The highest spiritual truths include this one: Don’t Kill Everybody.
Activism
Take Action to Stop Qaddafi’s Brutal Assault on Libyan Civilians
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It’s time for bolder international action against the ruthless dictator of Libya who is killing his own people. Military jets, helicopter gunships, and mercenaries with machine guns are indiscriminately attacking unarmed demonstrators while heads of state just make statements. Only a vigorous global response can help prevent the situation from spiraling into greater violence. Please ask the US to play a leadership role in forcing the UN Security Council to act. There are peaceful and effective international actions that could save lives in Libya.
Activism
Mubarak Resigns! What Comes Next — Democratic Transformation or Military “Stability”?
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Jews and spiritual progressives of every religious community are rejoicing at the triumph of the democratic uprising in the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities and at the resignation of President Mubarak. But we have no illusions that the struggle for democracy has been won.
2011
Inner Courage and Love: The Path to Disarmament
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Reliance on science and technology to solve human dilemmas does not lead to peace. And the threats of nuclear annihilation and war certainly give anyone adequate reasons for fear. The modern world does little to remind us of our humanity.
2011
A Christian Realist’s Lament
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For someone who interprets the course of events from a Christian realist perspective, the prospects for healing and repairing the world appear less than promising. That defines the position I happen to occupy. Although my admiration for those who insist otherwise knows no bounds, I find myself unable to enlist under their banner: over the course of many centuries, evil has proven to be too persistent; humankind’s penchant for folly too great; the allure of mammon too insidious; and power in all its variegated forms too corrupting.
2011
What is a Superpower?
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What are some of the other attributes of a superpower? Once again, they might very well mirror those of a person. These would include a demonstrable commitment to truth, justice, peace, freedom, humility, human rights, generosity, and the upholding of other moral values.
2011
Six Rabbis Pray in Jail
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I remember my arrest. It was May of 1972 and Nixon had just mined Haiphong Harbor.
2011
The Decalogue as an ABC of Human Behavior
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For there is hardly any other people which has something as substantial and striking to offer as Judaism with its Ten Commandments. As the German writer Thomas Mann explained after the terrors of National Socialism, these are the “basic instruction and rock of respectable humanity,” indeed the “ABC of human behavior.”
2011
An Era of Danger to All Humanity
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Despite the absence of any strategic conflict in the world, there is a refusal to explore the possibility of ridding the world of nuclear weaponry, and even Obama’s visionary endorsement of a world without nuclear weapons signaled his political detachment with the damning admission that such an outcome might not happen in his lifetime. If not now, when? Are we waiting for a new Cold War or World War III?
2010
Iranophobia: The Panic of the Hegemons
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In the United States as in Israel, much of the hawkish fearmongering against Iran comes from the Right. How can the moral panic theory explain that? Moreover, the same kinds of fears now directed toward theocratic Iran were aimed, just a few years ago, at the secular government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Articles
Prophetic Contingency: Why Jim Douglass’s JFK Book Matters
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The best way to honor John F. Kennedy’s legacy is to muster the courage to walk again through the “dark history” associated with his short but consequential presidency, in order to learn its lessons and discover its hope. Jim Douglass’s “JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters,” which Touchstone is reissuing this month as a trade paperback, is a reliable guide for that demanding task.
2010
JFK, Obama, and the Unspeakable
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The military-industrial complex, more powerful today than ever, imprisons the president. When he accepts the power to kill everyone, the president becomes a prisoner morally and politically to the demands of our national security state. Once the president accepts nuclear power over the world, his permissible movement is confined to a very tight space — tighter than we as citizens might imagine.
2010
Not My Priorities: A National Campaign to Decrease Military Spending
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At $708 billion, the Pentagon gets nearly 60 percent of our discretionary budget (the money Congress is free to allocate). Meanwhile our schools are in crisis, lacking the money for teachers and books, and social welfare programs are weakening, depriving the most vulnerable members of our community of vital support and health care.