Dear Pastor Driscoll:

News that Mars Hills will soon be opening a Portland worship center has reached the media.  The Portland Mercury called today to ask my reaction.

In short, I told them that I hoped Mars Hill would find Portland a welcoming community and a place you as a pastor - and your parishioners - would grow spiritually.  However, if Mars Hills is locating in Portland with the hope of evangelizing the city to your particular understanding of the Christian faith your efforts might be met not just with resistance but with opposition.

Let me explain: In a city that values diversity and tolerance - including respect and acceptance of the LGBT community - there is a concern from many that based on your previous statements that Mars Hill will become a another focal point in the cultural wars.  We don't need that in Portland.  

As a minister in the United Church of Christ, I believe (and preach) that there is nothing inconsistent with homosexuality and Christianity.  Our church has been at the forefront of efforts to expand civil rights to the gay and lesbian community over the last twenty-five years in Oregon.  Believe me, our position was an unpopular one to take in the beginning and even less than a decade ago voters in Oregon sided with the religious right in denying gays and lesbians full marriage equality. 

Our faith in Jesus, however, doesn't require that we be popular.  We have a history in the United Church of Christ of being "the first" to take stands on controversial issues.  In doing so, we have always tried to be faithful to Scripture, tradition, reason and experience (the John Wesley model). 

All churches have a responsibility to be more than social clubs (a problem commonly found in our mainline tradition).  We need to be agents of change that work in partnership with others to create positive growth.   

I hope that as you enter Portland as a newcomer to this community you come with your eyes and heart open into the ways that God may use this community to shape your ministry.  We have a tradition of creating ecumenical partnerships that I hope you become part of.  And I deeply hope that you will put aside the hateful sermons against gays and lesbians, and the diatribes against yoga as demonic, and instead work with your brothers and sisters in Christ to find common ground that helps promote the common good of this great city. 

At the same time, I have found from many evangelicals such as Kevin Palau that Portland stands to benefit from the ministry and work of the evangelical community.  Kevin and his family model for us a ministry built on mutual respect and compassion.

In short, if you're coming here to save the sinners of Portland, don't bother.  But if you're coming to be a good neighbor and friend you'll find a lot of out stretched hands.

I hope that sometime soon you and Pastor Tim Smith might make time to have coffee and talk more about what makes Portland a special place (we also have good beer here, which I understand you like).

Welcome to the city of Roses.

Your brother in Christ,

 

 

 

The Rev. Chuck Currie        

My hope is that more and more progressive Christians will become engaged in the public square. But we should not replicate our efforts out of what the religious right has done.

My latest op-ed on The Huffington Post.

Last night our friends Scott and Janice Gratton invited us to a special fund raising dinner to learn more about the Portland Children's Relief Nursery - a critical program that operates both in St. John's and East County - providing services to young children and their families:

We provide a range of services that “wrap-around” the family to reduce parental stress and social isolation.  We’re teaching parenting skills, strengthening bonds between parents and their babies, providing targeted services, reducing child behavioral problems and improving social-emotional development in very young children.

We believe that by focusing on the social and emotional well-being of the youngest, most vulnerable children, we can strengthen families. We do this at a time when we can have the greatest impact on their lives, when their children are infants through age 4. Our families get the help they need, when they need it, to overcome their difficulties and emerge stronger — as a family. A failed family becomes a burden on the community. A successful one contributes to it. Together, we are making families stronger.

It was impressive to see Portland Children's Relief Nursery firsthand and to hear how this agency is working with families that have both suffered abuse or are at risk of abuse. 

We hope that you will consider supporting Portland Children's Relief Nursery as they seek to expand services during difficult economic times.

The Oregon Center for Public Policy sends along the following information:

This week Oregonians will be rallying in cities throughout the state, delivering a message to their congressional representatives: jobs, not cuts.

Below is the list of cities where rallies will take place. The accompanying links are to flyers (PDF) providing details regarding the times and locations:    

Hood River -- Tuesday, August 30

Eugene -- Tuesday, August 30

Medford -- Wednesday, August 31

Salem -- Wednesday, August 31

Bend --  Thursday, September 1

Portland -- Thursday, September 1st 

These events, in coordination with the Rebuild The Dream movement, are sponsored by: Oregon Action, Jobs With Justice, Alliance for Democracy, US Uncut, Rural Organizing Project, We Are Oregon, SEIU 503, SEIU 49, Moveon.org, AFSCME, PCUN, Economic Fairness Oregon, Unite-Here Local 9, Our Oregon, Pride At Work and Basic Rights Oregon.

How we address the unemployment crisis was the topic of a letter I sent President Obama today - asking him to support the Urban Jobs Act and to support recommendations made by the Center for American Progress regarding job growth.

As the Center for American Progress notes, the GOP's jobs plan is a "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" that would hurt families across our nation.

We can and we must do better.

Chicago Theological Seminary has been my temporary home again this week as I continue work toward a doctor of ministry degree.  What made this trip back to CTS particularly special for me was that this will be the last time I'm on the historic campus.  I'll be taking two classes on-line this fall but the next time I'm on campus in January the seminary will have moved into their new facilities - a high-tech, eco-friendly building designed for theological education in the 21st century.

Change is never easy and leaving behind a building as beautiful and rich in history as the current campus will be difficult.  I feel very fortunate to have begun my D.Min. studies in the "old" building so that I can be a part of that history.  The move to the new campus, however, will help to make sure that CTS is still creating bold religious leaders committed to Gospel-centered social transformation that builds up the "Beloved Community" that The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about when he based his Chicago operations out of CTS in the 1960s.  

You can already see the future of Chicago Theological Seminary taking place at 1407 E. 60th Street, just a short walk from the historic campus:

 I'm looking forward to visiting this new building over the next few years as I work on my degree.  Click here to learn more about the new campus.

The Center for American Progress has just released a vital new report that explores Islamophobia in the United States and how a well funded network of political operatives are working to use religion as a tool to divide Americans. As we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the 2012 elections, it is important to understand, as the report explains, how religious bigotry is being used to harm the common good of the United States:

This report shines a light on the Islamophobia network of so-called experts, academics, institutions, grassroots organizations, media outlets, and donors who manufacture, produce, distribute, and mainstream an irrational fear of Islam and Muslims. Let us learn the proper lesson from the past, and rise above fear-mongering to public awareness, acceptance, and respect for our fellow Americans. In doing so, let us prevent hatred from infecting and endangering our country again.

In the pages that follow, we profile the small number of funders, organizations, and individuals who have contributed to the discourse on Islamophobia in this country. We begin with the money trail in Chapter 1—our analysis of the funding streams that support anti-Muslim activities. Chapter 2 identifies the intellectual nexus of the Islamophobia network. Chapter 3 highlights the key grassroots players and organizations that help spread the messages of hate. Chapter 4 aggregates the key media amplifiers of Islamophobia. And Chapter 5 brings attention to the elected officials who frequently support the causes of anti- Muslim organizing.

Before we begin, a word about the term “Islamophobia.” We don’t use this term lightly. We define it as an exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination, and the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from America’s social, political, and civic life.

It is our view that in order to safeguard our national security and uphold America’s core values, we must return to a fact-based civil discourse regarding the challenges we face as a nation and world. This discourse must be frank and honest, but also consistent with American values of religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and respect for pluralism. A first step toward the goal of honest, civil discourse is to expose—and marginalize—the influence of the individuals and groups who make up the Islamophobia network in America by actively working to divide Americans against one another through misinformation.

Click here to read the full report. This publication should be shared widely in our churches and across America.

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President Obama made some important immigration-related decisions last week, as Church World Service notes, that I wanted to lift up:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Friday, August 19, 2011 – Humanitarian agency Church World Service applauds the Obama administration’s announcement Thursday that it would suspend deportation proceedings against many undocumented immigrants who pose no threat to United States national security or public safety, and instead would exercise prosecutorial discretion to focus enforcement efforts on cases involving criminals.

“This is a big and important step toward fair, humane, common sense reform of our nation’s broken immigration system," said Erol Kekic, Director of the CWS immigration and refugee program.

“President Obama’s decision puts national resources to the important goal of ensuring the security of our communities and stops wasting those precious resources on arresting, detaining and deporting low-priority cases, including individuals who were brought to this country as young children and know no other home,” Kekic said.

Church World Service is a long-time advocate of immigration reform that reunites families, protects all workers and provides a way for undocumented immigrants to earn legal status, including students who were brought to the United States as children and are undocumented.

The administration’s directive and new guidelines from the Department of Homeland Security echo in part the intention of proposed DREAM Act legislation, which would give young undocumented immigrants who are attending college or serving in the military an opportunity to work legally and attain legal status.

“We look forward to working with the Obama Administration on and holding it accountable for implementation of the new policy and with Congress on further reform, Kekic said.

Church World Service is one of ten voluntary agencies that helps resettle newly arrived refugees in the U.S. The international relief, development and refugee protection agency also provides immigration legal services for immigrants and refugees, working through its nationwide network of local affiliate agencies.

The United States still needs comprehensive immigration reform that provides an earned pathway to citizenship. President Obama has laid out such a plan - one that has gained support from the U.S. Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops, Southern Baptist leaders, and mainline leaders from the National Council of Churches and the United Church of Christ. But politicians in Washington, D.C. are ignoring the strong public support for President Obama's reform efforts and trying to use this issue to divide the public along racial and regional lines. We must do better as a country. Thankfully, the president is moving us in the right direction.

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Remember how Texas Governor Rick Perry and his extremist allies in the really far fringes of the religious right said their "prayer rally" earlier this month wasn't political?  Turns out the sponsor is using the list of attendees to register "conservative Christian" voters for the upcoming election:

AUSTIN - The organizer of The Response, the massive Aug. 6 prayer rally initiated by Gov. Rick Perry, is calling on attendees to help register millions of conservative Christians, prompting questions about the group and Perry's claims the event was not political.

Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, sent an email Thursday thanking recipients for registering for The Response, which drew thousands of people to Reliant Stadium.

"Today, I want to introduce you to Champion the Vote (CTV), a friend of AFA whose mission is to mobilize 5 million unregistered conservative Christians to register and vote according to the Biblical worldview in 2012," Wildmon wrote.

The email does not mention any candidate or party, and experts said it appears to keep on the right side of the law governing nonprofits.

Mark Jones, political science professor at Rice University, said tax-exempt nonprofits can engage in voter registration, education and turnout drives. He added of the email, however, "It certainly highlights the political nature of The Response."

Full story.

I've been a mostly happy and loyal customer of Typepad, the blogging service, since this site launched in 2003.  My experience with the customer service has been excellent and any problems mostly small.

But Typepad has never made a serious attempt to make their service available to mobile customers.  

The app they developed for the iPhone isn't usable and they've never developed an app for the iPad.  I've asked customer service if they'll ever catch up to the times and been told they are "actively discussing future features to improve the use of TypePad with iPad and iPhone devices."  

But how many years does it take?

BlogPress is the app I use on the road and while superior to the Typepad app it is still like using a Commodore 64 to blog with.

Typepad's lack of attention to their mobile customers makes me wonder if the product is a doomed dinosaur dying a slow death?

There is a lot you can disagree with GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman on.  After all, debate is what campaigns are all about.  But I appreciated his "crazy" tweet this week for two reasons:  he embraced science (while the rest of the GOP field seems to be afraid of science and the role it plays in society) and he demonstrated that there are issues on which Republicans and Democrats can and should find common ground.  

 You'll remember that the GOP's Senate leader was asked after the 2010 election what his party's #1 priority was:  beating President Obama in 2012, he replied.  He didn't say fixing the economy or creating jobs.  

The only goal the Republicans have is defeating President Obama and in the debate over the debt ceiling they proved they were willing to drive the country over a cliff to do so - no matter what happened to the American people.

And thus we received the Tea Party downgrade of our credit rating as a nation.  All because of politics.

Huntsman is running a campaign that seems to be based on the idea that the country is more important than any one election or political party.  

The Tea Party GOP might hate him for it and he might drop out before a single vote is cast but it will be to their lasting regret.  Huntsman is a conservative, no question about it, but he is a principled American first and a candidate like that could win a general election (maybe not against President Obama, who is also a principled man) but the GOP today doesn't seem as interested in principle as they do extremism.  

The attacks this week in Israel, as Human Rights Watch reports, are unjustified and undermine the cause of peace:

(Jerusalem) – Attacks by unidentified gunmen that killed at least six Israeli civilians and wounded dozens more in southern Israel on August 18, 2011, were an egregious assault on the right to life, Human Rights Watch said today.

“Attacking civilians with firearms, bombs, and rockets shows an abominable disregard for human life,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

Churches for Middle East Peace noted the response:

At least six Palestinians in Gaza were killed in Israeli airstrikes in response to the attack. A correspondent for Ma’an News said that the home in Rafah that was bombed belonged to Popular Resistance Committees official Khaled Shaath. Official Israeli sources said the IDF raids in Gaza had killed the PRC leaders who it suspects organized these raids as well as the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who has been held captive by Hamas since 2006. The IDF says that at least 10 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel following Israel’s airstrike. Two of the rockets caused damage and injuries in the Israeli port city of Ashdod.

On-going violence is not the only factor that continues to hinder peace efforts:

As protests about the high cost of living in Israel continued in the streets for the fourth week, the Israeli government continued with its effort to expedite the construction of new housing in settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. With Monday’s announcement of plans for 277 additional units in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, the government has approved the construction of more than 5,800 new homes in the occupied territories in less than two weeks.

In a statement announcing the approval of new construction in Ariel, the Israeli Defense Ministry stated that more than one-third of the new units will house settlers evacuated from Gaza in 2005. With a population of around 18,000, Ariel has seen few housing approvals in recent years. The settlement is located deep inside of the West Bank, more than 10 miles from the Green Line or pre-1967 line. Israelis insist that Ariel will be kept in any final agreement, but Palestinians say they need the area for a future state.

The Middle East Quartet released a statement on Tuesday expressing great concern about Israel’s recent announcements about new building plans in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The document asserted, “The Quartet reaffirms that unilateral action by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community.” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday, "Like every American administration for decades, we do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity."

J Street, the U.S. Jewish group which condemned the terrorist acts along with Human Rights Watch and others, also issued a statement earlier stating that further Israeli settlements will destroy efforts to develop a lasting peace:

J Street strongly opposes the Israeli government’s announcement of new housing development in the outlying settlement of Ariel.

In calling the new housing “unhelpful” or “counterproductive,” the Obama administration is understating the enormous damage that daily announcements of new settlement construction are doing to the chances for a two-state solution.

This month, over 80 Members of Congress are visiting Israel. We urge them to see – as their fellow Congressmen who visit the region with the J Street Education Fund do – the damage that ongoing settlement construction in places like Ariel or the Jerusalem suburbs over the Green Line are doing to the chances for a peaceful two-state solution.

These announcements constitute exactly the sort of unilateral action that undercut Israel’s argument that the Palestinians should refrain from unilateral steps such as appealing to the United Nations as they try to create a viable state on the West Bank.

We urge the Members of Congress visiting Israel to gain further first-hand knowledge of the situation on the ground by visiting the expanding settlements and to take advantage of the opportunity they have in meeting with Israeli officials on their trip to make clear America’s long-standing opposition to these developments.

Please keep the people of Israel and Palestine in your prayers and reach out to members of Congress to demand that they fully embrace a two-state solution.

Today I had the good fortunate to visit with some of the youth attending summer camp at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ.  This was only my second visit to the church since leaving my position there nearly two years ago as the long-term interim minister.

Parkrose continues to be a church in transition and as such they reflect they community they are a part of in NE Portland.  Since The Rev. Don Frueh was called as the congregation's permanent minister they've worked with the Center for Progressive Renewal and others to continue an exciting  journey the congregation began when I was called there in 2006 and the membership began an intentional process of discerning what it means "to be" church.

A congregation that was once on the verge of collapse is being renewed and that is vital because a progressive Christian voice in needed in mid-county.   

The church was started in 1913 and what worked then doesn't work now.  Churches need to adapt with the times and also help shape the times by providing moral leadership on important issues, such as economic justice for those living in poverty and equality for all. 

Rev. Frueh and the people of Parkrose Community United Church of Christ are together creating a living model of a loving, faithful, progressive Christian church that other mainline churches can learn from.

It was a joy to visit there today.  

A new group with a good sounding name - Christians for a Sustainable Economy - has formed.  But what's their real agenda?  As Faith in Public Life notes the political organization is a "who's who" of the conservative movement with a campaign that:

...cloaks conservative economic orthodoxy in the language of compassion and falsely alleges that the Circle of Protection's signers "provide a religious imprimatur for big government and sanctify federal welfare programs that are often ineffective."

Recognizing that Americans' views on the economy are shaped by their moral values, the Religious Right is mounting a large-scale effort to convince the country that protecting tax breaks for those at the top and slashing protections for the rest of us is the moral response to hard times. We can't cede the high ground.

Click here for more.

Perry's comments about Ben Bernanke were unpresidential. More importantly for a candidate who professes that he is called by God to run for the presidency, his comments were un-Christian.

My latest op-ed in The Huffington Post.

Nice when the symphony comes to play in your neighborhood park...

They make it so convenient that they actually perform at the end of our street.  Thank you Portland Festival Symphony! 

If you didn't catch it yesterday The New York Times reported on how an Episcopal bishop. United Methodist bishop and Roman Catholic bishop have sued the state of Alabama over a new anti-immigration law.  

We need comprehensive immigration reform in our nation but the Tea Party Congress is blocking common sense reform proposed by President Obama, similar to a reform bill pushed by George W. Bush, that would protect our borders and provide a earned pathway to citizenship that has broad popular support from US voters tired of inaction on this issue.  

Alabama has enacted draconian state legislation that goes against basic American principles and just as importantly infringes on the Constitutional rights of faith communities to practice their faith.

150 United Methodist Alabama clergy have signed a letter, mentioned in The New York Times article, explaining just wwhy this law is immoral and I wanted to lift up that letter by reprinting it here:

An Open Letter to Governor Robert Bentley, Senator Scott Beason, and Rep. Micky Hammon:

Forty-eight years ago, while sitting in a Birmingham jail cell, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote that, just as Christians have a moral duty to obey just laws, they also have a moral duty to disobey unjust ones.  We are a group of United Methodist ministers from all across the state of Alabama who believe that HB 56 is an unjust law.  Both proponents and opponents of the bill have described HB 56 as the “toughest immigration law in the country.”  Among other measures to discourage illegal immigration, it gives police the ability to stop anyone they have a “reasonable suspicion” may be here illegally.  It requires schools to verify the immigration or citizenship status of students.  It denies bail to anyone arrested for being here illegally.  And, it makes it a crime for a citizen to associate with undocumented persons, whether that be inviting them to one’s home or church or giving them a ride in a car. 

We know that many who support this law are well-meaning individuals who are seeking to find the state's best interest: they are people who are worried about employment in this fragile economy and some feel that the state is strained to pay for services like health care, police protection, and education for those who may be here illegally.  These are all valid concerns.   

We believe, however, that many elements of this law are not in the state’s best interest.  Teachers and principals are already stretched thin and have suffered tremendous budget cuts.  Requiring them to also verify the immigration status of students will, in all likelihood, cost rather than save money and can only distract them from their most important task: preparing our children to succeed.  Prohibiting bond to people who are here illegally means that more and more people will be kept in jails that are already overcrowded and understaffed.  Finally, this law will most certainly be challenged in court and could cost the state millions of dollars at a time when nearly every state board and agency must accept budget cuts in this economy. 

As Christian ministers, however, we believe that this law is not only impractical, but it also contradicts the essential tenets of the Christian faith.  In Exodus 22:21, God commands the people, “You shall not oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt,” and in Leviticus 19:34 God says, “You shall love the alien as yourself.”  In one of his most famous parables, Jesus used the example of the Good Samaritan – someone who was not considered a true Jewish citizen -- who stopped to help a battered and beaten man while the leaders of the people passed him by.  And the apostle Paul taught us that in Christ there is “no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, but all are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). 

HB 56 would force many of our churches and many people in our churches to become lawbreakers, because we believe that God has called us to be a church in ministry to ALL people.  United Methodists across the state welcome people regardless of immigration or citizenship status.  Many of our fastest growing churches are Spanish-speaking, and we do not check people’s immigration status at the door.  In response to Jesus’ admonition in the parable of the Last Judgment to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked and welcome the stranger, many churches have ministries to care for those who are poor by providing them with food, shelter, and transportation.  Again, we do not check people’s immigration status before inviting them into our church vans and cars.  We United Methodist clergy will continue to be in ministry to all people and we call on all United Methodists to do the same.  We call on the governor to call a special legislative session to review this bill, and we call on the legislature to repeal HB56.

Click here to see the list of signers.

We can be proud that clergy in Alabama are bravely standing up for God's justice.

I don't follow Victoria Taft on Twitter.  She's a minor league right-wing radio talk show personality here in Portland.  But she follows me religiously and tweets about me with devotion.  Tonight I'm all she can talk about.  Which makes me wonder: is she just another internet stalker (I've got a few of those) or is there something seriously wrong with this woman who spends her Saturday nights accusing clergy of palling around with socialists?

The first five minutes or so of my interview on FOX News from this morning concerning the Ames GOP presidential debate has been posted online at:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1107684167001/faith-amp-politics-debt-reaction/

Related Post: GOP 2012 Field Looks To Tea Party For Inspiration #amesdebate

Note:  I'll be on FoxNews.Com Live at 11am Pacific / 2 pm Eastern to discuss the GOP debate.

Tonight FOX News broadcast the latest GOP presidential debate.  Eight candidates - minus incoming candidate Rick Perry - took part and instead of using the opportunity to address issues important to the American people, such as creating jobs, used their time to fight among one another and to pledge allegiance to the Tea Party, the most unpopular political movement of our time.  It was a missed opportunity to share a positive vision of our nation and while some of the candidates, particularly Michelle Bachman, may have scored points with far right voters that will be important in the Iowa caucus none of the candidates embraced a mainstream agenda that voters would support in a general election.

There was a lot of pandering to the religious right, as you might expect.  Rick Santorum re-pledged his support for arresting doctors that provide even medically needed abortions (remember that he along with Bachmann were the only "candidates to sign a controversial pledge pushed by the Iowa Family Leader that disturbingly implied that African American children were better off in slavery in 1860 than they are in 2011, based on respective family structures").  Tim Pawlenty, who has recently been part of a "bus tour opposing same-sex marriage and abortion and advocating for 'religious liberty,'" seconded Santorum's radical call for criminal penalties for physicians who provide health care to women. 

Mitt Romney, the frontrunner who was pro-choice and supportive of equality for gays and lesbians when he first ran for office in the 1990s, spent most of his time dodging questions about his record.  Voters are still left wondering who the real Mitt Romney is: the moderate Massachusetts governor or the born-again conservative of his 2008 and 2012 campaigns?

Looming in the shadows of tonight's debate was the impending candidacy of Rick Perry.  The Texas governor is expected to announce in South Carolina this weekend - just one week after his "prayer rally" hosted with collection of hard core religious right organizations - and a primary sponsor that is a noted hate group. 

Again, religious right voters who make up a vital part of the Iowa caucus will find a lot to like in several of these candidates.  Mainstream voters, including people of faith, will be turned off by the rhetoric heard tonight and the lack of substantive proposals from the GOP field on how to get the economy moving after the Tea Party downgrade.    

FOX News channel contributor Doug Schoen summed it up right tonight:  the winner of the debate was Barack Obama.  The GOP field tonight embraced the religious right and the agenda put forth by Congressional republicans, at a time Congress is polling at a historic low of 14%.  Americans might not agree with President Obama on every issue but they know he isn't an extremist and polls show that on most key issues the president's positions, such as increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans to help bring stability to our national finances, have broad popular support.              

My latest op-ed on The Huffington Post deals with the Christian faith of former U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield. . As you'll read, Senator Hatfield's tenure in the Senate was an example of how evangelicals and mainline Christians like myself could find common ground to promote to common good.

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Former U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR), who died this evening, was a faithful Christian who stood up for the "least of these" and fought against war and for peace during his remarkable life.  Like many Oregonians, I proudly had the opportunity to work with Senator Hatfield on these issues during the later part of his time in office.  He joined me at Baloney Joe's, the old homeless shelter on Burnside, at Christmas time where he spoke out in favor of federal assistance for affordable housing  and mental health care in the late 1980s.  In the early 1990s he visited me and other advocates at Outside In for a forum on health care needs for those experiencing homelessness.  In Washington, D.C., he fought President Reagan in 1987 until the president yielded to enact the McKinney Act (now know as the McKinney-Vento Act), the nation's first major federal response to homelessness.  The McKinney-Vento Act remains today the linchpin in America's effort to address homelessness.  He stood with the National Council of Churches and other religious leaders to oppose the Gulf War in 1991, as he had opposed the Vietnam War and other misadventures in foreign policy.  Senator Hatfield's deep and abiding faith made him a champion for social justice and a remarkable, unusual, leader.  I give praise to God for his life and know that this servant of Christ is at peace.  My prayers are with his wife, Ms. Antoinette Hatfield, and children.      

 

The New York Times has a rather harsh critique of President Obama written today by Drew Westen.  I've spent a little bit of time with Dr. Westen and appreciate his insights on the Obama presidency at this stage of the term.  Drew is asking - with more eloquence - the same questions I did last week about where the president stands on the issues of the day and what his core principles are.  I don't share his overall assessment of the Obama presidency - the president has accomplished a number of difficult goals that have moved our nation forward - but I do agree with his general assessment that President Obama more clearly needs to define what he stands for and why.  "Compromise" with a Tea Party-controlled House isn't a governing strategy when the policies that result leave the country on the edge of disaster.  Check out What Happened To Obama?      

Texas Governor Rick Perry is concluding his "prayer rally" - called The Response - where earlier today he prayed that “those who cannot see the light in the midst of all the darkness” would find their way through faith in Jesus Christ.  Perry forgot, however, to heed the teaching of Jesus found in Matthew 7:3 (NRSV): "Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?"

Perry's rally was not a place of light but of division and despair.  He teamed up to sponsor the rally with a collection of hard core religious right organizations - and the primary sponsor was a noted hate group.  Together these organizations have distorted the Christian faith to target women, democrats, gays, lesbians, Roman Catholics and Muslims with hate filled rhetoric and a warped theology.  

The Response was a political event - the unofficial kick-off to what appears to be Perry's 2012 presidential bid - and as such was a gross misuse of the Christian faith.  Perry hoped to fill the stadium with 70,000 supporters but only 30,000 showed up.  Still, he clearly accomplished his primary goal of establishing himself as the social conservative candidate to beat among those running for the GOP 2012 nomination.  You have to wonder, however, in a general election how he will explain his deep relationships with such radical individuals whose far-right beliefs offend most Americans, most people of faith in general, and yes, most Christians.     

A lot of media commentary concerning Texas Governor Rick Perry's "prayer rally" this weekend has focused on the question of the separation of church and state.  Should a governer in his official capacity be hosting a prayer rally?  That's a good constitutional question.  The moral question not being talked about enough concerns the religious extremists sponsoring the event with Perry.  We're faced with the frightening reality that a U.S. governor has aligned himself with not just the religious right - but with radical organizations and one certified hate group.

Perry's rally was the subject of a recent post I wrote for The Huffington Post.  I noted there that "Perry has teamed up to host the event with an array of far-right Christian leaders who combined have targeted women, democrats, gays, lesbians, Roman Catholics and Muslims with hate filled rhetoric and a warped theology most will never hear preached in your neighborhood church."  That was no exaggeration.

People for the American Way has a run down on some of the participants:

The American Family Association

The American Family Association is the driving force behind The Response. Founded by the Rev. Don Wildmon in 1977, the organization is based is best known for its various boycott campaigns, promotion of art censorship, and political advocacy against women’s rights and LGBT equality. The organization also controls the vast American Family Radio and an online news service, in addition to sponsoring various conferences frequented by Republican leaders, including the Values Voter Summit and Rediscovering God in America. The AFA today is led by Tim Wildmon, Don’s son, and its chief spokesperson is Bryan Fischer, the Director of Issues Analysis for Government and Public Policy and host of its flagship radio show Focal Point.

Fischer routinely expresses support for some of the most bigoted and shocking ideas found in the Religious Right today. He has:

• held gays responsible for the Holocaust and likened them to domestic terrorists and Nazis who are intent on committing “virtual genocide” against the military, and asserts that “homosexuals should be disqualified from public office”;
• said “we have feminized the Medal of Honor” by awarding it to a soldier who saved his fellow combatants rather than killing enemies;
• demanded all immigrants “convert to Christianity” and renounce their religions;
• asserted that Muslims have “no fundamental First Amendment claims” and should be banned from building mosques and deported from the US, adding that Muslims are inherently stupid as a result of inbreeding;
• claimed African American women “rut like rabbits” due to welfare and that Native Americans are “morally disqualified” from living in America because they didn’t convert to Christianity and were consequently cursed by God with alcoholism and poverty;
• said that the anti-Muslim manifesto of the right-wing Christian terrorist who killed dozens in Norway was “accurate.”

International House of Prayer

The Response’s leadership team includes five senior staff members of the International House of Prayer (IHOP), a large, highly political Pentecostal organization built on preparing participants for the return of Jesus Christ. In a recent video, IHOP encouraged supporters to pray for Jews to convert to Christianity in order to bring about the Second Coming. IHOP is closely associated with Lou Engle, a Religious Right leader whose anti-gay, anti-choice extremism hasn’t stopped him from hobnobbing with Republican leaders including Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann and Mike Huckabee. Engle is the founder of The Call, day-long rallies against abortion rights and gay marriage, which Engle says are meant to break Satan’s control over the U.S. government. One recent Call event featured “prophet”Cindy Jacobs calling for repentance for the “girl-on-girl kissing” of Britney Spears and Madonna. Perry's The Response event is clearly built upon Engle's The Call model.

Engle has a long history of pushing extreme right-wing views and advocating for a conservative theocracy in America. Engle:

• is a proponent of “Seven Mountains” dominionism, a movement that seeks to have Christians take control of all aspects of American life, including government, business, entertainment and the media;supports the criminalization of homosexuality;
• claimed that universities with LGBT anti-discrimination measures are teaching students to “accept the mark of the beast”;
• is waging a “spiritual war” on the Supreme Court to get abortion outlawed in America;
• prayed that Ellen Degeneres will be “converted” from homosexuality.
• led a prayer rally in Jerusalem to lead one of the "greatest awakenings in the earth" to bring the Jews of Israel to Christianity.
• claimed that the devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri was God’s judgment for abortion.

IHOP’s founder and executive director, Mike Bickle, who is an official endorser of The Response, like Engle pushes radical End Times prophesies. In one sermon, he declared that Oprah Winfrey is a precursor to the Antichrist.

The International House of Prayer, incidentally, remains locked in a copyright infringement lawsuit with the International House of Pancakes.

Tony Perkins

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, is a co-chairman of The Response. At the FRC, Perkins has been a vocal opponent of LGBT equality, often relying on false claims about gay people to push his agenda. He:

• called gay rights activists “intolerant,” “hateful,” “vile,” “spiteful” and “pawns” of Satan;
• denied that there was a correlation between anti-gay bullying and depression and suicide, saying instead that gay and lesbian teens know they are “abnormal” and “have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict";
• wrote that Senators would have "the blood of innocent soldiers on their hands" if they vote to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and allow gays to serve openly in the military;
• likened President Obama to a Middle East dictator when the president refused to defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act in court;
• said “I don’t know if the country can survive” another Obama term;
• said that armies that allow gays and lesbians to serve openly – including several U.S. allies in Iraq and Afghanistan –“participate in parades, they don’t fight wars to keep the world free.”

Jim Garlow

One of the most prominent members of The Response’s leadership team is pastor Jim Garlow. The pastor for a San Diego megachurch, Garlow has been intimately involved in political battles, especially the campaign to pass Proposition 8. Garlow invited and housed Lou Engle to lead The Callrallies around California for six months to sway voters to support Proposition 8, which would repeal the right of gay and lesbian couples to get married. He claims Satan is behind the “attack on marriage” and credits the prayer rallies for the passage of Prop 8. He said that during a massive The Call rally in San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium “something had snapped in the Heavenlies” and “God had moved” to deliver Prop 8 to victory.

Most importantly, Garlow is a close spiritual adviser to presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and leads Gingrich’s Renewing American Leadership (ReAL). Garlow is a principal advocate of Seven Mountains Dominionism, and wants to “bring armies of people” to bring Religious Right leaders into public office and defeat their political opponents.

Garlow has a long record of extreme rhetoric. He:

• when Prop 8 passed in California, claimed that African Americans “saved us from the bondage and enslavement that would come upon us if gay marriage actually passed in a state” and alleged marriage equality supporters are going to “totally destroy the definition of the family”;
• likened homosexuality to bestiality, saying that if marriage equality is upheld “the next court case could conceivably say that if three people wanted to marry or four people or five people or if someone wanted to marry their dog or their horse”;
• compared gay adoption to children losing their parents in the September 11th attacks and said that supporters of gay rights are “almost like an Antichrist spirit”;
• told conservative activists that “your land has cancer” and believes that the “lethal ideological ‘radiation’” of progressives “is killing our nation” and “poisoning us and our children”;
• argued that legal abortion is responsible for unemployment.

John Hagee

While Senator John McCain rejected John Hagee’s endorsement during the 2008 presidential campaign for his “deeply offensive and indefensible” remarks, Perry invited Hagee to join The Response. Hagee leads a megachurch in San Antonio, Texas, and is a purveyor of End Times prophesies. Like members of the International House of Prayer, Hagee utilizes language of spiritual warfare and says he is part of “the army of the living God.” He runs the prominent group Christians United For Israel, which believes that eventually a cataclysmic war in the Middle East will bring about the Rapture.

John McCain was forced to disavow Hagee for a reason as the Texas pastor:

• claimed that God sent Hitler to be a “hunter” of Jews to usher in the establishment of Israel and “do God’s work,” lamenting that Jews are no longer “spiritually alive.”
• referred to the Catholic Church as ‘The Great Whore,’ an ‘apostate church,’ the ‘anti-Christ,’ and a ‘false cult system.’
• believes that Hurricane Katrina “looked like the curse of God” and ravaged New Orleans in order to stop a “homosexual rally” and punish the city’s high “level of sin.”
• said that if gay marriage becomes legal “you can kiss this country goodbye,” alleged that the US is “rebirthing Sodom and Gomorrah,” and demanded that the government stop funding AIDS research and treatment to stop benefiting a “sinful lifestyle.”
• demands that “wives submit yourselves to your husbands” and said that the “husband has a God-given role as leader of your home.”
• said that God won’t allow the United States to win wars anymore because “we have allowed the worship of Satanism in the U.S. military.”

James Dobson

James Dobson, an official endorser of The Response, is one of the most prominent figures in the Religious Right. Founder of both Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council , Dobson has been instrumental in bringing the priorities of the Religious Right to Republican politics, includingcampaigning hard for President George W. Bush. But many of the views that Dobson pushes are hardly mainstream. Dobson:

• is no fan of the women’s movement, writing that women are just “waiting for their husbands to assume leadership” ;
• claims that marriage equality will “destroy the Earth”;
• insists that the Religious Right’s fight against Planned Parenthood is “very similar” to that of abolitionists who fought against the slave trade.
• Asked if God had withdrawn his hand from America after 9/11, Dobson responded: “Christians have made arguments on both sides of this question. I certainly believe that God is displeased with America for its pride and arrogance, for killing 40 million unborn babies, for the universality of profanity and for other forms of immorality. However, rather than trying to forge a direct cause-and-effect relationship between the terrorist attacks and America's abandonment of biblical principles, which I think is wrong, we need to accept the truth that this nation will suffer in many ways for departing from the principles of righteousness. "The wages of sin is death," as it says in Romans 6, both for individuals and for entire cultures.”

David Barton

David Barton, an official endorser of The Response, is a self-proclaimed historian known for his twisting of American History and the Bible to justify right-wing political positions. Barton’s strategy is twofold: he first works to find Biblical bases for right-wing policy initiatives, and then argues that the Founding Fathers wanted the United States to be a Christian nation, so obviously wanted whatever policy he has just found a flimsy Biblical basis for. Barton, “documenting” the divine origins of his interpretations of the Constitution gives him and his political allies a potent weapon. Opponents who disagree about tax policy or the powers of Congress are not only wrong, they are un-American and anti-religious, enemies of America and of God.

Barton uses his shoddy historical and biblical scholarship to push a right-wing political agenda, including:

• Biblical Capitalism: Barton’s “scholarship” helps to form the basis for far-right economic policies. He claims that “Jesus was against the minimum wage,” that the Bible “absolutely condemned” the estate tax,” and opposed the progressive income tax.
• Revising Racial History: Barton has traveled the country peddling a documentary he made blaming the Democratic Party for slavery, lynching and Jim Crow…while ignoring more recent history.
• Opposing Gay Rights: Barton believes the government should regulate gay sex and maintains that countries which “rejected sexual regulation” inevitably collapse.

Visit People of for the American Way's website for even more.

All Americans, regardless of religious tradition, should condemn Governor Perry's "prayer rally" and his allies.  But Christians have a special responsibility to stand up and say that our faith should not be used either to degenerate others or as a partisan political tool.  Many believe this rally is simply the opening bell in Perry's 2012 presidential campaign.  

Perry's rally is not about Jesus or the Christian faith but about hatred and extremism dressed up in the cloak of religiosity.

Photo credit: http://governor.state.tx.us/about/

50 is a big milestone, Mr. President.  I wish you all the best and thank you for your many achievements as president thus far.  Enjoy the day.

Despite all the "bad news" there is good news in a new poll:

A decade after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a Gallup poll released Tuesday found that the vast majority of Muslim Americans say they are loyal to the United States and optimistic about the future, even though they are more likely than other religious groups to say they recently experienced discrimination.

Nine out of 10 Muslim Americans said that their co-religionists in the United States were not sympathetic to Al Qaeda, the group held responsible for the 2001 attacks. Majorities in other religious groups agreed that Muslim Americans did not sympathize with Al Qaeda, but the percentages were much lower.

The poll in many ways contradicts the stereotype of Muslim Americans as an alienated and discontented religious minority. It was conducted by telephone from Feb. 10 to March 11, 2010, and Oct. 1 to 21, 2010, by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center, a Gallup-affiliated research group based in the United Arab Emirates. The poll, which included interviews with 2,482 adults of whom 475 said they were Muslim, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus seven percentage points for Muslims.

“It’s not a completely rosy picture,” said Mohamed Younis, senior analyst with the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies in Washington and an author of the study.

“The prejudice and discrimination are definitely there, and that’s something we have consistently seen in the data,” Mr. Younis said. “But at the same time many of the people in the Muslim-American community seem to be doing relatively well, and part of their doing well is being able to be full-fledged Americans, to participate in the American experience.”

The poll found that Muslim Americans were the most likely of any religious group to express confidence in the fairness of elections. The researchers speculated that this might be because of their high levels of support for President Obama, who said early in his term that he would make it a priority to repair relationships with the Muslim world.

One of President Obama's greatest successes since assuming office is largely changing the nature of America's reputation across the globe from one that is adversarial to one that is partnership based.  His speech in Cairo went along way toward building bridges in the Muslim world.

More importantly, President Obama's steadfast support of Muslim Americans has helped to build trust that was violated during the previous administration.  President Obama deserves credit, for example, for speaking out in support of building a new mosque in New York City and for having his administration refute charges made by U.S. Rep. Peter King that Muslim Americans are disloyal.

Muslim Americans have proven time and time again that like most Americans they are committed to our democracy - we witness this daily as they serve in public office, serve in the armed forces, and work as first responders - and believe as all good Americans do that E pluribus unum - Out of many, one.  Those in the Tea Party and on right-wing talk radio will continue to bash Muslims to divide Americans along religious and cultural lines but each day ordinary Muslim Americans show us the path to a better America is built through unity and common purpose. 

Today President Obama signed the debt ceiling compromise with these words:

I’ve said it before; I will say it again:  We can’t balance the budget on the backs of the very people who have borne the biggest brunt of this recession.  We can’t make it tougher for young people to go to college, or ask seniors to pay more for health care, or ask scientists to give up on promising medical research because we couldn’t close a tax shelter for the most fortunate among us.  Everyone is going to have to chip in.  It’s only fair.  That’s the principle I’ll be fighting for during the next phase of this process.   

And in the coming months, I’ll continue also to fight for what the American people care most about:  new jobs, higher wages and faster economic growth.  While Washington has been absorbed in this debate about deficits, people across the country are asking what we can do to help the father looking for work.  What are we going to do for the single mom who’s seen her hours cut back at the hospital?  What are we going to do to make it easier for businesses to put up that “now hiring” sign?

For the record I called U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer - my representative - and urged him to vote for the compromise because default was simply not an option - no matter how bad the deal might have been.  Rep. Blumenauer voted no.   

But creating jobs in this economy just got a lot harder, as Think Progress notes:

The Economic Policy Institute, a top nonpartisan think tank, estimates that the deal struck this weekend to raise the nation’s debt limit will end up costing the economy 1.8 million jobs by 2012...

The agreement would reduce spending by at least $1 trillion over 10 years, but even the near-term cuts could shrink already sluggish GDP growth by 0.3% in 2012. According to EPI, the plan “not only erodes funding for public investments and safety-net spending, but also misses an important opportunity to address the lack of jobs.” In particular, the immediate spending cuts and the “failure to continue two key supports to the economy (the payroll tax holiday and emergency unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed) could lead to roughly 1.8 million fewer jobs in 2012.”

As joblessness, poverty and homelessness continue to grow the question is this: does President Obama have a plan to move us forward as a nation?  No one questions the president's values or aspirations but he quickly needs to lay out a progressive platform that he'll fight for.  Where will he draw a line in the sand to fight for those principles he believes in?

There needs to be a more forceful repudiation of the Tea Party movement which rejects traditional religious understandings of justice, compassion and the social contract that has made America a great nation.

People of faith need to continue to put pressure on both parties to address poverty and homelessness.  I agree with what the National Council of Churches stated at Easter time:

...the debate over the national budget has ignored the most vulnerable members of our society -- millions of the working poor, the homeless, children, and disabled persons -- while political leaders of both parties jockey for tactical advantages as if they were more interested in pursuing power and office than a balanced budget.

As we continue to hold President Obama and members of Congress in prayer, let us pray that our nation addresses the sin of poverty and that those held captive by hopelessness find freedom from despair.  It will take renewed efforts from us all to build up the Beloved Community we still dream of.