Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie

"Put the Poor First in Federal Budget Decisions Say Catholic Bishops"

Roman Catholic leaders are among those opposing cuts in federal anti-poverty funding.  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently called on Congress to protect the most vulnerable in society:

On behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), we call on Congress to place the needs of the poor, the unemployed, the hungry, and other vulnerable people first, in setting priorities in the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Appropriations Resolution. Decisions on how to allocate opportunities and burdens in setting budget priorities are more than economic policies -- they are significant moral choices. Meeting essential human needs is a compelling ethical and fiscal priority. The health, stability and well being of our nation depend on these decisions. A moral measure of the budget is how it treats “the least of these” at all stages of life from conception until natural death.

Current proposals call for drastic reductions in non-security related programs that serve the poor and vulnerable. In a time of economic crisis, the poor and vulnerable are in greater need of assistance, not less. Preserving the national security of the country is without doubt imperative, but we cannot secure the nation while at the same time furthering the insecurity of the poor and vulnerable in our midst.

We support reasonable solutions and strategies to address the federal deficit that will ensure stability and security for future generations. However, we advocate for a balanced approach that is just and works to preserve the well-being of poor and vulnerable people. Congress should adopt a spending plan for the remainder of FY 2011 that ensures adequate funding for programs that offer opportunity and help to the poor, children, seniors, and people with disabilities and other vulnerable persons. Congress should help to alleviate the burden of the vulnerable, not make it worse...

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference offers examples of possible considerations that reflect some of our concerns with the proposed plan:

• The USCCB calls on Congress to work to ensure adequate health care coverage to those in need. The proposed $1 billion cut to Community Health Centers will deny health care to nearly ten million poor and vulnerable people including mothers and children at risk. These centers are often the only access to health care for tens of millions of people in our country.
  
  
• The bishops affirm their long-standing position that safe, affordable and decent housing is a human right. At a time of record foreclosures, increasing homelessness and rising housing costs, the proposed cut of $2.3 billion to affordable housing programs is not justifiable in light of the housing crisis for low and moderate income families. 

• Reducing job training programs by a proposed $1.75 billion does not make sense at a time of high unemployment and low job creation. Further, this will prolong the economic pain of the very people seeking adequate training to re-enter the job market. Many of those most affected by job loss are less-skilled workers who need additional training and skill development to re-enter the workforce. Congress must ensure funding for and support efforts to strengthen and improve these quality training programs with successful outcomes.
  
  
• We are deeply concerned by cuts in FY 2011 refugee funding that the bill would make.  More specifically, the bill would cut available funding in FY 2011 for domestic refugee resettlement programs operated by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) by $77 million, or 10.5 percent relative to FY 2010 appropriations.  And it would cut funding for refugee admissions and overseas refugee assistance programs in the Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) account that is operated by the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) by $827 million, or 44.8 percent, relative to FY 2010 appropriations.  USCCB believes that cuts to these accounts, which have been historically under-funded, would have a devastating effect on refugees, Afghan and Iraqi Special Immigrant Visa recipients, victims of torture and trafficking, unaccompanied alien children, and other vulnerable populations served by PRM, ORR, and the communities across the country that welcome these populations. 
  
  
• As you consider the FY 2011 Continuing Appropriations Bill, we urge you, at a minimum, to maintain the funding for the MRA and ORR accounts at the FY 2010 total enacted level. To do otherwise would have a devastating impact on those displaced persons around the world who are almost entirely dependent on the international system for life-saving assistance, as well as to those who we have offered the life-saving assistance of admission to the United States.

The spending choices of Congress have clear moral and human dimensions; they reflect our values as a people. We are not policy makers, but pastors and teachers. But, we remind Congress that the poor and vulnerable have a priority claim on our limited, although still substantive, financial resources. In efforts to pass a responsible spending resolution for the remainder of FY 2011, decisions should be made that not only reflect a commitment to national and long term fiscal security but demonstrate justice, compassion and fairness. Our plea, then, is simple: Put the poor and vulnerable first as you consider how to spend limited federal resources.

The letter was signed by Bishop Stephen E. Blaire, Chairman, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

My experience over the years has been that the Roman Catholic Church has been one of the strongest voices for economic justice.  We saw that again this week when the United States Conference of Catholics Bishops sided with union leaders against the Wisconsin governor.  Clearly, except for on the far fringes of the religious right, faith leaders (even those divided over questions concerning abortion and gay marriage) are clearly committed to fighting those in Congress who would harm the "least of these" in society while offering tax breaks to the wealthiest.

GOP leaders are attempting not only to cut programs for the FY12 budget but also to roll back anti-poverty programs this year despite record poverty levels.  Their actions would harm the common good of our nation.  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is providing much needed moral guideance in opposing these cuts.  

Related Post:  House GOP Cuts Are Theoligcally Immoral 

"The G.O.P.’s Abandoned Babies"

The GOP - the "pro-life" party - has shown their hypocrisy on the political wedge issue of abortion with the adoption of the GOP-controlled House budget.  Charles M. Blow writes in The New York Times:

Republicans need to figure out where they stand on children’s welfare. They can’t be “pro-life” when the “child” is in the womb but indifferent when it’s in the world. Allow me to illustrate just how schizophrenic their position has become through the prism of premature babies.

Of the 33 countries that the International Monetary Fund describes as “advanced economies,” the United States now has the highest infant mortality rate according to data from the World Bank. It took us decades to arrive at this dubious distinction. In 1960, we were 15th. In 1980, we were 13th. And, in 2000, we were 2nd.

Part of the reason for our poor ranking is that declines in our rates stalled after premature births — a leading cause of infant mortality as well as long-term developmental disabilities — began to rise in the 1990s.

The good news is that last year the National Center for Health Statistics reported that the rate of premature births fell in 2008, representing the first two-year decline in the last 30 years.

Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, the president of the March of Dimes, which in 2003 started a multimillion-dollar premature birth campaign focusing on awareness and education, has said of the decline: “The policy changes and programs to prevent preterm birth that our volunteers and staff have worked so hard to bring about are starting to pay off.”

The bad news is that, according to the March of Dimes, the Republican budget passed in the House this month coulddo great damage to this progress. The budget proposes:

• $50 million in cuts to the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant that “supports state-based prenatal care programs and services for children with special needs.”

• $1 billion in cuts to programs at the National Institutes of Health that support “lifesaving biomedical research aimed at finding the causes and developing strategies for preventing preterm birth.”

• Nearly $1 billion in cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its preventive health programs, including to its preterm birth studies.

This is the same budget in which House Republicans voted to strip all federal financing for Planned Parenthood.

It is savagely immoral and profoundly inconsistent to insist that women endure unwanted — and in some cases dangerous — pregnancies for the sake of “unborn children,” then eliminate financing designed to prevent those children from being delivered prematurely, rendering them the most fragile and vulnerable of newborns. How is this humane?

It isn't humane and it isn't pro-life.

My belief is that most people outside the political class who term themselves pro-life do so because they believe in the sanctity of life.  Those people must stand up now to the GOP and affirm that life doesn't end at birth.

The General Synod of the United Church of Christ, which has taken pro-choice positions on the issue of abortion, is also deeply concerned about life.  Our General Synod has affirmed, for example, "the sacredness of all life, and the need to protect and defend human life in particular" and encouraged "persons facing unplanned pregnancies  to consider giving birth and parenting the child, or releasing the child for adoption, before abortion."

Our denomination has also been a strong supporter of programs for children.  We live out the Biblical mandate to care for the "least of these" through volunteerism, donations, faith-based social service programs, and public policy efforts.

What is needed now is for those who are "pro-life" and "pro-choice" to stand together with the understanding that we are all 'pro-child."  That is the common ground we share.  And together we must fight these proposed cuts to our federal budget that would harm children and increase abortions.  

You cannot be "pro-life" and support the GOP's budget.

Related Post:  House GOP Cuts Are Theoligcally Immoral

"Church World Service, other agencies urge lawmakers to spare humanitarian spending from budget cuts"

Action Alert from Church World Service

In an attempt to halt U.S. budget cuts that could be "devastating" to disaster victims, displaced people and refugees throughout the world, Church World Service has joined several humanitarian agencies in appealing to lawmakers now deliberating the nation's proposed spending plan for 2011.

In a February 22 letter to House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority leader Eric Cantor and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, CWS and leaders of the nation's foremost faith-based and humanitarian agencies made the case that draconian cuts outlined in H.R. 1 would severely hinder the capacity of the United States to mount effective humanitarian response efforts around the world.  Read more.

Take action:  Contact your Senators and Representative urging them not to cut humanitarian and poverty-focused foreign assistance for the remainder of FY 2011.  Send your message now.

I Love Michelle Obama

I rise to defend the First Lady of the United States.

The political right - led by former half-term Governor Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh - are on the war path again against First Lady Michelle Obama.  They're attacking her efforts to reduce childhood obesity and political role within the White House in harsh personal terms.  Politico notes:

Obama’s admonishments on nutrition and advice on breastfeeding are examples of big government “nanny state” intrusion according to Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.); her eating habits are evidence of her hypocrisy, according to Rush Limbaugh; her athletic physique is something to be lampooned on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website, which posted a cartoon showing her as overweight and eating a plate full of hamburgers.

Former Governor Mike Huckabee, a possible 2012 GOP presidential candidate who, unlike Palin, actually served out his terms as governor instead of quiting to write a book and make money, was 100% spot on when he said this week:

“She’s been criticized…out of reflex rather than out of thoughtful expression,” he said Wednesday at a session with reporters in Washington. “It’s exactly what Republicans say they believe, which is you put an emphasis on personal responsibility…I thought that’s what we were about.”

Michelle Obama is a wonderful first lady, a great role model for children, and a huge asset to her husband.  Her campaign to get kids to eat better - embraced by the United Church of Christ and many other religious bodies - not only will make a generation of children healthier but it will save tax payers tens of millions of dollars in health care costs (if not more over the long haul).  Our nation is fortunate to have her strong moral leadership in the White House working to protect America's children and also the families of U.S. troops serving overseas. 

The personal attacks against her are unworthy of our democracy and the civil society most Americans strive to build.  

Faith Leaders Stand With Wisconsin Unions As Governor's Plan To Incite Violence Uncovered

Like many, I've been watching the events in Wisconsin over the last week as the governor there attempts to strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights and to cut benefits (all the while cutting taxes on corporations and the wealthy).  Faith leaders have been standing up to support the unions, I'm happy to note.  However, it has been deeply concerning to learn that Governor Scott Walker considered the possibility of planting troublemakers among the peaceful union protesters to apparently incite violence.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports today that the Madison police chief is also concerned about the governor's plans, which were captured on a prank telephone call yesterday:

Madison Police Chief Noble Wray Thursday asked Gov. Scott Walker to explain his "troubling" and "unsettling" statements captured in a secretly recorded phone conversation that he "thought about" planting troublemakers among the thousands of peaceful demonstrators at the Capitol.

The protests, heading into their 11th day, are aimed at a bill Walker proposed to strip most bargaining rights from state and local unionized employees in Wisconsin.

"I spent a good deal of time overnight thinking about Governor Walker's response, during his news conference yesterday (Wednesday), to the suggestion that his administration 'thought about' planting troublemakers among those who are peacefully protesting his bill," Wray said in a statement issued this morning." I would like to hear more of an explanation from Governor Walker as to what exactly was being considered, and to what degree it was discussed by his cabinet members.

"I find it very unsettling and troubling that anyone would consider creating safety risks for our citizens and law enforcement officers. Our department works hard dialoging with those who are exercising their First Amendment right, those from both sides of the issue, to make sure we are doing everything we can to ensure they can demonstrate safely.

"I am concerned that anyone would try to undermine these relationships. I have a responsibility to the community, and to the men and women of this department — who are working long hours protecting and serving this community — to find out more about what was being considered by state leaders."

How far did this plan go?  Did the governor carry out any initiatives to incite violence?  Were other people involved?  Were state resources used?  This should be a matter for city, state and federal investigators.  

Religion News Service reports the protests have drawn the support of religious leaders:

The pro-union rallies in Wisconsin have a retro feel to them -- particularly for people of faith.

Clergy and faith-based groups were historically on the front lines of the American labor movement, but priorities shifted with the rise of the religious right and the weakening of unions. In the Wisconsin protests over the governor's budget proposal to reduce collective-bargaining rights for teachers and other public-sector employees, however, religious voices have re-entered the fray.

Groups like Faith in Public Life and Interfaith Worker Justice have mobilized coalitions that include Protestants and Muslims, in addition to the Catholics and Jews that dominated pro-union efforts in previous generations. Clergy have led invocations and prayer vigils throughout Wisconsin, written letters and sent delegations to meet with Republican lawmakers. An Illinois church and synagogue even offered sanctuary to the 14 Democrat state senators who fled on Feb. 16 rather than vote on Gov. Scott Walker's bill. (None of them had turned up at the houses of worship, as of Feb. 23.)

Interfaith Worker Justice has compiled statements affirming the right to organize from more than a dozen denominations.

"We're making this a bigger issue than just the workers involved. We're making it a moral issue, and that it's more than just fighting over pensions," said Rabbi Renee Bauer, director of Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin. "We're hoping that if lawmakers hear from religious leaders, it'll help them have a change of heart."

Full story.

Wisconsin public employees have already agreed to pay and benefit cuts but have drawn the line at losing forever their collective bargaining power.  The governor has refused that compromise.  In doing so - and in considering violent acts - Governor Walker has shown that this isn't a fight about balancing a state budget: his goal is to kill off the unions and to limit for all time the power of working people to advocate for themselves and their state.

Americans have strongly backed the unions in this dispute (61% polled support collective bargaining - despite what you might have heard on FOX News).

What happens in Wisconsin may help determine the fate of workers across the United States.

Rolling Stone: "Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators"

This is deeply concerning:

WASHINGTON – Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is calling for an investigation into allegations that the commander of the American mission to train Afghan security forces ordered military personnel to manipulate visiting U.S. lawmakers into providing additional funding and support for the mission there.

Rolling Stone reported online Thursday that Lt. Gen. William Caldwell pressured soldiers trained in "psychological operations," or psy-ops, in violation of federal law, "to target visiting senators and other VIPs," including Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) as well as Adm.Michael Mullen, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Writer Michael Hastings, whose June 2010 profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal led to the general's removal as the senior military commander in Afghanistan, cites Lt. Col. Michael Holmes, leader of an information operations unit at Camp Eggers in Kabul, as saying Caldwell's chief of staff asked him how the unit "could secretly manipulate the U.S. lawmakers without their knowledge."

Full story.

How out of control is the military in Afghanistan?  

Mall Abortions? GOP Budget Thinking Explained.

My op-ed in The Huffington Post tried to explain the impact of the proposed budget cuts put forth by the GOP controlled House. But Jon Stewart does it better:

The Daily Show - Mother F#@kers
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show - Mother F#@kers - Stork Bucks
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Mall abortions?  

The reality, as was said at a rally here in Portland held to support the mission of Planned Parenthood, is quite different.  Planned Parenthood provides critically needed health care services that prevent the need for abortion and promote the common good.

Portland Stand With Planned Parenthood Rally from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

JPANet: Protect God's Creation

United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Action Alert

On January 1st new regulations went into effect aimed at reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most abundant and long-lasting greenhouse gas. State environmental agencies began regulating large stationary sources like coal-fired power plants and refineries, requiring them to be more efficient, thus reducing their carbon footprint.

Far from rejoicing about this effort to improve air quality and reduce gases associated with climate change, some members of Congress seek to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

As people of faith we are called to protect God’s creation and those sisters and brothers who are first and mostly affected by climate changes. Sadly, it is those who have little influence and power who are the most vulnerable to the ravages of climatic phenomenon.

Ensuring the availability of clean air for people and creatures to breath is central to our calling, as people of faith, to be good stewards of God’s creation and to seek justice for all people. So is preventing further deterioration of the Earth’s climate due to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Act Now! Ask your elected officials to oppose any efforts to limit the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce the Clean Air Act.

 

The Oregon Journal: A Historical Receipt

We're in the midst of a remodel at our house (with only one burner on the stove working and the kitchen ceiling falling in we felt it was time).  Our house was built in 1926.  When the demolition occurred this historical gem was discovered within the walls.  It is a receipt for The Oregon Journal dated June 1926 (we're unable to make out the exact date...maybe June 11, 1926... but the receipt is marked paid on July 1, 1926).  The Oregon Journal folded in 1982.  In 1981, I was a paperboy for the publication.

A 1950 copy of something called The American Weekly was also found (which seems like a National Enquirer-type paper). 

President Obama Does The Christian Thing In Dropping Legal Support For Defense of Marriage Act

President Obama today directed the U.S. Department of Justice to stop defending the indefensible: the so called "Defense of Marriage Act" which bars federal recognition of same sex marriages.  This was an act of moral courage on the part of the president - one what will cause some interesting legal debates - and that will further the cause of equality for all Americans.  As I've preached, discrimination against gays and lesbians is sinful and, as The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere.  The prohibition of gay marriage is the twin evil of the legal prohibition that not long ago existed that barred interracial marriages.  The General Synod of the United Church of Christ made history by becoming the first mainline Christian denomination to endorse full marriage equality in 2005.  The U.S. Department of Justice "will now take the position in court that the act should be struck down as a violation of same-sex couples’ rights to equal protection under the law," according to The New York Times.  This action on the part of the president moves our nation closer to being the Beloved Community.    

What I Told KPOJ About The GOP's Proposed Budget Cuts

This morning I was on KPOJ talking about the GOP's budget proposal in the U.S. House and my op-ed this week in The Huffington Post regarding the proposed cuts.  You can download the podcast below:

Download 2-23-11 hr 2 POJ-cast

(some browsers - like Firefox or Google Chrome - will allow you to simply click on the link and listen...otherwise 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).

Now On ITunes

You can now subscribe to my podcasts on ITunes by clicking here. 

Video From The Portland "I Stand With Planned Parenthood" Rally

As many as 750 people gathered in NE Portland today to show support for the mission of Planned Parenthood after the U.S. House of Representatives voted last week to cut off all federal funding for this national agency that provides a wide array of health care services.

The Portland Mercury and Street Roots have photos and coverage.  Most if not all of Portland's television stations and other media outlets are also covering the story (additional links will be provided as they become available).

Below is video from part of the short rally that took place before supporters marched along Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. to demonstrate support.  I was honored to briefly address the rally along with representatives from Planned Parenthood of the Columbia Willamette and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon.

Portland Stand With Planned Parenthood Rally from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

Support Planned Parenthood by visiting:

http://istandwithplannedparenthood.com 

Join Me At The Portland Rally to Stand with Planned Parenthood!

Tonight I'll be speaking at the Rally to Stand With Planned Parenthood at PPCW's Regional Service Center (3727 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) at 5pm.  Please join me and other Oregonians in fighting Congressional plans to cut off all funding for Planned Parenthood - which would eliminate a critical health care resource for low-income citizens who struggle with the high cost of care.  The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and other faith leaders are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with those fighting to save these important services.  As a minister in the United Church of Christ, I look forward to speaking tonight as a Christian who supports Planned Parenthood.   

House GOP Cuts are Theologically Immoral

My latest op-ed on The Huffington Post:

House GOP Cuts are Theologically Immoral

My Favorite Weather Forecast Of All Time

This will go down as my favorite weather forecast of all time (issued today for Portland and the Willamette Valley):

IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE VALLEY FLOORS WILL SEE A SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL IN THE MID TO LATE WEEK TIME FRAME...BUT IT IS ALSO POSSIBLE THAT LITTLE OR NO SNOW WILL FALL.

If the President and Congress need to cut something in the federal budget the National Weather Service might not be missed all that much (just joking...no need to send me angry e-mails questioning my commitment to fortune telling weather monitoring).

"Deadly Assaults On Libyan Protesters Reported"

In the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution, people across the Middle East have taken to the streets.  NPR reports this morning on the crisis in Libya:

A doctor says Moammar Gadhafi's forces have killed at least 200 protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi as it tries to crush a rebellion that has spread to more than a half-dozen cities across the country.

Witnesses told The Associated Press a mix of special commandos, foreign mercenaries and Gadhafi loyalists assaulted demonstrators in Benghazi on Saturday with knives, assault rifles and heavy weapons. Those protesters were burying 35 marchers who were slain Friday by government forces.

Benghazi has been at the center of a six-day revolt by Libyans inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia and frustrated by Gadhafi's more than 40 years of authoritarian rule.

The Benghazi doctor said his hospital, one of two in Libya's second-largest city, is out of supplies and cannot treat more than 70 wounded who were hit in the attacks and need attention.

"I am crying," the doctor said. "Why is the world not listening?"

President Obama said late this week:

I am deeply concerned by reports of violence in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen. The United States condemns the use of violence by governments against peaceful protesters in those countries and wherever else it may occur. We express our condolences to the family and friends of those who have been killed during the demonstrations. Wherever they are, people have certain universal rights including the right to peaceful assembly. The United States urges the governments of Bahrain, Libya and Yemen to show restraint in responding to peaceful protests, and to respect the rights of their people.

It will be important for the U.S. to review all our relationships with nations that respond violently to protesters calling for democratic reforms.  The United States has for far too long supported repressive regimes for strategic politics reasons.  That has put us on the wrong side of history.  Now is a moment we can correct that.

House Republicans Continue Assault On Women; Religious Leaders Oppose De-funding Planned Parenthood

House Republicans passed legislation this week that would bar federal funding for Planned Parenthood ("including contraception, which is basic preventive health care"). Planned Parenthood's 820 health centers across the nation...

...provide a wide range of safe, reliable health care — and more than 90 percent is preventive, primary care, which helps prevent unintended pregnancies through contraception, reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections through testing and treatment, and screen for cervical and other cancers. Caring physicians, nurse practitioners, and other staff take time to talk with clients, encouraging them to ask questions in an environment that millions have grown to trust.

Planned Parenthood also provides critical public health education to communities:

Planned Parenthood is a respected leader in educating Americans about reproductive and sexual  health. We deliver comprehensive and medically accurate information that empowers women, men, teens, and families to make informed choices and lead healthy lives. Planned Parenthood is proud of its vital role in providing young people with honest sexuality and relationship information in classrooms and online to help reduce our nation’s alarmingly high rates of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. More than 1.2 million youths and adults participate in Planned Parenthood educational programs every year.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice issued the following statement in response to the House vote:

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and its 40 member denominations and religiously affiliated organizations – including the Presbyterian Church USA, United Church of Christ, Catholics for Choice, and Union for Reform Judaism – are deeply troubled by the cuts to family planning services and to Planned Parenthood clinics that were passed today by the U.S. House of Representatives. These services are used by more than 5 million women and men each year.

Given the many other options available to the Republican leadership, cutting these services should not have been the priority of our government. At a time when so many people continue to suffer from the poor economy, eliminating critical preventive health services will do even more damage to struggling families.

But most troubling is that these cuts show a callous disregard for the well-being of women and families. Responsible parenthood reflects our highest values as people of faith and as a nation. The family planning services provided by Planned Parenthood clinics and the Title X program (the nation’s family planning program) are part of the foundation of the strong, family-oriented society that we seek.

As a coalition sustained by our faith and pursuit for social justice, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice asks: Where is the justice in destroying services that support responsible behaviors and healthy life styles? The answer is obvious: there is no justice and no compassion. These cuts must be stopped by the Senate because they are morally indefensible.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is the national interfaith coalition of denominations that officially support reproductive choice on religious grounds, with more than 20 million members, including the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church USA, United Church of Christ, two agencies of the United Methodist Church, the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements of Judaism, and the Unitarian Universalist Association, and Catholics for Choice and other independent and religiously affiliated organizations.

As a minister in the United Church of Christ, I will continue to speak out in support of Planned Parenthood and their critical mission of providing health care.  This attempt to strip away the rights of women to make their own reproductive health care choices cannot be allowed to stand.  Abortion is not the only issue at stake (over 90% of Planned Parenthood's work has nothing to do with abortion).  Without Planned Parenthood we will see an increase in STDs and teen-pregnancies, for example, and that will harm the common good of our nation.  

"Federal Budget Must Create Jobs and Support Our Communities"

United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries Action Alert

President Obama has just completed his federal budget proposal. Now Congress begins the difficult task of crafting the budget. The stakes for all Americans could not be higher. With nearly one in five potential workers either unemployed or working part time when they want full-time hours, the federal budget must promote job creation.

Depending on its provisions, the federal budget could strengthen the economy and put people back to work, or it could weaken or even reverse the gains that have been made over the past year. Congress must make funding job creation its top priority while also maintaining a strong safety net of programs to support the poor and unemployed.

Some argue we cannot afford to create jobs when the deficit is so large. Actually, we cannot afford not to. Most of the deficit (over three-fifths) is due to the economic downturn and related bailouts and stimulus measures.  These expenditures will disappear when the economy is fully recovered. Only when millions of the unemployed are back at work, making money, paying taxes, and no longer relying on safety net programs will the deficit fall to manageable levels, at least in the short term. In the years ahead the deficit will balloon again, largely driven by high health costs. Funding job creation will raise employment and shrink the deficit.

Most of the budget cuts currently being proposed in Congress do not address the immediate cause of the deficit, the economic downturn, nor the longer term problem, escalating health costs. Congress must make funding job creation a budget priority, and this will also reduce the deficit.  Moreover, shrinking the deficit when the economy is fragile risks further layoffs or even another recession.

Act now! Send a letter to the editor of your local paper: the budget must promote job creation and maintain the critically important safety net for the poor and unemployed.

President Obama In Oregon: What We Saw

President Obama was in Oregon today talking high tech jobs and education.  Liz and I felt quite fortunate to be among the 350 or so people to be invited to hear the president's remarks.

I have concerns about some of the president's budget proposals - concerns I outlined again today for an op-ed piece published on The Oregonian's website - but strongly concur with his commitment to public education.  

The Washington Post notes today that Republicans are calling for an array of cuts that the president cannot allow.  The GOP has plans to:

-Cut about $60 billion in spending from last year's levels in a wide swath of domestic programs, including education, environmental protection and community services.

-Block money to implement Obama's health care overhaul law enacted last year.

-Bar federal funds for Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and family planning services with its hundreds of clinics across the U.S. The organization says 90 percent of the $363 million a year it receives in government aid comes from Washington or the federal-state Medicaid program.

-Eliminate federal family planning and teen pregnancy prevention grants.

-Block federal aid to overseas groups that provide abortions or counsel women about them.

-Cut the Social Security Administration, which the agency has warned might force it to furlough workers. Democrats say furloughs would slow the flow of benefits to program recipients, while Republicans say offices would not close and call such threats political fear-mongering.

-Prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing regulations curbing emissions of gases that cause global warming.

-Stop the Federal Communications Commission from preventing broadband providers from interfering with Internet traffic on their networks.

-Reduce Pell Grants for lower-income college students by $5.6 billion, which the White House says would reduce the maximum $5,550 grant by $845.

-Cut $747 million in food aid for poor pregnant women and women with children up to the age of 5.

-Eliminate federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

-Halt financing for the Americorps national service program, which pays people to do public service jobs and encourages volunteerism.

-Limit this year's budget for the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to $80 million. It would also cut the budgets of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, charged with enforcing other parts of the financial overhaul law.

-Prevent the administration from enforcing a proposed rule making it harder for students at for-profit colleges to get federal loans and grants. Critics say the schools make huge profits while their students accumulate unusually large debts.

As I have already noted, further cuts to anti-poverty programs should be off the table.

The mood at the Intel event this morning was festive.  Besides Intel workers there were school children in the crowd along with many people that Liz and I both know and work with in various capacities.  

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber

Liz and METRO president Tom Hughes

When I had the chance to shake the president's hand I told him, as I have before, that I hold him in prayer.  He thanked me and asked that I continue.  "It works.  I know," he said.  

Welcome To Oregon, Mr. President: My Op-Ed On The Oregonian's Website

President Obama arrives in Oregon this morning.  Liz and I are scheduled to hear him speak at Intel.  This morning I have an op-ed on The Oregonian's website welcoming the president back and expressing my concerns about how his budget proposals - and the draconian ones proposed by the GOP - will impact those trying to escape poverty.  Click here to read it.

Portlanders For Schools: Support The Campaign For Strong Public Education

Tonight I'll be phone banking in support of Portland Public Schools.  Strong public schools are an integral part of any effort to reduce poverty and foster strong communities.  A new bond is needed to support school infrustructure and additional funding is neded for teachers in our local schools and that is why I'll be joining other parents on the phone tonight.  We'll be drumming up support for these critically needed initiatives that the voters will consider in May.  Both have support from the business community, community groups, faith leaders, and parents across the city.  Visit Portlanders for Schools to learn more (below is some basic information from their website).  As a parent of two first graders in Portland Public Schools, I cannot stress enough how important schools are to the common good of our great city.

Good public schools are the foundation of our community.

But our schools need help — today.

Our public schools prepare our children to be successful adults and citizens. They are a key element of a vibrant economy. They are the heart of livable neighborhoods, supporting and protecting property values.

For our schools, our children and our neighborhoods to succeed, students need both good teachers and schools that are safe, in good repair and with up-to-date learning environments.

You can’t have one without the other, and Portland’s public schools are in dire need of both.

Right now, that is a real — and urgent — problem for Portland’s Public Schools. As Portlanders, we own 85 school buildings that average 65 years of age: more than ½ of our schools were built during or before World War II.

Thanks to years of tight budgets, many are crumbling. All are out-of date.

Portland has had virtually no money for facilities for a long time: nearly every dollar has gone into funding teachers and learning materials. Every day, our children are going into schools with serious safety issues. And they are trying to learn in classrooms that have never been updated — often without science labs, technology, or even adequate electricity and lights.

• In one elementary school, a ceiling leaks so badly that ten 50-gallon barrels are stationed to collect water every time it rains.
• Almost half our schools depend on antiquated oil furnaces the size of RVs that are expensive to run and are fire safety hazards, and often require 7 hours of maintenance a week just to keep them operating safely.
• Electrical systems are out of date and cannot support current technology. Some school staff must take turns plugging in equipment to use.
• Teachers must cart water down the hall to conduct science experiments due to the lack of functioning labs.
• Every school needs significant updates to classrooms, fire and life safety, mechanical, heating, ventilation and security systems.
• Many schools need to be rebuilt or replaced — it would be far more expensive to repair them.

We Can Repair Our Schools and Protect Our Neighborhoods

Nearly every other neighboring school district currently has a bond to improve their schools. Portland has none; its last bond was approved in 1995. That’s harmful to education and the strength and property values of our neighborhoods. We have to act today.

The bond for Portland Public Schools will make critical repairs to increase safety and update classrooms in every school. It will also rebuild or replace schools in most immediate need across our district.

Learn more at http://portlandersforschools.org/.

"A budget that leaves out families is like a valentine that leaves out love"

Press Release from Faith in Public Life

Valentine's Day message from prominent Christian, Jewish leaders to political leaders on proposed massive budget cuts

February 14, 2011

National Christian and Jewish leaders are sending a Valentine's Day message today to elected officials, responding to proposed budgets cuts that slash spending on critical, life-saving programs for women, children, and families. Their message: A budget that leaves out families is like a valentine that leaves out love.

Rabbi Steve Gutow, President and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; Sr. Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby; and Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, are rallying around three specific proposed cuts to programs that are critical to keeping families healthy.

These prominent national faith leaders are opposing cuts proposed by Congressional leaders to Community Health Centers, which provide primary health care to millions of low- and middle-income families in underserved communities; Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides food assistance to low-income women and their children; and Maternal and Child Health Block Grants, which give low-income pregnant women, mothers and their children access to health care.

"As Americans celebrate Valentine's Day, vital programs that support families and the most vulnerable now face drastic budget cuts. Sound fiscal judgment makes perfect sense, but cutting the heart out of effective programs that help mothers, children and hard-working citizens is both cruel and misguided," said Sr. Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK. "House Republicans are attacking our nation's safety net at a time when millions are struggling to find work and put food on the table. This ideological assault undermines human dignity and the shared values that make our nation flourish. Both Congressional leaders and the Obama administration, which has proposed its own cuts to important programs, need to start showing real moral leadership to ensure that vulnerable families are protected during efforts to balance the budget."

Faith leaders, who have long advocated for health care and other vital assistance for poor and working-class families, expect moral leadership from our elected officials. As political leaders take on the challenge of tackling the deficit, the faith community is demanding solutions that don't unfairly target the most vulnerable members of our society.

On Valentine's Day, faith leaders hold their political leaders accountable for remembering families in need with the budget, just as love is a critical component of any valentine.

"As we observe a holiday that embodies love, millions of Americans struggle to find employment and afford health care for themselves and their loved ones. Particularly in rural and underserved communities, the hardships and unmet needs are immense," said Rabbi Steve Gutow, president and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches. "Draconian budget cuts that take away sorely needed investment in these communities are morally inexcusable, and cutting off resources today in low-income and rural communities will weaken our nation in the long run. Such policies are at best a penny-wise and pound-foolish approach to the challenges our nation faces."

Mt. St. Helens Earthquake Felt Throughout NW

A 4.3 M earthquake on Mt. St. Helens was felt throughout the region a short-time ago.  We felt it here on Puget Island, WA (about an hour from mountain) where I'm visiting my mother for the morning. A second smaller earthquake followed which we did not feel. No damage.

Related Post: The Resurrection of Mt. St. Helens

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Heading To Salem's First Congregational United Church Of Christ

Starting this week I'll be working at Salem's First Congregational United Church of Christ on a temporary basis.  The Rev. Gail McDougle recently retired from the church (a planned retirement which occurred earlier than anticipated after Rev. McDougle suffered a minor stroke) after 13 years of faithful ministry in our state's capitol city.  First Congregational United Church of Christ is an Open and Affirming congregation with a rich tradition of community ministry.  Right now the congregation is in the early stages of looking for an interim minister to help guide the congregation through a period of discernment as they search for a permanent minister.  I will not be a candidate for the interim position.  However, I have gladly accepted their request for temporary ministerial assistance as they search for an interim minister.  Their hope is to have someone on board by this summer and to call a permanent minister within a year or so after that.  Gail and I served together on the public policy committee of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and I have preached at the church before.  The people of Salem's First Congregational United Church of Christ have always played an important role in the life of our state (they are situated near the State Capitol Building, a location that provides an important platform) and I'm very excited to spend the next few months helping them through this transition period.  I'll be preaching 2-3 times a month with my first sermon taking place on Sunday, March 6th.  All are welcome.   

Catfish: The Exploitation Of A Broken Family

We watched Catfish tonight, the controversial "documentary" that was a Sundance hit.  The controversy rests over whether or not the documentary was staged.  The plot line:  a young photographer / videographer, his brother and a friend film the budding online romance between the young man and the 19-year old daughter of a family he has come to know online through Facebook.  Whether or not the filmed was stagged, there are deeper moral issues to consider. 

As it turns out, the 19-year daughter doesn't exist.  She is the fabrication of the 40-something mother in the family.  The mom is the one flirting online with the photographer from New York.  This is a middle America family from Wisconsin with deep problems.  Clearly, the mom is in emotional turmoil and distress.  She has created a virtual world in which to cope and is caught.

The filmmakers insist they never knew they were caught up in a deception until the web of lies put forth by the mom came unraveled.  Like film critic Kyle Buchanan, I don't buy that.  It seems entirely possible that they knew exactly what they were on to and that they decided to film it.  The only other option was that they were all naive and gullible in the extreme.

What really bothers me about this film is how the Wisconsin family is treated once the deception is fully uncovered.  Any person of moral character would have put down the camera and recognized the brokenness of the mom would not be served by continuing.  Instead, the film makers kept their cameras rolling - sometimes with hidden cameras and recording devices.  In doing so, they harmed the mom, her 8-year old daughter, twin disabled boys (one of whom died shortly after the film was made), and the husband of the family. 

The filmmakers appear to have exploited the family for their own financial gain.  I can only imagine the long-term harm caused to the family, especially the 8-year old girl who will grow up tarred by the stigma of this "documentary" on her family.  Whether or not the family in the end gave permission of any kind to go forward with the project is irrelevant.  How many people can fully understand the impact the notoriety of such a film might bring?   

You might be asking, why did you watch the film in the first place?  I had no idea what it was about (except that it was a Sundance hit that had something to do with social media...I actually mistakenly thought it was a horror movie of some sort).  By the time the film was over, I simply felt sad that three young men from New York would exploit a very troubled family in what seemed to me to be a very malicious way.  Rewarding this film would be to reward human behavior that is contemptible.           

Susan Brooks Thislethwaite: "The arc of the moral universe catches up with Mubarak" #jan25

It really has been amazing to watch the events in Egypt unfold as they have the last few weeks.  The last few days have been nothing short of dramatic.  Like most Americans, I feel a deep sense of amazement at the courage of the protesters and relief that the old regime has fallen.  

President Obama's words today were appropriate:    

The Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thislethwaite wrote today:

No dictator lasts forever, no lie is so big that somewhere, somehow the truth will not will out.

Today the arc of the moral universe just caught up with former President Mubarak of Egypt. Even up until the speech last night, apparently this longtime dictator would not or could not see the truth, that indeed no lie lives forever and indeed, eventually, people reap what they sow.

Scenes of jubilation erupted when the announcement by Vice President Omar Suleiman was broadcast in Cairo's Tahrir Square, "Egypt is free! Egypt is free!" they said. 

No, Egypt is not free, not yet. But it's much farther up the arc of the moral universe than it was last night.

My prayers continue to be with the people of Egypt.  Hopefully, today will be the beginning of real freedom for the people there.  

The new generation there lifted up the hope in the last few weeks that the world could be more free.  We owe them our respect.  

Red State Charges Conservative Political Action Conference Taken Over By Islamic Radicals

Conservative anti-tax activist Grover Norquist says no room for Islamophobia In 2012 elections

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference is occuring this week (read Politico's on-going coverage).  Most of the news from this event has centered around a number of groups thought of as the "Religious Right" withdrawing from their sponsorship after a GOP-aligned gay rights group was allowed to co-sponsor the gathering.  There is another issue at play, however, that deserves attention:  growing Islamophobia.

A prominent blog - Red State - published an entry yesterday that basically accused the American Conservative Union, which puts on the event, of being taken over by Islamic extremists.

That has led one well known conservative activist, Grover Norquist, to push back against Islamophobia.  Think Progress has the story:

It is no secret that Islamophobia has been widely prevalent in the conservative movement, particular since President Obama took office. From Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Allen West (R-FL) to Newt Gingrich and those hyperventilating against the Islamic community center near Ground Zero, the right is promoting a baseless and irrational fear about Muslim participation in American civil society.

Frank Gaffney is one of the right’s main proponents of anti-Muslim fearmongering. He recently claimed that conservatives are being infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and “radical Islamists,” and he recently attacked Americans for Tax Reform leader Grover Norquist for “credentialing the perpetrators of this Muslim Brotherhood influence operation” at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC.

At CPAC yesterday, ThinkProgress caught up with Norquist — whose wife is Muslim — and asked him to respond to Gaffney and the general Muslim fearmongering from the right. “It’s very important to recognize that each of these faiths is completely consistent with the U.S. Constitution and a free and open society,” Norquist said, adding it’s also important “for the conservative movement to have many doors open.” He said that the right has to “marginalize” Islamophobia within its ranks and “knock that stuff down and just make it clear that there’s no place for that in the party of Reagan.” Referring to Gingrich’s anti-Muslim fervor, ThinkProgress asked whether there is a place for Islamophobia in the GOP 2012 presidential primaries. “I don’t think there is,” Norquist replied.

This is an issue that all Americans - regardless of party or faith - should get behind.  There should be no room for religious bigority in our politics.  We'll have to work hard to make that a reality.

Egypt Is Free! #jan25

Related Post: Mubarak Steps Down, Ceding Power to Military

"What Would Jesus Cut?"

As Congress debates unprecedented budget cuts, it is time to send a message telling them to protect the least of these:

As a person of faith, I believe that the moral test of any society is how it treats its poor and most vulnerable. Our federal budget should reflect our best national values and priorities, so in regard to your upcoming budget vote I ask myself, "What would Jesus cut?"

As your constituent, I ask you to oppose any budget proposal that increases military spending while cutting domestic and international programs that benefit the poor, especially children. 

Programs we need to invest in during these tough economic times include:  

1. Critical child health and family nutrition programs

2. Proven work and income supports that lift families out of poverty

3. Support for education, especially in low-income communities

4. International aid that directly and literally save lives 

In Great Britain, Prime Minister Cameron made the choice to delay a costly nuclear submarine program, while also increasing life-saving funding for international aid. The U.S. Congress should follow this example.

Click here to send this message. 

Will President Keep Promise Not To Balance Budget "On The Backs Of Our Most Vulnerable Citizens?"

We're getting signs that President Obama's soon to be released budget will hurt those living in poverty.  The AP reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama wants to cut $2.5 billion from a $5 billion home heating aid program for the poor, a person familiar with his 2012 budget proposal said Wednesday, halving the popular fund as he looks for places to rein in federal spending.

The proposal would cut the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program to its 2008 level of about $2.5 billion.

The person discussed the details on condition of anonymity because Obama's spending outline has not been formally released. The White House plans to send the proposal to Congress on Monday. The plan is for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.

Separately, House Republicans on Wednesday outlined a plan for $35 billion in immediate spending cuts that would practically eliminate the program's contingency fund. Republicans would cut $400 million from the $490 million fund.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., urged Obama not to cut the funding. He said more than 3 million families would lose assistance.

"I've always supported serious efforts to restore fiscal sanity, but in the middle of a brutal, even historic, New England winter, home heating assistance is more critical than ever to the health and welfare of millions of Americans, especially senior citizens," Kerry said.

This isn't the first signal sent by the White House this week:

In Sunday's edition of The New York Times, Jacob Lew, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, wrote that Obama will seek to pare 7.5 percent, or $300 million, from Community Development Block Grants in the budget he proposes next week.

Obama has said he is committed to reducing the country's projected $1.5 trillion deficit by cutting spending in many areas.

But city and county officials, still smarting from the 2007-09 economic recession that devastated municipal budgets, say lower grant amounts from the federal government will hurt their poorest citizens and they fear Obama will suggest deeper cuts.

"It is literally the lifeblood for creating affordable housing in Philadelphia," Michael Nutter, the city's mayor told Reuters, saying the program commonly called "CDBG" has helped get homeless people off the street and built up neighborhoods in the City of Brotherly Love.

"Everyone knows that it works. You will hear as much about it from Republican mayors as from Democrat mayors," he said.

The grants help finance housing, sewer, streets and economic development in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, Lew wrote. He added the Obama administration is "very aware of the financial difficulties" cities and counties face.

"CDBG funds provide immediate, direct, and tangible benefits to millions of Americans right where they live," said National Association of Counties Executive Director Larry Naake in a statement, calling Lew's proposal "alarming."

President Obama said in his State of the Union address last month that the budget shouldn't be balanced on the  "on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens."  He needs to keep that promise.

House Republicans have already released their budget proposals.  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes:

House Republican leaders announced yesterday the next steps in their plan to impose deep cuts in non-security discretionary (annually appropriated) programs.  Under the plan, non-security programs would shrink, on average, by 15.4 percent below current funding under the continuing resolution (which expires on March 4) and 19.4 percent below what President Obama proposed for fiscal year 2011.  Programs and activities that face the risk of such cuts include funding for K-12 education, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Centers for Disease Control, and food safety inspections, and a number of programs that serve low-income children, seniors, and people with disabilities.

Their budget would increase poverty and suffering for millions.

Cutting programs for the poorest of the poor to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans is a sin.  As U.S. religious leaders have argued, we need President Obama to forcefully articulate a different vision of what America should be.  Everyone understands the need to bring the deficit under control after the reckless economic policies of the last decade.  That being said, hurting those who are already suffering the most should not be an option.    

Chick-fil-A, Sex, Marriage and "Unprotected Texts"

One of the joys of returning to South Carolina for a visit is a stop at Chick-fil-A.  Their plain old chicken sandwich and a sweet tea can send me to heaven.  I've always known they were owned by a Christian family and, frankly, I like that they close on Sundays.  I'm old enough to remember when more stores did (of course, that often was enforced by law) and I think a (voluntary) day off from shopping and commercialism isn't too much to ask.  But I was sad to hear the company recently donated food to an anti-gay marriage group.  Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy said the contribution was made because the company believes in a "Biblical definition of marriage."

Mr. Cathy ought to read Unprotected Texts: The Bible's Surprising Contradictions About Sex and Desire, the new book from Boston University's Jennifer Wright Knust.  This American Baptist pastor and scholar notes that: "When it comes to marriage, biblical laws are almost entirely contradictory."  In short, the one "Biblical definition of marriage" that Chick-fil-A wants to promote doesn't exist. 

As I've preached, how we read the Bible matters.  It is not to be taken literally.  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, argued that Christian faith required one to bring Scripture, reason, experience and tradition to the table when trying to discern the will of God.  Chick-fil-A is offering fast-food theology to a world that needs more than a bumper sticker understanding of the divine.   

In a recent post for The Washington Post's "On Faith" blog, Knust wrote:

If we do take the time to read the Bible, we are likely to discover that the biblical writers do not agree with us, whatever version of sexual morality we are seeking to promote. Written more than 2,000 years ago at a significant historical and cultural distance, the Bible gathers together a diverse collection of ancient books, edited over time, not a coherent, divinely inspired set of instructions that can easily be applied. Tracing even a few, limited topics from one biblical book to another can make the point: If one book forbids marriage between foreigners and Israelites, the next depicts such marriages as a source of blessing, not only to Israel but to all of humankind. If one insists that women are saved by childbearing, the next recommends that women avoid childbearing altogether in order to devote themselves more fully to God. If one suggests that sex with a relative, the wife of another man, or with a male lover will certainly lead to the nation's downfall, the next depicts heroic kings engaging in precisely these forms of sex. And these are just a few examples.  

Knust offers the same argument in her book - with more detail (including a series of charts that compare teachings on marriage and divorce in Mark, Matthew and Luke).

And if fundamentalist believers find themselves shocked to read what Knust writes about marriage ("Collected together, diverse sayings on divorce, remarriage, adultery, husbands, and wives in Mark, Matthew and Luke offer not one teaching but several") they'll be even more shocked to learn that sex can be, well, fun and that it doesn't even need to be between two married people or even between people of the same gender (read the "love affair' of Ruth and Naomi).  Yep, that's in Holy Scripture.

Knust notes the sexual imagery in the Song of Songs...

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!

For your love is better than wine,

3   your anointing oils are fragrant,

your name is perfume poured out;

   therefore the maidens love you.

- Song of Songs 1:2-3 9NRSV)  

...and writes:

The Song of Songs is a poem, and, as such, interpretation is left open...Nevertheless, both the poem's beauty and its force of depend upon sensual arousal and the awakening of erotic sentiments.  And interestingly enough, once awakened, desire - not marriage or childbearing - remains the focus.  Voluntary intimacy and pleasure are the goal of these lovers, and social norms appear to be irrelevant to the delight they intend to pursue. 

Knust writes: "The Bible is complicated enough, ancient enough, and flexible enough to support an almost endless set of interpretive agendas."  That may be true, in part.  Taken as a whole, the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament offer (for me) a vision of covenant.  My sense is that covenant includes within our relationships between one another and with God that we should - in Paul's words - be subject to one another out of love.  That doesn't mean we have an anything goes faith without rules or boundaries.  In fact, the opposite is true.  You cannot, for example, abandon your family and remain in covenant with God or your relatives.  Justice and compassion are central to Christanity.  Yet, not all teachings from scripture should be practiced today (if they were, we'd still own slaves, as sanctioned in the Bible).  Knust encourages interpretation:

Nowadays, the sense that reading scripture is a creative, imaginative act has too often been lost, despite the creativity it took for New Testament writers and early Christians to claim that the law and the prophets are, when read correctly, all about Jesus Christ.  Paul, Matthew, Inenaeus, and Origen came to the Bible with convictions about what should be found in its pages and, employing a variety of interpretative methods, they found what they wanted.  But, unlike many contemporary readers, they did not attempt to hide their interpretative work...They did not assume that quoting a few choice verse out of context could serve as sufficient proof of what the entire Bible says and therefore of what God says as well.

There is so much to learn still from God and Scripture.   What is frightening are those voices who claim that all answers have been given, that truth never changes and that they are not interpreting the word of God but simply reporting it.  Nothing could be less accurate.  But those voices and their churches help set public policy around sex education and marriage, for example, that hurt rather than help and, I believe, strike at the heart of the Greatest Commandment (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Matthew 22 NRSV) which should guide all our debates, decisions and personal interactions.  

We can all benefit from having our assumptions challenged once and awhile.    Chick-fil-A's Dan Cathy ought to read this book.  Not because he should agree with it all but because it might help challenge his assumptions about the Bible and marriage and offer him and his company a better understanding of why so many are offended by those who use the Bible to promote legal discrimination against others who may differ from us. 

Related Post:  It Is Good: Family & Community In The Tradition Of Jesus (A Sermon For Pride Sunday)

What I Want For My Birthday: A Gift To Fight Cancer

42 years ago today my mother, Judy Bright, kindly gave birth to me.  For those that don't know my mom she is a certified nurse midwife and advanced nurse practictioner who currently works as the director of a county health and human services department.  Most of her professional career has been in public health.

My mother has always been a role model for my sisters and me.  She volunteers as an EMT, with a Search and Rescuse K-9 unit, and the U.S. Coast Auxiliary.  

She has spent her entire adult life in service to others and has always been a strong voice for women.  As a child, she took me to protest for the inclusion of women students at the then all-male Citadel in Charleston, S.C. (a battle that was finally won).  When many white families fled public schools in the South after intergration she and my father made the decision to put me in public schools and to work for their improvement.  The lessons I learned from her as a child have stayed with me.    

For my birthday - as my mom battles cancer - I want to invite my friends and readers of this blog to make a contribution in her honor to the American Cancer Society.  I could think of no better birthday gift.  Cancer touches so many people and the fight to end it is something we can all get behind.  The American Cancer Society is an important force in that fight and I urge you to donate as I have.  Thank you.

Acknowledments can be sent to:

Judy Bright, CNM, ARNP, MPA

c/o Wahkiakum County Health and Human Services

PO Box 696

Cathlamet, WA 98612 

(The picture above is with my mom and my father, the late C. Stephen Currie, and was taken when I was a month old.)

A Great Super Bowl Story

From The New Haven Register:

NORTH HAVEN — Ten men who don’t have a permanent roof over their heads were Green Bay Packers fans for the night, and will probably be fans of North Haven Congregational Church for life after a week’s stay at the church culminated in a Super Bowl XLV celebration Sunday night.

Full story.

Thinking About Ronald Reagan

As the United States notes the 100th birthday of the late President Ronald Reagan, GOP partisans are celebrating the presidency of the last popular Republican president. What I will remember most about President Reagan is his disregard for the poor and vulnerable. He cut programs for the poorest of the poor and created the modern homeless crisis that we still deal with today. His economic philosophy - once called "voodoo economics" by George H.W. Bush - was fully embraced by George W. Bush and led the nation into economic ruin. That is the real legacy of Ronald Reagan.


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Judicial Activism Tea Party-style

The New York Times:

When it comes to pushing the line between law and politics, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas each had a banner month in January.

Justice Scalia, who is sometimes called “the Justice from the Tea Party,” met behind closed doors on Capitol Hill to talk about the Constitution with a group of representatives led by Representative Michele Bachmann of the House Tea Party Caucus.

Justice Thomas, confirming his scorn for concern about conflicts of interest and rules designed to help prevent them, acknowledged that he has failed to comply with the law for the past six years by not disclosing his wife’s income from conservative groups.

In Supreme Court opinions, they showed how their impatience for goals promoted in conservative politics is infecting their legal actions. They joined in an unusual dissent from a court decision not to take a case about the commerce clause that turned into polemic in favor of limited government. In an important privacy case, NASA v. Nelson, they insisted the court should settle a constitutional issue it didn’t need to.

Constitutional law is political. It results from choices about concerns of government that political philosophers ponder, like liberty and property. When the court deals with major issues of social policy, the law it shapes is the most inescapably political.

To buffer justices from the demands of everyday politics, however, they receive tenure for life. The framers of our Constitution envisioned law gaining authority apart from politics. They wanted justices to exercise their judgment independently — to be free from worrying about upsetting the powerful and certainly not to be cultivating powerful political interests.

A petition by Common Cause to the Justice Department questioned whether Justices Scalia and Thomas are doing the latter. It asked whether the court’s ruling a year ago in the Citizens United case, unleashing corporate money into politics, should be set aside because the justices took part in a political gathering of the conservative corporate money-raiser Charles Koch while the case was before the court.

If the answer turns out to be yes, it would be yet more evidence that the court must change its policy — or rather its nonpolicy — about recusal.

Full editoral.

His Eye Is On The Sparrow

Perhaps my favorite hymn sung by one of my all time favorite singers.  It was performed at my grandfather's memorial last year and I know it was a favorite to The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as well.  This hymn and the text on which it is based - Matthew 10:26-30 - sustains me in this hour as I lift up my mother, Judy Bright, and our family in prayer.  Let health be restored and hope never abandoned. 

Nobel Obama

At Chicago Theological Seminary, I met Karen Mooney. Karen is an M.Div. student at Meadville Lombard Theological School. Karen has taken words from President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech and developed them into a chant, a classical form of religious music and expression. The words from our president (combined with Karen's music, voice and images from across the world) - particularly in the context of the crisis in Egypt and on-going war in Afghanistan - remind us that we are "not prisoners of fate. Our actions matter and can bend history in the direction of justice." Please share this video with your friends.

President Obama Talks About Faith And Policy

Whenever I advocate for a stronger government role in fighting poverty a few people (most of them well meaning, I assume) come back with some variation on this question:  why can't the churches just deal with the problem?  President Obama answered that question this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast:

...there are some needs that require more resources than faith groups have at their disposal.  There’s only so much a church can do to help all the families in need -- all those who need help making a mortgage payment, or avoiding foreclosure, or making sure their child can go to college.  There’s only so much that a nonprofit can do to help a community rebuild in the wake of disaster.  There’s only so much the private sector will do to help folks who are desperately sick get the care that they need. 

And that's why I continue to believe that in a caring and in a just society, government must have a role to play; that our values, our love and our charity must find expression not just in our families, not just in our places of work and our places of worship, but also in our government and in our politics.

The president also addressed in very personal terms how his faith guides his politics:

As I travel across the country folks often ask me what is it that I pray for.  And like most of you, my prayers sometimes are general:  Lord, give me the strength to meet the challenges of my office.  Sometimes they’re specific:  Lord, give me patience as I watch Malia go to her first dance -- (laughter) -- where there will be boys.  (Laughter.)  Lord, have that skirt get longer as she travels to that dance.  (Laughter.) 

But while I petition God for a whole range of things, there are a few common themes that do recur.  The first category of prayer comes out of the urgency of the Old Testament prophets and the Gospel itself.  I pray for my ability to help those who are struggling.  Christian tradition teaches that one day the world will be turned right side up and everything will return as it should be.  But until that day, we're called to work on behalf of a God that chose justice and mercy and compassion to the most vulnerable.

We've seen a lot of hardship these past two years.  Not a day passes when I don't get a letter from somebody or meet someone who’s out of work or lost their home or without health care.  The story Randall told about his father -- that's a story that a whole lot of Americans have gone through over these past couple of years. 

Sometimes I can't help right away.  Sometimes what I can do to try to improve the economy or to curb foreclosures or to help deal with the health care system -- sometimes it seems so distant and so remote, so profoundly inadequate to the enormity of the need.  And it is my faith, then, that biblical injunction to serve the least of these, that keeps me going and that keeps me from being overwhelmed.  It’s faith that reminds me that despite being just one very imperfect man, I can still help whoever I can, however I can, wherever I can, for as long as I can, and that somehow God will buttress these efforts. 

It also helps to know that none of us are alone in answering this call.  It’s being taken up each and every day by so many of you -- back home, your churches, your temples and synagogues, your fellow congregants -- so many faith groups across this great country of ours...

 ...a second recurring theme in my prayers is a prayer for humility.  Now, God answered this prayer for me early on by having me marry Michelle.  (Laughter and applause.)  Because whether it’s reminding me of a chore undone, or questioning the wisdom of watching my third football game in a row on Sunday, she keeps me humble.  (Laughter.) 

     But in this life of politics when debates have become so bitterly polarized, and changes in the media lead so many of us just to listen to those who reinforce our existing biases, it’s useful to go back to Scripture to remind ourselves that none of has all the answers -- none of us, no matter what our political party or our station in life.  

The full breadth of human knowledge is like a grain of sand in God’s hands.  And there are some mysteries in this world we cannot fully comprehend.  As it’s written in Job, “God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways.  He does great things beyond our understandings.”

The challenge I find then is to balance this uncertainty, this humility, with the need to fight for deeply held convictions, to be open to other points of view but firm in our core principles.  And I pray for this wisdom every day.

I pray that God will show me and all of us the limits of our understanding, and open our ears and our hearts to our brothers and sisters with different points of view; that such reminders of our shared hopes and our shared dreams and our shared limitations as children of God will reveal the way forward that we can travel together.

And the last recurring theme, one that binds all prayers together, is that I might walk closer with God and make that walk my first and most important task.

In our own lives it’s easy to be consumed by our daily worries and our daily concerns.  And it is even easier at a time when everybody is busy, everybody is stressed, and everybody -- our culture is obsessed with wealth and power and celebrity.  And often it takes a brush with hardship or tragedy to shake us out of that, to remind us of what matters most. 

We see an aging parent wither under a long illness, or we lose a daughter or a husband in Afghanistan, we watch a gunman open fire in a supermarket -- and we remember how fleeting life can be.  And we ask ourselves how have we treated others, whether we’ve told our family and friends how much we love them.  And it’s in these moments, when we feel most intensely our mortality and our own flaws and the sins of the world, that we most desperately seek to touch the face of God. 

The president's personal testimony of faith was appropriate considering his faith continues to come under attack by political partisans and his comments on the role of church and state in the work to fight poverty were spot on. The president should be congratulated for a fine speech.

"Don't Let This Be the Start of A Dangerous Trend in Women's Health Care Restrictions"

Action Alert From the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) has reintroduced his misleading "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" bill (HR 3). He says it would “only” codify the unjust Hyde Amendment but in fact it would be even more damaging to women’s access to reproductive health care.

Right now, the Hyde Amendment – which bans federal funds for abortion for low-income women, except in very limited cases – must be passed by Congress every year or it will lapse. Smith wants to make the Hyde ban permanent, thereby establishing in law an unfair tier-two system for reproductive health service – one for women with private insurance or who can pay themselves and another for low-income women.  Not only that, this bill would increase specific taxes on individuals and small businesses that would have the effect of preventing women from obtaining abortion services.

Women of all economic levels would suffer if this bill passes. Now, more than 80 percent of health  insurance plans cover abortion. If this bill passes, millions of women with private insurance would lose coverage for abortion, with serious economic effects. The most devastating effect would be on the most vulnerable women, including poor women, young women, women of color, immigrants, and women who live in rural areas.

Please take a moment to urge your Congressperson not only to OPPOSE this bill, but also to educate his or her  fellow representatives to do the same.

Global Weirding: Man Made Climate Change Brings Big Snow Storms

From Chicago January 2011

It snowed in January in Chicago (as evidenced by this photo I took while at Chicago Theological Seminary).  This week it is snowing again but the snow is breaking records.  That has brought climate change deniers out in full force.  Former Vice-President Al Gore answered one of those deniers, FOX News climatologist Bill O'Reilly, directly today:

Last week on his show Bill O’Reilly asked, “Why has southern New York turned into the tundra?” and then said he had a call into me. I appreciate the question.

As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming:

“In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe. Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow.”

“A rise in global temperature can create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters, along with increasingly violent storms, flooding, forest fires and loss of endangered species.”

People like O'Reilly and Sarah Palin actually make a living off ignoring scientific truth.  Unfortunately, they have influence and that influence puts our planet in peril.  As stewards of God's creation, our collective inability to address man-made climate change is simply a sin.  That is why mainline Christians, evangelical Christians, orthodox Christians, Jews and Muslims have all called for action to save creation in the face of crisis.     

Pray for #Egypt; Demand Mubarak Leave Or U.S. Aid Must Stop #jan25

As the world watches events unfold in Egypt, the World Council of Churches has issued the following statement:

The World Council of Churches is following the situation in Egypt with great concern.  Member churches in all parts of the world are praying for the people of Egypt.  There are disturbing reports of increasing numbers of people being killed, of assaults and threats and of many living in fear.  Our hopes and prayers are for the safety of citizens, for wisdom and compassion on the part of the authorities and for a non-violent and just resolution of conflicts and grievances. 

We call for peaceful dialogue and joint efforts at every level of society to find the way forward to a future that brings hope and security for the good of all people and communities.

We pray to God for mercy and protection for the Egyptian people and for all religious communities, and we are standing together with the churches in these challenging times.

President Obama is right to call for President Mubarak's transition from power to begin now - not September, as President Mubarak has suggested.  I believe, however, that the U.S. must go further in light of today's violent acts against peaceful protesters.  All U.S. military aid to Mubarak's government should be immediately suspended.

Let all people of faith - regardless of nationality or religious tradition - keep the people of Egypt in our prayers. 

Neil Goldschmidt's Final Act Of Rape

When Willamette Week first published a story detailing that Neil Goldschmidt had raped a young girl I didn't want to believe it.  On my blog, I cautioned people not to not rush to judgement without hearing all the facts.  Willamette Week had gotten stories wrong before, I warned (which led WW editor Mark Zusman to track me down in St. Louis where I was attending seminary in 2004 with a series of e-mails and phone calls expressing, well, I'll politely call it dismay).

But Willamette Week got this story right.  It turned out that the man so many admired - the man whose campaign for governor I volunteered on as a high school student, who wrote me letters of recommendation to college - was a sexual predator.  Willamette Week did the public a great service by breaking the silence and bringing Goldschmidt down.  

Now, as has been widely reported, Goldschmidt's victim has died.  The Oregonian has a story today which tells her side of the story (a story they waited to publish until she died after a life of hell set in motion after Goldschmidt began abusing her) and she included a final request:  don't disclose my name.  The Oregonian honored that request.  

WW, on the other hand, published her name online last night.  In doing so, they dishonored her memory and subjected her to one in a last line of indignities.  WW defends their decision by saying Goldschmidt shouldn't be allowed in the end to steal her "identity."  That choice should have belonged to her and not WW.  Abuse victims will think twice before coming forward if they believe they will be identified in the paper against their wishes.  I don't question their motives in naming this woman but do question their judgement.     

The final indignity, of course, came from Goldschmidt himself.  He offered The Oregonian a statement for their story in which he claimed that the allegations of abuse against him "vary substantially from the truth."  The former mayor and governor expressed remorse but then went on to accuse the dead woman whose life he left in tatters of lying about their relationship.  At one time, he called that relationship an "affair."  It was rape.  A 35-year old man raping a 13-year year old girl.  That is the truth no matter how Goldschmidt tries to spin it.  In his statement this week, he raped her again.  

His is the name that should rightfully be erased from history.  If only wishing made it so.