Christianity

How to do Interfaith

By |

If you are interested in interfaith work don’t miss this: “Three Clergymen, Three Faiths, One Friendship.” So many interfaith efforts involve avoiding each other’s hot buttons. This is how to do it:
The three say they became close not by avoiding or glossing over their conflicts, but by running straight at them. They put everything on the table: the verses they found offensive in one another’s holy books, anti-Semitism, violence in the name of religion, claims by each faith to have the exclusive hold on truth, and, of course, Israel. “One of the problems in the past with interfaith dialogue is we’ve been too unwilling to upset each other,” Rabbi Falcon told the crowd at the Second Presbyterian Church here.

Christianity

Thanks for the Storytellers

By |

I loved the comments at yesterday’s post “What are YOU grateful for?” On Sunday I was thinking about how many things I have to be grateful for, and wondering which I would choose to mention if I wrote a gratitude post every day until Thanksgiving. Tony Roeber’s “I am grateful just for being alive and breathing…” has it all in a sentence. Jason Hamza van Boom’s items are wonderfully eclectic and specific.

Judaism

Arrested for Wearing a Prayer Shawl

By |

One of our most read posts this month was “Practical loving ways to heal through chronic illness” by our friend Dr. Abby Caplin, who has also written for our print magazine, here and here. She asked us if we were going to be writing about the woman who was arrested at the Western Wall, and I asked if she would write it, and she did. For more information and analysis about the incident check out the Israel Religious Action Center’s facebook page, the Women of the Wall, and Richard Silverstein’s post at Tikun Olam. It’s Simply Prayer. WOW!

Politics & Society

On the Wisdom of Warriors

By |

Bill Distler, a war vet on disability who organizes anti-war action in Washington State, and has written here before, tells me he has been working on this article for about six weeks but now’s the time to get it out into the conversation, before Obama tells us what he’s made up his mind to do. General McChrystal has Plans for Afghanistan
by Bill Distler

The New York Times Magazine recently had a long article about General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The article examined the general’s counterinsurgency plan for “success”. The Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer recently claimed that General McChrystal is the world’s foremost counterterrorism expert because in Iraq he led a program “killing thousands of bad guys.” Mr. Krauthammer’s intended compliment turns out to be proof of General McChrystal’s unfitness to represent the United States.

Politics & Society

Gaza Freedom March December 31

By |

There has been some buzz about this proposed march and here’s the latest email about it, in full, below. First, a Tikkun editorial statement, endorsing the nonviolent aspirations of the march leaders, but written out of an appreciation that true nonviolence at its most effective is a hard thing indeed to achieve when anger is high:
We hope that this challenge to Israel’s treatment to Gaza can happen in a way that rejects the “bash Israel” perspective that sometimes accompanies these demonstrations. We believe that more will be accomplished by the nonviolent flavor of a Martin Luther King, Jr.-led demonstration than by a demonstration that can easily be portrayed as filled with “hate-Israel” types. We understand the anger created by the murder of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza last year, and we support the call for a full investigation suggested by The Goldstone Report to the U.N. But we believe that the demonstrations would be far more significant if done in a way that reassured the Israeli people that their legitimate grievance at the shelling of Israeli civilians by Hamas in the months before the war in Gaza was taken by the demonstrators was also being acknowledged, thereby conveying that the solution sought by peace forces recognizes that the larger struggle between Israel and Palestine is too complex to fit in any “good guys vs. bad guys” scenario.

Health

What are YOU grateful for?

By |

Please use the comments to let us know! If I stop to think what I have to be grateful for the list gets way long. Here are a few of the things that could very well be filling my heart as I hold hands with my family around the Thanksgiving table on Thursday, though I know I won’t say even this starter list because the meal will get cold if I do. Just saying “thanks for our health” will cover a lot of this, but how inadequately! I am grateful for:

still having a job in this recession.

Politics & Society

Thanks for Good News on World Poverty

By |

You may have seen the UNICEF report that came out this week. What did you notice most about it? My wife read out bits of it from the newspaper at breakfast and she was just delighted. Can you believe this! she said:
the number of deaths of children under 5 decreased from around 12.5 million in 1990 to an estimated 8.8 million in 2008 – a 28 percent decline.

Politics & Society

The Sri Lanka situation — and Gaza

By |

I am still not paying attention to the Sri Lankan situation: are you? I posted about it here way back in May when it was much more in the news. Even with Google it’s not as quick as I expected to get updates on what’s been happening to the 270,000 Tamil refugees locked up in a hastily constructed camp in May, when the government won the war against the Tamil Tigers. At the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, which describes itself as nonpartisan (“this Campaign has no ethnic, religious or regional affiliations – its concern is the well-being of all Sri Lankans”) and has Noam Chomsky among others on its Advisory Council, the overview is now a couple of months out of date:

The starting conditions were appalling but they have become even worse. By October, when the monsoons arrive, these camps will become killing fields — this time it will not be bombs but water borne diseases like typhoid and cholera.

Environment

Naomi Klein on Copenhagen

By |

This sounds interesting and hopeful. It’s about how the Seattle protests of ten years ago were more anti than pro, more critical than analytical. The Copenhagen protests promise to be more grown up. Best quote:
“I hope we have grown up to become much more disobedient,” Jordan said, “because life on this world of ours may well be terminated because of too many acts of obedience.” More quotes:
The big criticism of the movement the media insisted on calling “antiglobalization” was always that it had a laundry list of grievances and few concrete alternatives.