This page lists reports and commentary from earlier in May, 2006

About 2,000 clergy members have so far signed the letter, and they are seeking more signatures, urging people to spread the word.

They also ask supporters to encourage their congregations to oppose the amendment.

Visit clergyforfairness.org to find out more about what you and your faith community can do. This site now contains additional updated resources for your use, such as:

All GA documents and other resources are being made available on "Les" -- a computer system through which the documents can be accessed.  But some people are having trouble getting Les to provide what they need.  On JustPresbys we're trying to offer a few helpful suggestions.

Bernie and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta live in Yogyakarta, Central Java, just 10 miles or so miles north of the Bantul, the town most severely affected by the earthquake that struck early on Saturday morning, local time.

We share this report, with Bernie’s kind permission, as a way of helping others gain some sense of what that kind of disaster means "on the ground," and how some people of faith are responding. Bernie is professor of ethics and social sciences at Duta Wacana Christian University in Yogyakarta, and Farsijana is senior researcher for Duta Wacana's Center for Research and Social Service.

What our war really costs

On the day before Memorial Day, the New York Times Magazine featured an article by Scott Anderson, tracing the lives of some veterans of Alpha Company of 112th Infantry Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard , after their grim return home to Butler, PA.

He focuses on Chuck Norris, a 37-year-old father of three, the son and grandson of steel-mill workers, who went through a series of low-paying jobs and was finally doing a little better as a TV repair person.

Then his Army Reserve is called up for duty in Iraq.  Norris goes through painful discoveries: What it’s like to pull bombed vehicles away from burning bodies. How it feels to recognize that the people you’ve come to help just want you gone ... or dead.

And he has to deal with the death of his best friend in Iraq, Carl Morgain, who dies when his Humvee is attacked by a suicide bomber.

Anderson follows Norris and some of his friends as they try to adjust to being home, and have a very hard time of it – sleeping badly, terrible dreams, anxiety as they drive in fear of things along the roadsides, can’t-get-out-of-bed depression – all the stuff of post-traumatic stress disorder.

There are bright spots, too, as friends gradually begin to get together again, and finally as Norris is able to acknowledge his friend’s death, and begin to deal with it.

The cost of this war?? Billions beyond counting. But more. Much more.

Yesterday we created a separate page for each of the GA committees, with a list of its members, leadership, and proposed docket. On each page you will also find any information or analysis we have posted relating to the work of the committee -- or links to material on other pages.

Click here for the list of all the committees, with a link to the page for each of them.

On the JustPresbys website, we have now created a separate page for each of the GA committees, with a list of its members, leadership, and proposed docket. On each page you will also find any information or analysis we have posted relating to the work of the committee -- or links to it on other pages.

"SO THEY WHO RUN MAY READ . . ."
"Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it." (Hab. 2:2)

What Presbyterians Need To Know About the 2004 GA Divestment Action

Some members of the Presbytery of Philadelphia set out (in the words of one of them) to "present, as dispassionately as possible, the plain historic facts about Palestine/Israel -- and Presbyterian involvement in the Middle East --  which lay behind the PCUSA action to divest."    Read it here >>

The Senate yesterday passed landmark but contentious immigration legislation that would tighten security on United States borders while allowing guest workers to enter the country and give millions of illegal immigrants a path toward gaining US citizenship. The vote sets the stage for a summer clash with House conservatives, who passed a starkly different immigration measure in December.
The Washington Post reports >>

Some are saying that in the end, enacting no immigration bill would be better than what’s likely to emerge from House-Senate conference

David Bacon writes that when the US Senate yesterday passed its version of "comprehensive immigration reform," Senators from both sides of the aisle claimed that despite the enormous controversy it has generated, passing a bill with flaws was better than passing no bill at all. Outside the beltway and its coterie of lobbyists, however, a groundswell of community groups now argue that Congress would do better to pass no bill than a bill that reconciles the proposal just passed by the Senate and that passed last December in the House of Representatives.

Alliance for Fair Food calls on McDonald’s to work with farmworkers to end exploitation in the fields of its suppliers

Theologian Dr. Choan-Seng (C.S.) Song argues from the story of the Tower of Babel that diversity is a divine gift.

He concludes his brief essay:

Cultural pluralism is a challenge to the arrogance of any one human community. But more than that, our diversity is a God-given means by which human communities correct and enrich one another. God created cultural diversity, for our good.

'Torture Awareness Month' includes Chicago gathering  

As the Bush administration continues defending its treatment of terrorism suspects, Presbyterians and other faith followers are being urged to participate in "Torture Awareness Month" activities in June.

A number of human rights, civil liberties and religious organizations have declared the month-long observance to protest the practice of torture wherever it occurs, especially amid growing evidence that the United States government is systematically engaging in the use of torture and inhuman treatment against prisoners held in connection with the war on terror.

Presbyterian News Service reports on many activities, with details and helpful links >>

The Peace of Abraham, Hagar, & Sarah:
Sharing Sacred Seasons, 2006

Due to budget cuts in Presbyterian programs, the Washington Office is creating a new network system called "Witness in Washington Weekly" to replace the Stewardship of Public Life Networks.  It will start in late June after the General Assembly and will be activated only when Congress is in session or Presidential actions warrant it.

Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock, who will be speaking at the Voices of Sophia GA breakfast on Monday, June 19, at 7:00 am, will be drawing on material from her forthcoming book (with Rebecca Parker), Saving Paradise.  She has provided an excerpt from the book to VOS, which they share with us here.

The passage begins:

For the first thousand years of Christian art, Jesus Christ was not depicted dead. Why not? Initially, we didn't believe it could be true. Surely, the art historians who reported this fact were wrong. The crucified Christ was too important to Western Christianity. How could it be that images of Jesus' death were absent from first millennium churches?

More of the passage >>              More about the VOS breakfast >>

Molly Ivins agrees with Presbyterian minister Eun-hyey Park, who wrote here 3 weeks ago that it’s really all about race.

The Washington Post on Saturday, May 20, carried a thoughtful look at the growing movement among religious liberals to reassert their concerns for public life and moral values.

The article begins:

The religious left is back.

Long overshadowed by the Christian right, religious liberals across a wide swath of denominations are engaged today in their most intensive bout of political organizing and alliance-building since the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements of the 1960s, according to scholars, politicians and clergy members.

In large part, the revival of the religious left is a reaction against conservatives' success in the 2004 elections in equating moral values with opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

Religious liberals say their faith compels them to emphasize such issues as poverty, affordable health care and global warming. Disillusionment with the war in Iraq and opposition to Bush administration policies on secret prisons and torture have also fueled the movement.

The reporters take note of the recent four-day conference of the Network of Spiritual Progressives in Washington, which drew over a thousand people participants.

The full article >>

We have heard a few mutterings of distress over the past couple weeks, from people who have been frustrated by "Les," the on-line system for accessing all the documents related to the business of the coming General Assembly – overtures, committee reports, and much more.

Two recent articles show how NAFTA and the "free trade" introduced by the U.S. to its trade with Mexico, has increased unemployment among most Mexicans, made their economy more export-dependent, and driven more and more of them to head north out of economic necessity.

David Morris, vice president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, based in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., published his article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune; it is also posted on the Institute’s web site.

State of Belief is heard nationwide on Air America Radio on Sundays, 5pm EST. Information about local affiliates, listening live via the internet, or podcasting can be found at www.StateofBelief.com

The Rev. Robert C. Lodwick, a retired minister who was longtime PC(USA) area secretary for Europe, has been named Volunteer of the Year by the Lazarus Project, an organization based in West Hollywood Presbyterian Church (CA), that works for the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Presbyterians in the life of the church. West Hollywood Presbyterian Church is also a governing body member of More Light Presbyterians. Bob Lodwick is a longtime friend of MLP, and active member of the Witherspoon Society.

Urgent Alert from the Presbyterian Washington Office

SUPPORT FAIR WAGES AND A PATH TO RESIDENCY FOR FARMWORKERS!

Elenora Giddings Ivory sends a very helpful update, as of this morning, on the U. S. Senate debate on an immigration "reform" bill:

A Witherspoon member has suggested that we pass along an opportunity – especially if you are "a clergy member or religious leader" – to register your opposition to the so-called "Marriage Protection Amendment" that has again been introduced in the U. S. Congress.

The organization called Clergy for Fairness is circulating this call:

If you are a clergy member or religious leader, join the fight to stand up for individual rights and religious liberty. Add your name to the growing list of Americans who oppose writing discrimination into our Constitution. In addition, read the joint letter from national denominations and religious groups opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment.

As the debate rumbles on in the U.S. Senate over immigration reform, there are reports that the phone and e-mail messages going to Senators are running 20 to 1 again reform.

If you haven’t sent a message yet to your senators, this week is the time to do it. If you have, this is the time to do it again, since the bills have been changing as the days pass.

For the latest information, go to the Presbyterian Washington Office web site.  You should find help there on the elements in the bill that are most worth defending.

Eric Geller, who has frequently sent comments to us about the divestment issue, has sent an article posted recently. He describes the article as "an interesting piece from a well-read ‘mainstream"’ website that deals with zillions of issues of interest to Jews. Today's feature story is sort of a summary of Jewish reaction to the whole divestment discussion ... [which] presents a decent summary from the mainstream Jewish perspective. In fact, someone raises an issue in the article about that panel discussion with Mark Pelavan which is being held at the GA."   Read the article >>

This article has also been a matter of discussion in a Presbyterian online network that deals with Israel/Palestine concerns.

One participant there comments, "I'm not understanding why those of us that are for "divestment" are considered ‘Anti-Israel’ ."

Another says "It's really quite sad – the same tired old stuff they've been saying for the past 2 years . . . over and over again . . . quoting the same old spokesfolk like Mr. Bretton Granatoor ad nauseum. In fact, we have encountered not a few in our area who, through these years, have come to change their perspective, as they have become aware of the full story."

A review of In Search of the Good Life: The Ethics of Globalization, by Rebecca Todd Peters

Books about globalization seem to be flooding the stores like those inexpensive shirts pouring into our discount stores from ... well, wherever they’re pouring in from these days. So the arrival of another one raises the question: What does this book offer that’s different from all the others?  Well, it offers a lot, helping us to see the values being assumed as the basis for four different approaches to the global reach of the modern market economy.  And it gives reasons for concern, and for action.    The review >>

NOTE:  If you will be at GA in Birmingham -- Dr. Peters will be signing copies of her book in the Cokesbury bookstore, on Sunday, June 18, from 1 to 2:30 pm.

Leslie Scanlon of Presbyterian Outlook begins her report:

Folks were civil and respectful – no one screamed and no one threw dishes. But a blunt exchange on May 10 between board members of the Presbyterian Coalition and five members of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) revealed some enduring differences of opinion about what the task force is trying to accomplish –and about what it will mean for the church if the General Assembly approves the task force report in June. The rest of the article >>

Opus Dei is a secretive Catholic religious order that has been "forced a little more into the open" by the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, one of whose main characters is an Opus Dei member who murders four people to preserve the church's secret.

LOUISVILLE – May 10, 2006 – Lifelong Presbyterian Linda Bryant Valentine, a lawyer and former executive at Motorola Inc., has been tapped by the Executive Director Search Committee as its candidate for the General Assembly Council (GAC)’s top post.

The 56-year-old elder at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago would bring to the post 30 years experience as a senior executive and corporate attorney in both the business world and the church.

Gene TeSelle, Witherspoon Society Issues Analyst, offers brief analysis of overtures and reports that will be presented to the Assembly, dealing with

Dear Immigrant Rights Advocates:

Gene TeSelle, Issues Analyst of the Witherspoon Society and emeritus professor at Vanderbilt Divinity School, offers an in-depth analysis of the report of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church.

The Rev. Hal Porter shares his appreciation for William Thompson, former Presbyterian Moderator and Stated Clerk, who died in April at the age of 87.   

"The Hope of the Church: Celebrating Common Ground" takes place July 5-8 at Montreat Conference Center in the Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina.  

An unprecedented gathering of church leaders and laity, the conference follows on the heels of the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Birmingham, AL, and is being promoted as a timely and important consultation about the future of the denomination. The conference will bring together 15 General Assembly moderators and 11 Presbyterian seminary presidents, as well as pastors, elders, deacons, seminarians, Christian educators, and concerned lay people from across the nation.  

The Spring 2006 issue of the Witherspoon Society newsletter is on its way to all Witherspoon members and to all commissioners and advisory delegates to the 217th General Assembly.

It contains a variety of articles analyzing and commenting on overtures and other matters that will come before the Assembly, along with responses from the four candidates for Moderator to questions presented to them by Witherspoon.

Acknowledging with regret that "the Covenant Network has contributed to a partisan spirit in the denomination by our tendency to draw apart from those who differ with us," the group will not, as it has in the past, suggest to commissioners how they might act on particular overtures or other issues. 

How Biblical is the Christian Right?

Margaret M. Mitchell, Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature at the University of Chicago, looks at the ways in which the Christian Right uses the Bible in arguing for its agenda. It’s not simply a matter of Biblical literalism, for they use a variety of approaches to scripture, just as did the early Christian scholars whom she studies.

Of the early scholars, she says:

Biblical interpretation ... was not just a neutral quest for the meaning of the text, but always an attempt to bring the text to the work at hand (catechetical, apologetic, pastoral, and theological). Early Christian biblical interpretation, from the get-go, was an agonistic endeavor (building arguments through appeals to some texts, read in certain ways, against others who read either the same texts differently and/or different texts).

And so it is today:

The Christian Right represents biblical interpretation in a conjunction of two selective circles: of what are the key issues in the political realm and what are the central passages in the biblical record. It represents an odd alignment of each. The canonical delineation is striking—a focus on the Old Testament, with special prominence given to Judges and 1 and 2 Chronicles, as well as to Genesis and Leviticus; and in the New Testament, to selected moralizing passages of the Pauline letters and Revelation. It is easy to see then what is missing: the prophets of Israel and the teachings of Jesus (the Gospels). Along with them go concern with social/political issues such as economic inequality, peace-making, love and forgiveness, and critique of religious hypocrisy (just to choose a few!).

The key to this selectivity is the wholesale adoption by the Christian Right of one strand of biblical thinking, apocalyptic.

Marjorie Cohn, writing for TruthOut.org, building on reports by Seymour Hersh, lays out the evidence that the US military is making preparations – including the use of nuclear weapons – for an attack on Iran.

Women are invited to join with Rita Nakashima Brock and many others to an online process in which "we will write a statement on women's vision for public life – and how we might live it out in policymaking and practice."

More >>

A little more about Dr. Brock >>

Dr. Brock will speak at GA, Voices of Sophia breakfast

Dr. Brock will be the featured speaker at the Voices of Sophia breakfast at General Assembly June 19^th. She will be sharing the research she did on early Christianity, at a time before crucifixion and resurrection became the core of Christian theology, a time she calls paradise. Tickets are available for $20 online until May 22^nd and upon arrival at GA. Tickets will not be sold at the door.

To register and order tickets online, go to https://ogasys3.pcusa.org/mrcjava/ga04webreg/m00140gs.mrc

Friends,

I want to add my voice to the invitation to participate in the Chicago No2Torture gathering on June 2 and 3 as a part of the beginning of Torture Awareness month. This is an opportunity to come together to pray, learn, discuss and strategize as an act of solidarity with those who suffer and as a witness to our faith.

Our first event in Miami in January was one of the most significant events I've participated in during my moderatorial term. There was a strong sense of unity among folks who probably found themselves surprised to be in the same room with one another. I do believe that gatherings like this one are one of the building blocks for the new kind of church that builds a solid consensus and finds its voice in the broader society.

While you are together in Chicago, I will be participating in a 75 mile desert trek following the route of migrants who cross our border. Another important witness, though I'm sorry not to be able to be with you.

I am very pleased that Jean Marie Peacock will be there as the Vice Moderator of the General Assembly. I will be with you in Spirit, while in body at the border, a different witness but to the same Lord, tortured and made whole.

Blessings,

We have just posted on the JustPresbys web site a list of General Assembly events that may be of interest to Presbyterians with special concern for the peace and justice witness of our church.

Some of these events are sponsored by official agencies of the PC(USA), and are listed with links for further information. (Their listing  implies no endorsement by those agencies of the JustPresbys web site.) Other events are sponsored by one or more of the groups that have established the web site. Still others are sponsored by unofficial groups that have no role in sponsoring the web site; their events are listed simply because they may be of interest.

For a complete listing of official GA events, along with many others, go to http://www.pcusa.org/ga217/schedule.htm

Many of the Mission/Cultural Tours, which are being offered to those with time to get out in the real world, will provide information and insight into Birmingham’s history in the civil rights struggle, and much more. They are all listed on the official GA schedule.

Witherspooner Harold Barton sent us a note, along with a newspaper article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which told of a couple – including Presbyterian minister Charley Hurst – who are refusing to pay the portion of their federal taxes which would go to support the U.S. military, including the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  (The article appeared, of course, in the April 15 edition.)

Harold asks what the Witherspoon Society thinks of tax resistance. As far as your WebWeaver can discover, this group has never taken any particular stand on the issue. But what do you think?

A report, published before the staff cuts were announced, described how the GAC sessions to decide on reductions in program and staff were closed to corresponding and at-large members, after a brief debate, by a vote of 26 to 23 . As a result, only 72 voting council members took part in the downsizing debate, while 18 others were left out.  Details >>

Presbyterian Washington Office reports on the impact of staff reduction on their work

Over the last ten years, the Washington Office staff has gone from 7 ½ positions to 4 with these last reductions.  They will need to go through some "regrouping" to see which parts of their program can be continued.  More >>

Amnesty International, in a report for the United Nations' Committee against Torture, says that torture and inhumane treatment are "widespread" in U.S.-run detention centers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba and elsewhere despite Washington's denials.

The London-based human rights group also alleged abuses within the U.S. domestic law enforcement system, including use of excessive force by police and degrading conditions of isolation for inmates in high security prisons. It said that while Washington has sought to blame abuses that have recently come to light on "aberrant soldiers and lack of oversight", much ill-treatment stemmed from officially sanctioned interrogation procedures and techniques.

The GAC release of terminated staff and additional staff lay-offs planned for October offers further evidence of the decline of Presbyterian mission and vitality. How else can this news be received? I wonder how much energy we retain for in-house arguments, when outside our narrow little world(which is shrinking rapidly) the peoples of the world observe our increasing irrelevance. We continue as Presbyterians to grow disconnected from younger generations, we have less and less to say and do about issues of poverty and injustice and war, and spend what little energy we have discussing what goes on in the bedrooms of individuals. My question is, Why would gay/lesbian/transgendered persons want to affiliate with such a dispirited group as Presbyterians?

Hart Edmonds
Omaha, NE

Candidates for Moderator respond to Witherspoon questions

One of the first acts of the 217th General Assembly will be the election of a new Moderator. To help our readers weigh this important choice, the Witherspoon Society has invited each of the four candidates to respond briefly to five questions that reflect Witherspoon concerns – and, we believe, the concerns of the wider church.

The General Assembly Council has approved the most radical restructuring of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s mission program since 1993, as it moves to reduce the 2007-2008 General Assembly mission budget by $9.15 million.

In all, 75 national staff positions in Louisville have been eliminated - most effective May 1 - as well as 55 overseas mission co-worker positions. Staff cuts in Louisville account for $4 million of the budget reduction, while the price tag for the overseas mission positions is $1.2 million.

On Wednesday, April 26, Sara Lisherness, associate director of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, greeted the Presbyterians gathered for dinner at the Strand Hotel in Jerusalem with the words, "Christ be with you. We are here."

"And there are one hundred of us," observed Barbara Battin, conference coordinator. After three years of planning and multiple hours of travel, the travel/study conference in Israel/Palestine has begun.

Over the next few days participants from thirty-three presbyteries will pray and worship together, visit a number of sites, and listen to a variety of speakers. They will join in presbytery teams to process what they see, hear, and experience and to plan for ministry together.

Toll-free Call In Days - Stop Budget Cuts 
The fight to stop the budget cuts is working! Please don't let up now.

Say No! To Torture

All are welcome to attend a gathering on June 2-3 at First Presbyterian Church, LaGrange, Illinois (Chicago west suburbs) to learn, pray, strategize and network. Presenters include:

Rear Adm. John Hutson (US Navy, ret.), President and Dean of Franklin Pierce Law School, former Executive Assistant to the Judge Advocate General of the Navy

Catherine Gordon, Associate for International Issues, Washington Office of the PC (USA)

The Rev. Jean Marie Peacock, Vice-Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA)

Ruth Barrett Rendler, Deputy Director of the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT)

Luis Rivera, Assoc. Professor of Theology, McCormick Seminary

The Rev. Carol Wickersham, No2 Torture Organizer, Sociology Faculty Beloit College

Who Is Jesus Christ for Us Today?

George Hunsinger, professor at Princeton Seminary and a leading voice in the Presbyterian movement to oppose torture, asks in a sermon, "Who is Jesus Christ for us today?"  His answer is that Christ today is found among the victims of U.S. torture. 

Not many months ago we were expressing concern about the "New American Empire." Now Jim Hightower, Texan and the author of Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush, reminds us that an imperial presidency must go along with the empire.

He provides a quick survey of President Bush’s continuing efforts to expand the powers of the presidency – to include spying on, imprisoning and torturing American citizens in the name of ‘security.’

All postings from