Politics & Society

The Darkest side of Occupation: Hebron 2

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Mike Godbe, a young American on a free Birthright tour of Israel, continues his diary and photos of the tour, reporting his experiences and the ways the tour staff present the history and politics of the country. Earlier posts from East Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Masada, Mt. Herzl, Jerusalem, a kibbutz, and Caesaria can be accessed by clicking the corresponding links. March 21, 2010 – Hebron
I have been putting off writing this post about my visit to Hebron because I do not feel sure of myself in conveying the power of the experience, or communicating what I witnessed daily life in Hebron to be. For the Palestinians that hosted me, fed me, and showed me around, it is important that I bring their stories outside Hebron.

Earth-based Religions

Permaculture and Paganism, an Interview with Starhawk (1)

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Starhawk was generous with her time while she was here in Madison a month ago. She granted me two interviews, the first about Palestine and the second — which I will begin to post today now that I’m back from my vacation — about permaculture. For those of you who don’t know her, Starhawk is the best-known Wiccan author alive today. She’s published eleven books, including The Spiral Dance, which introduced many of us to Wicca. From the beginning of her career, she’s been very involved as an activist, and since the 1990s she’s been most active in promoting permaculture.

Humanism

Radical Passover: Celebrating Collective Resistance

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Why is there an olive on the Seder plate? Why is there an orange on the seder plate? And how can the liberation story of Passover relate to our modern-day struggles against oppression? Traditional Passover haggadot (the books of readings used at seder services) are full of answers but not to these questions. But then again, most seder plates don’t have olives and oranges on them …

Politics & Society

Good Friday and the Threat/Promise of Compassion: Unpacking the Ire Over Healthcare Reform

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“Obama is not a brown-skinned anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare. You’re thinking of Jesus.”-John Fugelsang
Probably the most tweeted and Facebook-shared quote of the week, this quip from actor, comedian, and spiritual progressive John Fugelsang gives voice to a particularly ironic feature of the current political debate: Many of those who hurled insults at the legislators who voted for health care reform will, on this Good Friday, be mourning in church services over the death of a revolutionary healer whose uncompromising generosity and compassion got him killed. On Good Friday, Christians remember the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, an event that over the years has become so sentimentalized, personalized, and spiritualized that its political significance has been all but lost, except perhaps among those of us most desperate for hope of an alternative to the violence, exploitation, callousness, and domination of our own current social order. But then, Jesus has always spoken most powerfully to the nearly hopeless and desperate. In order to grasp the spiritual significance of the crucifixion, we must remember that Jesus was not some kind of airbrushed ancient guru surrounded at all time with soft lighting and an ethereal glow, or a friendly ancient Santa Claus figure who welcomed children onto his lap, but an iconoclastic, ragged, homeless healer and teacher known for inspiring prostitutes, criminals, lepers, and low-level government workers with a message of their own wholeness, essential sufficiency, and belovedness of God.

Environment

"Why can't there be a re-emergence of a culture of generosity?"

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A San Francisco lot that once held a Lutheran church, which burned down in 1995, and has been a wasteland since then, is now being turned into an urban farm by volunteers. The group leader is a man named Tree. “Doing things for free encourages people to share,” Tree said. “It encourages people to be community, to be family. It provides people the chance to be generous with each other.”

Politics & Society

Obama Needs Our Help to Stand Firm Against Israeli Building Projects in East Jerusalem

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Not every moment is as promising for changing the dynamics in Israel/Palestine as the current one. It is time to support the Obama administration, which momentarily has developed a bit of a backbone in response to the Israeli government, which revealed its total arrogance and lack of respect for the United States and for the possibility of any real concessions for peace by announcing that it was going to build 1,400 more housing units in Palestinian East Jerusalem (not the Old City, where Jews have an historic claim that deserves respect, but in the part of Jerusalem built by and for Arabs in the past 200 years and then conquered by Israel in 1967). [brclear]
The Obama administration’s new backbone is unlikely to last in the face of the assault already started by AIPAC friends in Congress, unless there is a loud cry of support for his administration’s demand that building new housing in Jerusalem stop during negotiations. The construction of housing must stop because whether Israel has jurisdiction to build or run East Jerusalem is part of what the negotiations are about and therefore shouldn’t be resolved by Israel “creating facts” on the ground which de facto render the negotiations moot. So here is what you can do: Send an email to your congressperson and senator telling them of your concern.

General News

On Glenn Beck and Social Justice

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This is not the first time that Glenn Beck has said outrageous things. He has called President Obama a racist. He called Van Jones, special advisor for green jobs to President Obama, a communist. Now Beck is calling social justice a codeword for socialism. The logical fallacy that Beck makes here is to think that because there may be some forms of socialism that are bad, that everything that calls for social justice is also bad.

Christianity

Video Interview-Brazilian Claudio Oliver

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Some of you Tikkun-ers have told me from time to time: “Share with us about the people who inspire from your context in Brazil.” Fair enough. I’ve already posted a link to one other video of my dear Brazilian friend, Claudio Oliver. But I couldn’t resist posting another: a video interview that took place earlier this week in Australia. This video continues the same line of reflection regarding poverty, friendship, and the presence/action of the local Christian communities.

Culture

Constraining Play: How Surrealist Art Can Nourish Our Political Imaginations

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In one image a winged bird flaps her wings but remains rooted to the ground. In another a fork-headed monster rushes by, a small bird fluttering at its heart. Nearby a masked bundle of writing appears to be stuck in a toilet bowl. These are just a few of the uncanny creatures that emerged three years ago when some friends and I started playing “exquisite corpse,” a collaborative drawing game invented by surrealists in the 1920s. So many of the drawings evoke unexpected scenes of constraint.