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This is an extremely heart warming story. It is a reminder that when we can look beyond the barriers of our religion and nationality, we can see the “other” is a member of our human family.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/what-would-nature-do/grace-amid-ruins
There is little question that Hillary Clinton is being groomed to be the first woman president of the United States. Like electing our first black president, this will be a long overdue milestone. At the same time, the foreign policies associated with the Bush’s, Obama and the Clinton’s is nothing to brag about. If anything, in the global picture, these tenures have all meant major setbacks for human rights workers the world over. Stephen Zunes has written a summary of Hillary Clinton’s time as Secretary of State that is less than flattering:
Hillary Clinton leaves her position as Secretary of State with a legacy of supporting autocratic regimes and occupation armies, opposing enforcement of international humanitarian law, undermining arms control and defending military solutions to complex political problems. She was appointed to her position following eight years in the US Senate, during which she became an outspoken supporter of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, lied about Iraq’s military capabilities to frighten the public into supporting the illegal war, unleashed repeated attacks against the United Nations, opposed restrictions on land mines and cluster bombs, defended war crimes by allied right-wing governments and largely embraced Bush’s unilateralist agenda.
Like every other person who cares about fairness, I longed for the day when a person of color would occupy the White House. There is no denying the symbolic power of having had a black president, but when Obama leaves office, it is likely that the same basic demographics of racism will be in place that were there when he took office. Having the symbol fairness in office, may have sedated us against working for its actuality.
Like every other feminist in the country, I would love to reach the point where electing a woman to the office of presidency is no big deal, but I don’t understand how electing a woman so firmly ensconced in the good old boys’ club is anything other than a setback.
(I am linking to Zunes’ article. I don’t think he is being completely fair to Clinton, but his core argument is hard to argue with.)
Even some of President Obama’s greatest fans have recoiled in horror at his targeted assassination program. A memo released recently has raised important questions about the President’s willingness to wave due process and to vest in the executive branch the power to kill suspects without trial. Rachel Maddow posed the following question to President Obama:
“The issue here is who’s a bad guy and how do you figure it out?…If you’re an American citizen and the president is going to kill you, do you have the right to give yourself up instead? And how do you know you should do that if the president’s decision (to) kill you is a secret decision that nobody ever tells you?” -Rachel Maddow
I believe the very nature of democracy rides on transparency and due process, both of which are waved by a secret assassination program. It is true the memo makes reference to court oversite, but does that mean simply finding a supportive judge somewhere? The memo also claims to address itself to Al Queda, but then adds troubling passages that expand its powers almost to omnipotence:
“As stated earlier, this paper does not attempt to determine the minimum requirements necessary to render such an operation against a U.S. citizen lawful in other circumstances.” -from the memo
For the first time I can remember I agree with Republican John Cornyn on an issue:
As Senator Durbin and others have said that they agree that this is a legitimate question that needs to be answered. But we’re not mere supplicants of the Executive Branch. We are a coequal branch of government with the Constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight and to legislate where we deem appropriate on behalf of our constituents. So it is insufficient to say, “pretty please, Mr. President. pretty please, Mr. Attorney General, will you please tell us the legal authority by which you claim the authority to kill American citizens abroad?” It may be that I would agree with their legal argument, but I simply don’t know what it is, and it hasn’t been provided.
If you are a Obama supporter reading this blog shaking your head willing to defend whatever he does, I have a question for you. Will you still support this secret assassination program when the next Dick Cheney comes into power? Remember we do not build policy only to free up our best leaders. We also must build policy to constrain our worst.
While I am a vegetarian, I am not militant about it. I don’t roll my eyes when people are trying to enjoy their chicken nuggets or make sad mooing sounds when people are eating beef. While I don’t bring it up often, I do grieve deeply over the suffering inflicted on animals in this culture. When I read this satire by the Onion, it had too much truth not to put on the blog. It starts out funny, but then gets pretty uncomfortable. I realize there is no innocence on this issue. We humans must kill something to survive, but part of our humaness is to feel the pain of other beings and to do what we can to make their suffering less.
Our independently owned family farm is committed to one guiding principle: making sure that you, the customer, receive the best-tasting, highest quality beef from cows that are healthy, active, and eventually suspended fully conscious inside a facility thick with hot, blood-choked air and the frantic bellows of dangling, profoundly fearful animals.
That’s our pledge to you.
As owner and president of Nature’s Acres and a lifelong rancher myself, let me assure you that our animals are treated with exceptional care using only traditional methods from the very second the calf is born on our farm, to the moment a cascade of blood showers from its gaping, half-severed neck, to the day our award-winning beef reaches the grocer’s case in the organic section.
When we shackle a chain to a hind leg of each of our cows and hoist its terrified, quivering frame 12 feet up to the rafters, we can see firsthand just how tender, meaty, and well-marbled its entire body is—and that means exceptional flavor for you and your family!
While frail and pharmaceutical-laden factory-farm cows just droop lifelessly while awaiting their deaths, our healthy, GMO-free cattle thrash about wildly in the air, very often tearing their own delicate flesh and shattering their leg bones in a hopeless attempt to flee to the nearby 100 percent organic grassland pastures where they were free to roam during their unnaturally truncated lives.
You can rest easy with the knowledge that our cows are never, ever confined or cramped, and are entirely free-range until the day they turn 20 months old or hit 1,300 pounds, whichever comes first.
We here at Nature’s Acres know that the best quality meat comes from the best quality cows. That’s why our line of Angus and heritage Galloway cattle—hand-selected for superior taste and texture—provide ideal, gourmet cuts of beef, which we begin to extract from their still-gurgling and twitching bodies in the 20 to 120 seconds it takes from the initial incision to the moment their brains finally cease functioning. And of course our award-winning beef is flayed and butchered fresh on the spot, allowing the animal’s dangling, inverted brethren to look on with dilated, terror-filled eyes as they slowly advance one-by-one toward an identical and incomprehensibly traumatic fate.
And all of our meat—as well as the unfathomable amounts of blood, body fluids, and trimmings that drain from our cows into the vast 50,000-gallon collecting tank beneath our facility’s floor grating—is 100 percent hormone and antibiotic-free!
Now, that’s great for you and the environment!
There are certain things you can truly count on when you see that Nature’s Acres label at your local supermarket. One, our products are USDA certified organic. Two, every cut of Nature’s Acres beef is minimally processed and contains absolutely no artificial hormones or antibiotics—ever! Three, all of our cows were grasped by the nostrils using cast iron nose tongs and had their heads violently wrenched backward so we could slash right through their carotid artery and windpipe with an 18-inch blade. And four, you’ll experience a rich beef taste you just can’t beat. Mmm, mmm!
And you can take heart knowing that Nature’s Acres has earned the “Animal Welfare Approved” and “Certified Humane” seals of approval from independent inspectors.
So next time you choose a steak or ground chuck to throw on the grill, consider a healthier, more humane, and tastier option, and look no further than the Nature’s Acres Ranch line of products. We’re the one with the smiling cow on the label!
Thanks to Bob Dailey for the link:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/we-raise-all-our-beef-humanely-on-open-pasture-and,30983/
We human beings are strange animals. Very few of us would rob someone at gunpoint, but many, if not most of us, would stand by while the working poor are robbed systematically every day of their lives.
It is possible that the good people at Marriott were counting on this glitch in human ethics when they signed an agreement to pay fair wages to Austin laborers. In most cities, Marriott would be right to assume that the politicians would be so afraid of losing the donations of the rich they would be willing to sell out the rights of the poor. In most cities, Marriott could assume that the citizens would be so busy living their own lives that no one would speak when the working poor are robbed yet again.
But guess what? We are in Austin, Texas. And things are a little different here. The biblical prophets said that the health of a city could be measured by how they treat its most vulnerable members. We are here as a thermometer to say the ethical health of Austin Texas is just fine. The word “Texas” means “friendly,” but there are two aspects to that friendliness. First it means that Marriott is welcome to come to Austin and build a hotel. But it also means, if Marriot robs our hard working neighbors through wage theft, they will have stirred a hornet’s nest right here in Austin, Texas.
Worker’s Defense Project has called a press conference today at 3rd and Brazos to release evidence that Marriott has broken it’s agreement to pay workers fairly.
Wait! Before you yawn and move on to a story that affects you personally, consider this. If you would not rob a poor person at gunpoint, then you should not turn away when your city or state robs them collectively. The only chance the poor have is for people like you and me to stop tuning out to their misery. It is an age old practice in Texas for builders to underpay construction workers, or not pay them at all, knowing local governments will ignore that crime rather than face the fury of their rich supporters. They are also counting on the fact that most people like you and I won’t care enough to do anything. Today, I will be joining other faith and labor leaders to release evidence that Marriott, after receiving 3.8 million dollars in fee waivers, has broken their commitment to the city to pay workers fairly.
“We have evidence from representatives of the JW Marriott explicitly showing that they are not keeping their end of the deal,” says Philip Lawhon from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
“The case of the Marriott shows that the current incentives system isn’t working. Workers deserve a fair wage, and taxpayers deserve to know that their money is being handled responsibly… If workers aren’t being paid enough to support their families, that’s not smart growth. We need to ensure that our City’s growth benefits all Austinites.” -Gregorio Casar, from the Workers Defense Project
While some rich developers may consider construction workers fodder, Worker’s Defense Project tirelessly works to protect them. My role in the press conference will be to remind all of us of the prophetic truth that a nation’s spiritual health is measured by how it treats it’s most vulnerable people. Workers should not be robbed of their wages just because they lack political clout. As attorneys for the Texas Civil Rights Project have said:
If they (Marriott) aren’t paying a prevailing wage, they’re violating the ordinance and committing a crime. City staff couldn’t give developers informal permission to do that any more than a police officer can give you permission to burglarize your neighbor’s house.”
It is easy to say we care about the working poor, but the only way to actually do so is for you and me to stand by their side until they are given their fair share.
There are depictions of the Holy Trinity that show three men. There depictions of the Holy Trinity that show two men and a dove. When a bird makes it into the Godhead before a woman, you can tell the whole theology was written by men.
My own Presbyterian denomination recently signed onto an agreement with the Catholic Church that recognizes the validity of each other’s baptisms. A number of major Protestant denominations signed the document which was hailed as a movement toward church unity. The very opposite is true. Presbyterians have long recognized the baptisms of other denominations, so what the agreement does for us is bind us more firmly to the patriarchal language and practices of the Catholic Church. For those of us who consider sexist language an odious cancer, and have struggled to use non-gendered language for God, this agreement is a major setback because it will require baptizing clergy to recognize the masculinity of God by reciting the words, “In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
To be fair, most Presbyterians already use such sexist language for God and consider it a requirement for baptism. The argument runs, “for baptisms to count across the denominations they must be sealed in the proper trinitarian language, which just so happens to cast the Godhead as all male. We know that God isn’t actually a biological male, but we want to honor the traditional language which happens to be masculine.” In otherwords sexist language among the denomination is the tie that binds. We may disagree on everything else, but the masculinity of God is unquestioned by all male dominated denominations. Some Protestant denominations were slipping away from patriarcy, so codifying male language for God becomes a necessity.
If I may be blunt, anyone who thinks human rituals actually save souls from damnation is an intellectual child and should not be leading others anyway. So whatever unity is gained in synchronizing the church’s magical thinking is lost in the struggle for social justice for women. Any claims of unity should include the half of the species insulted by the idea that the sacred is masculine. If this topic seems silly, realize it is actual women the Catholic Church is rejecting from priesthood, and actual men being defrocked when they stand in solidarity with those women.
Father Wojciech Giertych, is Pope Benedict XVI’s personal theologian. He makes the case that since Jesus only chose men, the church is obligated to do likewise. He does not mention that Jesus only chose Jews as well.
“In theology, we base ourselves not on human expectations, but we base ourselves on the revealed word of God,” the theologian told Catholic News Service. “We are not free to invent the priesthood according to our own customs, according to our own expectations.”
No? Well what about where Jesus said not to call anyone on earth “father.” You priests got around that one pretty easy for yourself, how about cutting someone else some slack?
“Women have a special access to the heart of Jesus, in a very vivid way of approaching him, of touching him, of praying with him, of pouring ointment on his head, of kissing his feet.”T
“The mission of the woman in the church is to convince the male that power is not most important in the church, not even sacramental power. What is most important is the encounter with the living God through faith and charity.”
Okay, so women’s role is to call men out of hierarchical thinking by kissing feet, and the role of men is not to listen to that call and to remain in positions of power and privilege?
“So women don’t need the priesthood because their mission is so beautiful in the church anyway.”
I have just wasted ten minutes trying to think of a nice word for “crock,” so let me be perfectly blunt. If God does not have a penis, testicles and a prostate, then God is not a male in any meaningful sense. And since God doesn’t have a girlfriend, the masculine paraphernalia does not serve much purpose. It is true that the word for God in Hebrew (Elohim) is male, but it is also plural and no one translates it that way. The word for “spirit” in Hebrew is female and no one in the church is asking that we bow before the sacred ovaries.
The Church’s use of sexist language is not about expressing the essential nature of God, it is about protecting male privilege. I for one will lose my own ordination before I will participate in the church’s crimes against women by using sexist language in any aspect of ministry.
Thanks to Julie Gillis for the following link:
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1300417.htm
Why God Chose the Ravens over the 49ers
By Jim Rigby, Football Theologian
“If God is on your side, it doesn’t matter who is against you!” Ray Lewis, after winning the Super Bowl.
As a football theologian, one of the most important questions I am asked is how God picks the winner of the Super Bowl. For example, in yesterday’s game, even laypeople were able to pick out Ray Lewis’ dance to Jesus before the game on the Raven’s side, and the 49er kicker crossing himself before each kick. It was obvious that God would have to make a choice between those two faiths.
Many Godless pagans might ask, why God would intervene in a football game on Ray Lewis’s behalf, but not to save the lives of the two men killed in a double homicide to which Ray Lewis pleaded guilty. The question I would ask in return is, “Did those two men give glory to God by sewing the words “Psalm 91” to their jerseys?” Well Ray Lewis did.
God’s hand in the game may have seemed faint to the uneducated eye, but I saw His precious fingerprints throughout. Early in the game, God blocked a 49er field goal, but a penalty moved the ball in nearer and even the Almighty was unable to prevent the score at that closer range. Still, God’s glory was clearly manifest in keeping the referees from seeing the constant holding and cheap shots of the Raven’s players.
Lonnie Jackson, 62, who was diagnosed with a fatal condition during yesterday’s Super Bowl, said he understood how God needed to focus on the game and not be distracted by things like disease and war.
This Super Bowl was an important revelation of God’s mighty power, which was timely since even God’s omnipotent power could not keep Tim Tebow on the field this year. Our weary nation needed a Jeremiah with black stripes under his eyes who could point to the sky after every extra point. It could not be a sissy field goal kicker, so God chose the Baltimore Ravens as the Gideons of our day. Indeed, as Ray Lewis prophesied, “If God is on your side, it doesn’t matter who is against you!” “Alleluja!” and “Booyah!” have never been so closely connected. I am not ashamed to say that, there alone in my apartment, I lifted my pom poms in praise, tears dripping into my Bud Lite.
At halftime, Beyoncé performed pelvic thrusts and I believe sang a song as well.
A caterpillar has no need of religion. It is born feeling its ties to nature and does not leave the whole, even in its little caterpillar dreams.
A human, by way of consciousness, has “fallen” out of such intimacy with its primordial ground. While we are as much children of nature as the caterpillar, we imagine ourselves to be independent, separate beings living meaningless lives. We are like a scientific and objective caterpillar that cannot imagine that it has wings written invisibly within, and that it must make a journey to compete its role in the web of life.
When human beings feel the fire of time burning in our limbs, we become curious about that which we have been born out of and into which we will return. For some, religion is an imaginary escape from time into a static world of unchanging being. For others, religion is the attempt to remember our primordial ties and to reconcile our quivering ephemeral consciousness with its common roots into every other being.
Philosophy and science are attempts to understand our universe objectively from the outside in. Religion is the attempt to feel our place in the world and to make peace with it subjectively. To objectively know our relationship to the earth, it is enough to think and experiment, but to subjectively feel those same ties we must sing and dance them within our community of meaning.
The true purpose of religion is to free the subjective butterfly within the objective caterpillar.
When religion tries to make itself “real” by imagining its heroes are actual persons from history, when religion reduces God to an actual being within the universe, when religion becomes a scientific explanation or moral imperative, it has lost its most essential purpose which is to reawaken our intuitive ties to the whole and to one another.
Religion should baptize us into life, not into itself. Baptism into the cold stark waters of Jordan was a very different affair than sprinkling a baby from a gilded font in a heated sanctuary. The rite of Communion where a savior recognizes humanity’s blessed place in the food chain may be completely lost when served in a silver goblet.
In his “I am” sayings, Jesus spoke as Life itself, not as the CEO of Christianity, Inc. So the church which teaches in his name must continually go through radical reformations just to keep from placing the church at the center of the message and worshipping ourselves.
The mysteries of Christ do not belong to the church. They are ancient and universal symbols intended to help human beings remember our primordial ties into the common life. If we, the church, are unwilling to make ourselves sacrifical vessels to that purpose we become an obstacle to those seeking the roots of their own being.
Unlike scientific facts, religious truths must organically grow out of real living. If we make people memorize our creeds or obey our rules, we are not freeing butterflies, but merely pasting wings on the caterpillars.
The Catholic Church makes a very weak and hypocritical argument when they base their case against homosexuality on “natural law.” Homosexuality is actually quite common among the higher species, what you more seldom find is celibacy.