BrotherRog

DCJ 1. IMO, Jesus would not have favored unregulated capitalism - it too easily lets people worship the false god of money and appeals to their baser selfishness. 2. The early Christians, while not socialists, did practice voluntary communitarianism. 3. The early Christians were citizens of two realms - the Kingdom of God and the nation that they resided in. They had no problem paying taxes to the government and also sharing their resources with each other and persons in need. 4. Jesus affirmed the right of governments to raise taxes and Jesus said NOTHING about such monies NOT being used to help poor persons. 5. (Making a few assumptions here) Why to you oppose abortion but not capital punishment or warfare? Why do you support George Jr's illegal, immoral, and unjust preemptive war with Iraq which has led to the deaths of over 100,000 innocent civilians? Why do you favor cutting the taxes of the rich and raising them for the middle class and the poor? Why do you favor allowing farmers to suck off of the public teat (via subsidiess) but not poor people? 6. IMO, the problems of poverty are so severe that it requires the efforts of both Church AND State to address them. Churches can't do much to provide adequate levels of low income housing stock; ensuring a livable minimum wage; etc. 7. Why is it that the average American Church goer 1) votes Republican supporting their desire to reduce taxes, and yet 2) contributes only 2.4% of their income to their church? They want their cake and to eat it too! Damn such selfish people I tell you. Damn them.

RAMADAN MEETS ROSH HASHANAH & ASSISI: An invitation to interfaith sharing, by Rabbi Arthur Waskow Next fall (2005), the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holy month of Tishrei (which begins with Rosh Hashanah) will coincide. They will begin on or about October 3, and the saint's day for Francis of Assisi falls on October 4. This confluence offers us an extraordinary moment for interweaving our celebrations in these three traditions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - the families of Abraham. We have nine months to prepare - time to conceive, gestate, and bring to birth this joyful moment. Nine months to create open hearts where now there are clenched teeth, to share tears with each other where now we shed each other's blood. We are tottering on the precipice of religious and civilizational war. GOD HAS GIVEN US A SPECIAL GIFT to help us step away from the cliff: THE GIFT OF TIME. Time to help us walk hand-in-hand, listening to the Spirit alongside each other. A few possible ways to share: * Congregations can agree to share dinner after nightfall on any of the evenings of Ramadan, and carefully shape the dinner as a spiritual meal with prayer, meditation, storytelling. Perhaps groups of six - including two people from each tradition - could share the stories of important moments in their own spiritual journeys. Perhaps groups of three congregations - a church, a synagogue, a mosque - could each host one meal during the month for members of all three. * Churches could invite Jews and Muslims to join in learning about and celebrating Francis of Assisi. (He was one of the few Christian saints who learned in a serious way from Muslim teachers.) * Jews could invite Muslims and Christians into the "sukkah." * Muslims could invite Jews and Christians to join in celebrating some aspects of Eid el-Fitr. * Synagogues could invite Muslim scholars and spiritual leaders to teach in the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah how it is that Muslims understand the story of Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael. (The biblical version of the story is part of the Torah reading for Rosh Hashanah.) Then there could be open discussion of the differences, the similarities, the wisdom held in each of the versions of the story. * Together, rabbis, priests, nuns, ministers, and imams - perhaps with their congregants - could take some action for human rights, for healing of the earth, for peace in the whole region where Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah sojourned. WE WELCOME YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR SHARING PRAYER, LEARNING, EMOTIONAL CONNECTION, SOCIAL ACTION, AND FOOD DURING AND BEYOND THIS TIME WE WILL BE SHARING. Send ideas to ShalomReport@shalomctr.org. We hope you will begin NOW to plan with others of the Abrahamic faiths in your own city or neighborhood. (Rabbi Arthur Waskow is director of The Shalom Center - http://www.shalomnctr.org - and author of GODWRESTLING: ROUND 2.)

COMMENTARY By Michael Ventre MSNBC contributor Updated: 6:07 p.m. ET Jan. 21, 2005 Since I am a compassionate and tolerant person, I hate to generalize about any particular group. Because people are so wonderfully diverse, proudly independent and gloriously unique, any racial, ethnic or religious pigeonholing would be deeply insulting, not to mention inaccurate. So when I hear the word “Christian” these days, I don’t assume good or bad. All sorts of people fall within that category. In my humble opinion, Jesus Christ was an important and influential figure in world history, and I respect that. Because he was a symbol of love and understanding, the term “What Would Jesus Do?” resonates powerfully. If we all acted as Jesus would, I believe the world would be at peace, and love would wash over all of God’s children. But of course, not all Christians are alike. Many, if not most, Christians understand the true message of Jesus. But there is a frightening number of so-called Christians who can be best described as creepy, rigid, arrogant, cruel, know-it-all, pompous, obnoxious and treacherous — better known by the acronym C.R.A.C.K.P.O.T. These CRACKPOT Christians are nothing new. Throughout history there have been dangerous fools of all persuasions who have perverted religious text for their own selfish purposes. What they like to do, in essence, is force-feed their twisted beliefs on others while hiding behind a respectable label, thereby conning folks into thinking that their mean-spirited behavior is really born out of kindness and generosity. But the CRACKPOT Christians may have gone too far. Now they’re messing with SpongeBob. SpongeBob SquarePants is a hugely popular cartoon character. He lives inside a pineapple underneath the sea. The CRACKPOT Christians, however, would like you to believe that he really lives in a loft in Greenwich Village above an antiques store with his longtime companion. The CRACKPOT Christians want to warn Americans that a music video being sent to 61,000 U.S. schools in March featuring SpongeBob and promoting a message of tolerance is really a surreptitious attempt to turn straights into gays. Specifically, they’re upset by a “tolerance pledge” on the website of the nonprofit We Are Family Foundation, the producer of the video, that asks people to respect the sexual identity of others along with their abilities, beliefs, culture and race. I’ve only caught bits and pieces of SpongeBob, but I never noticed any Bette Midler playing in the background. Nor have I seen SpongeBob shopping for china at Williams Sonoma, or French-kissing another male sponge. He does, however, hold hands with his sidekick Patrick and enjoys watching the imaginary TV show, “The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy,” so I can see why the CRACKPOT Christians might get their knickers in a knot believing that the moral foundation of our nation’s schoolchildren is in grave peril because a couple of cartoon characters touched each other. But why stop at SpongeBob? I’m sure the CRACKPOT Christians are, at this very moment, gathered somewhere in a secret location, scrutinizing old clips of Tom and Jerry to detect any signs of mutual arousal. I know the CRACKPOT Christians are all over the rumor that whenever Scooby-Doo humps a leg, it’s always a man’s leg. And have you noticed that Ed, Edd N Eddy hug each other quite a bit? I guarantee you the CRACKPOT Christians have noticed. The now-infamous SpongeBob video — or as it is more commonly known now among CRACKPOT Christians, “The Insidious Perpetuation of the Undersea Gay Agenda By Animated Phylum Porifera” — also features such notable characters as Barney, Winnie the Pooh, Bob the Builder, the Rugrats and others. By their participation, I have to assume they are targets as well. The CRACKPOT Christians will ask, “Why is it we never see Barney with a girlfriend?” Or “Is Winnie’s preoccupation with honey just a smokescreen?” And “Exactly what type of ‘tools’ is Bob the Builder busy with these days?” This situation might be funny if it wasn’t so insane. Yet rather than dump on the CRACKPOT Christians for placing their heads in an anatomically impossible position, I feel a little sorry for them. By turning SpongeBob into a controversy, they’re destroying the miniscule amount of credibility they might have had in the eyes of real Christians and others. These CRACKPOT Christians have succeeded in doing something I thought would be impossible: They’re giving Jesus Christ a bad name. For a lot of people, this might be unforgivable. But I’m more compassionate than most. I would like to help the CRACKPOT Christians redeem themselves. After all, they’re human, or at least they started out that way. Guiding these CRACKPOT Christians along the path of righteousness will be a Herculean task, but as the Bible tells us, miracles do happen. How can I preach tolerance and then turn my back on those who need it most? The first step for the CRACKPOT Christians is to accept that they have a problem. I know programs exist that can reprogram the insufferably preachy and transform them back into normal people like the rest of us. They have to get the message that taking the Good Book, living by the parts they agree with and disregarding the parts they don’t, is a learned behavior and can be cured. They need to be taught that looking for secret messages where none exist is an urge that should be resisted. Maybe they could use an instructional video. Michael Ventre lives in Los Angeles and is a regular contributor to MSNBC.com.

Some updates/corrections: 1. The new book by Marcus Borg is not called The Essence of Christianity, but rather, The Heart of Christianity. 2. The Clergy Leadership Network has just transformed into The Clergy and Laity Network: ... continuing public role. The reshaping of CLN involves: - a new official name: Clergy and Laity Network. The logo will remain CLN. A new ... http://www.clnnlc.org

Indeed. And one of my main peeves about New Age thought is it's hyper-individualism. Its focus is upon "personal fulfillment" and "self-actualization" which is hardly what Christianity is primarily about. Such perspectives miss the important social and corporate nature of salvation and God's kingdom.

Jeep is mistaken. What strikes me as "new agey" isn't the notion that we were never seperated from God (which I also believe), but rather it's the overly cerebral and vapid language; e.g. "fulfillment with joy, love, unity, happiness and success"; the "kingdom of pure consciousness", etc.

An interesting perspective from a group email: ---------- The agenda of the conservative political body will maintain its power, supported by "the church," until the progressive members of the population in the United States return to the religious institutions and change the political agenda in the pews. In addition to wringing our hands and wagging our heads saying, "oh this is awful," we need to reach out to progressive activist groups and encourage them to return to the church and reclaim the power of its voice for progressive candidates in 2008 or 2012. Many people credit Bush's victory in 2004 to the people in the church. I do not think it is possible to change the people in the church by preaching in the pulpit or by sending out position papers from GBCS or the Council of Bishops, but by bringing in a more progressive population. I believe the political power behind the voice of the church is not in the pulpit, but in the pew. It may be too late to prevent an invasion of Iran, but maybe we can begin to prevent a further conservative drift in the US supported by the majority of "the church" by examining what we need to accomplish to get a progressive population in the pew to support the progressive theology of Jesus Christ instead of "triumphalism, self-righteousness, bad theology, and, often, dangerous foreign policy" (Jim Wallis, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It: A New Vision for Faith and Politics in America). In peace and prayer, Frederick Rev. Frederick Boyle Peace with Justice Coordinator Greater New Jersey Annual Conference pastorFKB@GODHQ.NET

some initial remarks: 1. You've chosen to employ rather male-centric language - which isn't very "progressive" IMO. 2. You have presented A form of progressive Christianity, but you've stated things in such a way that a reader might think that you have presented progressive Christianity in and of itself; i.e. objectively and definitively. The way you've described things is a bit too "new agey" and "gnostic" for me - but I'm sure what you've stated there works for many others. 3. I'm not sure that "pefection" is the central key to Christianity; rather, IMO, it's about flawed humans accepting Grace that empowers us to rise to our better selves.

Most any independent book store can special order books for customers. They may not carry the books that you're looking for, but they can order them and this way you still help out your local economy.

Here is the review of that book that I posted at amazon.com: Authored by a former prominent Southern Baptist pastor and professor who was once deemed a "rising star" in that denomination, this book provides the wisdom, insights and learnings of a veteran pastor who is now able to reflect back upon the experiences of his truly dynamic career. This work offers the general public insights into our nation's largest Protestant denomination that only a well positioned insider could possibly have discerned. I read Killinger's book over the course of only two days. It is very well written and truly compelling - you can't wait to read what he has to say next! The work is somewhat similar to that of Bruce Bawer's "Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity" as well as to the popular "Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism" by John Shelby Spong, but is more balanced, less dense, and much less strident in tone than the others. I am tempted to assert that Killinger, in a few places, may have "overstated" or "overly generalized" in his remarks about the ways and practices of the Southern Baptist Convention, but it could well be that he isn't. If not, then this work shines a truly needed exposing light upon the denomination that is most represented in our current U.S. Congress - and that currently has "the keys to the kingdom" of current U.S. foreign and domestic policy. In this United Methodist pastor's opinion, this work ought to be required reading in all mainline seminaries and I highly recommend it for adult Sunday School or church book club discussions. Other books of a similar nature include: "Theological Crossfire: An Evangelical/Liberal Dialogue" by Clark Pinnock and Delwin Brown; "Liberals & Other Born-Again Christians: Many Minds, One Heart," by Sally Geis; "The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind," by Peter Gomes. For those who are currently reconsidering their theological commitments, I recommend exploring: "Good Goats: Healing Our Image of God," Dennis Linn; "The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion to a More Contemporary Faith," Marcus Borg; "God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God," Gregory Boyd; "Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God's Opneness," Clark Pinnock; "The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium," Walter Wink; and "Grace & Responsibility: A Wesleyan Theology for Today," John Cobb, Jr. ----------------------- Here are the 10 chapter titles (the ten "wrong teachings"): 1. The Bible is the Literal, Inerrant Word of God 2. God is a Great Moral Judge, and Therefor Jesus Had to Die for our Sins 3. Jesus is the Only Way to God 4. There is No Salvation Outside the (Conservative) Church 5. Worship is Proclamation before it is Anything Else 6. Spiritual People Don't Drink, Dance, or Come out of the Closet 7. Religion is a Man's Business 8. Faith is Always Truer than Science 9. When Bad Things Happen to Good People, There is Always a Reason 10. Conservatives Want Everybody to be Free

Seeking, I would recommend that you read the following books to help you with your issues. 1. Ten Things I Learned Wrong from a Conservative Church by John Killinger & 2. Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity by Bruse Bawer The first book was written by a former Southern Baptist pastor who is now a pastor of a different Baptist congregation. Very readable and insighful. The second book is more strident in tone and a bit too brash for my likes, but the author does deliver some knock out punches to fundamentalism. You can read reviews of these books by visiting http://www.amazon.com but I always encourage people to purchase books from their local independent bookstores (or to obtain it from a library).

Still segregated by color: green Published on: 01/16/05 The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is in its death throes, suffering a leadership crisis, financial woes and a free-fall in membership. SCLC offers the most dramatic example of a civil rights organization in decline, but it is by no means the only one. The National Urban League doesn't command the respect it once did. The Congress of Racial Equality has been little more than a joke ever since its chairman, Roy Innis, began promoting the interests of African tyrants, starting with Idi Amin. Even the NAACP, the grand dame of civil rights organizations, has lost power and prestige. But that's the good news. Civil rights organizations are victims of their own success. In retrospect, the achievements of the American civil rights movement have been stunning — overturning a hateful legal and social infrastructure in a surprisingly short period of time. The movement King led has achieved many of its tangible goals, including the abolition of a legal apartheid and the broad transition of black Americans into the nation's mainstream. While racism lingers, it is clearly diminished. Black Americans now occupy posts of power and prestige, from the office of secretary of state to the CEO's chair at Time Warner to the president's office at Brown University. Even a few cases of controversy and failure have been oddly reassuring, suggesting that black Americans now have the freedom to be greedy, incompetent, wrongheaded and unlucky without smearing their race. Franklin Raines' fall from grace as CEO of Fannie Mae was just another example of the mendacity of a greedy business executive. Tyrone Willingham was fired as coach at Notre Dame because he didn't win enough football games. Colin Powell is leaving the Bush administration because he is a reluctant warrior, not a happy one. They were judged by their deeds, not their race, and that's progress. Yet, none of that tells the full story of America's social and racial landscape at the 76th anniversary of King's birth. There is bad news to consider, too. Depressing numbers of black Americans are stuck at the margins — held back by poverty, educational failure and drug abuse, among other maladies. And the gap between accomplished blacks and their left-behind brethren grows wider as the economic ladder becomes harder to climb. These days, middle-class black Americans move out of bad neighborhoods just as whites do, fleeing crime, poor schools and decaying infrastructure. But those same phenomena are increasing the gap between affluent and poorer whites, too. Indeed, class — not race — is the great divide in America now. The civil rights movement was phenomenally successful in removing the barriers that prevented capable black students and professionals from assuming their rightful places in the classrooms of prestigious universities or the boardrooms of major corporations. With a little assistance from affirmative action programs, those students and professionals made the transition to the middle class. But the civil rights movement did little to curb the myriad forces that trap poor children in bad schools, that keep health care out of reach of the working poor, that shutter factories and mills. And those forces limit the horizons of white and brown workers as well as black ones. Toward the end of his life, King understood that. In 1968, he launched the Poor People's Campaign, an effort to check the rapacious impulse of capitalism by emphasizing social and economic justice. He meant it to be a rainbow crusade of the nation's black, brown and white workers. Nearly 40 years after King's death, the gap between the haves and have-nots has widened, and the goal of economic justice is more elusive than ever. Those who would keep King's dream alive should take up that cause. • Cynthia Tucker is the editorial page editor. Her column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion...UZUbU_UcTYWVVZV

One a related note: (from an email from www.forusa.org) --------- Most of us are familiar with Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech, delivered before a crowd of 200,000 people at the March on Washington in August, 1963. But few have read Dr. King’s World House essay, probably the best summation of his teachings. This essay is adapted from King’s Nobel Peace Prize lecture, given at the University of Oslo on December 10, 1964. He worked on this speech for nearly a month and later gave it prominence as the final chapter in his book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, published in 1967. The World House essay describes the enormous challenges facing humanity and prophetically ends by warning of the tremendous urgency of addressing them: “Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numer­ous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late.’” When Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel introduced Dr. King to a Rabbinical Assembly 10 days before King’s assassination, Heschel proclaimed: “Where in America today do we hear a voice like the voice of the prophets of Israel? Martin Luther King is a sign that God has not forsaken the United States of America. God has sent him to us. Martin Luther King, Jr., is a voice, a vision and a way. The whole future of America will depend on the impact and influence of Dr. King.” Black theologian and activist Vincent Harding has written: “If there is even a chance that Rabbi Heschel was correct, that the untranquil King and his peace-disturbing vision, words, and deeds hold the key to the future of America, for scholars, citizens or celebrants to forget the real man and his deepest implications would be not only faithless, but also suicidal.” This year is the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s World House vision. It is time to heed the prophet and let him lead us “out of the wilderness.” Summary of The World House: King begins his essay by suggesting that we have inherited a large house, a “world house” in which we must somehow learn to live together in peace - black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Muslim and Hindu - a family widely separated in ideas, culture and interest. We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or together we will perish as fools. He goes on to say that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit that stands in sharp contrast to our scientific and technological advances. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. He then describes three great problems facing humanity: ¨ racism ¨ poverty/materialism ¨ war Racism and its perennial ally, economic exploitation, provide the key to understanding most of the international complications of this generation. If we are not diligent in our determination to root out the last vestiges of racism in our dealings with the rest of the world, we may soon see the sins of our fathers visited upon ours and succeeding generations. If Western civilization does not now respond constructively to the challenge to banish racism, some future historian will have to say that a great civilization died because it lacked the soul and commitment to make justice a reality for all people. Poverty, like a monstrous octopus, stretches its choking prehensile tenta­cles into lands and villages all over the world. Two-thirds of the peoples of the world are undernourished, ill-housed and shabbily clad. We have the resources and the scientific know-how to provide everyone everywhere with the basic necessities of life. There is no deficit in human resources; the defi­cit is in human will. The time has come for an all-out effort to eradicate global poverty. The rich nations must use their vast resources to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled and feed the unfed. The wealthy nations must initiate a massive, sustained Marshall Plan for Asia, Africa, and Latin America, allocating 2% of their gross national income annually for 10-20 years to conquer the ancient enemy, poverty. All people are interdependent; all life is interrelated. The agony of the poor impoverishes the rich; the betterment of the poor enriches the rich. We are inevitably our brother’s keeper because we are our brother’s brother. What­ever affects one directly affects all indirectly. The final problem humanity must solve in order to survive in the world house is finding an alternative to war. Wisdom born of experience should tell us that war is ob­solete. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. There may have been a time when war served as a negative good by preventing the spread and growth of an evil force, but the destructive power of modern weapons eliminates even the possibility that war may serve any good at all. It is as possible and as urgent to put an end to war and violence between nations as it is to put an end to poverty and racial injustice. King suggests that the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence become a subject for study and experimentation in every field of human conflict, in­cluding relations between nations. The United Nations is a gesture in the direction of nonviolence on a world scale. King proposes that it examine the uses of nonviolent direct action-the persistent and determined application of peaceable power to offenses against the world community. In the final section of his essay, King states that the stability of the world house will require a revolution of values. We must rapidly shift from a “thing”-oriented society to a “people”-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are inca­pable of being conquered. We are called upon to be the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside. But true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. The whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be beaten and robbed as they make their journey through life. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can lead the way in this revolution of values. A nation that year after year spends more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. There is nothing to prevent us from paying adequate wages to schoolteachers, social workers and other servants of the public. There is nothing to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American citi­zen, whether a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid or day laborer. There is nothing but shortsightedness to prevent us from guaranteeing an annual minimum - and livable - income for every American family. There is noth­ing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against Communism [substitute “terrorism”]. War is not the answer. We must seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice which are the fertile soil in which the seed of Communism/terrorism grows and develops. A genuine revolution of values means that our loyalties must become ecu­menical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to humanity as a whole. This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class and nation is a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all people. Love is the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals who pursued this self-defeating path of hate. We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. There is an invisible book of life that faith­fully records our vigilance or our neglect. “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.” We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. This may well be humanity’s last chance to choose between chaos and community. Summary excerpted from Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968) ~ How You Can Promote Dr. King’s World House Agenda 1. Read the World House essay. Give a copy to your minister, priest, rabbi, or imam and ask that it be used as the topic for a sermon and for study by the congregation. The essay is on the FOR’s website: www.forusa.org. 2. Encourage educators to include the World House vision and agenda in their teaching about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 3. Mail copies of the World House essay to your newspaper editor, radio talk show hosts, and television news anchors and reporters. Urge them to report that Dr. King’s legacy includes his World House vision and the challenge to eradicate racism, poverty, excessive materialism, and militarism. 4. Schedule use of our World House replica (4 ft depth x 8 ft width x 6 ft height) for your congregation, school, or community group. Ask for a speaker or workshop facilitator on the World House. Suggested donation: $40. Call (401) 273-4369 or (401) 724-7700, Ext. 6. World House replica: concept by Nondas Voll, RI Fund for Community Progress; design and construction by Rev. T. Michael Rock, FOR-RI Chapter and RI Committee for Nonviolence Initiatives. 5. Join the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the oldest and largest interfaith peace and justice organization in the US. Write FOR, Box 270, Nyack, NY 10960. Call (845) 358-4601. Visit FOR’s website: www.forusa.org.

The U.S. will be honoring the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday (Jan. 15) by paraking in a national holiday on Mon. Jan. 17. As we prepare for this day off of work (most of us anyway), it might be a good idea to reflect upon just how far we've come (or haven't) toward fulfilling his famed "Dream" for America. Here's one person's remarks to get this going: --------- January 10, 2005 HONORING DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. By Bernice Powell Jackson What would Dr. King think of the world today had he lived? What would he have to say? What causes would he be speaking out for or against? Many ask that question every year as we approach his January 15 birthday. The truth is we will never know because no human being stands still in time, but we all grow and mature just by living. For example, by reading Dr. King's sermons and writings in the last five years of his life, we know that he prioritized economic justice issues and working for peace in a world of war. These became his priorities, just as racial justice had been his prime motivator in the early days of his ministry. What would Dr. King have to say about the terrible toll of the tsunami throughout the nations of the Indian Ocean? I think he would have spoken a word of consolation to the people of those nations and an assurance of the love of God, especially for those who had lost not only family, but all possessions. But I also think he would have challenged those of us who live so comfortably in America to understand that our sharing with the world cannot come only during times of crisis and catastrophe. I think he would have used this opportunity to help Americans understand that our federal government's foreign aid (excluding military spending) and our private charitable gifts combined equal only 21 cents per day, per person - far less than our European counterparts. Many Americans falsely believe that our federal government foreign aid is 25% of our national budget. Instead, it is less than one quarter of one percent. I think Dr. King would say we, the richest nation in the world, can do better. What would Dr. King say about the on-going war in Iraq? I have said many times that I believe Dr. King would have spoken out forcefully against going into that war and would have continued to voice his opposition to the war, just as he did in the Viet Nam War. In his famous sermon entitled, "Silence is Betrayal," at The Riverside Church in New York City, one year before his assassination, Dr. King spoke out against the inherent danger of trying to end conflict with war, the racism of that war, the spending of our national budget for war instead of against poverty and the high price being paid by the soldiers who were mostly black and Hispanic or poor. Recently there have been some African American clergy who have tried to expropriate Dr. King in their fight against same sex marriage, some even beginning a march at his graveside. I don't profess to know what Dr. King's position on same sex marriage would have been, but I do believe that Dr. King would have supported the full humanity and the inclusion of all children of God in our society. Just as he supported Bayard Rustin, the labor unionist and gay man who was the genius behind the March on Washington and many of the strategies of the civil rights movement, I believe Dr. King would have reached out to the glbt community. Whatever Dr. King might have said about the issues of today, I know that he would have urged each and every American to work for justice and peace in our nation and the world. This year, as we celebrate Dr. King's birthday, let's all find a concrete way to work for such a world. Write a letter to your Congresspersons and Senators about the genocide in Darfur, work in Habitat for Humanity building projects, make sure your church is using fair trade coffee, tutor a child in need or teach an adult to read. If we want a world of peace with justice, then we must work for it. I know Dr. King would approve of that. Rev. Jackonson is President from North America, World Council of Churches

Ken, welcome aboard! Happy posting!

Yes, he's the executive editor of the Sojourners magazine and the spiritual head of the Sojourner's community. see www.sojo.net to learn more.

God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It As the Bush administration prepares to inaugurate another four years of its policies, together we can raise up a voice of Christian conscience and a visible alternative to the Religious Right. The post-election focus on the faith and values issue is offering us many new opportunities, and the media attention already focused on Jim Wallis' new book holds the potential for it to become a national best-seller. Jim Wallis will soon be touring cities, churches, and campuses across the country to generate a national dialogue on all our moral values as people of faith. Imagine the increased media exposure progressive faith values will receive if this "new vision of faith and politics in America" becomes a best-seller. Imagine the national coverage given to a prophetic vision that challenges both the Right and the Left. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Click below to see detailed description, reviews, etc. But, as always, I encourage people to purchase books from their local independantly owned bookstores. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006...=glance&s=books

How many Lutherans? "Change? What do you MEAN "change"?! My MOTHER donated those lightbulbs!"

Along those same lines, I posted the following on Dec. 27th in an msn.com community bulletin board: ---------- Cat, for a theological take on this: This tragic event may bring to light the theological issue of "theodicy" (i.e. why would an 'all good, all loving, all powerful' God allow such horrible things to happen to His/Her people?"). My take on this is that God doesn't intend to harm us but has set up creation such that the laws of physics must run their course and it is just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time if a person gets hit by a falling boulder, dies in an earthquake, etc. God is, however, very much with us in a healing, restoring, transforming way as we face the various crises of life. [This said, there is a minor degree of human responsibility for such tragaedies to the extent that people may knowingly choose to live in areas prone to experience tornadoes, forest fires, land slides, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. - yet many people are financially unable to relocate]. See also: Romans Chapter 8: verse: 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[j] who[k] have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[l] 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[m] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

On a lighter note, anyone remember the commercial from the 1980's where an old woman falls to the floor and yells: "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" Was it an ad for Wendy's?

I think what you're looking for is found on the first of these two links (they're both very lovely). However, neither is from Billy Graham assocation as far I can tell.. http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com/presentation.html http://www.positivepause.com/en/

Well, such views are moderate to me, but within the larger culture (Church universal), these views are rather novel and even percevieved as heretical by many. Indeed, attempts have been made to have certain college professors fired for their openness to Openness theology.

As for me, I vote for the candidate who's party platforms have more in common with my views than the other parties - with the hopes that they will be more open to being influenced (lobbied) to adopt my other policy preferences than had the other party won the election. In reality, this means that I most often vote for Democrat candidates - with a few exceptions on a case by case basis.

Indeed, it seems that far too many throw the baby out with the bathwater... Critical thinking is what is needed and IMO both fundamentalists and radical-anything-goers are each equally guilty of anti-intellectualism and laziness.

I don't have a lot to contribute to this thread but I can say that within the Evangelical community there is an "element" (movement) that is somewhat similar to Process theology. They call it Openness theology and major proponents are Greg Boyd (www.gregboyd.org); Clark Pinnock, etc. In a nutshell, where Process theolgoy asserts that God cannot supernaturally intervene in the law's of nature, Openness theology asserts that God can but in creating Creation, has established things such that S/He chooses not to in order to allow genuine free will to take place.