Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie

Religious Right Group: God Punished New Orleans

I’ve been waiting for some fundamentalist Christian group to claim that God took down New Orleans in punishment for the city’s “sins.”

How many of the religious right did Repent America speak for today when they claimed just that?

"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage. "From ‘Girls Gone Wild’ to ‘Southern Decadence’, New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. May it never be the same," he continued.

New Orleans is also known for its Mardi Gras parties where thousands of drunken men revel in the streets to exchange plastic jewelry for drunken women to expose their breasts. This annual event sparked the creation of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series.

"Let us pray for and help those ravaged by this disaster. However, we must not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long," Marcavage said. "May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God," Marcavage concluded.

The Rev. Martin Reynolds had a good response:

Rev. Martin Reynolds from the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) told Ekklesia, “This is an awful, evil way of interpreting God’s love, it is cruel, criminal and contrary to everything I understand of scripture and the love of God.

“Normally I wouldn’t give them a second thought, but I am concerned for Christians who take this seriously. I wonder if they’ve grasped the basic message of our faith.”

“I hope that those in the area will not judge Christians upon what these people say.”

Most Christians – evangelical and mainline (not to mention Catholic and orthodox) will simply reject Repent America out of hand. They’re a sick bunch. But statements like this must be condemned because believe it or not there are people who will believe them.

You can show your distaste for Repent America by supporting the relief effort.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Katrina: Church World Service Emergency Response Teams Readying for Emergency Needs Assessments, Long Term Recovery Plans

Statement from Church World Service

NEW YORK - Responding to what it anticipates may be the largest U.S. relief and recovery effort in its history, humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) says its Executive Director and CEO Rev. John L. McCullough will travel to Hurricane Katrina-devastated New Orleans Louisiana , arriving in Baton Rouge tomorrow evening (Wed Aug 31 - Sat. Sept 3), to personally assess emergency and long-term recovery needs and to meet with area faith leaders.

"Church World Service is particularly concerned about the plight of what we anticipate to be a high percentage of poor people, the elderly and other vulnerable populations throughout the affected Gulf Coast area and beyond," he says. "Stories of individuals who had to stay in New Orleans their homes because they couldn't afford to evacuate personify that crisis.

Yesterday (Mon Aug 29) CWS issued a national fundraising appeal for survivors of Katrina and has directed an initial shipment of emergency supplies it hopes will reach Baton Rouge tomorrow (Wed. August 31) for distribution.

While in New Orleans the region, McCullough hopes to connect with area faith leaders "to offer immediate support, solidarity and hope."

This week, CWS's disaster response specialists are meeting with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials via telephone conferences, along with partners in the faith community and state Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOADs) to identify material resource needs and storm-affected areas where CWS will concentrate its efforts.

In addition to providing emergency aid following domestic disasters, CWS specializes in assisting in the development of community-based, long-term, recovery organizations that are established in impacted areas to help vulnerable populations and those with unmet needs.

CWS Associate Director for Domestic Emergency Response Linda Reed Brown says, "We anticipate deploying at least 11 of our disaster recovery liaisons just in Mississippi and Louisiana, where greatest need is seen. Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi will be the first to get our attention next week, when it is safe to go there. At that point," she says, "we'll be performing extensive assessments and can begin organizing local long term support systems."

"With such catastrophic damage," says McCullough. "It will be awhile before we know the full extent of lives lost and material destruction, but we can be sure that recovery will take a very, very long time.

"There is no question that the area's faith leaders will shoulder a massive amount of responsibility in caring for those populations and helping them find resources," said McCullough, "at a time when the church leaders themselves may have suffered great personal losses."

One of the first agencies called by FEMA along with the Red Cross in times of national disaster, New York-headquartered CWS responds to natural and human-caused disasters internationally and domestically.

Brown says, based on its work in disasters affecting a comparable geographic area and knowledge of disaster experience in an affected area, CWS estimates as many as 20 recovery organizations may be organized and supported in Louisiana, Mississippi, northwest Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.

CWS may also deploy its specialists to Tennessee and Kentucky, Brown says, where the agency will closely monitor Katrina's impact as a potentially serious tropical storm.

The global agency will also respond on request in other states affected by Katrina, including Florida where its domestic disaster recovery liaisons helped more than 40 communities develop capacity in long-term recovery during the 2004 hurricane season, CWS will respond on request.

Individuals and groups wanting to help Katrina's survivors are urged to contribute cash rather than material goods.

Contributions to support the efforts of Church World Service may be sent to:

Church World Service
Hurricane Katrina Response -- #6280
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515

CWS also accepts credit card contributions, by calling: (800) 297-1516, ext. 222, or through a secure online contribution.

Poverty Continues To Increase Under Bush Policies

“Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who are kind to the needy honor him.” (Proverbs 14:31)

Critics of the president’s economic policies – including many Christian groups – have warned since George W. Bush took office in 2001 that his efforts would benefit the rich at the expense of the “least of these.” The president has advocated massive tax cuts for the richest Americans and used the money to pay for cuts in services for the poorest Americans. The results have been stark. The Christian Science Monitor reported yesterday:

Despite a year in which the US economy added jobs, the percentage of Americans living in poverty grew from 12.5 to 12.7 percent last year - the fourth straight year it's risen.

In 2001, religious leaders released a statement in which they implored the president and Congress not to follow the Bush plan :

As representatives of the faith community we believe that government is intended to serve God’s purposes by promoting the common good. Paying taxes to enable government to provide for the needs of society is an appropriate expression of our stewardship. We believe the United States of America should have a responsible tax policy for all people, particularly the most vulnerable.

"We are gravely concerned with the current tax cut proposals initiated by President Bush and being debated and passed by Congress. As millions of people – parents and children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and the working poor – are driven to seek charity to meet their most basic needs, we are appalled that the focus of attention in this Congressional session is not on meeting their needs; rather, it is on tax cuts that will mostly benefit the affluent.

Sadly, the Congress adopted the president’s plan and has endorsed even more devastating policies that have helped to push up the poverty level year after year.

The non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said today:

Yesterday, the Census Bureau released data that showing that in 2004 — the third full year of the economic recovery — poverty increased, the earnings of full-time workers fell, the income of the typical non-elderly household also fell, and the number of Americans lacking health insurance rose. In the past 24 hours, the Administration has made several statements on the new Census poverty and income data that incorrectly claim or suggest that performance on these measures in 2004 was par for the course for this point in an economic recovery.

“The poverty rate seems to be the last lonely lagging indicator of the business cycle,” E.R. Anderson, a senior Commerce Department official, is quoted as saying in today’s Washington Post and New York Times. This is accurate, however, only if one does not consider the earnings of full-time workers, the median income of working-age households, and employer-provided health insurance coverage rates to be important indicators of the nation’s economic health…..

Three years of economic growth following the 2001 recession have not improved the economic circumstances of low- and middle-income Americans, who have seen increases in poverty, declines in income, and increases in the ranks of the uninsured. The economy’s performance in 2004 stands in contrast to prior economic recoveries. Statements by the Administration counseling that all is well in the economy cannot mask the unfortunate reality that the current recovery continues to leave millions of Americans behind.

One has to wonder how a president who claims that his Christian faith guides his policies has so utterly abandoned the “least of these” in favor of the richest and most powerful of these.

Related Post:  Would Jesus Pass Tax Cuts For The Rich And Leave The Least Of These Behind? 

Prayer after Katrina

John Thomas, UCC General Minister and President, offers a prayer for use in UCC congregations in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

Aug. 30, 2005

Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light
Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.

- Be present, O God, with those who are discovering that loved ones have died, that homes and jobs are gone. Embrace them in your everlasting arms.

- Be present, O God, with those who suffer today in shelters, hot and weary from too little sleep and too much fear. Let them know they are not alone.

- Be present, O God, with those who wonder what they will find when they return to homes battered by wind and engulfed by flood. Teach them to hope.

- Be present, O God, with those who have not been able to reach loved ones, who are frantic with worry. Offer them consolation.

- Be present, O God, with those who have hardly recovered from last year’s storms, who are unsure how much they can bear, who yearn only for quiet. Grant them peace.

- Be present, O God, with all who respond - mayors, police, firefighters, FEMA employees, Red Cross workers, pastors, church disaster response coordinators. Their work is just beginning, and will not end for many months. Strengthen them for service.

- Be present, O God, with the people of the United Church of Christ in storm damaged areas, and especially with the staff and clients of the Back Bay Mission in Biloxi where we fear so much has been damaged. Inspire us by their determination to care for others amid their own trials.

- Be present, O God, to each of us as we pray, that distance may not deter us from generous giving and enduring companionship. Help us remember tomorrow, and next week, and next month.

- Be present, O God, with all affected by Hurricane Katrina. May Immanuel, God with us, our precious Jesus, take every hand and lead us home. Amen.

John H. Thomas
General Minister and President
United Church of Christ
August 30, 2005

UCC Related-Dillard University Evacuates

Dillard University is a school in New Orleans affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. Students from the university have been evacuated. The evacuation was not without problems. The web site Inside Higher Ed reports:

Centenary College, in Shreveport, welcomed 200 students from Dillard University to the fitness center and the Gold Dome basketball arena. “This is the third time in a year,” said Lynn Stewart, a Centenary spokeswoman, who said about 40 Dillard students came during Hurricane Ivan. Stewart said the students are mostly those who do not have family in Louisiana, or the United States. The Dillard students boarded six buses at 7 p.m. Sunday night for what should have been a six-hour drive to Centenary. The drive, however, took 10 hours. One of the buses started smoking, and then burst into flames as it crossed the Mississippi River around midnight.

“All their belongings burned up, laptops and books,” Stewart said of the 37 students who were on the bus. The college asked the local community to bring supplies for the students. Stewart said hundreds of people showed up with pillows, blankets, Monopoly sets and cards. “They might not be comfortable, but they’re watching TV and listening to iPods, like normal students,” she said.

You can see more pictures of the students by clicking here.  Dillard’s web site is down. The United Church of Christ web site, however, has basic information on the university:

Dillard University, 2601 Gentilly Blvd., New Orleans LA 70122, 504-283-8822, www.dillard.edu

Dillard University opened the doors of its spacious campus in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans in 1935, the product of a merger between two post-Civil War institutions, New Orleans University and Straight College.

The university offers degrees in multiple areas in its six divisions: Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Business,Education, and Nursing. It maintains church affiliations with both the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. The philosophy and religion department is located in the department of humanities, and the university has a deeply engaged resident chaplain who teaches in the department.

Now in the fourth year of the presidency of Dr.Michael L. Lomax, Dillard's seventh president, Dillard is at the midpoint of an ambitious period of growth and development. In addition to a forty million dollar rebuilding campaign, Dillard has increased its enrollment to 1,950, with a goal of 2,200 by 2002. Both entering freshman ACT scores and overall retention rates have been above national averages the past two years.

Scholarships are available to the children of UCC clergy and to students who have demonstrated leadership in the church. Approximate full-time enrollment: 1,950.

It is unknown when the university will re-open. I’m sure the students, faculty and staff would appreciate our prayers and donations.

Message From Back May Mission In East Biloxi, Mississippi

Back Bay Mission is a United Church of Christ-related mission agency providing emergency support to those who are homeless and poor in East Biloxi, Mississippi. A statement from their executive director was posted today on UCC.org:

Shari Prestemon, Executive Director of Back Bay Mission reports from Selma, Alabama that she is, "very concerned about the whereabouts of staff, friends and clients of the Mission." Some Back Bay Mission staff evacuated safely, while the whereabouts of other staff is unknown. All telephones in the 228 area code are not functioning. As yet there is no information on the status of Mission or personal staff properties. East Biloxi, where the Mission is located, is one of the hardest hit areas. It may be several days before BBM staff can return to assess the situation at the Mission and their own homes.

"Back Bay Mission is committed to doing everything we can to assist in the emergency and recovery phases of this disaster," says Prestemon. There will eventually be a need for volunteers and materials donations. However, staff needs first to return to Biloxi and make assessments. Individuals and groups wishing to receive information about future volunteer and material needs donations for Back Bay Mission should send an e-mail to Mary Schaller Blaufuss, UCC Executive for Volunteer Ministries at: [email protected].

Eden Theological Seminary has a special relationship with Back Bay Mission. Some of our seminarians have spent time there providing services. Staff from Back Bay Mission have also visited the Eden campus and spent time with students, faculty and staff explaining their mission and the problems people living in poverty deal with each day in Mississippi.

Please pray for the people of Back Bay Mission and all those in the aftermath of Katrina.

You can also donate to United Church of Christ Disaster Response.

Hardball On Holy Ground

The Rev. Dr. Andrew Weaver, a United Methodist pastor well know for his efforts to research the activities of so-called renewal groups working to undermine mainline Christian churches, was in St. Louis this past week to meet with clergy in the St. Louis Association of the United Church of Christ. Dr. Weaver showed those assembled how right-wing secular foundations use groups like the Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy to attack the prophetic voice of mainline churches on issues of important social concern. He presented some of the work found in the new book Hardball On Holy Ground.

"Hardball on Holy Ground," a new book by Steven Swecker, chronicles ongoing efforts by wealthy and powerful individuals and foundations linked to the religious right to undermine mainline churches and the National Council of Churches. One reviewer notes that a hostile takeover of these churches would represent a massive shift in American culture and the balance of ideas and values for a relatively small investment, muting the influence of the more moderate Christian community within our society. Click here for info / to order.

Those of us in mainline churches need to be aware that there is a concentrated effort to silence our voice and malign our institutions and leaders so that secular conservative voices in America can push their agenda through without opposition from Christian leaders whom might articulate a different viewpoint – one rooted in the Gospels. We cannot allow them to win such a victory.

Emergency Appeal From Church World Service

Hurricane Katrina

08-29-2005   

Appeal Number: 6280

Appeal Amount: $300,000

---

Situation Report

With winds of 145 miles per hour and blinding rain, Hurricane Katrina slammed onto the Louisiana coast near Grand Isle this morning as a powerful Category 4 storm and headed north, narrowly missing a direct hit on New Orleans while pounding the Mississippi coastline where 15-20-foot storm surges were predicted. The storm also hammered the Alabama coastline and affected beaches into the Florida panhandle. The National Hurricane Center projected Katrina would turn towards the northeast and continue wrecking havoc – although progressively weakening – through Mississippi, northwest Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and possibly even western New York.

In southeast Louisiana, some 370,000 customers were without power. In New Orleans where an estimated 80 per cent of the population of 485,000 evacuated, the potential of a 15-foot storm surge which could compromise levies that protect the below-sea-level city caused concern about extensive flooding. As Katrina moved beyond the coastline, inland Mississippi residents as far north as Jackson and Meridian
braced for heavy rain and hurricane-force winds. In south Florida where Katrina made its first landfall last week as a Category 1 storm, 314,000 residential and business customers remained without power and officials estimated insured damages as high as $2 billion

RESPONSE

This week Church World Service (CWS) Disaster Response and Recovery Liaisons (DRRLs) are meeting with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and partners in state Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOADs) via telephone conferences to identify:

•Material resource needs which CWS can help address through Gifts of the Heart Kits, Tools of Hope blankets, and other aid.
•Storm-affected areas where they will focus on facilitating development of long-term recovery organizations to assist vulnerable populations that will face unmet needs. (Based on its work in disasters affecting a comparable geographic area and knowledge of disaster experience in the affected area, CWS estimates as many as 20 recovery organizations may be organized and supported in Louisiana, Mississippi, northwest Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky.)

Deployment of DRRLs is scheduled for early next week to targeted areas where long-term recovery organizing work will be required:

•Lura Cayton to Louisiana
•Lesli Remaly to Mississippi
•Tim Johnson, if needed, to northwest to Alabama

Over the course of its response, CWS anticipates multiple DRRL deployments – as many as 11 in just Mississippi and Louisiana (where need is anticipated to be the greatest and work will go on simultaneously in different areas) and Alabama alone. CWS may also deploy DRRLs to Tennessee and Kentucky where it will closely monitor effects of Katrina’s impact as a potentially serious tropical storm. In other states affected by Katrina, including Florida where its DRRLs helped more than 40 communities develop capacity in long-term recovery during the 2004 hurricane season, CWS will respond on request.

Emergency Appeal

CWS is issuing this initial appeal for $300,000 (#6280 – Hurricane Katrina Response) to support shipments of Gifts of the Heart Kits and other material aid as required, support long-term recovery organizing work of DRRLs, and provide seed grants to long-term recovery organizations as they are established.

Contributions to support these efforts may be sent to your denomination or directly to:

Church World Service
Hurricane Katrina Response -- #6280
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515

Contributions may also be made by credit card by calling: (800) 297-1516, ext. 222, or online at www.churchworldservice.org.

For further information about disasters to which Church World Service is responding please visit us online or call the CWS Hotline, (800) 297-1516.

CWS Emergency Response Program special contacts: (212) 870-3151

International: [email protected]

Domestic: mailto:[email protected]

Hurricane Katrina strikes Gulf Coast

Updated Disaster News Network Story:

Hurricane Katrina strikes Gulf Coast

Donations can be sent to:

United Church of Christ Disaster Response

Church World Service

Update:

Home: Disaster Response: Disaster Alert

UCC begins disaster response to Hurricane Katrina

Aug. 29, 2005

Hurricane Katrina, a Category 4 hurricane, stormed ashore the U.S. Gulf Coast this morning with extraordinarily strong winds and heavy rains.  Extensive wind damage and flooding is anticipated along the projected  track of the storm from the Gulf Coast to the Ohio River Valley. Katrina crossed southern Florida on Friday resulting in 9 deaths and extensive flooding.

One Great Hour of Sharing is rushing $25,000 to Church World Service for the initial response to Hurricane Katrina.

"At this point we pray and wait.  We are grateful to have One Great Hour of  Sharing offering funds and UCC Disaster Network in place so we are able to respond as soon as it becomes safe to do so," said Susan Sanders, Minister for Global Sharing of Resources.

UCC National Disaster Ministries' staff have been in contact with Conference Disaster Coordinators, Alan Coe from South Central Conference;  Will Rabert from Southeast Conference; Bill Wealand from Florida Conference and Shari Prestemon, Executive Director of  Back Bay Mission, Biloxi, Mississippi to express concern and offer One Great Hour of Sharing financial support for clean up and recovery in aftermath of this storm.  Contact has not yet been made with staff of Dillard University in New Orleans.

Back Bay Mission staff have evacuated to safety away from the coast and will return to Biloxi as soon as it is safe to do so. 

Will Rabert and Alan Coe are prepared to travel to the disaster area as soon as possible  to provide assistance to UCC congregations, institutions and local communities as they assess recovery needs. 

Church World Service Disaster Response and Recovery Liaisons are on call to work with local agencies to organize and to address the unmet needs of those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

How you can help:

1. Pray for people who live in communities affected by hurricanes.

2. To help those affected by disasters you may send gifts payable to your congregation marked for "Emergency USA " with the request they be sent through your Conference office on to Wider Church Ministries.

OR

3. Send gifts payable to Wider Church Ministries and marked in the memo portion "Emergency USA" to the Office for Global Sharing of Resources; Wider Church Ministries; 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115.

OR

4. Make a secure on-line donation now by clicking on the Emergency USA button on this page.

Praying for New Orleans

New Orleans is a former home of mine.  Our family lived there before moving to Portland.  While there we lived through a pretty big flood and hurricane - but nothing compared to what might happen in the next 12-24 hours.

The United Church of Christ has several congregations in the area.  Please add to your prayers the people of:

New Orleans Central Congregational United Church of Christ

New Orleans St. Matthews United Church of Christ

New Orleans St. Paul United Church of Christ

New Orleans Salem United Church of Christ

NEW ORLEANS BEECHER MEMORIAL CONGREGATIONAL UCC

NEW ORLEANS BETHEL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

Of special concern for all of us should be those who are homeless or unable to leave the city for lack of transportation.  The Super Dome has been opened as an emergency shelter for many of these people and our thoughts and prayers need to be directed their way - and our resources need to be directed their way as well after the storm hits.

Check these site for more on the need:

United Church of Christ Disaster Response

Church World Service Emergency Response

Disater News Network will have updated information posted from aid groups in the area.

"Katrina could 'devastate' SE Louisiana coast"

How You Can Help:

United Church of Christ Disaster Response

Church World Service Emergency Response Program

Katrina could 'devastate' SE Louisiana coast

Story Disaster News Network:

The hurricane strengthened to Category 5 status Sunday morning with 170 mph winds. The current forecasted track for the storm would take it across New Orleans.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation for the entire city Sunday morning.

"We are facing a storm that we feared," said Nagin in a press conference. "The storm surge will most likely topple our levee system."

Nagin said the Superdome will serve a shelter of last refuge for those who do not have the means to leave the city. Nine other locations will serve as shelters as well. He added that the city alerted churches about helping check on senior citizens and others who will need help evacuating or getting to a shelter.

"Make sure you check on your neighbors," Nagin said. "This is an opportunity for New Orleans to come together like we never have before. I am sure we will get through this."

The city will also be running free transit buses to help residents get to the shelters of last refuge.

The Rev. Marshall Truehill Jr. of the New Orleans' First Baptist Church has been active in "Operation Brother's Keeper," a collaborative program formed to encourage evacuations in case of a major hurricane. Operation Brother's Keeper includes some 900 local religious congregations and the American Red Cross.

Truehill told WGNO-TV last week that one of his biggest concerns is the 145,000 city residents who are dependent on public transportation.

"The congregations are being asked to form partnerships with congregations outside the risk area so at least for a week or two we'll have somewhere to house people.

"We're trying to say to people," he told the station, "you have to be responsible for yourself, your family and your neighbors."

In anticipation of a possible landfall, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco both have declared states of emergency. In Louisiana, emergency officials have ordered mandatory evaculations early Sunday morning in Plaquemines, Saint Charles and Terebonne Parishes.

"This is a dangerous time," said Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. "There may be intense flooding. We have no reason to believe right now that (the hurricane) will alter its path."

New Orleans is extremely vulnerable to hurricane-induced floods because much of that city lies below sea level.

The south shore of Lake Pontchartrain - 40-miles wide from east to west, and 24 miles stretching north to south - forms the northern boundary of the city of New Orleans. A system of levees surrounds the city to hold back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Mississippi River to the south.

Since New Orleans sits lower than the lake, in a worst-case scenario, a severe hurricane could push floodwaters inside New Orleans as high as 20-30 feet, covering most homes and the first three or four stories of buildings in the city.

If that worst-case scenario occurs, Truehill predicts major problems. "People will die in New Orleans from downing or from disease. . . in the aftermath," he said.

The last time Mississippi or Louisiana saw landfall from a storm classified as Category 4 or stronger was in August 1969, when Hurricane Camille roared ashore with winds in excess of 155 mph, killing 143 people.

The hurricane center’s five-day track shows Katrina also passing through Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio.

Six deaths were blamed on the storm’s pass through south Florida, where it made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Thursday. About 850,000 customers were still without power by Saturday morning.

At least 50 homes had flood damage in Homestead, and 40 mobile homes were damaged in Broward County. Flooding in Homestead and other parts of Miami-Dade County appears to have hit apartment dwellers hard, ruining belongings that were uninsured. Damage assessments were ongoing, so these numbers could grow, particularly since the Florida Keys got inundated Friday with 15-20 inches of rain.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has requested federal assistance for Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Katrina is the second hurricane to hit Florida this year, following Hurricane Dennis, which struck the Panhandle.

Posted August 28, 2005 10:49 AM

"Faith Groups Across the Nation Asked to Toll Bells for Peace"

Another opportunity to honor those Americans who have died in Iraq will occur this Sunday. FaithfulAmerica.org reports:

This Sunday in Crawford, Texas, several clergy from around the nation will join Cindy Sheehan, fellow Gold Star Families, and supporters, in a service of prayer outside the President's ranch. It will be the final Sabbath before President Bush ends his five-week vacation and heads back to the White House.

The Vacation Will End – but the Vigil Will Not!

FaithfulAmerica is asking for your help to keep the vigil alive. We need you in two important ways:

1) Ringing in Remembrance: If you are part of a faith community, please join us in a nationwide commitment. Beginning this Sunday and continuing every Sabbath we ask your faith community to remember our nation's fallen soldiers and their families by tolling your bell* – once for every one who has died in the previous week. We will provide you with details and options for your faith community. Let us all pause to remember their sacrifice, to remember their families as we seek God's help in sharing the burdens of Cindy Sheehan, Celeste Zappala, and the other Gold Star Families “Why did our sons and daughters die in this war?”

2) Financial Support: We need your assistance to help keep this vigil alive across the nation. Together let's help insure that the message of peace will continue after Camp Casey is gone. Through regular contact, local speaking events with Celeste Zappala and other Gold Star mothers, and upcoming events in Washington, DC, FaithfulAmerica will continue to keep our attention focused on the well-being of our heroic men and women in uniform and the families who worry about them every day.

To date nearly 1,900 U.S. soldiers have been killed, more than 15,000 have been maimed and wounded, and untold numbers of Iraqi innocents have died tragic, violent deaths. Such sacrifice demands answers. Let us help Cindy Sheehan, Celeste Zappala, their families, and every citizen receive a fair hearing.

Please do what you can to help.

Groups Line Up To Oppose John Roberts For Supreme Court Seat

People for the American Way and several leading gay and lesbian groups announced their opposition to John Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court. No surprise. But their reasoning is sound. People for the American Way states:

A review of John Roberts’ record and the tens of thousands of pages of documents so far released by the Administration show that confirming John Roberts would endanger much of the progress made by the nation in civil rights over the past half-century. If John Roberts replaces Sandra Day O’Connor the balance of the court will shift to the right for decades to come, imperiling Americans’ constitutional rights and liberties. The fundamental rights and liberties of Americans are too precious to entrust to someone who spent more than a decade trying to narrow them.

People For the American Way has produced a compelling report that makes the case for opposition crystal clear. For a brief overview of why Roberts must be rejected by the Senate, look at our interactive feature.

Once you have concluded, as we have, that the Senate should not vote to confirm John Roberts, SIGN THE PETITION!

The Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays issued a joint statement explaining their opposition.

"Judge Roberts has such a narrow view of what the courts can and should do, it's a wonder he wants the job at all," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "Ultimately, this is about an individual’s right to privacy. From women's rights to religious freedom to civil rights, there is powerful evidence that Judge Roberts would rule against equality."

"For his entire adult life, John Roberts has been a disciple of and promoted a political and legal ideology that is antithetical to an America that embraces all, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "He has denigrated the nature and scope of the constitutional rights to privacy, equal protection and due process as well as federal government's role in confronting injustice. I have no doubt he's an accomplished lawyer and an affable dinner companion, but that doesn't make him any less a mortal danger to equal rights for gay people, reproductive freedom and affirmative action."

"There is nothing in Roberts' history as a lawyer, policymaker or judge to indicate that he would be anything other than hostile to the claims of those seeking to preserve affirmative action, reproductive freedom and fundamental rights, or for those seeking to ensure that the emerging protections expressed in Romer v. Evans and Lawrence v. Texas become truly meaningful in the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

"The stakes for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans are too high," said Jody Huckaby, executive director of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. "We cannot sit back and allow a man with a demonstrated record of hostility towards privacy and minority rights to make decisions on our nation's highest court that will affect this nation for generations to come. After a thorough review of the selective documents released by the White House, PFLAG is convinced that nominee John Roberts should not be trusted to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Americans."

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and other pro-choice groups have previously declared their opposition to Judge Roberts.

The conventional wisdom is that Judge Roberts will receive easy confirmation by the Senate. But once more Americans become aware of his record – one of extreme conservatism outside the mainstream of American political thought – his smooth sailing nomination might become choppier.

"African American Leaders Call Project 21’s Comparison of John Roberts to Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘Outrageous'"

Press Release from People for the American Way WASHINGTON - August 25 - Several prominent figures in the African American community today strongly rebuked Mychal Massie and other right-wing African Americans for comparing Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, who has a record of opposition to civil rights, to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In a press release from the right-wing front group Project 21 announcing an event scheduled for this morning, Massie said Roberts “represents the beliefs of great Americans such as James Madison and Martin Luther King, Jr.” But Roberts’ record clearly shows he tried to limit voting rights protections, permit federal funding of discrimination, and strip the Supreme Court of its ability to protect civil rights. “I knew Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a friend of mine. John Roberts is no Martin Luther King, Jr.,” said George Mason University Professor and civil rights leader Roger Wilkins. “As a matter of fact, John Roberts is far closer to Brad Reynolds, whose tenure at the Justice Department was devoted to tearing down everything that King and the civil rights movement had achieved in the 1960’s.” “This is nothing less than an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the African American community, but we will not be fooled by false prophets,” said Rev. Tim McDonald, who chairs African American Ministers in Action. “John Roberts’ record is clear. Throughout his career in government, he was at the center of efforts to roll back protections against racial discrimination. And now you’re going to tell us he’s another Martin Luther King? Project 21’s assertions are outrageous.” Massie, who is notorious for having once called all Democrats racist, saying that they are “fully representative of Bull Connor and Orval Faubus,” is not the only self-proclaimed African American “leader” who will appear at tomorrow’s press conference. Niger Innis, Robert Woodson, and Phyllis Berry Meyers will also be there. “These brothers and sisters should be ashamed,” said Jeff Johnson, producer and host of BET’s Cousin Jeff Chronicles and Director of African American Outreach for People For the American Way. “John Roberts is a man who said affirmative action is bound to fail because it requires the ‘recruiting of inadequately prepared candidates.’ He thought the federal courts could be forbidden from ordering effective school desegregation programs. And he said that a Supreme Court decision giving individuals more power to address violations of their civil rights caused ‘damage.’ John Roberts has not the slightest claim to Martin Luther King’s noble legacy.”

The Family Research Council Wants My Money

The Family Research Council – headed by Tony Perkins – sent me a letter today asking for money so that he can effectively fight for my family in Washington, DC (click here to read the letter). Most of his letter dealt with gay marriage and his work to fight “liberal special interests.” I wrote him back this evening (click here to read my letter) and asked about all the issues he left about. Isn’t hunger a family values issue? Isn’t homelessness? Aren’t good schools for young kids a family values issues? Tony Perkins and his friends seem so obsessed with their fear of gays that they’ve forgotten that families are struggling in America and could use champions on Capitol Hill fighting their cause.

Who Will Say 'No More'?

Gary Hart, the former US senator from Colorado and noted foreign affairs expert, had this to say today in The Washington Post concerning Iraq and the Democratic Party:

History will deal with George W. Bush and the neoconservatives who misled a mighty nation into a flawed war that is draining the finest military in the world, diverting Guard and reserve forces that should be on the front line of homeland defense, shredding international alliances that prevailed in two world wars and the Cold War, accumulating staggering deficits, misdirecting revenue from education to rebuilding Iraqi buildings we've blown up, and weakening America's national security.

But what will history say about an opposition party that stands silent while all this goes on? My generation of Democrats jumped on the hot stove of Vietnam and now, with its members in positions of responsibility, it is afraid of jumping on any political stove. In their leaders, the American people look for strength, determination and self-confidence, but they also look for courage, wisdom, judgment and, in times of moral crisis, the willingness to say: "I was wrong."

To stay silent during such a crisis, and particularly to harbor the thought that the administration's misfortune is the Democrats' fortune, is cowardly.

Hart has always been one of the great thinkers of the Democratic Party. He’d make a great secretary of a defense in a future administration. Volunteering on his presidential campaign in 1984 (before I was even old enough to vote) is a great memory of mine. Click here to read his full op-ed. Senator Hart is right on target.

Guest Blog: American Culture, Religious Practice: How “faithful patriots” honor Widows and Soldiers

By: Diane Ford Jones

Late summer reports in two major New England newspapers brought some insight to misbegotten wars, detailing current events in Iraq and remembrance of Vietnam. Still, I hunger for more direct challenges to the current war—ones that expose its institutional supports like our cultural and religious bias in support of war and its aims.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that complicit silence and warped moral moorings combined would lead to the decline and eventual but certain demise of our nation. This weekend’s accounts show that King’s premonition still haunts us.

I serve our mainline Protestant denomination in a national capacity as an ordained minister. As a professional communicator, I also engage our members and the general public about morality, the reasons I take King’s prediction seriously.

A glance at the photojournal in the Sunday, August 7 edition of The Boston Globe halted my breath and shook me to my core. Photographer Julia Cumes captured Elaine Connors’ gaze as she mournfully drifted off into a pool of private thoughts about her husband and Vietnam veteran, Thomas. Judging by this depiction, Connors’ loss is crushing: maybe it was the way her clasped hands clutched a painstakingly folded American flag offered to her by the military as our nation’s final salute to her husband that captured the imagination.

During a week when the death toll of U.S. military personnel in Iraq soared to over 1,800, and when more than a dozen families in the heartland of Ohio learned that their loved ones lost their lives to an unapologetic apocalypse called the “war on terror,” I can’t help but wonder what any of us would do, or say, if we were presented with an American flag under such circumstances, as many others have been on behalf of their loved ones.

In a sublime and surreal turn of events, I imagined myself seated on a cold mono-chromatic chair, my feet planted on the crunching plastic green grass carpet camouflaging a mound of un-earthed soil cast aside for my only son’s grave.

A fiercely proud, stiff necked officer approaches me—respectful in demeanor, grim in performance of duty— presenting this carefully culturally cultivated symbol of liberty and freedom once draped on my son’s simple casket. Snapped together with chiropractic precision, this taut, triangular form was readied for me. Like all others who had already personally witnessed such events, I became one with them. Because of our mutual experience, they became me. We survivors were one and all.

And, that is when I heard it: the voice of our mothers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters, fathers, neighbors, employers, teachers and preachers saying, “Officer, I respect you. I thank you deeply for your thoughtfulness, sincerity and dutiful commitment of service to our nation. But because of my commitment to you, and to the nation which we love, I must respectfully decline this ‘gift.’ Currently, it is a symbol of the very failure of liberty, justice and freedom of conscious which it purports to elevate.

I will not be complicit or support, in any form or fashion, our nation’s myths that seek to equate loss of human life with heroism, misuse and contortion of faith with triumphant drum beating nationalism; nor the pursuit and squandering of global resources in support of our imperialism; nor a never-ending alignment of citizenship with the constant solicitation of (and our compliancy in) corporate and private greed at the expense of our nation. I won’t have any of it, particularly on this, the occasion of the commemoration of my loved one’s body having fallen victim to this madness.”

Such sentiments are startling, though seldom uttered publicly. What if these opinions were magnified in the mainstream press for all to hear? How might this model of national articulation transform our cultural, economic, military, policy, political, and faith practices? Could these actions become models? Begin to reset our nation’s moral compass? Since such occurrences are taking place, why not widely report them as noble?

An account written by The New York Times columnist Bob Herbert the next day focused on a young soldier’s experiences in Iraq and the strain that killing had placed on him as he examined the meaning of life and faith during a time of war.

What is striking about this man’s testimony isn’t concern for having taken life, fear for the salvation of his soul, need for forgiveness, or even his unwavering belief in Jesus—whom he felt was surely with him as he walked the proverbial valley of the shadow of death.

The most incredible thing revealed in this soldier’s account is implied, but often left unstated and unexamined: questions about our personal culpability and deeply-held, institutionally-fueled moral, communal and corporate failings.

Application of faith itself is not the problem; the young man is faithful to be sure. The propagation of false faith teachings left him, and leaves us, vulnerable and spiritually isolated. Reverence for grossly contorted faith is the very thing that we Americans condemn in others, particularly our “enemies.”

Our national defense is supported by faith claims that God blesses America, as is our notion of being “good” woven into our military strategy to prevail against the “dark forces of evil.” Our so-called Judeo-Christian nation has become what we say we abhor.

This young soldier is a professed Christian but should have been taught long ago that true Christian faith practice demands of its faithful the abiding business of waging peace.

Such is the case in the authentic faith teachings of Sunday schools, Temples and Mosques. In each of these settings, we still lack the will/fortitude to look at hard, compelling and mounting evidence of our moral failures that keep us from obtaining full and lasting peace. Peace threatens the status-quo and would turn over the table, forcing us to lose our present selves in order that that we might find our true selves as a nation.

We have lost (or perhaps never fully developed or had), our national collective will to hold our country, citizens, culture, and institutions accountable in ways that more fully allow us to live into our hopes of being at our best as a nation and participant on the world stage.

The widow and soldier each offer us an invitation to live private and corporate lives that are worthy of high moral esteem.

All of us who claim to be Christian should be reflecting on the many ways we have become complicit through our silence and inaction. We do too little, too late. Under our watch, our press is assaulted, our rights are eroded, our faith is hijacked, and our nation spirals further into spiritual decay. We each fall prey to decline.

Indeed, all people of faith have much to contemplate about the integration of faith, citizenship, nationalism, public policy and peace. As a nation, we must renew our efforts to earnestly examine what must be done in response to each of these ideals during the times in which we live.

What are we who are left to survive each passing day to do? What does it have to do with how we live in healthy relationships with one another? And why?

We are challenged to ask for the answers—not only for ourselves, but for our institutions in ways that best shape our culture, our nation and the world. We must not allow widows or soldiers to suffer from our lack of private, public or corporate moral fortitude. As a nation of self proclaimed “faithful patriots,” can we Americans do anything less?

The Rev. Diane Ford Jones serves in the national setting of the United Church of Christ as minister of communication and mission education for the Justice and Witness Ministries in Cleveland. She earned master’s degrees in divinity and in communication from Boston University where she specialized in the integrated study of media, religion and society. Rev. Ford Jones may be reached at [email protected] 

Prominent Religious Right Groups Stay Silent On Pat Robertson’s Remarks That Venezuelan President Should Be Assassinated; National Council Of Churches And Some Evangelicals Condemn Robertson

The National Council of Churches USA, a group of mainline and orthodox Christians, was quick today in condemning Pat Robertson’s bizarre comments that the United States should assassinate Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected president of Venezuela.  The Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, general-secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, said:

It defies logic that a clergyman could so casually dismiss thousands of years of Judaeo-Christian law, including the commandment that we are not to kill. It defies logic that this self-proclaimed Christian leader could so blithely abandon the teachings of Jesus to love our enemies and turn our cheeks against violence. It defies logic that a former candidate for the presidency could skirt the brink of international law to call for the assassination of a foreign leader on the grounds that he might some day be a danger to us. It defies logic that this so-called evangelist is using his media power not to win people to faith but to encourage them to support the murder of a foreign leader. I have no doubt that most of Pat Robertson's viewers have already rejected this idea, and that the 45-million people represented by the member communions of the National Council of Churches resolutely condemn it.

Evangelical Christians groups were divided in their response.  The National Clergy Council and the National Association of Evangelicals both condemned Robertson through statements.

“But other conservative Christian organizations remained silent, with leaders at the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition saying through spokesmen that they were too busy to comment,” reports The New York Times.

The United States has never been happy with President Chavez. When an illegal coup briefly toppled him from power the Bush Administration applauded. Chavez, however, quickly regained power. He has been critical of the war in Iraq and US economic policy in his region. Chavez has broad popular support. However, Human Rights Watch has issued several reports critical of the Chavez Administration’s human rights record. Then again, Human Rights Watch has also issued several reports concerning the human rights record of the Bush Administration.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked President Bush to repudiate Robertson’s remarks, according to the Times article. Robertson has been a strong political supporter of the president’s. Media Matters for America has asked ABC Family Network to stop carrying Robertson’s “700 Club” program. ABC says they are “contractually obligated” to air the program.

It should really come as no surprise that Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition have been silent on this issue. These are extremist organizations (Robertson started the Christian Coalition himself) that often show a profound lack of respect for democratic values and an even more troubling misuse of the Christian faith for their own partisan political ends.

Check out Andrew Lang’s blog entry on Robertson. Good stuff.

Edgar: Robertson's call for the murder of Chavez is 'appalling to the point of disbelief.'

Press Statement from the National Council of Churches USA

New York, August 23, 2005 -- Pat Robertson's televised call for the U.S. government to murder Venezuela President Hugo Chavez "is appalling to the point of disbelief," National Council of Churches USA General Secretary Bob Edgar said today.

Robertson said Monday on his 700 Club broadcast, "We have the ability to take (Chavez) out, and I think the time has come to exercise that ability."

Edgar said most of the 45-million persons in the NCC's member communions will "resolutely condemn" Robertson's statement. "It defies logic that a clergyman could so casually dismiss thousands of years of Judaeo-Christian law, including the commandment that we are not to kill," Edgar said. "It defies logic that this so-called evangelist is using his media power not to win people to faith but to encourage them to support the murder of a foreign leader."

Edgar, who was one of 12 members of the House Select Committee on Assassinations from 1976 to 1979, said, "I am convinced of the immorality of political violence and know its unpredictable and devastating effects on millions of people."

Chavez has accused the U.S. government of seeking to overthrow him -- a charge the Bush administration denies -- and has threatened to cut off supplies of oil to the United States. Killing Chavez, Robertson said, would be cheaper than war and would prevent Venezuela from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

The full text of Edgar's response:

Pat Robertson's call for the assassination of Venezuela President Hugo Chavez is appalling to the point of disbelief. As a former member of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, I am convinced of the immorality of political violence and know its unpredictable and devastating effects on millions of people. One wonders if Robertson's premise would one day be applied to opposition candidates in this country who might be a threat to an incumbent's re-election.

It defies logic that a clergyman could so casually dismiss thousands of years of Judaeo-Christian law, including the commandment that we are not to kill. It defies logic that this self-proclaimed Christian leader could so blithely abandon the teachings of Jesus to love our enemies and turn our cheeks against violence. It defies logic that a former candidate for the presidency could skirt the brink of international law to call for the assassination of a foreign leader on the grounds that he might some day be a danger to us. It defies logic that this so-called evangelist is using his media power not to win people to faith but to encourage them to support the murder of a foreign leader. I have no doubt that most of Pat Robertson's viewers have already rejected this idea, and that the 45-million people represented by the member communions of the National Council of Churches resolutely condemn it.

The National Council of Churches is composed of 36 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, historic African American and peace communions representing 45 million Christians in 100,000 local congregations in the United States.

Can We Stop Trying To Evangelize Jews Now?

The Beliefnet.com / Newsweek poll showing overwhelming support from evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics for the idea that people can be saved even if they do not share the same religious beliefs as Christians has had me in a state of disbelief since first reading it last night.

What does this mean for interfaith relations? Specifically, what does it mean for Jewish-Christian relations?

Many Christians believe that the Jewish people are not saved and should be evangelized. This has been a matter of intense debate and some evangelical Christian groups routinely attempt to convert Jews.

Not all Christians, however, hold this view. The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, Allen and Dottie Miller Professor of Mission and Peace at Eden Theological Seminary, often asks students a question similar to this:

Could you honestly tell a Jewish child being forced into the fires of a concentration camp that they are doomed to the fires of hell because they don’t accept Jesus as their savior?

In 1987, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ adopted this statement about Judaism:

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND THEOLOGICAL RATIONALE:

Christianity, developing its faith and identity, its life, and its creativity from a common heritage with Judaism, has a unique relationship to the Jewish people. The New Testament can only be adequately understood in the light of this common heritage with the Jewish people. The New Testament testifies to how painful was the historical process of separation of the Christian community from the Jewish people.

We in the United Church of Christ acknowledge that the Christian Church has, throughout most of its history, denied God's continuing covenantal relationship with the Jewish people expressed in the faith of Judaism. This denial has often led to outright rejection of the Jewish people and to theologically and humanly intolerable violence. The Church's frequent portrayal of the Jews as blind, recalcitrant, evil, and rejected by God has found expression in much Christian theology, liturgy, and education. Such a negative portrayal of the Jewish people and of Judaism has been a factor in the shaping of anti Jewish attitudes of societies and the policies of governments. The most devastating lethal metastasis of this process occurred in our own country during the Holocaust.

SUMMARY:

Faced with this history from which we as Christians cannot, and must not, disassociate ourselves, we ask for God's forgiveness through our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for divine grace that will enable us, more firmly than ever before, to turn from this path of rejection and persecution to affirm that Judaism has not been superseded by Christianity; that Christianity is not to be understood as the successor religion to Judaism; God's covenant with the Jewish people has never been abrogated. God has not rejected the Jewish people; God is faithful in keeping covenant.

RESOLUTIONS:

WHEREAS, the God we worship is the God of all creation; and

WHEREAS, the Christian communities of recent times have come more and more to recognize that God's covenant with the Jewish people stands inviolate (Rom. 9-11); and

WHEREAS, the Christian Church also stands bound to the same God in covenant, the covenant affirmed and embodied in Jesus as the Christ, and

WHEREAS, the Christian Church has denied for too long the continuing validity of God's covenant with the Jewish people, with all the attending evils that have followed upon such denial;

THEREFORE, the Sixteenth General Synod of the United Church if Christ affirms its recognition that God's covenant with the Jewish people has not been rescinded or abrogated by God, but remains in full force, inasmuch as "the gifts and the promise of God are irrevocable" (Rom. 11:29).

FURTHER, the Sixteenth General Synod of the United Church of Christ expresses its determination to seek out and to affirm the consequences of this understanding of the continuing divine covenant with the Jewish people in the Church's theological statements, its liturgical practices, its hymnody, its educational work, and its witness before the world.

This is a theological viewpoint rejected by many conservative evangelicals.

Albert Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, once compared Judaism to a tumor that must be removed. EthicsDaily.com reported in 2003:

While Jewish evangelism is controversial today, Mohler said Christians do Jewish people a disservice by failing to confront them with the gospel. He compared it to a person with a potentially deadly tumor, who would rather have a doctor give a truthful diagnosis than say all is well to avoid offending him.

In the same way, telling a Jewish person she is in danger of hell "is the ultimate act of Christian love," Mohler said….

In addition to his comments about the Jewish religion, Mohler has also described Catholicism as “a false church” teaching “a false gospel.” He says liberal Protestants have abandoned the Christian faith.…

Mohler isn’t the only Southern Baptist leader holding such views. Strained relationships between Southern Baptist and Jewish leaders date back decades to SBC president Bailey Smith’s infamous 1980 quote, "God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew."

Former SBC president Jerry Vines provoked outrage from Muslims last summer when he called Islam’s founding Prophet Muhammad a “demon-possessed pedophile” and a terrorist. “NBC Nightly News” reported on the controversy in February with a reference by anchor Tom Brokaw to “preaching hate.”

Mohler’s views were widely criticized by Jewish and Christian leaders (his response was to attack his critics for not being as faithful as he considers himself to be).

Religious pluralism is actually a great gift. While Christianity for me is the truth, I also find truths in other understandings and expressions of God and feel fortunate to live in a time where we are free to move beyond dogma and rigid creeds to examine God’s complexity with new eyes and open hearts and open minds. The results of this poll suggest new possibilities for interfaith relations. That is a very good thing.

Who Gets Into Heaven?

We hear a lot from evangelical Christian leaders that unless you share and profess their basic understandings of Christianity you cannot get into heaven. But a new poll out this week by Beliefnet.com and Newsweek shows that rank and file evangelicals don’t share that opinion. Steven Waldman writes:

One of the central tenets of evangelical Christianity is that to be saved—to earn admission into heaven—you must accept Jesus Christ as your savior. At football games, it's not uncommon to see Christians wearing t-shirts with the numbers 3:16 on the back, a reference to the Gospel of John passage in which Jesus says the Father can only be reached through the son.

Yet 68% of “born again” or “evangelical” Christians say that a “good person who isn’t of your religious faith” can gain salvation, according to a new Newsweek/Beliefnet poll.

This is pretty amazing. Evangelicals are among the most churchgoing and religiously attentive people in the United States, and one of the ideas they’re most likely to hear from the minister at church on a given Sunday is that the path to salvation is through Jesus. Apparently, rank-and-file evangelicals have a different view.

Nationally, 79 percent of those surveyed said the same thing, and the figure is 73% for non-Christians and an astounding 91% among Catholics. The Catholics surveyed seemed more inclined listen to the Catechism's idea that those who "seek the truth" may gain salvation -- rather than, say, St. Augustine's view that being "separated from the Church" will damn you to Hell "no matter how estimable a life he may imagine he is living.”

For a few thousand years, wars have been fought over this point; countless sermons have been given -- by people of all faiths -- to prove the opposite point. It is one of the main ways that clergy of any given faith can explain why it's important for people to show up at their particular church and read their particular sacred text.

How could so many Americans be tossing aside such a central element of theology? I think the Newsweek cover story that grew in part out of this poll has the best theory. Americans have become so focused on a very personal style of worship -- forging a direct relationship with God -- that spiritual experience has begun to supplant dogma.

Click here to read more about the poll results.

The poll results really are amazing – at least too me.

When did evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics do such a turnabout? What did I miss?

A Sermon / Podcast on Exodus 1:8-2:10

This morning I preached on Exodus 1:8-2:10.  Here is the text from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.  The link to download the sermon is below.

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live." But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?" The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them." So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every boy that is born to the Hebrews£ you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live."

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. "This must be one of the Hebrews’ children," she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, "Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?" Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, "Yes." So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, "because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."

Download the sermon.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).  This is my first experiment in making a sermon podcast ready.  Try listening on your IPod.

A Growing UCC Congregation

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a nice story today about Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ - a church that was nearly closed in the 1980s and is now taking in new members and growing.

"A Day I Never Thought I'd See"

The decision by the Israeli government to remove settlers from some of the occupied territories is a welcomed if grossly overdue move and helps foster the cause of peace in the Middle East. Beliefnet blogger Jesse Kornbluth wrote yesterday:

A Day I Never Thought I'd See

August 18, 2005 | 6:30 p.m.

"The hardest part of making peace with your enemy," a boy at the Seeds for Peace camp said on the "Today" show, "is that you have to go to war with yourself."

But enough Israelis did that to make this great day possible. And rich Americans--most of them Jewish--have stepped up to provide millions of dollars to support Palestinian businesses, thus giving thousands of Arabs one less reason to hate their Jewish neighbors.

Of course there was resistance, some of it violent. And the ultimate outcome of Israel's evacuation of its settlements couldn't be more uncertain. No matter. For once on the planet, in a place where no one expected it, sanity has--however briefly--prevailed.

'Days of Awe.' Here they are, unfolding before us.

Amen, Jesse!

For more information on this issue visit Jewish Voice for Peace.

Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy Tries To Keep Gays And Lesbians Out Of United Methodist Camp

In a campaign reminiscent of those waged by opponents of integration in the 1950s and 1960s the Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy is campaigning to keep gay people out of a United Methodist Church run camp.

They are urging supporters to write Lake Junaluska, a United Methodist conference facility, to demand that a conference called “Hearts on Fire” be cancelled because the conference, in the words of the anti-gay IRD, is “organized by pro-homosexuality caucus groups working to overthrow United Methodism’s teachings about marriage and sexual ethics.”

United Methodist News reports:

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. (UMNS) - This placid United Methodist retreat center has found itself in the center of a summer storm over rental of its facilities by the Reconciling Ministries Network, which advocates full participation in the church by people of all sexual orientations.

E-mail and official statements have passed back and forth in recent weeks, and church-related blogs and internet forums are buzzing about the gathering. Several hundred participants are expected for the "Hearts on Fire" event Sept. 2-5 at Lake Junaluska, a Southeastern Jurisdiction ministry about 30 miles west of Asheville.

"SEJAC does not approve of or disapprove of the 'Hearts on Fire' conference program, said Jimmy L. Carr, executive director of Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center. "The participants in the event will use the facilities of SEJAC and we will host them, as we do other groups who are our guests, in a gracious way that is exemplary of the wonderful United Methodist Church that we so love and desire to serve in the name of Jesus Christ."

Conservative leaders within the church have marshaled their supporters to express dismay at the gathering being held at Lake Junaluska.

"The 'Hearts on Fire' conference should not be held," said the Rev. James V. Heidinger II, president and publisher of Good News magazine. "The conference will not just be advocating for change in the church's standards; it will include large doses of preaching and teaching which are in direct opposition to the Scriptural norm and to the church's standards. That should not happen at a United Methodist conference center."

"Since Lake Junaluska's own internal rules require it to rent its facilities only to groups that share the 'mission' of the United Methodist Church, it seems highly inappropriate to rent those facilities for a rally for same-sex 'marriage,' homosexual clergy, and various exotic forms of sexual expression," said Mark Tooley, director of UMAction, part of the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

The Rev. Troy Plummer, executive director of the Reconciling Ministries Network, said Lake Junaluska is fulfilling its mandate as a "faithful United Methodist retreat and conference center to serve the whole church."

IRD has no official relationship with the United Methodist Church. It receives funding from several extremist conservative figures in American politics and many of their board and staff is active in partisan Republican Party activities. IRD works to intentionally undermine mainline churches through the use of paid staffers who organize against the progressive ministries of denominations such as the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church.  Tooley is a former CIA employee and not a UMC minister.

Reconciling Ministries Network is a group of 194 Reconciling Congregations, 26 Reconciling Campus Ministries, and 22 other Reconciling Communities and Ministries working to fully include gay and lesbian people in the United Methodist Church.

United Methodist policy is confusing as it relates to homosexuality.

On the one hand, the Social Principles of the UMC state:

The Church offers a unique opportunity to give quality guidance and education in this area. Homosexual persons no less than heterosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth. All persons need the ministry and guidance of the church in their struggles for human fulfillment, as well as the spiritual and emotional care of a fellowship that enables reconciling relationships with God, with others, and with self.

But they also say:

Although we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching, we affirm that God’s grace is available to all. We implore families and churches not to reject or condemn their lesbian and gay members and friends. We commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons.

Conservative groups that oppose the inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life of the United Methodist Church have recently been allowed to use the camp facilities, reports United Methodist News.

Rev. Plummer told UMN that by allowing Reconciling Ministries to use the facility:

Lake Junaluska officials are "practicing open hearts, open minds, open doors as they continue to make disciples for Jesus Christ," he said. "I am perplexed by any who would confuse the love of God and grace of Jesus Christ with closed doors, closed minds, closed hearts."

Unfortunately, IRD preaches a partisan message of hate and division in place of the Gospel each and every day.

Related Post:  Republican-Party Aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy Will Hold Portland Press Conference

Related Post:  Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion And Democracy Attacks United Church of Christ

The Smear Campaign Against Cindy Sheehan

Conservatives, others in the media launch smear campaign against Cindy Sheehan

Limbaugh, Coulter, Liddy, Hitchens, Barone continue attacks on Cindy Sheehan

More Gold Star and Military Families Join Cindy Sheehan in Crawford

Family members from all across America that have lost loved ones in Iraq or have family members deployed there are traveling to Crawford, Texas to join Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside the president's vacation home. Most of us cannot make it to Texas to show our support. But FaithfulAmerica.org is asking that we take a moment together on Friday and Pause for Peace as religious leaders gather in Texas to pray for Sheehan and the other families.  Please join in.

Press Release from Military Families Speak Out

CRAWFORD, TX - More Members of Gold Star Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out from Georgia, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon and Ohio are arriving in Crawford, Texas to add their voices to Cindy Sheehan's, calling for a meeting with President Bush and for troops to be brought home now. Over 30 military family members have joined the vigil in Crawford, with more arriving daily.

The following Gold Star and Military Families Speak Out members are available for interview and are arrving this week in Crawford:

Beatriz Salidvar of Fort Worth, TX arrived in Crawford last week. Her nephew Daniel Torres was killed February 4th, 2005 in Baygii 155 miles north of Baghdad on his 2nd tour of Iraq. IED device exploded and hit his unarmored Humvee.

Mary Ann Macombie of Atlanta, Georgia arrived in Crawford on Saturday, August 13. Mary Ann's son Sgt. Ryan Campbell served in the Army and was killed in action south of Baghdad on April 29, 2004.

Paula Rogovin of Teaneck, New Jersey arrived in Crawford on Saturday, August 13th. Paula's son is a Lieutenant in the U.S.Marine Corps, and has not yet been deployed to Iraq.

Pat Vogel of Barrington, Illinois arrived in Crawford on Sunday, August 14th. Pat's son, a member of the Army Reserves, served in Bacuba, Iraq from March 2003 - March 2004. He joined Iraq Veterans Against the War (www.ivaw.net) when he returned from serving in Iraq.

Mimi Evans of W. Barnstable, Massachusetts will be arriving in Crawford on Tuesday, August 16th. Mimi's son serves in the U.S. Marine Corps; he will be deployed to Fallujah, Iraq in the next week.

Linda Englund of Chicago, Illinois will be arriving in Crawford on Tuesday, August 16th. Linda's son served in the Army in Iraq from February to December, 2004. He was wounded in Iraq and received two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. He is currently stationed in Germany and may be re-deployed to
Iraq.

Michelle DeFord of Salem, Oregon will be arriving in Crawford on Wednesday, August 17th. Michelle's son Sgt. David W. Johnson served in the Oregon National Guard and was killed in action near Baghdad on Sept 25, 2004 when his convoy hit by an IED (improvised explosive device).

Adele Kubein of Corvalis, Oregon will be arriving in Crawford on Saturday, August 20. Her daughter is in the Oregon National Guard; she was wounded in Iraq during her tour of duty from April, 2003 to January, 2004, and was injured in Iraq.

Steve Fryburg of Bellbrook, Ohio will be arriving in Crawford on Sunday, August 21st. Steve's son, currently a member of the Army's Individual Ready Reserves, served for six months in Iraq and may be activated to serve another tour. Steve is himself a member of Veterans for Peace and served in the U.S. Army from 1974-1977.

Deb Hagerman of Beaver Creek, Ohio will be arriving in Crawford on Sunday, August 21st. Her husband is in the Navy Reserve and was deployed overseas at the start of the Iraq War. His contract with the military extends for several more years, and he may be deployed to Iraq during that time.

Beth Lerman of Dayton, Ohio will be arriving in Crawford on Sunday, August 21. Her oldest son is a Veteran of the first Gulf War; her daughter-in-law currently serves with the Air Force; and her youngest son entered the Coast Guard two and a half years ago. Her daughter-in-law and youngest son have
not yet been deployed to Iraq.

Teresa Dawson of Gahanna, Ohio will be arriving in Crawford on Tuesday, August 23. Her daughter serves in the Army Reserves; her son in the Ohio National Guard is currently serving in Iraq.

Karen Williams of Reynoldsburg, Ohio will be arriving in Crawford on Tuesday, August 23. Her son serves in the U.S. Marine Corps and has not yet been deployed to Iraq.

Other military families are expected to come in to Crawford from Vermont, Ohio, California and other states between now and August 31.

Two Oregon Moms Head To Texas To Join Cindy Sheehan; Prayer Campaign Started

More mothers who have lost children in Iraq are heading to Texas to join Cindy Sheehan. KGW reports:

Lynn Bradach, of Portland, and Michelle DeFord, of Salem, have something very sad in common: They both lost their sons during battles in Iraq. The pair boarded a flight from Portland to Texas together Wednesday morning.

It was two years, one month and five days ago that Marine Corporal Travis Bradach Nall was carried home from battle. Deford’s son David was killed in Iraq almost one year ago, and together, these two mothers have become one voice against the war.

“I don’t want to see another mother lose what I’ve lost,” DeFord said. “We're not just a bunch of crazy leftwing crackpots. We’re just moms and I truly believe this war was created from lies and it's wrong, just simply wrong.”

Both women believe their sons would root them on. Despite the fact that their sons volunteered to go to war, Bradach and DeFord said they don’t believe their sons wanted a war like this.

"There are a lot of mothers out there who still believe if they don't agree with the war that their child has died in vain and it was a useless death, and that's so not true," Bradach said.

The two Oregon moms will join protest organizer Cindy Sheehan, who lost her 24-year-old son in Iraq. Sheehan is camping along the winding, two-lane road that leads to Bush's ranch, hoping to lure out the President for a discussion.

Visit Military Families Speak Out to hear other stories of family members of soldiers opposed to this immoral conflict based on the deception of our president.

Meanwhile, FaithfulAmerica.org is urging people to join Cindy Sheehan in prayer on Friday for the American soldiers.

Imagine – an entire nation in prayer together for peace! We can make it happen on Friday! With your help we will create a nationwide blanket of love, support, and prayers for peace and an end to the war in Iraq.

Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan has asked for a Friday noontime prayer service “as an opportunity for Americans and others across the world to pray for our soldiers in Iraq, their families and in particular the mothers of our fallen.” President Bush and the First Lady have been invited to join with Cindy and the hundreds of supporters outside the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas where Cindy has been camping, waiting to see the President.

Now we have the opportunity to engage the hearts of millions in a collective prayer for peace. Whatever our religion – we are asking you to sign up to say “On Friday at noon, Crawford time (CDT) I will pray, meditate, light a candle, hold a loved one, remember one who has died, or simply be silent” – whatever your faith invites you to do.

To sign up and to invite others to join you in this pause for peace, please go to the link below.

Thousands of you have stood by Cindy Sheehan, Celeste Zappala and the families of those lost in the Iraq war. Hundreds of prayers have already flooded our website. Despite the few hateful things have happened in Crawford, Texas over the past week, your faith and support has helped to help make this little spot of earth “Holy Ground” by infusing it with your love and prayers for peace. Now the eyes and hearts of our entire nation can be on Crawford Texas in the quest for peace and an end to this war.

For the many clergy who are part of our FaithfulAmerica community, we invite you to organize prayer vigils. If you are a member of the clergy and close to Crawford and wish to attend the prayer service, see the link below.

Rarely is there such an opportunity to draw together, wherever we are, to pause for peace.

Please join us!

Click here to sign-up for Pause for Peace.

Brother Roger, founder of ecumenical Taize community, is murdered

Reprinted from United Church News by J. Bennett Guess

Brother Roger Schutz, founder of the ecumenically monastic Taize community and one of the world's leading ecumenical figures, was stabbed by a Romanian woman on Aug. 16 during an evening prayer service at the community's headquarters in eastern France.

Brother Roger, 90, was stabbed three times in the neck and died soon afterward. The 36-year-old assailant, who appeared to be mentally unstable, was arrested by local authorities, according to news reports.

A native of Switzerland and a minister of the Swiss Reformed Church, Brother Roger founded the Taize community in 1940 with three companions. It grew to eventually include more than 100 Anglicans, Lutherans, evangelicals and Catholics from more than 20 countries.

In time, the Taize community became a significant pilgrimage site for hundreds of thousands of young people, who would were attracted to the community to experience a spiritual life far removed from Western materialism.

The spacious Church of the Reconciliation was built to accommodate the large crowds and was the site where Brother Roger was slain as he prayed with about 2,500 people.

Brother Roger once wrote: "We know that they have not come here as tourists. If so, they would have come to the wrong address. Most of them have come with one and the same question: 'How can I understand God? How can I know what God wants for me?'"

According to the Catholic News Service, the non-Catholic Brother Roger asked permission from the local Roman Catholic bishop for permission to use the village church when he first arrived in Taize more than 60 years ago. It was such an unusual request that the bishop referred it to the papal nuncio in Paris, Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII. The archbishop gave his consent and later became a friend of the fledgling community, the Catholic News Service has reported.

Many of Taize hymns and tunes are used widely within UCC churches, including such worship melodies as "Nada te terbe / Nothing can trouble" (#772) in The New Century Hymnal.

Many UCC congregations, as well as those of other Christian traditions, regularly or occasionally offer worship opportunities inspired by the Taize style. "Worshiping into God's Future," a compilation of new UCC worship resources, includes many repetitive, melodic, chant-like worship tunes composed by UCC songwriters and inspired by Taize influences.

“William Donohue of the Catholic League continues to embarrass the Catholic Faith.”

William Donahue, leader of the radical Catholic League, gave a truly bizarre appearance during the Justice Sunday II event this past weekend (click here to read more). Justice Sunday II was a partisan political rally meant to build support for the president’s judicial nominees among the religious right. One group, Catholics for Faithful Citizenship, says that Donahue’s remarks were an embarrassment to all Catholics:

Justice Sunday II not only claimed an inflated Super Bowl like viewer ship, but among the inflated egos claiming to speak on behalf of people of faith, Catholics had no credible spokesperson. Instead the few Catholics who may have watched or listened had to endure the continued ramblings of William Donohue of the Catholic League. Donohue’s very short speech was nothing short of a tirade filled with uncorroborated accusations and threats. He started out by bashing Irish Catholics and ending by bragging about how he perceives himself as a threat to the left, as if threatening others is somehow compatible with Christianity.

As expected, there was no mention of any values that Catholics and our Bishops hold dear, such as economic matters, the war, gun violence, the Bush administrations advocacy for the super rich while ignoring the least among us. There was nothing really substantive on abortion other than repeating the same stereotype – that the right is moral and the left is not. There was no mention of rights for immigrants, minorities or those in need. The 40 million Americans without healthcare were overlooked as well. There was no mention of Jesus’ admonition to “feed the poor”, “clothe the naked” and “give shelter to the homeless” once they are born to impoverished families.

Rather Donohue chose to show his true extremist colors by referring to Atheist – Marxist Sidney Hook, who he claims had a great influence on him. Is this is something to be proud of as a self proclaimed Catholic spokesperson? Donohue went on to make the ludicrous suggestion that the Constitution be amended to require a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court to overturn any law passed by Congress. We question the authority Donohue has in speaking to maters of the Constitution as if he is a spokesperson for the Catholic Church. By subscribing to Donohue’s suggestion, are we to deconstruct the Constitution and the Supreme Court? Our founders structured the three branches of Government to provide balance. To prevent the balance of power would create the theocracy that Donohue and others at Justice Sunday II envision. They would rather restructure our great system of Government to allow ideologues who want to enforce their opinion and not decide based on the rule of law, precedent and the constitution.

Catholics for Faithful Citizenship encourage Donohue to seek the wise counsel of his Bishop as this would be a good teaching moment for his Bishop. We challenge Mr. Donohue to re-read the Gospels, especially Mark and Luke. As Catholics we are not supposed to wear our faith on our sleeves, we are not supposed to pray loudly and sit in front of the Church, and we should not mention the splinter in our opponent’s eye when we have a log in ours. Donohue seems to forget the words of Jesus. “Do not judge, lest ye be judged”. Leave doctrine and the interpretation of it to the Pope and the College of Cardinals. If Donohue is so sure he knows the correct way for the church then let him hang his articles of truth on the door of the Church like Martin Luther and leave the running of the Government to the three branches and the people.

The truth is that Justice Sunday II was an embarrassment for all Christians. We should be thankful that our brothers and sisters in Christian groups like the National Council of Churches and Catholics for Faithful Citizenship have denounced the message it preached.

Related Post:  Catholic League: Hollywood Controlled By Jews Who Hate Jesus

Related Post:  Far Right-Wing Catholic League Calls My Site Anti-Catholic

300,000 Hits

Sometime yesterday this blog received its 300,000 hit since going live on October 22, 2003.  Thanks for reading and for your support.

Pray For The Health Of Mrs. Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King is one of the most influential women leaders in our world today. Prepared by her family, education, and personality for a life committed to social justice and peace, she entered the world stage in 1955 as wife of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and as a leading participant in the American Civil Rights Movement. Her remarkable partnership with Dr. King resulted not only in four talented children, but in a life devoted to the highest values of human dignity in service to social change. Mrs. King has traveled throughout our nation and world speaking out on behalf of racial and economic justice, women's and children's rights, gay and lesbian dignity, religious freedom, the needs of the poor and homeless, full-employment, health care, educational opportunities, nuclear disarmament and ecological sanity. In her distinguished and productive career, she has lent her support to democracy movements world-wide and served as a consultant to many world leaders, including Corazon Aquino, Kenneth Kaunda, and Nelson Mandela. (Source: Mrs. Coretta Scott King full biographical information)

Mrs. King is a hero to all Christians who seek peace and reconciliation over war and violence.  Let us all pray for her health and for her continued leadership in the cause of social justice. 

Related Link:  Coretta Scott King hospitalized

Invitation To Religious Leaders From Cindy Sheehan

August 15, 2005

Dear Religious Leader:

Family members of fallen soldiers, who have joined me in Crawford, and I invite you to attend a moment of silent prayer at 12:00 noon (Central Daylight Time) this Friday, August 19th at Camp Casey just outside the Presidents’ Ranch. We’re holding this moment of prayer as an opportunity for Americans and others across the world to pray for our soldiers in Iraq, their families and in particular the mothers of our fallen. We have also invited President Bush and the first lady to join us in praying for the troops.

Several family members of fallen soldiers have joined with me in Crawford and will take part in the moment of silent prayer. Outside the President’s ranch we have set up a temporary camp named “Camp Casey” and a memorial of crosses with names of fallen soldiers has been erected, which is where the prayer service will take place.

If you cannot attend our service in Crawford, Texas please consider hosting a prayer vigil in your city. We ask you to join us in a simultaneous moment of silent prayer to honor all who have been affected by this war. You are welcome to contact your local media and inform them of your vigil.

My son, Casey Sheehan, 24, of Vacaville, Calif., died in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 4, 2004, when his unit was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. When President Bush began his 5 week vacation, I decided to camp outside his ranch in hopes of meeting with him to ask some unanswered questions about the war and the needless loss of lives of so many. Thus far the President has refused to meet, but my resolve is strong and I will remain in Crawford until the meeting takes place or his vacation ends.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and support of this interfaith prayer service.

Respectfully,

Cindy Sheehan, Mother of Casey Sheehan

Related Link: Bush invited to join Gold Star families at interfaith prayer service Friday outside his ranch

Related Post:  “Religious leaders offer prayers and hymns for Gold Star mothers waiting to see Bush”

Related Post:  Cindy Sheehan: American Hero

Frederick Clarkson: Keeping Track Of The Religious Right

Daily Kos has an online book group going and right now they're reading Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy by blogger Frederick Clarkson. Check it out. Clarkson's work is important and his blog is a first read for me most days.

“Religious leaders offer prayers and hymns for Gold Star mothers waiting to see Bush”

The president is still ignoring Cindy Sheehan, right-wing hacks are keeping up their character assassination against this mother of a dead American solider, and one of the president’s neighbors is shooting off his gun in protest of Sheehan. But Sheehan is keeping up her vigil and is determined to have the president hear her message.

Religious leaders joined in yesterday in Crawford to offer support for mothers who have lost children in Iraq:

(National Council of Churches) General Secretary Bob Edgar and other religious leaders paid a pastoral visit August 12 on a grieving United Methodist Gold Star mother who is standing vigil outside President Bush's Crawford, Tex., ranch. Celeste Zappala, whose son, Sherwood, was killed in Iraq, has joined Cindy Sheehan and other Gold Star mothers in an effort to meet with Mr. Bush during his month-long vacation. Edgar said the purpose of their visit to the mothers "is not political or partisan. Anyone who would suggest that vastly underestimates the pain these sisters feel." He said he expected the President to meet with the women "because he is a good man who knows it is the right and compassionate thing to do." Edgar led a worship service for Gold Star families outside the Bush compound and both onlookers and media joined in. "It was a very appropriate service," said retired (United Methodist Church) Bishop Joe Wilson, who read Scripture. "It was like a love feast."

Click here to read more.

Related Post:  Cindy Sheehan: American Hero

Justice Sunday II Speakers Unleash Radical Rhetoric In Support Of John Roberts And In Opposition To Basic Civil Rights; Mainline Religious Leaders Reject Message

Justice Sunday II was held today in Nashville with charges shouted about that the federal courts represented a threat against the American people with so-called liberal activist judges working to tear apart the basic fabric of our society.  The event was organized by leading religious right groups critical of federal courts. 

Speaker after speaker told the audience in Nashville (and on television, radio and the web) that enemies of Christianity are at work in America to oppose religious values.

Viewers were asked to contact their senators urging support for President Bush’s nomination to the Supreme Court of John Roberts.  (Related Post:  More Background On John Roberts )

Tony Perkins, the religious-right activist who heads the Family Research Council - and who in his own political activities maintained ties with David Duke and other white supremacists - claimed that the courts had found “a right to kill unborn children and a right to homosexual sodomy,” but at the same time had limited religious rights and even “taken away the right for children to pray.”

The vision that Perkins articulated is far from the Kingdom of God. Perkins and his allies preach hate and fear when the Gospel calls for love and justice.  He doesn't even bother with the truth.  Children have not been told they can't pray in America.  In fact, I led children in prayer just this morning and no government agent came to stop me.   

Opposing rights for gays and lesbians was equated time and time again with real Christianity (Related Post:  Homosexuality and the Bible). Pro-choice Americans were compared with murderers (Related Post:  Can Christians Be Pro-Choice? Yes).

Tom Delay, the US House Republican Majority, was one of the keynote speakers. He spoke out against what he called the overreaching judicial activism of the courts whom he said “bypass the democratic process” when expanding rights for women, gays and others by interpreting the Constitution. (Related Post:  Do Tom DeLay and John Cornyn Hate Democracy?)

Defeated Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork made several cameo appearances via video in which he charged that six members of the current Supreme Court “feel free to make up” law without regard to the Constitution. “The courts have come to reflect the cultural views of elites,” said Bork. Bork defined cultural elites as those in universities and Hollywood.

Convicted Watergate figure Chuck Colson praised Tom DeLay’s Christian faith and then preached that Christianity is about a Biblical world view that was particularly concerned about justice and even quoted from chapter five of the prophet Amos:

18Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; 19 as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. 20Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? 21I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. 23Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. 24But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

He claimed that this passage – one often quoted by The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. – spoke to the same concerns of justice being advocated by the religious right (though he used a translation different from mine).

We know nothing could be further from the truth.

The judges and judicial philosophy supported by the religious right – not to mention their leaders – are opponents of basic justice. Most of these same people fought against the civil rights movement and their claim today to be carrying on the tradition of King was simply sickening.

William Donahue, the leader of the radical Catholic League who recently said Jews who hate Jesus control Hollywood, called for a Constitutional amendment that would require a unanimous vote of the Supreme Court to overturn any decision of Congress. He spoke wildly against civil rights for gays and lesbians. (Related Post:  Far Right-Wing Catholic League Calls My Site Anti-Catholic)

Former Georgia Senator Zell Miller spoke next and endorsed Donahue’s views. “The Supreme Court has been handing down decisions that people of faith simply can not accept,” said Miller. “It will even put you in jail if you dare to put up a copy of the 10 commandments in a public place.” Miller told the crowd that hostile enemies of religion were trying to impose their will through judicial decisions.

Phyllis Schlafly, well known in the 70s and 80s for opposing the Equal Rights Amendments and gay rights, said that “biggest threat to America” is liberal judges whom she calls supremacists. She quoted several decisions from Clinton appointees to the courts expanding rights for gays and lesbians as evidence of what she clearly views as the malicious intent of judges to impose their will on America.

Cathy Cleaver Ruse of the Family Research Council told the audience that one of the biggest issues facing the court was the upcoming case on Oregon’s assisted suicide law. She called on the courts to outlaw Oregon’s program. It was an ironic moment. All of the speakers during the evening had been critical of the courts overriding state decisions on gay marriage and other issues. Oregon voters twice endorsed assisted suicide. What the religious right really wants became clear in her presentation:  They want the courts to be activists – but just on the issues they support.  (Related Post:  Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act: One Christian Perspective)

The pastor of Two Rivers Baptist Church – which hosted the event – concluded the evening by declaring that “liberalism is dead’ and directly attacking the Democratic Party. It was a highly partisan moment that should warrant an IRS investigation into the church’s political activities.

Justice Sunday II – like the first Justice Sunday – was a gross misappropriation of the Christian faith for a partisan political agenda.

What is even worse is that they used the Gospel teachings to preach a message of hate and intolerance.  This group of people has no shame. 

Many Christian and other interfaith leaders spoke out against the event. (Related Post:  Justice Sunday II: Religious Leaders Condemn Attempt By The Religious Right To Equate Christianity With Support Of Conservative Judicial Nominees)

Lutherans Adopt “Peace Not Walls: Stand for Justice in the Holy Land” Strategy

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has joined the World Council of Churches, United Church of Christ, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Anglican Consultative Council and Jewish groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and B’Tselem in condemning the wall being built by the Israeli government to separate Palestinians and Israelis:

ORLANDO, Fla. (ELCA) -- Voting members of the 2005 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) urged Lutherans Aug. 13 to participate in a campaign -- "Peace Not Walls: Stand for Justice in the Holy Land" -- designed to build awareness, and engage in accompaniment and advocacy activities for "peace with justice" between Israel and Palestine….

With a 668 to 269 vote the assembly adopted the campaign -- a primary component of the "ELCA Strategy for Engagement in Israel and Palestine" adopted by the ELCA Council this past April. The council is the church's board of directors and legislative authority between churchwide assemblies.

The campaign urges members of the ELCA and its related agencies and institutions to pray for peace with justice between Israel and Palestine and continued witness of the Christian church, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL); build relationships with the ELCJHL and other partners; learn about the situation in the Holy Land; intensify advocacy for peace with justice; "stewarding" financial resources -- both U.S. tax dollars and private funds – in support for a just peace in the Holy Land and the ministries of ELCA companions.

Click here to learn more about the action taken by the Lutherans.

The wall has been condemned by Human Rights Watch and other human rights organizations:

“Israel has a right and duty to protect its civilians from attack, but it must not use means that entail indiscriminate punishment of entire communities,” said Joe Stork, acting executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. “Israel’s separation barrier seriously impedes Palestinian access to essentials of civilian life, such as work, education and medical care.”

Human Rights Watch….argues that the barrier imposes arbitrary and excessive restrictions on the freedom of movement of tens of thousands of Palestinians and violates Israel’s obligation under the Geneva Conventions to ensure the welfare of the population under occupation.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a full communion partner with the United Church of Christ.

It Is Nice To Be Loved

If you’ve ever thought I was wrong, over-the-top, or full of bs this is the post for you:

Why I love Chuck Currie from the blog Joseph Barsabbas: The Rejected Disciple.

He might be wrong (and misquotes me on a few occasions) but at least he is nice.

Cindy Sheehan: American Hero

This post has been updated

Something got into me this morning on the drive into my church and I listened to talk radio. Every once and awhile this happens. It is like watching a car crash and you just can’t pull yourself away.

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an American solider killed in Iraq that is holding vigil outside President Bush’s vacation home in Texas, was topic number one. Ms. Sheehan wants the opportunity to talk with the president about her concerns over the war. But you would have thought she was Osama bin Laden for all the comments being made about her on the radio this morning.

She was called a communist, terrorist, unpatriotic, and a feminist (is that still supposed to be a bad thing?) all in the space of my 15-minute commute to work.

I’ll throw in a label of my own: hero.

People have not only the right but the obligation in a democratic society to petition their government with grievances.

Ms. Sheehan is appropriately focusing the nation’s attention on the fact that Americans are dying every day (not to mention Iraqis) for a war fought under a false premise. That war has increased instability in the Middle East and been a rallying cry for real terrorists who seek to do this nation harm.

Why is the president so afraid of meeting with this mom?

Related Post:  A Call to Speak Out On Iraq

Update:  FaithfulAmericans Offer HUNDREDS of Prayers for Gold Star Mothers in Crawford, Texas

Justice Sunday II: Religious Leaders Condemn Attempt By The Religious Right To Equate Christianity With Support Of Conservative Judicial Nominees

This post has been updated

Interfaith religious leaders held a teleconference today condemning the “Justice Sunday II: God save the United States and this Honorable Court” event scheduled by leading groups of the religious right for Aug. 14th.  The first "Justice Sunday" event was held this spring.

The event is being held with a stated goal of equating support for conservative judicial nominees with Christianity. The Interfaith Alliance released a statement last month when Justice Sunday II was announced that read in part:

Washington, July 14 – Today, the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President of The Interfaith Alliance, responded to the announcement that leaders of the religious right will host – in a church -- another simulcast television program, "Justice Sunday II.”

“Here we go again!” Rev. Gaddy said. “And, this time the imagery and the implications of the message advanced by leaders of the religious right are more offensive, sacrilegious, and undemocratic than those so integral to Justice Sunday I.

“Right now, the most serious threats to the fundamental rights and liberties in our nation are not coming from a lack of God’s interest but from a small group of religious right leaders who have assumed the mantle of national religious authorities and seek to impose on the whole nation and its constitution their particular views on religion, the courts, politics, and justice.

“One can only wonder about the sincerity of the prayerful plea, “God save the United States and this Honorable Court” when members of the religious right have disparaged certain members of the Supreme Court and some even have prayed for the demise of these members.

“There is no confusion, only manipulation—a manipulation of the holy name of God and a manipulation of the United States Constitution—in the implicit suggestion that only a Supreme Court nominee who wins the approval of the religious right is a suitable, God-endorsed candidate for the highest court in our nation.

Speakers on the teleconference included representatives from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, National Council of Churches USA, Unitarian-Universalist Association, The Interfaith Alliance, and the Sikh American Legal Defense & Education Fund.  You can listen to the teleconference and read all the statements made by clicking here.

The Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, said on the teleconference:

In an action alert last week the FRC (Family Research Council) claimed a, “leading role in stopping the several-year campaign of some Senate Democrats to cleanse the federal judiciary of people of strong religious faith.” This claim is unsubstantiated and wrong. There are, to be sure, Members of Congress from across the political spectrum who are people of “strong religious faith.” Similarly, the FRC’s statement suggests that opposition to a nominee may stem only from anti-religious sentiments. It is damaging to the legitimacy of the confirmation process to suggest that the necessary and comprehensive examination of a nominee’s record, as well as support for or opposition to a nominee is in any way religiously motivated.

Jesus summed up “strong religious faith” this way: Love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. All scripture is just commentary on that.

It’s hard to think of a member of the House, Senate or judiciary, regardless of political philosophy, who does not believe that in some way – either as an article of faith or a matter of personal commitment. It is entirely inappropriate to assume that a person’s ideology is a barometer of personal faith.

The Family Research Council is joined by Focus on the Family in hosting Justice Sunday II.

U.S. Rep. Tom Delay, the Republican Majority Leader who made statements after the death of Terri Schiavo threatening federal judges, will be a keynote speaker at the event.

Other speakers include Tony Perkins, the Family Research Council leader who has ties to David Duke and other white supremacists, and noted anti-equal rights crusader Phyllis Schlafly.

The event is a gross misuse of the Christian faith for partisan political purposes and as such should be condemned by all Christians and people of faith despite party affiliation or ideology.

Related Post:  Justice Sunday Event Concludes After Advocating For Radical Judges With Records Opposing Civil Rights

Update:  Click here to read bios on all the "Justice Sunday" speakers (thanks to People for the American Way)

Related Link:  Battle of Justice Sunday Heats Up (Frederick Clarkson)

Related Link:  Focus on Dobson & Perkins (Frederick Clarkson)

Related Link:  What Kind of "Justice" to Expect on Sunday (People for the American Way)

The Prince Of Peace Calls The National Council Of Churches To Seek Justice

The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, took aim today at critics who claim that the council is too political:

August 9, 2005, Washington – In remarks today at the Progressive National Baptist Convention’s (PNBC) 44th Annual Session in Detroit, the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, told the gathering of Baptist pastors, ministers and lay leaders that it is the priorities and commandments of Christ rather than partisan politics that leads the NCC to advocate for peace, ending poverty and protecting God’s creation.

"There are those who try to dilute our witness and mislead our friends by suggesting that the National Council of Churches is a partisan, left-leaning organization,” said Rev. Edgar. "But you know who it is that calls us to pursue peace, fight poverty and injustice, and care for the earth. It is the Prince of Peace who each day of his life showed his bias for the poor and prayed to the Creator who gave us this beautiful world,” he said.

The NCC has come under fire in recent months for advocating for good environmental stewardship, working to end poverty and for calling for a plan to reduce U.S. military presence in Iraq.

In an interview Rev. Edgar said of the issues in which the NCC focuses, “These are not liberal or conservative issues but issues for which God has called us as Christian believers to take responsibility.”

PNBC, which is made up of more than 2,000 churches and 2.5 million members globally, is one of the member denominations of the NCC. With an expected attendance of more than 10,000 for the Annual Session being held this week, the PNBC plans to vote on resolutions that address numerous social issues including the need for universal healthcare, establishment of a living wage, proposed changes in Social Security, the U.S. boycott of Cuba and the war in Iraq.

Edgar may have given NCC’s critics ammunition this month with a fund raising letter that sounded more political in tone that might have been appropriate for a church council. But his stance that Christians are called by God to seek justice is the correct one. Unfortunately, groups like the Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy distort and twist that message for their partisan political purposes.

Bob Edgar preaches a Gospel-centered message that the least of these cannot be left behind. He demands that we pay serious attention to Scripture over issues of war and peace. Christians can be proud of his work and that of the National Council of Churches.

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

Related Post:  Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion And Democracy Attacks United Church of Christ

Related Post:  Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy Keeps Up Attacks On United Methodist Church

Related Post:  Institute on Religion and Democracy: Just Another Right-Wing Group Working to Malign Christians Working For Peace and Justice

Related Link:  Hardball On Holy Ground

UCC sends $10,000 for emergency food aid for Niger

Reprinted from United Church News

The UCC has rushed a $10,000 grant to Church World Service to aid those caught in Niger’s drought-induced famine.

The gift came in response to CWS’ emergency appeal to its member communions to provide at least $100,000 in support of an even-larger appeal by Action by Churches Together. The UCC’s portion came from donations to the UCC's yearly One Great Hour of Sharing special mission offering, collected by most congregations in the spring.

Susan M. Sanders of the UCC’s Wider Church Ministries says lack of significant rainfall in the 2004 planting season, coupled with a massive infestation of desert locusts, has created conditions of acute malnutrition for approximately 3.5 million persons in vast parts of Niger’s Sahel region in the southern tier of the Sahara desert.

Years of economic decline and struggle have also weakened the capacity of people able to react against these problems, Sanders says.

Since June, about 1,000 malnourished and starving children have been admitted each week at emergency feeding centers, according to news reports.

Conditions are expected to worsen until harvest begins in late September. However, exceedingly high grain prices coupled with low livestock prices are expected to produce catastrophic consequences for the struggling nation over the next few months, Sanders explains.

Through September, the UCC’s One Great Hour of Sharing funds will support its ecumenical partners, such as Swiss Interchurch Aid and Lutheran World Relief, which are working to provide food security, health and nutrition, and livestock assistance in Sahel.

Sanders, who heads the UCC’s office for the global sharing of resources, says individuals and congregations, can offer assistance in the following ways:

1. Pray for the people of Niger and for relief workers seeking to address the crisis.

2. Make gifts payable to your UCC congregation, marked for “International Disaster Fund – Niger” in the memo portion, to be sent to your Conference Office with a note asking that the gift be forwarded to Wider Church Ministries, United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Ave., Cleveland, OH 44115.

3. Make gifts payable directly to Wider Church Ministries, marked in the memo portion “International Disaster Fund - Niger" and send to Wider Church Ministries, United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Ave., Cleveland, OH 44115.

4. Make a secure online donation now by clicking on the International Disaster Fund button at the UCC's disaster response webpage. Please write “Niger” in the comments section.

More Feedback From Readers

Not everyone who writes into this web site posts their comments. Some people simply send me an e-mail expressing their thoughts. Again, tonight I thought I'd give you - the readers of this blog - a chance to see a little of the feedback I'm getting (good and bad).

Just a note to say that I enjoy your blog alot, especially in terms of what is happening in UCC.

- August 8, 2005

You open border types are more dangerous than the minutemen ever will be. Our infrasturcture from schools, to roads, to social services are being destroyed by illegal immigrants, not undocumented workers liberal policitcal correctness. The more I hear and read from the likes you, the more committed to political action I become. Smile all you want, this battle is just becoming engaged.

- August 6, 2005

I agree that the battle flag has a negative connotation, but that happened 100 years ago, not in recent years. A man of religion should know that to find forgiveness one must offer forgiveness. The Governor was not raising the flag to dishonor anyone, he had it raised to honor those soldiers who died fighting for a cause. I would think that someone of your intelligence could see that these men fought and died for what they believed in. Would you not fight and die if someone was attacking your your belief system and your family? That's what the flag means. It is a shame to see such narrow mindedness in today's world. We should all be proud of our heritage. Whether your family was slave owning or whether your family was enslaved.

- August 6, 2005

I go to Cathedral of Hope. Jo Hudson (pastor) is one of the most impressive persons I have ever seen. Keep up the great work with your blog!

- August 4, 2005

If you have not been to Israel, can you speak with any credibity? Do you realize that Hamas wants to kill you? I guess you don't understand nor do you care.

- August 3, 2005

I recently came across your weblog, and I just want to say that I appreciate your work and your thoughtful writing. I'm a United Methodist pastor who has been trying to offer a theologically progressive perspective in and out of the pulpit (sometimes not so easy in the UMC!).

- July 23, 2005

I'm so glad I found your blog. I linked to it off the UCC blog site. Did you go to the Synod meeting? I watched most of it online...and I'm very grateful they invested in the technology to do so! Anyway...I'll put you on my bookmarks. Keep up the good work!

- July 20, 2005

It is very sad that individuals use an issue to mask and vent the violence in their hearts, and I am sorry that St. John's has been the recipient of that misguided action. But I am equally saddened by your comments and the easy dismissal of God's Word. As a pastor-in-training, what is the foundation of your theology and how do you view that definition and authority from God in your life and future ministry? As a pastor for over 20 years, I pray you will take the time personally and professionally to reexamine the accuracy of the Scriptures to address with clarity these issues that even the church has surrendered to human experience and choice, not eternal truth. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. (Proverbs 14:12)

- July 15, 2005

Chuck, it is a relief to find sites like yours, where the spirit of Christ is paid attention to.

- July 18, 2005

I’m a new UCC member and even newer to the world of blogs. Thanks a lot for your time and energy in making contributions at the UCC website regarding Synod’s resolutions. I have been educated and informed by the resulting discussions.

- July 12, 2005

My reaction to General Synod is this: It is scandalous and shameful that there was (and is) so much hoopla and whining about the gay marriage issue and there was NOT A SINGLE resolution to STOP the war on Iraq. Are these people blind? Deaf? Blind AND deaf?

- July 11, 2005

I am a 61-year old woman living on the upper Left corner of these United States and I am very pleased to be able to thank you for your refreshing message concerning the United Church of Christ and its recent decision on Gay and Lesbian marriage. We are fortunate in the Seattle area to have some progressive legal protections for gays and lesbians here, although much work remains to be done throughout this state. As a straight person with many gay friends and a member of a non-denominational Christian-based church, I am appalled at the behavior of so many fundamentalist allegedly-Christian groups who embody anything but Christian behavior. The vandalism of churches as reported in the article you posted provides an image of these fundamentalist groups more closely resembling terrorists than they do Christians. I hope your efforts, and those of others working to reduce hatred, have a positive effect on the perpetrators. They are most likely giving God a migraine and so far, are unable to see how misguided they are.

- July 10, 2005

Support The Voting Rights Act

Believe it or not but parts of the Voting Rights Act adopted by Congress and signed into law by President Johnson back in 1965 – the bill that helped to guarantee African-Americans the right to vote – are set to expire in 2007 and must be re-enacted by Congress or old roadblocks to voting will once again pave the road to democracy.

FaithfulAmerica.org reports:

Adopted by Congress and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is considered to be the greatest piece of civil rights legislation ever passed. While the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees all citizens the right to vote, the language was structured to allow for more legislation for enforcement of the amendment.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed to be that enforcement, among other purposes, so that every citizen is guaranteed his or her right. Specifically, the Voting Rights Act, according to www.civilrights.org, is important for three major reasons. First, it is “widely viewed as the nation's most effective civil rights legislation.” Second, it “removed barriers to voting for African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans.” And third, it “enables large numbers of minorities to register and vote and empowers minority communities to have greater voice concerning election of local, state, and federal office holders.”

Included in the Voting Rights Act are a set of special provisions, each with a specific purpose and limited duration. The important thing about these provisions is that while the Constitution grants the right to vote to all citizens, it doesn't allow for the how. These provisions, which are not in the Constitution, make sure that this right is guaranteed.

There are three sections up for renewal in 2007, and each of them is important. Section 5 served as a tool to improve electoral opportunities for minority populations in the past, but now serves as a way to fight against the reduction of minority electoral power. Sections 6-9 deal with federal examiners and observers at polling places to ensure a safe environment for all minorities to vote. Sections 203 and 4(f)4 deal with language assistance at the polling places.

Even if these provisions are not renewed, minorities will still have the right to vote. The problem is that minorities may be taken advantage of and their votes not counted. Minorities could be deterred from voting due to language or even hassled at the polling sites. These provisions must be renewed for the rights of all people. As Christians who believe that God created all men equally, it is imperative to us that the rights of all people are not trampled on and everyone is treated equally.

Already there is a movement to promote awareness and help get these provisions renewed.

Join the fight.

1. Join Rev. Jesse Jackson and sign the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's petition found at http://advocacy.rainbowpush.org/signthepetition2.htm

2. Write to your Congressperson explaining how important you think it is that these provisions be renewed and that the right to vote is not jeopardized.

Some right-wing political groups and some southern states are fighting the renewal of these provisions – their aim is to keep the number of minority voters low.

Many of our white Christian churches failed to stand up on the side of justice during the civil rights movement. Let’s make sure we’re all on the correct side on these important civil rights issues today.

Mick Schafbuch

Peter Jennings is not the only television legend who passed away this week.

Richard M. "Mick" Schafbuch, former general manager of KOIN-TV in Portland, also passed away from lung cancer.

Mick worked at KOIN all of the years that my father, Steve Currie, worked there as the operations and program manager. When my father passed away in 1998 it was Mick who delivered the eulogy. Mick was a gruff guy with a solid business sense and a love for local television.  The last time we talked was about a year after my father died but just this morning I thought of him and wondered what he would think of my plans for ministry.  He was always very kind to me and our family and will be missed. 

Click here to read The Oregonian's coverage of his death.

Related Post:  Veteran Oregon Newsman Dies

Related Post:  Speaking of Steve Currie

Jobs With Justice Conference Will Include Faith Program

Jobs With Justice will be holding their annual meeting this September 22-25 in St. Louis, MO – and will have a special training program for leaders in faith communities.

Founded in 1987, JwJ's mission is to improve working people's standard of living, fight for job security, and protect workers' right to organize. JwJ's core belief is that in order to be successful, workers' rights struggles have to be part of a larger campaign for economic and social justice. To that end, JwJ has created a network of local coalitions that connect labor, faith-based, community, and student organizations to work together on workplace and community social justice campaigns.

The JWJ Faith in Action Program will take place on Thursday, September 22nd from 1-6pm and will conclude with a breakfast Friday morning beginning from 7-9am.

Click here to read the letter inviting faith leaders to the event.

Contact Julius at (202) 393-1044 x237 or [email protected] for more information or to register.

Thanks to both Rev. Dana Brown and Eric Berg for sending me the information. 

Public Supports Anti-Hunger Efforts

A new poll conducted for the Christian aid group Bread for the World shows overwhelming public support for federal programs designed to decrease hunger.

(Washington, D.C.) - A national poll, conducted by McLaughlin and Associates, found that 92 percent of likely voters want to see Congress continue to fund anti-hunger programs like the school nutrition programs, food stamps, and The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.

“This poll makes it clear that Americans want to see our political leaders protect proven nutrition programs and pass legislation strengthening those programs,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of The Alliance to End Hunger and Bread for the World. ”Overcoming hunger is central to all of our faith traditions. Americans understand the morality on this issue and now is the time for us to do our part….”

The poll’s other findings reflect strong support for The Hunger-Free Communities Act of 2005 (S. 1120 in the Senate and H.R. 2717 in the House).

• 78 percent of voters say they want to see Congress pass new legislation that strengthens hunger-fighting efforts of community groups and will commit Congress to cutting US hunger in half by 2010.
• 75 percent of voters say the food stamp program should be protected from cuts by the administration or Congress even in a tight budget year.
• 63 percent of voters say that they feel the US government is spending much too little on feeding hungry Americans

“This is an important issue for American voters. Americans care greatly about hunger and poverty in the U.S. and around the world. National leaders working to do more for African and hungry people carry with them the support of a clear majority of Americans,” said Jim McLaughlin, of McLaughlin & Associates who conducted the polling.

We don’t hear much discussion from Washington about hunger and poverty. In fact, the Bush Administration has pushed economic policies that have increased poverty levels, cut social service programs, and lowered taxes on the richest Americans.

Christians should know better than to stand for that. Check out what the Bible has to say about hunger and justice.

Related Post:  Would Jesus Pass Tax Cuts For The Rich And Leave The Least Of These Behind?

All Options Clergy Counseling

Abortion gets labeled as a political question when for most women it is a decision made not in public but in private with the input of their partners, families, medical practitioners and clergy (at least in the best situations).

But do all our clergy have the skills needed to deal with such difficult choices? Have our seminaries done an appropriate job in educating our clergy to provide that level of pastoral care?

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is offering training opportunities for clergy interested in learning how to provide All Options Clergy Counseling.

All Options Clergy Counseling is many things: it is emotional, relational, medical, financial, and legal in nature. It is also, at the core, spiritual. The conversations that take place during an All Options training are shaped by participants’ various understandings of God. The unspoken questions of the counselees are: Will God still love me? Will God forgive me? Therefore, how clergy speak about God is central to All Options counseling even when the woman cannot articulate her own anxieties.

The decision of whether or not to continue a pregnancy is an extremely complicated one for many women. During the workshop, clergy learn more about those complexities. Factors that lead to those complexities may include any one or more of the following: relationship with boyfriend or husband; relationship with parents; attitudes about sexuality; feelings about being pregnant; previous pregnancies; financial and social situation; feelings about being a woman; plans for the future; attitudes about abortion; interpretation of scripture; personal religious beliefs. Therefore, no one choice is best for all; each choice has the potential for pain and loss.

While a simple referral is adequate for some women, we have found that the great majority of women welcome the opportunity to sort out the factors involved in their decision and to express their feelings to an objective, sensitive, supportive clergy counselor. Many women are able to use the counseling session to gain a better understanding of the conflicts that may have led to an ultimately problematic pregnancy. Ultimately clergy who take this training and engage in this type of pastoral counseling will be helping a woman to strike a balance between the time she needs to consider her decision carefully and the time she decides to act (over 89% of all abortions are performed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, both by choice and due to legal barriers to abortions post-12 weeks).

Click here to learn more.

Training sessions for clergy are offered across the country. “Clergy who attend these trainings are often invited to become a part of the voluntary network of clergy and religious leaders offering All Options Clergy Counseling through the affiliates of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice,” states the RCRC web site.

Related Post:  Can Christians Be Pro-Choice? Yes.

Related Link: Religious Organizations Support Reproductive Choice

Related Link:  Catholics For A Free-Choice

A Prayer of Remembrance

O God, tender and just,
the names of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
cut through our denial
that we are capable of destroying the earth
and all that dwell therein.
Forgive us -
and help us to always remember.
We must remember because this must never happen again.
We must remember because you would have us live
in harmony with each other,
seeing the joy of your creation in our
sisters and brothers.
Holy God, God of all the ages,
lead us from death to life,
to the stockpiling of hope, and of possibilities,
and of love
rather than the stockpiling of weapons, or stones to throw,
or of hate.
We pray for the healing of the earth and of its peoples,
especially for our sisters and brothers
upon whom a nuclear rain poured down.
Help us to imagine that another world is possible
and guide our actions towards the peace
you envision, the peace you have already given us.
In the name of the One who came so that we might have life,
and have it abundantly, we pray.
Amen.

Written by Rev. Loey Powell (reprinted from www.ucc.org)

Related Post:  Hiroshima's Survivors: The Last Generation

Related Post:  "August 6: Living with the bomb for sixty years"

More Background On John Roberts

People for the American Way has some good new background information posted on John Roberts:

John Roberts has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for only two years and was a corporate law firm lawyer for most of his career. He has a sparse public record, making it difficult to evaluate his fitness for the Supreme Court. Where he does have a record, however, Roberts fails to show a commitment to fundamental civil and constitutional rights, both in his role as a Deputy Solicitor General and judge.

School Desegregation
Roberts argued that Congress could pass a law preventing all federal courts from ordering busing to achieve school desegregation under any circumstances, a position even more extreme that that advanced by Theodore Olson and adopted by the Reagan Administration. (Memo from John Roberts, 2/15/84)

Access to Justice
Roberts argued that Congress should strip the Supreme Court of the authority to rule on cases regarding school prayer, abortion, busing for school desegregation, and other issues, a position even more extreme that that advanced by Theodore Olson and adopted by the Reagan Administration. (Washington Post, 7/27/05)

Affirmative Action
Roberts argued that affirmative action programs were bound to fail because they required "the recruiting of inadequately prepared candidates." (Washington Post, 7/27/05)

Voting Rights
Roberts helped promote the Reagan administration's efforts to severely limit the circumstances under which minorities could bring suit under the Voting Rights Act. (New York Times, 8/3/05)

Immigrants' Rights
Roberts criticized a Supreme Court ruling striking down a Texas law that had allowed school districts to exclude children of undocumented immigrants. (Washington Post, 7/27/05)

Civil Liberties
In a recently-decided case brought by a Guantanamo Bay prisoner, Judge Roberts joined a ruling holding that the government could try terrorism suspects without granting them basic due process protections. (Opinion in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 2005)

Religious Liberty
Roberts argued against clear First Amendment protections for religious liberty and in favor of officially sponsored school prayer at graduation ceremonies before the Supreme Court, which rejected his argument. (Amicus brief in Lee v. Weisman, 1992)

Title IX
Roberts argued to narrow the reach of Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding. (Washington Post, 7/27/05)

Sex Discrimination
Roberts argued that the Justice Department should not intervene on behalf of female prisoners who were discriminated against in a job-training program, contradicting even the views of extremely conservative Civil Rights Division head, William Bradford Reynolds. (Washington Post, 7/27/05)

Rights of the Disabled
Roberts criticized as "judicial activism" a court's order requiring a sign-language interpreter for a hearing-impaired public school student. (Washington Post, 7/27/05)

Rights of the Accused
Roberts sought to expand the ability of prosecutors and police to question suspects out of the presence of their attorneys. (Washington Post, 7/27/05)

Reproductive Freedom
Roberts urged the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision granting women the right to choose. (Brief in Rust v. Sullivan, 1991)

Environmental Protection
As a judge, Roberts authored a dissent arguing that the Endangered Species Act may be unconstitutional as applied in that case.  Worse, this case indicated that he may subscribe to the very dangerous new "federalist" views of limited congressional power to protect the environment and the rights of individual Americans. (Dissent in Rancho Viejo, LLC v. Norton, 2003)

Executive Power
As a judge, Roberts has shown enormous deference to the executive and an expansive view of executive power.  In one case, for example, he would have gone farther than his colleagues on the court and allowed the Bush Administration retroactively to eliminate the jurisdiction of the federal courts to hear claims against Iraq by American soldiers who had been tortured there as POWs during the Gulf War, at a time when Iraq was considered a terrorist state. (Opinion in Acree v. Republic of Iraq, 2005)

Excessive Arrest Procedures
Roberts ruled against a 12 year-old girl who was handcuffed, arrested and taken away by police for eating a single French fry on the D.C. Metro, even though an adult would only have gotten a paper citation in that situation. (Opinion in Hedgepeth v. WMATA, 2004)