Ann Hafften's Web Page

Souper Bowl of Caring - An Opportunity to Alleviate Hunger

2012-01-25T15:18:00.000-08:00

Each NFL Super Bowl Sunday, many people host or attend parties with abundant food, friendship, and fellowship. At the same time, over 1 billion people around the world go hungry.

On Feb. 6, Super Bowl Sunday, please join more than 2,000 Lutheran youth groups to do something to change all of that. Learn how to be involved at this ELCA link.

The Souper Bowl of Caring is a youth-led ecumenical and grassroots movement that unites youth under a single cause: to end hunger. Collectively, this movement raised over $10 million for hunger-related charities in 2010. And ELCA Lutherans raised nearly $800,000! But that’s not all. Youth across the country also collected more than 4.5 million pounds of food and provided countless hours of service.

Please forward this email to your youth leaders and others involved in world hunger projects. Forward this message to a friend

Lutheran bishop calls for immigration reform

2011-11-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO (ELCA) - In Nov. 1 letters to President Barack Obama and members of Congress, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has called for comprehensive immigration reform and support for the DREAM Act (the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act), legislation that would provide a path for citizenship for undocumented high school graduates.

In his letter, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson wrote that the absence of reform has left several states to construct their own immigration laws, which are often "shortsighted and misguided."

"The ELCA needs your leadership," wrote Hanson, urging the president to engage Congress and U.S. citizens in the need for comprehensive immigration reform and to explore compassionate policy reforms that advance the common good.

Hanson is a member of the president's advisory council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

The 2011 ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted to support immigration reform and the DREAM Act. The churchwide assembly is the ELCA's highest legislative authority serving on behalf of the ELCA's 4.2 million members.

"The biblical call to hospitality (has) inspired Lutheran congregations across the country to discuss transforming communities into centers of hospitality through relationship building and advocacy," Hanson told the president. Hanson also added that ELCA congregations are working to lift up the experiences of undocumented youth and encourage broader public support for the legislation.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of the nation's leading agencies in welcoming and advocating for refugees and immigrants and based in Baltimore, works on behalf of the ELCA, The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod and the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In addition, congregations of the ELCA and Lutheran social ministries provide critical services to migrant populations, spread the word of welcome and advocate for fair and humane immigration reform.

"As a national church body, the ELCA -- our congregations, bishops, schools and millions of individual members -- continue to preach, teach, advocate and work with and on behalf of (everyone)," Hanson wrote. "This nation has achieved such greatness due to the resilience, labor and intellect of immigrants. We will roll up our sleeves and work tirelessly until this nation is once again a place of welcome and justice for newcomers."

The full text of Hanson's letter is available at http://www.ELCA.org/bishop/messages.

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To see my other work or to receive regular bulletins concerning justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, sign up at my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence

2011-11-28T10:21:00.000-08:00

Call to Action against Gender Violence

WACC (the World Association of Christian Communication) is calling on its networks and friends to participate in the takebackthetech campaign to end online violence against women and girls. The campaign is organised by APC Women (Association of Progressive Communications), a global network that supports women networking for social change and women's empowerment through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The focus of the campaign during the 16 Days this year is to map and build evidence of technology-related violence against girls and women.

See full letter below:
Warm greetings from Toronto!
The 16 days of activism against gender violence run from today November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and end on December 10, International Human Rights Day. These dates symbolically link violence against women and human rights, and emphasize that such violence is a human rights violation.

WACC is asking its networks and friends to participate in takebackthetech campaign to end online violence against women and girls. The campaign is organised by APC Women, a global network that supports women networking for social change and women's empowerment through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The focus of the campaign during the 16 Days this year is to map and build evidence of technology-related violence against girls and women.

Please go to http://www.takebackthetech.net/mapit to map your stories of technology-related violence against women and girls. Document stories that have appeared in your local news about: [...]
+ Online harassment and cyberstalking (28 November)
+ Intimate partner violence (1 December)
+ Sexual assault and rape (4 December)
+ Violence targeting communities because of their gender or sexual identity and politics (7 December)
These are stories related to violence against girls and women through the internet, mobile phones or other technologies. Mapping and building evidence supports advocacy and action to end such violence.

Join with others to document cases that have appeared in the news in your country.
The online mapping platform (was) launched on 25 November on the takebackthetech site, with detailed instructions on how to take action and document your stories.

To learn more about the campaign, watch the video at takebackthetech.
Read about the campaign and other ways to participate.
For more information, please contact Terry Mutuku at MT@waccglobal.org
or APC women at info@takebackthetech.net.

Sincerely,
Karin Achtelstetter
General Secretary

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To see my other work or to receive regular bulletins concerning justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, sign up at my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

Five fabulous years at Casa Sirena

2011-11-23T09:41:00.000-08:00

My pal, innkeeper Steve Broin, reports on five fabulous years at Casa Sirena, Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Check out the latest news!

I keep dreaming of reunions with best friends at the beautiful boutique hotel, but it's still in the dreaming stage. Here's the home page for the Casa Sirena.

Micky McGrath illustration: "The world will be saved by beauty!"

To see my other work or to receive regular bulletins concerning justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, sign up at my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

Greetings from Quinhagak, Alaska

2011-11-22T10:54:00.000-08:00

This uplifting, joyful , adorable video from the small Yupiq Eskimo Village of Quinhagak, Alaska , was a school computer project intended for the other Yupiq villages in the area. Much to the villagers' shock, over a half million people have viewed it.

Click this link for a wintery musical celeberatiion provided by some amazing fifth graders.

To see my other work or to receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften concerning justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, sign up at my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

The World Council of Churches (WCC) supports Egyptian Christians

2011-11-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

WCC continues to support Egyptian churches in their quest for peace

For immediate release: 18 October 2011

The World Council of Churches (WCC) supports Egyptian Christians in their quest for justice, rejection of violence and initiatives for dialogue in the wake of 9 October clashes between peaceful protestors and the army in Cairo which resulted in 25 people dead, mostly Coptic Christians, while the country was preparing to return to democracy.

Egypt’s Christians make up about 10 percent of the population and mainly consist of Coptic Orthodox as well as Coptic Presbyterian, Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Armenian Orthodox and Armenian Catholic churches.

Christians in Egypt have remained vulnerable to the threat of religious extremism for some time, and their concerns have emerged crucially during the recent changing political landscape of Egypt.

They are now asserting themselves in condemning violence as witnessed on 9 October, and in the burning of churches like the Church of Al-Marinab and Edfu-Aswan this year.

A recent statement issued by the Protestant Church in Egypt says, “Churches reject acts of violence in Egypt during this time of socio-political transitions. We therefore appeal to all those within the nation to stand together side-by-side in order to confront these incidents. We call on all Egyptians to reject the use of violence and, in doing so, work together to create a unified legislation to allow for building places of worship for all.”

“Thus,” the statement continued, “as Egyptians – both Muslim and Christians alike – we must call for the immediate investigation of the events of 9 October, with emphasis on bringing accountability to the doors of those responsible for the violence which, tragically, left many dead.”

Similarly the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Service joined hands with civil society actors including writers, academics, religious leaders, youth and media professionals to condemn the violence. A joint statement at the end of a symposium on “Together against sectarian tension” stated:

“We appeal to all Egyptians to call for an end to violence. We must act now, collectively, to save the future of our great nation from the alternative – a divided and violent future which reminds us little of the Egypt we know and love.”

The WCC praises the efforts of the churches in raising their voices for peace and dialogue. Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, says, “We as churches condemn the violence perpetrated against the Coptic Christians during the unfortunate incidents of 9 October. We hold the victims in our prayers. It is through the resilience of Egyptians, both Christians and Muslims, that the sectarian strife can be defeated. We stand in solidarity with the Egyptian churches in these difficult times.”

The WCC through its programme Public witness: addressing power, affirming peace has been engaged with the churches in Middle East in collective efforts by ecumenical partners to achieve peace and justice at local, national, regional and international levels.

WCC Central Committee Minute on the Presence and Witness of Christians in the Middle East 2011

Churches in the Middle East: solidarity and witness for peace

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.

What is that?

2011-08-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

Friends, Here's a link to a beautiful short film from Greece: http://www.wimp.com/whatis/
Don't wait until next Father's Day next year to share with it with those you love.

Psalm 97:7-8 in a whole new way

2011-07-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

A friend I don't really know shared this, said it only took two years.

Rob writes, "Come have a listen. The Andromeda Choir (computer synthesized voices) ... (Official ad on choralnet.com)

"SATB and Piano Nature praises God (Psalm 98 7-8) BTS and A all sing a verse. Mountains, rivers and oceans, birds and flowers and finally trees join in praise to their Creator.

"The verses are then sung (acapella) simultaneously in harmony. A final verse is sung in harmony, with everyone singing the same words. A bright, cheerful and lively song!

"Check Out the MP3 with computer synthesized voices singing the choral parts. (The `Andromeda' Chorus) Sounds "outer spacey" but the pitches are deadly accurate and it gives a good idea of what the song sounds like.

"Hear and see it (and buy it) at Sibeliusmusic.com. [the URL Rob provided didn't work for me, so good luck]

"Hear it at soundclick:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=792204
[And that one does work]. Enjoy!

Faith was on the Governor's Shoulder

2011-03-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

March 25, 2011 from the New York Times

Faith Was on the Governor’s Shoulder

By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN

Early on the morning of Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent’s season of penitence, Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois went through some final, solitary rumination. For much of his political career, he had supported capital punishment, albeit with reservations, even debating it at the dinner table with his mother. Now a legislative bill abolishing it was waiting for his signature, or his veto.

In the preceding weeks, he had heard arguments on the subject from prosecutors who spoke of the death penalty’s deterrent effect and from the grieving relatives of murder victims who saw in it fierce justice. He had reacquainted himself with about 20 capital cases overturned by DNA evidence or tainted by judicial error.

But on that decisive morning of March 9, he laid aside the secular factors and opened his Bible to a passage in II Corinthians about human imperfection. He prayed. And when he signed the bill striking down the death penalty, he cited one influence by name: Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago.

The cardinal has been dead for nearly 15 years. To the last days of his life, he advocated what he termed a “seamless garment” or “consistent ethic of life,” which charged Roman Catholics with the task of ending abortion, poverty, nuclear war, euthanasia and capital punishment. For of all his eloquence, however, he had never built the constituency to transform theological precepts into public policy.

With the stroke of the governor’s pen, the cardinal has been posthumously vindicated on at least one piece of that seamless garment. In doing so, Mr. Quinn, a Democrat, also ratified the cardinal’s belief that religious thought has a place in the formulation of law, a premise the governor’s fellow liberals generally resist.

“I think it’s indispensable,” Mr. Quinn said in a telephone interview this week. “When you’re elected and sworn into office, that oath really involves your whole life experience, your religious experience. You bring that to bear on all the issues.”

During his years in Chicago, Cardinal Bernardin had advocated a similar balance. “There is a legitimate secularity of the political process,” as he put it in a 1991 speech, “just as there is a legitimate role for religious and moral discourse in our nation’s life.”

Well before Cardinal Bernardin was named Chicago’s archbishop in 1982, Mr. Quinn was receiving a complete Catholic education — from the sisters of St. Isaac Jogues Elementary School, the Dominicans of Fenwick High School and the Jesuits of Georgetown University. His brother, John, teaches history at Fenwick.

Mr. Quinn was the state treasurer when he met Cardinal Bernardin. They allied in an effort, ultimately futile, to roll back the high fees that currency exchanges charge to cash checks, mostly those of people too poor to have a bank account. From that battle, the governor recalled, he recognized the cardinal as a “man of conscience.”

Cardinal Bernardin put that conscience onto the national stage in a 1983 speech at Fordham University, in which he first articulated a “consistent ethic of life.” Over the succeeding years, he sometimes devoted entire speeches to specific elements of this “seamless garment” concept, which included the death penalty.

He gave perhaps his boldest and most eloquent speech in 1985 before a committee of lawyers at Cook County Criminal Court, the assembly line that processes the metropolis’s mayhem. A recent Gallup poll, the cardinal noted, had found that nearly three-quarters of Americans supported capital punishment. Chicago’s passions for retribution had been recently inflamed by the murders of a 10-year-old boy and a high school basketball star.

“It is when we stand in this perspective of a ‘higher court’ — that of God’s judgment seat— and a more noble view of the human person that we seriously question the appropriateness of capital punishment,” Cardinal Bernardin said. “We ask ourselves: Is the human family made more complete — is human personhood made more loving — in a society which demands life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth?”

Just months before his death at 68 from pancreatic cancer in 1996, Cardinal Bernardin made an unannounced pastoral visit to a convicted murderer awaiting execution at Stateville prison in Joliet, Ill. “In a sense, he and I are in the same boat,” Cardinal Bernardin said after the meeting. “He knows that he is going to die tonight, and I know that I am going to die in the near future.”

Still, the cardinal also hinted at a sense of frustration at his unfinished business. He beheld nuclear arsenals still bristling, poverty unrelieved, abortion legal and the death penalty the law of most of the land. As he was writing his final book in the last weeks of his life, his assistant and publisher recently recalled, he asked plaintively, “Do you think this is worth doing?”

That book, “The Gift of Peace,” went on to become a surprise best seller, translated into 14 languages. One of its most avid readers was Pat Quinn. He has returned to the book almost annually for guidance and inspiration. In struggling with the death penalty issue, John Quinn said, his brother was especially moved by the chapters about the sexual abuse accusations once levied against the cardinal.

“What really struck him was Cardinal Bernardin being falsely accused,” John Quinn said. “Some of those people on death row were also falsely accused.” Since the governor ended the death penalty, public response has been overwhelmingly favorable, according to his press office. Those clerics who worked most closely with the cardinal have expressed a sense of satisfaction, or perhaps something beyond it, at his belated victory on the issue.

“The bedrock of Catholic social teaching is that each life is a gift, created in the image and likeness of God,” said the Rev. Alphonse P. Spilly, who was the cardinal’s assistant for a dozen years. “It wasn’t just a theological principle for him. It was the way he dealt with every person, even the person who parked his car.”

Gentle Justice

2011-03-13T19:15:00.001-07:00

"You who made the heaven's spendor, every dancing star of night, make us shine with gentle justice, let us each reflect your light."

Holden Evening Prayer
Mary Haugen, 1986

Litany and Prayer for peace

2010-09-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

One: From words and deeds that provoke discord, prejudice and hatred,
All: O God, deliver us.

One: From suspicions and fears that stand in the way of reconciliation,
All: O God, deliver us.

One: From believing and speaking lies about other peoples or nations,
All: O God, deliver us.

One: From cruel indifference to the cries of the hungry and homeless,
All: O God, deliver us.

One: From all that prevents us from fulfilling your promise of peace,
All: O God, deliver us....

Prayer

"Charge our lives and our churches with the power of your peace, O God.

Overcome our fears and self-deceptions with the promise of your presence.

In this time of diminishing resources for families and nations, make us signs of your generosity and justice. Light us each day with hope so that we may walk in your truth and be love in your Name..."

Excerpt from International Day of Prayer for Peace Bulletin Insert
Lutheran Peace Fellowship

http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Decade-for-Nonviolence/International-Day-of-Prayer-for-Peace.aspx

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

2010-09-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Our "Special Music" at Messiah Lutheran Church Sunday. Marcia at piano, Ann singing alto, Ruth and Franz sing tenor, Sally and Aurora take the soprano part (and Aurora sings a solo).

See the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xiBVEcU0Yk

Star Trek Anniversary

2010-09-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

The first episode of the science fiction television series "Star Trek" aired September 8, 1966, on NBC. Now an iconic franchise including television, film and products, its initial ratings were considered low. It has been said that Lucille Ball, then head of Desilu Productions, was responsible for saving the first series from being cancelled. I would have to add, an unprecedented outpouring of letters and calls from fans helped save the show for one more (partial) season. It was only the beginning.

Bishop Kanouse writes: Hospitality and Humility Shake Hands

2010-08-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

"For a half hour or longer a completely innocent woman and her daughter were intimidated in the hot Arizona sun on the side of the road by a peace officer and for what reason? Racial profiling in Arizona? Is this what we have come to?"

Pastor Kevin Kanouse, our Northern Texas - Northern Louisiana bishop, shares a weekly devotion called "Lifelines." For next week's edition he wrote about the way a member of our synod's staff was treated on a highway in Arizona.

Read "Hospitality and Humility Shake Hands" at this link:
http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/481563/b9e6ca640f/1774501452/3b643fe3b7/

Bishop Kanouse writes, "Again, the law has been enforced and we have every right to write laws and enforce them. But... we've heard for two weeks that the Pharisees and religious leaders were just trying to keep the law when they made their choices, too. It's about the law, isn't it? It's all about the law...? Or is it? In our lives, Jesus expects more. As the writer to the Hebrews this weeks says it: "Let mutual love continue. Show hospitality to strangers, for in so doing some have entertained angels unawares." It is Christ's law of mutual love that we are called to obey, the law of humility, the law of empathy for our neighbor and those who are least among us.

'Coming home' five years after Katrina

2010-08-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

NCC presents an NBC special on August 29
'Coming home' five years after Katrina struck

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, many families are still struggling to return home. "Coming Home: Hurricane Katrina 5 Years Later," is their story. [http://www.ncccusa.org/news/100818cominghome.html]

"You have to remember one thing when you drive through my city," says Wanda, "behind every broken window...behind every boarded up empty house...There is a family trying to come home.

Wanda was one of the thousands of families left homeless or displaced following Hurricane Katrina. Five years later, some of these families are still trying to return home. The most destructive hurricane in U.S. history inspired a movement that brought thousands of volunteers from all over the world taking leave from their jobs, their families to work alongside families and communities desperately trying to return home.

The documentary -- alternately heart wrenching and deeply inspiring -- is presented by the National Council of Churches and produced by the Presbyterian Church (USA), on many NBC stations beginning August 29.

(If your local station isn't carrying this important show, call the station management and tell them how much you'd like to see it.)

Exploring the power of language used to talk about God and one another...

2010-08-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

The National Council of Churches reports on the work of an ecumenical group that explored the power of language used to talk about God and one another.

Read the entire article: http://www.ncccusa.org/news/100818language.html

A diverse group of Christians gathered in Chicago, August 9-11 to explore the power of language Christians use to talk about God and one another.

The participants represented a broad spectrum of ages, races, cultural backgrounds, gender, sexual orientations, abilities, denominations/communions, and professional fields.

“Our vision,” said the Rev. Ann Tiemeyer, Program Director for Women’s Ministries at the National Council of Churches, “is for many conversations that take diverse contexts seriously in exploring the power of language (words, symbols or images) and how it can be used in life-giving ways that extend the hospitality of the church’s mission within the local church and community.”

“This vision is grounded in the Gospel mandate to affirm life and carry forth the healing love of God found within the gospel of Jesus Christ in the face of the death-dealing effects of sin in our world,” Tiemeyer said.

The gathering approached language issues using a descriptive rather than a proscriptive method. The conversation was grounded in relationship and listening to each others’ stories of experiencing the power of language and the breaking through of God’s healing.

Click the link to the complete story: http://www.ncccusa.org/news/100818language.html

Gathering of Spirits Celebration

2010-08-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Gathering of Spirits Celebration August 28 at the Grunewald Guild - http://www.artfaith.com/

You are invited to a very special luncheon to conclude our 30th Summer at the Grunewald Guild.

Nathan will be making a fantastic meal at 12:30 on Saturday, August 28. Don't miss it! The luncheon costs only $12, and overnight stays are available for only $30 more.

Or, stay for all of the Envisioning Week (Aug. 23-29), and enjoy Open Studios, great worship & fellowship, and participate in planning the future offerings of the Guild.

Contact us at office@artfaith.com or (509) 763-3693 for reservations.

Right Wing Blogger Provoked Attack On Islamic Center

2010-08-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

Jim Wall sheds light on the heat.

Right Wing Blogger Provoked Attack On Islamic Center.

The conservative anger that arose in the land last summer with the false furor over the “Kill Grandma” panels, has returned in a new form.

After smoldering for many months, this years’s conservative wild fire roared into full flame after the White House iftar dinner where President Obama spoke of the right of Muslims to build an Islamic community center in New York City, two city blocks away from the site where the World Trade Center buildings were destroyed on 911.

See the entire piece at Jim's blog: http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/right-wing-blogger-provoked-attack-on-islamic-center/

The Tears of Gaza Must Be Our Tears

2010-08-19T12:17:00.000-07:00

Empathy is perhaps the best starting point for change.

See Chris Hedges' speech: The Tears of Gaza Must Be Our Tears

Muslim, Christian or Jew, we ignore this suffering at the peril of our own humanity. As Rachel Corrie wrote in her last letter to her parents, “I could live a comfortable life and possibly, with no effort at all, exist in complete unawareness of my participation in genocide.”

Click the link: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_tears_of_gaza_must_be_our_tears_20100809/

Master Chorale to perform Durufle Requiem

2010-04-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

Our choir is performing on Friday night, April 30, at 7:30, in a FREE concert - no tickets required. Truett Auditorium is located at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, 2001 W. Seminary Drive, Ft. Worth, 76115. The program features the Durufle Requiem and Poulenc Organ Concerto.

For more information call 817-923-1921, ext. 6990, or email: masterchorale@swbts.edu

Preserving the enduring wisdom of women of faith

2010-04-14T06:12:00.000-07:00

Preserving the enduring wisdom of women of faith

New York, March 3, 2010 --

In its annual commemoration of Women's History Month, the National Council of Churches paid particular attention to 20 special women whose contributions made ̶ and are continuing to make ̶ a powerful impact on our lives and faith.

Persons following the series named women who have made a special impact on their lives by contributing the "Circles of Names" campaign to support women's ministries and gender justice programs in NCC member communions .

The "Circle of Names" campaign to support women's ministries and gender justice programs in National Council of Churches member communions has been extended through Women's History Month, March 2010. See this link: http://circlesofnames.org/

[The homepage doesn't look like much, but go to the Blog or the Photogallery for some really interesting stories.]

The campaign gives donors opportunities to support ongoing and future work by honoring women who have made a difference in the church and in individual lives. The “Circles of Names” campaign asks participants to submit the name of a woman who is or has been influential in their faith life, and to contribute $100 in that woman’s honor.

The extension of the campaign "will allow the momentum that was building at the end of 2009 to continue to spread and grow," said the Rev. Ann Tiemeyer, director of the NCC Program for Women's Ministries, and the Rev. Deborah DeWinter, NCC Director of Donor Relations, in a letter to leaders of the Circles of Names Campaign.

Last November, when the campaign was announced, Tiemeyer noted the "recent cuts to denominational budgets and staff in the areas of women’s ministries and gender justice work,” and said it was more important than ever to "make visible the broad support for this work in our communions.”

Honorary Chair of the “Wise Women’s Leadership Circle” Anne Hale Johnson provided a substantial challenge gift at the launch of the campaign.

“Her generosity has assisted in rapidly moving us toward our goal of $100,000 and 1,000 names in just 51 days,” Tiemeyer said. “Over the years Anne Hale Johnson, a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA,) has provided encouragement and support to many women leaders both in the church and in wider society.”

“We have designed the campaign in such a way as to make it possible for most people to participate,” explained Rev. Deborah DeWinter, Director of Donor Relations for the National Council of Churches. Ten people can all agree on one woman to name and each donate $10. While pledges and names are due by December 31, 2009, donors have until December 31, 2010 to submit their payments. The names will be displayed on the Circles of Names Web site, www.circlesofnames.org .

"The exciting thing about this campaign is that it is a women's ministry that supports woman's ministries," said DeWinter "Its very structure is symbolic of the management style of women of faith throughout history -- circles of interconnectedness that have enabled women to approach challenges and tasks together."

"Our foremothers in faith met in sewing circles, Bible study circles, mission circles, hospitality circles,” DeWinter added. “We are confident that women of faith will understand this to be a Kairos moment for the future of Women’s Ministries and gender justice work, and see this `Circles of Names' campaign to a successful conclusion.”

[News slightly adapted from NCC News]

Fair trade chocolate this Easter

2010-04-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

Enjoy fair trade chocolate this Easter season. Support fair trade and run those cocoa producers who enslave children out of business: http://www.divinechocolateusa.com/default.aspx

Lutheran World Relief provides fair trade chocolate, milk and dark, which your congregation can provide for sale: http://www.lwr.org/fairtrade/index.asp

The dark chocolate products are especially popular at our church, Messiah Lutheran in Weatherford, Texas - http://messiahmission.org/

I Am an American Soldier

2010-02-23T06:24:00.000-08:00

Note the change in our US military's "Soldier's Creed" and its movement from soldiers to "warriors."

Prior to 2003, US troops carried this text with them at all times, harkening back to the ethical crisis of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrior_Ethos#Previous_Versions)

"I am an American Soldier.
I am a member of the United States Army -- a protector of the greatest nation on earth.
Because I am proud of the uniform I wear, I will always act in ways creditable to the military service and the nation it is sworn to guard.

"I am proud of my own organization. I will do all I can to make it the finest unit in the Army. I will be loyal to those under whom I serve. I will do my full part to carry out orders and instructions given to me or my unit.

"As a soldier, I realize that I am a member of a time-honored profession--that I am doing my share to keep alive the principles of freedom for which my country stands. No matter what the situation I am in, I will never do anything, for pleasure, profit, or personal safety, which will disgrace my uniform, my unit, or my country. I will use every means I have, even beyond the line of duty, to restrain my Army comrades from actions disgraceful to themselves and to the uniform.

"I am proud of my country and its flag. I will try to make the people of this nation proud of the service I represent, for I am an American Soldier."

Contrast that statement with this, the current version implemented by Donald Rumsfeld in 2003. Note the transformation of our soldiers into machines and the removal of any reference to restraint or never disgracing the uniform or our country: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrior_Ethos)

"I am an American Soldier.
I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.
I am an expert and I am a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy, the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
I am an American Soldier."

A video of British journalst Robert Fisk discussing the the changes to the Soldier's Creed can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrior_Ethos

LAWG says: Tell your friends to lend a helping hand to Haiti

2010-01-20T05:47:00.000-08:00

Tell your friends to lend a helping hand to Haiti. This excellent message is from the Latin America Working Group (LAWG).

LAWG's Lisa Haugard writes:

"Many walk the streets, some barefoot, balancing on their heads bags containing what belongings they could grab before they fled and clutching plastic containers for water," says Oxfam's Catherine Gluck from Port au Prince, Haiti. "Large numbers are also wearing masks to stop inhaling the thick grey smoke that lingered long after the quake. The masks also offered some protection from the thick stench of dead bodies that lined the streets in the immediate aftermath of the quake and are still turning up wrapped in sheets or pieces of clothing." (Oxfam: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/articles/a-grim-scene)

Please share this message, with a list of organizations supporting relief efforts, to your friends and family!

I went searching for words like these that would convey the scope of the damage. But sometimes only photos can convey the scope of the horror, like this photo essay in the Boston Globe - http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/earthquake_in_haiti.html

And then there are the mind-numbing numbers:
50,000 to 200,000 dead
300,000 living homeless in the streets of Port au Prince

Like us, we know you are asking, What can I do to help? We're glad the Obama Administration has taken first steps, such as immediately pledging $100 million in emergency relief and extending Temporary Protective Status for Haitians in the United States, halting deportations for 18 months.

In the weeks to come, we will ask you to urge the White House and Congress to provide generous, well-directed emergency and long-term reconstruction aid that will truly help Haitians rebuild their lives. It will be important to ensure aid is provided in an empowering way. This call for Haiti relief to be grounded in transparency, human rights principles and respect for the dignity of Haitian people by Partners in Health/ Zanmi Lasante and other groups is a good place to start - http://www.chrgj.org/projects/docs/100114HaitiStatement.pdf

But right now, the most important action is to give, and to encourage your friends and family to give. (But in this case, not to LAWG: we do not provide direct relief!) Below is a list of partners in the LAWG coalition who are acceptiong donations for Haiti relief efforts - http://webmail.earthlink.net/wam/msg.jsp?msgid=68715&x=-500968461#Partners.

Also, please forward this message and direct your friends and family to the list below, or other good effective relief groups, and encourage them to give. In my neighborhood in Silver Spring, Maryland, there are many people with families in Haiti. My heart goes out to them and to all those in affected by this devastating disaster.

Best, Lisa Haugaard

Here are some of our partners who participate in the LAWG coalition who are providing relief. Please donate to them or to any other effective organization of your choice supporting relief efforts in Haiti.

American Jewish World Service http://www.ajws.org/
Catholic Relief Services http://www.crs.org/
Church World Service www.churchworldservice.org/haiti
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America/Action by Churches Together www.elca.org/disaster
Jesuit Refugee Service USA http://www.jrsusa.org/
Lutheran World Relief http://www.lwr.org/
Mennonite Central Committee http://www.mcc.org/
Oxfam America http://www.oxfamamerica.org/
Quixote Center http://www.quixote.org/
United Methodist Church http://www.umc.org/
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee/UUA http://www.uusc.org/
United Church of Christ http://www.ucc.org/

In addition, these are two effective organizations providing emergency medical relief: Partners in Health http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti
Doctors Without Borders http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

Latin America Working Group
424 C Street NE, Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 546-7010
Email: lawg@lawg.org

NCC leaders condemn attacks on Christians in Egypt

2010-01-16T12:27:00.000-08:00

National Council of Churches leaders condemn attacks on Christians in Egypt

New York, January 15, 2010 --

The National Council of Churches USA has sent messages of solidarity and support to leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church following attacks on Christians in Egypt.

In Egypt, where the Coptic Orthodox Church celebrated Christmas on January 7 (following the old Julian and Coptic calendars), seven people were murdered following a midnight Divine Liturgy in Nag Hamadi, Qena in Upper Egypt. According to press reports, riots then erupted during the funeral processions for six of the seven victims of the massacre. Six of the seven victims were Coptic Christians; the seventh victim was a Muslim.

In a message sent to H.G. Bishop Serapion of Los Angeles, Coptic Orthodox Church, and to Subdeacon Bishoy M. Mikhail, Ecumenical Officer of the Church, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon wrote: "On behalf of your brothers and sisters in the National Council of Churches, I want to assure you of our prayers following the death of Coptic Orthodox Christians this week in Egypt. May God receive them into glory, and may God grant peace to our violent and fragmented world." Kinnamon also lamented the death of the Muslim victim.

Other church leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI, also condemned the violence against Christians in Egypt.

Kinnamon condemned the attacks as a flagrant denial of the love of God as testified to in the New Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures and the Qur'an. "Violence in God's name is not only an obvious corruption of Scripture, it demonstrates an appalling disregard for the loving and just God who commands us to live together in peace," Kinnamon said. "What is especially painful is that this recent violence took place during a celebration of the birth of the one who Christians call the Prince of Peace and who Muslims call a holy prophet."

NCC News contact: Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell) , pjenks@ncccusa.org

Jim Wall points to `Avatar' and a teachable moment

2010-01-08T21:19:00.000-08:00

Jim Wall writes about Avatar and a teachable moment:

At a special morning New Year’s Eve screening in Hawaii, President Obama took his family to the mall to see the new 3-D movie, Avatar. Whose idea was that?

Did the leader of the Free World realize he was going to experience a “teachable moment”? Along with millions of movie-going families from Kansas to Qatar to Quebec, the Obama family found itself in Pandora, a lush jungle on a distant moon where the Na’vi tribes live in harmony with all living things.

http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/a-teachable-moment-linking-avatar-to-gaza-and-af-pak/

The time is the future, 2154 to be precise, and the Na’vi live on land coveted by outsiders who have the military might to take their land from them.

Oh boy. Who among the Chicago nerds and political operatives who help the president organize his day, understood that Avatar could become a Teachable Moment for Obama, and the world.

The president likes Teachable Moments, when he recognizes them. Remember how effectively he turned all that negative publicity about his pastor into a serious discussion of race in America?
And remember how badly he missed another Teachable Moment when President Jimmy Carter came to his defense and described right-wing attacks on him as “racist”, which they were? Obama had his White House issue a statement disassociating the president from Carter’s defense.

Avatar now offers him the same opportunity. This is a Teachable Moment he should not reject. Maybe a special screening in the White House with some kind words for director James Cameron?

What viewers of Avatar discover is that the film immediately suggests the oppression of Native Americans by the US government, because the Na’vi and the land on which they live share a spiritual bond. The film also evokes the Vietnam War because the setting of the military struggle is a lush jungle.

Gaza, Afghanistan and its neighbor Pakistan, are mountainous; there are no jungles. The dominant indigenous religion of Gaza and Af-Pak is Muslim, but like the Na’vi, the inhabitants live on land the outside invaders wish to control.

For the full commentary, go to Jim's Blog: http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/a-teachable-moment-linking-avatar-to-gaza-and-af-pak/

The Story of the Quilt Top

2009-10-12T13:24:00.001-07:00

The Story of the Quilt Top

Messiah's members donated blankets and comforters again this year to help homeless people keep warm in cold weather, and others in the community added their donations.

Among those blankets left at the church was found an original hand-stitched quilt top, it was certainly “vintage” and probably antique. The Outreachers of Messiah Lutheran determined to make a new quilt out of the Butterfly design quilt top. The project was easier said than done.

Barbara Flannery set to work sewing the quilt top onto a new backing. The original green border turned out to be too fragile and fell apart – disintegrated - as fast as Barb could sew it down. She ended up creating an entirely new background for the original antique muslin butterly squares. Then the Outreachers applied the new quilt top to make a finished quilt.

The quilt raffled off on Saturday night has a double heritage: it's first life, represented by the butterfly squares, and the craftsmanship of Barb and the Outreachers who turned a forgotten piece of American primitive art into a lovely comfy quilt for today.

Prayer of Jesus from the Maori

2009-04-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and
come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
Now and forever. Amen

Translation of the Prayer of Jesus from Maori
A New Zealand Prayer Bood - He Karakia Minhinare o Aotearoa

Poverty Attacks Churches in South Africa

2009-03-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

From the World Association of Christian Communication Congress in Cape Town: http://waccglobal.org/lang-en/288-february-2009.html

Poverty Attacks Churches in South Africa
By Redemtor Atieno, Uganda

Speaking to participants of the WACC 2008 Congress who visited the Gugulethu Presbyterian Church 8 October, Mzukisi said that although apartheid was a terrible crime against humanity that left people with deep scars, poverty was an even worse crime.

“Poverty is attacking people’s dignity and is humiliating and dehumanizing the human being,” he said. He observed that it was very difficult to address the problem of poverty behind the pulpit with limited resources.

“How do you preach to someone who went to bed without food?” he asked. He said that although South Africa is rich with notions of human rights, people do not eat human rights. “By teaching human rights we are not solving any problem because the people want jobs and food.”
He said the problem of HIV/AIDS has increasingly become uncontrollable because the patients take the strong medicines on empty stomachs.

The church needs to find a more practical solution because talking and praying alone becomes an academic issue that does not help the people on the ground, Mzukisi added. “Anything that attacks the dignity of our people is a sin. As Africans we believe that men are the heads of the family and if they fail to provide, the situation attacks the pillars of the family” he observed.
Mzukisi said the church in South Africa has continued to preach hope and strengthen the faith of the people but at times they preach hope against hope. He further observed that although the South African government is doing its best to address the issue of poverty, the damage made by the apartheid system is huge and cannot be covered in 10 years.

He said the church was embarrassed by the outbreak of violent xenophobic attacks in the country this year that left many migrants of African descent dead after being attacked by the black South Africans in townships. Mzukisi said the church went round to remind the people that during the apartheid era they migrated to other African countries where they were warmly hosted.

During the visit to the Gugulethu church, participants also heard the moving personal stories of political activist Koleka Rhombela and Nonkosi Madini, who is HIV positive.

See Congress photos at: www.flickr.com/photos/wacccongress2008

See Congress videos at: www.youtube.com/user/WACCglobal

A larger realm of mystery: Niebuhr, Carter and Obama

2008-12-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

Niebuhr, Carter and Obama Understand History as “a larger realm of Mystery”
by James M. Wall

Reinhold Niebuhr's influence on former President Jimmy Carter has been evident throughout Carter's political career. That influence is even more pronounced in Carter's post-presidency.
Carter is a political realist who understands, and acts on, Niebuhr's concept of the irony of history.

William Dean, a retired faculty member at Denver's Iliff School of Theology, was moved recently to write about Barack Obama's potential as the second president with a working knowledge of Niebuhrian realism.

Dean describes Niebuhr this way:
Niebuhr looked long and hard at history and claimed to see what the Bible did. He saw a record of personal and group pride so appalling and unremitting that it should cause us to distrust every nation and every leader, and every politician and preacher who glorifies them. That same skepticism should also be directed at the rest of us, who regularly exaggerate our virtue and diminish our vice.

For the rest of this piece and more from Jim Wall, go to http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/

The Promise

2008-11-09T21:24:00.001-08:00

This is the most beautifully written and moving lead I've ever seen in news reporting:

GAZA — From far away, this is how it looks: There is a country out there where tens of millions of white Christians, voting freely, select as their leader a black man of modest origin, the son of a Muslim. There is a place on Earth — call it America — where such a thing happens.

The entire article by Ethan Bronner in the New York Times is at this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/us/politics/05global.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Video: Blessing of Animals

2008-10-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the commemoration of St. Francis with the blessing of animals at Messiah Lutheran Church (Weatherford, Texas) last week, but I don't have any video.

My pal Pastor Eric Shafer sent a link to video shot at Trinity in Lansdale, Pa., so we can all enjoy the occasion.

VIDEO: Blessing of the Animals service at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lansdale. Dogs, cats, and even horses attended an outdoor service in honor of Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals: http://www.thereporteronline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20152337&BRD=2275&PAG=461&dept_id=466404&rfi=6

Ann Hafften

Rev. Michael Kinnamon on the need for sacred conversation

2008-07-17T06:51:00.000-07:00

Kinnamon: NY Times, CBS poll on racestresses need for "sacred conversations."

New York, July 16, 2008
A recent New York Times/CBS News poll revealing deep nationaldivisions along racial lines is an urgent reminder of the need for "sacred conversations on race," the head of the National Council of Churches said today.

The poll indicated that a large majority of African Americans - nearly 60 percent - believe race relations in the United States are "generally bad," the Times reported today. Forty percent of blacks said racial discrimination is as bad as ever, while one out of four whites said there is too much emphasis on discrimination. Seventy percent of blacks and half of Latinos said they have been targets of racial discrimination.

"These figures are discouraging but not surprising," said the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the NCC. "Last April our churches called for a `sacred conversationon race' in American pulpits, and this poll shows how badly those conversations are needed."

The call for sermons on race was issued April 3 by the Rev. John H. Thomas, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, and promptly endorsed by Kinnamon and other church leaders. Thomas made the call as church leaders gathered on the steps of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ and defended the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, then the target of a storm of criticism for remarks deemed unpatrioticand radical by critics.

Wright attracted attention because Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama was a member of Trinity, and media reports fanned the flames of wild rumors about what Wright and church members believe.

At the time, Kinnamon dismissed notions that Trinity's congregation is a "radical sect" as "nonsense," and pointed out that many of Wright's criticisms of American racism were accurate. "This country has made important strides in confronting its racist past but, surely, no one thinks that racism has been eradicated," Kinnamon said in April.

Speaking today from his New York office, Kinnamon noted that the Rev. W. Sterling Cary, a UCC clergyman who was NCC president 1972-75, has warned that Obama's successful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination obscures the fact that there are still huge problems among races in the U.S.

In an interview last month with NCC News, Cary said the racism Wright preaches about "is still with us. My greatest concern about the current presidential campaign is that the rhetoric gives people the impression that they can ignore the past and celebrate the future, but there are a lot of serious problems that cannot be glossed over and this is especially pronounced in terms of race."

The Times/CBS poll showed marked divisions in voter preference for president. Nearly 90 percent of black voters favored Obama while 2 percent favored Republican Senator John McCain. White voters chose McCain over Obama by 46 percent to 23 percent. Latino voters chose Obama by 62 to 23 percent.

"Many white Americans tend not to recognize the racism that persists in our society while persons of color say they feel it acutely and persistently," Kinnamon said.It's very painful to realize how divisive race continues to be, but it's a reality the churches cannot ignore. We have to confront racism honestly, directly, and in Christ's spirit of love and reconciliation."

Originally the Sunday designated for sacred conversations on race was May 18, Trinity Sunday. "But the pain of racism continues and the sacred conversations must continue," Kinnamon said.

The NCC is the ecumenical voice of America's Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican,historic African American and traditional peace churches. These 35 communions have45 million faithful members in 100,000 congregations in all 50 states.

NCC News contact: Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228, NCCnews@ncccusa.org

For up-to-date information on the National Council of Churches, see http://www.ncccusa.org/.

Azur Riki endured immigration process to speak to Lutherans in the USA

2008-07-15T12:50:00.000-07:00

ELCA NEWS SERVICE
July 15, 2008
Women of ELCA, GME Guest Endures Immigration Process, Arrives in U.S.
08-121-JB

SALT LAKE CITY (ELCA) -- Azur Riki was one of several
international guests invited to the Women of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Seventh Triennial Gathering
here July 10-13, to share stories about her life and church. But
getting here was an endurance test for Riki, who worked through
the complexities of the U.S. immigration system, made even more
complex because she is living with HIV.

Riki, a member of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria,
lives in Jos, Nigeria. She arrived here July 12 after she was
granted a visa by the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria. Riki had
traveled to the U.S. embassy three times to get a visa beginning
with her first visit June 18, and was denied each time, she said
in an interview with the ELCA News Service. She was notified on
July 10 that her visa was granted, after she and others thought
her visa request would not be approved. ELCA staff helped
arrange her trip to the United States.

Riki will also be a guest and speaker at the ELCA Global
Mission Event, July 17-20, at the University of Wisconsin,
La Crosse.

Riki is a widow with two children, ages 5 and 11. Her
husband was HIV positive and died in 2002. She is supporting
herself and her family today, thanks to the programs of the
Mashiah Foundation, Jos. The foundation operates a holistic
HIV/AIDS education, prevention, testing, counseling and health
program ministry, including the Women of Hope Program, which
serves 140 women who are HIV-positive. The foundation is
supported by gifts from ELCA congregations and through ELCA
Global Mission.

The Mashiah Foundation receives funds from the President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program initiated
under U.S. President George W. Bush. The ELCA supports PEPFAR,
which must be reauthorized this year, and has advocated for
increased funding and policies in a new bill.

This week the U.S. Congress is expected to take up global
AIDS reauthorization, said Kim Stietz, director for international
policy, ELCA Washington Office. One of the improved policies in
the proposed PEPFAR reauthorization is repeal of the permanent
travel ban against people living with HIV, she said. The ELCA,
through its Washington Office, and 16 other churches and church
organizations signed a letter last week urging U.S. Senators to
repeal the travel ban.

People living with HIV, such as Riki, can be considered for
certain types of visas to enter the United States, but the
process is laborious and complicated, Stietz said. In Riki's
case, she traveled to Lagos, a 12-hour journey, and to Abuja, a
three-hour journey, multiple times to secure the proper documents
but was denied an entry visa, she said. That is until staff of
the U.S. State Department apparently intervened, following
efforts by ELCA staff and others working on Riki's behalf. Riki
is not the only Nigerian who has faced this difficulty with
visas, said Bayo Oyebade, director, Mashiah Foundation.

"The irony is that individuals like Riki are literally alive
because of the AIDS treatment they received through PEPFAR, yet
they're being denied the opportunity to tell Americans how good
the program is because they're HIV positive," Stietz said.
"There's no public health justification for placing travel
restrictions on HIV positive people."

"It (the law) only increases stigma and discrimination
against people who are HIV positive. We know how to prevent the
spread of the disease -- it's through education and prevention
not border control," Stietz said.

After many unsuccessful efforts to get Riki to this summer's
ELCA events, no one is entirely sure why Riki was suddenly
granted a visa to enter the United States, Stietz said. But she
is grateful.

"I'm really happy to get myself here," Riki said. "I never
dreamed I would be in this country. It's not easy for a woman
living with HIV. But I thank God because of the Mashiah
Foundation. That is how I got to America today. I thank God for
PEPFAR. They have provided the drugs for us to take, and to take
care of our health."

---

Information about the Global AIDS bill reauthorization is at
http://tinyurl.com/6oybtb on the ELCA Web site.
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog

Namibian Bishop speaks against arms’ shipment to Zimbabwe

2008-07-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

I wish this news had been more widely shared. I am pleased to see Bishop Kameeta's consistent stand for peace. I wish I'd seen this earlier.

LWF Africa Vice-President Leads Namibians in Protest Against Arms’ Shipment to Zimbabwe. “We Cannot Be Silent and Watch,” Bishop Kameeta Cautions Churches

WINDHOEK, Namibia/GENEVA, 25 April 2008 (LWI) – The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Vice-President for Africa Bishop Dr Zephania Kameeta has called upon churches and people in the region “to do everything in our power” to stop a Chinese arms’ shipment from reaching the Government of Zimbabwe.

“Allowing weapons to reach Zimbabwe in this highly volatile and tense situation amounts to becoming accomplices in the injustice and violence committed,” said the Namibian Lutheran bishop in a 23 April statement supporting legal action to stop a Chinese ship from entering Namibian waters with weapons destined for land-locked Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis has increased following the delay in announcing the official results of the 29 March presidential, parliamentary and civic elections. The Chinese shipment arrived in Durban, South Africa on 10 April, but legal action by unions and other activists thwarted efforts to deliver its cargo. Also, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, chairperson of the sub-regional Southern African Development Community urged member states not to provide the ship with docking facilities.

In his statement, Kameeta, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) reminded churches they could not be silent and watch the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe including loss of lives. “As Christians we cannot simply walk past the injured and tortured and go about business as usual, while preaching the story of the Good Samaritan,” he said, stressing it was an “extraordinary situation” that “needs prayers and concrete action.”

Kameeta’s statement was endorsed by LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko, who called for the solidarity of the region’s churches in defending the people of Zimbabwe. Referring to his earlier call to Zimbabwean authorities to release the election results (www.lutheranworld.org/News/LWI/EN/2201.EN.html), Noko said concern was not only about the government’s accountability and transparency of democratic processes. “We are concerned about an imminent threat to the lives of Zimbabwean citizens at the hands of their own government,” he stated.

Namibian Lutheran Bishops Dr Thomas Shivute (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia – ELCIN) and Erich Hertel (German speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia –ELCIN-GELC) supported the statement by the LWF Vice-President. The three Lutheran churches – all belonging to the LWF – coordinate their joint work through the United Church Council.

The ELCRN bishop also delivered a keynote address during a 24 April demonstration in front of the Chinese Embassy in the Namibian capital, Windhoek. Bishop Hertel was among the representatives of churches and the broader civil society who participated in the rally to support plans by the Legal Assistance Center to institute legal action against the ship’s landing at a Namibian port.

How Palestinian children really learn

2008-05-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

How Palestinian Children Really Learn
by Carol Scheller via Electronic Intifada
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9459.shtml

On 22 March, The Miami Herald published an article entitled "Dreaming of a peaceful Mideast." The initial reaction to such a headline is naturally one of pleased interest. Reporter Frida Ghitis praises the Israel/Palestine Centre for Research and Information for "working to create" a "culture of peace" in order to "put a stop to incitement and hatred." However, Ghitis goes on to state: "It is absolutely imperative to recast the poisonous message drilled into Palestinian children. In Gaza, in particular, even the youngest children are taught that killing Jews is a duty of Muslims ...

"This is the stuff of much sensationalist, biased journalism which does its best to neutralize all genuine attempts to foster trust and cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis. Having visited and lived in Gaza four times since a month before the beginning of the second intifada and known many families and children there, I was deeply dismayed.

It is a common mistake to hold religion as the core issue in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. This is incorrect and harmful. The issue is territorial: two peoples lay claim to the same land, land which they are going to have to somehow share, someday, no matter what form of religion they happen to profess, if they indeed practice a religion. Ghitis's statement is empty of everything except the very things she criticizes: "incitement and hatred."

The main influence on children in Gaza is the fear of arbitrary injury or death from the air and the surrounding land inflicted by all the different arms available to the Israeli army. Gaza children can identify all sorts of munitions they scavenge after attacks. They know the names of all the different kinds of Israeli aircraft and can identify them by their sound. Thousands of children have lost their homes to demolition by the Israeli army. Some children have had the terrifying experience of seeing their homes occupied and used by Israeli soldiers who crowd the family into one room preventing them even from using the bathroom.

Some children can tell you about the sonic booms caused by Israeli warplanes for the sole cruel purpose of frightening and disorienting civilians: their force has even knocked children out of their beds and broken their bones. The children can tell you about the massacre of an entire family in Beit Hanoun in November 2006 and of course about the recent horrific events all over Gaza last month.

Just going to school is a major act of courage and in school, children lack the basic necessities: books and paper, to start with, because (and this the children can tell you), the Israeli authorities will not permit their importation. Worse, many children can no longer go to school at all, as their families cannot afford to pay for their transport, uniforms or even pencils. Despite this, the main message in school in Gaza, as in many schools the world over, is that if you want to succeed, you need to get good grades. The children know that their big brothers and sisters can no longer hope to travel abroad to complete their education because Israel will not permit them to leave. A young man I know who graduated brilliantly from secondary school in June has shelved his dreams of studying medicine abroad, like some of his aunts and uncles. He is now studying to be a pharmacist, well aware that at the moment, thanks to the Israeli blockade, most of the products he might someday want to offer to clients are unavailable.

Ever so many children in Gaza know that their fathers no longer have jobs because the border is closed, and they cannot go to Israel to earn a living. A lot of joy has gone out of family life. Children know that there is no gas for cars or trucks or ambulances and that they must often go without electricity (no television, no clean clothes) because Israel has decided this. Many of the things children like to eat have also disappeared.

All the children in Gaza can tell you how their elders are worried, terribly worried, especially about them and their future. The children hate this situation. They do not understand it. They think it is unfair. They ask why. Children in Gaza indeed dream of "a peaceful Mideast." It is their deepest wish, as it is the deepest desire of Israeli children and their parents, especially those now suffering from Qassam rockets.

The Muslim and Christian families and the families who go to neither mosque nor church who I know in Gaza teach their children to live correctly, respecting themselves and others. They do not need to say anything about Israel: the actions of its army and authorities dominate every single aspect of life in Gaza.

Parents in Gaza tell their children that they hope things will get better. They tell them to work hard in school and to be patient.

But what does the Israeli army teach the children?

Children listen to adults, then they observe and form their own opinions on the world.

Ghitis's article is a prime example of intentionally slanted reporting which needs to be criticized and corrected. Her references to "peace" cannot mask the fact that she is appealing to basic fears and prejudices that only reinforce negative, false stereotypes guaranteed to stalemate any progress in dialogue between Israelis (many of whom, we should remind Ghitis, are not Jewish) and Palestinians.

[Carol Scheller, a retired public school teacher, lives in Geneva, Switzerland. She and Walid Shomali translated the guidebook Palestine and the Palestinians from French to English in 2004, when Scheller worked briefly for its publisher, the Alternative Tourism Group, in Beit Sahour. Scheller has been writing a blog for the Tribune de Geneve called "Au jour le jour, Gaza" during and since a stay in Gaza from April to June 2007 (http://carol.blog.tdg.ch).]

Barbara Rossing's reflection: 'A man ran up to Jesus ...'

2008-05-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

`A man ran up to Jesus..."
Was he the first to suffer from affluenza — the sickness that puts us and our planet in peril?

Read this web exclusive by Barbara Rossing at The Lutheran magazine's May 2008 edition:
http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article.cfm?article_id=7126

Here's the text:

"A man ran up to Jesus and knelt before him ..." in an encounter we know from Mark 10:17-22. He was rich, but he was not whole. Perhaps he was much like American Christians today who are stricken with the disease that filmmaker John de Graaf calls "affluenza" (visit the PBS Affluenza Web site). A combination of the words "affluence" and "influenza," affluenza can be defined as:

• An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American dream.

• An unsustainable addiction to economic growth.

Perhaps the rich man's sickness is linked to our planet's sickness. Our Earth is ill with the fever of global warming and it is crying out to us.

What are our ills, our wounds, today? Do you live with a chronic disease, like Paul's "thorn in the flesh" — diabetes, asthma, HIV or addiction?

The Gospels depict a veritable procession of woundedness meeting Jesus' power to heal. The pattern is familiar: Jesus is passing through a village when someone runs up and falls down before him with a specific request.

"Make me well," begs the man with leprosy as he falls to his knees before Jesus.

"Heal my daughter," is the appeal of Jairus as he falls at Jesus' feet. Each comes with a specific request for healing.

Then there is the rich man. He seems to be able-bodied, often depicted in art as young, handsome and well-dressed. Yet this rich man, too, is wounded. He is sick, and Jesus' prescription for his healing speaks to us and to the ecological crisis facing our world today.

Like the others who sought healing, the rich man runs up to Jesus on the road and falls on his knees. Like the others, he has a request: "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Mark 10:17). His question sets this story apart from the other healing stories. This man asks about eternal life, not healing. He doesn't appear to be sick. Might he be sick without knowing it?

You can still see Affluenza, de Graaf's 1997 film, on the Documentary Channel or find it in synod resource centers. This humorous yet hard-hitting show opens in a doctor's examining room. A woman dressed in a skimpy hospital gown nervously clutches her purse on her lap as she waits for the doctor. The woman is actress Jackie O'Ryan from the well-known soap opera All My Children.

In the film's spoof soap opera, O'Ryan sits on the table fiddling with her gold jewelry until the doctor walks in. He has grave news: "I'm afraid there is nothing physically wrong with you."
"Then why do I feel so awful, so bloated and sluggish?" she cries. "Nothing gives me joy anymore. Not the clothes, the house, the raise. Doctor, I'm frightened. Can you give me a prescription?"

"There is no pill for what you have. I'm afraid you're suffering from affluenza," he replies.

"Oh my God," she reacts. "Why me? Is it fatal?

"It's catastrophic. It's the new epidemic.

"Is there a cure?"

"Possibly ...."

Affluenza is an exposé of our culture, of our insatiable appetite for more. The diagnosis, affluenza, is an epidemic that is making us and our world literally ill.

Jesus invites the rich man with affluenza into community, into a new way of life. Tragically, the man can't swallow that pill. He can't take the cure, the prescription for healing, that Dr. Jesus has given him: "Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor ... then come, follow me" (Mark 10: 21).

Even though Jesus has looked at him and loved him, this man leaves grief-stricken, weeping and alone, apparently to resume his way of life, steeped in sickness. He is so addicted to his possessions, to his great wealth and comfort-so sick with affluenza-that he walks away from Jesus' offer of eternal life. He misses out on the joyful community of the gospel.

But Jesus has looked at this man-gazed "into him," according to the Greek-and Jesus loves him. What a gift! This is the gospel moment of healing. Jesus can see the sickness in this self-righteous man, how much he is lacking, and Jesus still loves him. In the same way Jesus loves each of us with a wonderful, unexpected love that gazes deep into our souls, that knows us and loves us and our world unconditionally. It is this gaze of love that heals the rich man and heals each of us.

Are we sick in the same way? Have we been stricken by the epidemic? Christian environmental writer Bill McKibben thinks so. He defines our culture's insatiable hunger for "more" as a sickness of our times. The sickness metaphor helps us see the health threat that an unsustainable way of life poses to our world.

Lay aside your possessions, Jesus says. Give them away, divest yourself! These possessions are killing you. They are making you bloated and sluggish.

Our ever-bigger houses, our oil-based economy, our addictive accumulation of possessions: these are making our planet ill.

Our mounting levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide-380 parts per million and increasing at an ever-faster rate-are as dangerous to our planet's health as a diabetic's out-of-control blood sugar or a heart patient's high cholesterol. With our lifestyle of affluenza we are eating up the planetary capital that God has created over millions of years.

Jesus invites us to downsize our lifestyle, to adopt the way of life required for a post-carbon world. Give back to the poor and to the Earth what we have taken by fraud-before it is too late. Inherit, instead, the promise of eternal life.

The rich man's story can underscore both the urgency of our unsustainable way of life and the depth of Jesus' love for us. The rich man fundamentally misunderstands eternal life as something individualistic that he can obtain while still clinging to his lavish lifestyle. He failed to see that eternal life is life in communion with God and with one another.

Today our best scientists warn that we have may have less than 10 years to make the lifestyle and policy changes necessary to avert dangerous climate change. The message of hope is that there is still time to act. Will we move to embrace our healing? Or will we turn away, as the rich man did?

With God all things are possible, Jesus says. That is the promise of healing for us. Our planet suffers with the fever of global warming. We are ill with affluenza. But these don't have to be a sickness unto death. Even in the face of such sobering ecological projections as the doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by mid-century, rising sea levels and the shrinking polar ice cap, and accelerating extinctions, the amazing restorative power of God's healing love for the world-the proclamation that "with God all things are possible"-gives hope for our planet and for each one of us.

[Rossing is professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, where her research focuses on the book of Revelation, ecology and liberation. She regularly teaches a course on “Nature in the Bible.” She is the author of The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (Westview Press, 2004). She is an avid hiker and wilderness enthusiast and has served as pastor and teacher at Holden Village retreat center in Washington’s Cascade Mountains.]

Mother's Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe

2008-05-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

When I was a little girl I was fascinated by the kiddie biographies I found in the library. One of my favorites was Julia Ward Howe, Girl of Old New York.

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe, distressed by her experience of the realities of the Civil War, determined that peace was one of the two most important causes of the world (the other being equality in its many forms) and seeing war arise again in the world in the Franco-Prussian War, she called in 1870 for women to rise up and oppose war in all its forms. She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, and commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She issued a Declaration, hoping to gather together women in a congress of action.

Influenced by the work of Julia Ward How, Anna Jarvis, started her own crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in West Virginia in 1907. And from there the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. Finally in 1914 the President, Woodrow Wilson, declared the first national Mother's Day.

This Mother’s Day, let us remember the orgins of the holiday, read Julia Ward Howe's Declaration, and renew our commmitment to non-violence and reconciliation.

Mother's Day Proclamation - 1870
by Julia Ward Howe

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

"From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Haaretz: Our debt to Jimmy Carter

2008-04-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

10:28 15/04/2008
Our debt to Jimmy Carter
By Haaretz Editorial
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974893.html

The government of Israel is boycotting Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, during his visit here this week. Ehud Olmert, who has not managed to achieve any peace agreement during his public life, and who even tried to undermine negotiations in the past, "could not find the time" to meet the American president who is a signatory to the peace agreement with Egypt. President Shimon Peres agreed to meet Carter, but made sure that he let it be known that he reprimanded his guest for wishing to meet with Khaled Meshal, as if the achievements of the Carter Center fall short of those of the Peres Center for Peace. Carter, who himself said he set out to achieve peace between Israel and Egypt from the day he assumed office, worked incessantly toward that goal and two years after becoming president succeeded - was declared persona non grata by Israel.

The boycott will not be remembered as a glorious moment in this government's history. Jimmy Carter has dedicated his life to humanitarian missions, to peace, to promoting democratic elections, and to better understanding between enemies throughout the world. Recently, he was involved in organizing the democratic elections in Nepal, following which a government will be set up that will include Maoist guerrillas who have laid down their arms. But Israelis have not liked him since he wrote the book "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid."

Israel is not ready for such comparisons, even though the situation begs it. It is doubtful whether it is possible to complain when an outside observer, especially a former U.S. president who is well versed in international affairs, sees in the system of separate roads for Jews and Arabs, the lack of freedom of movement, Israel's control over Palestinian lands and their confiscation, and especially the continued settlement activity, which contravenes all promises Israel made and signed, a matter that cannot be accepted. The interim political situation in the territories has crystallized into a kind of apartheid that has been ongoing for 40 years. In Europe there is talk of the establishment of a binational state in order to overcome this anomaly. In the peace agreement with Egypt, 30 years ago, Israel agreed to "full autonomy" for the occupied territories, not to settle there.

These promises have been forgotten by Israel, but Carter remembers. Whether Carter's approach to conflict resolution is considered by the Israeli government as appropriate or defeatist, no one can take away from the former U.S. president his international standing, nor the fact that he brought Israel and Egypt to a signed peace that has since held. Carter's method, which says that it is necessary to talk with every one, has still not proven to be any less successful than the method that calls for boycotts and air strikes. In terms of results, at the end of the day, Carter beats out any of those who ostracize him. For the peace agreement with Egypt, he deserves the respect reserved for royalty for the rest of his life.

For more coverage of President Carter's mission, see www.haaretz.com

--- --- ---

Ann Hafften

Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie - National Book Launch

2008-04-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Friends of Sabeel North America for circulating this schedule.

Rachel Corrie's personal journals now in book form - http://www.letmestandalone.com/

Launches have taken place or are scheduled in these locations: Berkeley, California; Seattle, Olympia, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Frederick, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; New York City, Iowa City, Iowa; and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Here is a letter from Cindy Corrie:

Friends,

I am thrilled to announce the release of my daughter Rachel's writings in the new book Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie, published by W.W. Norton & Co. and available in bookstores and online! I am also excited to invite you to attend a series of book launch events across the country that Craig and I will be participating in during the month of April. We hope that you and your friends will join us to celebrate Rachel's book at one of these events and that you will use the attached flyer to help us spread the word about each one.

[For information about CSpan's film of the first book event, April 5th in Berkeley, California, go to the website of sponsor KPFA Radio http://kpfa.org/events/index.php?#1584]

Working on the book was an alternately exhilarating and challenging process. We agonized over every editing decision, which pieces would Rachel have included? Which would she have wanted to work on further? However, we knew how much Rachel wanted her writing to have a wider impact and we still believe deeply that the questions she pondered and the realities she witnessed are universally important to confront. It is a true milestone for our family, and for Rachel, that her words in this book reach the world.

More information about Let Me Stand Alone, including how to purchase it, can be found at http://www.letmestandalone.com/

If we are not scheduled to be in your area during the April book tour, but you would like to organize a future reading, you can contact us through this website as well.

As Craig wrote in the introduction to the book: Words were sacred to Rachel, and her words have become treasures to us. They are what we have left and are an immense gift to our family. With this book, we offer that gift to you. We look forward to seeing you in Berkeley, Seattle, Olympia, Portland, DC, New York, Iowa City or Minneapolis! Please do help us spread the word.

Thank you! Cindy Corrie

Remaining dates on the schedule are:

Frederick, Maryland Monday, April 14th
Time: 7 PM
Delaplaine Visual Arts & Education Center
301-698-0656
40 South Carroll Street
Frederick, Maryland 21701

Washington, DC Tuesday, April 15th
Time: 6:00 PM
Busboys & Poets
202-387-POET
2021 14th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20009

New York City
Friday, April 18th
Time: 6:30 PM
COOPER UNION, WOLLMAN AUDITORIUM
51 Astor Place (8th Street between 3rd and 4th)
New York, NY
Guest Readers Include: Kathleen Chalfant, Nick Flynn, Marie Howe, Denis O'Hare and Lili Taylor.

Iowa City, Iowa Tues., April 22
Time: 7:30 PM
University of Iowa, Iowa Memorial Union
319-335-3255
Black Box Theater, Room #360
125 N. Madison Street
Iowa City, IA

Twin Cities, Minnesota
Thursday, April 24th
Time: 7:00 PM Micawber's Book Store
612-215-2575
2238 Carter Avenue
St. Paul, MN

--- ---

Alison Weir asks: Should the U.S. End Aid to Israel? Funding Our Decline

2008-04-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

Apri1 4, 2008
Should the U.S. End Aid to Israel?
Funding Our Decline
By ALISON WEIR

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/weir-aid.html

April 1st I participated in a debate in San Francisco that raised the question of US aid to Israel.It was highly appropriate that this debate was held two weeks before tax day, since in Israel's sixty years of existence, it has received more US tax money than any other nation on earth.

During periods of recession, when Americans are thrown out of work, homes are repossessed, school budgets cut and businesses fail, Congress continues to give Israel massive amounts of our tax money; currently, about 7 million dollars per day.

On top of this, Egypt and Jordan receive large sums of money (per capita about 1/20th of what Israel receives) to buy their cooperation with Israel; and Palestinians also receive our tax money (about 1/23rd of that to Israel), to repair infrastructure that Israeli forces have destroyed, to fund humanitarian projects required due to the destruction wrought by Israel's military, and to convince Palestinian officials to take actions beneficial to Israel. These sums should also be included in expenditures on behalf of Israel.

When all are added together, it turns out that for many years over half of all US tax money abroad has been expended to benefit a country the size of New Jersey.

It is certainly time to begin debating this disbursement of our hard-earned money. It is quite possible that we have better uses for it.

To decide whether the US should continue military aid to any nation, it is essential to examine the nature and history of the recipient nation, how it has used our military aid in the past, whether these uses are in accord with our values, and whether they benefit the American taxpayers who are putting up the money.

1. What is the history and nature of Israel?
Describing Israel is always difficult. One can either stay within the mainstream paradigm, or tell the truth. I will opt for the truth.

Drawing on scores of books by diverse authors, the facts are quite clear: Israel was created through one of the most massive, ruthless, and persistent ethnic cleansing operations of modern history. In 1947-49 about three-quarters of a million Muslims and Christians, who had originally made up 95 percent of the population living in the area that Zionists wanted for a Jewish state, were brutally forced off their ancestral land. There were 33 massacres, over 500 villages were completely destroyed, and an effort was made to erase all vestiges of Palestinian history and culture.

The fact is that Israel's core identity is based on ethnic and religious discrimination by a colonial, immigrant group; and maintaining this exclusionist identity has required continued violence against those it has dispossessed, and others who have given them refuge.

2. How has Israel used our military aid in the past?
In all of its wars except one, Israel has attacked first.

In violation of the Arms Export Control Act, which requires that US weapons only be used in "legitimate self defense," Israel used American equipment during its two invasions of Lebanon, killing 17,000 the first time and 1,000 more recently, the vast majority civilians. It used American-made cluster bombs in both invasions, again in defiance of US laws, causing the "most hideous injuries" one American physician said she had ever seen, and which, in one day in 1982 alone, resulted in the amputation of over 1,000 mangled limbs.

It has used US military aid to continue and expand its illegal confiscation of land in the West Bank and Golan Heights, and has used American F-16s and Apache Helicopters against largely unarmed civilian populations.

According to Defence for Children International, Israel has "engaged in gross violations of international human rights and humanitarian law." Between 1967 and 2003, Israel destroyed more than 10,000 homes, and such destruction continues today. A coalition of UK human rights groups recently issued a report stating that Israel's blockade of Gaza is collective punishment of 1.5 million people, warning: "Unless the blockade ends now, it will be impossible to pull Gaza back from the brink of this disaster and any hopes for peace in the region will be dashed."

In addition, Israel uses US military aid to fund an Israeli arms industry that competes with US companies. According to a report commissioned by the US Army War College, "Israel uses roughly 40 percent of its military aid, ostensibly earmarked for purchase of US weapons, to buy Israeli-made hardware. It also has won the right to require the Defense Department or US defense contractors to buy Israeli-made equipment or subsystems, paying 50 to 60 cents on every defense dollar the US gives to Israel."

Israel has used US aid to kill and injure nonviolent Palestinian, American and international activists, as well as American servicemen. Israeli soldiers in an American-made Caterpillar bulldozer crushed to death 23-year-old Rachel Corrie; an Israeli sniper shot 21-year-old Tom Hurndall in the head; Israeli soldiers shot 26-year-old Brian Avery in the face. In 1967 Israel used US-financed French aircraft to attack a US Navy ship, killing 34 American servicemen and injuring 174.

Israel has used US aid to imprison without trial thousands of Palestinians and others, and according to reports by the London Times and Amnesty International, Israel consistently tortures prisoners; including, according to Foreign Service Journal, American citizens.

3. Are these uses in accord with our national and personal values?
Not in my view.

4. Do these uses of US aid benefit American taxpayers?
While some Israeli actions have served US interests, the balance sheet is clear: Israel's use of American aid consistently damages the United States, harms our economy, and endangers Americans.

In fact, this extremely negative outcome was so predictable that even before Israel's creation virtually all State Department and Pentagon experts advocated forcefully against supporting the creation of a Zionist state in the Middle East. President Harry Truman's reply: "I am sorry gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism. I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents."

Through the years, as noted above, our aid to Israel has not resulted in a reliable ally.

In 1954 Israel tried to bomb US government offices in Egypt, intending to pin this on Muslims.

In 1963 Senator William Fulbright discovered that Israel was using a series of covert operations to funnel our money to pro-Israel groups in the US, which then used these funds in media campaigns and lobbying to procure even more money from American taxpayers.

In 1967 Israeli forces unleashed a two-hour air and sea attack against the USS Liberty, causing 200 casualties. While Israel partisans claim that this was done in error, this claim is belied by extensive eyewitness evidence and by an independent commission reporting on Capitol Hill in 2003 chaired by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer.

In 1973 Israel used the largest airlift of US materiel in history to defeat Arab forces attempting to regain their own land, triggering the Arab oil embargo that sent the US into a recession that cost thousands of Americans their jobs.

During its 1980s Lebanon invasion, Israeli troops engaged in a systematic pattern of harassment of US forces brought in as peacekeepers that created, according to Commandant of Marines Gen. R. H Barrow, "life-threatening situations, replete with verbal degradation of the officers, their uniform and country."

Through the years, Israel has regularly spied on the US. According to the Government Accounting Office, Israel "conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the United States of any ally." Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger said of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard: "It is difficult for me to conceive of greater harm done to national security," And the Pollard case was just the tip of a very large iceberg; the most recent operation coming to light involves two senior officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Israel's powerful American lobbying organization.

Bad as the above may appear, it pales next to the indirect damage to Americans caused by our aid to Israel. American funding of Israel's egregious violations of Palestinian human rights is consistently listed as the number one cause of hostility to Americans.

While American media regularly cover up Israeli actions, those of us who have visited the region first-hand witness a level of US-funded Israeli cruelty that makes us weep for our victims and fear for our country. While most Americans are uninformed on how Israel uses our money, people throughout the world are deeply aware that it is Americans who are funding Israeli crimes.

The 9/11 Commission notes that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's "animus towards the United States stemmedfrom his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel." The Economist reports that " the notion of payback for injustices suffered by the Palestinians is perhaps the most powerfully recurrent theme in bin Laden's speeches."

The Bottom Line

In sum, US aid to Israel has destabilized the Middle East; propped up a national system based on ethnic and religious discrimination; enabled unchecked aggression that has, on occasion, been turned against Americans themselves; funded arms industries that compete with American companies; supported a pattern of brutal dispossession that has created hatred of the US; and resulted in continuing conflict that last year took the lives of 384 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, and that in the past seven and a half years has cost the lives of more than 982 Palestinian children and 119 Israeli children.

By providing massive funding to Israel, no matter what it does, American aid is empowering Israeli supremacists who believe in a never-ending campaign of ethnic cleansing; while disempowering Israelis who recognize that policies of morality, justice, and rationality are the only road to peace.

It is time to end our aid.

## ## ##

Alison Weir is Executive Director of If Americans Knew -www.ifamericansknew.org
For more information on the US-Israel relationship she especially recommends the books by Donald Neff, Paul Findley, Kathleen Christison, Stephen Walt, John Mearsheimer, Grant Smith, Stephen Green, George Ball, and John Mulhall.

Open Letter To Hillary, Obama, McCain And News Editors TV, Radio and Print

2008-04-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

Open Letter To Hillary, Obama, McCain And News Editors TV, Radio and Print
By Eileen Fleming
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

02 April, 2008
http://www.countercurrents.org/

Dear All,

Just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left the region for the second time, Israel announced plans Monday for 1,400 new homes on Palestinian land. Jerusalem's city hall announced it will build 600 new apartments in Pisgat Zeev, a Jewish "neighborhood" in the eastern sector of the city and a place I visited in 2006. Pisgat Zeev is an Orwellian Disney World of swimming pools, playgrounds and lush landscape less than a five minute drive from Anata, refugee camp, where The Wall is butted up to the boy's high school.

The playground for Anata is a slab of cement at the high school about the square footage of a basketball court. One of the resident refugees told me, "The Israeli forces show up when the children gather in the morning or after classes. They throw percussion bombs or gas bombs into the school nearly every day. The world is sleeping; the world is hibernating and allowing this misery to continue."

"Neighborhood" is a euphemism for settlement. Every settlement in the West Bank is illegal under international law.

On March 31, 2008, Israel began taking down some of the 50 West Bank roadblocks it pledged to remove during Rice's visit. Israel still maintains more than 500 checkpoints and roadblocks, claiming "security" - euphemism for total control of the indigenous people's right to move and export their goods; another reason the Palestinian economy is in ruins.

"What this country needs is a President who won't just do what's right when the politics are easy, but will stand up when the politics are hard." - Senator Obama

The policies the United States has pursued since the Six Day War have failed to achieve security for Israel and have been an injustice unto Palestinians.

All we the people hear from our politicians is the same failure to lead in the way of equal human rights and international law. All we the people hear is an increasingly fervent repetition of the status quo and bankrupt policies that have brought us to this point in time where 'civilized' people consider-some even relish-the thought of unleashing the terror of another nuclear bomb.

On January 23, 2008, Senator Obama sent a letter to Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, about a proposed Security Council resolution on the situation in Gaza. Obama focused on condemning Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel, but made no mention of the ongoing Israeli bombardments and raids that have killed hundreds of innocent residents of Gaza, as well as the calculated Israeli policy of denying the necessities of life - food, clean drinking water, medicines, medical care, school supplies, and the energy needed to power sewage treatment plants and hospital operating rooms - to the 1.5 million open air prisoners, of whom more than half are children.

Obama wrote that "Israel is forced to do this." Obama denounced Hamas as a terrorist organization, but ignored its repeated offers of a long-term truce with Israel - offers the Israeli government has repeatedly immediately rejected, although polls show that more than 60 percent of Israel's own population favors negotiations with Hamas.

Not Obama, not McCain and not Clinton have offered even a word of criticism of Israel, or of sympathy for the people of Gaza.

This is not "change we can believe in" and what we the people need is the chance to begin the world again. This time we do have it in our power to begin the world again, but we need the corporate media to ask the questions we the people of America must have answers to.

SUCH AS:

Where are the candidates on Gaza, Jerusalem, the rights of refugees, The Wall, the continuing settlements, the over 500 checkpoints that deny the indigenous people of that land the right to access their land, jobs and holy sites in light of this year; the 60th anniversary of Israel and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights- upon which Israel's statehood was contingent upon upholding.

Having lived in occupied Palestine for a total of ten weeks spread over five trips, I attest that Military Occupation dehumanizes the occupied and will reap many without hope. Only a person without hope that things will improve could even consider strapping on a bomb and killing themselves.

We the people in the land of the free and home of the brave, actually have some power before we elect another president who will maintain the status quo. Yeah, we can. We can do that, we can elect a politician beholden to the Military Industrial Complex, corporate interests, lobbyists, the religious right. Or we can say, no, not this time.

Might this time we the people see with eyes of the dissidents, rebels and revolutionaries who founded these United States. Might this time we see the world is our country and that all men and women are our sisters and brothers. Might this time our leaders seek to do good and be merciful and just. Might this time our media ask the questions too many of we the people, do not even know must be asked. Might this time our politicians be beholden to we the people and not to any foreign power.

"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils." - George Washington's Farewell Address, 1796.

Eileen Fleming, Reporter and Editor WAWA: http://www.wearewideawake.org/

Author "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"

Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"

Maria Urkedal York writing from Nablus: Normality in the West Bank

2008-03-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

Normality in the West Bank

Maria Urkedal York writing from Nablus, occupied West Bank
Live from Palestine, 27 March 2008
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9419.shtml

"A familiar scenario takes place in front of me. A little boy, no more than four years old, is laughing as he runs back and forth between the line of adults' feet, feet twice the size of his. Typically, with a combination of innocence and courage only found in children's eyes, he is testing how far he can go before his mother will call him back. The reason why this ordinary scene remains in my consciousness is that it is took place at Huwwara military checkpoint, one of the manned posts restricting the movement of people and goods in and out of the West Bank town of Nablus. Although the boy is laughing, making some of us waiting in the line smile, he is also about to be checked by young armed soldiers before he is let out on the other side where dozens of yellow taxis are waiting to take people traveling from Nablus to Huwwara, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Qalandia, and the elsewhere in the West Bank.

"Unsettling combinations of familiarity and unfamiliarity seem to manifest themselves in every aspect of life here in the West Bank. Recalling the first time I passed through Huwwara checkpoint, I remember that my physical and psychological reaction revealed fear. As I and two colleagues moved slowly forward in the line of other women, children and elderly, the unbalanced and disturbing power relationship between us in the line and the soldiers was mercilessly perceptible. The young men and women, dressed in olive green uniforms, wearing helmets and carrying weapons, have the authority to deny anyone to pass. The people who live here in the West Bank have green permit cards that are checked by the soldiers.

"I remember that my heartbeat increased and I felt that I had done something wrong that was about to be exposed. One minute I felt cold, the next warm. I felt like shouting to the soldiers, "Can't you see what you are doing here?" but instead took some deep breaths while trying not to look at the people around me. I pretended that I could not feel the little boy squeezed between me and the elderly lady next to me. I smiled at the grimace my colleague made as she struggled not to be pushed off-balance by the woman. This was just a normal day. We were just going for a weekend trip to Ramallah, a trip which should take only about 40 minutes if there were no checkpoints. The sun was shining, everyone seemed to know what to do. I remember thinking, "what am I afraid of?" Now as I go though checkpoints, the initial fear I felt the first time has been transformed into a sense of injustice and frustration."

For the full article and a fine photo presentation, please go to: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9419.shtml

Maria Urkedal York is from Norway and currently lives in Nablus where she works with the Right to Education Campaign at An-Najah University.

Easter in Sierra Leone

2008-03-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

Our ELCA synod young adult group is visiting the companion church in Sierra Leone. Here is a message sent by Bishop Kanouse on Easter.

Dear NT-NL Friends:

"Jesus Christ is Risen Today! He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!" The first Easter cry rang out about 8 PM on Saturday from the terrace of the rising Jubilee Centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. We were joined for the Easter Vigil by about 200 other worshipers who met in the gathering darkness to hear seven Old Testament readings plus the Easter Gospel in preparation for 42 (!) baptisms of infants, youth, young adults, and senior citizens! "I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit... You are sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever... Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." 42 times those words were spoken and the candles of the newly baptized glowed, filling the terrace with the new light of the Risen Jesus Christ. It was a marvelous culmination of the Triduum, the three Holy days leading up to Easter.

On Maundy Thursday our 14 young adults plus Billye Jean and I remembered our Lord's last supper as we also worshiped on the terrace of the Jubilee Centre. On Good Friday, we went to two local congregations, King of Kings Lutheran Church at the Fire Force building next to the Jubilee Centre or at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Kissy. It was a moving experience to share in the walk through Holy Week with our Sierra Leone brothers and sisters.

Today, Easter Sunday, our youth split into four groups and we celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord at Faith Community (Pastor Marie Barnett's church in Lumley), St. Mark's in Calaba Town, St. Paul's in Kissy, and at Calvary Lutheran Church where we visited the school earlier in the week.

It has been a week of celebrating, making incredible new friends, learning the culture of our Companion Church, and enjoying the beach. On Saturday, we had a picnic at No. 2 River where we visited Lord of the White Sands Lutheran Church. On the way there, we stopped at Baw Baw and visited King of Glory Lutheran Church and school. Throughout the week we have been accompanied by about 50 youth and learned that the MAJORITY of the members of the churches are 29 years of age or younger! This is a youthful and growing church from which we can learn a great deal about DiscipleLife Formation.

Some of our young men joined the fishermen along the beach to pull in the fishing nets full of a new catch. We've had a few opportunities to shop for souvenirs and we've eaten at a variety of authentic restaurants where our youth were not afraid to sample the local cuisine.

Tonight we conclude our time here with a visit to the home of Bishop Tom and Marie Barnett for a closing dinner and celebration where 75 are expected for a night of singing, sharing, and perhaps a few tears as we bid farewell to our new friends and prepare to return home on Monday and Tuesday. All of our young adults have been deeply moved and are committed to coming back at some time in the future. We give thanks for your prayers for our journey, your words of encouragement to our youth, and your financial contributions that made this trip possible. We look forward to telling more of our story at the Synod Assembly and through a post-trip video we will put together.

Grace and Peace in Christ,
Kevin S. Kanouse, Bishop

Court case reveals how settlers illegally grab West Bank lands

2008-03-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

From Ha'aretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz newspaper in Israel:

Court case reveals how settlers illegally grab West Bank lands
By Meron Rapoport
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/964843.html

West Bank settlements have expanded their jurisdictions by taking control of private Palestinian land and allocating it to settlers. The land takeover - which the Civil Administration calls "theft" - has occured in an orderly manner, without any official authorization.

The method of taking over land is being publicized for the first time, based on testimony from a hearing on an appeal filed by a Kedumim resident, Michael Lesence, against a Civil Administration order to vacate 35 dunams (almost 9 acres) near the Mitzpe Yishai neighborhood of the settlement. Official records show the land as belonging to Palestinians from Kafr Qaddum.

Lesence's lawyer, Doron Nir Zvi, admitted at the hearing that the land in question was private Palestinian property. However, Lesence claims ownership on the grounds that he has been working the land for more than a decade, after he received it in an orderly procedure, complete with a signed agreement, from the heads of the Kedumim local council. Affidavits from Civil Administration officials stated that Lesence began cultivating the land only in the past six months.

Attorneys Michael Sfard and Shlomi Zecharia, who represent the Palestinian landowners on behalf of Yesh Din - Volunteers for Human Rights, insist their clients continued to work the land, and that the army and settlers from Kedumim are denying their access to it.

Kedumim residents who testified before the board said that the Palestinian have no problem reaching their lands. However, a visit to the area reveals a different picture: The guard at Mitzpe Yishai announced that "it is forbidden to allow Arabs in" to the lands abutting the neighborhood. After the Palestinians approached their property on foot, an army patrol arrived and moved them off. When the commander was told they have Civil Administration documents proving they own the land, the commander replied: "Documents don't interest me."

The land-takeover method was developed in Kedumim and neighboring settlements during the mid-1990s, after the Oslo Accords, and continues to this day.

Zeev Mushinsky, the "land coordinator" at the Kedumim local council, testified as to how it works: Council employees, Mushinsky in this case, would map the "abandoned lands" around the settlements, even if they were outside the council's jurisdiction, with the aim of taking them over. The council would "allocate" the lands to settlers, who would sign an official form stating that they have no ownership claim on the m, and that the council is entitled to evict them whenever it sees fit, in return for compensating them solely for their investment in cultivating the land.

Kedumim's former security chief, Michael Bar-Neder, testified that the land "allocation" was followed by an effort to expand the settlement. Bar-Neder said that once the settlers seized the lands, an application would be made to the military commander to declare them state-owned, since under the law covering the West Bank, anyone who does not cultivate his land for three years forfeits ownership of it.

Disastrous war now entering its sixth year

2008-03-18T02:03:00.000-07:00

NCC laments a 'disastrous' war, now entering its sixth year

New York, March 12, 2008 - It's a sermon that has been widely preached for five years and generally ignored in the halls of government. As the fifth anniversary of the March 17 invasion of Iraq approaches, the general secrNCC laments a 'disastrous' war,
now entering its sixth year

New York, March 12, 2008 - It's a sermon that has been widely preached for five years and generally ignored in the halls of government.

As the fifth anniversary of the March 17 invasion of Iraq approaches, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA repeated the message: the war has been a 'disastrous mistake' and should be brought to an end.

Speaking on behalf of the NCC's 35 member communions, all of whom have been critical of the war, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon also said the war intended to make America safe from terrorism "has made this country less secure."

The NCC is the ecumenical voice of America's Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, historic African American and traditional peace churches. The 35 member communions have 45 million faithful members in 100,000 congregations in all 50 states.

"Anyone can observe that U.S. aggression is spawning new generations of terrorists," Kinnamon said, "but the Christian critique runs deeper. Because human life is interdependent, because we are all children of one Creator, security can never be won through unilateral defense."

He quoted Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who said: "There is no security apart from common security."

"Israeli security depends, finally, on Palestinians having a stake in the development of the Middle East," Kinnamon said. "U.S. security depends, among other things, on addressing the economic and social disparities that help fuel hatred of this nation."

Common security is not born out of Christian idealism but is a practical approach to peace, Kinnamon said.

"Christians are realistic about evil in the world and, therefore, about the threat of terrorism," he said. "We reject any ideology, however, which demonizes others while claiming all righteousness for ourselves; and we refuse to define life as a zero-sum game in which our security is gained at the expense of others."

The full text of Kinnamon's message follows:

Five years ago this week, the US invaded Iraq in the name of national security. Over the past 60 months, the war has repeatedly been declared a disastrous mistake by the leaders of the National Council of Churches' 35 member communions, which represent a wide range of American Christianity from Orthodox to Historic African American churches. These leaders have called for the war to be brought to an end. They have also insisted that the war has made this country less secure. We are convinced, said the delegates to the Council's 2006 General Assembly, that "genuine security is based in God and is served by the recognition of humanity's interdependence, and by working with partners to bring about community, development, and reconciliation for all."

On this tragic anniversary, and in the midst of an election campaign where security is a dominant topic, I want to underscore this last point. Anyone can observe that US aggression is spawning new generations of terrorists; but the Christian critique runs deeper. Because human life is interdependent, because we are all children of one Creator, security can never be won through unilateral defense. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, puts it succinctly: "There is no security apart from common security." Israeli security depends, finally, on Palestinians having a stake in the development of the Middle East. U.S. security depends, among other things, on addressing the economic and social disparities that help fuel hatred of this nation.

Christians are realistic about evil in the world and, therefore, about the threat of terrorism. We reject any ideology, however, which demonizes others while claiming all righteousness for ourselves; and we refuse to define life as a zero-sum game in which our security is gained at the expense of others.

All of this has enormous implications for the budgeting process now underway in Congress. The President's proposed defense budget for FY2008 is over a half trillion dollars--not counting extra appropriations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A fraction of that amount could substantially reduce hunger, the shortage of adequate housing, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the shortage of classrooms, and environmental destruction around the world. Christians must ask with ever louder voice: Which expenditure will contribute most to our security? Pressing this question is not being soft on terrorism; it is being faithful to the message of the prophets (e.g., Isaiah 32 and Micah 4) that only justice will lead to lasting security.

May God strengthen all those who work for peace!

Michael Kinnamon
General Secretary

etary of the National Council of Churches USA repeated the message: the war has been a 'disastrous mistake' and should be brought to an end. Speaking on behalf of the NCC's 35 member communions, all of whom have been critical of the war, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon also said the war intended to make America safe from terrorism "has made this country less secure." The NCC is the ecumenical voice of America's Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, historic African American and traditional peace churches. The 35 member communions have 45 million faithful members in 100,000 congregations in all 50 states."Anyone can observe that U.S. aggression is spawning new generations of terrorists," Kinnamon said, "but the Christian critique runs deeper. Because human life is interdependent, because we are all children of one Creator, security can never be won through unilateral defense." He quoted Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who said: "There is no security apart from common security." "Israeli security depends, finally, on Palestinians having a stake in the development of the Middle East," Kinnamon said. "U.S. security depends, among other things, on addressing the economic and social disparities that help fuel hatred of this nation." Common security is not born out of Christian idealism but is a practical approach to peace, Kinnamon said. "Christians are realistic about evil in the world and, therefore, about the threat of terrorism," he said. "We reject any ideology, however, which demonizes others while claiming all righteousness for ourselves; and we refuse to define life as a zero-sum game in which our security is gained at the expense of others." The full text of Kinnamon's message follows: Five years ago this week, the US invaded Iraq in the name of national security. Over the past 60 months, the war has repeatedly been declared a disastrous mistake by the leaders of the National Council of Churches' 35 member communions, which represent a wide range of American Christianity from Orthodox to Historic African American churches. These leaders have called for the war to be brought to an end. They have also insisted that the war has made this country less secure. We are convinced, said the delegates to the Council's 2006 General Assembly, that "genuine security is based in God and is served by the recognition of humanity's interdependence, and by working with partners to bring about community, development, and reconciliation for all." On this tragic anniversary, and in the midst of an election campaign where security is a dominant topic, I want to underscore this last point. Anyone can observe that US aggression is spawning new generations of terrorists; but the Christian critique runs deeper. Because human life is interdependent, because we are all children of one Creator, security can never be won through unilateral defense. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, puts it succinctly: "There is no security apart from common security." Israeli security depends, finally, on Palestinians having a stake in the development of the Middle East. U.S. security depends, among other things, on addressing the economic and social disparities that help fuel hatred of this nation. Christians are realistic about evil in the world and, therefore, about the threat of terrorism. We reject any ideology, however, which demonizes others while claiming all righteousness for ourselves; and we refuse to define life as a zero-sum game in which our security is gained at the expense of others. All of this has enormous implications for the budgeting process now underway in Congress. The President's proposed defense budget for FY2008 is over a half trillion dollars--not counting extra appropriations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A fraction of that amount could substantially reduce hunger, the shortage of adequate housing, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the shortage of classrooms, and environmental destruction around the world. Christians must ask with ever louder voice: Which expenditure will contribute most to our security? Pressing this question is not being soft on terrorism; it is being faithful to the message of the prophets (e.g., Isaiah 32 and Micah 4) that only justice will lead to lasting security. May God strengthen all those who work for peace! Michael Kinnamon General Secretary