This page lists reports and commentary from April, 2005

On April 30, 1975, the last America troops withdrew from Saigon, South Vietnam. Etched in our memory is the picture of the last helicopter taking off slowly from the roof of the US Embassy with people clinging to every possible hand-hold.

This seems a moment to recall that war – both for the simple sacramental act of remembering, and hopefully for learning a bit that might help us in facing our current war.

Read the introduction to the story – and then click on links on the right side of the page for each of the interviews, under the names of Bill Tilton, Anna Nguyen, Steve Van Bergen, Dinh Nguyen, and Tim O'Laughlin.

Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, a conflict that officials continually said was going well, even when, as they later admitted, they knew it was unwinnable. As we have said before, Iraq is not Vietnam. Most Iraqis are glad to see Saddam Hussein gone, and are still hopeful that their nation can become a tolerant democracy. It's for their sake that Washington needs to avoid repeating its Vietnam-era mistakes.

The whole editorial >>

Appeals committee reverses Stroud verdict

[United Methodist News Service Bulletin -- April 29, 2005, 10:30 am EDT]

An appeals committee has reversed a clergy court verdict in the case of Irene Elizabeth "Beth" Stroud. The Northeastern Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals announced its decision at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time today, after hearing Stroud's appeal April 28. Stroud lost her credentials as a United Methodist minister last Dec. 2 after a clergy trial, which stemmed from her acknowledgment that she is a practicing lesbian. The United Methodist Church's Book of Discipline forbids the ordination and appointment of "self-avowed practicing homosexuals."

NEW:  Beth Stroud offers her own comment on the decision >>

More information from United Methodist New Service >>

And a report in the Baltimore Sun

Sojourners’ editor Jim Wallis was in Louisville last week-end for an interfaith "Freedom and Faith" service at Central Presbyterian Church, which called for a very different view of the relation of faith and politics than that being pushed in the televised event calling on "people of faith" to defend themselves on the alleged attacks on the by those who are defending the power of the Senate to deal seriously with some questionable nominees for federal judgeships.

He urged people to "take back our faith" from those who seems intent on hijacking it for their conservative political agenda, and declaring anyone who disagrees as being an enemy of faith.

He concludes:

This is a call for the rest of the churches to wake up. This is a call for people of faith everywhere to stand up and let their faith be heard. This is not a call to be just concerned, or just a little worried, or even just alarmed. This is a call for clear speech and courageous action. This is a call to take back our faith, and in the words of the prophet Micah, "to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God."

Kerrie Yarnell faces the hard, complex realities of life on Yakima Indian reservation – and learns to rejoice in the two-way gifts of caring and compassion.

Read his story >>

Consider joining people like Kerrie – other young adult volunteers – for Witherspoon’s three-day conference on "Dancing with God: Global Mission on the Edge." Join us as we learn and think and plan together for patterns of mission in the US and around the world, that see mission as building justice and making peace.  Sept. 9 - 11, 2005, at Stony Point Conference Center, New York.

Cover the Uninsured Week, May 1-8, is next week! More than 1,200 activities are scheduled to take place nationwide. The involvement of the faith community is critical to the success of the Week and we would like to thank you again for your support of and participation in this year's effort.

Jack Hitt, writing in the Commentary section of the LA Times, ponders the question, "What would Jesus filibuster? The question is bizarre, of course, but the fact that many prominent religious and political leaders believe that there is an answer surely marks our time as pretty strange."

The Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP), in collaboration with two other organizations, has developed a seven-week curriculum for congregations exploring the relationship between the way we eat and the way we live.

Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right

Friday evening, April 29, 7:30-10pm
Saturday, April 30, 10am -5:30pm

Peter Sawtell of EcoJustice Ministries has provided a new resource for preaching on Genesis 1, just in time for its appearance in the lectionary for Trinity Sunday, May 22. 

A recent one-day meeting in New York considered the topic, "Corporate Scandals, Corporate Responsibility and the Media: Who Should We Believe?" Sponsored by Business Ethics magazine, speakers including the Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal and the Business Editor of The New York Times addressed questions such as whether the press covers corporate scandals too much (the answer was No) and how it can to a better job of reporting on responsible corporate behavior.

July 25 - 31 -- on the topic, "PATHS TO A JUST AND PEACEFUL WORLD."   In partnership with The Witherspoon Society, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and Presbyterians for Restoring Creation.  [9-1-04]  

Here are a few reports and comments on the simulcast/rally/revival (or whatever you choose to call it) held in Louisville on Sunday, April 24, with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist as the star speaker, appealing to Christians to defeat efforts by anti-Christian liberals to defend the right of US senators to speak their minds – at length if necessary – as an exercise of resistance against "the tyranny of the majority."    [4-25-05]

"Holy War Sunday" is what the Courier-Journal in the host city of Louisville called the religio-political rally in an editorial which said that instead of "Justice Sunday: Stop the filibuster against people of faith," the event should have been called, "Injustice Sunday: Demean the holy and foment schism for partisan gain."

Read the editorial in the Courier-Journal, or on TruthOut.org

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"Evangelical leaders use a simulcast to churches around the country to support conservative judges. Other groups fear a 'religious war.'"

So read the headline on the LA Times report, which noted that Sen. Frist "shied away from the fiery oratory offered by evangelical leaders," but nevertheless stuck by his threat to use the "nuclear option," forcing an end to the use of filibusters to delay and perhaps scuttle votes on some of the court nominees considered most objectionable by Democrats.

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Civil rights coalition using radio ads to warn of the "nuclear option" as a threat to civil rights

On Tuesday, April 26, radio ads spotlighting Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's threatened "nuclear option" to arbitrarily cut off debate in the U.S. Senate will begin airing in nearly a dozen U.S. cities.

"We are calling on the Senate to reject this politically divisive nuclear option and put acrimonious partisanship aside. The Senate must get to work on solving some of our nation's most pressing problems - creating more jobs, educating our children, providing and improving healthcare and, reducing the deficit," said Wade Henderson, Executive Director of LCCR, the nation's oldest and largest civil and human rights organization.

More >>      [This report provides links to the audio ads themselves.]

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A High-Tech Lynching in Prime Time

That was the term used to describe the event in a New York Times opinion piece by Frank Rich

Read it in the Times, or on TruthOut.org.

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I am a church-going, Bible-believing Baptist, but I recently learned that I'm not a Christian. Indeed, I've not only learned that I'm not a Christian, I've also learned that I'm anti-Christian and hostile to religion. Why? Because I dare to disagree with a certain political and legal agenda.

A broad coalition of civil rights organization is launching an effort to protect Social Security and stop the President's "high risk privatization gamble."

Matthew Sleeth, a former emergency room doctor who now helps lead the eco-evangelism movement, writes of his own faith journey and of the growing number of evangelicals who see caring for the creation as part of their responsibility. He notes that for evangelicals, such concerns must lead them to deal seriously with the realities of population growth. He says "The choice is simple: We either need birth control or to forgo the use of medicine to prolong life. It is up to the individual, society, or religion to choose one or the other."

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Legal views of Frist's "nuclear option"

Gene TeSelle reports on a forum at Vanderbilt's Law School concerning the so-called "nuclear option" for the Senate, under which a parliamentary maneuver would bypass the Senate's cloture rule and allow a majority vote on the President's judicial nominees. The panel included two law professors and an African-American minister.

The Republican strategy was criticised as a politicization of the judicial confirmation process, and as giving religious sanction to a partisan political tactic.
 

Earth Day Turns 35
Celebrate our home

The various faith groups supporting this tour are seeking funds to cover the substantial costs of the tour.

Rose Marie Berger, a Catholic peace activist and associate editor of Sojourners, expresses the hope that Pope Benedict "will continue to speak clearly about economic justice, a consistent ethic of life, and a strong opposition to war. He stated in his first homily a ‘determination to continue the commitment to implement the Second Vatican Council.’"

But she adds: "What the church needs most is a pope who will apply the moral clarity and pastoral mercy of Catholic social teaching to the internal life of the Catholic Church. We do not need a reactionary leader, as Cardinal Ratzinger has proved himself to be, who misidentifies plurality of discourse as heresy, elevates gender apartheid to the level of sanctity, and who views accountability as an attack on authority." But in his statement a couple days ago that "theological dialogue is necessary," she sees hope for his "conversion."

What do you think?
Please share your thoughts about Pope John Paul II, or about Pope Benedict XVI.
Just send a note!

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist plans to join with the conservative Family Research Council, demanding support for judicial nominees on grounds of religious and moral convictions. 

Many faith-based groups are raising objections and urging the people contact their representatives in Washington.

Various press reports provide helpful background.

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NCC general secretary voices deep concern

Dr. Robert Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, has sent an open letter to the media, expressing his concern about the campaign being launched by the Family Research Council with the support of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, pushing the view that "those who disagree with them on President Bush's judicial nominees are ‘against people of faith.’" Edgar says this effort "serves to further polarize our nation, and it disenfranchises and demonize good people of faith who hold political beliefs that differ from theirs."

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Building the Beloved Community’s "Break the Silence" bus tour will visit Louisville, KY, on Sunday, April 24, where they will celebrate Social Justice Sunday in response to the Religious Right’s teleconference the same day (starring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist), which they are calling "Justice Sunday." 

Get more information >>

Another participant reports on the Peace Not Poverty rally at Riverside Church

Tom Philipp, a Presbyterian minister now serving on Long Island, joined Phyllis Zoon to represent the Witherspoon Society as one of the organizations co-sponsoring the send-off rally in New York for the "End the Silence" tour of the US, raising people’s awareness of the terrible consequences of the war in Iraq, particularly for American’s poor. He has sent these impressions of the event, and a couple photos. 

More from Tom Philipp >>

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, warns that the price of our continued failure to protect the earth will be violence and social collapse.

He begins:

Too often in recent decades, the two big "e" words - ecology and economy - have been used as though they represented opposing concerns. ... But this separation or opposition has come to look like a massive mistake. It has been said that "the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment". The earth itself is what ultimately controls economic activity because it is the source of the materials upon which economic activity works.

In a pre-trial conference on March 31, in connection with charges brought against the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr related to her officiation in a civil marriage ceremony for a gay couple, the prosecution and defense agreed to a 120 day continuance in order to seek a constructive, collaborative, and mutually agreeable means of handling the complex issues raised by the case within the Presbytery of the Redwoods, the regional governing body in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 

"From Open to Affirming: Including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in our Faith Communities"

The webmaster describes the site:

goodsoil.org is a grassroots campaign to change the discriminatory Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) policy regarding ordination of lgbt clergy and to protect the right of ELCA pastors to bless convenanted same-gender relationships.

Stop the Cuts in Social Programs. Call-In Day tomorrow – Tuesday April 12

The LA Times reports that wages are lagging behind prices

Inflation has outpaced the rise in salaries for the first time in 14 years. And workers are paying a bigger share of the cost of their healthcare.

Some of America's richest are saying 'No, Thanks' to Bush tax cuts

Some of America's wealthiest individuals have declined billions of dollars in tax cuts bestowed upon them by President George W. Bush's administration and have urged others among the country's richest and most famous to donate their federal tax cuts to campaigns against the Bush package, often described as ''tax breaks for the rich.''

''It's obscene that Washington is handing out tax breaks to millionaires with one hand and shredding the safety net with the other,'' said Marta Drury, a member of Responsible Wealth, a national network of affluent Americans advocating what they term ''widespread prosperity'' and concerned that a deepening wealth divide in America is undermining the country's social and democratic fabric.

A poem "to the fallen in the deserts of death"

Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase has sent this note to his U-C: What I See e-list, reporting on recent visit to a migrant shelter run by the Catholic Church in the small city of Altar, Mexico.  In front of the shelter is a monument honoring those who have died in their attempts to cross the border in their quest for a new life in the US.  The poem is worth our attention.

A large coalition of faith groups has called for "peace not poverty," and an end to the US war in Iraq.  In light of that, this suggestion seems worth consideration:

Opponents of the U.S. military occupation of Iraq are struggling to find a way to translate widespread disillusionment with war into effective political pressure on the administration to withdraw, just as was the case in Vietnam in the late 1960s.

Advancing such a plan for peace negotiations now would avoid a battle over unilateral withdrawal that the anti-war forces are unlikely to win. Instead, it would outmaneuver the administration, making it far more difficult for it to justify the occupation. Such a plan would avoid the administration’s political strengths while taking fullest advantage of the political strengths of the anti-war forces.

Gareth Porter was codirector of the Indochina Resource Center, an anti-war lobbying organization in Washington, DC, from 1974 to 1976. He has written about negotiated settlements of wars in Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines, is a contributor to FPIF (online at http://www.fpif.org) and is the author of Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, forthcoming from University of California Press.

A group calling itself the Judeo-Christian Alliance has recently issued a statement condemning a number of Christian pastors in the West Bank and Gaza who are criticizing the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They are compared to Christians in Nazi Germany who cooperated with Hitler’s regime, and it is charged that “some of these pastors have introduced Islamic concepts of jihad and violent martyrdom into their teachings.”

The David Project, which is the founder of the Judeo-Christian Alliance, has also issued a lengthy paper condemning the PCUSA action, under the title, Blind Prophecy.

The David Project states its mission as promoting “a fair and honest understanding of the conflict. We believe that the values of tolerance, pluralism, and civil society are prerequisites for achieving genuine peace for all people in the Middle East . We do not endorse a political agenda beyond Israel ’s right to exist securely and peacefully among its Arab neighbors.”

But they define the nature of the conflict as “the struggle for Jewish political sovereignty and self-determination in the Middle East. The conflict is rooted in Arab leaders’ rejection of political equality for religious and ethnic minorities.”

2005 Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference is announced, on the theme:

Transforming Fear into Love: Peace Building for Our Time

June 20-26, 2005
Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center
Abiquiu, New Mexico

Retreat planned for LGBT Presbyterians who are now candidates or inquirers for the Ministry of Word and Sacrament -- June 23 - 26, northern New Jersey

Presbyterian Welcome and other groups working for an open and inclusive church are sponsoring a retreat for LGBT people who are somewhere in the process of being “in care” and in preparation for ministry.

Covenant Network conference gathers southerners join to explore “challenges confronting the church”

More than 250 Presbyterians from 36 presbyteries in 8 states gathered recently for the first Southeast Regional Covenant Network Conference, on the theme, “Challenges Confronting the Church.” The Covenant Network’s Charlotte chapter and its convenor Doug Oldenburg, former President of Columbia Theological Seminary and Moderator of the 210th General Assembly, organized the event. Keynoter Jack Rogers, Moderator of the 213th General Assembly and Professor of Theology Emeritus at San Francisco Theological Seminary, presented as a “work in progress” a chapter in his forthcoming book, tentatively titled Hearing the Voices of Peoples Long Silenced.

Chris Iosso, former Issues Analyst of the Witherspoon Society and pastor of the Scarborough (N.Y.) Presbyterian Church, explores the tension between the Christian desire that America’s march toward empire should not succeed, and a concern that “defeat” of the American campaign would probably make things worse for the people of Iraq.

Read the full text of Martin Luther King’s historic speech that linked opposition to the Vietnam War to the struggle for civil rights:

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A Declaration

As part of the event, a declaration of conscience against the Iraq War was read. It was developed through an on-line process in which thousands of people took part, expressing their own perceptions and concerns. A process of on-line editing gathered the many statements into the coherent Declaration that was presented to the gathering.

Judicial Commission rules on Williamson case

The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission has ruled in a controversial case involving Parker T. Williamson, chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor-in-chief of the Presbyterian Layman.

The ruling sustained only one of Williamson’s five allegations of error by the synod PJC, agreeing that the presbytery’s policy for validating ministries should have included written criteria for determining whether or not to validate specialized ministries. His other charges of error included the synod commission’s consideration of statements made in the Layman in earlier years; what he charged as the commission’s failure to read all the material he provided to it, and (on the other hand) that it had taken into account the Lay Committee’s “Declaration of Conscience,” which had been presented to the commission by a member of Williamson’s staff. These were all dismissed.

Read more in a report by Leslie Scanlon of Presbyterian Outlook.

We Belong -- A poem for a time of dealing with deaths

Putting it all in perspective –

Living will is the best revenge

Responding to the Great Debate over the death of Terri Schiavo, Robert Friedman published his own “advance directive”in the St. Petersburg Times. It begins: 

Like many of you, I have been compelled by recent events to prepare a more detailed advance directive dealing with end-of-life issues. Here's what mine says:

In the event I lapse into a persistent vegetative state, I want medical authorities to resort to extraordinary means to prolong my hellish semiexistence. Fifteen years wouldn't be long enough for me.

I want my wife and my parents to compound their misery by engaging in a bitter and protracted feud that depletes their emotions and their bank accounts.

Read the rest >>

People of conscience speak out to make their voices heard in the halls of Congress against the reinstatement of the military draft. On May 16th, 2005 the Center on Conscience & War (CCW), along with the National Campaign for Peace Tax Fund and other organizations, is holding a national lobby day against the military draft and to protect the rights of conscientious objectors to war. Participants will meet in the Methodist Building in Washington, and others will lobby locally at their Congress members' district office.    [A message from the Center on Conscience & War]

The victory by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers over Yum! Brand Foods, owner of Taco Bell, is celebrated by Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness, in an Op/Ed article in the New York Times.

About the role of religious groups and others, he says:

At first Taco Bell tried to ignore the protests and to deny responsibility for the behavior of its suppliers…The company's attitude gradually changed as the boycott gained support not only from students, but also from the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the National Council of Churches, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights and former President Jimmy Carter, among others.

Read the article >>

Noelle Damico, the national coordinator of the PC(USA)'s Taco Bell boycott, adds:

Stay tuned to www.pcusa.org/fairfood for next steps in working with CIW and Yum Brands to extend this human rights victory throughout the fast food industry.

On the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s "Beyond Vietnam" speech Americans are urged to move “Beyond Iraq, Break the Silence, Build Beloved Community”

America’s 100 Million -Strong Religious Majority Has Had Enough!

Thousands of progressive faith leaders direct new fury over devastating impact of Iraq war on domestic social and economic policies

Say YES to “Responsible Society”---27-city “Beloved Community” Bus Tour to present Americans with the truth about poverty in U.S. cities, privatizing Social Security and healthcare, federal justice and judges, Iraq war, education that will ‘Leave No Child Behind.”

Tonight at RIVERSIDE CHURCH, NY, from 7 to 9: 30 pm, is the launch of the "Beloved Community" campaign, in a service featuring progressive interfaith leaders, and the send-off of the national bus tour.

Witherspoon is proud to be co-sponsoring this important witness.

Read more and see what you can do to support this effort.

As Presbyterians we join with our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers around the world in grieving the death of Pope John Paul II on Saturday, April 2.

While many of us, like many Catholics, would differ with some of the Pope’s strongly held views on matters such as birth control, a woman’s right to make choices affecting her own body, the proper role of women in the church and in the ministry, and the rights of gay and lesbian people to full, loving, committed relationships, nevertheless we know the world has lost a leader of immense importance.

You may have heard and read more than enough about the Pope over the past couple days, but we offer here links to a number of comments that you may find worth looking at.

A band of Presbyterians has formed a small congregation – welcoming and socially concerned – in Palm Springs, CA. We’re proud to note there are Witherspooners among them. 

Dr. Arch Taylor, a frequent contributor to these pages, recently sent this note:

Chalmers Johnson is a veteran, authoritative expert especially on Asian matters but an astute observer of US world affairs.

Please check this site and pay careful attention to what Johnson says.

In peace, for peace,

Arch

Johnson’s article is his response to a question put by the founding editor of In These Times: "How should US foreign policy be changed so that the United States can play a more positive role on the world stage?"

Johnson says first we must attend to three fundamental crises in America today: First, we’re going bankrupt. (Not just Social Security – the whole outfit!) Second, we are behaving badly as citizens of the world; not only do our actions break all sorts of rules, but our attitudes are even worse. And third, our foreign policy must be changed to deal with the reality that our reign as the world’s “sole superpower” is being cut short as other forms of power emerge (especially China’s super-size economy) that will overwhelm our military might.

Finally he suggests some foreign policy reforms that might help, including steps (such as telling the truth) to restore a bit of our battered credibility; getting out of Iraq; returning to our role as supporters of peace between Israel and Palestine; returning to old patterns of diplomacy, working out and carrying out treaties; supporting China’s emergence as a major power, rather then seeing it as another invitation to war; dealing responsibly with the threat of nuclear war. And finally,

“the most important change we could make in American policy would be to dismantle our imperial presidency and restore a balance among the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government. ... Reviving our constitutional system would do more than anything else to protect our peace and security.” 

Read the whole essay, in In These Times or in Truthout.org

Paul R. White, of Bakerstown, PA, agrees with Paster Jim Tweedie’s view that a feeding tube is not a life-support device, and express skepticism about Michael Schiavo’s statement about his wife’s not wanting life-support care.

For all items from February, 2005 >>