On Morals/Values
What's Moral, What's Immoral?
Busianity Makes a Mockery of Christ
Widely Shared Values
A Revolution of Values
Christmas Values
Where and how you shop reflects your values: FAIR TRADE
Faith in Action: Tsusnamis that affect us all
The pope, Terri Schiavo, and moral consistency
"The truth is that hungry people are going without food stamps, poor children are going without healthcare, elderly are going without medicine, and schoolchildren are going without textbooks because of war, tax cuts, and a lack of both attention and compassion from our political leaders. The moral contradictions are too great to ignore. The deepening injustice of America’s domestic priorities is increasingly impossible to justify. It’s becoming a religious issue." - Jim Wallis from his New York Times Bestseller, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get it.
What's Moral, What's Immoral?
Dr. Robin Meyers, speaking at the Oklahoma University Peace Rally November 14, 2004.
As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, an Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most number of angry letters to the editor.
Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian. We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having swung the election to President Bush. Well, I'm a great believer in moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly what constitutes a moral value. I mean what are we talking about?
Because we don't get to make them up as we go along, especially not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited tradition of what is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does. Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim moral values are on their side:
When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.
When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.
When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them
on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.
When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.
When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero, you are doing something immoral.
When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.
When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called "enemy combatants" of the rules of the Geneva Convention, which your own country helped to establish and insists that other countries follow, you are doing something immoral.
When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you, or with the terrorists and then launch a war which enriches your own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted, instead of helping us to kick the habit, you are doing something immoral.
When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay for a war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our children, you are doing something immoral.
When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn't matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have done something immoral.
When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.
When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower of Jesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of the kingdom, you are doing something immoral.
When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect the earth which is God's gift to us all, so that the corporations that bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done something immoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.
When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral. We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.
When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a "compassionate conservative," using the word which is the essence of all religious faith --compassion, and then show no compassion for anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to you for help, you are doing something immoral.
When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the sick, but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to see a doctor, even if she doesn't have a penny in her pocket, you are doing something immoral.
When you put judges on the bench who are racist, and will set women back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers who say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.
I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must be a supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gay rights I must not be a person of faith. I'm tired of people saying that I can't support the troops but oppose the war.
I heard that when I was your age, when the Vietnam War was raging. We knew that that war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong. The only question is how many people are going to die before these make-believe Christians are removed from power?
This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people who can turn things around are people like you young people who are just beginning to wake up to what is happening to them. It's your country to take back. It's your faith to take back. It's your future to take back.
Don't be afraid to speak out. Don't back down when your friends begin to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut. Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real Muslims, and real Hindus, and real Buddhists. So do all the faith traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is precious. Every human being is precious.
Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith. And war is the greatest failure of the human race and thus the greatest failure of faith.
There's an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: "War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing." And what is the dream of the prophets? That we should study war no more, that we should beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Who would Jesus bomb, indeed? How many wars does it take to know that too many people have died? What if they gave a war and nobody came? Maybe one day we will find out.
Time to march again my friends. Time to commit acts of civil disobedience. Time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in the madness. My generation finally stopped a tragic war. You can, too!
"Don’t Let the Car Fool You, My Real Treasure is in Heaven":
Bushianity Makes a Mockery of Christ
by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
A few days ago I saw a brand new PT Cruiser with a bumper sticker that, at first glance, didn’t make sense: “Don’t Let the Car Fool You, My Real Treasure Is in Heaven". Several classy-looking Christian symbols adorned the vehicle, along with the ubiquitous “We Support Our Troops and President Bush" and “W" window seals.
As I stared at this odd assortment, the meaning dawned on me. Unlike the old bumper sticker that read, "My Other Car is a Mercedes", this one wasn’t an exercise in self-deprecating humor: It was bragging to passersby about the driver’s money, which isn’t too shabby, since a new PT Cruiser starts at $14,000. Bob Sheer writes about this new culture of greed, cleverly disguised as "Christian":
"So why gut the bankruptcy law now? Greed, pure and simple. And, pathetically, this bankers' dream is becoming a reality through the support of Republicans who have decided, as they often do with social issues, to selectively pick and choose when to follow the teachings of the Bible.
"A key sponsor of the bill, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), actively opposes abortion and same-sex marriage on biblical grounds yet believes the Good Book's clear definition and condemnation of usury is irrelevant. The Old Testament, revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike, mandates debt forgiveness after seven years, as was pointed out earlier this month by an organization of Christian lawyers in a letter to Grassley. "I can't listen to Christian lawyers," said the senator, "because I would be imposing the Bible on a diverse population." The Bankruptcy Bill: A Tutorial in Greed, Commondreams, 3/15/05
Of course, imposing the Bible on a diverse population is what the Bushians do best -- but not the whole Bible, as Mr. Sheer notes. Not only are inconvenient verses in the Old Testament ignored by rightwing politicians, but most of Jesus’ teachings are, as well. For the Bush administration, Christ’s most deplorable teachings are those that advocate nonviolence, love of one’s enemy, social justice, the refusal to store up riches on earth, praying privately without wearing one’s piety on one’s sleeve, and choosing instead to share with the needy and vulnerable.
I do wonder how the strategy meetings must have gone in the months and years prior to November 2000. The primary question on the minds, if not the lips, of Bush’s more cynical strategic advisors must have been: How in the world can we get America’s huge Christian population to sign on with a wealthy movement aiming to disconnect Jesus’ non-Republican teachings from Christianity, hollowing out the last vestiges of charity and justice that remain in America’s legal codes, moral values and social contract?
Easy, some bright fellow may have said while sipping his cappuccino -- just look Christian, talk Christian, pray Christian, and nobody will ever know the difference. When promoting unChristlike policies, be careful to surround them with a lot of prayer and somber-faced talk about "values" and "godliness". Always end with "God bless America", throw in "One nation under God", and talk a lot about Jesus saving you from this or that sin. But never quote Jesus if you can help it -- too liberal.
The Difference Between Bushianity and Christianity: "That Poor-People Stuff"
Bushianity is really all about power and wealth - the divine right of the haves to get more of each, in order to better supervise the have-nots. Bushianity is quietly (discretely, always discretely) hostile to Jesus’ teachings, but loudly praises his birth (before he could teach) and his death (after he could teach). Nothing between those two events in Jesus’ life is of interest to Bushians, who greatly prefer the fire-breathing biblical writers advocating ruthless wars, slavery, female submission, the masses’ unquestioning obedience of rulers, and the death penalty for homosexuals and rebellious children.
The faith-based Bush administration, disinterested as usual in "that poor-people stuff", is working fast and furious on a number of fronts to put working and financially strapped Americans in their place. Its hallmark strategy for stealing from the poor to give to the rich is to overwhelm the public with multiple simultaneous changes, thus pre-empting time to think about, pray about, or oppose them.
The ultimate goal is to replace traditional American "we’re all in this together" culture with the Bushian "You’re On Your Own-ership Society". In this nightmare world, the working people are thrashed with measure after measure aimed at taking what once was theirs. The rationale underlying this "society" (a huge cluster of individuals with no obligations to one another) is as follows:
"If you want to be a good Christian you have to be a good Republican, and to be a good Republican you have to be a pure capitalist -- no "safety net" garbage, please. Don’t get involved in other peoples’ misery. Take care of Number One. You don’t owe them anything. Don’t share with others, except in little dribs and drabs called "faith-based" -- sharing is for girly-men, makes lazy people lazier, and sets a bad precedent that your Ownership neighbors will resent. Oh, and don’t look to us for help if misfortune strikes; you brought it on yourself.
The Bushians have been incredibly successful in their efforts to strike Jesus’ teachings from the record and from the hearts of Bush supporters. They decry any attempt to remove four words, "one nation under God", out of the pledge, while working to purge Christ’s values from something that’s a matter of life and death for many vulnerable Americans: the national budget. Bob Sheer sheds light on the sorrow that lies ahead:
"Sadly, when it comes to serving the prerogatives of banks, you can forget about those family values that folks such as Grassley prattle on about. The bill he wrote placed mothers and their children behind credit card companies in the line for a bankrupt ex-husband's paycheck, for example, which is positively Dickensian. Expected to sail through the House and onto the president's desk in the next few weeks, the bill turns the federal government into a guardian angel of an industry gone mad, placing no significant restriction on soaring interest rates and proliferating fees.
"One extremely modest amendment that was rejected by the Senate would have blocked creditors from recovering debts from military personnel if the loans had annual rates higher than 36%. Also killed were sensible amendments designed to protect those ruined by a medical emergency, identity theft, dependent-caregiver expenses or loss of income due to being called to full-time military duty through the National Guard or the Reserve."
Jesus Didn’t Plead
The Bush budget is indeed immoral, and as Sheer points out, it’s unpatriotic too! Progressive Christians are terribly upset and worried about what lies ahead, and are trying to get this administration, falsely advertised as "Christian", to change course. I agree wholeheartedly with the objectives of the "Christian Left" - but something is missing. We are tilting at windmills because we don’t really see what we’re up against.
"U.S. church activists rallied on Capitol Hill on Monday to protest the proposed 2006 federal budget, which they contend provides too little funding for children and the poor. "It's quite troubling," said Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, speaking of the Bush administration's budget request. "There's not enough money for public education, health care and children."
"…The Bush administration's $2.5 trillion budget request for fiscal 2006 gives a 5 percent increase to the Pentagon and a 7 percent increase to the Department of Homeland Security, while cutting 11.5 percent from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 4.5 percent from community development programs and $45 billion from the Medicaid health program for the poor.
"It was the second time in less than a week than a coalition of church groups gathered in Washington to plead their case." Church Coalition Takes Aim at US Budget Plan, Reuters, 3/14/05
Yes, the Bush budget is troubling, and will harm American citizens, particularly the young, the old and the sick, from sea to shining sea. But I’m afraid that the good churches can plead for an eternity and see nothing more than a condescending nod from the White House. Sorry to be a pessimist, but the truth of the matter is that we can’t expect Bushians to listen to Christians. That’s because, in spite of their joint use of the label "Christian", these religions are quite different.
You can’t fight what you don’t understand. Until we admit that Bushianity is the mirror opposite of Christianity, we’ll keep "pleading". Such entreaties may make us feel better but they’ll fall on deaf ears. Christians, if we hope to be actually help the poor, the weak and the suffering, must stop making the soothing but dangerously mistaken assumption that "we’re all Christians, after all", following the same teachings and worshipping the same God. We are not. It’s time we woke up and smelled the coffee, as Ann Landers used to say.
When Jesus saw the corruption of the temple by "the money changers" - actually a highly political use of religion with monetary rewards for the "haves" - he didn’t plead. He didn’t expect the hypocritical religious and political leaders of his day to have ears to hear, and focused his energies instead on calling sincere religious people to turn away from their greedy leaders and back to God. It’s time we did the same.
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst is a clinical psychologist, author of Jesus on Parenting: 10 Essential Principles That Will Transform Your Family (2004) and coauthor of The Nonviolent Christian Parent (2004). She offers parenting workshops, holds discussion groups on Nonviolent Christianity, and writes the column, "Democracy, Faith and Values: Because You Shouldn’t Have to Choose Just One" as seen on her website.
Editorial: Values - Many are Widely Shared
November 8, 2004, startribune.com
On the subject of moral values, which figured so prominently in the election just past, there is much more that needs to be said. This is just a start.
Beyond the set of values that motivated the religious right to turn out for President Bush, there are two other sets that often get overlooked in political analysis. The first involves values that almost all Americans share, no matter their political leanings.
Strong families are an important all-American value. That includes strong, lasting marriages built around fidelity, trust and personal growth. It includes sound parenting and secure homes that nurture the development of healthy, happy and accomplished children. And it includes respect, care and concern for the elderly.
Other shared, all-American values include respect for the rights of others and for the law, respect for the value of work, belief in the value of community, love for this nation and dedication to keeping it safe, secure and prosperous.
A third set of values is held dear by those in the center and left, and it often gets ignored in discussions of moral values. The list is long, but it surely includes these beliefs:
• Poverty is immoral and corrosive. Combatting it requires sustained community investment -- yes, including through taxes, that price of civilization.
• Unjust war is also immoral and requires strenuous opposition. Sending American troops to their death is immoral unless it is absolutely necessary to the defense of this nation.
• Education at all levels has a value all its own, separate from the market-driven need to remain competitive and to generate jobs. Seeing to it that all children thrive in a safe and stimulating learning environment is a moral duty. While you can attach a positive economic value to early childhood education, for example, it's also just the right thing to do, no matter what. While a child must be able to read in order to make it economically in this world, the joy and wonder a child gains from learning to read has inherent value separate from the marketplace.
From kindergarten through graduate education, Americans are called to value and support learning for its own sake, as well as for the prosperity it can provide.
• Care for the environment is a moral as well as economic necessity. The Earth is not ours to foul as we would. We are stewards, required to protect the Earth for lesser living things and for all the generations of our children yet to come. It is the most precious inheritance we have, and it is our duty to pass it on in a condition that can continue to sustain wholesome, prosperous life.
• Tolerance is a value at the very heart of the American experiment. Tolerance for those of widely varying religious views, and those who embrace no religion. Tolerance for those who are new to America and its ways. Tolerance for those of all sexual orientations, because it is a personal matter that impinges not in the slightest on the lives, beliefs and behaviors of those who love differently.
It is sometimes said that those in the center and on the left seek to impose a "gay agenda" on America. No, they don't; they seek to extend to gays and lesbians the rights and personal freedoms that all Americans should enjoy. That's the essence of tolerance, and in America there exists a profound bias in favor of it. There's a profound difference between those who seek to restrict freedom and those who seek to extend it in all ways that do not conflict with the rights of others.
There are immoral people in America, but they are not those who hold the beliefs enumerated above and others that are similar. Morality is not the exclusive property of the socially conservative among us. It's time others stake their own compelling claims to the high ground.
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A Revolution of Values
Martin Luther King Jr.
Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world...
Yet it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war.
I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities.
If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers around the world wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? That the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours.
Source: Address at Riverside Church, New York, NY, April 4, 1967
Christmas values
E.J. Dionne, Jr. - Washington Post Writers Group
12.24.04 - "No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God -- for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God."
-- the late Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador
This is supposed to be the year when moral values dominated politics. On the eve of Christmas, let's talk about values.
In any given city this Christmas, homeless people will not be looking forward to opening presents. They will be lucky to have a go at all. They will, by Archbishop Romero's radical and demanding definition, be the true participants in Christmas. But it's unlikely that the rest of us will think much about them. Isn't that a question of values?
Unemployed parents who love their children as much as the rest of us love ours won't have the same chance to show them materially the love they feel in their hearts. God willing, their kids will understand. But some kids, watching other kids in the television ads, might wonder: Why can those other parents give their kids all that stuff that my parents can't give me? Isn't that a question of values?
In the fall, I got the chance to moderate a post-election panel at Fordham University's Center on Religion and Culture in New York City. Former Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska noted that on Jan. 1, the quotas protecting what's left of the American textile and apparel industry will end. "Over a 12-month period," he said, "three or four million jobs that are currently paying $8 to $10 an hour are going bye-bye unless those jobs are protected."
"Now, I hazard to guess that most of those individuals will move into the ranks of poverty," Kerrey went on. "They'll move to minimum wage jobs, which is 20 or 30 percent under poverty today. ... If it's a young woman who gets pregnant and says, 'I don't have health insurance anymore. I can't -- it's expensive to raise a baby right today' -- that they're more likely to choose an abortion even if Bush appoints anti-Roe v. Wade justices that overturn it, because they're going to make what I consider to be a tragic choice out of economic necessity."
Whatever you think of abortion or, for that matter, free trade, who can argue Kerrey's central assertion: that the abortion rate is more likely to go up when economic opportunities for the poor are curtailed? (As Mark W. Roche of Notre Dame noted in The New York Times this fall, the abortion rate dropped by 11 percent during the prosperous years of the Clinton presidency.) Shouldn't all who care about abortion be passionately committed to changing the economic circumstances in which women make their choices? Isn't that a question of values?
In many parts of our country, parents who lack health insurance are wondering if they will be around for their children next Christmas. A mother has a lump on her breast and worries about the cost of having it checked out. A father has chronic chest pains but decides that seeing a cardiologist would be too expensive. They ought to get help. Isn't that a question of values?
In Iraq, young men and women serving their country complain of equipment shortages and wonder why their leaders didn't send enough troops in the first place. Could it be that acknowledging the true cost of the Iraqi invasion at the outset might have endangered all those tax cuts -- and might have reduced support for the war? Isn't that a question of values?
Archbishop Romero was murdered on March 24, 1980, because he chose to stand with El Salvador's poor against a repressive regime. "Brothers, you came from our own people," Romero told soldiers in El Salvador's army. "You are killing your own brothers. ... In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression."
How many among the cardinals and bishops and pastors and preachers and televangelists who now enjoy favor in high places would have the courage to do what Archbishop Romero did? In fairness, how many of the rest of us would? Isn't that a question of values?
A child was born in a manger because there was no room for His family anywhere else. Wasn't that a question of values?
(c) 2004, Washington Post Writers Group
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Faith in Action
Below is a letter from FaithfulAmerica.org - an online community of people of faith working to build a more just and compassionate nation. (Justice and compassion being in direct accord with the teachings of Christ.)
The issues below seem to be virtually ignored by our mainline evangelical and fundamental churches. It's time that we start demonstrating our faith. Not through words and testimony, nor through tallies of those we have "saved" or converted to our way of thinking. Rather demonstration through the activity of love (as Christ prescribes) for our fellow human beings. We can start by acting to defuse the Tsunamis that threaten us all. - Tim Nyberg, Liberalware.com host
The Tsunamis That Threaten Us All
As Presidents Clinton and Bush Sr. wind up their trip to the Tsunami-ravaged region, we at FaithfulAmerica thank you for your continued concerns, prayers, and gifts for the massive rebuilding effort. We now know that this tragedy, though off the front pages, will require at least a decade to overcome. Next month we will call for a time of remembrance, reflection, and action on the third month anniversary of the tragedy. We will also soon unveil a long-term plan to help rebuild a small portion of the area and we’ll invite you to participate.
Friends, while the latest estimates put the current death toll at 162,000, this is neither the only nor the most devastating tsumani. They are all around us and most are preventable. For instance:
World hunger claims lives at a rate of more than one tsunami PER WEEK!
World hunger, one of the most preventable of human tragedies, claims 25,000 lives every day, according to Bread for the World.
HIV-AIDS kills at a rate of more than 19 tsunamis in one year!
HIV-AIDS may surpass the black plague as humanity’s worst epidemic, according to Peter Lamptey, president of the Family Health International Aids Institute. An estimated 14,000 people worldwide are infected EVERY DAY A staggering 3.1 million persons worldwide died of AIDS.
The killing in Sudan equals, in the most “optimistic” scenario, roughly two tsunamis; the worst case scenario is seven tsunamis!
If the genocide in Sudan continues unchecked, according to Andrew Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International Aid, “We will have one million casualties. If things improve we can get it down to about 300,000 deaths."
And what of the self-inflicted Tusami’s much closer to home?
Health Care Tsunami: 18,000 Americans died last year because they lacked health insurance
Iraqi Tsunami: We are approaching a Tsunami’s worth of innocent deaths in Iraq. Was it worth the cost?
Our Choking Planet: Our nation’s environmental policy, in particular the Bush administrations abandonment of the Kyoto Protocol, may prove the costliest and most preventable mistake of our time
The Federal Budget Tsunami: The new budget represents a sea of self imposed Tsunamis The budget’s additional 1.6 TRILLION dollar tax cut for the wealthiest few represents generations of future tsunamis. - and not one penny of the trillions of dollars expected to pay for the proposed privatization of Social Security is in the budget.
Dear Friends, it is time we stopped nodding to the rhetoric and began examining the results! The tsunamis around us are all the consequences of decisions made by our elected leaders.
Let’s put aside the speeches and high-sounding moral language of our elected leaders for a moment. Instead, step into our common-sense corner and ask yourself these questions:
1) Do the results of my government’s actions reflect my faith or my moral values?
2) Do the results of my government’s policies make me proud to support them with my tax dollars?
3) Do the results of my government’s decisions make me feel more confident and secure about my children’s and my nation’s future?
We have all heard enough rhetoric. In the coming weeks we will ask for your help to lift the voices of faithful people across our land of every religion and creed - who believe we are called to a higher standard for our public policy. We believe we have a moral obligation to demand results that are truly rooted in love, guided by a common commitment to a hopeful vision, and grounded in faithful wisdom.
Your voice will be more important than ever as we seek to bring a moral and compassionate commitment to our public policy. If you have not yet signed up for FaithfulAmerica, please do it now at: www.faithfulamerica.org and click the "join" button.
- Vince Isner and the FaithfulAmerica.org Team
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The pope, Terri Schiavo, and moral consistency
by Jim Wallis, Sojourners
It's sadly rare for a church leader, or for the leaders of most of our dominant institutions, to demonstrate a spirituality that attracts millions of people around the world - particularly so many young people. But the scene of millions lining up to simply pass by the body of John Paul II in Rome this week is remarkable indeed. The enormous attraction to this pope goes far beyond agreement with all the positions of the Catholic Church or even all of the decisions of his papacy. Indeed the "ecumenical" and even "interfaith" attraction to John Paul II reflects his own practice of reaching out to more people in more faith traditions than any other pope ever has.
One of the great attractions of Pope John Paul II's spirituality was his consistency. At the core of Catholic social teaching is the idea of a "consistent ethic of life," an ethic that seeks to protect and defend human life and dignity wherever and whenever they are threatened, and which challenges the selective moralities of both the political left and right.
As I've been watching the non-stop coverage of the pope's death, I have been struck by how many people - especially political leaders - would like to claim the pontiff as their own, as someone who affirmed their causes and commitments. At the same time, they tend to ignore the other things this pope said and did that directly challenge their own political decisions.
Many conservatives are pointing to the pope's clear teachings on abortion, euthanasia, and sexual morality, which are often contrary to the positions of many liberals. But they seem to forget the strong and passionate opposition of this pope to the war in Iraq, capital punishment, and the operations of a global economy that neglect the poor and deny human rights for millions. This pope helped bring down communism, but also was no capitalist and constantly lifted up a vision of economic justice. Promoting a "culture of life" was the language of John Paul's papacy before it became the rhetoric of President Bush, and its meaning goes far beyond the narrow interpretations of the Republican Party. Yes, Pope John Paul II certainly opposed John Kerry's views on abortion, but the White House did not get the photo op they wanted when the president visited the Vatican and the pope shook his finger disapprovingly at George W. Bush over the American war in Iraq.
Consistency is deeply attractive to people who long for public integrity - particularly to a new generation. The same lack of consistency in the politically selective eulogies of the pope also characterized the highly politicized responses to the sad story and death of Terri Schiavo.
Personally, I cannot understand why parents willing to take care of their disabled daughter were not allowed to by a husband who had moved on to another life and family. Terri Schiavo was severely mentally disabled but was not dying, and we don't decide to end the lives of many similarly disabled people, even children, whose mental capacities greatly diminish their quality of life. As my wife, Joy Carroll, put it, "the issue is not their quality of life, but the ethical quality of our society." And in situations of medical, scientific, or legal complexity, the morally safer course is always to err on the side of life. However, it became painfully clear that for many political partisans the issue wasn't so much the life of this young woman but other related political issues and agendas. And a leaked Republican memo about firing up the conservative base of the party and even defeating Democratic opponents in Florida were way out of line.
Again, the issue is consistency. Will Schiavo's defenders now also care more about the loss of civilian lives in Iraq or prisoners (even innocent ones) put to death on death row? Will they refuse to accept the silent tsunami that takes the lives of 30,000 children every day due to hunger and disease, or even support the Medicaid funding for vulnerable people that helped sustain Schiavo's life for many years? Somehow I doubt it.
Consistency is spiritually and morally attractive. We didn't see much of it in the tragic drama of Schiavo. But the life of John Paul II is a lesson of its truth and power for all of us.
This article is reposted from Sojo.net's Sojomail
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