This page lists all reports and commentary from October, 2005

Vice Moderator reflects on Global Mission on the Edge – after Katrina

The Rev. Jean-Marie Peacock, who was elected Vice Moderator of the PC(USA) by the 216^thGeneral Assembly, was a very special participant at the Witherspoon conference on global mission, not only for who she is, but for where she came from. She and her husband live in New Orleans, where she is Associate Pastor of Lakeview Presbyterian Church.  By the second week of September they were staying with family in Illinois, since their home in New Orleans had been destroyed, and her congregation was scattered to places mostly unknown.

She was asked to talk with the conferees about the church’s mission, out of her first year of experience as vice moderator, visiting congregations around the US, and churches in many other parts of the world.

She began by giving voice to her own situation, as "a jumping off point for my dance with God into global mission on the edge."

Rosa Parks: a tribute

from the Director of the Presbyterian Washington Office 

As we mourn her, she would probably be the first to say that we still have more to do. Legal equality has not brought about actual social equality -in education, health care, housing and employment. We need only look around to see that inequality is still a fact of life in the United States. Katrina washed away the coverings of systemic poverty in one part of our nation, but it still exists in many places in the US and around the world.

The Rev. Bill Somplatsky-Jarman, the PC(USA)'s associate for Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) and Environmental Justice, will represent the church at an ecumenical conference of church-related organizations interested in using economic pressure to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and to achieve a "just peace" for both Israel and Palestine.

A conference titled "A Call for Morally Responsible Investment: A Nonviolent Response to the Israeli Occupation" started Wednesday in Toronto, Canada, and runs through Saturday. The host for the event is Canadian Friends of Sabeel, a group that supports the work of Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem through education, advocacy and financial support.

Somplatsky-Jarman is guiding MRTI as it responds to an order from the 216th General Assembly to begin a process of phased selective divestment from multinational corporations with business practices believed to contribute to violence in Israel and Palestine.

Aurelia Fule reports that a resolution was recently passed by Santa Fe Presbytery, endorsing the action of the 216^th General Assembly, which called for exploration of "phased selective divestment" of church funds from companies whose business in Israel is found to be directly or indirectly causing harm or suffering to innocent people, Palestinian or Israeli.

This comes from the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program:

It is with deep sorrow that we share the information that the 2,000th US service member has died in Iraq. You may wish to remember this happening in your prayer and devotional life. You may wish to mark this happening with prayer vigils, public actions or other events that remember those who have died - US military personnel, coalition military personnel and Iraqis alike. Many faith communities and community groups are planning events tomorrow (October 26) or over the weekend. Check in your area for details.

Faithful America provides resources for remembrance events >>

A program of the National Council of Churches, USA, FaithfulAmerica.org is made up of persons who believe that one's faith - however broadly or uniquely expressed - has a word to say about our nation's government and its priorities.

The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program provides prayers at
http://pcusa.org/peacemaking/iraq/afterwarprayers.htm

The National Council of Churches has posted a brief statement by NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar, and a moving and rich interfaith collection of prayers.

Faithful America invites all of us to join in services of remembrance this weekend.  They provide resources from various faith traditions for the occasion.   More >>

Or join a vigil on Wednesday, October 26, 2005 at 6:30 p.m. to acknowledge our fallen soldiers and reflect on the war in Iraq.

This is an opportunity for thousands of us to gather together and acknowledge the sacrifices made by over 2000 American men and women in Iraq and their families and speak out against the war.

Time to speak to Congress against torture

The Washington Office issued an action alert yesterday, urging people to contact their representatives if they are on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Staff for a House-Senate conference committee is meeting now to consider legislation curbing the use of torture of detainees by U.S. personnel – the "McCain amendment."

They are:

The notice includes more information on the legislation, talking points on the issue, and more.

The General Assembly Council of the PC(USA) voted to become a founding member of the Alliance for Fair Food, a growing network of religious, NGO, student, labor, community, celebrity, and international allies and institutions, works with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to establish socially responsible purchasing in the corporate food industry, guarantee the human rights of farmworkers and end modern day slavery in the fields.

BorderLinks, the non-profit organization that conducts travel and education seminars on U.S.-Mexico border issues, has named the Rev. Delle McCormick executive director, succeeding the founding director, Rick Ufford-Chase, who is now moderator of the PC(USA) General Assembly. Ufford-Chase will continue to serve BorderLinks as an advisor.

Nicholas Kristof reports from a maternity hospital in Niger about the consequences – unintended, perhaps, but no less terrible for all that – of the Bush policy of refusing to support the U.N. Population Fund in the name of its "pro-life" position. For lack of a few dollars for urgently needed medicines and care, women die in labor, or their babies die, when they could be helped.

Kristof also mentions a grass-roots organization started by two American women, which seeks to make up for the Bush cuts with private donations; its website is www.34millionfriends.org.)

And you’ve seen him here.

Just a note in passing: In January, 2003, we posted a short speech Pinter delivered at Turin University on receiving an honorary doctorate in November, 2002. He began:

Earlier this year I had a major operation for cancer. The operation and its after-effects were something of a nightmare. I felt I was a man unable to swim bobbing about under water in a deep dark endless ocean. But I did not drown and I am very glad to be alive. However, I found that to emerge from a personal nightmare was to enter an infinitely more pervasive public nightmare - the nightmare of American hysteria, ignorance, arrogance, stupidity and belligerence; the most powerful nation the world has ever known effectively waging war against the rest of the world. "If you are not with us you are against us" President Bush has said. He has also said "We will not allow the world's worst weapons to remain in the hands of the world's worst leaders". Quite right. Look in the mirror chum.

That's you.

The US is at this moment developing advanced systems of "weapons of mass destruction" and is prepared to use them where it sees fit. It has more of them than the rest of the world put together. It has walked away from international agreements on biological and chemical weapons, refusing to allow inspection of its own factories. The hypocrisy behind its public declarations and its own actions is almost a joke.

A number of knowledgeable people are urging that we all pay attention to this in-depth look at the meaning torture in our world today.  You can see it -- or read transcripts  -- on the PBS website >>

Peter Sulyok, former Coordinator of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, offers this comment:

It was well done and made the factual connections detailing how much direct orchestration came from on high, especially fellow Presbyterian Don Rumsfeld, and the torture/abuse did not appear to be the isolated creations of MPs without guidance. To the extent that the program had access to experts, it appears that besides being against international law and therefore criminal activity, torture simply doesn't produce trustworthy testimony to warrant its cruelty and inhumane barbarous actions.

I'm glad it is available on line as well. I recommend it even more now that I've seen it.

Charline Watts has long been active in the movement to make Fair Trade a reality by providing channels through which people can buy food and craft articles from around the world, produced mostly by people who have been left out of more prosperous business networks, and sold at fair prices.

She says, "Especially as the Christmas-shopping season returns again, it is appropriate and even exciting to see the justice-birthing possibilities of our shopping dollar. So, I invite you to entertain the possibility of becoming a FAIR TRADER/shopper."

More on fair trade >>
and on suggestions from the Witherspoon mission conference on dealing with fair trade within the PC(USA) >>

Participants will experience three EfE programs within the Nicaraguan context * the Presbyterian Coffee Project, Sweat-Free Ts, and Investing in Hope. Information and applications >>

Sudan Advocacy Action Forum Update

National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE)

The NRPE’s new website includes profiles of engagement from faith communities, educational and worship resources, and information on faith and the environment.

Politics and Spirituality
Seeking a Public Integrity

January 14-16, 2006 • Hyatt Capitol Hill • Washington, D.C.

The first part of the announcement of this conference says:

Many are aware of the immense, nationwide response to Jim Wallis’ prophetic book, God’s Politics. It reveals both the recognition of and desire for a new practical vision of life.

We want to create a living forum where these issues can be addressed and discussed. Bringing together the political analysis of Jim Wallis, the literary gifts of Anne Lamott, and the spiritual and Franciscan teaching of Fr. Richard Rohr, we look forward to an energizing and prophetic weekend.

More information >>

UN Day provides an opportunity to learn about the UN's work for peace, human rights and development and to pray for that work.

San Francisco church approves overture opposing torture

The Session of Calvary Presbyterian Church of San Francisco has approved an overture to the General Assembly on the torture issue. The church’s web site contains the overture itself, a summary of where they are the process of getting it to the General Assembly, and a memorandum with links to some very helpful sources.

George Hunsinger, McCord Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary (N.J.), reflects on the biblical recognition that violence depends on falsehood for its justification, just as falsehood often relies on violence to enforce people’s acceptance of it.

Read the essay in Presbyterian Outlook.

Presbyterians help one another – and their neighbors – after Katrina

He has been active in various Presbyterian-related organizations, including Presbyterians for Renewal and The Presbyterian Coalition.   The Presbyterian News Service report >>

A letter from New Orleans

Vice Moderator Jean Marie Peacock, whose presence we enjoyed at the Witherspoon mission conference in early September, has written a long letter to Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase, describing her return to her home in New Orleans – the losses she and her husband have suffered, the bitter-sweet reuniting of her congregation in worship in a Presbyterian church not flooded as their own had been ... and much more.

Here’s a chance to see the human side of the disaster – if you can stand to see more.

Karla Koll, Presbyterian mission co-worker in Quetzaltenango, was another participant in the recent Witherspoon mission conference, and one who contributed greatly to it.

She writes of the devastation wrought by yet another hurricane, "Stan" by name.

And she notes that a great deal of the destruction was caused by human action as much as by nature. A not unfamiliar reality.

In the satiric spirit of Jonathan Swift, Peter Sawtell offers "a modest proposal" for dealing with the Mississippi River after Katrina. His suggestion, in short, is to "let it loose." Blow holes in the levees and let the great river find its own wandering changing path once again.

Environmentalist Sawtell is not entirely serious, for there would be too many human costs. But he contrasts this with the radical proposals being put forward to "manage" the river instead for the profits of business.

He summarizes:

It is irresponsible to blow apart the levees and let the Mississippi run wild across the Delta. It is also irresponsible to blow apart social contracts and thoughtful planning in order to let corporate America run wild across the Delta. Constraint, planning, and a balancing of interests are needed on all sides.

At the end of the article, he also points to some realistic proposals for environmentally sound policies.

Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your gasoline at Citgo stations. And tell your friends.

Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez.

Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Money you pay to Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela -- not Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. There are 14,000 Citgo gas stations in the US. (Click here to find one near you.) By buying your gasoline at Citgo, you are contributing to the billions of dollars that Venezuela's democratic government is using to provide health care, literacy and education, and subsidized food for the majority of Venezuelans.

Torture: A Human Rights Perspective

A timely and provocative new anthology, Torture is the first book to critically assess torture from a global human rights viewpoint. International law has categorically outlawed the practice, yet the global debate around torture—the legality of its use, the extent of its use, its effectiveness—has intensified in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Revelations of torture and degradation at Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities have galvanized both proponents and opponents of torture, and underscored how imperative it is to tackle the question head-on.

Sixteen original essays from leading commentators take an unflinching look at one of the most urgent issues of our day.

The Nov. - Dec. 2005 issue of Church & Society magazine has been developed by the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and edited by Tom F. Driver.

It will include Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase’s essay on "Is Peace Possible?"   Chris Hedges, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Nancy Corson Carter have articles dealing with "re-thinking war." Offering thoughts on "re-thinking peace" are Ross and Gloria Kinsler, Parrish W. Jones, and Glen Stassen. Anne L. Barstow and Walter Owensby offer positive steps toward peace, followed by descriptions of a number of specific projects of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

Prior to publication (or after) you may order it from the PPF, P.O. Box 271, Upper Nyack, NY 10960.

Mr. Eric Geller wrote to us earlier with his reflections as an American Jew on the debate about Presbyterian actions regarding Israel/Palestine and divestment.

We’ve received a critical comment, apparently responding to our reports on efforts to save people crossing the Mexico-US border from death.

You aid people in criminal ventures. You should all be in a jail for this.
Robert C Haas

We asked Mr. Haas what "criminal ventures" he had in mind. He replied:

A number of evangelical leaders and organizations have issued a declaration of their opposition to the Theological Task Force report on the Peace, Unity and Purity Report of the Church.

The statement says, in part:

They conclude:

Organizations endorsing the statement include The Institute on Religion and Democracy, The New Wineskins Initiative, The Presbyterian Coalition, The Presbyterian Forum, The Presbyterian Lay Committee, and Presbyterians Pro Life.

Read the full statement >>

Moderator calls on Presbyterians to act against US use of torture – and there’s study material to help you prepare to do that

Rick Ufford-Chase, the Moderator of the 216th General Assembly (2004) and the Rev. Edward T. Brogan, Director of the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains, have issued a statement that calls Presbyterians to pray, study and take action to assure that there will be no unjust and abusive treatment of detainees by the United States and its allies. This statement is an extension of a quickly growing grassroots effort to educate people about the use of torture and the urgent need to call for an immediate end of these practices, wherever they occur.

Read their letter >>

The No2Torture group provides further information and ideas for working on this issue. This group has grown out of conversations at the 2005 Peacemaking Conference.

Visit their new website >>

Check out the curriculum >>

For all of us, but especially for us who have the privilege and burden of preaching, the current issue of The Living Pulpit is a much needed resource. The issue is red-letter titled "WAR" with this question below: "How do we preach about loving our country and loving our enemies, too?" To see the table of contents, and a featured article, "The Ambiguity of War," go to their website. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Also, the publisher, Presbyterian minister Douglas Stivison, offers bulk copies at a special rate, and a half-price introductory offer through the website. I hope we in Susquehanna Valley Presbytery will take advantage of that and have some discussion groups about preaching during this time of war.
Not incidentally, their editorial calendar for the next three years includes Reign of God, Stewardship, Hunger, Ethics, the Marketplace, Atonement, the Word, Mission, and Shalom.

We talk about welcoming churches.
How about this truly welcoming lesbian couple?

Two women open their home to Katrina victims

It is, sadly, a common thing to hear how "gay marriage" would be a terrible threat to what some would define as the only "real" marriage.

But among the many stories of true goodness to come out of the mess of Katrina, there’s one about a lesbian couple in small-town Minnesota who have invited into their home a family from New Orleans – a mother, her mother, and her six children.

Dorothy, the grandmother, says that when her daughter told her they would be moving into a home with a same-sex couple, she replied "‘What’s that got to do with it?’ They were offering us their home. I was just glad they were saying we were welcome."

The whole story >>

Also a reminder:

The view from the Right

Evangelicals offer thoughtful and subtle views on "the health of the nation"

Gene TeSelle introduces us to a statement entitled "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility," which was adopted by the Board of Directors of the National Association of Evangelicals on October 7, 2004.

Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the PC(USA), has posted a lengthy note on his blogspot, "UC: What I See," offering his personal reflections on the report by the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church.

While acknowledging that both LGBT Presbyterians and conservatives are critical of the report, he finds points to appreciate in it. First is the report’s insistence that we’re all one family, and that we are all "trying very hard to be faithful." (In essence, this seems to be saying that the PC(USA) is not a fundamentalist church with clearly defined "essentials" of belief and behavior.) Second, the report offers suggestions about processes that might help us into a process of discernment rather than the typical win-lose choices of legislative process.  And finally, he says, the Task Force recommendations are "classically Presbyterian," returning us to earlier patterns of dealing with differences.

The Moderator seems to be taking seriously concerns about the report from various sides, while affirming its hope for maintaining some kind of unity of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

We encourage you to look at his full statement. You may want to accept his invitation to send a comment of your own.

For the full text of the report >>

We also invite you to look at some other evaluations of the Task Force report.

We invite you to share your reflections here!
Just send a note.

Time magazine has published an extensive cover story in its October 10, 2005, issue, telling of the growing trend for high school young people to come out as lesbian or gay, and for straight students to support them.

Both gay and anti-gay (or "change") groups are having to adjust to this growing reality, and the article reports on both sides.

A mission coworker writes from Spain, urging that we use this time of crisis to rethink the ways we engage in mission.

Dear friends,

As a mission co worker in Spain, I look upon the moral state of our nation as crisis after crisis, and I lament what is happening to my brothers and sisters, the poor, the elderly, the underclass we have created over many years. It is all exposed to us, and we ourselves are exposed.

So, maybe a major change in our mission must take place, and we should put into place once again the great CRISIS IN THE NATION program done by the northern stream in the sixties. We brought in church leaders from other countries to look at ourselves, and to help us see ourselves inside out. This helped us to define a new approach to urban ministry, and to help our presbyteries and synods to structure meaningful ways to communicate and to rearrange ourselves, so we could respond to God́s call to us in the midst of our problems of racial injustice and the war in Vietnam.

That is a project that needs to reinvented for our times. I pray for our presbyteries on the southern coast, and support all the actions that are taking place there. Maybe once again it will be from the poor and oppressed of our own nation that we will find a way to find our own soul.

Rev. Donna Laubach Moros, D. Min.
Professor of evangelization and Liturgics, SEUT, Spain

What are your thoughts about this suggestion?
Just send a note
to be shared here.

Was John Bennett right?

"You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."
   -- Former Education Secretary and Drug Czar William Bennett

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF), has shared some very helpful material from the Justice Policy Institute regarding comments from William Bennett. These comments have received lots of attention because there are people who believe them to be fact and give more credence to them because they come from a former public official. Readers will have to judge for themselves or wait for time to tell if Mr Bennett really believes these things himself or whether he was simply giving voice to a misconception held by what many of us think is a misinformed minority in society. The information includes statistics/information that you may use as you talk and think about this debate.

Religious leaders strangely silent on torture

Ray McGovern, a co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity who now works for Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC, asks "Where do American religious leaders stand on torture? Their deafening silence evokes memories of the unconscionable behavior of German church leaders in the 1930s and early 1940s."    More >>

We are happy to note, though, that the Presbyterian General Assembly in 2004 issued a strong statement condemning the use of torture, and calling for "efforts ... to ensure that such torture and abuse do not occur in the future."   More >>

And one group of Presbyterians has established an e-list, No2Torture, for the purpose of providing more information on the problem.

The White House on Friday threatened to veto a $440.2 billion defense spending bill in the Senate because it wasn't enough money for the Pentagon and also warned lawmakers not to add any amendments to regulate the treatment of detainees or set up a commission to probe abuse.

Last week, U.S. generals in charge of the war in Iraq told members of Congress that "The 149,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq are increasingly part of the problem," according to the L. A. Times in a report dated October 1 .   More >>

The generals have begun to acknowledge that U.S. forces will not be able to defeat the insurgency, and that it will continue long after U.S. troops have left.

And in an op-ed essay on October 3, Bob Herbert wrote in the New York Times, in a piece headed "For No Good Reason," that "it's finally becoming clear on Capitol Hill, and maybe even in the White House, that the United States cannot win the war in Iraq. The only question still to be decided is how many more American lives will be wasted in George W. Bush's grand debacle."    The article >>

If you make enough money to pay taxes, you get money back in the form of health care and housing write-offs. If you don’t earn enough, you won’t get that help. And even the Child Tax Credit program, the largest American child subsidy program at $47 billion dollars, fails to cover more than a quarter of America’s children (half of America’s black children) because their parents don’t earn enough to pay taxes – even though three quarters of them are working.

So it seems we’ll help those who are relatively well off, but if you’re poor, you’re on your own.

For earlier archives --