"The Role of Religion in Today's Society," by Joan Chittister (with interview)

There is no doubt about it, in a society of gross imbalances somebody has to ask, "What is the role of religion? Should it be a private refuge or a public presence and how will we ever know?"

The Vietnamese tell a folk tale that I think goes right to the point of the question. The Vietnamese say that there is only one difference between heaven and hell. In hell, they have chopsticks three feet long and the people can't eat. In heaven, they have chopsticks three feet long but the people feed each another.

The purpose of holiness is not to protect us from our world. The purpose of holiness is to change the way we live in the world, not for our own sake but for the sake of others. Jesus demands the same thing. For some reason or other, we often miss that point. We are more inclined to want a religion that comforts us than challenges us. Why? Where did we ever get that idea? Maybe it is because we have misunderstood, or at least forgotten, the meaning of Sabbath, the importance of mountain symbolism in religious literature and the effect of the very placement of gospel text.

Let's look at each for a minute. Sabbath, the rabbis teach us, doesn't exist because God needed rest. God doesn't need rest. That is heresy. The rabbis tell us that the Sabbath exists because God demanded rest. God wanted Sabbath to equalize the rich and the poor, so that the poor could be free for at least one day and the rich could no longer oppress them. God wanted Sabbath to give us time to evaluate our work as God evaluated God's work, to see if our work was equally good.

Finally, God gave us Sabbath to give us time to reflect on the meaning of life. Sabbath is one-seventh of every week. It is one-seventh of every life. Sabbath is fifty-two days a year, over 3,500 days in a lifetime of seventy years, or over ten years of the average life. Sabbath is thinking time designed to change us. Sabbath is important, then, to all of us in our worlds. Week after week after week, we have to ask the questions, "What changes are demanded of us now?" That answer, I think, depends on how we see the role of religion.

There is a scripture story about the Transfiguration of Christ that gives us an idea, perhaps, of the answer. In the story of the Transfiguration, remember, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain. Mountains, you may well know, in Greek, Hebrew, Roman and Asian religious literature, were always places where the human could touch the divine. Sure enough, at the top of that mountain with Jesus, a wonderful thing happened. The apostles began to see Jesus a new way. The apostles got a brand-new insight into whom this Jesus really was -- dazzling, consuming, literally enlightening. They began to see Jesus differently.

What they see at the top of that mountain is, at least, unexpected and certainly disturbing. You see, at the top of that mountain before those apostles, Jesus does not appear with Aaron the priest, who was the interpreter of the law. Jesus doesn't appear there with David the King, the defender of the state. No, Jesus does not appear with symbols of royalty or ritualism. Jesus appears to those apostles with Moses, Elijah, the prophets. Moses, who led the people out of oppression; Elijah, whom King Ahab had called, "that troubler of Israel," because he condemned the people's compromise between true and false gods as the underlying cause of their problems.

In a gospel apparently about the mystical dimension of religion, there is a troubling, teeming undercurrent of turmoil, a struggle between piety and real Christianity, a struggle between religion for real and religion for show. The gospel shows us that Peter, in your name and mine, opted for piety. "Let's settle down here, Jesus, and build three booths."

I'm not really sure, but I think what he had in mind was a chancery, a seminary and a college. Peter, in other words, was opting for a religion of temples, institutions and shrines. Peter was opting for a religion that transcends the world, but the scripture reads that before he could even finish speaking, God interrupted and said, "Listen."

Then something happens that we too often forget. The gospel is completed by a portion that is usually unread, too little remembered, too much unfulfilled. At the very moment, when it would seem that Jesus is emphasizing the mystical and transcendent dimension of religion, Jesus himself takes the apostles away from visions, away from privatized religion, to meet the ones who needed them most in the town.

Jesus takes them to the man whose son was possessed by a demon. Jesus himself leads them down to the bottom of that mountain to the hurting people, unbelieving officials, the ineffective institutions and the demons below.

Real religion is not about building temples and keeping shrines. Real religion is about healing hurts, speaking for and being with the poor, the helpless, the voiceless and the forgotten who are at the silent bottom of every pinnacle, every hierarchy and every system in both state and church, church and state.

Real religion, the scripture insists, is not about transcending life; real religion is about our transforming life. The gospel of the transfiguration calls us to Sabbath; calls us to become enlightened; calls us to change our attitudes about the role of religion; calls us to understand the nature of religion itself; because the so-called rational has failed.

For instance, they say that militarism is rational. How else can we defend ourselves? Never before in history have we spent so much money on defense and never before in history, have been so vulnerable because of it. The people below, the people at the bottom of our mountains, wait to be healed of the diseases that spring from our spiritual darkness. The poor wait for jobs; the homeless wait for shelter; children are waiting for food; young people are waiting for education and job training; the elderly are waiting for care that we say that we can't afford in the richest nation in the world.

Every year we go on in peace time spending more money on instruments of destruction than on the development of peoples. We create the end of the world and store it in the corn fields of Kansas while the working poor, the people who suffer under part-time pay for part-time work or double-time work for part-time pay, get poorer and poorer in this country and around the globe.

Religion, you see, does not call us to the rational. Religion calls us to the Beatitudes, to the works of mercy, to the casting out of demons, to the doing of miracles for those in need, to the being and act of irrational love and burning justice of God. That is what the Transfiguration is about, that is what religion is really about, changing ourselves so we can change the world.

Once upon a time a group of disciples asked an elder, "Does your God work miracles?"

The elder said, "Well, it all depends on what you mean by a miracle. Some people say it's a miracle that God does the will of the people. We say, it's a miracle when people do the will of God."

What is the role of religion in society, private refuge or public presence? Transfiguration means that the role of religion demands enlightenment. The role of religion is to bring us to an awareness of life. The role of religion is to transform the world, to come to see the world as God sees the world and to bring it as close to the vision of God as we possibly can. Why? Scripture is very clear. What God changes, God changes through us.

Interview with Joan Chittister
Interviewed by David Hardin

David Hardin: Joan, you were talking about Jesus wanting us to be peacemakers -- and you are one. Don't you think the world is doing a little better these days?

Joan Chittister: There is no doubt about that, Dave, and I applaud that. That is the foundation of peace making, to see good where good is. It is very easy to be against everything on general principle. The fact of the matter is we move nobody nowhere unless we recognize the good that is happening.

At the same time, we can't be complacent. We can't be lulled. To step down the alert segment of the weaponry, taking the globe back from the brink of suicide and destruction, is fine. But, the question is, when are we going to release the funds that we need for people? Star Wars, as I understand it, is still going strong, three trillion dollars worth. It has got a life of its own while the homeless on this continent, in this country, have no life at all. We have to keep pressing for that or we have made false peace with peace.

Hardin: You are saying that we need to make sure that some
of these enormous expenditures for defense get diverted into social and meaningful causes.

Chittister: Absolutely. We have an infrastructure in the United States that has been untended for a decade. We've built up an arsenal and now say we were probably incorrectly appraised of its needs.

Hardin: Many people say that the role of the church is to stay out of social issues and talk about building faith and scriptural understanding. You clearly would disagree with that. Talk a little bit about how the church should be in the social game.

Chittister: Sure. There are always three arguments, well meaning, sincere and some long-founded, used to smother the voice of the church in the public domain.

The first, of course, is the separation of church and state. But, that is a terrible misuse of history designed apparently as a gag-order on the human soul which chloroforms into compliance with the unthinkable. Why? Because the founders of this country were trying to protect us from the imposition of a single-state religion. They were not trying to suppress religion. They wanted truth to be able to arise from every and any single quarter.

Hardin: They wanted to insure religious freedom.

Chittister: They wanted religious debate. They didn't want religious monism of any kind whatsoever. We are misusing our own history.

Secondly, we say that the Pope doesn't want the church in politics. There is a big difference between being in the political arena and being in the political debate. The church has the obligation to raise questions of conscience, questions of creation, about issues that are destroying us.

Thirdly, people say, "Ah, Sr. Joan, Jesus didn't want it. Jesus said, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.'" That is exactly what Jesus said, David. He said, "Render no more."

Hardin: I always thought He meant income tax.

Chittister: Maybe that is all He meant!

Hardin: You also have been very articulate and somewhat controversial in your thinking about the role of women in the future of the church. What do you think that should be? How calls us to commit ourselves to the irrational love of God for others should that change or might that possibly change?

Chittister: Oh, it must change. The fullness of baptism has to come for women, too. Otherwise what we are arguing is that women can get some graces but not all graces, that God made a world full of pink and blue souls and the pink ones leak. Either women achieve the full grace of baptism or they don't. Either God equally valued women or women are useless in the church under any circumstances. We are losing the gifts of grace in half the population of the world in both state and church.

Hardin: I think it also overloads the dice towards the masculine values which may be a little dangerous at times. There is a little too much violence involved. Women, I guess, are so much less war-like and more interested in children and in the future of the planet. What you are saying is that their voice needs to be heard more clearly than has been allowed in the past.

Chittister: It absolutely must. Those attitudes, perspectives and priorities must be brought to our decision-making arenas everywhere. We see where we stand as a people as a result of a one-sided view of the world.

Hardin: I think you do a wonderful job.

[Sr. Joan Chittister broadcast this program (#3508) on November 24, 1991. At that time, she was
Executive Director of Benetvision in Erie, Pennsylvania, a national resource center for contemporary spirituality. Sr. Joan is a social psychologist, a renowned international speaker, and a widely published author. Her book, Heart of Flesh: A Feminist Spirituality for Women and Men, was named one of several "books of the year" by Sojourners magazine. Her most recent books are The Story of Ruth and The Illuminated Life. Sr. Joan is widely recognized for her work for justice, peace, and equality for women in the church and society. She is an engaging and dynamic speaker whose lectures are popular around the world. (Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.) Thanks to David Enroth ('Sky') for forwarding.]

Fwd: don't let the cups drive you (crazy)...

Thanks, Dominick. Great example -- It has helped me learn this lesson by being "let go" from first a job -- then another "calling," neither of which I was really happy with. I reacted with disappointment, anger, and even concentrated hostility for a long while -- until I realized one day what a blessing it was in each case (for different, complex, but real reasons).

I was caught up in the "status" of being a "consultant" or a "minister" -- I wanted the cup but didn't think the coffee was very good for me at all.

Thank God he/she/life sometimes gives us what we really want and need, even when we don't have gumption enough to realize it or ask for it.

-- Rick Mitchell


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dominick <dominick@sonic.net>
Date: Apr 29, 2006 3:17 PM
Subject: don't let the cups drive you
To: Undisclosed-Recipient

"A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer.

Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said:

"If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups.

Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.

So don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee instead."

 

 

Author Unknown

Fwd: Don't Turn Back, and Don't Give Up, Because We Are on Our Way ... Romney

I am forwarding part of a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Rod Romney, appropriate for Easter season and for the coming electoral campaign period. In the interest of space and general applicability I have shortened and omitted reference to any particular church or community. Thanks to Dr. Romney and also to David Enroth (for forwarding).

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: SpiritWarriorSky@aol.com < SpiritWarriorSky@aol.com>
Date: Apr 22, 2006 9:37 PM
Subject: Don't Turn Back, and Don't Give Up, Because We Are on Our Way ... Romney

NO EASY RECIPES

Rev. Rodney R. Romney
April 23, 2006

---

. . . Cooking is an art, and while it is not an art I have mastered, it is an art whose results I have appreciated and enjoyed all my life.  After all, one doesn't have to be a painter to enjoy looking at art.

When it comes to the spiritual life, we generally follow a similar process.  We read the words of wisdom and instruction that spiritual teachers have spoken or written.  We then try to apply these teachings to our own lives and to live by them.  But what I have discovered in the spiritual realm is that there are no clear and easy recipes to follow, because not everyone is reading from the same book.  What works for one may not work for another.  Moreover, the spiritual recipes handed down to us are always being altered or revised, and one is left wondering if there are any such things as infallible doctrines, absolute truth or a universal theology which everyone can follow. . .

Many in the Christian tradition have historically believed that the wisdom and teachings of a man named Jesus offer an infallible guide, which, if followed, will result in spiritual perfection and salvation.   But now, two thousand years later, we have come to realize that those teachings came down through a period of oral transmission and were not written until a number of years after Jesus died.  Jesus himself apparently wrote nothing. Moreover, while the collection of stories and letters about him was extensive, they do not all agree. Moreover, only four gospels or stories of his life were chosen by an ecclesiastical council to be preserved in what today we call the New Testament. . .

Today we of the Christian faith and heritage live in what I would call an Age of Tumultuous Transformation, brought about by a new era of scholarship and understanding.  Something new and drastically different is struggling to be born.  What it will be is not yet known, but it will not only alter Christian doctrine and thought, it may also bring us into greater kinship with other religious traditions all around the world.  We may yet achieve a universalism with all people and religions that has thus far eluded us.  

No easy recipes are being offered by which this will come about, but the signs are visible on the horizon for those who have the insight to read and interpret them.  We are on our way to something new, something transformative, something that could possibly bring humanity closer together, rather than holding us apart from one another.  It may not happen in our lifetimes, but it will happen. Indeed it has already begun. 

John Burroughs in Christian Century magazine said that the lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is to "look under foot."  We are always nearer the divine and the true sources of power than we think we are. The great opportunity is not in some distant future or some past scholarship but right where we are at this moment.  The ground on which we stand today is holy, as indeed is every place and every moment. . .

Is this not what spirituality should be about:  the quest to know ourselves, to know our own souls, within the confines of time and place that we currently occupy, and then to take up the quest of loving one another as we want to be loved?  Is not our struggle to know God really a struggle to know and love ourselves?  Spirituality is also our struggle to know and love one another and the world we all share.  This struggle is always taking place on holy ground (the ground underfoot) as we experience both life and death in our midst. 

Traditional Christianity claims that Jesus was resurrected from the grave and appeared to his followers before he was taken up into heaven.   Whether we believe that or not, there seems to me to be a desire and hope in nearly all humanity to believe in the eternal life of the human soul and to see forgiveness, joy and completion extended to every person that dies.   We can mourn the loss of a loved one, but we can also remember with gratitude and love the good times we shared.  That is indeed a kind of resurrection of the one who has died. 

One thing we here can all do together is to covenant to extend a warm and loving welcome to all . . . because we believe in the dignity and sacred worth of every person.   [There are relatively few congregations] to openly welcome gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons . . . [and to serve as catalysts] for religious freedom, social justice and responsible stewardship of the earth and all its life forms and resources.  Although we may have differences when it comes to theological belief systems, we respect the life and faith of every single person.  Respect is a recipe that we have [to make] work. 

We need compassion for this time in which we live.  We need compassion for the thousands of people being branded as illegal immigrants in this country, a compassion that can be found in the teachings of a young Jewish carpenter named Jesus.  It was in the name of Jesus that Dorothy Day crusaded for the rights of the poor and those being victimized by major corporations.  It was in the name of Jesus that men and women in the past crusaded against slavery and holding sharecroppers in servitude.  It was in the name of Jesus some crusaded for child labor laws, unemployment insurance, a minimum wage and decent housing for the poor.  It was in the name of Jesus that Martin Luther King, Jr. marched with workers who were only asking for a living wage.  He gave his life for the freedom and equality of all people.   Our remembrance of these persons and others like them is a resurrection of their lives.

Along with compassion, we need courage for this time.  Bill Moyers said recently in a talk, "This is a time for heresy, as American democracy is being threatened by perversion of money, power and religion.  Money has bought out elections right out from under us.  Power has turned our government of the people, by the people and for the people into the patron of privilege.  Religions have been hijacked by fundamentalists who have made religion the language of power, the excuse for violence, and the alibi for empire.  We must answer the principalities and powers that would force on America a stifling conformity, or  the day will come when we will no longer recognize the country we love."

The name of Jesus has not always been associated with compassion and courage.  It has also been used to segregate, discriminate and separate.  An unspoken motto of many churches and religious leaders has been "The urge to purge, rather than the urge to merge."  Instead of striving to achieve oneness as a religion or a human race, many religious leaders obsessed by their own narrow views, have discriminated against women, against homosexuals, against equal rights for all, against religious diversity, against anyone who disagrees with them, and against the deepest values and ideals of our own country.  We need to find a unifying purpose and principle in both government and religion, for if we don't, the day will come when we will no longer be the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

An old rabbinic saying expresses it well:  "We agree to differ; we promise to love, and we unite to serve."  That may sound like a recipe, and perhaps it is, but it is not an easy recipe.  It will take complete dedication on the part of all of us to live it out fully.  But in the end it will take us beyond our differences and unite us in a sacred work.  We can always do more together than we can do alone.  We need each other.  We always have, and we always will.

A year ago I wrote out a list of Spiritual Principles by Which to Live and shared them with you. This list is the result of my living my last fifty years as a minister and educator, coupled with a growing, evolving belief that these principles will bring me my greatest joy.  It is also the best recipe I know for bringing harmony and peace to the world.  I repeat it again in slightly abbreviated form.   

1, Everything is one.   All creation is an expression of a higher force we traditionally have called God.  We are all connected to all life. 

2. Unconditional love is the highest expression of our being .   The greatest act of our lives is to love, because it is love that brought us into being, and it is love that will see us safely through this life.

3.  Life is eternal and our most precious gift.  We do not die.  The body dies, but something within each of us is eternal and lives forever.  Call it the soul, the spirit, consciousness, or whatever you will.  Life, I believe, is eternal.  We must not only respect our own lives, we must also cease from any activity, especially war, that would harm or destroy others. 

4. All religious systems contain some truth, but they also have some tenets that are not true.    There is no one true church or one true religion.  All religions are the products of human growth and diversity and subject to human error.

5. Slowly the world is being spiritually transformed.   A new consciousness and unity is slowly being achieved.  Even though our government has made some horrible mistakes recently in relation to Afghanistan and Iraq, a higher consciousness and a new unity of people is being slowly achieved.  This vision will slowly become a reality as more people begin to work toward it.

I do not offer these principles as easy recipes, for they are not.  I am only stating what I think must happen if we are going to create a better world.  We may not live to see all the changes for which we yearn, but we can leave this earth knowing that we, in some small way, helped to create a better world for future generations.  How can we ask for any more than that? 

This is not a time to be frightened or skeptical.  This is a time to move forward with courage, compassion and faith.  We are, as I said earlier, at the edge of an age of tumultuous transformation, an age of enlightenment, understanding and love.  So today I say to this congregation today and to all who hear or read these words:  don't turn back and don't give up.  We're on our way. 

Jeremiah and The Universe in 2006

Sandy and I were leading an adult discussion group tomorrow on the
prophet Jeremiah recently, specifically on his statement in Jeremiah
31:31-34 (quoted below0.

This has been called one of the great unifying themes of the Bible --
because it ties together the concept of a "covenant" between God and
the Jewish people (cited by scripture as being given to Abraham and
others) with that of a "change of heart" (cited by Jesus as the really
important human ethical criteria -- "As a person thinks in their
'heart' so they will be.")

Regardless of what one may think of God, or Jeremiah (who was
considered a traitor by the people of his time because his political
views were radically out of step with the ruling powers [sound
familiar?]), this passage ranks as one of the "greats" in all of
recorded literature:

"The day will come," says the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like
the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and
brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant,
though I loved them as a husband loves his wife," says the L ord. "But
this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that
day," says the Lord. "I will put my laws in their minds, and I will
write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my
people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will
they need to teach their family, saying, `You should know the Lord.'
For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will already know me,"
says the L ord. "And I will forgive their wickedness and will never
again remember their sins."

I believe this is a statement of the great hope of universal
well-being of all people, wherein there will be no need for religion,
or "God" as a separate construct apart from the basic reality of
existence (which is and always has been "good"), and wherein people
will "beat swords into plows" and "war shall be no more." Apart from
any understanding that such a vision can be held as applicable to one
specific group, which I maintain is exclusivist or racist, and
therefore unworthy of any enlightened understanding of ethical
standards and norms, this is nothing less than the "Magna Carta" of
consciousness for all sentient beings.

-- Rick Mitchell, April 1, 2006
Concord, CA, USA, Earth,
Solar System/Milky Way Galaxy/"Worlds Without End"

-------------------
"... Jeremiah is a shining example of the truth that religion should
never sanction the status quo. This more than anything else should be
inculcated into the minds of modern religionists, for the worst
disservice that we as individuals or churches can do to Christianity
is to become sponsors and supporters of the status quo. How often has
religion gone down, chained to a status quo it allied itself with.
Therefore, we must admit that men like Jeremiah are valuable to any
religion. Religion, in a sense, through men like Jeremiah, provides
for its own advancement, and carries within it the promise of progress
and renewed power. But what is society's reaction to such men? It has
reacted, and always will react, in the only way open to it. It
destroys such men. Jeremiah died a martyr."

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., 1948
____________
Rick Mitchell rick@ricksandy.net
Sandy Mitchell sandy@ricksandy.net
Rick AND Sandy ricksandy@ricksandy.net

Bill Maher: The "War" on Christianity

BILL MAHER SPEAKS ON THE "WAR" ON CHRISTIANITY

New Rule: People who run everything can't complain that they're underdogs.

To wit: This week, there was a highly-attended conference in Washington called "The War on Christians." Because nothing quite says "I'm oppressed," like the opulent Regency Ballroom of the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

Ah, yes, whatever happened to that plucky little cult, Christianity? Oh, that's right, they're 80% of the American people, and have taken over all three branches of
government, country music, public schools, the bestseller list, and until recently, Katie Holmes.

You know, Christians, I don't mind that you're part of a dress-up cult that hates sex and worships magic but the paranoia, that does scare me.

Did you know that the Missouri legislature recently felt the need to propose a resolution declaring Christianity Missouri's majority religion. No kidding. Really, you mean people aren't saying, "Gosh, I'd like to go to Missouri, but... too Jewish."

In Savannah, recently, a children's book about a baby penguin who is raised by two male penguins - ahh! - was removed from the library for its homosexual overtones. Because you know penguins, in those tuxedos, with the dreamy eyes. Huge fags!

The Christian right are now officially the party of paranoia.

Secularists are attacking Christmas! Gays are attacking marriage! Liberals are attacking
values! White girls are being abducted at an alarming rate! You know, if you're going to be that paranoid all the time, just get high.

And the worst part is, the people bitching loudest about being persecuted for their Christianity aren't Christians at all.

They're demagogues and conmen and scolds. And the only thing they worship is power. If you believe Jesus ever had a good word for war or torture or tax cuts for the rich, or raping the earth, or refusing water to dying migrants, then you might as well believe bunnies lay painted eggs.

And Jesus - and Jesus never said a word about gay marriage. He was much too busy hanging out with 12 guys.

Now - now I know George Bush says Jesus Christ changed his heart. But believe me, Dick Cheney changed it back. The only thing Bush has in common with Jesus is they both went into their father's business and got crucified for it.

Thomas Jefferson called the type of Christian who trumpets his own belief in the divinity of Jesus rather than the morality of Jesus "pseudo-Christians."

And that's who's running our country today. And since they thrive so much on turning water into "whining"-- and get off on their endless pretend persecution, this Easter season, let's give them what they want. Let's go to the zoo, get some lions, and feed them Tom DeLay.

[Thanks to Chuck Martens for forwarding.]

--
P L E A S E N O T E:

I am asking everyone to start sending information for my egroups or websites directly to HumanRightsForum@egroups.com (no attachments). Please continue to send PERSONAL email to me at rickmi@earthlink.net or one of the addresses below. Thx!! -- Rick

Rick Mitchell rick@ricksandy.net
Sandy Mitchell sandy@ricksandy.net
Rick AND Sandy ricksandy@ricksandy.net

TAKE A LOOK at www.PeacePolitical.com (formerly known as EcumenicalNews.com)

The Religious Right's vaccination vexation

by David Batstone

When it comes to teen sex, all parents hope and pray that their children make wise choices. Children as young as 12 or 13 weigh decisions with consequences that could impact the rest of their lives in a dramatic way. At this point in the conversation our teenage children roll their eyes, but parents know the risks to be real.

Parental anxiety therefore is unavoidable, all the more so because they realize that the ultimate choices their teens make about sex are beyond their control. That begs a question: If a child violates the moral code that parents set, are those parents willing to put their child's life in mortal danger? Tragically, some Christians are willing to answer, "Yes."

A little-known debate is smoldering at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that may burst soon into a major fire. Two pharmaceutical companies - Merck and GlaxoSmithKline - have designed a cervical cancer vaccine. In clinical trials the Merck drug, Gardasil, is proving to be up to 100% effective in fighting the dominant strain of the virus causing cervical cancer. The pharmaceutical companies and a growing movement of public health advocates want all girls to be inoculated with the vaccine as they presently are for other high-risk viruses.

The Family Research Council is leading a charge of Religious Right groups to halt any such national inoculation program. Their resistance is driven by fear more than common sense. The human papilloma virus (HPV) that generates cervical cancer is most typically passed along through genital contact with others. So as long as an individual does not engage in sexual intercourse, he or she should be shielded from the virus. The Religious Right bloc concludes that offering a vaccine for HPV would undercut their promotion of sexual abstinence for adolescents.

In that spirit, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told Fortune magazine that he would not allow his 13-year-old daughter to be inoculated. "It sends the wrong message," Perkins said. "Our concern is that this vaccine will be marketed to a segment of the population that should be getting a message about abstinence."

Globally, cervical cancer kills more than 270,000 women each year - roughly 80% of them in developing countries. The Centers for Disease Control reports that as many as 3,700 women in the U.S. died of cervical cancer last year, and tens of thousands more had their lives completely transformed by a radical treatment regimen for the disease. The majority of those women are African-American or Hispanic, and poor.

Religious Right groups are not seeking to ban the drug. They simply do not want the vaccine to be slotted as an inoculation that every child receives as they presently do for polio and smallpox.

Because these groups link cervical cancer so intimately with illicit sexual activity, a mandated vaccination feels to them like a family values choice would be imposed upon them by the state.

We abide by public health standards for the sake of the common good, of course. In the U.S., we require motorists to wear seat belts and children to be inoculated. It would be equally shortsighted to oppose a vaccine for HIV if one existed. So the question here is whether the transmission of HPV is a universal public health risk. The question of state imposition is a straw man argument.

But more importantly, the Religious Right is wrong to so closely tie cervical cancer to promiscuity. A woman might be chaste her entire life, then marry and pick up the virus from her husband. It also is more than a bit na�ve to believe that a child will abandon abstinence once they have received a vaccine. If a teen's only deterrent for engaging in sexual activity is a fear of communicable diseases, they are likely to turn to sex with protective devices.

I would go a step further and challenge the Religious Right to temper their moral commitments with grace. It is the right and duty for parents to set a moral path for their children. It pains me that so many parents abdicate that responsibility. But we also offer protection and mercy for lapses in judgment.

It is a daring journey raising children. It is our role to guide, model, and protect. Parents teach values, but kids make the decisions. I would hope that love and grace await our children at each destination.

Fwd: Moonie craziness almost defies belief...

Thanks to Dennis Brumm for forwarding this article. I am coming more
and more to believe that our civil liberties depend on the absolute
right to ignore and have no part in any religion, whatsoever. If that
sounds radical, it is merely and indication of how far we had slid
away from our basic Constitutional rights, of which this is one -- a
very important one. Rev. Moon and his beliefs are indistinguishable,
as far as I am concerned, from those of the Nazi Third Reich. and,
unfortunately, he has lots of other "upstanding" (would-you-believe
Christian?) operatives who are ready and willing to be grand poobahs
in his "kingdom." God help us! No, we had better start helping
ourselves, because we have only ourselves to blame if we permit this
nonsense to spread and grow further. -- RevRickM

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dennis Brumm <brumm@brumm.com>
Date: Apr 17, 2006 5:08 PM

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/34072/

Rev. Moon's Conjugal Visitations
By John Gorenfeld, AlterNet. Posted April 17, 2006.

We all know the religious Right wants to tell us what we can't do in
the bedroom, but no one asks what they want us to do instead.

Among the trendier gripes about why liberals lack power in American
politics is that there isn't enough tolerance for America's faithful.
A big problem, Rabbi Michael Lerner recently sighed, is that "the
Left's hostility to religion and spirituality has become such a major
stumbling block to the chances that progressive forces will ever win
enough power" to make a difference. So the new advice, from Hillary
Clinton to the New Republic's Gregg Easterbrook, is: Stop making
snickering remarks at Jerry Falwell's expense. Cheer the innovation of
$2 billion in federal tax money carted off to religious groups last
year. Drag the "Left Behind" series into your Amazon shopping cart.

And listen, I should add, to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, owner of
the conservative mouthpiece the Washington Times and self-proclaimed
Messiah. Moon's warning to America is that we must have sex the way he
entreats us, in the positions he has designated, or else forfeit our
"love organs," as he dubs them, to the dark lord Satan.

We all know the Right wants to decide what we can't do in the
bedroom. But no one ever seems to ask what the Right wants us to do
instead.

"After the act of love," read the instructions from the Rev. Moon's
conservative Family Federation, "both spouses should wipe their sexual
areas with the Holy Handkerchief. Hang the handkerchief[s] to dry
naturally and keep them eternally. They must be kept individually
labeled and should never be laundered and mixed up."

Maybe the best explanation of our widespread ignorance of the
Washington Times owner's sex rites is liberal squeamishness. For those
of you who suckled on secular humanism and feminist tracts (which Moon
calls Satanic, by the way), these prescriptions from God might seem as
off-putting as a Castro Street postcard storefront to Dr. James
Dobson.

But in order to usher in a national dialogue on faith in the public
square, it's important to look beyond stereotypes of the Right to
understand the diverse philosophies behind public movements for
state-enforced morality.

Rev. Moon, whose Washington Times is a crown jewel of the
conservative media Death Star, offers the essential lessons. He's the
last man most Americans would associate with Republican power circles,
but is in his own secretive way as important a figure in the Christian
Right as Jerry Falwell, who's still in business thanks to a $3.5
million bailout from Moon in 1995, or Tim LaHaye of the Council For
National Policy, who took money to serve on the board of a group
rehabilitating Moon's image, and once wrote a letter addressing Moon
as "the Master."

Just how big is Moon's standing in the Right? The "Republican Noise
Machine" is a mighty edifice built with $3 billion in gifts from
various right-wing philanthropists. Moon's gift of the Washington
Times to the conservative cause alone places him in the club as a
charter member; the paper owes its existence to a staggering figure of
over $2,000,000,000 since 1982 in donations in Moon's mystery money.

Moon also also controls United Press International, one of the
world's largest wire news services. In addition to having a hand in
the creation of modern-day Christian Right politics, Moon has given
huge sums to Richard Viguerie, the "founding funder" of the Reagan
revolution; Terry Dolan, the pioneer of the "liberal bias" attack; and
George W. Bush, who received $250,000 from Moon in 2004.

By 1989, U.S. News & World Report was reporting Moon had built "a
network of affiliated organizations and connections in almost every
conservative organization in Washington, including the Heritage
Foundation," but that "conservatives ... fear repercussions if they
expose the church's role." In 2004, a veteran Christian Right
lobbyist, Gary Jarmin, arranged to have Moon coronated the "King of
Peace" in a kitschy ceremony on Capitol Hill in which he wore a
glittering crown and royal robes.

Moon, the first President Bush said, while touring South America with
the True Father in 1996, is "the man with the vision" whose newspaper
"restores sanity to Washington." So why must the gatekeepers of the
mainstream media bar his ideas from the public debate on morality? Why
does his own employee, Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley,
whose paper Moon says he mainly established to "tell the world about
God," hold back from telling the McLaughlin Group about the greatness
of Rev. Moon's plans for society?

In the interest of healthy public discourse, it bears upon us instead
to consider the philosophy fueling Moon, who has long acted on his
professed longing to see gays and "free sex" banished from America.
Moon's Federation offers an instruction manual explaining, among other
things, on which occasions the man should be on top, how Satan can be
banished with the spank of a wooden paddle and franker lessons still.

Recipe for love

There is, as Moon sees it, a profound sex crisis in America. "Satan,"
the Times publisher said in 2004, "is clinging to our sexual organs."
Women are a "line of prostitutes," who should be punished for
selfishness. "The concave organ [vagina] should be sealed with
concrete."

"The women are the problem in history," he said in 2004. "Women who
don't want to have children should cut away their breasts, bottoms and
love organ because the purpose for those was first for the children.
If they don't fulfill that purpose, then they are not needed."

"Woman's sexual organ is like the open mouth of a snake filled with
poison," he said in 1996. Men don't get off any easier. Keep pliers in
your pocket, he says, "and when you go to the bathroom, once a day,
pinch your love organ. Cut the skin a little bit as a warning."

Moon has even a darker vision for gay men. Moon told an audience he'd
like to see them removed in a "purge on God's orders.... Gays will be
eliminated, the three Israels will unite. If not, then they will be
burned. We do not know what kind of world God will bring, but this is
what happens. It will be greater than the Communist purge but at God's
orders." (No wonder the Times style guide puts "gay" in quotes.)

Far from being confined to his church, his philosophy has fueled
years of voter mobilization drives, state and local candidacies and
public campaigns opposing sexual liberties for nonmembers -- such as
birth control, sex education, gay rights. There have been
Moon-sponsored rallies for "pure sex" in the streets of Chicago,
featuring mascots dressed up as gonorrhea bacteria. So don't mistake
his sexual beliefs for a party to which you aren't invited. "By 2004,
we have to reach the level of Jesus occupying Rome," he said in 2001,
speaking of his American ambitions. "Invite me as master and owner, or
it all will fade away and be broken. The Capitol Hill, the U.N. -- I
should be the king."

The goal of getting involved in politics and social services, say his
clerics, is to cleanse Satan from humanity's bloodline. Meanwhile,
under George W. Bush's Healthy Marriage Initiative and abstinence-only
grants, his pastors have won nearly $1 million in public funding.
Moon's abstinence-only education group Free Teens USA, funded by the
Department of Health and Human Services, instructs school kids in New
Jersey: "It's not just your body, it's your whole lineage forever." In
a lesson plan featured online, a "family tree" exercise appears to be
inspired by Moon's teachings. And to teach that loving carelessly is
vile, youths are asked to drink from a cup of spit, according to a
lesson plan featured online.

Conjugal visitation

So let's say you've married a spouse chosen for you by the creator of
the Washington Times at one of his 2,000-couple stadium weddings.
You've gone through a Moon-ordained period of sexlessness, but now the
time has come to get down to business for the first time with your new
husband or wife.

Not so fast. At some date prior to the lovemaking, Moon's "indemnity
stick ceremony" is used to paddle Satan's spirit from your
lover-to-be. The evil spirit is present, according to one church
testimony, because "men and women misused each other's sexual parts,
for selfish purposes, [and] it gave birth to this resentment ... So we
receive three hits of the stick."

According to the Family Federation website, Satan will not be purged
until newlyweds carry out his "Three Day Ceremony" in specified sex
positions, in Holy Gowns, in front of his photograph. You're to meet
at a location that's "as holy a place as possible" -- one of Moon's
churches is OK. You should have a number of items on hand, according
to the instructions available online, including a Holy Handkerchief, a
church-supplied cloth, and a photo of the Washington Times publisher
and conservative benefactor with his wife, Hak Ja Moon. By now you
have embraced them as your True Parents, maybe even replacing your
biological mom and dad. Next the room must be sanctified to ward off
any potential Satanic comeback, with prayers, a candle and the
sprinkling of holy salt.

Over three nights, there must be three acts of sex. The first night,
the woman is on top. The second night proceeds much the same as the
first. But this time there is emphasis on the idea the man-on-bottom
has progressed to "Growth Stage Adam."

Night three: time for the "man to restore dominion." Missionary position.

Moon appears to recognize that not all men will be able to sustain an
erection during this procedure.

"The act of love should be a complete act (penetration and
ejaculation)," the anonymous authors make clear. "In the event that it
is difficult to achieve this, strive to achieve as much penetration as
possible and continue with the remainder of the ceremony.

"For the act of love, it is all right to caress each other. Insertion
must be accomplished. The couple should continue the act of love until
ejaculation, but if it is difficult to reach ejaculation, the act may
be stopped at that point. However, insertion itself must be
accomplished. If insertion is not possible because the husband does
not have an erection, the wife must take her husband's sexual organ in
her hand and guide it into her sexual part in order to successfully do
the ceremony. If the act of love is not fulfilled and it is delayed,
it must be fulfilled within 24 hours starting from the beginning of
the ceremony. It is not permitted to use a condom or any other
apparatus during the act of love."

In an America where the separation of church and state have widely
come to be seen as an urban legend, these ideas deserve as much
consideration as the Silver Ring Thing, until recently the inspiration
for a $1 million grant in Pittsburgh to push someone else's religious
crusade: "to saturate the United States," as the mission statement
said, "with a generation of young people who have taken a vow of
sexual abstinence until marriage and put on the silver ring. This
mission can only be achieved by offering a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ ..."

And this is the risk of inviting God into the public square. One
man's Silver Ring Thing is another man's Holy Handkerchief.

An urgent appeal from Rabbi Michael Lerner

Dear Friend of PeacePolitical.com,

The following email was received from Rabbi Michael Lerner, and I recommend it and his Spiritual Activism conference program to you. I am convinced that the so-called "religious right" is a radically illogical and dangerous manifestation of error in our society and our world. Our form of democracy, and indeed our civilization, is dependent on informed citizens who are capable of rational thinking and intelligent decision-making. Those forces, whether religious or political, which would seek to sway public sentiment and opinion through biased and impassioned demagoguery, must be countered by those of us who hold that public policies are subject to historical and scientific truth or analysis and not by reliance on supposedly sacred and unquestionable religious and cultural tenets.

Many organizations and individuals (including myself) are engaged in furthering such awareness and commitment, but I think Rabbi Michael Lerner's voice is one of the clearest and most effective. Please read and consider his words below and assist by forwarding to other individuals and organizations who may be inclined to help in this vitally important effort.

-- Rev. Rick Mitchell
   www.PeacePolitical.com 

I would like your help in getting word out to the largest email lists to which you have access (both personal and organizational) about the Spiritual Activism conference that will be held in Washington, D.C. May 17-20, 2006. The conference is the first East Coast appearance for the Network of Spiritual Progressives, co-chaired by me, Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, and professor of African American studies and Religion at Princeton U. Cornel West. I'm sorry I have to reach you through this impersonal note--but I don't know how else to do this.

The Network of Spiritual Progressives has 3 goals:

1. to challenge the misuse of God and religion by the Religious Right to justify war and militarism, cuts in programs for the poor and powerless in order to justify cuts in taxes for the rich, assaults on human rights and civil liberties, and destruction oaf the separation of church and state;

2. to challenge the religio-phobia and hostility toward religious and spiritual people that appears in some sections of liberal and progressive culture, and to help the Left distinguish
between reactionary forms of religion and the progressives forms that it took with Martin Luther King, Jr., William Sloan Coffin, Abraham Joshua Heschel and many others. and to build a new spiritual progressive politics not only for religious people, but also for those who do not believe in God but are "spiritual but NOT religious"

3. to seek a New Bottom Line in the Western world so that institutions get judged efficient, rational or productive not only to the extent that they maximize money or power, but also to the extent that they maximize love and caring, kindness and generosity, ethically and ecologically sensitive behavior, and enhance our capacities to respond to other human beings as manifestations of the sacred and inherently valuable and to be respected, and enhance our capacities to respond to the universe with awe, wonder and radical amazement at the grandeur of all that is.

This is the ground floor of building a new kind of paradigm for progressive politics, and it could have a major impact in making the liberal and progressive forces far more successful in healing and transforming American society. As I've shown in my new book The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right, many people agree with the Left on specific issues but still end up feeling that their greatest pain is the deprivation of love, a sense of meaning in work, and a feeling that they are surrounded by materialism, selfishness, and moral insensitivity, that their children are subjected to sexual pressures before they are old enough to handle them, and that the Left seems oblivious to these kinds of issues and only addresses economic entitlements and political rights.

We in the NSP (the Network of Spiritual Progressives) care very much about eliminating poverty, fighting for equal rights, ending the war in Iraq and the militarist assumptions that led to it, but that these important struggles will not be won until the Left also seems to care about these other "meaning" issues in the lives of many Americans. Moreover, the Left is only clear on what it is against, but rarely has it communicated clearly what it is for. That's why we are taking our demand for a New Bottom Line to the Congress and the media May 17-20—along with a detailed SPIRITUAL COVENANT WITH AMERICA that is meant to provide a positive vision of what a progressive spiritual politics is about (you can read it fully explicated in The Left Hand of God, which, I'm happy to say, has become a national best-seller since it was published by Harpers in February).

The spiritual activism conference will be a unique blending of progressive religious people with progressive "spiritual but not religious" people. Among the presenters, besides me, Cornel West and Sister Joan Chittister: Jim Wallis (progressive Evangelical editor of Sojourners and author, God's Politics), Cindy Sheehan (mother of U.S. solider killed in Iraq war), Episcopal ArchDeacon Michael Kendall, Marie Denis (Fellowship of Reconciliation), Rev. William Sinkford (national president, Unitarian Universalist Association), Rev. Joan Campbell (Chautauqua Institute), Harry Knox (Human Rights Campaign), Rev. Penny Nixon (Metropolitan Church, San Francisco), Rabbi Brain Walt (national chair, Rabbis for Human Rights), Seyyed Hossein Nasr (author, The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity), Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (chair, Progressive Caucus, U.S. House of Representatives), Shaikh Kabir Helminski (Sufi teacher), Svi Shapiro (author of Beyond Liberalism and Excellence: Reconstructing the Public Discourse on Education), Rev. Ama Zenya (United Church of Christ), John Dear S.J. (Catholic non-violence activist), Rev. Lennox Yearwood (Progressive Democrats of America), Robert Thurman (Buddhist teacher and author The Jewel Tree of Tibet), Jonathan Granoff (chair, American Bar Association committee on disarmament), Rev. Lynice Pinkard (United Church of Christ), Bill Meadows (national chair, Wildlife Association), Enola Aird, Katrina Vanden Heuvel (editor, The Nation), Christopher Hedges (former NY Times reporter and author: War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning), Peter Gabel (associate editor of Tikkun and professor of law, New College of California), Thea Levkowitz (Religion and the Environment), Rev. Tony Campolo (Evangelical teacher), Holly Near (progressive music), Michael Bader (psychoanalyst), Michael Posner (human rights), Arthur Waskow (Shalom Center), Rev. Donna Schaper, Nanette Schorr, Rabbi Debora Kohn,  Barbara Coombs Lee, Enola Aird, Rev. Bob Edgar (chair, National Council of Churches), Rev. Debora Johnson, John Seed, Paul Wapner, Mary Darling, Rev. Donna Schapper, Harvey Cox, Janet Chisholm, Roshi Bernie Glassman, Rev. Glenn Harold Stassen, Rev. Paul Smith, Çharlene Spretnak, David Abrams
Rev. Robert Hardies & Rev. Louise Green (All Souls Unitarian church), and many more.

Even if you can't come to the conference, you can join as a dues paying member the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) and help us out financially, or even help us build a local chapter in your area. For information on registering for the conference or joining the NSP: www.spiritualprogressives.org or 510 644 1200 (between 9:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time).

I hope you personally will come, or join, and I'd particularly appreciate it if you'd send this note to everyone you know, and in your own name urge them to come as well..

Many blessings,

Rabbi Michael Lerner
Editor, Tikkun, rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in San Francisco, and author, The Left Hand of God
RabbiLerner@Tikkun.org

www.PeacePolitical.com (formerly known as EcumenicalNews.com)

Daily Encounter

by Dick Innes

[The story that follows reminds me of my times with my own father. His
words stung sometimes, and I was haunted by the sting of his words for
years ... David Enroth ('Sky')]

I recently read about a middle-aged man who has been struggling with
chronic depression for many years. His counselor told him that he
would need to be on antidepressant drugs for the rest of his life. He
told the counselor that his father, a self-made head of a large
corporation, repeatedly said to him, "Son, when you inherit the family
business, I expect you'll ruin it."

"These words stung more painfully each time he heard them. When his
father died, the man felt driven to work unreasonably long hours to
prove his dad's prediction wrong. The pressure to avoid failure that
relentlessly gnawed at him was quieted only by alcohol. Soon a serious
drinking problem developed. His wife threatened to leave him. Finally
he succumbed to ongoing depression for which he could find relief only
in drugs. His life was devastated by the power of his father's
tongue."1

I was once told that I was physically ugly. It took me years to
overcome that one sentence because, tragically, I believed it.
However, I have since learned that it had more to do with the person
who spoke those words than it had to do with me.

With words we can bless or curse others; encourage or discourage;
hearten or dishearten them. They can be powerful motivators or
de-motivators. Let's always use them as an instrument of healing and
encouragement—and never use them to hurt, demoralize or destroy
another.

Dear God, thank you for the gift of words. Please fill my heart with
your love so I will always use them as a blessing to others and never
as a curse. ________________________________

Fwd: What In Our World Can We Do? ...

by David Enroth and Charles Gibbs

We are all a mixed-bag; creatures of darkness and light. As United
Religions Initiative Executive Director Charles Gibbs asks in his
e-letter to members (below), just what can we do to help stem
destruction and violence in our world?

Two things: learn, and give love.

Through lifelong education we can awaken to what has been within us
all along. Isn't it better to light a candle in our little corner of
the world than it is to curse the darkness that exists everywhere.
Former United States House of Representatives Speaker Thomas P. "Tip"
O'Neill said it best: "All politics is local." We get to know one
another best by sharing our personal and sacred stories. It is our own
personal experiences that inform our best ideas of the holy.

Martin Luther King Jr. said every moment is a sacred moment. I believe that.

My friend Liz Budd Ellmann runs a worldwide organization called
Spiritual Directors International (http://www.sdiworld.org/). Its
mission is to help people share their sacred stories, and they
accomplish it through publications, conferences, and sharing a passion
for sacred story telling.

My Southeast Asian Sufi Muslim friend Jamal Rahman and I visited Liz
on the beautiful retreat campus where her office is located yesterday.
Liz's life has transitioned from being a high-powered Wall Street
executive to becoming the leader of people engaged in mystery. I asked
Liz if her work is a little bit like "organizing fog." Just how does
one organize the invisible and mystical, especially after we are told
day-after-day that the sky is green and the grass blue?

The only answers I know are to continue to learn, and to continue to
love by reaching out to those near us by sharing the passion of our
sacred stories. A lot of littles makes a much, and our differences can
be overcome by the divine light that shines within everyone. As URI
friend Thomas One Wolf said to me many moons ago, "We are all chips
off the same love force."

May it be so among us ... Sky
________________________________

Dear Friends, Greetings of love and peace.

In late October each year, northern California, where I live, awaits the
return of rain. The accustomed cool breezes off the ocean often give way
to hot, dry winds from the central valley. Vegetation is crackling dry.
The conditions are perfect for fires. And every October fires cause
damage before they are extinguished, usually within a short period of
time.

Rarely, the conditions are perfect for a fire that can't be easily
extinguished and the results are catastrophic. On October 20, 1991 what
started as a typical fire erupted into a firestorm. Fanned by strong,
dry winds, the fire grew swiftly, generating its own winds, spreading
with unimaginable speed and fury.

In the first hour the fire burned 790 homes. People fled for their
lives, not always successfully. 1,000 firefighters from across
California contained the fire, but not before 25 people died, and 2,449
houses and 437 apartments were destroyed, causing over $1.5 billion in
damage.

This fire is on my mind these days because I fear we in the midst of a
global firestorm that may cause unimaginable damage before it can be
contained or its fury spent, in many places leaving only the charred
remains of a world we thought we knew.

As with any fire, this one was sparked by an event that under different
circumstances would have had little impact. In a different world,
publishing 12 cartoons of Mohammed might have caused a small fire, but
it would have been contained.

But in our tragically polarized world, too much like California in late
October, this act has sparked a firestorm where violence begets violence
at a terrifying pace. Here is a selection of one morning's headlines
from the San Francisco Chronicle: "Sectarian Violence Explodes Across
Iraq;" "Murderous Day." "Fearing the Worst;" "Major Acts of Violence;"
Ebb in religious violence reveals Nigerian carnage;" "FBI ripped tactics
at Guantanamo;" "Fears of coup plot spur Philippine crackdown;" "France
mourns Jewish man killed by gang of kidnappers;" "3 kidnapped Iraqi
journalists found dead, riddled with bullets;" "Shrine attack
reverberates through Muslim world."

I want to be clear. I am not attributing all of this violence to the
publication of 12 cartoons. They are more a symptom of what's wrong than
the cause. I am simply saying that our world is dry, brittle and ready
to burst into flames at the slightest provocation. In these highly
charged times, it is foolish, even deadly, to engage in an act of
provocation.

The level of destruction from the 1991 firestorm could have been
prevented if people had been more conscious of the threat and taken
preventative measures - built houses that were more fire resistant,
cleared away dried brush, developed an early warning system with
effective communications, ensured adequate fire-fighting resources.
Since the firestorm, these preventative measures have been implemented.

What, I wonder, are the preventative measures URI should be putting in
place in response to a world dry, brittle and ready to erupt in the
flames of hatred, division and destruction?

Taking our Charter seriously and sharing it as guidance for relations
among people of different faiths is certainly one. Opening up lines of
communication with people of other faiths and their communities in ways
that model mutual respect and a desire to come to know more about each
other is another. Still another might be to take to heart the wisdom of
the Native Americans who said the following in establishing the
government of the Iroquois Confederacy:"

The Lords of the Confederacy of the Five Nations shall be mentors of the
people for all time. The thickness of their skin shall be seven spans --
which is to say that they shall be proof against anger, offensive
actions and criticism. Their hearts shall be full of peace and good will
and their minds filled with a yearning for the welfare of the people of
the Confederacy. With endless patience they shall carry out their duty
and their firmness shall be tempered with a tenderness for their people.
Neither anger nor fury shall find lodgement in their minds and all their
words and actions shall be marked by calm deliberation.

Easier said that done, but this is our work.

My dear brothers and sisters, I daily take great comfort and inspiration
from feeling my connection with all of you - those I know personally and
those I don't. And, being part of the URI community, I feel a tremendous
challenge. Our world needs URI to be the best we can be.

So I invite you, in response to this message, to share your thoughts
about the best URI can be to counteract the conditions that have our
world so ready to erupt into violence. What best practices, what
teachings, what rituals can we share with each other and the world in
this time that seems so much like late October in Northern California?

I welcome, indeed, I urge offerings from our CCs around the world. What
works for you that the rest of URI and our world would benefit from
knowing about.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Love, Charles

The Rev. Canon Charles P. Gibbs
Executive Director
United Religions Initiative
P.O. Box 29242
San Francisco, CA 94129
1-415-561-2300

--
"Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to
see them misunderstood."
- HL Mencken

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."
- Kurt Vonnegut

Rick Mitchell rick@ricksandy.net
Sandy Mitchell sandy@ricksandy.net
Rick AND Sandy ricksandy@ricksandy.net

www.PeacePolitical.com (formerly known as EcumenicalNews.com)

Footwashing Enjoys Easter Revival

By William Wan, The Washington Post

As they prepared for the holy ritual, the churchgoers had all the essential items: latex gloves, nail clippers, chlorine and antibacterial soap. The only things missing were the feet, and soon enough they poured into the church by the dozen.

Many were callused and cracked from cold nights spent on the streets. Some were sore and infected. What they needed was some old-school — we're talking centuries here — Christian doctrine in action. So volunteers at Centenary United Methodist Church in Richmond, Va., got down on their knees and scrubbed.

The practice of foot-washing, rooted in the biblical account of what Jesus did for his disciples, has ebbed and flowed throughout church history, abandoned at various times for reasons of dogma or embarrassment. But in recent years it has grown in popularity as an act of submission.

Homeless shelters from Berkeley, Calif., to Atlanta to Virginia Beach have added foot-washing to their services for the poor. Men and women wash each other's feet in wedding ceremonies and marriage counseling. In Congress, a U.S. senator once washed the feet of an aide in a show of gratitude.

The action is as soul-wrenching and relevant in today's culture as ever, theologians say.

Modern-day foot-washers, however, still must overcome age-old issues of awkwardness, hygiene and, occasionally, odor.

"There are a lot of things you don't think about at first, like the logistics," said Polly Chamberlain, 51, who began the foot-washing ministry in Richmond last year.

She got the idea while working in the church's soup kitchen, where she felt a huge disconnect between the volunteers and the homeless people they served.

"How can we really care about them when we don't even know them?" she asked. So she and others started washing the feet of the city's poorest every Friday before lunch, as a way to break the ice. The goal was to bond with their patrons profoundly, show them someone cared and, by doing so, recapture the spirit of Jesus.

According to the Gospel of John, Jesus shocked his disciples at the Last Supper by getting up from the dinner table, wrapping a towel around his waist and washing their feet in a basin. "I have set you an example," he said, "that you should do as I have done for you."

Ever since, scholars have debated whether he meant it literally.

In the Catholic Church, the ritual fell out of favor until it was restored in 1955 by Pope Pius XII, who said it should be practiced on Maundy Thursday, three days before Easter. In most other Christian denominations, foot-washing was similarly sporadic and never achieved the sacred status of such rites as communion and baptism.

"It's a curious thing because, if you listen to what Jesus said, it certainly sounds like a commandment," said Samuel Wells, a minister at Duke University. "But feet are an uncomfortable thing and, for many, too intimate."

Last year, when he was installed as Duke's chapel dean, Wells insisted on washing the feet of students, housekeeping staff and colleagues at the ceremony.

Although there are no statistics on foot-washing, religious scholars across denominations say they have noticed an increase in its popularity and application.

Black and white Christians have washed one another's feet as a sign of racial reconciliation at religious conferences in Birmingham, Memphis, Oakland, Calif., and Knoxville, Tenn. Last year the spokesman for the Presbyterian Church in Canada praised foot-washing in marriage ceremonies.

In Germany, the president of the lower house of Parliament washed the feet of strangers at a religious festival in 2001. And two years ago at a worldwide Christian conference, a group of Hutus and Tutsis — bitter enemies during the Rwandan civil war — washed each other's feet.

"The popularity might be related to this wider move toward more meaningful spiritual practices, almost as a critique of institutionalized rituals," said John Christopher Thomas, a biblical studies professor at Church of God Theological Seminary in Cleveland, Tenn., who has studied foot-washing for 26 years.

"I mean, you can sanitize baptism and the Eucharist, but it's pretty hard to sanitize feet."

"It makes you vulnerable, makes you transparent to your brother," said Rocky Twyman, 58, at the First Church of Seventh-day Adventists in Washington, D.C. "I mean, just think about what the world would be like if more people did this," said Twyman, who played the piano while the men took turns washing in green plastic tubs.

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company

Vatican Insiders ... The United Religions Initiative ... by David Enroth and Charles Gibbs

[Thanks to David Enroth (Sky) for the comment below and for forwarding th article by Charles Gibbs.]

 

At one of the early Global Summits of the fledgling United Religions Initiative held on the campus of Stanford University at Palo Alto, California, in 1998, a thought occured to me then that it would take decades, maybe centuries, for a new worldwide religious organization to gain gravitas. Especially a religious organization that was seeking to build bridges between different beliefs, cultures and races.

 

Now comes this report from Charles that the URI has reached the inner circles of the Vatican at a prominent time in its history. My-oh-my! ... Sky

---

Dear Friends, Greetings of love and peace. I am writing this at 37,000 feet as I fly from Rome to London on the first leg of a long journey home to San Francisco. For the past week I have had the privilege to be in Rome representing the URI as part of an interfaith group from San Francisco. Others in the group included Iftekhar Hai, Doug Kahn, Rita Semel, and Bill and Mary Swing. We traveled to Rome at the invitation William Levada, with whom many of us had worked closely during his decade-plus as Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco.

Shortly after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, he appointed Archbishop Levada to replace him as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the number two position of authority in the Vatican after pope.  Archbishop Levada, the highest ranking American Catholic ever, invited his interfaith colleagues to come to Rome at this time for a Consistory for the Creation of Cardinals, during which he would be elevated from Archbishop to Cardinal, joining the elite College of Cardinals, whose members, in Cardinal Levada's words, are "not only co-workers with [the Pope] in the mission of the unity of the Church, but also witnesses of her catholicity, called as we are from across the globe." The College of Cardinals is also the body responsible for electing a new pope.

During a week of extraordinary religious ceremonies, Pope Benedict created 15 new cardinals from many parts of the world, including Korea, Venezuela, Poland, Spain, Ghana, and the Philippines. Each of these new cardinals was supported by delegations from their home countries. But the delegation from San Francisco was the only interfaith delegation, including  Episcopalians, Greek Orthodox, Jews, Lutherans, Muslims and, of course, Roman Catholics, with a strong URI presence at the core.

The first evening, we experienced a preparatory service of penitence at the Basilica of St. Mary Major. The next day, chilly, cloudy and threatening rain, we gathered outdoors in St. Peter's Square, which can accommodate 170,000 pilgrims at a time, in front of the inspiring façade of St. Peter's Basilica - the heart of the Vatican and the spiritual center of the world for over 1 billion Roman Catholics around the world.

Amidst great pageantry, enhanced by the presence of the entire College of Cardinals in their distinctive red robes and hats, and bishops from all over the world in their purple robes, as well as countless priests and other dignitaries, Pope Benedict presided at a two hour service, mostly in Latin, installing the cardinals, who came forward one by one to kneel before the Pope and receive the distinctive red hat that is a symbol of their new office. The following day, St. Peter's Square now bathed in sunlight, the Pope presided over a mass, again mostly in Latin, during which the new cardinals were given rings, also symbols of their new office.

The next day, we experienced a mass where Cardinal Levada "took possession" of St. Mary in Domnica, the church he will serve as titular head. In his homily before a large congregation of the Roman Catholic faithful, along with many bishops and a few brother cardinals, he particularly acknowledged the presence of the interfaith representatives from San Francisco.

Finally, on our last day in Rome, we had an audience with Pope Benedict. After so many solemn ceremonies in the previous days, this wonderful moment was more like a college graduation. The Pope greeted each of the cardinals and a few selected members of their delegations, to great cheers, chants and singing among the faithful. Along the way, we had the opportunity to deepen community during many celebratory meals, as well as some time to see some of the ancient and modern beauty of Rome.

We, the interfaith members of Cardinal Levada's delegation, have been privileged to experience and be a part of history in the making. Not only were we present to see the highest ranking American Roman Catholic in history - William Levada, former Archbishop of San Francisco and friend - installed in a position of high honor and great responsibility and authority, we were, from all we could learn, the first interfaith delegation to participate in a consistory.

URI's charter tells us we are a bridge building organization. It tells us we are to respect the wisdom of each tradition and differences among traditions. It tells us we are to encourage our members to deepen their roots in their own tradition. It tells us we are to give and receive the gift of hospitality...and more.

We were in Rome in the first place because we have practiced the wisdom of our charter and developed deep and abiding friendships, including with Archbishop Levada. While we were there, we were blessed to live the meaning of our charter for a week in Rome. We were blessed to be living witnesses to the new way of being spiritual neighbors to which our charter leads us. We were changed by our experience. And, in some perhaps indefinable way, the Vatican was changed.

Seeds have been planted. In the spirit of mutual respect, friendship and with a deep commitment to work together for the good of all, we will tend those seeds so they may bear the fruit of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings. Love, Charles

The Rev. Canon Charles P. Gibbs
Executive Director
United Religions Initiative
P.O. Box 29242

San Francisco, CA  94129
1-415-561-2300

cgibbs@uri.org

Karen Armstrong: Exploring the roots of religious traditions

By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter

Karen Armstrong will be making another Seattle Spiritual Synthesis
appearance at Seattle First Baptist Church at 7:30 p.m., Maundy
Thursday. She's simply one of our world's best researchers and writers
about humankind's most complex questions concerning the ethereal and
common good. If you've got a question you'd like answered about God or
the godly, Karen is a good person to ask because she believes
compassionate actions trump religion's grandiosity of prose ...
(Thanks to David Enroth ['Sky'] for forwarding.)

Writer Karen Armstrong isn't afraid to tackle huge topics.

In her 1993 best-seller, "A History of God," the British religious
historian examined the evolution of the idea of God in Judaism,
Christianity and Islam.

In her 2000 book, "The Battle for God," she wrote about religious
fundamentalism.

Now, in "The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious
Traditions" (2006, Alfred A. Knopf), Armstrong tackles an era that saw
the beginnings of Eastern as well as Western religious and
philosophical traditions.

In the years between 900 and 200 B.C., people in four regions of the
world developed traditions that hold sway to this day: Confucianism
and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in the
Mideast, and philosophical rationalism in Greece.

Armstrong, borrowing a phrase from German philosopher Karl Jaspers,
calls it the Axial Age, because "it was pivotal to the spiritual
development of humanity," she writes. Furthermore, she contends, the
teachings of these historical figures, whom she calls Axial sages,
speak to the violence and problems of our times.

(Armstrong talks about "The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our
Religious Traditions" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 13, at Seattle
First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Ave. Free admission. Information:
206-624-6600.)

Karen Armstrong talk/interview:

Armstrong, 61, a former Roman Catholic nun both praised and criticized
for her outspoken opinions, spoke recently by phone from San
Francisco, where she was on a book tour.

Q: What was it about that particular era that made it so fruitful for
these traditions to arise?

A: It was a time of great social and cultural transition when old
traditions no longer spoke to drastically altered circumstances. So in
four distinct corners of the Earth, spiritual geniuses began to
seriously address the spiritual ills of humanity.

One of the factors was violence, which in all four regions had reached
unprecedented heights. In every case, the catalyst of religious change
was revulsion from that violence.

And individualism was coming to the fore. In the pre-Axial period, the
old tribal mentality meant you had to subordinate your personal likes
and dislikes and needs to the needs of the group. In the Axial Age,
people started thinking of themselves as autonomous beings.

The Axial sages were trying to moderate the clash between these
warring egos. They said the ego must be redirected away from constant
preoccupation with self.

Q: Could there be another Axial Age?

A: There was another Axial Age, or a transformation of consciousness.
It began in the 16th century. It was scientific. Its geniuses have
been Newton, Einstein, Darwin, Freud, Bill Gates.

Q: But could there be another spiritual Axial Age?

A: I think we haven't grasped the old one yet. We don't need any new
sages. All the sages teach the same thing. But over the ages, they've
acquired the rubble of extra kinds of stuff that often hide the prime
duty of compassion and concern for everybody.

Q: What do you mean by rubble?

A: Doctrine, ritual practices, endless discussions. All of which masks
the [central teaching of] compassion. Because people don't really want
to abandon their personal [way of life]. It's easier to say: I believe
in certain articles of creed. Not many people actually want religion
to change them. They expect religion to give them a little mild uplift
once a week, so they can then return to their normal lives of getting
and spending with renewed vigor.

The sages emphasized behavior because that's what worked. Belief
doesn't do anything for you really.

Q: Why were the central teachings on compassion so similar?

A: I think they discovered something about the way humanity works.
Which is that we are fully ourselves when we give ourselves away. They
found when they acted compassionately, it did give them an experience
of what has variously been called God, nirvana, Brahman or the Dao.

Q: At the same time, what were some major differences?

A: Many Eastern traditions developed more impersonal concepts of the
sacred. I think it's true to say that the way the world religions have
developed is that some people experience the divine more as a personal
presence. And some people prefer a more abstract notion.

Q: Given that these traditions all emphasize compassion, what accounts
for religion being involved in some of history's most violent
conflicts?

A: Mostly the conflicts arise out of political ambition, political
conflicts. And religion gets sucked into it. If a society is violent,
people make their religion violent.

Q: Where do you think the world is today in terms of spiritual development?

A: There's a lot of bad religion around. It's like art. Religion is
very difficult to do well. Not everyone who has piano lessons ends up
sounding like Vladimir Ashkenazy. A kind of bellicose religiosity has
become a factor in most religious traditions.

But there is also, in some parts of the world, a real hunger for
something different. There is definitely a desire for, and interest
in, greater pluralism.

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com

Copyright (c) 2006 The Seattle Times Company

--
"One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal
we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We
must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means."

-- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr (Quoted in a brochure by the Mt.
Diablo Peace and Justice Center, www.mtdpc.org)

Rick Mitchell rick@ricksandy.net
Sandy Mitchell sandy@ricksandy.net
Rick AND Sandy ricksandy@ricksandy.net

www.PeacePolitical.com (formerly known as EcumenicalNews.com)

James Robinson Debunks the "Gospel of Judas"

(Note:  Be warned that a so-called "Gospel of Judas" is to be sensationalized by National Geographic to co-incide with Easter week.  It is probably a Gnostic invention of about 150 A.D.  James M. Robinson, former Director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity at Claremont Graduate University, and now one of our fellow residents at Pilgrim Place, has written a new book debunking it and will be on "Good Morning, America."  Read what Robinson says.       – Wes Brown.)

       

"Back in 1983, I had an opportunity to buy manuscripts discovered in Egypt. They were for sale in Geneva for $3,000,000. Of course I did not have access to so much money. But now the manuscript discovery has been acquired by a foundation in Basel, Switzerland. At first, the Swiss tried to sell the manuscripts for a profit, but found they could not sell them, since they had been illegally excavated and smuggled out of Egypt. So they turned to sensationalizing the contents of the discovery, so as to make a profit off of their publication.

 

"The National Geographic Society took the bait, and offered what is rumored to be up to a million dollars for exclusive rights to the publication. This was kept top secret, to such an extent that those doing the translation had to sign a statement to the effect that they would not say anything at all, and would not be free to publish anything about it elsewhere until a full year after the "official" publication. The idea was to produce a sudden sensation about one of the documents in the discovery whose title is "The Gospel of Judas."

 

"The timing is scheduled to coincide with the prominence of Christian themes in the major news magazines and TV (April 15) at Easter time, and just before the movie of "The DaVinci Code" has its premier (May 19). The National Geographic will have a TV special, an article in the National Geographic magazine, and a book with an English translation, all promised for the week after Easter.

 

"Since I am the person involved since 1983, and the one who broke the story in a presentation I made last November at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Philadelphia (see The Christian Century, December 27, 2005), I was asked by HarperSanFrancisco to write what they call an "instant" book telling whatever I could ferret out before the official publication. I agreed on January 27 to produce a book 200 pages long by February 23. So I spent 26 hectic days just writing and writing and writing. I turned it in on schedule and, the week after that, worked with the editors in San Francisco clarifying last-minute details. The final manuscript was sent to the printer by email on March 3, and the actual printing began March 6. The first print run is set at 60,000 copies. It will be published on April 6, and will be in book stores by April 11. The title of my book is The Secrets of Judas: The Story of the Misunderstood Disciple and His Lost Gospel.

 

"Basically, what I have tried to do in the book is to debunk the sensational claims being made about The Gospel of Judas. I am rather certain that the text will tell us nothing new about what happened in 30 AD, but only what Gnostics invented around 150 AD. I will be presenting this argument on the ABC show "Good Morning, America" on Maundy Thursday, April 13, which is, as you recall, the day Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus."     James Robinson  (from Pilgrim Place News)

[James Robinson was General Editor of The Nag Hamamadi Library, among other books. Thanks to Wes Brown, former [president of the American Baptist Seminary of the West, Berkeley, CA and Dale Edmondson, former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Berkeley, for forwarding this article.]