But then I started thinking ... thousands have died in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands died during the tsunami. And over a million have died died in Africa from war and diseases.
Who do we vigil for?
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:56 PM
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Immoral. That's what several religious groups are calling President Bush's latest budget. The charge has political ramifications. It threatens to undermine some of Mr. Bush's support from voters concerned with values. But it also raises a deep question: Can budgets be moral or immoral? Is that really how the nation's spending plan should be judged? This emerging challenge is turning the "values" debate on its head. Liberals are putting policy issues in moral terms. Conservatives are resisting it.And more and more people would argue that many policy issues - like those relating to poverty, for example - are moral issues.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:42 PM
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Personalities aside, the biggest difference between Clinton '96 and Gore '00 had to do with how each candidate dealt with two sets of issues: culture, and role-of-government--both big "trust" issues in the South. Clinton was thoroughly progressive, but went well out of his way to make it clear that he wanted abortion to be "safe, legal and rare," that he supported a modest gay rights agenda because everyone who "worked hard and played by the rules" should be treated the same; and that he fought to maintain and even expand the social safety net on condition that it truly represented a "hand up, not a handout." Everyone in Washington laughed at Clinton's "micro-initiatives" on supporting the family--V-chips, school uniforms, youth curfews, etc,--but they sent big messages in the culturally-sensitive South. And in general, Clinton's whole '96 message was that he was willing to reign in government's excesses, while fighting to defend its essentials--the famous M2E2 (Medicare, Medicaid, Education and the Environment).Compare that message to Gore's, and you go a long way towards understanding why the guy lost nearly half of Clinton's southern white support. Gore was forever bellowing about partial-birth abortion legislation (supported by about three-fourths of southerners) representing a dire threat to the basic right to choose. While Clinton called for "mending, not ending" affirmative action, Gore pledged to defend every aspect of affirmative action with his life. Clinton talked about balancing gun ownership rights with responsibilities. Gore talked about national licensing of gun owners. Clinton talked about making government "smarter, not bigger." Gore never mentioned his own role in the "reinventing government" initiative, and boasted an enormous policy agenda that added up to a message that he wanted to expand government as an end in itself.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:57 AM
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I've had it with Governor Romney, who badmouths the state that elected him whenever he's somewhere else. In his "I Wish Massachusetts Were More Like Utah" speech last week, Romney said: "America cannot continue to lead the family of nations around the world if we suffer the collapse of the family here at home." (It's an allusion to a popular bit of Mormon folk wisdom, incidentally: "No success compensates for failure in the home.") Aside from the silliness of thinking U.S. prestige has been weakened among the world's leading nations because a few thousand gay couples have married in Massachusetts, I have to ask the governor: Do you really believe Utah is better for families than Massachusetts?
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:23 AM
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I had a fairly painful UU conversation yesterday. A friend was really struggling with the notion that Unitarian Universalism was a Christian religion. It was his contention that he would not be UU if it were explicitly identified as Christian (or perhaps even post-Christian if post-Christian did not mean non-Christian). I don't consider myself a Christian or a theist. I have made that clear in this space before. But I don't feel the need to flee if folks are honest about our Christian heritage. I will admit that like my friend I would not have become a UU if it was explicitly identified as Christian at the time. But as members and especially as seminarians I think we have to get past that. By all means, we don't have to be Christians but we have to get past being reactionary about Christianity. (I would generally substitute atheists and Pagans for Christians too.)He goes on to talk about Christian supercessionism, which he defines in the article.
There's at least one good reply by Fausto to the article posted. Fausto says, in part,
UUism has not superseded Christianity, but rather, is a dissenting manifestation of Christianity. It is not a superior and antithetical revelation, but an authentic expression of the Protestant principle of personal discernment of Truth, carried to the ultimate extreme.
I certainly learn a lot by reading other people's blogs.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 2:22 PM
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Do you know the difference between exegesis and eisegesis, and which one is often considered good vs bad by traditionalists? Do you know how your hermeneutic affects the answer to that? Hint: Unitarians have always stood firmly in the critical hermeneutical camp.
You might need to read this article a few times.
Slowly.
Or maybe it's just me.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 2:10 PM
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posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:29 PM
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The standard of living people in the West enjoy today is due to little else but the selfish pursuit of profit.The blog author thinks our standard of living is due to a lot more than that.
I find business ethics a rather interesting topic, because there's so much disagreement as to whether or not business has separate ethical obligations (as opposed to legal obligations).
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 9:32 AM
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Jim Wallis responds here with an open letter.
I've heard Wallis speak in person and am just starting his book God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It and Colson's got it wrong.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:54 AM
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Conservative archbishops attending Anglican crisis talks this week will demonstrate their anger with their liberal counterparts by refusing to receive Communion alongside them, The Telegraph has learned. The Church's primates, the heads of the 38 self-governing provinces that make up the worldwide Church, are gathering in Northern Ireland today to try to avert schism over homosexuality.Is that really a Christian thing to do? Why don't the conservative archbishops stick their collective tongues out at their liberal counterparts while they're at it?
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:41 AM
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The state's highest court has agreed to hear a challenge to the 1913 law used to bar out-of-state gay couples from getting married in Massachusetts. The law, which some say was written to block interracial marriages, denies out-of-state couples the right to marry if it would be illegal in their home state. Massachusetts is the only state that allows gays to marry. Final briefs are due in the case by May 27, but no date for oral arguments has been set, according to court records.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:20 PM
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If you know any pro-lifers, have them take a look. They need to get busy to do something to stop things like this.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:33 AM
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Glad I could clear that up for you.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 9:43 AM
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Commenting on Washington's words, the author says
Many of our citizens today have forgotten this simple but profound point: he who purports to "tolerate" another's exercise of his liberty pretends to the right to control it.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:39 AM
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posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:34 AM
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posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:21 AM
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Brummett concludes by sayingNeither point is altogether wrong.
- Actually, there is no expressed church-state separation in the Constitution. There only is a prohibition against government's establishing a specific religion and a guarantee of freedom of religion. Church-state separation came up later in a letter by Thomas Jefferson to church people saying the nation needed to keep a "wall of separation" between church and government.
- The nation was founded on Christian principles and no one can reasonably expect citizen legislators to make laws without applying their own religious underpinning.
To keep all these Americans free, it's best to collect their principles in a big stew pot from which we can scoop out a just, wise and general secular government.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:22 AM
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The book was recently the object of a notification from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s chief doctrinal authority, citing “grave doctrinal errors” (NCR, Feb. 18). The notification banned Haight from teaching Catholic theology, a largely symbolic gesture given that Haight is now an adjunct professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, a non-Catholic institution. Nevertheless the notification reawakened stereotypes of Vatican authoritarianism.In summarizing the book, the article says
In general, Haight’s aim is to express the church’s teaching about Christ in language accessible to a postmodern readership that has trouble with universal, exclusive claims for any one religion, and with “metaphysical” assertions that smack of mythology. The book is an exercise in “Christology from below,” starting with the historical Jesus of Nazareth rather than the cosmic Christ. Jesus, according to Haight, is the “central symbol” of God for Christians, though only “one of many symbolic actualizations of God’s loving presence to humankind.” Haight treats the Trinity and the preexistence of Christ as “symbols” of God’s activity, remaining tentative about whether they are actual persons or states of being.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 6:54 AM
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posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 2:48 PM
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posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 9:58 AM
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posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:48 AM
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This government is in serious trouble.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 2:30 PM
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"American want Democrats to stand up to Bush," the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire reports. "Fully 60%, including one-fourth of Republicans, say Democrats in Congress should make sure Bush and his party 'don't go too far.' Just 34% want Democrats to 'work in a bipartisan way' to help pass the president's priorities."
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:16 AM
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What can we tell about the designer from the design? While there is much that is marvelous in nature, there is also much that is flawed, sloppy and downright bizarre. Some nonfunctional oddities, like the peacock's tail or the human male's nipples, might be attributed to a sense of whimsy on the part of the designer. Others just seem grossly inefficient. In mammals, for instance, the recurrent laryngeal nerve does not go directly from the cranium to the larynx, the way any competent engineer would have arranged it. Instead, it extends down the neck to the chest, loops around a lung ligament and then runs back up the neck to the larynx. In a giraffe, that means a 20-foot length of nerve where 1 foot would have done. If this is evidence of design, it would seem to be of the unintelligent variety.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:27 AM
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the Cecil County [Maryland] Board of Education unanimously approved ... "Biology: The Dynamics of Life" as a textbook for next year's 10th-grade science classrooms. The decision came after a board member complained that the book made no reference to creationism.Can you imagine? A biology textbook that doesn't discussion creationism or "intelligent design"? What's next? A physics textbook without a discussion of time travel? A chemistry textbook without a chapter on alchemy?
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 4:05 PM
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When lawmakers convene at the State House later this year to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, they'll have to deal with lobbying and protests from people on both sides of the issue, everyone from outspoken gay and lesbian couples to outraged Catholic clergy. They'll also have to deal with lobbying from their next-door neighbors, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and their president, the Rev. William Sinkford.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 5:43 PM
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An article in the February 7 of Fortune had a statistic that fascinated me, however. It said that, because making new cans from used ones requires 95% less energy than making them from bauxite, recycling a single can saves enough energy to run a TV set for three hours.
Unbelievable.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 2:23 PM
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Ask yourself: Who is a truly influential liberal mind in our culture? Whose ideas challenge and whose ideals inspire? Whose books and articles are read and passed around? There's no one, really. What's left is the laundry list: the catalogue of programs (some dubious, some not) that Republicans aren't funding, and the blogs, with their daily panic dose about how the Bush administration is ruining the country.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:36 PM
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posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:40 AM
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posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:30 AM
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doesn't represent a turn to the left: Mr. Dean is squarely in the center of his party on issues like health care and national defense. Instead, Mr. Dean's political rejuvenation reflects the new ascendancy within the party of fighting moderates, the Democrats who believe that they must defend their principles aggressively against the right-wing radicals who have taken over Congress and the White House.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:36 PM
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One reason for losing youth members after high school graduation is the perception that our congregations cater to those who are older adult converts. We rarely attempt to provide a worship experience with youth or young adults as part of our religious community. Or if we do offer this experience, we expect youth and young adults to conform to older adult worship norms ... we're not even attempting to meet them half-way.He goes on to reference a number of other articles on the subject. Definitely worth reading.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:20 AM
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Appearing opposite Sojourners editor-in-chief Reverend Jim Wallis on the February 11 edition of FOX News' Hannity & Colmes, Falwell called Wallis's claim that "evangelicals around the world were against the war in Iraq" "baloney" and remarked: "You could fit your [antiwar evangelical] crowd in a phone booth." After Wallis told Falwell that "there are evangelical Christians who don't share your pro-war views," Falwell replied, "I know -- you and William Sloane Coffin." Coffin is a longtime peace activist and former Yale University chaplain. In fact, many evangelical leaders openly opposed the Iraq war, and a March 2003 poll by the Pew Research Center indicated that although most American evangelicals supported removing Saddam Hussein from power, less than half "favored the use of force if our major allies did not want to join us."
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:05 AM
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Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, made the comment in a written response to Catholic News Service in early February. Rainbow Sash, which describes itself as an organization of gay and lesbian Catholics and their families and friends, has criticized church statements on homosexuality, including the church's teaching that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered" and that homosexual orientation is "objectively disordered." To underline their point, the group's members sometimes attend Mass and receive Communion wearing the sash.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:25 AM
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The traditional position of the Free Church is that it inspires private and personal action, but does nothing that would create a de-facto political creed. The preacher may preach with passion on the issues of the day, but the church is cautious about taking positions itself, out of respect for the rights of those who would disagree. On the other hand, there is an alternative stance, which you could call the Crisis Stance. At certain times in history, the free church acts to defend and promote its basic principles in the society at large, generally during times of intense political and social crisis: the civil rights movement, the anti Vietnam war period. There is both a gain and a loss for the church, as an institution, in doing so. The church serves as a center of popular mobilization, but it also defines itself in such a way that it repels as many as it attracts.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:17 AM
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posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:13 AM
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Religion should be the result of moderation rather than passion, leading men to virtue, not enthusiasm. The Bible does not give us a fair opportunity to understand the motives of God nor is it necessary that we should.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 5:50 AM
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U.S. ENCOURAGED BY VIETNAM VOTE ——— Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror ——— By PETER GROSE Special to The New York Times WASHINGTON, Sept. 3—United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam’s presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. . . . A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson’s policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. "Rings a bit of a bell. The author, Hendrik Hertzberg, argues, however, that there's really very little similarity between the two elections.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 11:28 AM
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"what is wrong with praying for his death? For relief from his manifest sufferings? And for the opportunity to pay honor to his legacy by turning to the responsibility of electing a successor to get on with John Paul's work?"In response, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights says
“The kindest thing that can be said of Bill Buckley’s vile column is that he’s gone off the deep end. It matters not a whit that he calls the pope ‘a major historical figure,’ because even the most inveterate anti-Catholic must acknowledge as much. Indeed, even the biggest Catholic basher in the world is not likely to write, ‘So, what is wrong with praying for his death?’ If you have to ask, sir, then you are beyond hope. “This is so tragic. Having lived a life of distinction, Bill Buckley will now be remembered as the guy who had a death wish for the pope.”
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:51 AM
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Every UU church wants to expand, but most seem to want to convert the Conservative Christians and bring in atheists who haven’t previously needed a church. In reality, every UU church’s best source of converts are the UCC, liberal Episcopalian, liberal Methodist and liberal Presbyterian churches that have people sitting in the back unable to embrace God in human terms as a being who rewards and punishes. A person who can look past the scriptural God, who is very much that personified deity, and see something else, something above that, is halfway in our door.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 9:22 AM
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In it, she touches on Mike Durall's The Almost Church.
This brings to mind several chapters in The Almost Church. CC loves a good masochistic beating as much as the next freaky chick, but even she found the book, from that sucky title on, a little much. That goes double for the author's smarmy "Y'all can't admit this to yourselves, but I know better" tone.I don't think the title is sucky at all - I think it's exactly on target. (Admission: I'm a Big Fan of Durall). And here's why I believe that: I think that one word you could use to describe all of the people who attend any particular church - except UU churches - is believers. The closest you could come to members of a UU church is affirmers - and I don't think that's got quite the same ring. It's not clear to me what all of the members of my congregation have in common that revolves around religion. To paraphrase one of Durall's sources, a UU congregation is sometimes referred to as a group of people who get together but nobody knows what brought them all there.
I and five other members of my congregation had the opportunity to attend a session with him on Saturday February 12 at Andover Newton Theological School. My take on it was that it brought alive the ideas that he expresses in the book, but didn't break any new ground. Definitely worth going to. That being said, I agree with ChaliceChick that he does have an attitude. I don't have a problem with that, though. He's a consultant. He's supposed to have an attitude.
ChaliceChick comments on Durall's encouraging tithing ...
That having been said, I can seriously get behind the idea of UUs tithing. I've learned a lot about faithful church membership from the Mormons I work with, and the enthusiasm with which they approach giving to their church is really sort of inspiring. It's clear it makes them feel good and like they are a part of something, rather than the approach I see in my UU church of making the whole thing seem like a good financial transaction on the part of the giver.One of the problems with UUs (problems being defined as "something that prevents the denomination from rapidly growing like many non-denominational Christian churchs are growing") is that we look at everything intellectually. No one tithes for intellectual reasons - they tithe from the heart. That's why trying to get UUs to tithe is a losing battle. Even trying to persuade UU Boards to think about encouraging their congregations to tithe is a losing battle.
(If people have a problem with tithing because it sounds too "Christian", Durall suggests giving 11% of income - because "11%" has absolutely no religious significance.)
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 9:02 AM
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A front-page story in The New York Times this week raised a red flag about evangelical relief groups in Asia who are mixing tsunami relief work and proselytizing. While many mainstream, faith-based agencies abide by Red Cross guidelines that humanitarian aid not be used to further political or religious ends, some mission groups happily pass along gospel tracts with food and medicine. Honestly, I don't know where to begin as I lay out a response to this controversy. I did run an economic and social development agency in Central America for more than a decade, and we were explicitly faith-based. A majority of our local partners were Catholic and evangelical churches that offered programs such as community micro-credit, innovative agricultural skills development, literacy (often linked to study of the Bible), and children's nutrition. But then and now, talking about humanitarian aid and spiritual motivation trips land mines for different segments of the general public. A healthy slice of New York Times readers are appalled, I am sure, that religious groups were leading the charge to provide aid to the victims of the quake/tsunami in South Asia. For some secularists, all religious people who establish a mission for humanitarian aid overseas are typecast into the 1950s characters of Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Poisonwood Bible. At best, the characters are ignorant of the local culture, and at worst downright manipulative, with the missionary considering charity a foil to convert the needy "natives." It's time for secularists with these stereotypes in mind to catch up with reality. There's a broad range of spiritually motivated relief agencies - Catholic Charities, Church World Service, Mennonite Central Committee, Jesuit Refugee Services, Lutheran World Relief, just to name a few of the Christian ones - that understand their mission as helping humans in their time of suffering. Period. Their approach is that such acts alone are the expression of love, compassion, and justice to which they feel called. To be sure, there are some mission organizations - particularly in evangelical churches - that bear out Kingsolver's typecast. I was raised throughout childhood in an evangelical church, so I know well the mentality of her missionary characters. When I was carrying out my work in Latin America, more than a few old family friends asked me why I "was wasting my time" on projects that aimed to effect real social change or stimulate long-term economic development. In their eyes, that was "social welfare" work more properly relegated to secularists. The work of a faith-based agency should be, in their eyes, propagation of the Christian message and winning converts. After all, as one friend reasoned with me, if the Latin Americans you work with are not saved and have to spend an eternity in hell, your projects accomplish nothing. It is the explicit intent of some evangelical aid groups to view aid as stage one of a longer conversion strategy. Once the recipient experiences the mercy of the organization, they perhaps will be more open to receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ and be baptized into the church. But, by and large, most evangelical missions organizations have become a bit more cautious in the way they mix evangelization and material assistance. In other words, it is rare to find a group that requires an individual to sit through a sermon in order to get a meal. Two very different theologies - how God exists in the world, if you will - undergird these distinct approaches to humanitarian assistance. The Kingsolver-esque "food in exchange for your soul" agencies understand redemption to be a purely spiritual transaction. In their theology, this world has fallen into evil and is beyond redemption. The work of Christians is to preach a personal message that salvation from this fallen world is available to any individual who will make a decision to follow Christ. If people remain Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, or of a more local faith, they are destined for hell. In this worldview, it is easy to judge the sinner and point their way toward salvation. If you saw the world this way, wouldn't your compassionate choice be to do everything possible to save the people of the world? Providing humanitarian assistance in a time of crisis would be an effective way to gain people's trust so that they would hear your message. This, in essence, is the ethos of the proselytizing aid agency. That is not how I experience God in the world, or understand God's calling me to a vocation of service. Along with most Christians who are operating in humanitarian assistance internationally, I experience God calling people to act with love and justice wherever we find suffering. When we stand in those places, we intensely experience God, working with us and through us - and at times in spite of us - to bring moments of redemption where there is brokenness. Spiritual practice so conceived throws us into acts of re-uniting what has been torn apart, confronting evil with goodness, and showing love where there is hatred. We do not judge, lest we be judged. We aim to embrace. We are simply invited to join in God's presence, and where it takes us - or those whom we serve - we rarely know. Our faith is hope in things not yet fully seen, yet we are confident in the path before us.Source: Sojourners 2005 (c) http://www.sojo.net
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:34 PM
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In the firmament of right-wing media outlets, Sinclair stands somewhere to the right of Fox News. Its archconservative politics may not be served up with Fox's raw-meat bite, but what Sinclair lacks in flash, it makes up for in unabashed cheerleading for the Bush administration. It sent a team to Iraq to report "good news" about the war and forced each of its sixty-two stations to broadcast a pledge of support for Bush. Last April, it refused to air a Nightline special listing the name of every American soldier killed in Iraq, and it gave national exposure to Stolen Honor, a documentary attacking John Kerry, just weeks before the election. And each night, Sinclair requires all of its stations to air an editorial segment called "The Point," in which company vice president Mark Hyman rails against the "angry left" and "clueless academia," dismisses peace activists as "wack jobs," calls the French "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and supports a host of right-wing initiatives, from a national sales tax to privatizing Medicare.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:32 PM
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The war on free speech continues in Congress. The crew that did its darndest to repeal the First Amendment back in 2002 -- Sens. John McCain and Russ Feingold and Reps. Chris Shays and Marty Meehan - is back, and now its looking to clean up the mess left by the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act. That mess: insidious "527" groups, like MoveOn.org's Media Fund and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, of course. The problem, it seems, is that there are still just too darn many independent groups allowed to go shooting their mouths off about any darn thing any darn time they want -- and they can accept pretty much any amount of money from pretty much anyone. There should be a law. And there will be, since free-speech looks to have no defenders left in Congress. In 2002 some conservative stalwarts --people who believed that money and speech couldn't be distinguished, since it takes money to make speech heard -- tried to hold out against the McCain-Feingold mania to get money out of politics.Thanks to Instapundit for pointing this out.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:45 AM
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It may sound shrill to describe President Bush as someone who takes food from the mouths of babes and gives the proceeds to his millionaire friends. Yet his latest budget proposal is top-down class warfare in action. And it offers the Democrats an opportunity, if they're willing to take it. First, the facts: the budget proposal really does take food from the mouths of babes. One of the proposed spending cuts would make it harder for working families with children to receive food stamps, terminating aid for about 300,000 people. Another would deny child care assistance to about 300,000 children, again in low-income working families. And the budget really does shower largesse on millionaires even as it punishes the needy. For example, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities informs us that even as the administration demands spending cuts, it will proceed with the phaseout of two little-known tax provisions - originally put in place under the first President George Bush - that limit deductions and exemptions for high-income households.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:26 AM
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posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:54 PM
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Setting up a political battle over stem cell research, Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts said this week that he would propose legislation to outlaw a type of embryonic stem cell research that is being planned by laboratories at Harvard University and other institutions in the state. The governor's remarks came as Democratic lawmakers were introducing legislation that would promote embryonic stem cell research, partly in an effort to keep the state's large stable of research scientists and biotechnology companies from moving to California or other states that are providing support or financial incentives for such research.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:56 AM
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Marian Kester Coombs is a woman who believes America has become a "den of iniquity" thanks to "its efforts to accommodate minorities." White men should "run, not walk" to wed "racially conscious" white women and avoid being out-bred by non-whites. Latinos are "rising to take this country away from those who made it," the "Euroamericans." Muslims are "human hyenas" who "smell blood" and are "closing in" on their "weakened prey," meaning "the white race." Blacks, Coombs sneers, are "saintly victims who can do no wrong." Black solidarity and non-white immigration are imposing "racial revolution and decomposition" in America. Coombs describes herself as just "a freelance writer in Crofton, Maryland." But this is one writer who's a bit more well-positioned than she lets on. Marian Kester Coombs is married to Francis Booth Coombs, managing editor of the hard-right newspaper The Washington Times. Fran Coombs has published at least 35 of his wife's news and opinion pieces for his paper, although his relationship to her is not acknowledged in her Times bylines.Thanks to Eschaton for pointing this one out.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 9:42 AM
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Lately I've been reading up on the Religious Right, particularly James Ault's marvelously insightful book Spirit and Flesh: Life in a Fundamentalist Baptist Church. I plan a more sweeping article on these themes next week, but right now I want to toss out a simple conclusion: Despite how it looks, when the conservative rank-and-file talk about moral values, they aren't being hypocrites. I know. I know. Rush Limbaugh is a recovering drug addict. Bill O'Reilly settled rather than face those nasty charges about phone sex. Practically every word that comes out of the White House is deceptive in one way or another. You don't have to tell me. But conservatives have an absolutely genuine reason to be concerned about moral breakdown: Conservative morality is breaking down.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:08 AM
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In an attempt to promote President Bush's plan to partially privatize Social Security, nationally syndicated radio host and former Reagan administration official William J. Bennett and FOX News managing editor and anchor Brit Hume falsely claimed that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt advocated replacing Social Security with private accounts. In fact, while Roosevelt advocated "voluntary contributory annuities" to supplement guaranteed Social Security benefits, he never proposed replacing those benefits with private accounts. On the February 3 edition of FOX News' Hannity & Colmes, Bennett declared: "Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the guy who established Social Security, said that it would be good to have it replaced by private investment over time. Private investment would be the way to really carry this thing through."
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:01 AM
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On Monday, February 7, President Bush released his 2006 budget proposal. As convener of Call to Renewal, Sojourners' partner organization, I issued the following response to the budget. The biblical prophets frequently spoke to rulers and kings. They spoke to "the nations," and it is the powerful that are most often the target audience; those in charge of things are the ones called to greatest accountability. And the prophets usually spoke for the dispossessed, widows and orphans (read: poor single moms), the hungry, the homeless, the helpless, the least, last, and lost. They spoke to a nation's priorities. Budgets are moral documents that reflect the values and priorities of a family, church, organization, city, state, or nation. They tell us what is most important and valued to those making the budget. President Bush says that his 2006 budget "is a budget that sets priorities." Examining those priorities - who will benefit and who will suffer in President Bush's budget - is a moral and religious concern. Just as we have "environmental impact studies" for public policies, it is time for a "poverty impact statement," which would ask the fundamental question of how policy proposals affect low-income people. We could start with this budget and do a "values audit" to determine how its values square with those of the American people. I believe this would reveal unacceptable priorities. The cost of the deficit is increasingly borne by the poor. The budget projects a record $427 billion deficit, and promises to make tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest permanent. Religious communities spoke clearly in the past years about the perils of a domestic policy based primarily on tax cuts for the rich, program cuts for low-income people, and an expectation of faith-based charity. We must speak clearly now about a budget lacking moral vision. A budget that scapegoats the poor and fattens the rich, that asks for sacrifice mostly from those who can least afford it, is a moral outrage.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:07 AM
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Among the recipients is the Unitarian Universalist Association which is receiving the Peace and Justice Award.
Complete information can be found here.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 6:42 AM
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Powerful U.S. religious groups are sending money and support to allies in Canada to fight same-sex marriage. Patrick Korten, vice-president of communications for the Knights of Columbus head office in New Haven, Conn., said no limit has been set on the help his organization is prepared to offer. "Whatever it takes," he said. "The family is too important."
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:37 PM
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The Virginia House yesterday approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, despite a warning from the state's first openly gay legislator that the measure will one day prove as shameful as slavery and segregation. The House voted, 78 to 18, in favor of a resolution similar to one easily approved in the Senate on Monday.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 11:58 AM
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Following the submission of President Bush's FY '06 Budget, which presumably will include increased spending for abstinence-only education programs in all areas, the UUA Washington Office will be participating in a press conference for the introduction of the Real Education About Life (REAL) Act. Introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (CA-9), the bill will work to support and fund comprehensive sexuality education programs in the states. The press conference will take place at 10am on Thursday, February 10th, 2005 in the Capitol Building. DC-area Unitarian Universalist youth and parents will stand behind Rep. Lee in support of the Act and will speak to their experiences with Our Whole Lives in their congregations.
The UUA Washington Office is spending much of this spring doing advocacy and organizing in support of comprehensive sexuality education. Our work with the Our Whole Loves (OWL) program, as well as many previous statements from General Assembly, puts the UUA in a great place to speak to the value of comprehensive, age-appropriate, medically accurate sexuality education. If you would like more information about our efforts, sex education bills in Congress, actions you can take, or our partnerships with other offices and organizations on this issue, please visit our website at http://www.uua.org/uuawo/new/article.php?list=type&type=27.
If you are interested in getting involved with the UUA's work on sexuality education, please contact Kierstin Homblette, Legislative Assistant for Women's Issues, at khomblette@uua.org .
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 11:46 AM
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Urge your governor to weigh in with your state's congressional delegation opposing cuts to Medicaid. It's especially important that Republican Governors speak out publicly as well as lobby the White House and congressional leaders in opposition to cuts that, in essence, shift financial burdens on to the states. Find a sample letter at http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=1269. Find your Governor's contact info at http://www.nga.org/governors/1,1169,,00.html.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 11:44 AM
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