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Invitation to ICA Archives Spring Sojourn, Mar. 13-17, 2017
by Timothy Wegner via Dialogue 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

2017 ICA Global Archives Spring Sojourn March 13-17, 2017 February 15, 2017 Dear Colleagues and Friends, You are invited to attend the 2017 Archives Spring Sojourn, March 13 – March 17, to be held at the ICA GreenRise Building in Chicago. SOJOURN HIGHLIGHTS The Spring Sojourn will begin at 9am Monday morning with: - A report from the Archives Advisory Committee on the current work of the Archives including the new website creation in collaboration with DePaul University - Status of the digitization process - Work being done by the Dominican University interns in preparation for the Fall Sojourn which will be focused on the Human Development Projects – Then and Now. - Ted Wysocki, CEO, will be doing an ICA Update and a conversation about the 40 year celebration of the Band of 24 Social Demonstration Projects in the fall. Individuals interested in working on the Fall Celebration of the Band of 24 are especially encouraged to attend. On Monday evening, the DePaul class of students will report on their website work and solicit our input for the new ICA Global Archives website. On Wednesday morning, there will be a session to plan and create objectives for the Fall Sojourn which will focus on the Band of 24. On Wednesday evening, Lesley Showers and Jim Troxel will report on the ICA GreenRise Capital Campaign at a reception including local colleagues. The final reporting session is scheduled for Friday, March 17 at 2pm to share the accomplishments of the week, followed by our Archives Sojourn Celebration. >From ICA Global Archives Team members: Beret Griffith, Doug Druckenmiller, Jack Gilles, Wendell Refior, Jean Long, Paul Noah, Olive Ann Slotta, Tim Wegner, James Wiegel, Mary Laura Jones, Nancy Trask, Ed Feldmanis and Steve Ediger P. S, - See the next page for the timeline for March 13 – March 17 Spring Archives Sojourn: Time Design Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Collegium 7am Poetry New media NRM New Spirit Movement New Human Development Profound Intent of the Archives Morning 9am Week Overview Archive work plan Website planning HDP research/Archive work HDP research/Archive work Report Preparation Afternoon 1pm Archive work plan HDP research/Archive work HDP research/Archive work HDP research/Archive work Final reports & Celebration Evening 5pm Website class presentation Green Mill Greenrise presentation Movie Night Meal Reservations: Alice will provide meals for attendees at $10 a day. Room Reservations: If you plan to stay at the ICA GreenRise, room cost is $30.00 a night and meals are $10.00 a day. To make room reservations send email to: reception(a)ica-usa.org Please contact Jean Long with questions or comments Email: Jean.long512(a)gmail.com Mobile: 720-633-5008 <(720)%20633-5008> -- Thanks until later. "To believe what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men -- that is genius." - Emerson in "Self-Reliance" Wendell

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Resource Extraction and Climate Issues: URGENT: CALL ADDITIONAL SENATORS to VOTE NO ON SCOTT PRUITT
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 17 Feb '17

17 Feb '17

Dear Friends of the Environment, URGENT: The Senate is scheduled to vote today on Scott Pruitt's confirmation as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Please contact your senators if you haven't had a chance to do that and ask them to vote NO. In addition, are names of 7 other senators who may be candidates for voting NO. Pruitt, who is supported by the fossil fuel industry, is not a friend of the EPA and has sued it multiple times. He has neither the knowledge, wisdom nor intent of purpose to serve the best interests of what is needed to create a sustainable and resilient environment. His confirmation will be the first step in weakening EPA's ability to hold corporate (especially fossil fuel) interests accountable, thus weakening communities' ability to protect their land, water and air. When you call, give your name, city, zip code and ask the Senator to vote NO on his confirmation. If you are in Missouri, call these numbers: McCaskill: 202/224-6154 Blunt: 202/224-5721 Leave message on the answering machine if an aide doesn't answer. If an aide answers, give the person your message. Thanks. Ellie elliestock(a)aol.com Help us get in 5,000 calls to each of the seven Senators who could block Scott Pruitt! ********************************** Here is a sample script of what to say: Hello, my name is _______. I'm calling to urge you to vote no on the nomination of Scott Pruitt for EPA Administrator. Scott Pruitt is openly hostile to the EPA's mission and would do immense damage to the agency. We need a leader at the EPA who will enforce our bedrock environmental protections, not seek to undermine them. Please vote no on Scott Pruitt's nomination tomorrow. Thank you. Dial the numbers below to be connected with the Senators' offices: Senator Gardner: 202-224-5941 Senator Flake: 202-224-4521 Senator Graham: 202-224-5972 Senator Alexander: 202-224-4944 Senator Heller: 202-224-6244 Senator Manchin: 202-224-3954 Senator Heitkamp: 202-224-2043 ********************************** Thank you for taking action to stop Scott Pruitt! >From Center for Media and Democracy Today, the Oklahoma County Court found Trump EPA nominee Scott Pruitt in violation of the state’s Open Records Act. The Center for Media and Democracy filed a lawsuit against Pruitt for improperly withholding public records and the court ordered his office to release thousands of emails in a matter of days. In her ruling, Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons slammed the Attorney General’s office for its “abject failure” to abide by the Oklahoma Open Records Act. The judge gave Pruitt’s office until Tuesday, February 21, to turn over more than 2,500 emails it withheld from CMD’s January 2015 records request, and just 10 days to turn over an undetermined number of documents responsive to CMD’s 5 additional open records requests outstanding between November 2015 and August 2016. Today’s expedited hearing was granted after CMD, represented by Robert Nelon of Hall Estill and the ACLU of Oklahoma, filed a lawsuit that has driven unprecedented attention to Pruitt’s failure to disclose his deep ties to fossil industry corporations. On Friday, Pruitt is expected to face a full Senate vote on his nomination to run the EPA. On February 10, Pruitt’s office finally responded to the oldest of CMD’s nine outstanding Open Records Act requests but provided just 411 of the more than 3,000 emails they had located, withholding thousands of emails relevant to the request and still failing to respond to CMD’s eight other outstanding requests. On February 14 CMDfiled a status report with the judge detailing the scope of missing documents, including 27 emails that were previously turned over to The New York Times in 2014. “Scott Pruitt broke the law and went to great lengths to avoid the questions many Americans have about his true motivations,” said Nick Surgey, CMD’s director of research. “Despite Pruitt’s efforts to repeatedly obfuscate and withhold public documents, we’re all wiser to his ways and the interests he really serves. The work doesn’t stop here to make sure communities across the country have the information they need to hold him accountable to the health and safety of our families.” Ahead of today’s hearing, Senators Carper, Whitehouse, Merkley, Booker, Markey and Duckworth – all members of the EPW committee – weighed in on the case, urging the Oklahoma court to require the Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General to release documents relevant to CMD’s open record requests as a matter of “federal importance.” In a letter to the OK Court, the Senators stated: "We are providing this information to the Court today because we have concluded [the] pending Open Records Act requests may be the only means by which the Senate and the general public can obtain in a timely manner critical information about Mr. Pruitt's ability to lead the EPA." "We need to understand whether . . . Mr. Pruitt engaged with the industries that he will be responsible for regulating if he is confirmed as Administrator in ways that would compromise his ability to carry out his duties with the complete impartiality required." Pruitt’s continued lack of transparency extends from a difficult nomination process in which research from CMD demonstrated Pruitt’s repeated pattern of obfuscating ties to deep-pocketed, corporate interests. At his hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, Pruitt faced a series of questions about his private meetings with major fossil fuel companies while chair of the Republican Attorneys General Association and fundraising for the Rule of Law Defense Fund. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse concluded his questioning telling Pruitt his testimony “just doesn’t add up.” Despite failing to respond to any records requests for the past two years, Pruitt told U.S. Senators last week to file more open records requests with his office to answer 19 outstanding questions from his confirmation hearing. After Democratic Senators twice boycotted the EPW Committee vote due to concerns over Pruitt’s conflicts of interests and failure to fulfill open records requests, Republicans resorted to suspending Committee rules to advance his nomination.

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Services for Kjell Knutsen
by David Dunn via Dialogue 16 Feb '17

16 Feb '17

From Marie Sharp: Linda Knutsen has sent word of the death of Kjell Knutsen (father of Lester, Reinard, Andrew, Ray, and Svend). A memorial service will be held in Boise, Idaho with their entire family gathering. The family would appreciate reading stories and condolences from the ICA/OE community during the service. Would you please post Linda's email on both the OE and ICA List-serves? Grace and Peace, Marie Sharp Hi Marie, Neither Andrew or Reinard are on the ICA list-serve, so I wonder if you would make an announcement there for us? The simplest for you would be to just link to this website that Svend (Kjell's youngest son) created: http://kjellknutsen.com <http://kjellknutsen.com/>. The service will be Sunday, February 18 at 2pm at Hillview United Methodist Church, in Boise. Please ask everyone to send their stories and condolences to Andrew at ack2.trailhiker(a)gmail.com <mailto:ack2.trailhiker@gmail.com>. Thank you *so* much, Marie! With metta, Linda — via David Dunn with apologies for the delay.

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2/16/17, Spong/Gretta Vosper: Take Care of Number One
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 16 Feb '17

16 Feb '17

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Take Care of Number One By Gretta Vosper Take Care of Number One. And everything else takes care of itself. I know. You think you’ve opened the wrong email or caught a link to the wrong page. This must be from Mind, Body, Green, or A Daily Dose of Motivation. Maybe you’re signed up to Les Brown’s email list and are used to getting motivational encouragement just like this every day. But this isn’t that. This is what you were looking for. I promise. THIS IS THIS It is a privilege to have been supported throughout the challenge of finding my own voice in the church by one of the most generous of voices we have known in a generation, Bishop John Shelby Spong. Over the course of my entire engagement in theological education and leadership, he has shared his persistent vision of a new church, a new Christianity for the twenty-first century, a Christianity risen from another which no longer made sense. We call it his work, a New Reformation. The New Reformation rises from the ashes of what was and Bishop Spong has spelled out the “what was” with unwavering clarity over the past decades. His vision has been challenged and discussed, wrestled with and dismantled. When his thoughts are crystallized in his next book, I expect the response will be much the same as the response to all his books has been: “More! More!” from one sector and “Enough! Enough!” from another. The one thing that all will agree upon, I am sure, is that the work he stimulated into being is work he hopes will continue with you, with me, and with the next generation. This is this; it is what you were looking for. It is his work, continued. It may not sound like him. It may not even end up where he would have taken it. But this is this, the evolution of a work begun and seeded in each of us. Let’s make him proud. LOOKING OUT FOR NUMBER ONE Bishop Spong gives God first place in his twelve theses. No surprises there. His challenge is not a new one to those who have been exploring Christianity with him over the past decades. Even those very new to his work will recognize his voice in point number one: 1. God Understanding God in theistic categories as “a being, supernatural in power, dwelling somewhere external to the world and capable of invading the world with miraculous power” is no longer believable. Most God talk in liturgy and conversation has thus become meaningless. I'll say. In the spring of 2016, a colleague, irked by my reference to a claim that over half of United Church of Canada clergy “didn’t believe in a supernatural, theistic god,” decided to do a survey to find out just what clergy do believe. He designed it and sent it out to his Facebook friends and followers, and some closed United Church Facebook groups. After collecting over seven hundred and eighty replies, he was encouraged to reach a little further and sent the survey out to presbyteries across the denomination, gathering in a further six hundred and thirty-five respondents. The results represented 56% of active clergy and 31% of inactive clergy, those who are retired or not currently practicing ministry. They were significant numbers even though the survey method prevents us from extrapolating hard truths from its results. The findings were discussed on a variety of platforms and in the media. Initially, they were used to champion the fact that 95% of all clergy in the United Church believe in God. That’s not a big surprise and it didn’t refute what I had said. The bigger question for me, and more the point of the quote I’d presented – that over fifty percent of all clergy in the United Church did not believe in a theistic, supernatural god – was what those clergy mean when they use the word “God” in their liturgies and sermons. I think that’s where Bishop Spong has been going all this time, too. What does the word “God” mean anymore? To make the survey manageable, my colleague had googled the definitions of certain understandings of god that he felt were valid – atheism, agnosticism, deism, panentheism, and theism – and added to them the idea that God was a metaphor, something suggested by a friend. He used the definitions to create statements to assist respondents with their replies. I’ve further morphed his statements to answer my own question, “What do you mean when you use the word “god”? Here are their answers. “Something greater than the universe, that includes and interpenetrates it.” “The creator and ruler of the universe, revealed through supernatural revelation.” “Something that can be only proven through reason and nature, not something supernatural.” “What is good in the human condition.” “Well, I don’t really know if there is such a thing because it can’t be known or proven …” “I don’t use the word. I don’t believe in god(s).” As it turned out, only slightly more than a third of respondents are using a traditional, theistic, supernatural understanding of god in their ministry. In the other section, more respondents reached beyond the prescribed responses to finish the sentence with the words “… a life presence” than those who typed in “God is Trinity.” Clearly, the quick brushstroke that claimed almost all clergy believe in God didn’t represent what is going on. WHEN ONE DOESN’T ADD UP TO ONE The other two-thirds of clergy who responded hold beliefs that don’t fit the grammar of church. They either don’t believe at all or the things they call God don’t necessarily allow for intervention in human affairs or the reception of prayers, aren’t limited by the concerns of the human species, can’t dictate scriptures or privilege one nation or football team over another. They are concepts that have been fleshed out in the halls of academia and claimed by a clergy cohort that has lost faith in the faith of our fathers. And concepts are exclusively tied, so far as we know, to the human brain. Our liturgies, however, don’t celebrate the struggle the human brain experiences when it considers god beyond the childhood images of the long-bearded patriarch lounging on his golden throne. They fall into line with third or fourth century ideas of begotten sons and corporeal beings. Breathe on Me, Breath of God doesn’t sit well with “something greater than the universe, that includes and interpenetrates it.” Even the popular and so much more contemporary All Are Welcome by Marty Haugen speaks of “God’s children,” “God’s reign,” “God’s grace,” “God’s face,” and the ubiquitous “love of God.” These don’t translate into something that can only be proven through nature or reason. Nor do they work very well as metaphors for the human condition. And that’s just a couple of hymns. The sacraments and festivals of the church must make those clergy, who do not hold belief in a traditional, theistic, supernatural god, wince, or as one colleague shared quietly with me at Presbytery one evening, cross their fingers behind their backs. The impregnation of Mary and the Christmas birth narratives; Easter; the language of baptism and communion; the absolution that comes after confession. It is hard to say “God be with you” and hold to an idea of god that is impersonal, universal, interpenetrating everything we know yet beyond anything we can know. It is a simple fact that when we use the word “god,” many of us don’t mean God anymore. We mean something else. MY NUMBER ONE For many years, I was content to use “God” in my liturgies, prayers, sermons, and pastoral visits. I’d been raised in a liberal congregation with an erudite preacher and a Sunday School curriculum that actually taught me about a non-theistic god, even though I had no idea such a concept existed. It was just “God” to me. The love I felt in my family, the warmth of a contented friendship, the exhilaration of a day on the lake in the wind and the rain, the looking out for younger children, and my mother’s care for those in need. We could call all that “God”, though we usually only did that on Sunday. The rest of the time, we just called it love, friendship, fun, responsibility, and being good. Over the course of my education, both in my undergrad and at theological college, new ideas about God fascinated me. Stretching myself past the simple clarity of my youth, the complexities of love, friendship, fun, responsibility, and being good, in other words, of God, were sometimes confusing, sometimes galvanizing, and sometimes heart-wrenching. I learned that love was costly; that friendship not always selfless; that fun could be okay in one situation and completely terrible in another; that responsibility was often too heavy a burden to be carried alone; and that being good was often exhausting and sometimes something I simply couldn’t do. And that all of it could be wrestled with using theological language that bound the struggle to an ancient, often illuminating story. If we are to honor the work of Bishop Spong, we will need to take care of his Number One item: the problem of God. We need to learn to use language that captures the essence of what it is we wish to say but that no longer uses terms that obscure or distract. The best way I know how to do that is to get back to the mid-week language that described and haloed my childhood, the language that, on Sunday, was transformed into “God”. Not a letting go of what God has meant to us but a letting go of the three letters that limit our ability to express it well to one another. Beyond those letters, there is much to celebrate, nurture, engage, and transform. There is also, I believe, a much greater likelihood that we will really care for what it is we’ve called God. ~Gretta Vosper Read the essay online here. About the Author The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada minister who is an atheist. Her best selling books include With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three books of poetry and prayers. Question & Answer Janine from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, writes: Question: If Jesus was divinely conceived, then why do Matthew and Luke give us his lineage in their genealogies? Answer: By Bishop John Shelby Spong Dear Janine, Your question bothered the early Church Fathers who probably added the words found in Luke 3:23 "as was supposed." They also spent lots of energy trying to reconcile the obvious differences in these two accounts of Jesus' ancestry. Your question also speaks to one of the many contradictions that are found in the Bible. I think it is fair to say that the genealogies serve different purposes in the two gospels you mention. It was important to Matthew to link Jesus with the history of the Jews so he begins his genealogy with Abraham and works through the royal line of the Kings of Judah. On the other hand, Luke, who appears to have been born a gentile and to have converted first to Judaism and then to Christianity, begins with Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus and works backward until he arrives at Adam, the presumed father of all humanity, which, of course, included the Gentiles. Luke also ignores the royal line of the Kings of Judah, once he gets past David. He traces the line from David to Nathan (see Luke 3:31). Indeed a comparison of the two genealogies (Matthew 1 and Luke 3) reveals that they do not agree in many details. These early Christians defined God as a Being who was outside of life. When they believed they experienced God in Jesus, they had to explain how this external Being got into this human Jesus. The Virgin Birth was one way two of them, Matthew and Luke, addressed that question. You will not find a miraculous birth tradition in Paul, Mark or John. But Matthew and Luke, the authors of the Virgin tradition, also wanted people to know that Jesus was fully human. The genealogies served well that purpose. This explanation doesn't really close the circle on all the dimensions of the God people believed that they met in Jesus but no human definition of the Holy ever does. ~John Shelby Spong Read and share online here. Announcements Click here to go to website/sign up for email list

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Somehow, this paper, from an old research assembly is catching my attention
by James Wiegel via Dialogue 15 Feb '17

15 Feb '17

Global Research Assembly Chicago Nexus July 1976 THE LIBERAL HERESY Anyone who has been caught up inthe great drive for renewal which characterizes our time will know that thereare forces which work against him. There is something that does not like resurgence,that tries to defeat new life, that is out to destroy anything that speaks ofhope or vitality of a human future. However mild or friendly he may be he findshimself in a life and death struggle with a vicious and malignant enemy that isout to destroy him. This has always been the case, and the enemy has won allkinds of titles for itself over the centuries, such as Satan, the Lord of theFlies, the Cloven Hoof, the Evil One, the Serpent, etc. This essay is noattempt to anatomize him all over again for our time, only to describe one ofhis more dangerous and insidious disguises. I've have called it the LiberalHeresy, because it bears the same relation to true Liberalism as the wolf doesto Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother: it looks pleasant and harmless but infact it is out to gobble you up, so that all your fine intentions and greatexpectations vanish without trace. In the first place this heresyuses the Abstraction of theGood Idea. This is a kind of romantic rationalism or idealism which emphasizesfine ideas and admirable thinking at the expense of effective action. Thus thisliberal might say, "All people should love one another", or,"Freedom of the press at all costs", or "It is tyrannical to usethe English language in Africa", or"All forms of air pollution, including driving and smoking should be madeillegal", and so on. The ideas are not bad on the contrary they are very goodideas, often irrefutable, and that is that gives them their power to destroy.For instance, you know in the very depth of your being that people should loveone another, but since they hate each other and always will it is hard to comeup with a practical response to the love ideal: it would be much more logicalto commit suicide or to sit very still for the rest of your life so that you atleast do not hurt anyone. You don't have to go that route, of course, but thereis something in the tone of such ideals when they come from the liberal hereticthat encourages you to do so. In fact a valuable clue as to whether it is theenemy you are listening to is whether you are getting depressed and paralyzed:if you are, it probably is. He makes you feel terribly reluctant to soilyourself in the dreadful complexity of actual situations, and guilty abouthaving ever gotten involved in something. The problem with this kind ofliberalism is evident. It quickly becomes a brand of hatred for lifemasquerading as compassion or honest thinking. It has the power to destroywhile pretending to redeem. "Action", however, "will remove thedoubt that theory cannot solve", which is why the man of faith is a man ofaction. This is the deep address of a Town Meeting or a Social Demonstration:one necessary deed has more life giving power than a thousand good ideas. In the second place, the liberalheresy uses the Weaponry of anImmediate Eschaton. An immediate eschaton of any kind provides you withenough weapons to destroy pretty much anything." Since the world is on thebrink of extinction (through population explosion or nuclear warfare orinsecticides or Communism or the fuel crisis or the beef shortage or thedrought or galloping inflation or pollution etc.) it need not be takenseriously. Why would you build anything when the whole world is about to comecrashing down about your ears? The best you can do is stock your basement withcanned foods and wait for it to happen, or build up an arsenal and hope you canfight your way out when it happens, or bury your head so that a piece of debrisdoesn't dash your brains out, or just carry on unobtrusively getting the mostyou can out of the few days that are left." This approach to life could berelatively harmless, but it tends to crusade, and in doing so to negateeverything that does not react the same way. For instance if someone says "Unlesswe introduce mandatory sterilization for every welfare recipient in the westernworld there is not going to be any future"' he is implying that any otherhuman undertaking is absolutely futile and pathetic and misguided. Thus alethal attack has been launched, quite possibly without your even realizing it,and any hope or courage you may have had is massacred before you had a chanceto do much about it. Lucidity about inevitable doom isall very well, but when it invites you to base your decisions on fear ordespair it has revealed itself as just another illusion, as hostile to new lifeas any complacency. The clue to the inauthenticity of this stance is that theliberal blithely hops from one eschaton to the next as time moves on. Itproclaims a predestined, imminent, inevitable doom of the world. It bulliespeople into diving on the edge of catastrophe, either taking some emergencyaction or some special dispensation from action It negates any7 seriousresponsibility by showing the way the uselessness of everything. It refuses todeal with existing structures .since there is no time for this and they areall. doomed anyway. Meanwhile Sisyphus continues to roll hisboulder and the man of faith continues with inexorable patience to build theearth. In the third place the libera1heresy is characterized by a propensity to live in The Romanticism of the DemocraticPrinciple. Here the liberal prefers to poll the opinions, reasoned orhaphazard, of every Tom, Dick and Harry, rather than take the awful step ofactually deciding about something. "Since there is nothing to be done wecan at least make the situation less unpleasant by agreeing aboutsomething." In this case political justice takes precedence overeverything, and if someone is upset about what is happening you should stop orsabotage the whole program until they are happy about it. "Every humanbeing is important, therefore we must ride roughshod over no one." A real dyedin the wool liberal heretic will not be deterred by any paralysis or chaos oreven disaster that may ensue from this approach to polity, since to himanything is better than oppression, and therefore it is in fact probablypreferable to abandon an enterprise before someone gets hurt. By the sametoken, he will not co operate with any unjust government. This means of coursethat his hands are rather tied for the moment in America, India, Italy, thePhilippines, China, Russia, Rhodesia, Scotland, and so on, but even if hishands are tied at least they are clean. Since the ideal of one man onevote is very dear to him, and since it is consistently impracticable, one ofthe liberal heretic's more characteristic states of mind is outrage. He swellswith indignation, his eyes flash with scorn: "How can you say that India's doingwell now the Emergency has taken hold?" "How can it be good if MayorDaley thinks it's good?" "So you just went ahead and wrote proposalswithout a single anthropologist on the team? Without even speaking the sevendialects they speak there?" This kind of attack can effectively wreck yourwhole operation if you don't look out. By some tragic irony the cry of libertyand equality that once was used to set men free, and still can be used thatway, has become a weapon to kill initiative. And the one who is using it willprobably look better than his opponent. The man of faith, however, cares forthe world; his reverence extends to all of life. He will not tie his destiny toa political principle, however noble it may be, and he will not condemn wholesections of the world to starvation or chaos because they seem to contradicthis favorite truth about life. He reads the signs of the times, he discernswhat is necessary in order that life and still more life may be given back tothe world, and then uses whatever political mechanisms may be needed for thework to continue. The fourth device used by thisliberal heretic is a safe one Criticismof the Detached Observer. His three best ways of doing this have alreadybeen described, but you cannot rely on him to limit himself to these: he canfind fault with any plan of action, for a boundless variety of reasons, andfurthermore he will, since this is the only way to justify his own immobility.Thus you may come under vicious attack at any time for serving bananas toooften or getting up too early or speaking too plainly or too deviously or withtoo much of a nasal twang or too academically or too inaccurately. No matterhow effective or even miraculous a community program may be, if it fallsoutside the pale of his ethical piosity he will shoot to kill. This may come inthe form of a suave academic critique, or a chocking denunciation of yourtechniques, or a withering description of your wall decor, or some spinechilling hints about your possible political affiliations. Since he is alwaysmore or less justifiable in this activity, and since he is sniping from abullet proof ivory tower, it should be said plainly here that he is verydangerous. Fortunately, however, the hopethat renews community is a hope that does not disappoint; it cannot bedestroyed. Thus, although it is constantly taking the necessary precautionsagainst sabotage it continues relentlessly to do its work. This does not meanthat someone involved in this work is safe on the contrary he is extremely vulnerable and can be wiped out at a moment’snotice, and will be if he doesn't take care. It just means that he can put histrust in nothing but the power of being itself, and when he does he and hiswork are indestructible. Now the liberal heretic has onelast trick up his sleeve to thwart the forces of renewal, and it is liable tocatch you off guard, since it seems so out of tune with the other four. It iscalled the Activism of anInnocent Helper. Just when you were beginning to think he suffered fromsome kind of chronic inertia he swings into action. He jumps up from the tablesaying, "You can just spend another year figuring out how to win the wholewar if you like, but while you are just sitting around I'm going to be outthere doing something.." So he goes off to help someone with something orto visit some old folk or teach someone to read or dig a flowerbed. This is athinly disguised invitation to abandon the Long March of Care for the sake ofsome more reasonable or acceptable kind of activity. The liberal heretic wouldrather be doing something, anything, than the whole thing. Since winning thewar is such an overwhelming responsibility he opts for engaging in a couple ofskirmishes instead. He does not actually want to win, he just wants to be busy,busy enough to be innocent. In the name of hope he perpetuates the despairwhich says, "I knew it was just another do-good project." Under thebanner of action he promotes a rebellion whose goal is in fact the same asbefore: inertia. The man of faith however knowsthe song which goes, "To only to is less/ Than forming humanness,"and though he may share the unbearable impatience to be out gettingkilled in a skirmish he continues to watch over the whole war and pray over thewhole world. The liberal heresy often poses asheroism, but is in fact a cowardly retreat from life's slings and arrows, forunderneath it is a profound negativism, an assumption that real life the way itis, is bad. The opposite approach to life releases human creativity. But thecontemporary campaign for human development often finds itself in peril at thearrival of this enemy in one of its guises. However, as the general says,"Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never bein peril." In this case if you know just one of these you will probablyknow the other well enough. Jim Wiegel “If you want an adventure . . . what a time to be alive!”. Joanna Macy 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353623-363-3277jfwiegel(a)yahoo.comwww.partnersinparticipation.com Upcoming ToP training opportunities in Arizona More info on: ToP® Facilitation Methods ToP® Strategic Planning: Mastering the Technology of Participation Register on line / see the ToP National ScheduleAICP Planners: 14.5 CM for all ToP® courses The AZ ToP® Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday, of every month, 1-4 pm, at ACYR, 648 N. 5th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85003

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Dana Milbank: Here's how you can deal with Trump
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 14 Feb '17

14 Feb '17

On the Opinion page of St Louis Post-Dispatch from Dana Milbank, Washington Post. Perhaps the sentence on rebuilding the structures of society is the best--ToPS, Town Meetings, HDPs anyone? Ellie elliestock(a)aol.com Dana Milbank: Here's how you can deal with Trump Dana Miilbank Close Associated Press President Donald Trump walks out of the West Wing of the House in Washington, Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, to welcome Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) prev next Dana Milbank: Here's how you can deal with Trump Dana Milbank • dana.milbank(a)washpost.com 10 hrs ago (5) Associated Press President Donald Trump walks out of the West Wing of the House in Washington, Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, to welcome Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) prev next I’ve heard it scores of times from Americans frightened, angry or depressed about President Trump: “What can I do?” I recommend to each of them the same regimen I follow myself: Exercise regularly, spend time with family and drink a quart of Everclear every night. But such self-care, as the mental-health practitioners call it, only goes so far. For much of America — the majority of the country that did not vote for Donald Trump — the election has brought about what’s known as a “collective trauma” not unlike the 2001 terrorist attacks. Back then, we stockpiled duct tape, packed go bags and hatched family escape plans — giving us an illusory sense of control over the unimaginable (and, in retrospect, overblown) threats of chemical, biological and radioactive attacks. Now a majority of those on the left, as well as many moderates and conservatives, fear not some unknown terrorist cell but our own president, wary of the calamity he could unleash with his recklessness. One moment he’s attacking the federal judiciary; the next moment he’s assaulting Australia — or Nordstrom. The erratic behavior makes millions of people feel powerless and out of control, which leads to anxiety, anger or despair. But there is a better way. I consulted with leading figures in mobilization — people such as Marshall Ganz, of Cesar Chavez fame, and Harvard University’s Theda Skocpol — and asked them to propose actions an everyday citizen might take. “We need to shift from a reactive to a strategic response,” Ganz says. His solution: Join something. “To the extent it brings you into a relationship with others, it’s worth doing. Unless it has that further dividend, it gets old.” So what to join? My friend Eric Liu, author of the forthcoming book “You’re More Powerful Than You Think,” says even a book club will do. That’s true, in the long run: The idea is to rebuild structures of civil society, the breakdown of which allowed the demagogic Trump to take root. But some organizations do more than others to combat Trump. Here, then, are a few illustrative examples — though their inclusion here is not an endorsement, nor should an omission be seen as a demerit. Organizing. The anti-Trump movement won’t be a left-wing tea party. Objections to Trump transcend ideological lines, the left is fractured by identity politics, and there aren’t many liberal donors who will bankroll resistance the way the Koch brothers funded the tea party. But there are groups that attempt to mobilize: Indivisible. MoveOn. People’s Action. Center for Community Change. PICO. Center for Popular Democracy. Working Families Party. Advertisement Play Current Time 0:00 / Duration Time 0:00 Remaining Time -0:00 Stream TypeLIVE Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% 00:00 Fullscreen 00:00 Mute Playback Rate 1 Subtitles subtitles off Captions captions off Chapters Chapters Legal. Trump has already tried to stretch his powers beyond the usual limits. The Brennan Center, the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center counter him. Media. To combat Trump’s alternative facts, subscribe to your local newspaper. Contribute to NPR. Even buy the “failing” New York Times if you must. (Alternatively, you can send your checks to the Dana Milbank Everclear Fund, c/o The Washington Post.) Labor. Many of the building-trades unions are foolishly hoping Trump will be their friend. But their service- and public-sector brethren — the SEIU, AFSCME, the teachers unions — are bulwarks against him. Intellectual. Demos, the Roosevelt Institute, the Center for American Progress, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Economic Policy Institute and Skocpol’s Scholars Strategy Network all offer brainpower to counter Trump. Party. The Democratic National Committee leadership is so weak that it may not be worth your time. But state and county party committees could use help. Skocpol recommends that if you live in a “blue” state, get your local committee to form a partnership with a party committee in a swing or red state. Politics. If you’d like to run for office, consult your party, or Emily’s List (if you’re a woman) and train with Wellstone Action. For everybody else, find out where your labors are needed. There are gubernatorial races this year in New Jersey and Virginia. Flippable.org will lead you to important state races. Swingleft.org finds you the nearest congressional swing district in 2018. Coordination. The left is desperately in need of people to align its identity-politics factions. America Votes and State Voices are attempting, against long odds, to do that. Join. A church or synagogue, a union, your local Planned Parenthood chapter, the Chamber of Commerce, the Sierra Club, Elks Lodge, Veterans of Foreign Wars or American Legion post: The issue and the ideology don’t much matter; what matters is connection. It is our best hope. That, and a tumbler of Everclear.

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Another good article: Richard Rorty's Precient Warnings for the American left
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 14 Feb '17

14 Feb '17

Link below to another good article: Richard Rorty's precient warnings for the American left, by Sean D. Illing. Ellie elliestock(a)aol.com What we are reading: Richard Rorty’s prescient warnings ... https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2017/02/12/what-we-are-reading... ... a decade ago conveyed by Vox Media's Sean Illing. ... Richard Rorty’s prescient warnings for the ... prescient warnings for the American left;

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"Journey Reflection" Crash
by Lynda C via Dialogue 13 Feb '17

13 Feb '17

Dear colleagues, We are okay but John's computer is not—it is being overhauled at the Apple hospital in Charlotte, NC. John hopes to be daily blogging again by Sunday, at the latest. In the meantime you can go to http://rejourney.blogspot.com/ daily blogs all the way from last Saturday back to 2004. Heartfelt thanks for checking on us, and Happy Valentine's Day. Lynda (and John) Cock note new contact info lynda860(a)outlook.com jpc2025(a)outlook.com P.O. Box 2333 Davidson, NC 28036 USA

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2/09/17, Spong/Farrin: Japan’s 18th-Century Pioneer of Historical Consciousness
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 09 Feb '17

09 Feb '17

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Japan’s 18th-Century Pioneer of Historical Consciousness By Cassandra Farrin Martin Scorsese recently released a film adaptation of the 1966 novel Silence by Shusaku Endo that traces the persecution of Christians in 17th-century Japan. As a long-time admirer and friend of the Japanese people, I am understandably nervous about how this new film will affect Western perceptions of a country I hold dear, so I looked into the history of religious persecution in Japan to help put the film in context. Ironically, the best book I found on the subject wasn’t on Christianity at all, but on Buddhism: Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan: Buddhism and Its Persecution by James Edward Ketelaar. First, a little perspective: when Christian missionaries attempted to penetrate Japan in the 17th century, they were met by a military government with a strict isolationist policy. Criminal activities of all kinds, religious or not, warranted extreme and often gruesomely creative punishments. Torture was viewed as a legitimate way to extract a confession. In this waning era of the samurai, an excruciating death was not the special purview of a Christian martyr. It wasn’t even the purview of the poor. Although often romanticized, samurai culture did foster a certain poeticism of death: a nobleman condemned to death often wrote a poem to commemorate the occasion and then died by self-disembowelment followed by beheading. Was the violence employed in Christian persecution dreadful? Yes. Was it exceptional? Probably not. By the time Buddhism became the target of persecution in the 19th century, Japan was engaged in what must surely be one of the most miraculous and yet disturbing transformations of any country in the world. They were not colonized by an outside power; they became a colonizing power—and they did it in a political and social revolution that took less than a century. Fortunately for Buddhists, criminal justice reform was a high priority because poor treatment of prisoners might be used as an excuse for invasion by foreign powers. The raw violence of the 17th century was replaced by modern prisons and government bureaucracy, although local government officials were not above such petty actions as beheading statues of the Buddha as “heretics.” Nevertheless, the persecution was thorough and intense: at least 40,000 temples were closed, the priests forcibly laicized. The commonplace practice of male-male sexuality among priests became a source of ridicule and embarrassment, even though it had been legally protected up to this period. Precious temple artifacts were melted into cannons for national defense. Buddhism was systematically separated from political processes. Riots broke out in protest across Japan in the 1870s, but Buddhism’s loss of public presence and power was posed as necessary for the sake of the survival of the country. To my great surprise, Ketelaar explained that both the intense persecution of Buddhists in 19th-century Japan and the parallel reformation of the movement into a uniquely Japanese “new Buddhism” relied on the work of the 18th-century Japanese scholar Tominaga Nakamoto (1715–1746). That’s because Tominaga wrote a powerful critique of historical consciousness in Buddhist sacred writings. He called it the Shutsujou kougo—or as he once said, “the Bible of this world.” The double-entendre is intentional: it could also be said he was offering his readers a “this-worldly Bible.” Tominaga was a gifted thinker whose careful interpretation of Buddhist texts, sifting the older layers of tradition from the more recent additions, hold their own even today alongside more recent scholarship. He was the first Japanese scholar ever to attempt such work, one hundred years before David Friedrich Strauss revolutionized and scandalized the Christian world with his publication of The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined. Like Strauss, Tominaga was ostracized. Many of his works were likely destroyed. The Shutsujou kougo probably only survived because it was convenient to the next generation in the fight over the future of Buddhism. In the words of Katou Shuuichi, Tominaga “might have become another Voltaire had he lived much longer and had Eighteenth Century Japan not been isolated from the outside world and on the eve of its revolution. In fact, he died too young [of a long illness] even to bring his ideas to fruition” (179). He wrote his first major work at the age of 15. He died at 31. Tominaga was troubled by the way “historical objects were mechanistically ‘built up’ (kajou) like so many layers of lacquer.” By historical objects, he meant traditions, cultures, and even peoples. He lampooned not only Mahayana Buddhism but also Confucianism and Shinto for depending on “habits alone” to determine the importance of an act. Although he appreciated Zen Buddhism’s resistance to this, he could also observe examples of how Zen, too, had failed in this regard. What really bothered him was each tradition’s attempt at “self extension” through becoming even more absolute than earlier traditions. Too often, he pointed out, a text touted its own perfection: “The profundity! The profundity! There is no sutra that can surpass this one.” “The Buddhas of the Ten Directions eternally meditate on this sutra.” Yet—and this is the part later persecutors of Buddhism would conveniently ignore when they cherry-picked from his work—he believed most of the sacred writings he read were struggles to resolve problems with an aim toward the Good. They all hit up against the same limitation: human language is too malleable to make absolute statements. We can avoid dogmatic thinking by observing Tominaga’s Three Things (san butsu): that particular words are spoken by a particular person at a particular historical moment. When Bishop Spong delivered his 12 Theses for a New Reformation, he framed them as negative critiques: these are the things we cannot accept. As his friend and colleague in the Jesus Seminar (now the Westar Institute), I feel a strong obligation to ask the next question, to take the next step. What is our positive task? What are we living for? Sometimes I feel paralyzed because I hear so much criticism of this or that seemingly innocuous action for being hateful to others, for leading to harm, that I think, “It must be impossible to take a single step without hurting someone.” This was more or less Tominaga’s concern at base, too: everything we attempt to make sacred is contingent. It may even be turned against us like a knife. Tominaga wanted to be, in the words of Ketelaar, “a disciple of the Good, as it was revealed in the heart of everyday life, expunged of dogmatic formulations that serve only to produce an endless series of unresolvable conflicts.” In this historic 500th anniversary year of the Protestant Reformation, I would like to operate in Tominaga’s spirit of being “a disciple of the Good.” Perhaps we can take heart in the fact that when Buddhism was under its most intense persecution in Japan, at the moment when Japanese Buddhists were wondering—as we are wondering today about Christianity—whether their tradition could survive dramatic social change, Tominaga’s call for self-critical reflection served as a rallying cry for reformers who did succeed in rescuing Buddhism from the brands of “heretic” and “barbarism” and established a new role for their tradition in a radically different world. ~Cassandra Farrin Read Online Here Bibliography Ketelaar, James Edward. Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan: Buddhism and Its Persecution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009. See Chapter 1, esp. pp. 20–28. Plugfielder, Gregory M. Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600–1950. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999. Sato, Hiroaki. Legends of the Samurai. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 1995. Shuuichi, Katou. “Tominaga Nakamoto, 1715 – 46. A Tokugawa Iconoclast.” Monumenta Nipponica 22,1/2 (1967) 177–93. About the Author Cassandra Farrin is the marketing director of the Westar Institute and the editor of Polebridge Press. Her poetic retelling of the Nag Hammadi text On the Origin of the World is forthcoming in Gender Violence, Rape Culture, and Religion (Palgrave Macmillan). A US-UK Fulbright Scholar with more than ten years’ experience with cross-cultural and interfaith engagement, she has an M.A. in Religious Studies from Lancaster University (England) and a B.A. in Religious Studies from Willamette University. Question & Answer Mary from Oklahoma, writes: Question: Have you ever been scared? When people criticize your ideas, how do you remain courageous enough to keep your faith? Answer: By Eric Alexander Thanks for your question Mary! Early in my life I was pretty bold in sharing my ideas. Then as I got older and into high school and college, I found that it was much easier to be accepted by the tribe if my ideas were in harmony with theirs. I greatly regret falling into that trap, and I spent the better part of a decade trying to fit in and be who everyone else expected me to be. It was miserable to be honest. When I hit my late 20’s it was as if a fire alarm went off in my soul. I went to theology school and realized that the more I buried my truth, the more unhappy I became. Conforming to the tribe just made me sad and anxious, and it eventually came to a head. I made a commitment to myself of authenticity. So absolutely I have been scared, I still am sometimes. But now in hindsight I know that burying my ideas and hiding who I am ultimately just makes me more miserable. We just have to be true to our own spirits in this short and fleeting life we are given. So it’s ultimately pretty easy now to keep my faith, because I have experience to know that living by faithfulness is much healthier, even if in certain moments it is experienced as pure dread. ~Eric Alexander Read and Share Online Here About the Author Eric Alexander is an author, speaker, and activist. He is a board member at ProgressiveChristianity.org, and is the founder of Jesism, Christian Evolution, and the Progressive Christianity and Politics group on Facebook. Eric holds a Master of Theology from Saint Leo University and studied negotiations at Harvard Law School, and authored the popular children's emotional health book Teaching Kids Life IS Good. Announcements Click here for registration and more information.

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Call Secretary of Defense Mattis: Urgent: Stand with Standing Rock
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 08 Feb '17

08 Feb '17

Dear colleagues, Please stand with those who, on behalf of all of us, are on the front lines of protecting the earth. Stand with Standing Rock: Call Secretary of Defense Mattis. Information below. Divest from fossil fuels and move monies from banks to credit unions. Ellie elliestock(a)aol.com Urgent: Stand with Standing Rock! Stand with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Oppose the Army Corps permit allowing construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Call Secretary of Defense Mattis Now: 703-571-3343 Today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced their intention to issue a permit for the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline under Lake Oahe as soon as tomorrow. This pipeline permit route jeopardizes drinking water and desecrates sacred burial grounds of the Standing Rock Sioux. The Army Corps also stated that they would grant the easement without completing an Environmental Impact Statement (an inclusive project evaluation process that allows for public input). Last December, the U.S. Army Corps found that an Environmental Impact Statement was necessary to determine the safety and environmental impact of the pipeline’s construction. Today’s announcement circumvents this legal process while jeopardizing the health, cultural, and spiritual rights of our Sioux brothers and sisters. The announcement comes only two weeks after President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum instructing the Corps to expedite the permit. The Department of Defense has direct jurisdiction over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Act Today: Call Secretary of Defense James Mattis and urge him not to grant the easement without a full Environmental Impact Statement that properly consults the Standing Rock Sioux and upholds treaty obligations. Call: 703-571-3343, Extension 5 to leave a message. (this is the public communications line) Here is what you might say: Hello, my name is _____ and I am from _______ (faith community/organization) in ______ (city, state). As a person of faith, I am deeply concerned about the well-being of the Standing Rock Sioux people. Granting an easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline without first completing an Environmental Impact Statement circumvents an important legal process and jeopardizes the health and human rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Because the Department of Defense has direct jurisdiction over the Army Corps, I urge Secretary Mattis to ensure that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers abides by the processes they set forth in December by completing a full Environmental Impact Statement, while properly consulting the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and honoring treaty obligations. Thank you. You can keep up on the latest news about legal challenges to the Dakota Access pipeline at the Earthjustice website. Please share this alert widely, and thank you for all you do for the cause of creation justice. Grace and Peace, Shantha Ready Alonso, Executive Director, Creation Justice Ministries SHARE ON FACEBOOK RETWEET ON TWITTER Connect with Us Creation Justice Ministries 110 Maryland Ave NE #203 Washington, DC 20002 (202) 827-3975 info(a)creationjustice.org www.creationjustice.org UNSUBSCRIBE

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