The “Leadership Council of Women Religious” represents 70% of American Nuns. After being condemned by the Vatican the good sisters spent six weeks in silence. Now they have roared. The national board of the nuns has said they will not accept the verdict. Hopefully the “Catholic Spring” will spread to other denominations as well. We have some good old boys in the Presbyterian Church that could use some of this tough love. If the Sisters stand firm, there isn’t a single thing the Vatican boys can do about this. It’s time for religious patriarchy to be put to bed once and for all.
To read this amazing story, click here.
“Pentagon chief Leon Panetta has announced that the US will be shifting the majority of its naval fleet to the Pacific by 2020, in a “steady, deliberate” effort to increase US presence in the area ‘vital to America’s future’.”
To read more, click here.
When I get back from writing leave, I want to do a sermon series on “Strange Places in the Bible.” I want to take a tour through those parts of the Bible most Christians pretend aren’t there because they are so strange and ugly. How do we honestly deal with calls to slavery or genocide? What do we make of pre-scientific claims about our world that are clearly false? I’m hoping to collect the suggestions and then maybe have a panel choose the hardest and strangest verses. I’ve asked my church to come up with verses, but I thought it might be fun to open it up to a wider audience. What verses do you find hardest to deal with? My hope in this series is to consider what it means to take the Bible seriously after we realize we can’t take it literally.
Almost every candidate for political office rationalizes, “If I do not compromise on my principles, my opponent will win, and will do something even worse.” It is a very understandable rationalization, but one that is leading us into ever deeper ethical abyss. Candidates fantasize they will return to their principles after they are safely in office, but that day of perfect security never comes. It is a better gift to one’s nation to lose an election over one’s principles, than to win one by abandoning them.
If everyone fights fire with fire, we all end up with ashes
David Cole of The Nation has written an article sketching what might be the next steps the effort to gain marriage equity.
To read article, click here.
The not so subtle implication of this political ad is that voting for a democrat will send you to hell. I predict mainstream Catholics will stand up against this movement within their church to use the political system to impose sectarian values on others. It is clear from polls that most Catholics are good citizens and do not wish to deny non-Catholics reproductive healthcare. Only a minority of Catholics want to actively deny gays and lesbians the same rights to marriage the rest of us have. This fear based ad puts in a nutshell the reason why democracy cannot be sectarian. Freedom of religion also means freedom from any one particular religion. I agree that Catholics need to get out and vote, but they need to vote their own conscience and not vote like they were mindless members of a cult.
To watch ad, click here.
Activists warning the world about ALEC had another victory, when Walmart decided to end its support of the stealth lobbying group. Walmart joined Coke, Kraft, Amazon.com and other corporate giants who decided to choose their species over mindless profit. Whether their motivation was noble or not, at least it was human. Someone looked up from the spread sheet long enough to remember they are part of a larger world.
This is why we should never lose hope. If we were playing computer chess, the odds would be so stacked against us that we should just concede the game to corporate interests. But underneath the invincible armor beats a human heart. When you advocate for humankind over against the makers of war, they may hold all the cards, but do not focus at their money. Do not focus at their weapons. Instead, focus on their hearts. That is where our hope lies.
This is not to say resistance is not also necessary, but strikes and boycotts and even revolutions are a holding action. As Gandhi taught, our central task is not to eliminate an enemy, but to illumine a principle. We are not fighting evil, we are teaching and learning how to be human.
To read story, click here.
Trauma usually affects human beings in two ways. We pull back from others, or we draw closer. The tragedy of 9-11 evoked both responses in our nation. Some Americans saw the terrorist attack as a revelation that our fate is now intertwined with other nations. This group saw the tragedy as a call to communicate better with the rest of humankind, to strengthen international law and to intertwine our economic destinies so that an attack on one nation is an attack on us all. The other, more popular, response has been to pull back from other cultures, to build thicker walls and stronger boundaries, and to flatter ourselves with patriotic songs and symbols. It is true that first method will risk our very survival as a nation, but it is also true that the second response will mean a slower, duller but more certain death.
It is a rare person who can organize a worldview without enemies. Our species, for all its intelligence and power is still quite small and helpless in the grand scheme of things. I think the great figures of history are the ones who call us to love all humankind, but I also think it is much easier to scare people than enlighten them. So, all of our religions and all of our nations suffer from voices calling us to lash out at the shadows cast by own fear and ignorance. We blame the weakest and most vulnerable for our problems and revel in our power to do violence. We display our armies and weapons as though they were enough to make our nation great or our lives worth living. In the long run, life isn’t worth living if we cannot love or trust humankind. In the long run, people grow weary of being afraid and vicious. In the long run, people find the courage to be gentle. That is my prayer for America.
(From an interview done with Joshunda Sanders, for the Austin American Statesman)
Bobby McFerrin (Don’t Worry, Be Happy) was asked a question at the World Science Festival. He wanted to demonstrate to the audience that we carry some musical information in our tissue. The link below takes you to back to that moment. He claims he gets the same results everywhere he goes. It would be interesting to find if he has tried this in cultures that don’t use the scale. In any case, the demonstration shows how some information is coded in the body. We don’t think our way to it, but bring it out with movement and voice. Thanks to Pam Wagner for sending.
To watch video, click here.
No informed person ever really believed that Fox News was really fair and balanced. It is to be expected that they will present the news with a right wing slant, or even present Republican talking points, but they always at least pretended to be a real news agency. Fox News seems to have left the announcer’s booth and jumped into the ring this time. Fox and Friends, which identifies itself as a news program, has produced a four minute attack ad on Obama. So as Obama squares off against Romney, it looks like the announcer will be biting at his ankles as well.
To read Politico article, click here.