I am sickened and saddened by the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, which occurred this morning as he attended church services. Dr. Tiller was a health care practitioner who performed legal abortion services in Kansas and was an advocate for letting women make their own reproductive health care decisions free from government interference. Operation Rescue and other anti-choice groups have targeted Dr. Tiller with protests for years – he was shot in both arms in the early 1990s – and as CNN notes that:

On its Web site, Operation Rescue refers to Tiller as a "monster" who has "been able to get away with murder." And Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, who is no longer affiliated with the group, called Tiller "a mass murderer."

"We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God," Terry said in a written statement. "I am more concerned that the Obama administration will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions. Abortion is still murder, and we still must call abortion by its proper name."

Groups like Operation Rescue incite violence and should be held accountable under the law. They have condemned today’s violence butthat condemnation is empty rhetoric from an organization that has long sought to dehumanize their opponents.

My prayers today are with Dr. Tiller’s family. His wife was there singing in the choir at Reformation Lutheran Church when her husband was killed as he worshiped.

Related Post:  Operation Save America Protests At Eden Theological Seminary Benefit 

Update: President Obama said tonight:

I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence. 

I missed this poll from a few weeks back.

President Obama is getting high marks from religious Americans across the board.

If he can bring all these different religious groups together can world peace be far behind? 

The state of Oregon today released new numbers that show a dramatic increase in homelessness across the state.  “The number of people in Oregon identified as homeless increased 37 percent from the same time last year, according to the statewide One-Night Homeless Count,” reports Oregon Housing and Community Services, the state agency that coordinates homeless programs. 
 
This disaster was preventable had the federal government during the last eight years done more to build affordable housing and to support programs that prevent homelessness.  Instead, the Bush Administration pursued economic policies that benefited the wealthy at the expense of those Jesus would have called the “least of these” and the predictable result is increased poverty and homelessness.  Rather than challenge these policies Governor Kulongoski did little during his first term to address homelessness and in his second term created a Bush-driven policy council which has written a ten year plan to end homelessness.
 
But the plan will fail.  It offers no real solutions - only baby steps that will help a few but leave many behind.  Homelessness will only end when poverty is eradicated.  The solution to ending homelessness will also require universal health care and universal mental health treatment.  The governor’s ten-year plan to end homelessness will be soon forgotten and unless our elected officials show true courage to fight the systemic causes of poverty and homelessness there will be more people living on the streets and in shelters a decade from now than there are today.  That solution will require tax reform and a national strategy to end poverty on both a state and national level.  What is required now are bold leaders and bold solutions.
 
To have so many people homeless in Oregon is nothing more than a sin.

Those are words I never thought I'd write but I agree with Senator Cornyn, the far right senator from Texas, that Republican Party leaders like Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh are being racist in their criticisms of Sonia Sotomayor.

Other Republicans are just apparently mentally impaired either due to head trauma or substance abuse. 

Religious and political conservatives are searching for ways to oppose President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor.  You'll hear a lot of nonsense from the Right during this confirmation process.  Their efforts may be, however, in vain.  Not only do Democrats have 59 seats in the Senate but Sotomayor was first appointed to the courts by then President George H. W. Bush.  When President Clinton nominated her for to a seat on the federal appeals court in 1998 she received bi-partisan support.

Politico reports:

Sens. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) joined a unanimous slate of Dems in pushing Sotomayor through by a vote of 68-28.

Those members of the Senate are still in office.  It is worth noting that during earlier confirmations she received support from such staunch conservatives as Strom Thurmond.

Meanwhile, progressive Christian groups are also weighing in on the nomination.  The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice released a statement today that read:

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, which advocates for laws and policies that are just and compassionate to families and that accommodate differing religious and moral viewpoints, commends President Barack Obama's nomination to the United States Supreme Court of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a jurist who has indicated she will apply her personal understanding of the struggles of ordinary Americans to her legal rulings.

With today's historic nomination of federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama has fulfilled his promise to appoint a jurist with outstanding legal credentials as well as empathy for the daily struggles of individuals and families. If confirmed for the seat that has been held by Justice David H. Souter, Judge Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic and only the third woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.

In a moving introduction of Judge Sotomayor at the White House this morning, President Obama described the judge as a person who combines great legal acumen and a belief in the rule of law with a common-sense understanding of how the law affects people every day.

In addition to her varied and extensive legal and judicial experience, Judge Sotomayor would bring to the Court the experiences of a person who grew up in a South Bronx public housing project and overcame difficult challenges to achieve academic and professional success. After her father died, the judge's mother struggled to make a good life for her and her brother. Despite the challenges her family faced, Judge Sotomayor attended Princeton and Yale Law School, served as an Assistant District Attorney, worked as a corporate litigator in a New York law firm, and went on to become the first Latina appointed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Sotomayor has said she believes judges' legal findings are informed by their own life experiences as well as their legal research.

The confirmation process will allow the Senate and the American people the opportunity to learn even more about this very impressive woman and jurist.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is a coalition "of more than 40 denominations and faith groups educates and promotes issues of reproductive choice."  The United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church USA are among the coalition's members.

My prayers today are with the people of California as they deal with the impact of a court decision that takes away fundamental rights that should be guaranteed to all citizens. The General Synod of the United Church of Christ called for full marriage equality in 2005 and many of our churches in California and around the nation are actively working toward that goal. As an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, I condemn discrimination against gays and lesbians, affirm that God’s love is for all, and pledge to continue working to overturn the 2006 Constitutional Amendment voters passed in Oregon outlawing gay marriage. Scripture has been misunderstood and misused in the debate over equality for gays and lesbians but the gay and lesbian community should know that many Christians have repented of that sin and now stand shoulder to shoulder with their cause.

Related Link:  California's Proposition 8 upheld, proponents of marriage equality vow to continue efforts (United Church News)

Update: The Oregonian has published this statement as a Letter to the Editor in their May 28, 2009 edition.

People with the American Way is praising President Obama's selection of U.S. appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York.  I cocur with their statement:

This morning, President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to the Supreme Court. People For the American Way President Michael B. Keegan issued the following statement.

"President Obama has made a superb choice. Judge Sotomayor has one of the sharpest intellects on the federal bench. She’s shown that she’ll bring an open mind to the Court and rule on each case according to its particular merits. Her nomination is a very positive step towards bringing diversity to our highest Court.

"President Obama used this opportunity to do exactly what he promised in last year’s election - to select a person who has demonstrated an abiding commitment to core constitutional values of justice, opportunity, and equality under the law. He has named someone who understands the impact that the law has on the everyday lives of ordinary Americans.

"This nomination is good news for people who care about the future of our rights and liberties. Now it’s up to our Senators to avoid the distraction of attacks from the far right and work for a smooth, fair confirmation process. We urge them to confirm Judge Sotomayor with all deliberate speed."

People For the American Way is a progressive advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and defending Americans’ constitutional rights and liberties. People For is dedicated to making the promise of America real for every American: Equality. Freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. The right to seek justice in a court of law. The right to cast a vote that counts. The American Way.

Stay tuned for more reaction.  How will conservatives reaction?

Read the story on the Parkrose Community United Church of Christ blog.

Republicans have lost the torture debate, they've failed to inflict any real damage on the Speaker for her accusation that the CIA lied to her, so now the party of Cheney and Limbaugh is attacking Nancy Pelosi's gender. How low will they go?  What values are they trying to leave the next generation?

As for the debate between the Speaker and the CIA...well, former US Senator Bob Graham - a member of the United Church of Christ - was in on those meeting and backs Pelosi up on her claims: 

Related Post: UCC Seatmates

5/24/08 Update: Here's one brave Republican who is breaking ranks with his party and calling for an end to these kind of attacks.

Liberty University, the "school" founded by the late Jerry Falwell, has banned a student run Democratic Party club because:

“The Democratic Party platform is contrary to the mission of Liberty University and to Christian doctrine (supports abortion, federal funding of abortion, advocates repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, promotes the “LGBT” agenda, hate crimes, which include sexual orientation and gender identity, socialism, etc.)"

Let's review the record:

• Democrats support economic policies that lift people out of poverty and create a more level playing field.  Republicans support economic policies that benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor (those Jesus would have called "the least of these") and middle class.

• Democrats are working toward the goal of universal health care.  Republicans opposed even expanding health care for children.

• Democrats back civil rights for all Americans.  Republicans oppose equality in many cases.

• Democrats are trying to stop global climate change.  Republicans, while taking money from polluters, often argue there is no climate change occuring.

• Democrats are against torture.  Republicans embrace it.

God is not a Republican...or a Democrat, says Jim Wallis, and he is right.  But Liberty University itself seems pretty far removed from anything that resembles the teachings of Jesus.      

Shortly after a scandal erupted in Portland over allegations that Mayor Sam Adams had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a teen his director of communications, Wade Nkrumah, resigned.  Adams told KATU that Nkrumah resigned because the job had been too stressful for Nkrumah but Willamatte Week reported shortly thereafter that Nkrumah had really resigned because he didn't believe Adams was being truthful.

Willamette Week now reports on a new development in the saga:

Wade Nkrumah, who resigned as Mayor Sam Adams’ spokesman in January, has filed a notice of tort claim (PDF) against the mayor and the City of Portland alleging Adams “damaged his business reputation” when he told KATU that Nkrumah resigned because the job was “not what he signed up for in terms of stress.” 

Nkrumah, a former long-time reporter for The Oregonian, is seeking more than $162,000 in his claim along with attorney’s fees.

The paperwork filed May 14 by Nkrumah’s attorney Michael Hanlon, puts the city on notice that Nkrumah intends to file a claim. In that notice, Nkrumah says he resigned from the spokesman’s job Jan. 26, telling Adams both in a letter and in person that the reason for the resignation was that the mayor had lied to him twice about Adams’ relationship with Beau Breedlove.

Nkrumah says the first lie came in the Jan. 15 interview WWhad with Adams in the presence of Nkrumah and Adams staffer Amy Ruiz when Adams denied any “sexual contact” or “sexual relationship of any kind” with Beau Breedlove.

Nkrumah says a second lie came in a meeting Adams had on Jan. 22attended by 20-plus staffers at the home of chief of staff Tom Miller. Nkrumah says he asked Adams at that meeting if there had been any “flirting” or “touching” before Breedlove turned 18.

“Adams answered unequivocally no,” Nkrumah says in the claim, noting that Adams’ answer was contradicted by subsequent news stories that quoted Breedlove saying he and the mayor had kissed twice when Breedlove was 17, once in a City Hall bathroom.

Nkrumah’s claim goes on to say that Adams was “extremely nervous” at his Jan. 26 meeting with him about what Nkrumah would say publicly about his resignation. Nkrumah says Miller and he agreed later that Nkrumah would respond to all inquiries about the resignation with a “no comment” and that Miller would say he does “not comment on personnel matters.”

While Nkrumah did not go public with his concerns he did meet with representatives of the Oregon Attorney General's office investigating Adam's relationship.

As a reporter for The Oregonian, Wade Nkrumah covered homelessness and neighborhood issues.  From the early 1990's until he left the paper for the mayor's office he was my central contact with the paper. We developed a professional relationship and a genuine friendship.  Friendships often develop between reporters and subjects / sources.  That friendship never meant that he wrote what I wanted.  In fact, he often ignored story ideas that I suggested and when I left Portland for St. Louis to attend seminary and he was assigned to write a profile of me he included negative comments on my work from then-Mayor Vera Katz and others.  Wade is a friend but first he is a professional.

And so when Adams made his comments about Nkrumah to KATU I knew right away that Adams was acting in a Nixon-like manner in an effort to discredit  his former staffer.  Adams just couldn't deal with the fact that he'd made the mistake of hiring someone with such solid ethics that he would quit his job during a difficult time to find work rather than continue working for someone who could never trust the people of Portland with the truth.  I didn't say anything at the time to defend Wade (besides leaving a message on his Facebook page) because I knew he didn't want to get dragged anymore than he already had into the Sam Adams mess.  But now that this information is public (Wade did not tell me about the lawsuit...I found out reading the WW website) I can testify to the honor and integrity of this man.  Portland could benefit from more people like Wade Nkrumah in the media and politics.    

It turns out that Portland City Hall's new vegetable garden is a Dan Bravin production.  Dan moved to Portland quite a while back now and we worked together with Burnside Advocates Group and other projects right when he arrived (though most of our time back then was spent with a pitcher of beer somewhere near-by).  Now Dan is the founder of Portland Organoponico Project - an effort to teach people how to grow their own food.  Willamette Week recently interviewed him for this terrific article.   

President Clinton is taking on the role of UN Special Envoy to Haiti - an effort to help rebuild one of the world's poorest nations. His leadership and position could bring real and lasting change for the Haitian people.

Action Alert from Bread for the World

Your calls and letters are making a difference on H.R. 2139, the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009. However, we need your help since we only have a brief window of opportunity to gather cosponsors for this important bill.

Next Wednesday, May 20, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will take up H.R. 2139.  We need your representative, Earl Blumenauer, to cosponsor this bill before that time.  Additional cosponsors will demonstrate that there is broad support in Congress for foreign assistance reform to make it more effective in reducing poverty.  The next eight days are critical.

Please call your representative right now using our special hotline, 1-800-826-3688. This is a direct line to the Capitol switchboard where you will ask to be connected to Rep. Blumenauer's office.  Once you are connected to that office, tell them, "I urge Rep. Blumenauer to cosponsor H.R. 2139 to reform foreign aid and make it more effective in reducing poverty."  That's all you need to do to make a huge difference for poor and hungry people today. 

Thank you for taking action. 
Grace and peace,

Rev. David Beckmann
President, Bread for the World

Christian Charity Raising Money To Feed Non-Gay Famine Victims

How much you wanna bet there are real "Christian" aid groups just like this...

Best line of tonight's White House Correspondent's Dinner came from comedian Wanda Sykes:

"You've had your fair share of critics. ... Rush Limbaugh said this administration fails. ... He just wants the country to fail. To me that's treason. He's not saying anything different than what Osama Bin Laden is saying. You might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight....

The president didn't laugh but Liz and I just about fell off the couch.  Her rift on Joe Biden being captured by terrorists also had us in tears.

POTUS got in some really good laugh lines as well.

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No one reading this blog is going to be shocked to find out that I’m something of a Star Trek fan and have been since I was about six or seven. Some have termed my enjoyment of the show obsessive. Let me elaborate on that. Star Trek wasn’t on the air in Montgomery, Alabama when my family lived there (around 1976) but I found out that the television station where my father worked as the program manager owed the syndication rights. Upset that my own father wouldn’t put the show on the air I went door-to-door throughout the neighborhood collecting signatures on a petition demanding that my dad bend to the will of people and put Kirk, Spock and McCoy back on television where they belonged. My father caved under the pressure of the organizing campaign and the Enterprise once again took off at warp speed. The only problem: he put the show on during what must have been the 11 o’clock or midnight time slot – well after my bedtime. I had been foiled by the man.

But Star Trek lived on and I kept watching and my dad even took me to see the first Star Trek movie in 1979. Other Star Trek films and television series came and went and I grew to love them all. As a young kid in South Carolina and Alabama I took notice that an African-American woman was not just a character but an officer on the bridge. The idea of a future where Russians and Asians worked alongside Americans and Europeans intrigued me. Gene Rodenberry, the show’s creator, wanted viewers to envision a future where humans set aside their differences for the common good and set out in space to find new worlds and new civilizations. In time, even the enemy Klingons would become allies with Earth and all the various planets that made up the United Federation of Planets, an intergalactic United Nations.

The show hasn’t appeared in television series form for several years (it was time for a break). But director J.J. Abrams has brought Star Trek back to life in a new film that my wife and I, along with several friends, went to see tonight. It was brilliant, exciting and even emotional at times as we watched an entirely new cast take on iconic roles (though Leonard Nimoy – a man my father once interviewed for a news program – made a significant cameo appearance).

Movies, like literature, art and music, are meant to inspire us, challenge us, and provide us mirrors of our own existence. Star Trek has done all that. The franchise has also provided reason for hope in the face of great difficulties. “I don’t believe in the no-win scenario,” Capt. Kirk says. Neither do I. Even though this incarnation of Star Trek has a tragic plot line the writers, director and excellent actors leave you with a sense that in the end – with all hands on deck – the future can always have the potential of being better than the past.  We can solve our problems if we set aside our differences. Star Trek has been around for 40+ years now and this new film will surely be remembered as one of the high points of the series.

If you want to know who is behind the Recall Sam Adams movement don’t bother looking at their website. You’ll only find one name: Jasun Wurster. Other supporters of the effort to recall the mayor want to remain anonymous.  But in a democratic society those who want to influence the political system need to be held accountable and so they must be known. Cowards hide behind anonymous web sites, hoods and masks.

The campaign is now starting to collect money and Wurster wants to help make it easy for his supporters to remain hidden in the dark shadows. KGW reports him today as saying:

Organizers are planning to accept donations only from this geographic region with a $1,000 limit per donation.

If donors want to remain anonymous there is a way to do it.

“If you don't want your name to show up because you fear retaliation from Sam Adams donate 99 dollars and 99 cents or less and that will not be part of public records,” organizer Jason Wurster said.

How much do you want to bet that those who do contribute enough to be counted resemble a list of contributors to the last anti-gay ballot measure in Oregon. Wurster claims that he supports equality for gays and lesbians but he’s hanging out with a hateful crowd.

Sam Adams should resign. He lied to begin with and few believe he is telling the truth now. Other politicians consider him toxic (witness that Oregon’s Congressional delegation didn’t invite the mayor of Portland to a press conference announcing how much money the city of Portland would receive out of the stimulus package). He is ineffective and has lost his way. Sam Adams has put his own personal interests ahead of the city he loves. We thought he was better than this.

I suspect that Wurster and his anonymous supporters will fail in their efforts. First, they aren’t professional or seasoned enough and they aren’t plugged into Portland’s progressive community (for some reason most of those who have publically supported the recall live outside Portland... like Washington State resident Lars Larson). But the effort itself will do more damage than any possible good. It will tear Portland apart.

My advice: don’t sign the petitions. Instead, keep putting pressure on Mayor Adams to resign.

It is also time for Portland’s politicians to step up to the plate and say in public that Mayor Adams must go. President Nixon was the only person in the United States who didn’t understand he’d lost the presidency until a group of fellow politicians from his party came to tell him it was time to leave the White House. Members of the City Council and the County Board, along with other area elected officials and community leaders, need to deliver the same message now to the mayor. Otherwise, we will be in for an ugly recall effort that will further distract a city that has much more pressing problems.

When Barack Obama retires after his second term democrats will be looking for a new team to take the White House.  Might I suggest a John Edwards / Sam Adams ticket?  They have a lot in common.  Read this from Politico's Ben Smith:

In the fall of 2006, John Edwards’ political high command began hearing disturbing reports from aides on the road. The candidate, they were told, was spending too much time with an eccentric filmmaker named Rielle Hunter.

So when Edwards and Hunter returned from his trip to Africa in early October, his former campaign manager Peter Scher confronted him: If Edwards was having an affair, Scher told the candidate flatly, he couldn’t run for president.

Edwards denied the affair, but Scher and other loyalists from his 2004 campaign doubted his word, made excuses and stayed out of the 2008 presidential race when Edwards launched his campaign after Christmas.

A few days later, Edwards made a partial confession to his wife, Elizabeth, of a single, regrettable encounter with Hunter. Like Scher, she asked him to drop his bid, to “protect our family from this woman, from his act,” she writes in her book.

But Edwards went ahead with the campaign — and his wife put her reluctance aside to drive his campaign forward.

John Edwards’ decision to keep running turned an ordinary, private drama into a public spectacle that consumed a presidential campaign, destroyed Edwards’ political career and dragged hundreds of staffers and thousands of supporters down in its bitter undertow.

Sounds like Adams took Edwards' playbook and used it to his own advantage.  They'd make a great team in 2016.

Bill Clinton ran on the theme "I Still Believe In A Place Called Hope" and President Obama declared that "Yes, we Can!" solve America's problems.  It turns out that Clinton really mostly believe in a young girl named Monica but I still have high hopes for the current President - a man of faith and honor, I believe. 

What Edwards and Adams have in common is they put their own ambitions above the needs of the nation (Edwards) and the city (Portland).  This isn't about sex.  It's about judgment and integrity and neither one of these two once promising leaders clearly had (or has) the judgment to hold public office.  But at one point they both had me fooled.   

If they escape jail time for the cover-ups of their affairs they really ought to team up in 2016.  

They're a match made in heaven.   

The Oregonian today called on Portland Mayor Sam Adams to resign.  It doesn't often happen that I agree with The O's editorial board but this time I'm with them 100%.  Here is part of what the paper had to say:

In January, Adams admitted lying to voters in the 2008 mayor's election about the Breedlove matter. This, in itself, should have been cause for Adams to resign. It remains so, regardless of what Kroger's investigation shows or whether someone launches a recall effort against Adams.

Since January, Adams has launched or rekindled several major city initiatives -- including the eastside streetcar -- which received $75 million in federal funding this week -- the hotly debated soccer-baseball-Memorial Coliseum proposal and the plan to build a convention center hotel.

These ideas must be evaluated on their own merits. Something isn't a bad idea just because Sam Adams thinks it's a good one. But the shadow of the Breedlove matter falls on everything connected with the mayor and undercuts his capacity to be effective for the city in these and other arenas.

Past mayors have played prominent roles in shaping the city's schools. Adams made the high school dropout rate a centerpiece of his election campaign, but because of the nature of the Breedlove accusations and how he has handled them, he cannot and has not played any role since in addressing the problem. It's tough to succeed when critics can easily win over the public by casting doubt on Adams' motives, when outside groups consider changing their plans for fear of being pulled into a scandal and where other political leaders practically do somersaults in order not to be photographed with Portland's mayor.

Any number of people in Portland now believe that Adams will be done for as mayor as soon as Kroger's investigators present their findings, or as soon as someone mounts a recall campaign.

But, really, he was done for the moment he decided to win the last election with a lie. In January, we thought the right course would soon be evident to Adams. It was not. Now it is only clearer. Adams should resign.

Send your own message to the mayor.  Tell him to finally put the city before his own interests and resign.  Mayor Adams can be reached at [email protected]. 

Today the mayor of Portland released his proposed budget. Absent from his proposal were the cuts to homeless program under consideration. Area religious leaders had written the Council demanding the protection of these programs. Over 700 individuals later wrote the council - – in a campaign launched by Street Roots – with the same message. Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish said today that:

“With the proposed allocation of new General Fund dollars, augmented by federal stimulus funds, we can fully fund our safety net and add more capacity to our housing and homeless delivery system. This funding will support a continuum of housing strategies, from permanent supportive housing for people with disabilities who have been living on our streets, to educational programs that prepare families to become homeowners, to stepped-up enforcement of housing health and safety codes in blighted neighborhoods. It will pay for foreclosure prevention, school stabilization, and public safety.”

Commissioner Fish is to be commended for his leadership on these issues. I know that I speak for all the religious leaders who initially wrote the Council about protecting these programs when I urge them now to vote for a budget that includes the mayor’s recommendations in this area.

I remain concerned, however, that the city of Portland is still moving forward with plans to use public funds for building a new soccer stadium and convention center hotel when programs for the poorest Portlanders remain under-funded (even under this budget) and while Portland has no coherent strategy for reducing poverty.