PORTLAND—On the 4th anniversary of the Iraq War, Oregonians will come together in a mass mobilization to Stop the War and Bring The Troops Home Now! After meeting with city and police officials on Tuesday, February 27, the event organizers are moving the location of the rally and action camp from Pioneer Courthouse Square to a larger space at the South Park Blocks to accommodate the large crowds anticipated by the city.

The rally and action camp at south park blocks will be combined with a march through downtown Portland. The action is being planned by a coalition of diverse organizations representing students, veterans, military families, faith communities, labor unions and peace and social justice groups and is connected to a national day of action promoted by the national coalition, United for Peace and Justice.

Peace Action Camp (Noon – 5 p.m.):
The Peace Action Camp will provide opportunities for all ages to take action to end the war.
DRAW:   children’s art for peace
WRITE: letters to Congress to defund the war
SPEAK: youth speak-out against war
ACT:       learn about nonviolent direct action

Rally & March  (1:30 p.m.):
Rally speakers will include:
Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi writer and activist who coordinated the first door-to-door survey of Iraqi civilian casualties.
Darrell Anderson, Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Military families from Military Families Speak Out-Oregon.

Plus live music, giant puppet theater, additional speakers and more!

Where:  NEW LOCATION! South Park Blocks, (SW Madison St. and Park Ave.) Portland
When: Sunday, March 18, 2007
12:00 – 5:00 p.m. Action Camp
1:30 March and Rally
Advance interviews with speakers and organizers are available.
For more information visit www.pdxpeace.org .

March 18 Mobilization is co-sponsored or endorsed by the following organizations:
Alliance for Democracy, American Association of University Professors-PSU Chapter Executive Council, American Federation of Teachers Local 3571 (PSU), American Federation of Teachers Local 2277 (PCC), American Friends Service Committee, American Iranian Friendship Council, Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, Bridgeport United Church of Christ, Central Lutheran Church - Social Ministries/Lutherans for Justice in the Holy Land, Christ the Healer United Church of Christ, CODEPINK Portland, Columbia River Fellowship for Peace, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House*, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Episcopal Peace Fellowship, Freedom Socialist Party*, Friends of Sabeel, Greater Vancouver Interfaith Association, Interfaith Alliance, International Socialist Organization, Iraq Veterans Against the War - Portland Chapter, Jobs with Justice, Latino Network, Laughing Horse Books, Living Earth, Metanoia Peace Community United Methodist Church, Methodist Federation for Social Action, Micah's Village, Military Families Speak Out - Oregon, Mirador Community Store, Oregon PeaceWorks, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Oregonians Against the War, Palestine Lebanon Emergency Action, Pax Christi, Peace Action Committee of the First Unitarian Church, Peace and Social Concerns Committee of the Multnomah Monthly Meeting of Friends, People o Faith for Peace, Portland Alliance, Portland Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Portland Central America Solidarity Committee (PCASC/CBLOC)*, Portland Students for a Democratic Society, Radical Women*, Recruiterwatch PDX, Rethinking Schools, Rural Organizing Project, SEIU Local 49, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Sister Spirit, Sisters of the Road, St. Luke Lutheran Peace and Justice Group, Students for Unity at Portland State University, Students United for Nonviolence at Portland State University, United Tualatin Methodist Church, United Voices Youth Program, Vancouver for Peace, Veterans for Peace Chapter 72, Washington County Peace Vigil, Whitefeather Catholic Worker Peace Community, Yamhill Valley Peacemakers and more.   * endorsers
See pdxpeace.org for updates.

The annual pre-Lenten debate over religion in the blogs unfolded this week (see here, here and here).  It was hard for me to find any heroes. 

Folks like Jim Wallis make the assertion that some in the secular left are hostile to religion (perhaps it would be fair to say he generalizes a bit more to suggest the entire ranks of the secular left are hostile) and the secular left predictably responds with hard and fast denials and the occasional hostile attack against religion (an ironic way of proving their point).

The secular left bemoans the influence on religion in their lives and Wallis & company act as if someone walked into a church with an assault rifle and started firing.  The truth, and I say this as a committed Christian minister, is that people have a right to complain.  Religion has been more often used as a wedge issue than a source for reconciliation in modern politics.  Wallis ought to remember that. 

But you walk away from discussions about religion on blogs like Daily Kos with the strong feeling that the secular left is happy to tolerate religious people as long as we use DNC talking points in place of the Beatitudes.  We're a tool to them (Wallis became the ultimate tool himself when he gave the Democratic response to a recent weekly radio address by the president).  When the Christian faith simply becomes a tool for one or another of the political parties we fail in our primary obligation as disciples: to make other disciples so that we build up in the Kingdom.

If the new progressive Christian movement is simply here to serve the Democratic Party let me out of the room quick.  There may be times when I'm happy to use the democrats (or the republicans for that matter) as a tool for advancing the church's mission but I won't let it be the other way around. 

While Mitt Romney is trying to figure where he stands on the issue of abortion (right when he started running for the Republican nomination for president he became pro-life after a long record as a pro-choice governor) progressive leaders in Congress are working to "increase access to family planning, improve health care for low-income women and families, and prevent unintended pregnancies," according to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.  Click here to read more about the Prevention First Act.

The National Coalition for the Homeless released their annual report “Hate, Violence, and Death on Main Street USA: A Report on Hate Crimes And Violence Against People Experiencing Homelessess.” If the title sounds alarming it should. The report details 142 violent attacks against homeless people in 2006 – a 65% increase from last year. CNN covered the release of the report. You can read it here.

This morning Parkrose Community United Church of Christ joined over 5,600 other congregations across the country in celebrating Amazing Grace Sunday. The day was set aside to remember the 200th anniversary of the abolitionist movement in the British Empire. A new movie out this week tells the story of that movement.

Use the below link to download the podcast of my sermon for your iPod or personal computer.

Download ParkroseAmazingGrace.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).

Come back early next week for the big change.

Oregon Congressman Has Big Iraq Plans

This week the United States House of Representatives began debate on a non-binding resolution which would express the House’s opposition to President Bush’s decision to escalate America’s military involvement in Iraq. Here is how the resolution reads (right from the Speaker’s website):

(1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and

(2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.

This is not the resolution I would have wanted. My ideal resolution would have involved sending the president and vice-president to Iraq where they could take personal charge of the chaotic situation they themselves created. But we rarely live in the ideal world.

So I’ll take this resolution as a first and long overdue step in bringing this war to a conclusion.

I admire those Republicans who in the debate over this resolution are bucking their party and putting principle before partisan gain.

Have you sent your member of a Congress a letter or e-mail asking that they oppose the president’s escalation? If not, do it today. Just click here.

Has anyone heard word yet on how your House member will vote? Are you happy with their position?

In a related story U.S., Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) (pictured above) is working on a plan to get all our troops out of Iraq.  Click here for more.

If you chronicle the human rights atrocities of the last hundred years the inhuman treatment of the Dalit people in India has to make the list.

Human Rights Watch reported this week:

India has systematically failed to uphold its international legal obligations to ensure the fundamental human rights of Dalits, or so-called untouchables, despite laws and policies against caste discrimination, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. More than 165 million Dalits in India are condemned to a lifetime of abuse simply because of their caste.

The 113-page report, "Hidden Apartheid: Caste Discrimination against India's `Untouchables'," was produced as a "shadow report" in response to India's submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which monitors implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The committee will review India's compliance with the convention during hearings in Geneva on February 23 and 26. 

On December 27, 2006 Manmohan Singh became the first sitting Indian prime minister to openly acknowledge the parallel between the practice of "untouchability" and the crime of apartheid. Singh described "untouchability" as a "blot on humanity" adding that "even after 60 years of constitutional and legal protection and state support, there is still social discrimination against Dalits in many parts of our country." 

"Prime Minister Singh has rightly compared `untouchability' to apartheid, and he should now turn his words into action to protect the rights of Dalits," said Professor Smita Narula, faculty director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University School of Law, and co-author of the report. "The Indian government can no longer deny its collusion in maintaining a system of entrenched social and economic segregation." 

Dalits endure segregation in housing, schools, and access to public services. They are denied access to land, forced to work in degrading conditions, and routinely abused at the hands of the police and upper-caste community members who enjoy the state's protection. Entrenched discrimination violates Dalits' rights to education, health, housing, property, freedom of religion, free choice of employment, and equal treatment before the law. Dalits also suffer routine violations of their right to life and security of person through state-sponsored or -sanctioned acts of violence, including torture.

During a trip that I took to India in 2003 with a group from Eden Theological Seminary we spent time with many Dalits and heard their stories of oppression.  We talked with workers and children living in garbage dumps, talked to people denied health care because of their Dalit status, and heard horror stories about violence inflicted on Dalit people.  Dalits are considered sub-human by many and the poverty they endure is some of the worst in the world. 

The Rev. Raj Bharath Patta, a friend that I made during my visit to India, has been working as the executive secretary of the National Council of Churches In India Dalit Task Force.  That group reports:

Jesus in all his messages stressed "Set at liberty the oppressed". In an unbroken consistency this has been Jesus' message both in his Gospels and Ministry. The Church of Jesus in India has accepted this mandate and in a historical decision has unanimously agreed for a paradigm shift in mission - the liberation of the dalits even outside the walls of the Church to be the central mission objective of the Church. This has excited the Churches all over the world and have extended their solidarity to Indian Church's commitment to the cause of dalit liberation.

Spread the word about the Dalits.  Stress their cause when meeting with U.S. politicians on the campaign trail.  And pray for all those working for Dalit liberation. 

Parkrose  Community United Church of Christ will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade during our 10 am worship service this Sunday (Feb. 18th). 

"Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound" was written at that time by John Newton, a former slave trader who became a noted Christian preacher and advocate for freedom in Great Britain. 

Newton was the inspiration behind the work of British politician William Wilberforce. 

A new movie chronicling their work, Amazing Grace, will be released this month. 

Over 3,000 churches across the United States will join together this weekend during worship services to sing this famous hymn and to draw attention to the plight of those still living in slavery across the globe.  If you aren't in Portland there is a good chance another congregation near you will be participating in Amazing Grace Sunday. 

It is estimated that over 27 million people are slaves today.  If you are surprised to learn that you are not alone.  Click here for more.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t updated the blog since Friday (and I know there must be at least one or two people just sitting by their computers waiting for an update…) it is because I’m in the process of a change. A big change. A good change. One that should expand my readership and shake things up a bit. Stay tuned.

In the summer of 2004 the Democratic National Committee announced they had hired The Rev. Brenda Bartella-Peterson as their first ever senior advisor on religious outreach.  Her appointment lasted for just about two weeks.

Soon after she was hired William Donahue and the far-right Catholic League launched a vicious public attack on Bartella-Peterson, who had served as the executive director of the Clergy Leadership Network (CLN), a group of clergy opposed to the Bush Administration's policies.  She was charged with being anti-patriotic because of a legal brief she had signed with other clergy concerning the Pledge of Allegiance and a tax-and-spend liberal.  The Catholic League wrote at the time:

"In the CLN's `Debate' section of its website, it says a lot about separation of church and state, but virtually nothing about religious liberty (e.g., it is against faith-based initiatives). Regarding tax policies, it would be an understatement to say it likes taxes: `Taxes provide a way to look out for our neighbors....Slashing taxes denies that!' It then says that slashing taxes is `inevitably an appeal to our greed, not to our generosity or compassion.' In other words, the greedy want to keep the money they've earned; those who want to take it from us are the altruists. No wonder Rev. Peterson says, `The federal budget is a moral document.'

But those were not the only crimes the Catholic League charged her with.

"The (CLN) website even provides a link to an anti-Catholic site, Chuck Currie (see his piece, `When Catholic Girls Go Wild').

The post they mentioned was a critique of a statement written by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.  Not only was my post not anti-Catholic in tone but it in fact quoted from American Catholic leaders upset at how Rome interacts with women.  Had Donahue and his crew read my site further they would have found several positive posts on work done by Catholic leaders around the world.  But it was politically beneficial for them simply to label me an anti-Catholic.

Their attack worked.  The DNC caved and Bartella-Peterson was shown the door. 

Now the Catholic League is back with attacks against Senator John Edwards and two bloggers hired to serve on his staff.  Instead of working to address the fundamental issues of our time the Catholic League works often in unison with far-right political operatives to smear progressive political leaders all the while lifting up the banner of the conservative cause.  It was no surprise to see Donahue, who has in past declared that Hollywood is controlled by Jews opposed to Christianity, take such an active role in the last few years supporting the most conservative of President Bush's judicial nominees.

I don't like the rhetoric employed by the bloggers the Edwards campaign hired.  We need more civil discourse than that.   

But Donahue is nothing more than another right-wing political activist trying to highjack the Christian faith for his own political gain.  Make no mistake about that.    

The president has released his new budget proposal.  If you're a fan of high military budgets and low spending on social service programs this is a budget you'll love. 

Iraq is draining America's resources in profound ways (that and Bush's lopsided economic policies that reward the richest of the rich while taking from the "least of these" in society and the middle class).

As Duane Shank wrote this week on God's Politics:

The war is an enemy of the poor and America will never invest the necessary funds or energies in combating poverty as long as wars take the people, skills, and money.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities also notes:

In a sign of the President's misguided priorities, his budget puts extremely large tax cuts for the most affluent Americans ahead of the needs of low- and middle-income families as well as future generations.  Low- and middle-income Americans would be hit by budget cuts in areas from education to protection of the environment and assistance to the poor.  Future generations would foot the bill for the much larger long-term deficits that the President's extravagant tax cuts would produce.  The tax cuts in the budget far exceed proposed reductions in domestic programs.

The United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries has a new action alert up where you can send a message to members of Congress asking that they support a budget that lifts up the "common good."

How the new Congress deals with budget issues will be a real test of their moral leadership.   

Press Release from National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness

The “Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH), HR 840, was introduced in Congress this afternoon by Representatives Julia Carson (D-7th/IN), Geoff Davis (R-4th/KY), Barbara Lee (D-9th/CA ) and Rick Renzi (R-1st/AZ). In seeking to reauthorize and strengthen the HUD McKinney-Vento Homeless assistance programs, HEARTH respects greater decision making at the local level, more closely aligns the HUD definition of homelessness with other federal agencies, expands resources for emergency shelter and supportive services, provides a framework for greater homeless prevention activity, and allows communities the flexibly to implement a range of housing solutions.

"This legislation represents a valuable opportunity to assist all people who are homeless -- individuals and families, persons with disabilities, children and youth. The HEARTH Act would give communities - rural, urban and suburban alike - some of the necessary tools to respond to the crisis of homelessness, rather than force a one size fit all solution,” said Brad Paul, NPACH Executive Director.

In recent years, the “chronic” homelessness initiative and a number of HUD McKinney-Vento reauthorization proposals have aimed to transform the federal government’s homeless programs into a supportive housing-centered approach, resulting in fewer resources for supportive services, emergency shelter, and programs that serve homeless families, children and non-“chronic” populations. Under this policy direction the homeless assistance programs have received very modest increases to account for renewals of supportive housing projects, but other housing programs, including HOME, CDBG, and Section 8, have been cut by $3.3 billion over the past two years.

The HEARTH Act provides a critical piece of a broader strategy necessary to address homelessness. HEARTH follows recent research, which indicates that homelessness is much more prevalent than previously acknowledged and that only a significant expansion of affordable housing and the provision of universal health care and livable incomes will move us toward the goal of ending homelessness. HEARTH also reflects principles for reauthorization of the HUD McKinney-Vento programs that have been endorsed by over 200 national, state, and local organizations http://npach.org/mvrecommendations.pdf .

Link: Related Action Alert

Today in The Portland Tribune there was a letter from Terry Anderson, a retired city worker, taking me to task for my concerns about the Community Transitional School. For those who have not been paying attention here are the concerns (in brief) that I have raised:

Federal law states that the use of federal dollars on separate schools is illegal and advocates for the homeless – like the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth – argue correctly that separate schools do not offer the full range of services that public schools do...

Multnomah County, however, funds such a separate school instead of working to integrate students into the public system. The Community Transitional School receives over $52,000 from Multnomah County each year. Students at this private facility are not subject to the same testing as public school students and the Multnomah County contract provides no real measurable outcomes for the program to achieve. The Portland and Parkrose school districts, both with high numbers of homeless students, operate under-funded programs without county support…

When students at separate schools are tested the results are discouraging. Results released in December from the Pappas School in Arizona, the granddaddy of all separate schools and the model for the Community Transitional School, showed that homeless kids in that program fared worse than homeless kids in public schools in both math and reading in every grade level…

Multnomah County should pull their funding from the Community Transitional School immediately and invest that money in public school programs. The public schools could use the support and we know their programs actually work. If the Multnomah County Board of County Commissioners is unwilling to take this important step then I challenge them to re-write the contract and require that students at the Community Transitional School be tested along side public school students. I'm confident the test scores will be as low as those shown by the Papas School.

Anderson, who to my knowledge has followed none of the research done on this subject since she retired years ago from the staff of then-Portland City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury, wrote that:

For those familiar with the school and Mr. Currie’s ongoing crusade against it, the only new factors in the controversy are that he has a new bully pulpit and that there’s a new sacred cow called “testing” or “empirical measurement” to be reckoned with.

A different vantage point would allow that the school offers a unique type of support and a measure of stability in young lives that are often continuously disrupted and fragmented. There is an affirmation and connection for the children at CTS that may be lacking in mainstream schooling. This kind of affirmation/confidence building is not reflected in comparative test scores.

The point is not that one approach is right but that an alternative should be available for these children and their families. Not only is county funding a good investment in young lives already at risk, but more support from the public and foundations should be available as well.

A little less self-righteous certainty and a little more compassionate awareness would serve the children better.

Ms. Anderson and her allies at CTS are afraid that my recent advocacy will result in CTS having to become accountable to the children and the tax-payers by quantifying what if any successful outcomes they can measure. The reality is that in other communities across the nation where separate schools have operated the students attending those schools fared worse in every grade and subject level compared to homeless kids in the public school system.  Ms. Anderson might consider reading the data.

Separate is never equal. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us that. Ms. Anderson ought to also consider reading Dr. King’s sermons and speeches for herself. Doing so might change her perspective.

As for compassion, I have so much compassion for these kids and their needs that I'm willing to go out on a limb even if it is unpopular with Ms. Anderson and her friends and demand that homeless kids get the very best education we can offer.

I hope others will join me.

This Sunday at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ (Feb. 11th) we will be marking "Evolution Sunday" during our 10 am worship service.

For far too long, strident voices, in the name of Christianity, have been claiming that people must choose between religion and modern science. More than 10,000 Christian clergy have already signed The Clergy Letter demonstrating that this is a false dichotomy.  Now, on the 198th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, many of these leaders will bring this message to their congregations through sermons and/or discussion groups.  Together, participating religious leaders will be making the statement that religion and science are not adversaries.

I'm one of the signers of The Clergy Letter, which can be found here.

The United Church of Christ has a long history of supporting scientific discovery. Theories such as evolution help us to better understand the power of creation and in doing so bring us closer to God. 

Those that oppose teaching evolution in our public schools do harm to our children and curtail our ability as the people of God to more fully understand the biological make-up of humanity. 

Click here for a list of other churches participating in Evolution Sunday.

Hundreds of religious activists gathered today at the state capitol in Salem, Oregon to press legislators to support new efforts to increase health insurance benefits, to build affordable housing and to reign in pay-day predatory lenders.

“Interfaith Advocacy Day” was sponsored by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon (EMO) and interfaith groups from across the state. It was a pleasure for me to be there with so many friends.

Click here to view EMO’s legislative priorities on their newly expanded website.

For on-going coverage and analysis of the legislative session be sure to visit the blog of Dr. Russ Dondero, professor emeritus in the department of politics and government at UCC-related Pacific University.  It was no surprise to find him today roaming the capitol rallying support for affordable housing.

Whenever anyone asks if there is one book to read that encapsulates the vision of the Christian faith that I teach and preach I direct them to Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg. Borg is a “Jesus Seminar Fellow” and professor at Oregon State University. His writings blend a commitment to serious historical research and a sense of the spiritual side of life.

Borg will be lecturing at Portland’s Trinity Episcopal Church on Friday, February 16th from 7:30pm – 9pm and Saturday, February 17th from 9am – 3pm. The evening lecture is $15 and the Saturday workshop costs $50. Click here for registration information.

Oregon is fortunate to have one of America’s leading Biblical scholars teaching in our university system.  I hope to attend the Friday night event.

Press Release from the National Council of Churches USA

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

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

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

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

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

Multnomah County is right now debating how best to educate homeless children. The choices are stark. Should the county continue to support with tax-payer money a private program that cannot met the educational needs of homeless students or should the county support efforts to integrate homeless kids into public school systems where they can benefit from the full range of education opportunities available.

In The News: Questions raised about educating kids out of the mainstream

Right now Multnomah County is giving over $52,000 a year to the Community Transitional School instead of supporting programs like Project Return, a program that last year worked with over 1,500 homeless students in the Portland Public Schools. Other school districts, like Parkrose, also receive no support from the county. Studies have shown that homeless kids in separate schools like the Community Transitional School fare much worse than homeless kids in public schools. The Community Transitional School does not test their students to determine academic achievement and thus this tax-payer funded program has no accountability for their work.

Background: Multnomah County Should Pull Funding From The Community Transitional School

Tell Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler that you want the county to support efforts like Project Return that integrate students into the public school system and oppose the use of tax-payer funds on programs like the Community Transitional School that are unaccountable. Chair Wheeler needs to know that you believe that homeless children deserve the very best our community has to offer.

And thank Chair Wheeler for his long-term involvement with homeless youth.

Click here to contact Chair Wheeler

Questions?  Direct them to The Rev. Chuck Currie at [email protected]

Hear the The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. tribute which started off the debate over how best to serve students:

A Podcast Sermon On Isaiah 5:1-7 and Luke 4:16-19: Celebrating The Life & Ministry Of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Disclaimer: Views expressed here are Chuck Currie's and unless otherwise stated do not reflect the opinion of any UCC congregation, related body or any other organization.

University City Church in Chicago is not a "go with the flow" kind of congregation.  Consider their mission statement:

University Church is a Christian community which affirms the transformative power of God's love, calling us individually and collectively to act for justice and to respect creation. We value the life and teachings of Jesus and we believe that God continues to be revealed in the world.

We are a people committed to nurturing each other in our spiritual journey through worship, Biblical study, artistic expression, and Christian education. We celebrate our rich racial and cultural diversity and are committed to weaving a common life together.

Although we live in a broken world, we seek to build bridges across the barriers that divide. We join with others who work for reconciliation and transformation locally and globally.

Mission statements like this seek to inform visitor and member alike that the congregation takes seriously the idea that Christians should be out in the world building up the Kingdom.

Doing just that type of work The Rev. Don Coleman was arrested outside Ft. Benning in Georgia. United Church News reports on what brought Rev. Coleman and others from University City Church to this far off place:

The School of the Americas (on the Ft. Benning campus) has been linked to the training of many Latin American military leaders and has been implicated in the deaths of thousands of civilians, including many religious leaders. UCC members from across the country have journeyed to Columbus, Ga., to participate in the School of the  Americas Watch protest.

Coleman and the other Christians with him wanted to close down the school. All they did do was step "onto the military base property and were immediately arrested for trespassing."

This week his sentence was handed down.  Again, from UCC News:

The Rev. Don Coleman, a UCC minister in Chicago, was sentenced to 60 days in federal prison on Jan. 29 for trespassing at Fort Benning, Ga., during the annual protest of a military training school there.

Coleman, 69 -- who is a co-pastor at Chicago's University Church (UCC/Disciples) in Hyde Park along with his wife, the Rev. Ann-Marie Coleman -- was one of 16 persons arrested on November 19 outside the School of the Americas, also known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Gathered outside Ft. Benning's main entrance, Coleman and others stepped onto the military base property and were immediately arrested for trespassing....

I hope that in all our congregations that his name, his family's names, and his church are remembered in our prayers.  Pray that they remain strong.  Pray for others to come forward who will join this cause for peace.  Pray to God to guide those of us so far off to find ways to support the Coleman family in their ministry.

Finally, Rev. Coleman's wife gave permission for me to reprint the statement made by Rev. Coleman before the judge made a final decision.

Your honor and friends:

My name is Don Coleman.  I am co-pastor, with my wife Ann Marie, of University Church in Chicago.

I come to this court room with support and encouragement from members and friends of University Church.

University Church has been involved in matters of Central America for 25 years.  Members have traveled to Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombia.  We have spent hours in study groups learning about Central America.  Members of the congregation were active in the creation of the Sanctuary Movement in Chicago in the early eighties. 

We have been blest by Virgilio Vicente, Isabel Canu, and their family of four children, who became active at University Church when they came to Chicago in 1986 through the Sanctuary Movement.  Virgilio is from Saq Ja, one of four hundred villages destroyed by the Guatemalan military.  Saq Ja was razed to the ground; plants were uprooted and burned, animals killed, people slaughtered, and a few escaped into the jungle, Guatemala City, or with help from the Sanctuary Movement came to the United States.

Virgilio and Isabel have become American citizens.  But they are caught in the contradiction of citizenship and knowing that it was they United State's military (namely, School of the Americas) that trained the military leaders in Guatemala responsible for the destruction of their village and the slaying of their family members.

University Church has sent people to these demonstrations at the gate of Ft. Benning since 2002.  Last year (November 19, 2005) a delegation of 13 people attended the demonstration.  Virgilio placed a cross against the fence blocking people from entering the base.  I was moved to tears for on the cross were the names of his father and mother who had been killed in the destruction of the village of Sq Ja.

Those of us at University Church know that there are consequences to the training that takes place here.  We know names and see faces of people brutally slaughtered by Guatemalan military personnel trained here.  They keep the upper class in power, protect corporate interests, rob the poor of their land, and are responsible for killing or disappearing church leaders and labor organizers and teacher and community leaders.

I have pleaded "not guilty but have agreed to the stipulations of the government that I did cross through the fence on November 19, 2005.  Let me plead guilty, your honor, to what I accept guilt for:

I plead guilty to respecting the law.  I have been a law abiding citizen all my life and have never had any convictions for actions like this before.  But the comparison of climbing through a fence with no damage to physical property or harm to another human being cannot be compared to the injustice and brutality that is the consequence of the training that takes place at this base.  And I believe the focus on the petty misdemeanor that we are accused of makes this court complicit in the brutal acts of the Western Hemisphere Institute of Internal Security / School of the Americas.

I plead guilty of thinking long and hard about my decision to participate in this action.  I could find no other way of putting WHINSEC/ SOA on trial for the crimes committed because of their training than this action.  I consider what the sixteen of us have done as a way of holding the military in this country accountable for the injustice created by their actions.  This act of civil disobedience on my part is really an act of holy obedience to the God who called me to respond.

I plead guilty to this action as a way of closing the WHINSEC / SOA.  My act is the act of one person but it supported by members and friends of University Church and people from around the country.  There will continue to be people from University Church joining with the thousands committed to closing this institution.  And we are confident that in God's long arc of justice its will be closed.  So let justice roll down like an ever flowing stream.

- The Rev. Don Coleman