Culture

A Step Towards Justice for Abir

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Sometimes the work of trying to bring justice to a world that seems so broken feels like a battle that can never be won. But every once in a while, something happens that reminds you that you must keep working for justice. This week, the family and friends of a little girl named Abir, and the many many many other people who have struggled to seek justice after she was killed, got a boost of hope. An Israeli judge issued an incredible ruling, and my friends at the Rebuilding Alliance wanted to share the news with the world. They’ve been working to not only get justice in this case, but to also build hope for Abir’s community, by building playgrounds in her memory.

Culture

Still Married!

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20 years and four months after our marriage in the First Presbyterian Church, and 2 years after the County of San Mateo issued our marriage license and the minister who had married us 20 years earlier got to sign our marriage certificate, a federal judge declared today that our marriage remains legal (we weren’t the plaintiffs in the case, but were married in San Mateo County during the brief window when California allowed gay marriage). And… he declared the ban on gay marriage passed by voters in California to be in violation of the United States Constitution. Pass the chocolate cake – it is time to celebrate… and get back to work after the frosting is gone because there’s a whole lot of work to do.

Christianity

Toasters, Homelessness and Mental Illness – Musings for the Day

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My mother-in-law thinks we are crazy, taking half a day off work to cook, serve, and clean up for around 50-100 homeless folks who come to our church on Wednesdays. We only do this once every five weeks, part of a rotation of folks who make sure that there’s a hot meal for homeless folks in Palo Alto every day. Yes, at the end of our six hour shift I am pretty exhausted, more so, it seems, now that a decade has passed since we started. But crazy? No.

Politics & Society

21st Century Daniel Ellsberg – WikiLeaks

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As I sat in Daniel Ellsberg’s home listening to Medea Benjamin talk about the debacle that was Iraq after the U.S. invasion,  having myself recently returned from visiting the destruction in Afghanistan, I wondered who would be the 21st Century Ellsberg. Who would leak the truth about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Now we know the answer. WikiLeaks. 90,000 pages of mostly classified documents have been leaked to the press and posted on the web about the war in Afghanistan and Amy Goodman’s program Democracy Now has a round table to discuss it.

Culture

Free Speech?

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How would you react if you saw a sign like the one in this image on a bus you were about to board, but change a few words. “Facing Ex-Communication? Eternal damnation for your soul? Is your minister  threatening you? Leaving Christianity?”

Politics & Society

2.5 Trillion and Counting

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The plan was perfect. Slash taxes for the wealthy, cutting 2.5 trillion out of the nation’s wallets, and spend another trillion or two on war, and by the time eight years are over, the nation will seem like it is teetering on the edge of insolvency. If anyone says that perhaps the giant tax cuts were a mistake, you sagely warn that “You can’t raise taxes during a recession!” Then, start screaming about the deficit and demand that social programs be slashed. Finally the beast has been starved, drowned, and crushed under a monster truck’s tires…

Islam

Ahmadi Mosques in Pakistan Attacked

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My friend Sabuhi just wrote to let me know about the horrible attacks against two Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat mosques in Lahore Pakistan. News reports say that at least 70 people were killed. When another friend, Samina had visited Pakistan earlier this year, she was heartbroken at the way her family’s lives had changed. Gone were the days of happily wandering around the community, seeing friends, enjoying the sights and sounds of a bustling neighborhood. “When you send your child or spouse out, you never know if they’re going to come back.

Culture

Bullied: A Student, a School, and a Case that Made History

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It had gone on for months… starting with name-calling, then shoves on the stairwell – tripping in the cafeteria – punches in the hallway, then a brick… Decades ago that was my nightmare Junior High School life and children continue to suffer this kind of abuse every day across our country. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Tolerance.org wants to provide teachers and administrators with new tools to help curb anti-gay and other bullying. Being a huge fan of what Tolerance.org does, I wanted people to know about it.

Christianity

Homodoxuals and Heterodoxuals in the Church

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Can homodoxuals and heterodoxuals find a way to get along, sit in the same pew, or is schism the only answer? My friend, the Rev. Jim Burklo, just sent me his latest “Musings” post from the Center for Progressive Christianity, and I immediately knew I had to share it (with his permission of course), with all of you! Musings by Jim Burklo
www.tcpc.blogs.com/musings for this and previous articles
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jtburklo
5/19/10
Homodoxuals and Heterodoxuals in the Church
(Lately I’ve seen many uses of the term “heterodoxy” in my reading about current trends in religion in America, referring to people who mix a variety of religious traditions and beliefs in their spirituality. That got me to thinking about what its opposite would be: “homodoxy”. This struck me as an ironic twist in language, since so many “homodoxual” people oppose homosexuality, and so many “heterodoxual” people are open and affirming towards gays and lesbians.

Culture

Who Is Responsible?

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I’ve been watching the nightmare of thousands of barrels of oil and gas pouring into the ocean and the spectacle of pundits and lawmakers trying to decide whom to blame for the mess. In the midst of that, I happened to pick up a book of poetry by Abraham Joshua Heschel, written before he was 26 years old in 1933. This particular poem, Forgiveness,  struck me as one of the ways that I am different from many other people. I resonated with it strongly and I would guess that others, who think quite differently from me, would think it utterly absurd. Read on and let’s discuss it!