This page lists all our postings from earlier in March

For an index to all our reports from the
Witherspoon conference on global mission and justice >>

And for all our reports
from the Ghost Ranch Week of Peace >>

WITNESS IN WASHINGTON WEEKLY,
from the Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
March 31, 2008

This week’s messages are —

A visionary, Presbyterian-led program is bringing safe drinking water to communities around the world

The April 2008 issue of Presbyterians Today magazine features the Clean Water U training program for Living Waters for the World, a global mission project of the Synod of Living Waters. According to a 2006 United Nations Human Development report, more than 1 billion people have inadequate access to safe drinking water, and 2.6 billion lack access to adequate sanitation.

Sara Robinson, writing for Campaign For America's Future, appreciates that in this year’s presidential campaign, wearingly long though it may be, progressives are for the first time in years speaking out of the deep cultural and political resources of America’s civil religion.

She quotes Norman Lear, speaking at the Take Back America conference last week:

Can we progressives -- who won't be caught dead these days calling ourselves liberals -- can we stop serving as a punching bag for the right?

And speak with depth and conviction about the things that really matter to us? Once and for all, can we break through the false and humiliating charade that they and they alone are the arbiters of family values, morality, patriotism, the flag, the life of the spirit, God-talk? And that they alone have the credibility to speak to these subjects and concerns? 

The search for meaning that defines us as humans is the greatest conversation going, and I want in.

The old framework of the U.S. civil religion has come unglued, she says, as Robert Bellah showed it does every century or so. But after the disintegration of the past few decades, people are turning to those narratives and symbols again, and the progressives are taking part in the recovery – and they should be working at doing that well. She concludes: 

The entire country is desperately hungry for a new, compelling story about what it means to be American, and what America means to the world. It does not have to be exclusive, nationalistic, or imperialist – in fact, we've got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity right now to offer the country another narrative entirely, one that will move us away from the madness of the past. Norman Lear and Bill Moyers moved us all when they preached the gospel of this 21st-century civil religion from the pulpit at Take Back America; Barack Obama also showed us how it's done last week in Philadelphia. The new stories are already emerging; and the country is inspired by what it hears.

A New York Times article explores the possibility that care for the creation can be a powerful creator of jobs. (And the Times is not the only one looking at this.)

The article begins:

Everyone knows what blue-collar and white-collar jobs are, but now a job of another hue — green — has entered the lexicon.

Presidential candidates talk about the promise of “green collar” jobs — an economy with millions of workers installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, brewing biofuels, building hybrid cars and erecting giant wind turbines. Labor unions view these new jobs as replacements for positions lost to overseas manufacturing and outsourcing. Urban groups view training in green jobs as a route out of poverty. And environmentalists say they are crucial to combating climate change.

No doubt that the number of green-collar jobs is growing, as homeowners, business and industry shift toward conservation and renewable energy. And the numbers are expected to increase greatly in the next few decades, because state governments have mandated that even more energy come from alternative sources.

But some skeptics argue that the phrase “green jobs” is little more than a trendy term for politicians and others to bandy about. Some say they are not sure that these jobs will have the staying power to help solve the problems of the nation’s job market, and others note that green jobs often pay less than the old manufacturing jobs they are replacing.

The Nation has published an article suggesting, on the basis of efforts for health care reform in California and Massachusetts, that current proposals for national health care reform being advanced by all the presidential candidates may fall far short of meeting the needs.

Market-based efforts, working through existing insurance companies, simply leave too many people out. Ultimately, says the author, “any effective reform will have to bring everyone into the insurance tent.”

The National Board of Directors of More Light Presbyterians has announced that Dr. Michael J. Adee has been named as the Executive Director & Field Organizer for More Light Presbyterians. This decision was made at their recent national board meeting at Ghost Ranch Conference Center, Santa Fe, NM.

There will be a special opportunity to meet with the Rev. Joel Ruml, Moderator of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB), our Presbyterian counterparts in the Czech Republic. Luncheon on Tuesday, June 24^th, signup at the GA – look for announcements. Learn how a Christian church survived under a communist regime and how they are dealing with a completely new understanding of "church" in a country that is self-defined as "the most atheistic in Europe." 

More on the 2008 General Assembly >>

Video on the Institute on Religion and Democracy is now available free online – with a full transcript

Click here for the video online, with full transcript – at no cost.

Since its beginning in 1982, the Institute on Religion and Democracy has continuously undermined the United Methodist Church and other mainline Protestant denominations by attacking the character of church leaders.

This film – 25 minutes long – attempts to shine light on the divisive tactics used by the IRD .

As the IRD has been largely successful in setting the agenda for the destruction of the church's social witness in key areas, this film intends to expose the true intent of their efforts to "renew" the church.

Since the Presbyterian branch of IRD, Presbyterian Action, seems to work in ways similar to those used by their Methodist wing, this makes interesting/enlightening/disturbing viewing – but helpful.

You’ll find it all here >>

Comments from the producer of the film >>

We have just revived the JustPresbys website that was created two years ago for the 217^th GA.  It will begin you news and commentary from six cooperating progressive Presbyterian organizations:  the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, More Light Presbyterians, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, That All May Freely Serve, the Witherspoon Society, and Voices of Sophia.

Click here for the home page, and take a little look around.  There's not a lot posted there, but more will be coming!

One page you may want to look at is the schedule of events at GA, both official and unofficial, with links to further information on some of those scheduled by the progressive groups.

In supermax prisons, 23 hours a day of solitary confinement is the norm. How our prison system become so cruel?

Jessica Pupovac, an adult educator and independent journalist living in Chicago, reports on AlterNet:

Imagine living in an 8-by-12 prison cell, in solitary confinement, for eight years straight. Your entire world consists of a dank, cinder block room with a narrow window only three inches high, opening up to an outdoor cement cage, cynically dubbed, "the yard." If you're lucky, you spend one hour, five days a week in that outdoor cage, where you gaze up through a wire mesh roof and hope for a glimpse of the sun. If you talk back to the guards or act out in any way, you might only venture outside one precious hour per week.

You go eight years without shaking a hand or experiencing any physical human contact. The prison guards bark orders and touch you only while wearing leather gloves, and then it's only to put you in full cuffs and shackles before escorting you to the cold showers, where they watch your every move.

You cannot make phone calls to your friends or family and must "earn" two visits per month, which inevitably take place through a Plexiglass wall. You are kept in full shackles the entire time you visit with your wife and children, and have to strain to hear their voices through speakers that record your every word. With no religious or educational programs to break up the time or elevate your thoughts, it's a daily struggle to keep your mind from unraveling.

This is how Reginald Akeem Berry describes his time in Tamms Correctional Facility, a "Supermax" state prison in southern Illinois, where he was held from March 1998 until July 2006. He now works to draw attention to conditions inside Tamms, where 261 inmates continue to be held in extreme isolation.

Of National Lies and Racial America

Tim Wise, the author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, and Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White (both published in 2005), argues that “as much as white America may not be able to hear it (and as much as politics may require Obama to condemn it) let us be clear, Jeremiah Wright fundamentally told the truth.”

He goes on:

Wright said not that the attacks of September 11th were justified, but that they were, in effect, predictable. Deploying the imagery of chickens coming home to roost is not to give thanks for the return of the poultry or to endorse such feathered homecoming as a positive good; rather, it is merely to note two things: first, that what goes around, indeed, comes around – a notion with longstanding theological grounding – and secondly, that the U.S. has indeed engaged in more than enough violence against innocent people to make it just a tad bit hypocritical for us to then evince shock and outrage about an attack on ourselves, as if the latter were unprecedented.

Wise develops in detail his case that Wright has simply been portraying reality as it is seen in the African-American community, and that whites are outraged because they cannot accept – or even permit the expression off – such a view of the world. Our big white lies are too important to us to allow for any consideration of anyone else’s truth.

Published in Counterpunch >>                     Originally published in LiP Magazine >>

For another look at racism in the U.S. you might turn to the just-published Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, by Douglas A. Blackmon.  The Chicago Tribune summarizes:

Slavery by Another Name (Doubleday, $26), by Douglas A. Blackmon, due in stores in late March, shows the Civil War did not end racial oppression in America. Subtitled "The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II," this book by The Wall Street Journal's Atlanta bureau chief tells the often-overlooked story of neoslavery. From the 1870s until well into the 20th Century, under laws passed to intimidate them, black men were arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned, made to work off room and board in jail and, in effect, turned into unpaid slave laborers who were leased by manufacturers, farmers, mines and other businesses. This is a hard look at a horrifying aspect of recent history.

Registration has just opened for
ENVISION: THE GOSPEL, POLITICS, AND THE FUTURE
June 8-10 at Princeton University.

We have room for 1300, and we expect to fill to capacity in the beautiful, historic Princeton Chapel. We are offering exciting plenaries, inspiring preaching, and 20 Learning Tracks on issues such as climate change, war, sexuality, race, women, poverty, and human rights, with a broad array of perspectives, all focused on Christian engagement in politics for the Common Good of all.

Join us for this historic moment of change and hope! Don't delay, register today for the early registration discount at the Envision website.

The Conference Leadership:

The Fifty Leading Scholars, Activists, Artists, and Pastors include Obery Hendricks, Daisy Machado, Brian McLaren, Kay Warren, Miroslav Volf, Jim Wallis, Brenda Salter McNeil, Richard Twiss, Ron Sider, and Randall Balmer, as well as a new generation of leaders such as Andrea Smith, Sammy Rodriquez, Lisa Sharon Harper, Shane Claiborne, Malinda Berry, Jay Bakker, Ruth Padilla DeBorst, and Jeremy Del Rio.

In the midst of a Latin American shift to the left, El Salvador just might be next in line! The Committee with the People of El Salvador continues to support REAL democracy and human rights in El Salvador, opposing U.S. intervention through institutions like the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) - an instrument for exporting repressive U.S. policing tactics – and the CAFTA free trade agreement. CISPES invites you join a summer fact-finding delegation to witness first hand the social movement inspiration behind the 2009 electoral process, while delving into the economic, political, and human right challenges that El Salvador is confronting prior its key upcoming elections!

We of the Witherspoon Society are happy to share with you these words of assurance and hope from leaders of the PC(USA), the National Council of Churches, and churches in the Middle East -- which have come to us through the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.

An Easter message to the PC(USA) from the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk

"In my years of working in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the church around the world, I have been struck by how the Easter message brings life, hope, and salvation to people in so many different contexts and finds expression in so many different ways. The ultimate triumph of the love of God in the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ, brings incredible hope and joy to people who, like Jesus, face tremendous obstacles to fullness of life."

Read the whole message >>

AN EASTER MESSAGE FROM HEADS OF CHURCHES IN JERUSALEM

"Many people limit their thoughts on Easter to the empty tomb. How important then, for us to concentrate on the first manifestation which our Lord made to his disciples. There is considerable encouragement to be gained from the fact that the living Christ is greeting his living Church. We do not under estimate the burden of so many of our faithful today from the continuing violence and acts of terrorism that surround them, and of which we all are victims, in the West Bank, in Gaza and in the Israeli society. Nevertheless, the Risen Lord reminds us and tells us that we have a role and we have to change the present situation, through the power and strength which He gives us."

Read the whole message >>
 

AN EASTER GREETING FROM BAGHDAD

(Received via email)

"I would like to wish you a Happy Easter with many, many returns and always the blessings of our Raised Lord. May the Lord bless all your works for the glory of his name. Pray with us so God may protect the Christians in Iraq." Chairman of Baghdad Presbyterian Church General Sec. of Presbyterian Churches of Iraq

The Rev. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary, National Council of Churches USA

"In the history of the world, it often seems like Good Friday. As in the days of Jesus' earthly ministry, innocent people still suffer violence, starvation and daily threats to their survival. For Christians, however, this is not—cannot be—the final word. Death may seem to hold sway, but we confess that its power has been broken by the life, crucifixion, and resurrection of the One we worship as Savior and Lord."

Psalm 146

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord!

We received this note in response to our posts on March 18:

Thanks so much for sharing the supportive comments from others of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s preaching. He was well-named, wasn’t he?

Thanks also for re-printing the transcript of Barack Obama’s magnificent speech.

I look forward to hearing a lot more support from Presbyterian preachers who believe that the pulpit should be the place where those who study the Scriptures and follow the teachings of Jesus are free to pass on their understandings to others.

Lynne Reade, Fremont, California

After a note like that, how can I resist looking for more?

What do our candidates for Moderator have to say?

With all the discussion this week about Obama’s speech, both as a perspective on American race relations and as a look at the role of the prophetic tradition in American religion, it occurred to me to see whether any of the four candidates for Moderator might be putting forth their views.

Only one of them, as far as I can find from their websites and blogs, has offered any specific comments on Obama’s speech. But each has said something over the past few days that offers food for thought.

As it happens, the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow posted a blog note under the heading “bleep that chinaman.” He starts from a scrawled sign he saw recently in front of his favorite café in San Francisco, which uses an offensive word to tell what should be done to “that chinaman.” With apologies for the language, he offers three generalizations about our racism today: it has diversified, it will not go away, and it “must be challenged with a spirit of solidarity.”

The Rev. Bill Teng offers reflections on the role of the Moderator, and offers his own vision of serving as a witness to the grace of God, and the gratitude and hope that grow in our responding to God’s grace.

The Rev. Carl Mazza, in his blog of March 12, reflects on his own ministry with Meeting Ground, a shelter for the homeless, and finds an image for the church’s mission in “the table” around which “there is always room for one more.”

Elder Roger Shoemaker, in a brief reflection on Micah 6:8 dated March 14 (his reflection, not Micah!), notes in passing that a commentary he looked at shows Micah’s words set in the context of his presentation of “God’s case against Israel.” While Shoemaker is not discussing America’s problems with race, this does give a little reminder that the prophetic tradition, which the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has sought to represent, does have a pretty sharp, critical edge.

A couple other views

“Obama shows grace under fire”

Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, praises Obama for facing directly the obviously big issue hanging over his campaign, and doing it with “courage and candor and grace.”

She concludes: It's possible Obama placed the wrong bet. His sort of politics may be well-loved by editorial writers and civics teachers but ill-suited to winning presidential campaigns. Straight talk and tough truths may have no place on the stump. It may be that campaigns are still won by those willing to kneecap their opponents with vicious ads and ugly rumors. Voters may prefer focus-grouped slogans to uncomfortable facts.

But it certainly was encouraging to hear from a politician willing to take his chances with a pander-free hour at a difficult moment in his campaign. It doesn't happen often.        The full column >>

“Obama, Reverend Wright, The Speech: A Problem And An Unanticipated Upside”

Thomas de Zengotita, a contributing editor at Harper's Magazine, says that’s Obama’s speech is “being justly compared, by knowledgeable people, to some of the great political speeches in American history.” But, he adds, it may not be remembered as are the speeches of old, simply because our communication channels are too busy today, and we are not likely to retain and reflect on any single speech or event, because there’s too much more information coming at us.

Witherspoon member Charles Forbes, former Stated Clerk of Baltimore Presbytery, has recently written about a passage in the Scots Confession which says that in what we would call disputes over faith or practice, the primary basis for making decisions must be "what the Holy Ghost uniformly speaks within the body of the Scriptures and what Christ Jesus himself did and commanded."

John Shuck posted this reflection yesterday, Tuesday, March 19.  It seems a suitable, modest way to commemorate today’s anniversary of the US war in Iraq

Five years ago we watched Shock and Awe on our wide screen television sets. It was a war led by false pretenses. It had nothing to do with the events of September 11th, 2001. The populace was misled. It had nothing to do with Weapons of Mass Destruction. The populace was misled.

I still wonder what the reason could have been for an invasion. What could this invasion possibly fix? It didn't take long to topple Saddam Hussein. We fixed him all right. One wonders if that is what one nation is supposed to do when the leader of another nation is corrupt? Do you think a military just goes in and fixes it and the problem is solved? What could they have been thinking?

Here we are five years later, a million deaths later, billions of dollars later, and the U.S. is stuck. If the U.S. were to pull out all of its troops tomorrow there will be chaos and increased civil war and many more deaths possibly for years maybe decades. Does the U.S. stay, occupying a foreign land, indefinitely? Of course, it cannot. At some point it will simply wear out and it will finally leave. Then it will leave them with chaos and civil war and deaths for years and maybe decades.

Those of us who advocate for peace, who saw this war as not only a mistake but an immoral act are also in a spot. Toward what do we work? Do we work for the U.S. troops to come home? That won't fix anything. There are wars all over this planet. Those of us who work for peace must look beyond political and military solutions to our problems. Politics and the military machine got us in the mess. It won't fix it.

Those who work for peace must work toward a higher allegiance than political boundaries and tribal alliances. We have done this before. The survival of humanity to this point has been its ability to expand our smaller allegiances into larger ones. Individuals realize that they need families. Families need extended families, neighborhoods, communities, states and provinces and nations. We know how to do that.

Now we have the need to expand our awareness and pledge our allegiance to Earth as the home of all humanity. We are all citizens of Earth. We will not be able to negotiate these issues – and they are life-threatening, planet-threatening issues – by thinking any smaller than what is good for Earth and its people and its life.

We need a change of consciousness and this will not happen overnight. But it can happen if we believe in it and work toward it. We need to realize that what is good for my immediate family is what is good for someone on the other side of Earth. If it is not good for them, it will, eventually, not be good for me or my descendants. Humanity has survived because it has learned to adapt to wider and wider circles of awareness and cooperation. We face humanity's biggest challenge now.

This is where advocates for peace are needed. You are the ones who need to keep yourselves centered, focused, fit, wise, learned, and skilled. You need to work together. You need to dream, sing, hope, and work toward building relationships of trust between people.

Those who will participate in candlelight vigils tonight will be participating in an effort to raise awareness. It is not a meaningless act. It is not a drop in the ocean. You never know what can come from participating in an event such as that.

Posted by John Shuck to Shuck and Jive at 3/18/2008 08:05:00 P

Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor has drawn attention recently for his rather heated rhetoric about some of the less admirable characteristics of the United States, such as racism and a tendency toward imperial thinking and acting.

Sen. Obama himself today offered a deeply personal and thoughtful response to the criticisms of him and his pastor.

For the full text of his speech >>

Another response comes from John Thomas, the President of the United Church of Christ, which is the denomination of which the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a member.  Read Thomas' statement >>

In any age, a prophet draws wrath

So what do you think of this quote:

"The Almighty God himself is not the only, not the, not the God just standing out saying through Hosea, 'I love you, Israel.' He's also the God that stands up before the nations and said: 'Be still and know that I'm God, that if you don't obey me I will break the backbone of your power, and slap you out of the orbits of your international and national relationships.'"

Ralph E. Luker, an Atlanta historian, co-editor of the first two volumes of "The Papers of Martin Luther King," offers us that thought – from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  Walker’s preaching, he says, like that of King, echoes the prophetic tradition of the ancient Hebrews.

And he also presents a view of Wright's ministry a bit different from what we’ve been hearing:

Critics of Wright never cared that for 36 years he labored to build a community of redemption on Chicago's Southside. They didn't notice that his congregation had become the largest congregation in the United Church of Christ, a denomination rooted in the traditions of Puritan New England. They wouldn't care that it claimed to be "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian." Wright's words become significant for them only as a means of damaging Wright's most prominent parishioner, Obama.

The National Religious Campaign against Torture website has recently listed three very helpful resources on the sad subject of torture.

For NRCAT’s extensive listing of articles and other materials on torture >>

The most comprehensive is the latest issue of Washington Monthly, with the theme:  NO MORE.  No Torture. No Exceptions.

For details, and links to each of the resources >>

‘Transitional’ term begins in August

Presbyterian News Service reports that former General Assembly moderator Rick Ufford Chase and his wife, Kitty, have been named transitional co-directors of financially-troubled Stony Point Center, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-owned conference center in New York.

They will share the full-time director’s position beginning August 1, succeeding the Rev. William Pindar, who recently resigned.

Rick Ufford Chase founded BorderLinks in the 1980s to engage U.S. Christians with U.S.-Mexico border issues and served as its director until 2006, when he became executive director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. He was elected GA moderator in 2004. He will continue part-time with the Peace Fellowship.

Kitty Ufford-Chase, a life-long Quaker with a commitment to spiritual nurture and justice, most recently has been working as the “faith community coordinator” for the Community Food Security Center of Tucson’s Community Food Bank.

Witherspooner and energetic blogger John Shuck offered this thought for Holy Week

The Dalai Lama calls for the world to take notice ...

"Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place," said the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. He was referring to China's policy of encouraging the ethnic Han majority to migrate to Tibet, restrictions on Buddhist temples and re-education programs for monks. (Read More)

Meanwhile...

Pope Benedict XVI issued one of his strongest appeals for peace in Iraq on Sunday...

The pope also denounced the 5-yearlong Iraq war, saying it had provoked the complete breakup of Iraqi civilian life. "Enough with the slaughters! Enough with the violence. Enough with the hatred in Iraq!" Benedict said to applause at the end of his Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square. (Read More)

So, fellow preachers. Do we let the Pope and the Dalai Lama have all the fun? Or do you think we ought to speak out with our congregations, on our blogs, and wherever else about stuff, that is like, important?

On March 12 we pointed to an economist’s disturbing analysis of the financial costs of the current US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. An new article by Warren P. Strobel of McClatchy Newspapers reminds us of the even higher costs the US is (and will be!) Paying in loss of “power, prestige and influence.”

He writes:

Thanks in part to the Iraq war, the next U.S. president - Republican or Democrat, black or white, man or woman - will take office with America's power, prestige and popularity in decline, according to bipartisan reports, polls and foreign observers.

"The winner of the 2008 elections will command U.S. forces still at war in Iraq, Afghanistan and against elusive terrorists with a deadly reach. The U.S. economy will remain burdened. ... America's moral leadership and decision-making competence will continue to be questioned," begins a study of foreign-policy choices for the next president, which a Georgetown University task force released last month.

"Restored respect will come only with fresh demonstrations of competence," the study said.

The numbers don't inspire confidence: Oil prices are at an all-time high, the dollar at new lows against the euro. Surveys find the United States' popularity and respect slipping in every part of the globe except Africa. A poll of 3,400 active and retired U.S. military officers by Foreign Policy magazine found that 88 percent agreed with the statement that "The war in Iraq has stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin."

We can help by circulating the petition, too.

Dear Friends:

Congressional leaders are doing their part to sign and circulate CIW's petition. Please do yours! Visit www.ciw-online.org to download a copy of the petition, learn more about modern-day slavery and the role of consumers in holding the food industry accountable for bringing about change.

And check out our new Burger King Campaign webpage which provides a chronology of the PC(USA)'s engagement with Burger King and frequently asked questions at www.pcusa.org/fairfood (link to it from the right margin!)

Join us for the

“WEDDING JUSTICE AND LOVE”
Events in Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH
April 23-26

This is the final appeal in a disciplinary case against Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr for performing LGBT marriages as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA.

Thursday, April 24^th

Silent Witness, 4:00 pm at the Presbyterian Church Center, Louisville
Worship Service and reception, 7:00 pm at Central Presbyterian Church, Louisville

Friday, April 25^th

Silent Witness, 8:00 am followed by the appeal, 9:00am, Presbyterian Church Center, Louisville
Worship Service and reception, 7:00 pm at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati

Saturday April 26^th

“Wedding Justice and Love in Faith Communities” – 9 am to Noon, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Campus, Hundley Hall, 1044 Alta Vista Rd., Louisville, KY

The Road to Dystopia

In an editorial on March 13, the New York Times blasted the current crusade against “illegal immigration” as a threat not just to immigrants legal or otherwise, but to the US society as a whole.

It begins:

The search for a silver bullet to slay illegal immigration continues. Hard-liners are turning the country upside down looking for it.

They are looking in Washington, where Senate Republicans last week offered more than a dozen bills to further enshrine mass deportation as the national immigration strategy. It is a grab bag of enforcement measures that will be useful for tough-talking campaign commercials, but will not actually solve anything.

Republicans and some Democrats in the House are trying to force a vote on a bad bill called the SAVE Act, which among other things would force all workers, including citizens, to prove they have a right to earn a living — a bad idea compounded by the notoriously bad state of federal government records.

In January, your WebWeaver attended a conference on ways the church might respond to the terrible challenge of US use of torture, and reported on it here.

Register BEFORE May 1^st for the Week for Peace and Justice at Ghost Ranch, and you can save $100!

You can check out our information on this important event >>

Or go to the Ghost Ranch website for more complete information >>

Click here to download registration forms (in PDF format)

Registration on-line is coming SOON

Meanwhile, you have to make a choice which seminar you'll attend - not easy to choose just one !

Jane Hanna, former Witherspoon president and the main organizer of this event, adds this note:

Did I mention that the price for housing goes up $100 the 1st of May? This is an attempt this year to encourage people to register earlier than they have in the past. Also, the full amount for housing needn't be paid all at once at the time of registration. Some can be paid on arrival.

There are two less expensive ways for families to be at the ranch. One is the camping alternative, the other to be housed together where the first two pay full room expense and the rest just for food. I hope there will be many families with teenagers who will sign up as the teenage program promises to be excellent.

Hope this helps. Jane

We have just posted a few corrections to the times and places listed for a couple of our Witherspoon events, particularly the Awards Luncheon (which will be begin at 12:30 rather than 1:00 on Sunday, June 22).  See the list of our events >>

Some say we’re “winning the war.”
But we’re losing the future  

Writing for CommonDreams, Chicago-based journalist and editor Robert C. Koehler draws on the new book The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, by noted economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, to give a truly dread-inducing picture of the future that we are “buying” with the cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001, told Koehler, “Because of the war, the national deficit is $2 trillion higher. At 5 percent interest, that’s $100 billion a year, year after year after year - forever!”

Stiglitz suggests that we need a new unit of account: "Think of what things would cost in terms of hours, days, weeks of fighting."

For instance, he says, "Three years ago we had a financial crisis with the Social Security system. For one-sixth of an Iraq war, you could have fixed Social Security for the next 50 to 75 years."

Remember when President Bush vetoed a bill to expand health insurance for children? "We’re talking about days of fighting in Iraq," according to Stiglitz.

(Note: The American Friends Service Committee has a Web page devoted to the Iraq war as a unit of account, including more "posters" like these, at www.afsc.org/cost/banners.htm .)

More on the war in Iraq >>

42 arrested for civil disobedience in Hart Senate Office Building

In a special report to Presbyterian News Service, Matt Black writes:

More than 40 religious leaders and faith-based peace activists were arrested in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill late Friday afternoon (March 7, 2008) for their non-violent witness to end the war in Iraq.

Hundreds of people assembled earlier in the afternoon for a public demonstration against the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq, and thousands of worshipers gathered at noon Friday in 10 houses of worship here for services calling for peace and an end to the war in Iraq.

Following the noontime worship services, worshipers processed to Upper Senate Park for an interfaith witness near the U.S. Capitol. In the midst of a driving rain, leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Unitarian traditions insisted that people of faith will be relentless in encouraging their political leaders to take bold, unequivocal action for peace.

Multi-faith delegations from the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership — which includes the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship — the organizing coalition of the afternoon’s events, met with high level staffers from both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s offices.

Stand in Solidarity with the People and Churches of Colombia Calling for an End to the Violence

The Rev. Milton Mejia, the former head of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, is asking people of faith to participate in the Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia.   For the complete invitation, in PDF format >>

On Sunday, April 27 congregations across the country will stand in solidarity with our Colombian brothers and sisters who have endured so much suffering, remembering the victims of Colombia's brutal conflict and praying for a peaceful future in Colombia.

Worship kit, prayers, bulletin inserts, ecumenical resources, and suggestions for planning a local reflection can be found at http://www.peaceincolombia.org/prayerday08.htm

On Monday, April 28 we will take collective action to ask that U.S. policy promote peace and justice in Colombia rather than military involvement and violence. For more information please go to http://www.peaceincolombia.org/actionday08.htm.

2008 Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference

Sowing Mustard Seeds: Working for God's Justice - Confronting Poverty
July 15-19, 2008
Orange, California

For complete information >>

Download a conference brochure >> (Adobe Acrobat Required)

Download a registration form >>  (Adobe Acrobat Required)

This conference was created to deconstruct the multiple issues that connect and entwine in sustaining poverty in our communities and the world.

It is designed for participants who want an introduction to participants who are looking for more in-depth understanding and skill building in confronting poverty.

The Joining Hands Against Hunger (JHAH) program, integral to the conference, builds bridges of solidarity between presbyteries and churches in the U.S. and networks of overseas churches, grassroots groups, and nongovernmental organizations. During the morning segment called "Living the Story," some JHAH partners will tell stories of what and where change is happening and how conference participants can engage to make a difference.

The Peacemaking conference is an intentional intergenerational community of people who work toward and hope for justice. People of all ages will fellowship, learn, play, and worship together during this time for re-energizing and re-connecting under the warm California sun!

The conference was created through the collaborative efforts of the Presbyterian Peacemaking and Hunger Programs, the Presbyterian Washington and United Nations Offices, Mission Responsibility through Investment, the Child Advocacy Office, and the Office on Small Church and Community Ministry,

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Anuradha Mittal, executive director of The Oakland Institute and a native of India, is an internationally renowned expert on trade, development, human rights and agriculture.

Roberto Jordan, president of the Reformed Church in Argentina, is a member of the executive committee of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and one of the drafters of the Accra Confession.

Lisa Schirch is professor of peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University and program director of the 3D Security Initiative, which promotes conflict prevention and peacebuilding in U.S. security policymaking.

For more information on this website >>

For complete information on the Peacemaking Program website >>

Top officials of the PC(USA) sign CIW petition to end modern-day slavery and sweatshops in the fields

On Monday, March 10th, the Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, and Ms. Linda Bryant Valentine, Executive Director of the General Assembly Council, signed the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' National Petition to End Modern-Day Slavery and Sweatshops in the Fields.

"It is my sincere hope that by my signing this petition other people of faith and conscience will be inspired to make this commitment to advance human rights as well," Dr. Kirkpatrick said. "And that Burger King, which has worked so assiduously to avoid responsibility for shameful conditions in the tomato fields of its suppliers, would change course now and work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers."

Read the Presbyterian News Service story, "Petition drive to end 'modern-day slavery' launched by church-backed farmworkers: Campaign threatens boycott of Burger King."

Read Dr. Kirkpatrick's public statement on the signing

Read the CIW's petition and about the most recent slavery case

The 207th General Assembly (1995) directed staff to “Advocate environmental justice concerns through the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Washington Office on behalf of the poor and people of color; and that the Washington Office assist congregations and individuals in their advocacy efforts.”

As the impacts of global climate change become clearer to us, through scientific understanding and anecdotal evidence, it is clear that the world’s poorest communities will bear the heaviest burden of climate catastrophe. Although global climate change affects all human populations across the globe, it hits those living in poverty the hardest because they depend on the surrounding physical environment to supply their needs and have limited ability to cope with climate variability and extremes.

Both in the United States and in countries around the globe, climate change will first and most heavily impact those living in poverty, through higher energy prices, water scarcity, drought, crop failure, increased disease, and flooding.

As stewards of God’s good earth, we are called to care for the environment and all the creatures that depend on it to survive. Celebrate this year’s Earth Day, April 22, in a worship service that lifts up the goodness and bounty of God’s creation, and our responsibility toward it. The National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program is marking Earth Day Sunday (the Sunday closest to Earth Day) by recognizing the interconnectedness of poverty and climate change and offering a resource for worship, adult study, and youth activities.

A worship planning resource for Earth Day Sunday is now available - to obtain a copy visit www.nccecojustice.org, or contact the Eco-Justice Program office at info@nccecojustice.org or 202-481-6943.

From the WITNESS IN WASHINGTON WEEKLY, produced by the Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

More on caring for Creation >>

Pope Benedict XVI says that an increasing number of people in the secularized West are making do without God

Drug pushers, the obscenely rich, environmental polluters and “manipulative” genetic scientists beware – you may be in danger of losing your mortal soul unless you repent.

After 1,500 years the Vatican has brought the seven deadly sins up to date by adding seven new ones for the age of globalization. The list, published recently in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, came as the Pope deplored the “decreasing sense of sin” in today’s “secularized world” and the falling numbers of Roman Catholics going to confession.

According to this report, the seven new deadly sins have a more clearly social dimension. They include “ruining the environment, carrying out morally debatable scientific experiments, or allowing genetic manipulations which alter DNA or compromise embryos,” as well as using or dealing in drugs, and social injustice which causes poverty or “the excessive accumulation of wealth by a few.” Also mentioned were two mortal sins that have long received great attention in the Roman Catholic Church: abortion and pedophilia.

The full story, from The Times >>

                

A call for contacting Congress
from the National Religious Campaign Against Torture

On Saturday, March 8, President Bush vetoed H.R. 2082, an important piece of anti-torture legislation that would have banned the use of waterboarding, stress positions, induced hypothermia, and other so-called "harsh" interrogation techniques by requiring all U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, to abide by the restrictions in the Army Field Manual while conducting interrogations. H.R. 2082 was passed by a majority of both houses of Congress.

Sometime this week, possibly as soon as tomorrow, the U.S. House will vote on whether or not to override the President's veto. It is very difficult to override a veto (it requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress), so the attempt to override may not be successful. That said, we want to make every effort to convince as many Members of Congress as possible to vote for the override.

Please call your Representative in Congress and urge him or her to vote to override the President's veto of H.R. 2082, the Intelligence Authorization bill. To contact your Member of Congress you can call the Capitol switchboard at (202)224-3121 and ask to speak with your Representative.

Thank you for your efforts to end U.S.-sponsored torture.

Sincerely,

As stories about global warming, sustainable energy, and climate change make headlines, the fact that some neighborhoods, particularly low-income and minority communities, are disproportionately toxic and poorly regulated has, until recently, been all but ignored.

A new breed of activists and social scientists are starting to capitalize on the moment. In principle they have much in common with the environmental justice movement, which came of age in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when grassroots groups across the country began protesting the presence of landfills and other environmentally hazardous facilities in predominantly poor and minority neighborhoods.

In practice, though, the new leadership is taking a broader-based, more inclusive approach. Instead of fighting a proposed refinery here or an expanded freeway there, all along trying to establish that systematic racism is at work in corporate America, today's environmental justice movement is focusing on proactive responses to the social ills and economic roadblocks that if removed would clear the way to a greener planet.

The new movement assumes that society as a whole benefits by guaranteeing safe jobs, both blue-collar and white-collar, that pay a living wage. That universal health care would both decrease disease and increase awareness about the quality of everyone's air and water. That better public education and easier access to job training, especially in industries that are emerging to address the global energy crisis, could reduce crime, boost self-esteem, and lead to a homegrown economic boon.

The author of this Utne article is Leyla Kokmen, who is the program coordinator for the Health Journalism M.A. in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. She has been a staff reporter at daily and weekly papers across the United States, including the Twin Cities' City Pages, The Seattle Times, and The Denver Post, where she contributed to that newspaper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Columbine High School massacre.

From an AP report: In a major shift, a group of Southern Baptist leaders said their denomination has been "too timid" on environmental issues and has a biblical duty to stop global warming.

The declaration, signed by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention among others and released Monday, shows a growing urgency about climate change even within groups that once dismissed claims of an overheating planet as a liberal ruse. The conservative denomination has 16.3 million members and is the largest Protestant group in the U.S.

Witherspoon (Reese, that is) works to end violence against women

Untiring blogger and pastor (or maybe it should be the other way ’round) John Shuck has mentioned actress Reese Witherspoon before in connection with our sober and responsible group The Witherspoon Society.

He has now seen a report that she is engaged in work which certainly expresses some of our own concerns: raising money for a UN fund to end violence against women.  See his blog >>

IRAQ BY THE NUMBERS

from Women’s Action for New Directions / WAND

5          Number of years the Iraq war has lasted.   March 19, 2008, the 6th year begins.

3973     U.S.Deaths Confirmed By the DoD (March 3, 2008)

MAY 2, 2003     The day the President arrived on the deck of an aircraft carrier and declared "Mission Accomplished."

64%                 Percentage of Americans who oppose the war in Iraq (CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. Feb. 1-3, 2008)

57%                 Percentage of Iraqis who think it is acceptable to attack American soldiers. (Up from 51% in March and 17% back in February 2004.)

(August 2007: ABC; BBC; NHK; D3 Systems of Vienna, Va.; and KA Research of Turkey)

81,000 - >1,000,000   Estimates of number of civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq (Epidemiologists have estimated that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.)

49                    Number of countries in the Coalition of the Willing when the invasion began in 2003

25                    Current number of countries supplying 11,685 troops — about 7% of the size of the U.S. forces.

>4 million         Number of displaced Iraqis: more than 2 million uprooted within Iraq, and as many have fled to neighboring countries.

$500 billion      Amount spent on the Iraq war as of 3/5/08; more is already approved and being spent daily. If Congress provides additional supplemental appropriations requested by President Bush ($192 billion in FY2008), Congressional Research Service estimates that total war costs will reach about $803 billion.

$3 trillion         Estimate of true cost of war by Nobel Prize-winning economists (see over*).

$270 million    How much the U.S. spends each day in Iraq

$390,000         Cost of deploying one U.S. soldier for one year in Iraq (Congressional Research Service)

$9 billion          Amount lost & unaccounted for in Iraq

Representatives of various progressive Presbyterian advocacy groups, assisted by the Carpenter Foundation and Plowshares Institute, met last weekend at Stony Point Conference Center in Stony Point , New York, to inform and support each of the various groups in their work towards a more inclusive Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The Witherspoon Society was represented in the meeting by Board members John Harris and Mitch Trigger.

Through discussion and collaboration, the representatives agreed that it is important for all of the groups to continue to educate and inform the members of the PC(USA) of our hope for a church that will eliminate the barriers to full participation by all people to ordained service in our church and Jesus Christ. Each group brings with it a different approach and a diverse membership, but our unity lies in our vision of a welcoming and inclusive church.

The upcoming General Assembly in San Jose will offer commissioners the opportunity to make significant strides in that direction and it s the hope of each group to offer a variety of resources, both individually and collectively, that will aid the commissioners in sharing our vision.

This news release comes from Dick Hasbany, Presbyterian Promise
Email: presbypromise@att.net
Phone: (203) 777-4579