A Declaration on Christianity & the Future of America

LIFT EVERY VOICE!
A DECLARATION ON CHRISTIANITY & THE FUTURE OF AMERICA
A Consensus Statement from Over 1000 Christians

As Christian clergy and laypeople from around the country, we come together to stand and to speak. We speak now, because there is no more important time. We speak together, because there is no more important way. We speak as people of faith, because faith is central to our vision of what America can still represent. Today we are impelled by our faith to declare that our country can and must do better.

Christian faith calls every believer to love God, love neighbor, and seek to heal a broken world. In honoring that call, we honor the inviolable dignity of every human being and we treasure the natural environment as God's good creation. As Christ bears witness to God's love for the world, faithful Christians bear witness to the love that lies at the heart of all that is. We believe that reconciliation and forgiveness are always possible and always necessary. We know that God still speaks, yet we acknowledge that it is through a multiplicity of diverse voices that God's voice for justice can, will, and must emerge. These manifold voices for justice require that we heal the sick, release the prisoner, bind up the wounded, and care for the orphan. “As you do unto the least of these, you do unto me.”

Christian faith requires that those who have received God's abundance provide for those in need, and so we must insist that God’s abundance be shared. We must demand justice for those of our society who live on the margins, those whose very survival is a daily challenge, those whose labors are neither recognized nor dignified, those who cannot demand justice for themselves. As Christ came to bring good news to the poor and oppressed, so must we.

As young children, we are taught that America is a country where a diversity of cultures and multiplicity of religions is esteemed and cherished. We learn that being an American means valuing the separation of church and state, so that no one particular religious voice is given priority in civil discourse and all voices are protected. We are taught to value and respect dissenting views, and to support vehemently the right and responsibility of those with whom we disagree to voice their views.

As Americans, we cherish a rich and thoughtful debate and understand the necessity of that debate in our decision-making process. As Americans, we aspire toward the common good, work for the creation of a just society, and seek prosperity for all rather than wealth for a few. We treasure the beauty and richness of our natural environments, from mountain to sea, from desert to plain, and we resolve to protect these treasures for generations to come. Finally, as Americans, we value a criminal justice system that promises liberty and justice for all: a day in court for all who stand accused, basic human rights and dignity for the incarcerated, the right to a speedy trial and the assurance that every person be deemed innocent until proven guilty. We believe that unless all are free, none are free; that unless all citizens have the opportunity to flourish, we are all diminished.

Today these historic American values stand at risk. Openly contemptuous of religious diversity and freedom of expression, the rigid religious values of conservative Christians exercise undue sway over public and social policies. A growing lack of tolerance for religious and cultural diversity jeopardizes the basic prerequisite for a functioning democracy—the social space for free and civil debate. We have become intolerant and inhospitable to one another. Civil debate no longer has a place in our political process, and we have become fearful of those with whom we do not agree.

In economic life, “market fundamentalism”—an idolatrous deference to the prerogatives of wealth and the unfettered pursuit of profits—threatens to eclipse ancient and priceless concepts of the common good and mutual accountability. In government, racism, bigotry and fear lead to punitive legislation that prevents us from ensuring justice for the prisoner and that strikes at the very heart of the liberties promised by our justice system. In jurisprudence, we can no longer even assume that our courts are free from bias or that religious ideology will have no place there. In politics, we drift toward becoming a nation where only the very wealthy can campaign for the highest office in the land; as a result, the voices of the wealthy and powerful few threaten to silence the voices of the many who are poor.

To address the challenges we face today we must return to the values upon which this country was founded, including the progressive vision of human thriving enshrined in the best of Christian faith and practice. In our churches and throughout our communities, by means of intentional educational efforts at the grassroots level, we must re-articulate the fundamental American values of justice, equality and the common good. It must become our common mission to elect local and national leaders who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to social and economic justice and who will create the means to achieve that justice.

Social policies must reflect the fundamental value of the common good: fair compensation for labor; access to health care for all; well-funded public education; regulation of industry to protect natural resources and the environment; and oversight of the criminal justice system with ongoing emphasis upon its rehabilitative rather than just its punitive effects. In order to assure that mass communication are indeed fair and balanced, we call for the return to the Fairness Doctrine in all media controlled or licensed by our government. We also call for wider access to the Internet, and we invite our growing networks and our communities of faith to discuss the issues we face at a local level and to nurture democratic groupings centered on creating in a shared future.

We recommit ourselves to the care of the most vulnerable among us, to hospitality toward immigrants and other strangers, to multilateral international institutions that promote peaceful resolutions of conflicts, and to responsible stewardship of the earth’s resources. We will hold onto hope, stay strong in our faith, and trust in a common vision for the future based upon the best in our past. We will remember what we struggle against, and for whom we struggle – for the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned, and the marginalized, but not only for them.

We stand and we speak because we are fighting for our future, for the future of our children, and for the soul of a great country, which we will continue to hold in our prayers and whose spirit we will honor through unyielding struggle for liberty and justice for all.

http://www.everyvoice.org/lev/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=86

Did Bush Speak in "Religious Code" to Satisfy Fundamentalist Voters?

Thanks to Roy Birchard for forwarding:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?tntget=2004/10/17/weekinreview/ 17kirk.html&tntemail0

October 17, 2004

CODE FOR VOTE FOR ME
Speaking in the Tongue of Evangelicals

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

TO liberal lawyers and history buffs, it was a head-scratcher. Did President Bush mean to oppose slavery by pledging in the presidential debates not to appoint the kind of Supreme Court justices who decided the Dred Scott case, the 1857 decision that upheld the fugitive slave law?

To conservative Christian opponents of abortion, Mr. Bush's reference was clear as a bell: opposing Dred Scott is shorthand for opposing Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established abortion rights. One day, many social conservatives assert, Roe v. Wade, just like Dred Scott, will be overturned as an erroneous violation of basic human rights.
"We have used that comparison for years and years and years," said Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The potential double meaning rekindled speculation among Mr. Bush's critics that he communicates with his conservative Christian base with a dog-whistle of code words and symbols, deliberately incomprehensible to secular liberals.

During his State of the Union speech last year, Mr. Bush famously borrowed the words "wonder-working power" from a familiar evangelical Protestant hymn about the power in the blood of the Lamb. And many observers said they saw the distinct image of a cross on the podium at the Republican National Convention.

"Mr. Subliminal, Call Your Office," ran the headline on the front page of The New York Sun during the convention.

But one man's code words are another man's vernacular, and whether Mr. Bush is deliberately sending special signals is a matter of debate, to say the least. Trent Duffy, a spokesman for the White House, said Mr. Bush was not speaking in any kind of code.

"The president was speaking very plainly to the American people, saying that he was not for judicial activists on the Supreme Court," Mr. Duffy said. "The president has been a plainspoken leader."

But to liberal jurists, Mr. Bush's reference to Dred Scott in the second debate, on Oct. 8, was particularly puzzling. Saying he would appoint strict constructionist justices who adhered to the intent of the Constitution's framers, Mr. Bush cited the Dred Scott case as an
example of judicial reliance on personal opinion.

But Dred Scott is an example of the opposite - a decision based on original intent, said Jack M. Balkin, a constitutional law professor at Yale University.

Slavery was constitutional at the time, and the decision was based on original intent. Asserting that the framers did not envision blacks as citizens, they ignored the fact that some states recognized freed slaves as citizens at the time of the Constitutional Convention, he said.

Whatever the double-meaning implicit in bringing up Dred Scott, however, Mr. Bush did not make a bankable promise to appoint judges inclined to overturn Roe v. Wade. On the contrary, he said he had "no litmus test" and called abortion "an issue that divides America."

In a recent analysis of Mr. Bush's "double-coded signals," Bruce Lincoln, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, found his speech at the Republican convention overflowing with religious subtext.

References to "hills to climb" and "the valley below," Mr. Lincoln argued, allude to the Israelites' escape from slavery and Moses' vision of the Promised Land. Then in closing, Mr. Lincoln said, Mr. Bush quoted Ecclesiastes, "To everything there is a season."

In another article, in the current issue of the liberal magazine Christian Century, Mr. Lincoln noted that Mr. Bush has referred to "liberty" as "the plan of heaven for humanity" and asserted that "the author of freedom is not indifferent to the fate of freedom."

But when Mr. Bush speaks extemporaneously, his arguments often tumble out as more colloquial descriptions of freedom as "good" and terrorists as "flat evil," Mr. Lincoln argues, suggesting that Mr. Bush's invocations of theology are used mainly for pragmatic political reasons.

The evangelical magazine Christianity Today was unconvinced.

IN a satire of Mr. Lincoln's analysis, "Bush's Code Cracked," Ted Olsen, a columnist, wrote, "Sadly, we'll no longer be able to secretly nod and wink to each other as Bush talks of 'hills to climb.' "

He added, "But don't worry, fellow conspirators, Lincoln has missed most of the code words in Bush's acceptance speech."

For those without a "secret decoder ring," Mr. Olsen offered mock examples. Calling the election "a contest for the future," he said, was an unmistakable nod to the imminent Second Coming.

By the time Mr. Bush laid out his agenda, "None us evangelicals cared," Mr. Olsen concluded. "We just sat back and smiled, winking and nodding to each other. Message received."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

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The Man Who Was Raised by a Movie Camera -- a review of "Tarnation"

by JULIE SALAMON
September 26, 2004

WHEN he was 11, Jonathan Caouette started using a camera to create a protective force field. He needed one. His mother was schizophrenic. The grandparents he lived with were eccentric. He was a gay boy growing up in Texas. Borrowing a neighbor's camera, Jonathan, pouting and tossing his head back, filmed himself playing an abused woman: "I wear too much makeup," she says to the camera. "It
makes me look like a whore." At 13, Jonathan was hanging out at a gay club, disguising himself as a Goth girl, making friends with older boys who called themselves Spooky, Stacey and Bam Bam. He filmed them, too. Now, 20 years of videotaping later, he's edited his home movies into a bizarre, astonishing film called "Tarnation."

Shot on basic video cameras and edited on an Apple desktop computer, this video diary of a family's turbulent life struck nerves at Sundance and Cannes and won the prize for best documentary feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival. It will play at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 5 and open at Film Forum in
Manhattan on Oct 6; the movie has been sold for distribution in more than 20 countries. Not bad for a film that cost a total of $218 to produce.

In "Tarnation" Mr. Caouette constantly rattles
expectations with his unnerving ability to bring outsiders inside his brain (whether they want to be there or not). He dares audiences to care about yet another unhappy family parading its
breakdowns and heartaches. But the film never descends into the territory of voyeuristic freak show. With an innate sense of drama and distinctive visual style, he makes it almost impossible not to squirm and weep at his strange misery - or to hope for his future.

Speaking about his very public high-wire act recently in a Soho cafe, Mr. Caouette, a slight man with large light eyes and shaggy dirty-blond hair, seemed undaunted. "I don't know if it had to do with being gay or a Southern Jew or wanting to be an actor and filmmaker, but I've always had this keen sense of self," he said. "Also, seeing everything my mom has had to endure and survive has given me strength to keep it together in light of all these unbelievable circumstances."

The circumstances: His mother, Renee, daughter of a Houston grocer, was a pretty girl who became a local child model. But when she was 12, her life turned disastrous. Following a traumatic accident, she underwent numerous shock treatments that Mr. Caouette believes led to a lifetime of psychiatric problems; she spent time in more than 100 hospitals. She married young and, at 19, had a son, Jonathan. His father abandoned this troubled ship early, and
Jonathan spent much time in sometimes brutal foster homes. His grandparents took custody of him when he was 6, but by then, he had
witnessed his mother being raped and had himself been beaten by foster parents. His grandparents, while loving, had their own idiosyncrasies, and were unequipped to deal either with their sad, lost daughter or with her son, whose creativity was as apparent as his odd behavior.

"I used the camera as a way to disassociate myself from what I was being subjected to," explained Mr. Caouette. "I began turning the camera on my family as a way of dealing with it."

Mr. Caouette said he took drugs briefly, but lost interest after he accidentally smoked angel dust, when he was 12, and suffered terrible
disorientation. "My biggest vices now are meat and coffee and cigarettes," he said, proving it by consuming a hamburger, a couple of double caffè lattes and several Marlboro Lights.

He lucked into a movie-mad mentor when, at 12, he became involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters Association of America. He was
matched with Jeff Millar, the film critic for The Houston Chronicle, who took Mr. Caouette to screenings instead of baseball games. Then the two of them would analyze the movies they
had watched. That experience led to an adolescent movie fanaticism that had him
dragging his grandfather to a Houston art house to watch "Liquid Sky" and "The Brother From Another Planet."

Even after moving to New York seven years ago, hoping to become an actor, he kept on filming. "Tarnation" includes the telephone
call informing him that his mother, severely ill, had been hospitalized for lithium toxicity, as well as his immediate reaction - vomiting into the toilet. A good son, despite everything, he drove halfway across the country to help. Again, his camera was turned on, adding the American landscape to his feverish journey.

So how, from this turbulence, did Mr. Caouette find the discipline required to make a film? It helped that he was a pack rat. He saved almost everything - 160 hours of material shot on borrowed cameras, as well as answering machine messages. (He finally got his own camera five years ago, a Sony his grandfather
bought at Best Buy as a birthday gift.) "I always knew that somehow, some way this stuff was going to come in handy," he said. It was labeled only by year.

"When I'm half asleep, there's this plethora of
information that rushes into my mind's eye," he said, describing his method. "It's like a waking dream or a song or a story or a poem or a series of images, and it makes sense for just a
second and then it dissipates and you think, 'Hey, what was that?' I wanted to take that experience and hold onto it with this film." He has achieved his goal in "Tarnation," which manages to seem wild and raw but also carefully constructed.

While Mr. Caouette said he always intended to make a film about his life, he had no plans for reaching an audience outside his friends and acquaintances -- who had been subjected to many earlier versions over the years. Yet he also operated on contrarian optimism, assuming that by moving to New York and
becoming an actor, he would somehow find a way to become a filmmaker, too.

As part of an audition last year for "Shortbus," an explicit sex comedy by John Cameron Mitchell ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch"), Mr.
Caouette included scenes from his lifelong project. Mr. Mitchell was intrigued, and eventually signed on as an executive producer, along with Gus Van Sant. Their conversations,
however, were interrupted for five months, when Mr. Caouette returned to Houston to help care for his mother. On his return, an intern for the MIX Film Festival in New York, which features gay and lesbian films, saw some of the
movie and encouraged Mr. Caouette to enter it. Taking a leave from his job as a doorman, Mr. Caouette in less than four weeks edited his huge mass of material into a three-hour version. The festival's director, Stephen Winter, was so
excited that he signed on as producer.

Mr. Caouette speaks wistfully of various subplots that were lost in the effort to whittle the film down to its current 88 minutes. One piece that was cut was the surprising revelation that he has a 9-year-old son. "His mom is this girl I've known since I was 16, and we were really, really, really good friends," he explained. Then, with a smile, he added, "It's a very long story."

The producers thought it might be confusing, since Mr. Caouette establishes his gay identity early in the film, and his lover, David Sanin Paz, plays an important role. Mr. Caouette's two step-brothers -- one from his mother, one from his father -- also had to go. "You should see the two-and-a-half-hour version," he said.

He wasn't always so confident about the movie. As he watched an early version with his mother at a gay and lesbian film festival, he said, he panicked. "What have I done? What am I doing? Have I unleashed Pandora's Box? Is this going to be exploitative of her -- of all of us?" he wondered. But, he continued, "I succumbed to the fact that it's a beautiful story, that despite the chaos we got it together."

His mother Renee now lives with him and Mr. Paz in Brooklyn. Mr. Caouette is making plans for his son, Josh, and Josh's mother to join them. "I'm ridiculously attached to my family," he said.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/ tnt.html?tntget=2004/09/26/ movies/26julie.html&tntemail0

Boomerang: Readers write Sojourners Magazine about God's political party

[Go to http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.display&issue=040827#3  to access "Boomerang" and to learn about Sojourners' petition stating that "God is not a Republican or a Democrat."] Jessica Kantrowitz writes from Thomaston, Maine: I am very happy to see that Jim Wallis and Sojourners are working against the idea that Christians must unthinkingly toe the Republican party line. I am also glad that there seems to be a strong sense that neither party fully represents Christian values at the moment. I want to reiterate Laura Singleton's warning [Boomerang 8/18/2004], however, that we not repeat the errors we lament in others. I signed the "God is not..." petition, but I was slightly concerned about the three dots between Republican and Democrat. The dots create the impression that the latter is a mere concession. Better to say, God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. But I understand that they were going for dramatic effect. (I almost think it would have been more effective to say, "God is not a Democrat...or a Republican." That might have tricked more Republicans into reading it!) ---------- Dr. Sheri Wells-Jensen writes from Bowling Green, Ohio: Yes, good people, I did sign the "Take Back Our Faith" petition, but with a heavy heart. Certainly, Revs. Falwell and Robertson are out of line and President Bush may well be a madman, but neither does Kerry speak to me of peace, justice, or true stewardship of the earth. Should I vote for Kerry who does seem to be the lesser of two evils? I may very well do that, but if I do it, I will be remembering uneasily that Kerry swims in the same seas as other well-funded, mainstream, perhaps well-intentioned candidates. He may be an alternative to Bush, but can we stop for a minute in our dash to defeat Bush to recall that less war is not peace, less oppression is not justice, and less consumption is not simple living? Kerry is at best a compromise, a "practical" alternative to Bush's insanity, but a vote for him is not an expression of my faith any more than a vote for Bush would be. Is 2004 a year to be "practical" people as opposed to passionate followers of the faith? ---------- Paul L. Whiteley Sr. writes from Louisville, Kentucky: God is not a political football to be kicked around by Democrats and Republicans. Neither party is more Godlike than the other, and God does not favor one party over the other. God is not pulling for either George W. Bush or John Kerry to be America's next president. Our Creator gives us the freedom to make right and wrong choices, even the freedom to be an atheist or agnostic. We reap the consequences of our choices, good or bad. But what God does require of us is that we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly, not arrogantly, with our God. We must love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbors as well as we love ourselves. God wants all of us to walk the walk, not just talk the religious talk. If we do what God requires of us, it will help us to make the right choices in the voting booth. We dishonor and displease God when we deliberately use God for political gain. I am a person of faith who doesn't need Jerry Falwell to tell me who to vote for. ---------- Jon Kuhrt writes from London, U.K.: There have been a lot of e-mails in Boomerang about the negativity of SojoMail. Christians do need to be constructive and argue for what they are for, not just critique and deconstruct. But we also have to understand the context and reality of the current political landscape - that right-wing fundamentalism is the most powerful religion in the world. We have to subvert it. In extreme situations, it is not biblical to reduce our campaigning to an apologetic whisper. God told Isaiah to "raise your voice like a trumpet and declare to my people their rebellion"; John the Baptist publicly exposed Herod's hypocrisy; Jesus subverted the temple-cult by turning over the market stalls and denouncing the powerful; and John pictured the Roman Empire as a Beast. Were they going a bit over the top? Were they being "unpatriotic?" Christians should be passionate about justice to "speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy" (Proverbs 31:9). --------- Russ Buckbee writes: I'm delighted that "God is Not a Republican...or a Democrat" is winning in your bumper-sticker contests, since we all know she's a Green. + See our bumper sticker poll results --------- Boomerang is an open forum for all kinds of views that do not necessarily represent those of Sojourners. Want to make your voice heard? Include your name, hometown, and state/province/country in a concise e-mail to: boomerang@sojo.net . We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.

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[+] "Life Is Hard... and I'm Going On Anyhow ..."

by The Reverend Janet Wolf of Nashville, Tennessee, with comments by David Enroth ("SkySpiritElohim") of Seattle, Washington

Reading: Exodus 3:1-12a

When I was growing up I would come home from school and hang out with my grandmama. She was the one who was there to greet me, and I confess that I most often began this after-school conversation with a litany of complaints.So it was to my grandmama that I would go and say, "You know, I work really really hard. I mean, I work hard! I got a C in school. My sister doesn't do much of anything and she got an A.

Grandmama, life is not fair!" My grandmama would say, "Uh huh. And?" I would go on with my litany of complaints: "Well, you know they were choosing baseball teams today and I have been known at least once to hit a baseball. But there I am, they've called everyone else, they both know my name, and nobody calls it. Life is hard, Grandmama."She would say, "And?"For her there was only one right response to this particular question, "And?" The response she was looking for her was "I'm going on anyhow". It was her rock bottom faith statement.
-- The Reverend Janet Wolf

[Thanks to David Enroth ("SkySpiritElohim") for forwarding Rev. Wolf's sermon and for including the following comments of his own:]


A phrase from my younger years said to me, "When the goin' gets tough, the tough get goin'."

In my life, getting going has been tougher at some times than at other times. During such times, a plain and simple sermon preached by an inspirational preacher helps me refocus on my life's essentials: heart, spirit, soul.

Such was the case at Seattle's Town Hall on Sunday evening.

The Reverend Janet Wolf of the Hobson United Methodist Church of Nashville, Tennessee was in town. I'd seen Janet before on a video program with Dr. James Forbes of New York's Riverside Church and Dr. Walter Wink. On that program, Janet was calm and quiet.

On Sunday, she was the female equivalent of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

If you'd like to listen to a sample of Janet Wolf, click on the link at the bottom of this Web page:
http://www.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=1&mid=3769


"A word is dead / When it is said, / Some say. / I say it just / Begins to live / That day." ~Emily Dickinson

"Preventing conflicts is the work of politics; establishing peace is the work of education." ~Maria Montessori

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." ~Jimi Hendrix

"The spirit we have, not the work we do, is what makes us important to the people around us." ~Joan Chittister

"If you have love in your life it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you don't have it, no matter what else there is, it's not enough." ~Ann Landers

Compassionate loving kindness is the sole practice of every religion because it is in giving love that we become love!

Love is life's raison d'être ... = Sky


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Progressive American Muslims Push for Reinterpretation of Islam

From Al-Fatiha - LGBTIQ Muslims
[gaymuslims@yahoo.com]
Sunday, October 10, 2004 11:53 PM

Religion Today
RACHEL ZOLL
From the Associated Press
Thu, Oct. 07, 2004

NEW YORK - The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks emboldened many outside the Muslim community to demand Islamic leaders re-examine religious teachings on matters from war to women's rights.

But in the United States, the latest call for reform is coming from within.

On Nov. 15, as the holy month of Ramadan is expected to end, a group of mostly young Muslims plans to launch the Progressive Muslim Union of North America in New York.

As their name suggests, the organization will take positions that conservatives consider objectionable, even heretical: Progressives believe women should have a broader role in mosques; they back gay rights; and they believe Muslims should borrow from traditions as varied as Buddhism and the U.S. civil rights movement to reshape Islam for modern times.

"When you've been taught ever since you can remember that Islam is a certain thing, especially as women ... you reach a certain point where it's not tenable anymore," said Sarah Eltantawi, 28, one of four founders of the Progressive Union. "People need to feel that there is an alternative Islamic space that has some legitimacy that they can turn to."

The organizers are taking significant risks with their platform.

Progressives intend to speak out publicly against Muslim practices they consider harmful, at a highly sensitive time when the community fears fueling prejudice against Islam. And by promoting acceptance of homosexuality and women's religious leadership, they leave themselves open to accusations that their agenda is not truly Muslim.

Sayyid Syeed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America, a leading Muslim organization in this country, warned that "creating forums and making them too radical" will alienate other Muslims.

"They might have something good on other issues," Syeed said, but their more controversial positions - on homosexuality, for example - will undermine their credibility.

"It will do a disservice," Syeed said.

Omid Safi, a religion professor at Colgate University and another founder of the Progressive Union, said the movement must take these chances. Progressives will not be "standing outside pointing an accusatory finger" at other Muslims; they want the religion to flourish, he said.

"We're trying to make it clear that this is somehow more than just a bunch of Muslim people who just happen to be socially progressive," said Safi, editor of the book "Progressive Muslims," which serves as a guide for the movement. "We're confronting a lot of problematic practices that are part of our faith and our community, while also admitting and acknowledging that there are incredible reservoirs of wisdom for us to draw upon from our faith."

The idea for the new organization grew from the Web site muslimwakeup.com. Ahmed Nassef, 38, a former marketing consultant and progressive activist who grew up in California, created the site with a friend about two years ago to find like-minded Muslims.

The site is anything but timid.

It openly criticizes major U.S. Muslim organizations for being too conservative and hosts discussion boards where Muslims debate the future of their religion. It also includes many provocative articles on topics such as Muslim women's sexuality, while running a "Hug a Jew," feature that profiles progressive Jews with a photo of them embracing a Muslim.

Muslim activists from overseas who cannot get their work published in their own countries often ask Nassef to post their writings on his Web site.

Muslimwakeup.com has quickly built a readership, reaching nearly 2.8 million hits last month, Nassef said. A few months ago, Progressive Muslim Meetup chapters grew from the site and now draw about 750 people for monthly gatherings nationwide, he said.

There are comparable progressive movements among Muslims in South Africa, Iran, Malaysia and elsewhere, that, like the American movement, include a critique of U.S. foreign and economic policies, and human rights abuses in Muslim and non-Muslim countries.

However, U.S. activists see something particularly American about how the ideas are spreading here.

The Muslim community in the United States is one of the most diverse in the world, encompassing Arabs, South Asians, Europeans and U.S.-born blacks. Among the thinkers the U.S. progressives are studying are the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Elie Wiesel.

Yet, their chances for becoming a major influence in the United States are unclear.

Studies have found that the majority of U.S. Muslims are not active in mosques or affiliated with national Muslim groups. Nassef hopes they will find a home in the Progressive Union.

"Part of our mission as Muslims, as we see it, is to stand for justice in our community as well as critique what's outside of it," Nassef said. "As an American, I want to make sure that my country is doing what is right. As a Muslim, I want to make sure things are being done right in the name of our faith."

ON THE NET
www.muslimwakeup.com/

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America: Vote ALL of your values (From FaithfulAmerica.org)

Many have called November 2nd the most important election of our generation. As people of faith, what can we do to ensure our country makes a faithful decision?

Some vocal religious groups are claiming that our faith requires us to vote based on a narrow set of issues and values. We need to stand up as progressive and moderate people of faith and call Americans to vote ALL their values, including truth at all times, justice for all people, and community among all nations and faiths.

We've joined with a broad coalition of national moderate and progressive faith-based groups to form the non-partisan "Vote ALL Your Values" campaign which will help bring hundreds of thousands of voters to the polls on November 2nd.

To kick off the campaign we're calling all people of faith who share our values to come together on October 16th in a National Day of Action. Click below to sign up:

www.voteALLyourvalues.org

If you feel moved, you can organize an event - a day of fasting ending with a community potluck dinner, or a simple vigil in a public place. We'll put it on our online map and tell the media. Alternatively, you can find an event in your area to participate in or pledge to take a simple, personal action on October 16th to show your solidarity such as fasting or praying. Sign up now:

www.voteALLyourvalues.org

By acting together as a national Progressive Faith Movement, we'll make sure the nation hears our message of truth, justice and community.

We'll send out an alert about how you can mobilize voters through our "Vote ALL Your Values" campaign on October 11th. But sign up now for the Day of Action, and start getting ready to remind America what we stand for.

Blessings,
The FaithfulAmerica.org Team

Below is the official Call to Action launching the "Vote ALL Your Values" campaign from diverse groups and leaders across our beloved community:

America: Follow Your Conscience,
Vote ALL Your Values

A Call to Action to the Progressive Faith Community

Dear Friends,

At many points in our nation's history, from the struggle for the abolition of slavery, to civil rights, to the effort to fight poverty, the progressive faith community has come together as a movement to offer our nation a message of hope.

Our nation needs us again. We are sacrificing our sacred values to the narrow and ideological agenda of a few - values of truth at all times, justice for all people, and community among all nations and faiths. In the midst of the most important election in a generation, some vocal religious groups are trying to convince that our faith calls us to vote only on a narrow set of issues and values. Our message to America is: Vote ALL Your Values!

Time is short, and we have begun a 40 day period of prayer, fasting and work. We ask all people of faith to join us in this plan of action:

A) National Day of Action, October 16th: From Sacred Places to Civic Spaces. We ask our movement to come together in a National Day of Action on Saturday, October 16th. Through coordinated events across America and a Clergy and Lay persons' march in Philadelphia, we hope to make sure the country hears our message. We call upon people of faith to move from sacred places to civic spaces, organizing our faith communities in marches and vigils in front of public offices. If you can't organize a vigil, hold a 'hungering for justice' fast for the day and meet up with friends in a potluck dinner, to strategize your get out the vote campaign (see below). Start organizing your event now, and advertise your event on an electronic map of America at www.voteALLyourvalues.org

B) Vote ALL Your Values Campaign - We call for a mobilization of our community in a non-partisan voter mobilization effort called "Vote ALL Your Values". Together, we will call and visit millions of low income and minority voters before the election. Encouraging these citizens to have a voice in democracy could play a decisive role in the country's future, and research shows that contact by a 'trusted source' such as a member of a faith community, is most effective in persuading people to vote. You can be a part of it by organizing your own get out the vote team in your faith community, or even just by calling voters from your own home. We'll help you every step of the way.

If you are called to act, the next step is to go to www.voteALLyourvalues.org to join the effort. If you find the internet difficult to use, call us toll free at 1-866-456-VOTE. And don't forget to pray, or perhaps fast for a day to ask God's guidance in this momentous time. So much is at stake, our faith calls us to action.

Signed,

Rev. Steven Baines, People for the American Way
Rev. Chloe Breyer, St. Mary's Manhattanville Church
Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock, Director, Lift Every Voice!
Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin, Honorary Chair, FaithfulAmerica.org
Rev. David Dyson, Chair, People of Faith Network
Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Churches
Maureen Fenlon, OP, National Coordinator, NETWORK Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Rev. Dr. James. A. Forbes Jr., Senior Minister, The Riverside Church
Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President, The Interfaith Alliance
Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs, Tikvah Temple
Rev. Peter Laarman, Director, Progressive Christians Uniting
John Podesta, President, and Melody Barnes, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
David Robinson, Executive Director, Pax Christi
Charles Rooney, Catholics for the Common Good
Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry, Coordinator, Let Justice Roll Coalition
Adam Taylor, Director, Global Justice
Rev. Jim Wallis, Editor, Sojourners Magazine

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John Shelby Spong discusses changes in the Christian concepts of death

[Thanks to David Enroth for forwarding:]

  Do we have the moral right to choose to die?

Is death a natural and normal part of human life or is it an enemy that we must always seek to defeat? That is an issue being debated today in religious circles, pitting traditional religious groups, most notably the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church and leading Protestant Fundamentalists, against the rapidly growing movement of those who seek to secure the option that has been called "death with dignity" or "compassion in dying." Both of these are titles of organizations made up of people who advocate the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. In the state of Oregon this debate has reached the status of becoming an option guaranteed by law. Attorney General John Ashcroft has thus far made two unsuccessful attempts to overturn this decision that was ratified twice by the voters of Oregon. This is interesting behavior for a representative of an administration that claims to stand for the rights of states and consequently for decreasing the power of the federal government. One should not, however, expect consistency in politics. As medical science continues to push back the barriers of finitude and expand the possibilities of longer life, the intensity of this battle is bound to rise and these two vastly different points of view will more and more find themselves on a collision course.

Let me begin this discussion by acknowledging that there is no doubt that, given the way the Judeo-Christian faith story has traditionally been understood, the religious establishment of the western world will normally be opposed to making changes in this arena. The creation story, with which the Bible opens, says that life is the property and gift of God. The decision, therefore, as to how and when a person is to die is not one, this point of view asserts, that any human being can ever take from God's hands. This theme is confirmed again and again throughout the pages of Holy Scripture in the distinct negativity that is expressed toward suicide. So, this religious mentality tells us, physician-assisted suicide can never be defended as a human choice or a human right by Christian people. That is why many religious leaders regard it as an immoral decision that must not only be avoided, but should not even be debated.

As the religious argument develops, the case is made that in the Bible death is defined as God's punishment for human disobedience of the divine will that corrupted the perfect creation. In the ancient, primeval legend of the first human beings, Eve, who was presumably born to immortality, responds to the tempting serpent with these words: "God said that if we eat of the fruit of this tree, we will surely die." Death was contingent on her behavior; it was not her natural destiny. But this story proclaims that she and her husband Adam in fact did eat of this forbidden fruit and, true to God's promise, they lost eternity and entered mortality. From that day to this, says the tradition, the inevitably of death has been the punishment and fate of us all.

Paul, a major architect of the early Christian faith, built on that definition when he wrote in his first Epistle to the Corinthians that death is the "last enemy" to be destroyed. Paul saw the life of Jesus as one who had, on the stage of history, taken on this enemy and defeated it, thus breaking the power of death that had plagued human life from the dawn of creation.

As Christian theology developed, these ancient Hebrew narratives, which Paul viewed as literal events in history, came to be thought of as founding myths or legends, but their hold on truth was still not disputed. The Church almost universally taught that people were born with the stain of Adam and Eve's "original sin," and it was our destiny to endure its consequences. So all were to be victimized by death. That is still today bedrock, traditional Christian thinking.

Christian baptism was developed to wash away the damning stain of 'original sin' into which each newborn infant was born, and thus to enable each baptized Christian to participate in Christ's victory over death. That is why the Church taught for centuries that the unbaptized baby was doomed though all eternity. It was a very effective fear tactic that the Church used to enhance its power. The fourth century theologian Augustine gave this concept of original sin its ultimate power, when he used it to develop what most people still regard as traditional Christian doctrine. The fact that all human beings died was proof to Augustine that all lives were lived in the sin of Adam, with no capacity to save themselves. He then portrayed Jesus as the divine rescue operation, sent from God to accomplish what only God could do. Jesus' death on the cross became the moment when the price of sin was paid, and the story of Jesus' resurrection became the sign that the punishing power of death had, in fact, been broken.

The Eucharist, the Lord's Supper or the Mass became the liturgical re-enactment of this drama of salvation, which had been effected on Good Friday and Easter. Each generation could, in worship, newly appropriate the salvation that God had wrought. It was a neat and consistent system and it gave order to western religion for almost 2000 years. It has only one major problem, but it is of such magnitude that it now renders this whole theological viewpoint both dated and inoperative. This understanding of the origin of evil is simply not true either literally or metaphorically. We were not created perfect; we have rather evolved from lower forms of life. We did not fall into sin; we are rather just not yet fully human. We do not need to be rescued from a fall that never happened, nor can we be restored to a status we have never possessed. Life is naturally mortal. Immortality is not something that human beings have lost. The unique thing about human life is that we live in the constant knowledge that it is our natural destiny to die. If Christianity is going to survive in a generation with a very different consciousness, it must address these key issues.

Today, it is easy for us to understand how ancient people related to the ever-present specter of death. It was a constant reality. No one seemed to die in his or her old age. Death always seemed premature whether it came in battle or by way of sickness. In a world that knew nothing of germs or tumors, death was always interpreted as a punishing visitation from God. Sickness was treated in those days with prayers and sacrifices to appease an angry Deity.

It is hard for us to step into these presuppositions of our ancestors; so profoundly different is our understanding of the world. Slowly over the centuries, sickness and disease have been both demystified and secularized. If germs cause sickness, antibiotics are developed to counter the germs. If tumors grow abnormally in our bodies, we discover them with x-rays or MRIs, then we shrink them with radiation, treat them with chemotherapy or excise them with surgery. If our blood becomes infected, we transfuse the whole system or cleanse that blood outside the body. If kidneys fail, we hook the body up to a dialysis machine to do their work.

In these processes we have pushed death not out of life but at least to the edge of life, where we might look at it with more objectivity than our ancestors were able to do. The result is a radical transformation in the way modern people think of death and this has tempered our long-standing obsession with and fear of death.

The first conclusion we have to draw is that St. Paul was surely wrong about death. Death is not an enemy, not even the last enemy. Death is an inevitable part of life and even of creation, which is called good. It is not the first time, nor the only time, that Paul has been declared wrong although those, who have turned the Bible into a semi-divine inerrant book, are always bothered and defensive about such charges. Nonetheless, in the western world today, it is widely assumed that Paul was wrong about women and wrong about homosexuality. He is also now seen as wrong about death being punishment and thus the final enemy to be defeated. Death is in fact the power that gives life its urgency, its ultimate meaning. It is a natural and normal part of the life cycle that must be embraced as a friend not resisted as an enemy. As the shadow side of life, death walks with us from the moment we are born. Death pressures life, making it imperative that we not postpone saying "I love you," or fail to rush to heal a broken relationship. It urges us to struggle now, not tomorrow, to build a better world. Death rings the bell on all our procrastination. It keeps life from being what someone called "an endless game of shuffleboard."

We rejoice when medicine pushes back the domain of death and expands the length and quality of our days. When the skills of modern medicine, however, reach the edges of their competence, they cease this noble task and begin only to postpone the inevitability of our natural dying. That is a very different reality. It is this reality that makes it necessary to face radically new choices and to make radically different decisions. This is the frontier that modern men and women are now confronting, and it is the source of the tension in the current religious debate.

When life meets its ultimate limits and is threatened with a choice between unbearable pain and a meaningless state of existence, it should be, I believe, the patient's choice to embrace death by directing the doctors to end that existence. Those of us, who have taken from the hand and mind of God the power to expand life's boundaries so dramatically, must now also discover the appropriateness of taking from God's hand the right to decide how and when we will die. It is a salute to life's beauty; a tribute to life's sacredness, and that makes it, in my mind, a profoundly ethical decision. It is a decision based on the definition of life as holy, while still taking seriously the new consciousness to which human life is only now awakening. The right to end one's life with dignity and with appropriate medical assistance is still a minority opinion opposed by most religious systems. However, I believe it is destined to become a majority opinion that will be embraced by the people of God, newly emancipated from fear. I welcome it.

-- John Shelby Spong

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Sacred Places to Civic Spaces

by Jim Wallis

I'm writing from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul - the first stop on our Call to Renewal "Rolling to Overcome Poverty" bus tour. We began Wednesday morning with a "Pilgrimage to Overcome Poverty," a four-mile walk through St. Paul to the Minnesota State Capitol for a noon rally.

It was a beautiful fall day for a good walk as we stopped along the way at significant places. The first was St. Luke's IHM Catholic School. All the young students came out to greet us, passing out water bottles and holding up the posters they had made to show their commitment and illustrate Catholic social teaching on poverty. My own son Luke is 6 years old now and in first grade, and I walked up to a class of kids about his size. A 7-year-old girl was holding a poster she had made that said, "Every person is sacred. Stop Poverty!" When I smiled at her, she looked up at me and simply said, "Thank you for doing this." That kept me going the rest of the day.

We also stopped at the House of Hope Presbyterian Church, which is sheltering homeless families from the "overflow" of the county shelter. The director of the church program came out to greet us and told us that three families had stayed there overnight with 11 children under the age of 6, including seven-month-old and two-month-old babies. They would be back to stay again tonight after their parents did their best to get the older kids to and from school. The lack of stability in the lives of those kids made my parent's heart hurt.

Poverty is on the rise in America and, according to the Bible, that is a religious issue. And that is the message of the Call to Renewal bus tour - poverty is a religious issue, and should also be an electoral issue in this election year. Those two stops in the first leg of the journey showed us both children with no place to call home and children being taught that their faith commanded them to do something about it. And therein lies the hope.

The bus is beautiful with a big Call to Renewal logo, big bold letters announcing the "Rolling to Overcome Poverty Tour," and VOTE 2004. On the bus are Call staff and organizers, a contingent of young "emerging leaders" who are joining the tour to help out, and preachers and musicians who will join us for parts of the journey to offer their gifts at events across the Midwest. From here, we go to Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Toledo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Akron, and concluding in Pittsburg, and Philadelphia.

The day we arrive in Philadelphia, Oct. 16, has now been designated a "National Day of Action" by many progressive religious groups across the country. "From Sacred Places to Civic Spaces - Vote ALL your values" is the message and call to action. In Philadelphia, a clergy-led march will make another pilgrimage through the streets of this historic American city and culminate in a service in Philadephia (Episcopal) Cathedral led by Rev. James Forbes and I, along with many other leaders from the faith community. I invite you to come to Philadelphia if you live near enough for this important day of witness and worship.

The progressive religious organizations are also inviting people to act in their local communities, on the Oct. 16 day of action and afterward, to move from "sacred places to civic spaces" with the clear message of "voting all our values." Single congregations can respond to that call, or groups of congregations, or ecumenical and interfaith networks and councils, in whatever ways are most appropriate and possible for each community - with marches, rallies, and vigils in symbolic public places. Together we will offer a message of hope and our values of "truth at all times, justice for all peoples, and community among all nations and faiths," as the interfaith leaders' "Call to Conscience" statement reads. Instead of focusing on a narrow set of values, or suggesting that all of our religious ethics and values can be reduced to one or two hot-button social issues, we will call on all Americans, and especially people of faith, to "Vote ALL Your Values."

We are also joining together for the critically important task of mobilizing our communities in a nonpartisan voter turn-out campaign that will focus on millions of low-income and first-time voters who have recently registered. Religious communities and their members assisting low-income people to vote is a very appropriate civic mission as we approach Election Day. For Sojourners and Call to Renewal, urging and assisting these citizens to vote and have a real voice in democracy is an extension of all our work this election year. And it could play a decisive role in our nation's future.

I urge you to be part of this effort by organizing a get-out-the-vote team in your congregation or faith community, or by just calling voters from your own home. For information about get-out-the-vote efforts, and for more about organizing around the National Day of Action, visit the website the religious organizations have set up. It's at http://www.voteallyourvalues.org, and wil provide you with the instructions and technology you will need.

Finally, pray. Pray for the bus tour, pray for the day of action, pray that many people will come out to vote on November 2, pray for our country. Some religious leaders will be fasting during the days leading up to the election and invite you to join them. As we have been saying at Sojourners during this election year, "Think. Pray. Vote."

+ Join Sojourners and Call to Renewal for our Day of Action event in Philadelphia

[<i>Jim Wallis is Editor of Sojourners Magazine, www.sojourners.com </i>.]

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