Oxbow group gathers in Washington, sets
focus on vouchers and "charitable choice," reproductive
choice, and reparations
Takes new name of Protestant Justice Action
from Gene TeSelle
You may want to check out earlier reports on
the beginnings of this coalition of progressive groups related to
Protestant churches.
[2-7-01]
The group formerly known as Oxbow (more on this later)
met in Washington, DC, February 4-6, mostly at the National City
Christian Church, the "cathedral" of the Disciples. The
meeting included representatives of the non-official justice groups in
the UCC, Disciples, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian
churches; the Baptist Peace Fellowship was not represented. Once again
Witherspoon drew upon local talent. Gene TeSelle flew in from Nashville,
but John Harris drove down from West Virginia, and we asked Mary Jane
Patterson and Walter Owensby to sit in as consultants, since they are
both retired staffers with the Presbyterians' Washington Office.
There was a helpful meeting one afternoon with heads
of the Washington Offices of several denominations to get their
perspectives, and then with Congressional staffers. These meetings were
helpful in several ways: getting accurate information about several
legislative initiatives from the new administration, appreciating the
limitations of the Washington Offices (they cannot and do not say
anything beyond what is authorized by the governing bodies of their
denominations), and developing a new sense of the role that our
"non-official" groups can play in commenting on legislative
and executive initiatives.
I shall not even attempt to retrace the many
discussions, not all of which were immediately fruitful. But we did
achieve some useful clarifications of what Oxbow is and is not .
Basically, these are non-official groups, within mainstream Protestant
denominations, who are concerned about justice issues and have a freedom
of operation that the official agencies do not have. Efforts have been
made to include people of color and LGBT members; there has been
conversation with several predominantly African American denominations.
We also made it clear that we do not want to start one more organization
but to function as a network for communication, cooperation, and rapid
mobilization on a range of public issues.
One achievement, after several attempts to explain the
Oxbow name, was the decision to change the public name of the group to
Protestant Justice Action. This should make our character much clearer
to journalists and to members of Congress, without length explanations.
The "in-group" name will continue to be Oxbow, and our mission
statement remains the same:
"Protestant Justice Action is a
national network of Christian grassroots justice action groups from
mainstream Protestant denominations. We strive together to promote
justice and equality in our churches and society. In the midst of
changing times, we search for ever-new ways to live justly, love
mercifully, and walk humbly with our God."
The group listed a dozen current issues, then noted
that some of these are being addressed by many other groups, while some
need to be addressed by Protestant Justice Action. After discussion,
there was a "forced choice" of three issues per person by
secret ballot. The result was as follows.
Issues on which we must take special responsibility
are (1) vouchers, charitable choice, and the President's initiative on
"faith-based organizations"; (2) reproductive choice; and (3)
reparations, a new topic on which the UCC and Disciples organizations
have already drafted valuable statements.
Issues on which we can cooperate with other
organizations which will take the lead are (1) trade policy (WTO, FTAA
or "NAFTA of the Americas"), (2) hate crimes and related
legislation against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,
and (3) missile defense ("Star Wars II").
This does not mean that we are forgetting about many
other issues, such as campaign finance reform, tax policy, capital
punishment, the prison-industrial complex, and the Radical Right. But
these six issues represent our priorities at present.
We also agreed that we would move immediately to
establish cross-links between the web sites of our various
organizations, and to make plans for shared mailings so that we can all
be "on call" for mobilization on important issues, while
observing the confidentiality of our own membership lists.
There is still some thought about a national event in
perhaps two years, but a sense of urgency led us to think more about
regional gatherings, perhaps at seminaries which have students from a
number of denominations. To broaden our representation, we agreed that
at our next meeting in late July we would seek more local
representation, including people of color, and also try to have at least
one seminarian from each denomination.
The next big event
about which we want all our constituencies to know will be in Washington,
DC, April 4-6. April 4, of course, is the day of the assassination
of Dr. King and the "campus day of action against sweatshops"
on many campuses. This will be the founding conference of the
Progressive Religious Partnership, whose character, of course, is
still uncertain. A "call for faithful witnesses" has been
issued by many religious leaders, including Rev. James Lawson, Sister
Joan Chittister, Rev. Welton Gaddy, Rev. David Dyson, and Rev. Joseph
Hough. Information will soon be available on the web site of People for
the American Way, http://www.pfaw.org/.
Since the time is short, we urge you to make plans to
attend, especially if you are within convenient traveling distance of
Washington, DC. Be sure to look up the eloquent policy document on
"Reclaiming the Beloved Community," with sections on
spirituality, the family of God, and the beloved community.
