On Issue Of Religion & Politics At Call To Renewal Conference

"Let Justice Roll Campaign Calls On House Of Reps. To Represent People By Raising Minimum Wage"

Press Release from The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign

Washington, D.C., June 22, 2006 -- The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign is calling on the House of Representatives to represent the people by voting to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to at least $7.25 an hour.

A fast-growing partnership of more than 70 major national and state faith and community groups, the Let Justice Roll Campaign said the defeat of the Kennedy Amendment Wednesday in the U.S. Senate is "morally reprehensible."

Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry, the Let Justice Roll Campaign National Coordinator, said, "It is a moral outrage that members of Congress think they need another cost of living adjustment, bringing their pay to nearly $170,000 a year, while leaving full-time minimum wage workers at just $10,700 a year for nine long years since 1997."

"How would members of Congress like to wake up every day knowing they will have to choose between rent and health care, putting food in the refrigerator or gas in the car," Rev. Sherry said. "Talking about values is no substitute for valuing hardworking men and women all across this nation who need a decent minimum wage."

Tens of thousands of Let Justice Roll supporters are calling and writing their elected officials with a clear message: A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it. A raise to $7.25 an hour is the least we can do now for minimum wage workers who have gone without a raise for nine long years.

The Campaign believes the minimum wage is a bedrock moral value. It is immoral that workers who care for children, the ill and the elderly struggle to care for their own families. It is immoral that the minimum wage keeps people in poverty instead of out of poverty.

This week, the Senate was unwilling to follow the Golden Rule: Do to others as you would have them do to you. The House can act now to show they care not only about their own paychecks, but they care about the nation's poorest workers by increasing the minimum wage.

The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign works to raise the minimum wage at the federal and state level, and played a leading role in recent state minimum wage increases in Arkansas, Michigan and West Virginia. Let Justice Roll organizers are working now in support of ballot initiatives and legislative efforts to increase the minimum wage in states such as Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Raising the minimum wage is good for workers, business and our economy. States that have raised their minimum wage above the federal level have had better employment trends, including among retail and small businesses, than states that have not. It's time for the federal minimum wage to increase so that workers in every state can earn a living.

A recently released report entitled "A Just Minimum Wage: Good For Workers, Business and Our Future," by Holly Sklar and the Rev. Paul Sherry, counters all the arguments against raising the minimum wage and offers vital new insight into why the minimum wage is so important. The report shows that raising the minimum wage is an economic imperative for the enduring strength of our workforce, businesses, communities and economy, as well as a moral imperative for the very soul of our nation. "A Just Minimum Wage" was produced by the American Friends Service Committee and the National Council of Churches USA in support of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign. Copies are available in .pdf format at www.letjusticeroll.org and in hard copy by contacting Leslie Tune at the National Council of Churches USA at (202) 481-6927 or via email at Ltune@ncccusa.org.

Additional information about the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign can be found online at www.letjusticeroll.org

"Suicides at Guantanamo Bay prison lead to renewed calls to close the facility"

Statement from the National Council of Churches USA

New York, June 11, 2006 -- The suicides of three prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba have prompted a renewed call by the National Council of Churches USA that the facility be closed.

The suicides are "another milestone in a sordid history of human rights denial and crimes against humanity," said the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, NCC General Secretary.

"Americans who love their country and its historic ideals are mortified by this continuing blot on our honor, on our steadfast defense of freedom, and on our commitment to democracy and the rule of law," Edgar said.

Edgar also repeated a plea he made in February to Secretary of State Condoleeeza Rice that the NCC be allowed to send a small interfaith delegation to Guantanamo "to monitor the physical, mental and spiritual condition of the detainees."

Rice has not responded to the request. Similar requests were turned down by former Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2003 and 2004.

Last February, Edgar praised a United Nations report that called upon the U.S. to close Guantanamo, to refrain from "any practice amounting to torture," and either bring detainees to trial or "release them."

The NCC Governing Board, composed of representatives of the council's member communions, has warned that the denials of human rights and freedoms "are not simply a crime against humanity; they are a sin against God."

The full text of Edgar's statement follows:

The deaths by suicide of three prisoners of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility are another milestone in a sordid history of human rights denial and crimes against humanity. As the Governing Board of the National Council of Churches USA made clear in February 2004, the denial of rights and freedoms are not simply crimes against human beings: they are sins against God.

We urgently renew our call, made most recently on February 16, 2006, that the United States close its Guantanamo Bay detention facility without delay.

We also renew our request to the Secretary of State that the National Council of Churches USA be allowed to send a small interfaith delegation to Guantanamo to monitor the physical, mental and spiritual condition of the detainees.

It has been four months since the United Nations Commission on Human Rights called upon the U.S. to close Guantanamo, to refrain from "any practice amounting to torture," and either bring detainees to trial or "release them." The National Council of Churches USA immediately endorsed the U.N. report, and called upon the U.S. government to accept its recommendations.

Since then, 75 detainees have staged hunger strikes to protest conditions in the jail. Amnesty International has described the facilities as "a legal black hole" where detainees are denied access to any court, legal counsel or family visits. "Denied their rights under international law and held in conditions which may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," Amnesty reports, "the detainees face severe psychological distress."

Americans who love their country and its historic ideals are mortified by this continuing blot on our honor, on our steadfast defense of freedom, and on our commitment to democracy and the rule of law. We appeal again to the President and to the Secretary of State: bring this cruel and humiliating chapter to an end. Close the Guantanamo Bay facility immediately.

See also: http://www.ncccusa.org/news/060216gitmo.html and http://www.ncccusa.org/news/04boardonguantanamo.html

The National Council of Churches USA is composed of 35 Orthodox, Protestant, Episcopalian, historic African American and peace church traditions representing 45 million Christians in 100,000 congregations in the United States.

National Hunger Awareness Day

Reprinted from the National Council of Churches

When you sit down to dinner tonight, imagine what it would be like if you didn't know when or where you will eat your next meal. This is the daily experience of 38 million Americans. More than 25 million Americans—including nearly 9 million children and 3 million seniors—receive emergency food assistance each year from the America’s Second Harvest, The Nation’s Food Bank Network of charitable agencies, representing an 8 percent increase since 2001. National Hunger Awareness Day is the grassroots movement to raise awareness about the solvable problem of hunger in America. Ending hunger in America is the goal of National Hunger Awareness Day on June 6. The cause has united disparate former presidential candidates Bob Dole and George McGovern. Download a bulletin insert to help your congregation learn more here. Please help us bring an end to hunger in America. Learn how here.

National Council of Churches "to keep justice at forefront of Gulf Coast rebuilding"

Statement from the National Council of Churches:

New Orleans, Louisiana—May 25, 2006—With hurricane season a week away, a special commission of the National Council of Churches (NCC) promises to “speak truth to power” throughout the long and arduous rebuilding effort of this city and the entire Gulf Coast region.  Eight months ago hurricane damage and destruction “took off the mask” of poverty, race, class and gender in the United States.  The NCC’s Special Commission for the Just Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast [http://www.ncccusa.org/news/060523specialcommission.html] will be supporting local ecumenical and community groups “to advocate for justice in the distribution of resources and services for those impacted by the hurricanes, especially the poor.”

A report was presented this week to the NCC’s Governing Board by the Rev. Melvin G. Talbert, retired bishop in the United Methodist Church and chair of the Special Commission.

“We will speak with the moral authority of our member churches,” Bishop Talbert told the Governing Board.  “There are times when we will take the initiative to open the doors that need to be opened,” he said.  We will, says the report, “hold fast to our vision of restored communities of love and justice.”

As part of that vision the NCC has partnered with six denominations, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and the Every Church a Peace church movement to sponsor Churches Supporting Churches.  This program will help rebuild 36 destroyed or damaged churches in 12 predominantly African American neighborhoods of New Orleans.  CSC’s goal is to “restart, reopen, repair or rebuild the churches in order for them to be agents for community development and to recreate their community,” said Dr. C. T. Vivian, CSC chair and longtime activist in the civil rights movement.  Congregations across the country will be offered the opportunity to help get these churches up and running again.  A year-long training program in community development will equip pastors and lay leaders for their expanded work as community developers.

“CSC, concerned about the total hurricane devastation,” says Dr. Vivian, “sees this New Orleans project as a model for similar working in all areas of the Gulf Coast.”

As this city and the region are rebuilt, there is great concern that poor and low income citizens will be ignored or given little consideration as plans are put forward.  Churches have already begun planning affordable housing initiatives as well as community services such as daycare centers.  Displaced residents cannot return until schools, hospitals, child care and mental health services are open and operating.  Several church organizations can help get such services up and running.  The Special Commission will speak up and speak out when it will help local groups or congregations in doing the work on the ground.

Several board members yesterday toured the Lower 9th Ward and other neighborhoods hit hardest by the flooding.  Among them, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Epting, a bishop in the Episcopal Church, said little has been done to clean up and remove debris.  “The scale is simply enormous!”  Bishop Epting says the NCC’s interest is in the “systemic realities” of rebuilding the region.

“How can we make sure that people are justly compensated for their loss?,” writes Bishop Epting in a sermon prepared for tonight.  “How can we assure that those who wish to return home can do so safely and with security?  How can we stand against those landlords who are now charging 1,100 dollars a month in rent for shoddy apartments which used to go for 300 – because housing is so scarce?”

The Special Commission will employ a local coordinator to direct its work.  The staff presence in the region is seen as critical in keeping the voice of the church at the table in the civic dialogue about remaking a city and region that gives voice to the voiceless.  The commission will come back to the region in August for its next meeting one week prior to the first anniversary of Katrina.

In his report, Bishop Talbert said it is the “right of all displaced residents to return to a community that offers security, tranquility and stability of opportunity.”

The NCC’s Governing Board chose to meet in New Orleans to bring the witness of the church here as well as learn more about the role of the church in the rebuilding efforts.   A prayer vigil [http://www.ncccusa.org/news/060523nccmarchtomorial.html] and half-mile silent march was held Monday evening from Canal Street to the Ernest W. Morial Convention Center.  Hurricane victims had sought security and safety at the center.  Many found only humiliation.  Others spent their last moments on this earth at this site.

The NCC gathering was led in a prayer litany calling on God to hear the cries of the people, cries for justice and cries for an equitable rebuilding of this city.  Bishop Talbert told the vigil, “We come now as the church of Jesus Christ responding to this crisis.”

The Rev. John McCullough, executive director of Church World Service, NCC’s partner relief agency, said the gathering was “symbolic of God’s church” in this place witnessing for justice, speaking up for those who are waiting to return and those who lost their lives in this community.  “God is using the arms and hands and legs” of all of us in the work the church is doing to help rebuild this community and all those still ravaged all along the Gulf Coast, McCullough said.

The general secretary of the NCC, the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, called on the gathering to repeat, “We are the leaders we have been waiting for.”

The church leaders sang hymns as they walked back down Convention Center Blvd. to the hotel where they met.  “Amazing Grace” and “This Little Light of Mine” were heard amidst the sounds of rush hour traffic racing by the open-for-business casino, brew pub, and some of the other riverfront hotels that have managed to reopen.

“There’s no question that New Orleans will be rebuilt,” said Bishop Talbert, “the question is for whom will this city be rebuilt?”

The NCC is the ecumenical voice of 35 of America’s Protestant, Orthodox, Episcopal, historic black and peace churches with nearly 45 million members in 100,000 congregations.