November 2013 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

Global Buzz reminder
by ICA International 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

Auto email to all ICA Global Buzz responders. (English - Français Español) Hello everyone. Here is the monthly Global Buzz reminder. We hope that you will share the events and happenings of the past few weeks at your ICA, with all ICA members. This reminder is for the Global Buzz that will be published December 1st. 2013 Send details of news items, training programmes, your peer to peer connections with other ICAs, any concerns you may have and of any events that are coming up at your location. Your report can be long or short, but remember that all other ICAs would really like to know about the things that matter where you are, and what you are doing as an ICA. To Send your information: please use the link below, Go directly to: www.icai-members.org/globalbuzz or if you wish, send by regular e-mail to: inform(a)icai-members.org The Global Buzz is now published monthly. All submissions received prior to each publication date will be included in that issue. Submissions arriving later will be included in the next issue. To read Global Buzz anytime including all back issues......... Go directly to www.icai-members.org/buzz/buzzpast OR use the Members Section of the ICAI website. www.ica-international.org The next edition of Global Buzz will be posted on the ICAI website www.ica-international.org at the same time you receive the full edition by e-mail. Peter, for ICAI Communications Bonjour tout le monde. Voici le rappel de Bourdonnement Global mensuel. Nous espérons que vous partageriez les événements des quelques semaines dernières passées chez votre ICA, avec tous les membres d'ICA. Veuillez envoyer des détails d'articles de nouvelles, de programmes d'entraînement , des connexions entre camarades avec d'autres ICA , n'importe quelles inquiétudes vous pourriez avoir et de n'importe quels événements qui auront lieu chez vous . Votre rapport peut être long ou court, mais il faut se souvenir que tout autre ICA aimerait savoir vraiment des choses d'importance où vous êtes , et ce que vous faites comme un ICA. Pour Envoyer vos informations : s'il vous plaît utilisez le lien ci-dessous, Allez directement à : www.icai-members.org/globalbuzz Ou si vous souhaitez, envoyez par l'e-mail régulier à : inform(a)icai-members.org Le Bourdonnement Global est maintenant bimensuel - a la mi-mois et a la fin de mois. Toutes les soumissions reçues avant chaque date d'édition apparaitront. Les soumissions qui arrivent plus tard seront incluses dans la prochaine apparition. Pour lire le Bourdonnement Global n'importe quand y compris tous les apparitions postérieures . ........ Allez directement à www.icai-members.org/buzz/buzzpast OU utilisez la Section de Membres du site Web d'ICAI. www.ica-international.org La prochaine édition de Bourdonnement Global sera postée sur le site Web de d'ICAI www.ica-international.org en même temps que vous recevez l'édition complète par l'e-mail. Peter, pour les Communications d'ICAI Hola a todos. Aquí le mando el recordatorio para el Global Buzz. Esperamos que ustedes envíen los sucesos de las pasadas semanas en su ICA, para compartir con los miembros de ICAI. Por favor envíen detalles sobre nuevos temas, programas de entrenamiento, las conexiones con sus pares, cualquier preocupación que puedan tener, y sobre los muchos eventos que están por suceder en sus localidades. Sus reportes pueden ser largos o cortos, pero recuerden que a todos los otros ICAs les gustaría conocer las cosas importantes que suceden donde ustedes están, y lo que ustedes están haciendo como un ICA. Para enviar su información utilicen el siguiente link, Vayan directamente a: www.icai-members.org/globalbuzz o si prefieren enviarlo por e-mail, hacerlo a: inform(a)icai-members.org El Global Buzz ahora está siendo publicado dos veces al mes a la mitad y al fin de cada mes. Todos los envíos hechos antes de la fecha de publicación serán incluidos en esa edición. Los envíos que lleguen después serán incluidos en la siguiente edición. Para leer Global Buzz en cualquier momento, incluso ediciones pasadas vayan directamente a www.icai-members.org/buzz/buzzpast O utilicen la Sección para Miembros de ICAI en el sitio web www.ica-international.org La siguiente edición de Global Buzz será publicada en ICAI website www.ica-international.org en el mismo tiempo en que reciban la edición completa por correo electrónico. Peter, por ICAI Comunicaciones

1 0

Re: [Oe List ...] ICA Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS-Dec. 3
by Lynda Cock 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

The UMC that I grew up in has contributed $1000 from my father's designated-for-missions part of his estate to the church. Unfortunately, it was sent just weeks before we got word of the doubling. However, if every UMC congregation represented on this list serve would rally $500 which would be doubled into $1000, we could cover that budgeted amount for the Zimbabwe HIV/AIDs account and more. Thank you, Richard, for your leadership in this project and to OliveAnn and Jim for their follow-up. Heed OliveAnn's words below and call early before the doubling cap is reached. We also give thanks for the work of Louise and John Singleton, Sandra and Bob True, and many others who have worked diligently on this project through the years. As you may recall, we have two grandchildren adopted from Ethiopia's crowded orphanages making us very aware of the scourge of HIV/AIDS all across Africa's poorest countries. Programs such as this one have high potential for being replicated. With care and gratitude, Lynda and John _____ From: oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Jim & OliveAnn Slotta Sent: Friday, November 22, 2013 1:19 PM To: Richard Alton Cc: Order Ecumenical; dialogue Lists Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] ICA Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS (-from OliveAnn Slotta in Denver)   Thank you, Dick, for calling our attention to this extraordinary opportunity. Everyone can "double their donation money" to an ICA supported and inspired Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS Project. I have been working to remind friends and Denver area United Methodists of this unique opportunity. Yesterday, with a nudge from local ICA colleague Clarence Snelling, I found an article in the Nov./Dec. issue of the UMC publication The Advance (see pg. 39) and became a true believer! I learned that this Special Advance of the United Methodist Church features over 850 approved programs, and is supported by more than 3000 non-profit partners. "Giving Tuesday" is a way of giving back that takes place nationwide on Dec. 3; all donations will be matched, you need not be a United Methodist to participate. (List serve readers: You may recall that this HIV/AIDS approved program was initiated by Dick Alton's United Methodist Church in Oak Park, Illinois under Dick leadership. See also his March 21st e-mail to each of the list serves. And of course, Dick has more riveting background information, which he has sent me and you can presumably also receive from him.)   Please note these important details --the matching program caps at $500,000 total and $10,000 per project, implying that, like John Wesley, you might want to arise early on the 3rd to make your donation (or stay up until midnight on the 2nd); Louise Singleton notes that this potential sum constitutes a full year of operating money for the Zimbabwe project! Again, the project number is #3021529. Donations must be made through the website below using a credit card; they may be made by individuals or congregations. If you are a member of a United Methodist Church, it may not be too late to speak to your Missions Commission about designating some of their global mission dollars for this Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS Special Advance approved program with matching funds on December 3rd. To donate, on December 3rd go to:   www.umcmission.org/give   Yours in mission,   OliveAnn On Nov 3, 2013, at 9:24 AM, Richard Alton wrote: Dear Colleagues, great way to support ICA's global work. Every dollar you give will be matched. You give on December 3 by credit card. See below for details Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS: Advanced Special number 3021529: ICA Zimbabwe's HIV/AIDS project has been chosen as an Advanced Special of the United Methodist Church's Board of Global Ministries. The Zimbabwe project is a comprehensive community based approach to addressing HIV/AIDS. It starts with a massive push on door-to-door testing followed by working with HIV+ people using a program developed by Stanford University Medical School, Living Well with AIDS, a 7 week program to teach self management skills. Finally, this flows into savings/social support groups called Self-Help Groups. The Zimbabwe project will work with 50 villages involving 500,000 people over the next 3 years. Zimbabwe needs your support: Zimbabwe is experiencing one of the harshest AIDS epidemics in the world. In the last decade the population has decreased by four million, infant mortality has doubled and the average life expectancy for women, who are particularly affected by Zimbabwe's AIDS epidemic, is 34-the lowest anywhere in the world. Zimbabwe has a higher number of orphans, in proportion to its population, than any other country in the world. "The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries is participating in UMC <http://www.umcmission.org/Learn-About-Us/News-and-Stories/2013/October/1015 -UMC-GivingTuesday-Promises-to-Multiply-Impact> #GivingTuesday on December 3, 2013. Gifts made online through The Advance on UMC #GivingTuesday will be matched dollar for dollar, meaning that 200 percent of every donation through your Advance number on December 3 will directly go to impact your ministry. This is a great opportunity for you to reach out through your networks and let them know about this one-day event and how it can support this important work." Dick Alton, (Richard.alton(a)gmail.com; 773.344.7172) Richard H.T. Alton 166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N Oak Park, IL 60302 T:1.773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back Babe Ruth _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

1 0

from Jaime - 'Sleepwalking to Extinction'
by Ken Fisher 20 Nov '13

20 Nov '13

On 2013-11-20, at 8:16 AM, Jaime R Vergara wrote: Ken, Might you shoot this to the listserv? Longish but sobering. On the particle content in the air, where one is the recommended normal content, and four is beyond the danger zone, we hit 40 in Harbin 4 hrs. by train north of us here in Shenyang last week. We might have registered a count of 20 here guessing from the number of face masks worn around! I might have avoided Fukushima's radiation in Saipan but with the pollution in China's northeast, I just traded cancer for asthma! Jaime Published on Friday, November 15, 2013 by Adbusters 'Sleepwalking to Extinction': Capitalism and the Destruction of Life and Earth by Richard Smith (Image: STEVE MEISEL / AFP) When, on May 10th, scientists at Mauna Loa Observatory on the big island of Hawaii announced that global CO2 emissions had crossed a threshold at 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in millions of years, a sense of dread spread around the world and not only among climate scientists. CO2 emissions have been relentlessly climbing since Charles David Keeling first set up his tracking station near the summit of Mauna Loa Observatory in 1958 to monitor average daily global CO2 levels. At that time, CO2 concentrations registered 315 ppm. CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations have been rising ever since and have recently passed a dangerous tipping point: 440ppm. For all the climate summits, promises of “voluntary restraint,” carbon trading and carbon taxes, the growth of CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations have not just been unceasing, they have been accelerating in what scientists have dubbed the “Keeling Curve.” In the early 1960s, CO2 ppm concentrations in the atmosphere grew by 0.7ppm per year. In recent decades, especially as China has industrialized, the growth rate has tripled to 2.1 ppm per year. In just the first 17 weeks of 2013, CO2 levels jumped by 2.74 ppm compared to last year. Carbon concentrations have not been this high since the Pliocene period, between 3m and 5m years ago, when global average temperatures were 3˚C or 4˚C hotter than today, the Arctic was ice-free, sea levels were about 40m higher and jungles covered northern Canada; Florida, meanwhile, was under water along with other coastal locations we now call New York, London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney and many others. Crossing this threshold has fuelled fears that we are fast approaching converging “tipping points” — melting of the subarctic tundra or the thawing and releasing of the vast quantities of methane in the Arctic sea bottom — that will accelerate global warming beyond any human capacity to stop it. “I wish it weren’t true, but it looks like the world is going to blow through the 400 ppm level without losing a beat,” said Scripps Institute geochemist Ralph Keeling, son of Charles Keeling. “At this pace, we’ll hit 450 ppm within a few decades.” “It feels like the inevitable march toward disaster,” said Maureen E. Raymo, a scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a unit of Columbia University. Why are we marching toward disaster, “sleepwalking to extinction” as the Guardian’s George Monbiot once put it? Why can’t we slam on the brakes before we ride off the cliff to collapse? I’m going to argue here that the problem is rooted in the requirement of capitalist production. Large corporations can’t help themselves; they can’t change or change very much. So long as we live under this corporate capitalist system we have little choice but to go along in this destruction, to keep pouring on the gas instead of slamming on the brakes, and that the only alternative — impossible as this may seem right now — is to overthrow this global economic system and all of the governments of the 1% that prop it up and replace them with a global economic democracy, a radical bottom-up political democracy, an eco-socialist civilization. Although we are fast approaching the precipice of ecological collapse, the means to derail this train wreck are in the making as, around the world we are witnessing a near simultaneous global mass democratic “awakening” — as the Brazilians call it — from Tahir Square to Zucotti Park, from Athens to Istanbul to Beijing and beyond such as the world has never seen. To be sure, like Occupy Wall Street, these movements are still inchoate, are still mainly protesting what’s wrong rather than fighting for an alternative social order. Like Occupy, they have yet to clearly and robustly answer that crucial question: “Don’t like capitalism, what’s your alternative?” Yet they are working on it, and they are for the most part instinctively and radically democratic; in this lies our hope. Capitalism is, overwhelmingly, the main driver of planetary ecological collapse From climate change to natural resource overconsumption to pollution, the engine that has powered three centuries of accelerating economic development, revolutionizing technology, science, culture and human life itself is, today, a roaring out-of-control locomotive mowing down continents of forests, sweeping oceans of life, clawing out mountains of minerals, pumping out lakes of fuels, devouring the planet’s last accessible natural resources to turn them into “product,” while destroying fragile global ecologies built up over eons of time. Between 1950 and 2000 the global human population more than doubled from 2.5 to 6 billion. But in these same decades, consumption of major natural resources soared more than sixfold on average, some much more. Natural gas consumption grew nearly twelvefold, bauxite (aluminum ore) fifteenfold. And so on. At current rates, Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson says that “half the world’s great forests have already been leveled and half the world’s plant and animal species may be gone by the end of this century.” Corporations aren’t necessarily evil, though plenty are diabolically evil, but they can’t help themselves. They’re just doing what they’re supposed to do for the benefit of their shareholders. Shell Oil can’t help but loot Nigeria and the Arctic and cook the climate. That’s what shareholders demand. BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and other mining giants can’t resist mining Australia’s abundant coal and exporting it to China and India. Mining accounts for 19% of Australia’s GDP and substantial employment even as coal combustion is the single worst driver of global warming. IKEA can’t help but level the forests of Siberia and Malaysia to feed the Chinese mills building their flimsy disposable furniture (IKEA is the third largest consumer of lumber in the world). Apple can’t help it if the cost of extracting the “rare earths” it needs to make millions of new iThings each year is the destruction of the eastern Congo — violence, rape, slavery, forced induction of child soldiers, along with poisoning local waterways. Monsanto and DuPont and Syngenta and Bayer Crop Science have no choice but to wipe out bees, butterflies, birds, small farmers and extinguish crop diversity to secure their grip on the world’s food supply while drenching the planet in their Roundups and Atrazines and neonicotinoids. This is how giant corporations are wiping out life on earth in the course of a routine business day. And the bigger the corporations grow, the worse the problems become. In Adam Smith’s day, when the first factories and mills produced hat pins and iron tools and rolls of cloth by the thousands, capitalist freedom to make whatever they wanted didn’t much matter because they didn’t have much impact on the global environment. But today, when everything is produced in the millions and billions, then trashed today and reproduced all over again tomorrow, when the planet is looted and polluted to support all this frantic and senseless growth, it matters — a lot. The world’s climate scientists tell us we’re facing a planetary emergency. They’ve been telling us since the 1990s that if we don’t cut global fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions by 80-90% below 1990 levels by 2050 we will cross critical tipping points and global warming will accelerate beyond any human power to contain it. Yet despite all the ringing alarm bells, no corporation and no government can oppose growth and, instead, every capitalist government in the world is putting pedal to the metal to accelerate growth, to drive us full throttle off the cliff to collapse. Marxists have never had a better argument against capitalism than this inescapable and apocalyptic “contradiction.” Solutions to the ecological crisis are blindingly obvious but we can’t take the necessary steps to prevent ecological collapse because, so long as we live under capitalism, economic growth has to take priority over ecological concerns. We all know what we have to do: suppress greenhouse gas emissions. Stop over-consuming natural resources. Stop the senseless pollution of the earth, waters, and atmosphere with toxic chemicals. Stop producing waste that can’t be recycled by nature. Stop the destruction of biological diversity and ensure the rights of other species to flourish. We don’t need any new technological breakthroughs to solve these problems. Mostly, we just stop doing what we’re doing. But we can’t stop because we’re all locked into an economic system in which companies have to grow to compete and reward their shareholders and because we all need the jobs. James Hansen, the world’s preeminent climate scientist, has argued that to save the humans: “Coal emissions must be phased out as rapidly as possible or global climate disasters will be a dead certainty ... Yes, [coal, oil, gas] most of the fossil fuels must be left in the ground. That is the explicit message that the science provides. […] Humanity treads today on a slippery slope. As we continue to pump greenhouse gases in the air, we move onto a steeper, even more slippery incline. We seem oblivious to the danger — unaware of how close we may be to a situation in which a catastrophic slip becomes practically unavoidable, a slip where we suddenly lose all control and are pulled into a torrential stream that hurls us over a precipice to our demise.” But how can we do this under capitalism? After his climate negotiators stonewalled calls for binding limits on CO2 emissions at Copenhagen, Cancun, Cape Town and Doha, President Obama is now trying to salvage his environmental “legacy” by ordering his EPA to impose “tough” new emissions limits on existing power plants, especially coal-fired plants. But this won’t salvage his legacy or, more importantly, his daughters’ futures because how much difference would it make, really, if every coal-fired power plant in the U.S. shut down tomorrow when U.S. coal producers are free to export their coal to China, which they are doing, and when China is building another coal-fired power plan every week? The atmosphere doesn’t care where the coal is burned. It only cares how much is burned. Yet how could Obama tell American mining companies to stop mining coal? This would be tantamount to socialism. But if we do not stop mining and burning coal, capitalist freedom and private property is the least we’ll have to worry about. Same with Obama’s “tough” new fuel economy standards. In August 2012 Obama boasted that his new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards would “double fuel efficiency” over the next 13 years to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, up from 28.6 mpg at present — cutting vehicle CO2 emissions in half, so helping enormously to “save the planet.” But as the Center for Biological Diversity and other critics have noted, Obama was lying, as usual. First, his so-called “tough” new CAFE standards were so full of loopholes, negotiated with Detroit, that they actually encourage more gas-guzzling, not less. That’s because the standards are based on a sliding scale according to “vehicle footprints” — the bigger the car, the less mileage it has to get to meet its “standard.” So in fact Obama’s “tough” standards are (surprise) custom designed to promote what Detroit does best — produce giant Sequoias, mountainous Denalis, Sierras, Yukons, Tundras and Ticonderogas, Ram Chargers and Ford F series luxury trucks, grossly obese Cadillac Escalades, soccer-kid Suburbans, even 8,000 (!) pound Ford Excursions — and let these gross gas hogs meet the “fleet standard.” These cars and “light” trucks are among the biggest selling vehicles in America today (GM’s Sierra is #1) and they get worse gas mileage than American cars and trucks half a century ago. Cadillac’s current Escalade gets worse mileage than its chrome bedecked tail fin-festooned land yachts of the mid-1950s! Little wonder Detroit applauded Obama’s new CAFE standards instead of damning them as usual. Secondly, what would it matter even if Obama’s new CAFE standards actually did double fleet mileage — when American and global vehicle fleets are growing exponentially? In 1950 Americans had one car for every three people. Today we have 1.2 cars for every American. In 1950 when there were about 2.6 billion humans on the planet, there were 53 million cars on the world’s roads — about one for every 50 persons. Today, there are 7 billion people but more than 1 billion cars and industry forecasters expect there will be 2 to 2.5 billion cars on the world’s roads by mid-century. China alone is expected to have a billion. So, at the end of the day, incremental half measures like CAFE standards can’t stop rising GHG missions. Barring some technical miracle, the only way to cut vehicle emissions is to just stop making them — drastically suppress vehicle production, especially of the worst gas hogs. In theory, Obama could simply order GM to stop building its humongous gas guzzlers and switch to producing small economy cars. After all, the federal government owns the company! But of course, how could he do any such thing? Detroit lives by the mantra “big car big profit, small car small profit.” Since Detroit has never been able to compete against the Japanese and Germans in the small car market, which is already glutted and nearly profitless everywhere, such an order would only doom GM to failure, if not bankruptcy (again) and throw masses of workers onto the unemployment lines. So given capitalism, Obama is, in fact, powerless. He’s locked in to promoting the endless growth of vehicle production, even of the worst polluters — and lying about it all to the public to try to patch up his pathetic “legacy.” And yet, if we don’t suppress vehicle production, how can we stop rising CO2 emissions? In the wake of the failure of climate negotiators from Kyoto to Doha to agree on binding limits on GHG emissions, exasperated British climate scientists Kevin Anderson and Alice Bows at the Tyndall Centre, Britain’s leading climate change research center, wrote in September 2012 that we need an entirely new paradigm: Government policies must “radically change” if “dangerous” climate change is to be avoided “We urgently need to acknowledge that the development needs of many countries leave the rich western nations with little choice but to immediately and severely curb their greenhouse gas emissions... [The] misguided belief that commitments to avoid warming of 2˚C can still be realized with incremental adjustments to economic incentives. A carbon tax here, a little emissions trading there and the odd voluntary agreement thrown in for good measure will not be sufficient ... long-term end-point targets (for example, 80% by 2050) have no scientific basis. What governs future global temperatures and other adverse climate impacts are the emissions from yesterday, today and those released in the next few years.” And not just scientists. In its latest world energy forecast released on November 12, 2012, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that despite the bonanza of fossil fuels now made possible by fracking, horizontal and deepwater drilling, we can’t consume them if we want to save the humans: “The climate goal of limiting global warming to 2˚C is becoming more difficult and costly with each year that passes... no more than one-third of proven reserves of fossil fuels can be consumed prior to 2050 if the world is to achieve the 2˚C goal...” Of course the science could be wrong about this. But so far climate scientists have consistently underestimated the speed and ferocity of global warming, and even prominent climate change deniers have folded their cards. Still, it’s one thing for James Hansen or Bill McKibben to say we need to “leave the coal in the hole, the oil in the soil, the gas under the grass,” to call for “severe curbs” in GHG emissions — in the abstract. But think about what this means in our capitalist economy. Most of us, even passionate environmental activists, don’t really want to face up to the economic implications of the science we defend. That’s why, if you listen to environmentalists like Bill McKibben for example, you will get the impression that global warming is mainly driven by fossi- fuel-powered electric power plants, so if we just “switch to renewables” this will solve the main problem and we can carry on with life more or less as we do now. Indeed, “green capitalism” enthusiasts like Thomas Friedman and the union-backed “green jobs” lobby look to renewable energy, electric cars and such as “the next great engine of industrial growth” — the perfect win-win solution. This is a not a solution. This is a delusion: greenhouse gasses are produced across the economy not just by power plants. Globally, fossil-fuel-powered electricity generation accounts for 17% of GHG emissions, heating accounts for 5%, miscellaneous “other” fuel combustion 8.6%, industry 14.7%, industrial processes another 4.3%, transportation 14.3%, agriculture 13.6%, land use changes (mainly deforestation) 12.2%. This means, for a start, that even if we immediately replaced every fossil-fuel-powered electric generating plant on the planet with 100% renewable solar, wind and water power, this would only reduce global GHG emissions by around 17%. What this means is that, far from launching a new green-energy-powered “industrial growth” boom, barring some tech-fix miracle, the only way to impose “immediate and severe curbs” on fossil fuel production/consumption would be to impose an EMERGENCY CONTRACTION in the industrialized countries: drastically retrench and in some cases shut down industries, even entire sectors, across the economy and around the planet — not just fossil fuel producers but all the industries that consume them and produce GHG emissions — autos, trucking, aircraft, airlines, shipping and cruise lines, construction, chemicals, plastics, synthetic fabrics, cosmetics, synthetic fiber and fabrics, synthetic fertilizer and agribusiness CAFO operations. Of course, no one wants to hear this because, given capitalism, this would unavoidably mean mass bankruptcies, global economic collapse, depression and mass unemployment around the world. That’s why in April 2013, in laying the political groundwork for his approval of the XL pipeline in some form, President Obama said “the politics of this are tough.” The earth’s temperature probably isn’t the “number one concern” for workers who haven’t seen a raise in a decade; have an underwater mortgage; are spending $40 to fill their gas tank, can’t afford a hybrid car; and face other challenges.” Obama wants to save the planet but given capitalism his “number one concern” has to be growing the economy, growing jobs. Given capitalism — today, tomorrow, next year and every year — economic growth will always be the overriding priority ... till we barrel right off the cliff to collapse. The necessity of denial and delusion There’s no technical solution to this problem and no market solution either. In a very few cases — electricity generation is the main one — a broad shift to renewables could indeed sharply reduce fossil fuel emissions in that sector. But if we just use “clean” “green” energy to power more growth, consume ever more natural resources, then we solve nothing and would still be headed to collapse. Producing millions of electric cars instead of millions of gasoline-powered cars, as I explained elsewhere, would be just as ecologically destructive and polluting, if in somewhat different ways, even if they were all run on solar power. Substituting biofuels for fossil fuels in transportation just creates different but no less environmentally-destructive problems: converting farm land to raise biofuel feedstock pits food production against fuels. Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas or grasslands to produce biofuels releases more CO2 into the atmosphere than the fossil fuels they replace and accelerates species extinction. More industrial farming means more demand for water, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. And so on. Cap and trade schemes can’t cut fossil fuel emissions because business understands, even if some environmentalists do not, that “dematerialization” is a fantasy, that there’s no win-win tech solution, that capping emissions means cutting growth. Since cutting growth is unacceptable to business, labor and governments, cap and trade has been abandoned everywhere. Carbon taxes can’t stop global warming either because they do not cap emissions. That’s why fossil fuel execs like Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil (the largest private oil company in the world) and Paul Anderson, CEO of Duke Energy (the largest electric utility in the U.S.) support carbon taxes. They understand that carbon taxes would add something to the cost of doing business, like other taxes, but they pose no limit, no “cap” on growth. ExxonMobil predicts that, carbon tax or no carbon tax, by 2040 global demand for energy is going to grow by 35%, 65% in the developing world and nearly all of this is going to be supplied by fossil fuels. ExxonMobil is not looking to “leave the oil in the soil” as a favor to Bill McKibben and the humans. ExxonMobil is looking to pump it and burn it all as fast as possible to enrich its shareholders. Hansen, McKibben, Obama — and most of us really — don’t want to face up to the economic implications of the need to put the brakes on growth and fossil fuel-based overconsumption. We all “need” to live in denial, and believe in delusions that carbon taxes or some tech fix will save us because we all know that capitalism has to grow or we’ll all be out of work. And the thought of replacing capitalism seems so impossible, especially given the powers arrayed against change. But what’s the alternative? In the not-so-distant future, this is all going to come to a screeching halt one way or another — either we seize hold of this out-of-control locomotive, or we ride this train right off the cliff to collapse. Emergency Contraction or Global Ecological Collapse? If there’s no market mechanism to stop plundering the planet then, again, what alternative is there but to impose an emergency contraction on resource consumption? This doesn’t mean we would have to de-industrialize and go back to riding horses and living in log cabins. But it does mean that we would have to abandon the “consumer economy” — shut down all kinds of unnecessary, wasteful and polluting industries from junkfood to cruise ships, disposable Pampers to disposable H&M clothes, disposable IKEA furniture, endless new model cars, phones, electronic games, the lot. Plus all the banking, advertising, junk mail, most retail, etc. We would have completely redesign production to replace “fast junk food” with healthy, nutritious, fresh “slow food,” replace “fast fashion” with “slow fashion,” bring back mending, alterations and local tailors and shoe repairmen. We would have to completely redesign production of appliances, electronics, housewares, furniture and so on to be as durable and long-lived as possible. Bring back appliance repairmen and such. We would have to abolish the throwaway disposables industries, the packaging and plastic bag industrial complex, bring back refillable bottles and the like. We would have to design and build housing to last for centuries, to be as energy efficient as possible, to be reconfigurable, and shareable. We would have to vastly expand public transportation to curb vehicle use but also build those we do need to last and be shareable like Zipcar or Paris’ municipally-owned “Autolib” shared electric cars. These are the sorts of things we would have to do if we really want to stop overconsumption and save the world. All these changes are simple, self-evident, no great technical challenge. They just require a completely different kind of economy, an economy geared to producing what we need while conserving resources for future generations of humans and for other species with which we share this planet. The spectre of eco-democratic revolution Economic systems come and go. Capitalism has had a 300 year run. The question is: will humanity stand by and let the world be destroyed to save the profit system? That outcome depends to a great extent on whether we on the left can answer that question “what’s your alternative?” with a compelling and plausible vision of an eco-socialist civilization. We have our work cut out for us. But what gives the growing global eco-socialist movement an edge in this ideological struggle is that capitalism has no solution to the ecological crisis, no way to put the brakes on collapse, because its only answer to every problem is more of the same growth that’s killing us. “History” was supposed to have “ended” with the fall of communism and the triumph of capitalism two decades ago. Yet today, history is very much alive and it is, ironically, capitalism itself which is being challenged more broadly than ever and found wanting for solutions. Today, we are very much living in one of those pivotal world-changing moments in history. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that this is the most critical moment in human history. We may be fast approaching the precipice of ecological collapse, but the means to derail this train wreck are in the making as, around the world, struggles against the destruction of nature, against dams, against pollution, against overdevelopment, against the siting of chemical plants and power plants, against predatory resource extraction, against the imposition of GMOs, against privatization of remaining common lands, water and public services, against capitalist unemployment and precarité are growing and building momentum. Today we are riding a swelling wave of near simultaneous global mass democratic “awakening,” an almost global mass uprising. This global insurrection is still in its infancy, still unsure of its future, but its radical democratic instincts are, I believe, humanity’s last best hope. Let’s make history! This article is an excerpt from Smith's essay, "Capitalism and the destruction of life on Earth," published in the Real-World Economics Review.

1 0

Saipan Tribune for Monday, Nov. 25
by wangzhimu2031＠aol.com 20 Nov '13

20 Nov '13

A touch of light and flighty on our pedagogy! Jaime The Old Man and theTea Early on, the faculty liaison officer that welcomed me to HangGong Hang Tian Da Xue (Shenyang Aerospace University) transliterated my name to"Hemi", which was the sound she heard when I pronounced my name; shethen had me identified as such in the teaching assignment schedule list. Not long after, my students started callingme "Hemingwei" since most of them read Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea in HighSchool. They remember the Zhongwentranslation rather than the English they were supposed to learn but sincepassing tests is what school courses are designed for, actually learning thelanguage did not matter, as long as they memorized the terms used by theteacher. The old man in Hemingway's story is Santiago whose name is St. James in Castilian, "Jaime" in the Basque country thatstraddles France and Spain, the name my father received from Spanish namegivers, of which I am a junior. Hemingwei fell smoothly into my personalnomenclature, so I did not hesitate to appropriate the name. Nor did my students. In Hemingway's story, Santiago the fisherman goes for 84days without catching anything, and his young apprentice Manolin is ordered byhis family to leave the old man to join other fishermen who might be moreproductive. Still faithful to the agingfisherman, Manolin helps haul his net at the end of the day, and keeps himcompany in his shack while the young lad talks of his favorite baseball playerJoe DiMaggio. Santiago in turn continuallythreatens to sail far out into the Gulf Stream, promising to catch a big onethe next day. He does take his skiff far out the following day and bymid-morning, gets a bite from a big one. The marlin at the other end of the line puts up a valiant act ofresistance, and ends up pulling the skiff out into the Stream. Santiago uses all his strength and his fragilebody to counter the tug of war. In theprocess, Santiago develops a quiet respect over his adversary, and even callsit his brother. Of the marlin'sintegrity, Santiago concludes that no one is worthy enough to eat the fish. It takes two nights and three days before the marlin circlesthe boat indicating tiredness, at which point, Santiago hauls it in, harpoonsthe tenacious fish, straps it against his skiff and sails home. A mako shark attracted by the fresh blood ofthe marlin attacks and in the fight, Santiago loses his harpoon. For a makeshift harpoon, he attaches hisknife to his oar to ward another five sharks attracted to his fish. By the time he hits shore, however, othersharks reduced the marlin into a carcass and a head. The fish measured 16 ft. long! The old man immediately hits the sack in his shack whereManolin gladly ministers to his needs. The struggle with the marlin invigorates the old man and he dreams ofhis youth and lions in an African safari. We have obviously come to be identified with the "oldman" in our class and in our mind. We disambiguate on the title: our cup of tea is not with the Tea Party. China's tea is our sea - vast, invigorating,and when fermented, a soulful nectar of the divine! Students, mostly in for a quick ride towardsa diploma, are our marlin surprised when dished out an unexpected journey intotheir lives. But first, we had not come to China to catch anyone in a qi pao. We leave the enterprise of the chase to the swift-footed young. Charged by my siblings to be a bit on the effeteside, I stand accused of having been on occasion the one easily caught! We have, in fact, in today's single ladieselegy, "if you like it, you should have put a ring on it", beenguilty on putting one too many more than what we should have done "on it"! An SF colleague suggests I learn to bowtowards Mecca so I can legally ring four! Our tea is pedagogy - instructive and educative. In our current stage of scholarship, ourmethod is imaginal. Our assumption: Everyone operates out images. We create images from words and metaphors,pictures and numbers that we use to describe our sense experiences, express ourfeelings, articulate our thoughts, and formulate our deeds. Images we create determine behavior. When images change, behavior changes. In science, that is called a "paradigmshift." For the spread of our tea analogy, one might just considerthe varied categories of white, green, yellow, black teas, and names likeoolong, Darjeeling, Nepal, Assam, Nilgiri, Turkish, Ceylon, pu'er, tisanes(herbal, not technically tea), along with the many methods of preparations andways of serving, blends and additives, to realize we are in a whole universewith its own stellar paths and flavors. Whether one calls the ingredient te,cha, tea, chay, does not matter, but if one goes through the delicate movesof a Gongfu cha ceremony, one readilysenses elegant olfactorial presence of one of the beverage wonders of the world. We view our pedagogy in the same vein as we sip our tea, variedyet integrated, intentional though unconstricting, leaning unapologetically onthe authority of authenticity rather than the whims of fads and the winds offashion. Students attend class ready tobe surprised at the awe and wander of their own existence, and taking fullownership of it. That, for the moment, inour best and most profound orchestral and facilitative repertoire, is in ourcup! Jaime Vergara pinoypanda2031(a)aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

1 0

Re: [Oe List ...] An apology to the "girls"
by Marilyn Crocker 19 Nov '13

19 Nov '13

Hi Jan, Jaime and other colleagues engaged in remembering on this the 50th anniversary of 11/22/1963, On that day in 1963 I was driving home from my last class before Thanksgiving break at Harvard Graduate School and stopped for tea with a former Smith college classmate who lived in Cambridge, MA. Neither Elaine, my friend, nor I experienced being diminished in any way in the church, in the university, nor in the workplace by the firmly in place patriarchy Jaime references. If there was any living model who emerged from that sad time it was JFKs wife, the beautiful, composed, caring one, utterly sensitive to the need to place her own grief above that of ministering to the grief of a nation. Im currently leading a group at our church in an Advent study of Borg and Crossans The First Christmas. The authors remind us in Chapter 2 (lest we have forgotten or overlooked it) that one of the 3 key themes in the Gospel of Luke is an emphasis on women, a theme carried forth in both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles (a second volume of his Gospel) written about 80-90 CE. Im guessing we might begin there in exploring within the Judeo-Christian tradition the origin of the divine feminine, worthy of being both chosen and spoken to by angels (as was Joseph repeatedly in the Gospel of Matthew), and that we might resist later heresies of mucho-macho-patriarchy. Just my two cents. Grace and peace and prayers that the gifts of all Gods creation may be appreciated, Marilyn From: oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of LAURELCG(a)aol.com Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 3:06 PM To: Oe(a)wedgeblade.net Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] ST Nov. 21 from Jaime Thank you, Jaime. I grew up in west Texas and had already migrated to California by Nov. 23, 1963. Fred and I had recently moved into a new home, built by a contractor who was a member of the John Birch Society. When the news of the assassination first broke, everyone assumed the assassin was a right-wing nut. I heard the contractor haranguing his workers next door as they took their lunch break. "They should find the person who did this and give him a medal!" His story changed when it turned out the assassin had lived in the land of dreaded communism. I was struck, Jaime, by your apology to us "girls" in the third paragraph. I would love to start a conversation on this list about the Divine Feminine. With a Catholic background, you probably encountered Her early on. When I was asked in a class with Starhawk in 1989, and she asked, "When did you first encounter God as a woman?", the only thing I could think of was an E.I Academy class in 1970, when we studied a paper by St. Theresa of Avila. She wrote to nuns in the language that sounded like the King James version of the Bible. She wasn't speaking of the Divinity as female, but just the fact that she used the pronouns "she" and "her" in religious-sounding language sent me into uncontrollable tears. It was the first time that I felt I was being addressed as a full human being, though it took many years for me to work out why I cried so. It seems to me She is coming back in power at this time. Does anyone else see it? Blessings on your good work, Jaime, Jann McGuire D.Min, University of Creation Spirituality, 2002 In a message dated 11/16/2013 3:35:43 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, wangzhimu2031(a)aol.com writes: JFK 1963 It was four years later after President John F. Kennedy went down by the grassy knoll across the downtown book depository when I first whiffed a lungful of Big D's arid air. We had taken exception to the irrelevant type of theological reflection we encountered in the backwoods of Kentucky in '65, and since we were not inclined to join the denominational services of religion, I quit perusing Thomas' tome! Before heading back out to the Orient, however, a friend in Chicago told me to get in touch with a former Manila missionary who was then in-charge of students' affairs at a Theology School in Dallas, Texas, reportedly more open-minded than the warm-hearted but parochial one I had west of the Appalachia. Having been lured into the Protestant chapel by the likes of John A. T. Robinson's invitatory Honest to God, and the fresh winds of biblical scholarship and practical spirituality offered by theologs (sorry girls, church patriarchy of the 60s was firmly in place) like the NT scholar Rudolf Bultmann, the evangelical Dietrich Bonheoffer, the urbane Paul Tillich and the New England ethicists, the Niebuhr brothers, with collegial welcome from Vatican II, Hans Kung and the venerable Pierre Tielhard de Chardin, I was not inclined to master the litany of classical pat answers as I was eagerly intent in sharpening realistic and authentic life questions. In the Dallas of '67, I was shocked to find out that JFK was still one of Dallas' least-favored Presidents; there were some who actually held Lee Harvey Oswald as some kind of a folk hero! A block from my dorm was home to the John Birch Society. To their credit, the members did look like children of the washed and well off, clean-shaven and neck-tied. My anticolonial third world political orientation was not one of their favored homebrew. The school, in spite of its laissez fair scholastic tradition was still a denominational school for pastors of local congregations, and some drove wearing wide brim hats in pick-ups to the school yard displaying a rifle rack behind the driver's seat. We remember this because November 22 marks the 50th year of the assassination of JFK in Dallas, an occasion that brought tears to our innocent teenage eyes while we as a part-time working college student DJ'd and read news at a local radio station in the Cagayan valley in '63. Huff Posts recently carried an article with a JFK hand-written speech that was to be delivered in Austin, Texas on the evening of the fateful day. The speech's ending, addressed to the Democratic Party in Texas, went: Neither the fanatics nor the faint-hearted are needed. And our duty as a Party is not to our Party alone, but to the nation, and, indeed, to all mankind ... So let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation's future is at stake ... determined that this land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace and abundance. The voice of America's Camelot was stilled that day before it had the chance to utter those words. The Ivy league look of our Methodist-related school by Central Expressway on Highland Park belied its vaunted progressive credentials as children of families dripping in crude drove their V-8 guzzlers on campus from spreads dotted with derricks and cattle in the range. The studentry showed more frenzy in fraternity and sorority traditions than the scholastic virtues of academé. Like the manicured lawns in the surrounding homes, University yards were kept trimmed, the buildings swept clean, and residences maintained by southern blacks and Mejico Tejano servants who appeared properly cowed still wearing imaginary white gloves to do their chores. It did not take long before our youthful gait joined the parliament of the street, holding vigil by the flagpole with a professor prayerfully protesting the war in Vietnam; we also walked with placards in front of a Washateria near the Hilton that displayed a sign: "For Whites Only." As a foreign student, a mendicant monastic in a sea of privilege and wealth, I was tolerated but was socially kept at a distance. The world that snuffed JFK's breathe was alive and well in Lyndon Johnson's wide sprawl of '67 when I tally-hoed into Highland Park. A decade later, primetime TV chronicled the lives at Big D's Southfolks. A few years into the series, I gave up my "JR" nickname when the character J. R. Ewing played by smirk-faced Larry Hagman became the poster boy for Texas drawl's smarts and cunning! JFK's hope for new frontiers of peace and abundance, in his view, from a nation of immigrants to one poised to send a human to the moon, continued as the nation's metaphor to justify military expansion, its arrogance rudely awakened by the collapse of the twin towers of NYC one fateful day in September. The shot that felled JFK in Dallas turned into a booming crash in New York with repercussions haunting corridors of powers that do not tire in spit-polishing Uncle Sam's uniformed soul. Fifty years later, the nation struggles with its undocumented immigrants. A message we saw on a young boy's t-shirt would have made JFK smile: there are no immigrants on planet earth! Jaime Vergara w <mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com> angzhimu2031(a)aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate! _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

1 0

FW: Jeju Island to Afghanistan: Many Faces Oppose U.S. Bases
by John Cock 19 Nov '13

19 Nov '13

>From Bob Hanson (ko shin) re the piece at the bottom of the page. _____ From: Bob Hanson [mailto:koshin@centurytel.net] Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 10:02 PM To: John Cock Subject: FW: Jeju Island to Afghanistan: Many Faces Oppose U.S. Bases John I have forgotten how to get this on the OE or ICA network, but thought some might be interested in this..I remember my visits to the project there. peace, ko shin, Bob Hanson (In the future please use <mailto:koshinbobh@gmail.com> koshinbobh(a)gmail.com, thanks) 7/17/2013 Blog: <http://2013warriorpoet.blogspot.com/> http://2013warriorpoet.blogspot.com/ NEW BOOK: Warrior Poets:a path and a task that does not end, Published April 2013 You can order this fine book on Amazon.com or CreateSapace.com! "I hope nothing. I fear nothing. I am free." ― <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5668.Nikos_Kazantzakis> Nikos Kazantzakis Who says my poems are poems? My poems are not poems at all! Only when you understand that my poems are not poems can we begin to talk about poems.. Ryokan, Japanese poet Emily Dickinson wrote, "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." "Poetry is for me Eucharistic. You take someone else's suffering into your body, their passion comes into your body, and in doing that you commune, you take communion, you make a community with others." Mary Karr from her 2010 interview with Judy Valente on PBS' Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. "I used to think I wrote because there was something I wanted to say. Then I thought, 'I will continue to write because I have not yet said what I wanted to say'; but I know now I continue to write because I have not yet heard what I have been listening to." - Mary Ruefle, "On Secrets" (from Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures) From: Voices for Creative Nonviolence [mailto:info=vcnv.org@mail158.atl21.rsgsv.net] On Behalf Of Voices for Creative Nonviolence Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 3:13 PM To: koshin(a)centurytel.net Subject: Jeju Island to Afghanistan: Many Faces Oppose U.S. Bases Afghanistan to Jeju Island: Many Faces Say No U.S. Bases Is this email not displaying correctly? <http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id=32c7f127e5 &e=52b590cd6a> View it in your browser. <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id= 1cdc77efb2&e=52b590cd6a> Voices for Creative Nonviolence South Koreans on Jeju Island and the Afghan Peace Volunteers Say "No!" to U.S. Military Bases by Hakim and the Afghan Peace Volunteers November 14, 2013 <https://gallery.mailchimp.com/ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340/images/Jeju_Island_ South_Korea.jpg> <https://gallery.mailchimp.com/ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340/images/APVs_at_Band _i_Amir.jpg> APV, Ghulam Hussein: When did the people of Gangjeong Village in Jeju Island start their struggle? Jeju Island activist, Sung Hee: In 2007, the Republic of Korea military quietly sneaked into the village, without the knowledge of most villagers. As soon as the villagers realized the navy's intention to build the naval base in their hometown, the villagers non-violently protested in whatever ways they could, including walking around Jeju Island in protest. A Jeju-born female member of the South Korean National Assembly held a 27-day hunger strike. There are about 1,900 villagers in Gangjeong Village and in a vote on August 20 that year, 94% voted in opposition to the construction of Jeju Naval Base. ............................ APV, Ali: The Afghan Peace Volunteers are mainly young. Are there many young people in your work? Jeju Island Activist, Paco: Yes, we have people as young as 13 attending our week-long Peace Schools. We also have grandfathers and grandmothers. ............................. APV, Abdulhai: We understand that Jeju Island has UNESCO Heritage sites. Has the UN or UNESCO protested against the military base construction? Jeju Island Activist, Paco: UNESCO has been evading our requests for more information. We asked for a map of the exact boundaries of the UNESCO Heritage Sites because we had conflicting information, but they wouldn't help us. APV, Abdulhai: Afghanistan also has UNESCO Heritage sites like Band-i-Amir in Bamiyan Province. So, Afghanistan and Jeju Island have the same struggle against militarism destroying their land and people. <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id= 02315d9188&e=52b590cd6a> Read More <http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340/images/Cinquera_Chap el.1.1.1.jpg> Killer Drones- Vehicle of Empire November 22 VCNV will help present this workshop. The next generation of drones, developed by GA Tech, tested at Ft. Benning, will "hunt, identify, and kill based on calculations made by software, not decisions made by humans." <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id= a3f413a444&e=52b590cd6a> Read More <http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340/images/beanpoll.1.jp g> Buddy Bell and Kathy Kelly Interviewed on Chicago Public Radio's Worldview November 7, 2013 Kathy Kelly has visited Afghanistan a dozen times. She says that the United States should be investing more in humanitarian efforts there and less in military aid. Kelly and Buddy Bell, fellow co-coordinator of the group Voices for Creative Non-Violence, join us to discuss their latest trip to Kabul and US policy in Afghanistan. <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id= 161990ce26&e=52b590cd6a> Listen <http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340/images/Where_Days_Ar e_Stones_Front_Cover_lores.1.jpg> Where Days Are Stones By David Smith-Ferri Portraits in poetry of people of Afghanistan and Gaza maintaining dignity and humanity while experiencing the deprivations of war and sanctions <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id= 2cedf6c193&e=52b590cd6a> Price: $14.95 <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id =8f50b32a27&e=52b590cd6a> <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id =b27bb09844&e=52b590cd6a> follow on Twitter | <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id =4f50f48c1f&e=52b590cd6a> <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id= f0e90b3806&e=52b590cd6a> friend on Facebook | <http://us1.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id=32c 7f127e5&e=52b590cd6a> forward to a friend Copyright © 2013 Voices for Creative Nonviolence, All rights reserved. You are receiving our newsletter because you either signed up at vcnv.org or signed up at one of our events. Our mailing address is: Voices for Creative Nonviolence 1249 W Argyle Street Chicago, IL 60640 <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage2.com/vcard?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id=4c589 1c24e> Add us to your address book <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id= 4c5891c24e&e=52b590cd6a&c=32c7f127e5> unsubscribe from this list | <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage.com/profile?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340&id=4c58 91c24e&e=52b590cd6a> update subscription preferences <http://vcnv.us1.list-manage.com/track/open.php?u=ad474c00c83953a2b8e225340& id=32c7f127e5&e=52b590cd6a>

1 0

Re: [Oe List ...] ST Nov. 21 from Jaime
by LAURELCG＠aol.com 18 Nov '13

18 Nov '13

Thank you, Jaime. I grew up in west Texas and had already migrated to California by Nov. 23, 1963. Fred and I had recently moved into a new home, built by a contractor who was a member of the John Birch Society. When the news of the assassination first broke, everyone assumed the assassin was a right-wing nut. I heard the contractor haranguing his workers next door as they took their lunch break. "They should find the person who did this and give him a medal!" His story changed when it turned out the assassin had lived in the land of dreaded communism. I was struck, Jaime, by your apology to us "girls" in the third paragraph. I would love to start a conversation on this list about the Divine Feminine. With a Catholic background, you probably encountered Her early on. When I was asked in a class with Starhawk in 1989, and she asked, "When did you first encounter God as a woman?", the only thing I could think of was an E.I Academy class in 1970, when we studied a paper by St. Theresa of Avila. She wrote to nuns in the language that sounded like the King James version of the Bible. She wasn't speaking of the Divinity as female, but just the fact that she used the pronouns "she" and "her" in religious-sounding language sent me into uncontrollable tears. It was the first time that I felt I was being addressed as a full human being, though it took many years for me to work out why I cried so. It seems to me She is coming back in power at this time. Does anyone else see it? Blessings on your good work, Jaime, Jann McGuire D.Min, University of Creation Spirituality, 2002 In a message dated 11/16/2013 3:35:43 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, wangzhimu2031(a)aol.com writes: JFK 1963 It was four years later after President John F. Kennedy went down by the grassy knoll across the downtown book depository when I first whiffed a lungful of Big D's arid air. We had taken exception to the irrelevant type of theological reflection we encountered in the backwoods of Kentucky in '65, and since we were not inclined to join the denominational services of religion, I quit perusing Thomas' tome! Before heading back out to the Orient, however, a friend in Chicago told me to get in touch with a former Manila missionary who was then in-charge of students' affairs at a Theology School in Dallas, Texas, reportedly more open-minded than the warm-hearted but parochial one I had west of the Appalachia. Having been lured into the Protestant chapel by the likes of John A. T. Robinson's invitatory Honest to God, and the fresh winds of biblical scholarship and practical spirituality offered by theologs (sorry girls, church patriarchy of the 60s was firmly in place) like the NT scholar Rudolf Bultmann, the evangelical Dietrich Bonheoffer, the urbane Paul Tillich and the New England ethicists, the Niebuhr brothers, with collegial welcome from Vatican II, Hans Kung and the venerable Pierre Tielhard de Chardin, I was not inclined to master the litany of classical pat answers as I was eagerly intent in sharpening realistic and authentic life questions. In the Dallas of '67, I was shocked to find out that JFK was still one of Dallas' least-favored Presidents; there were some who actually held Lee Harvey Oswald as some kind of a folk hero! A block from my dorm was home to the John Birch Society. To their credit, the members did look like children of the washed and well off, clean-shaven and neck-tied. My anticolonial third world political orientation was not one of their favored homebrew. The school, in spite of its laissez fair scholastic tradition was still a denominational school for pastors of local congregations, and some drove wearing wide brim hats in pick-ups to the school yard displaying a rifle rack behind the driver's seat. We remember this because November 22 marks the 50th year of the assassination of JFK in Dallas, an occasion that brought tears to our innocent teenage eyes while we as a part-time working college student DJ'd and read news at a local radio station in the Cagayan valley in '63. Huff Posts recently carried an article with a JFK hand-written speech that was to be delivered in Austin, Texas on the evening of the fateful day. The speech's ending, addressed to the Democratic Party in Texas, went: Neither the fanatics nor the faint-hearted are needed. And our duty as a Party is not to our Party alone, but to the nation, and, indeed, to all mankind ... So let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation's future is at stake ... determined that this land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace and abundance. The voice of America's Camelot was stilled that day before it had the chance to utter those words. The Ivy league look of our Methodist-related school by Central Expressway on Highland Park belied its vaunted progressive credentials as children of families dripping in crude drove their V-8 guzzlers on campus from spreads dotted with derricks and cattle in the range. The studentry showed more frenzy in fraternity and sorority traditions than the scholastic virtues of academé. Like the manicured lawns in the surrounding homes, University yards were kept trimmed, the buildings swept clean, and residences maintained by southern blacks and Mejico Tejano servants who appeared properly cowed still wearing imaginary white gloves to do their chores. It did not take long before our youthful gait joined the parliament of the street, holding vigil by the flagpole with a professor prayerfully protesting the war in Vietnam; we also walked with placards in front of a Washateria near the Hilton that displayed a sign: "For Whites Only." As a foreign student, a mendicant monastic in a sea of privilege and wealth, I was tolerated but was socially kept at a distance. The world that snuffed JFK's breathe was alive and well in Lyndon Johnson's wide sprawl of '67 when I tally-hoed into Highland Park. A decade later, primetime TV chronicled the lives at Big D's Southfolks. A few years into the series, I gave up my "JR" nickname when the character J. R. Ewing played by smirk-faced Larry Hagman became the poster boy for Texas drawl's smarts and cunning! JFK's hope for new frontiers of peace and abundance, in his view, from a nation of immigrants to one poised to send a human to the moon, continued as the nation's metaphor to justify military expansion, its arrogance rudely awakened by the collapse of the twin towers of NYC one fateful day in September. The shot that felled JFK in Dallas turned into a booming crash in New York with repercussions haunting corridors of powers that do not tire in spit-polishing Uncle Sam's uniformed soul. Fifty years later, the nation struggles with its undocumented immigrants. A message we saw on a young boy's t-shirt would have made JFK smile: there are no immigrants on planet earth! Jaime Vergara _w_ (mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com) angzhimu2031(a)aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate! _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

1 0

ST Nov. 21 from Jaime
by wangzhimu2031＠aol.com 16 Nov '13

16 Nov '13

JFK 1963 It was four years later after President John F. Kennedy wentdown by the grassy knoll across the downtown book depository when I firstwhiffed a lungful of Big D's arid air. We had taken exception to the irrelevant type of theological reflectionwe encountered in the backwoods of Kentucky in '65, and since we were notinclined to join the denominational services of religion, I quit perusingThomas' tome! Before heading back out to the Orient, however, a friend inChicago told me to get in touch with a former Manila missionary who was thenin-charge of students' affairs at a Theology School in Dallas, Texas,reportedly more open-minded than the warm-hearted but parochial one I had westof the Appalachia. Having been lured into the Protestant chapel by the likes ofJohn A. T. Robinson's invitatory Honestto God, and the fresh winds of biblical scholarship and practicalspirituality offered by theologs (sorry girls, church patriarchy of the 60s wasfirmly in place) like the NT scholar Rudolf Bultmann, the evangelical DietrichBonheoffer, the urbane Paul Tillich and the New England ethicists, the Niebuhrbrothers, with collegial welcome from Vatican II, Hans Kung and the venerablePierre Tielhard de Chardin, I was not inclined to master the litany ofclassical pat answers as I was eagerly intent in sharpening realistic andauthentic life questions. In the Dallas of '67, I was shocked to find out that JFK wasstill one of Dallas' least-favored Presidents; there were some who actuallyheld Lee Harvey Oswald as some kind of a folk hero! A block from my dorm was home to the JohnBirch Society. To their credit, themembers did look like children of the washed and well off, clean-shaven andneck-tied. My anticolonial third worldpolitical orientation was not one of their favored homebrew. The school, in spite of its laissez fairscholastic tradition was still a denominational school for pastors of localcongregations, and some drove wearing wide brim hats in pick-ups to the schoolyard displaying a rifle rack behind the driver's seat. We remember this because November 22 marks the 50th year ofthe assassination of JFK in Dallas, an occasion that brought tears to ourinnocent teenage eyes while we as a part-time working college student DJ'd andread news at a local radio station in the Cagayan valley in '63. Huff Posts recently carried an article with a JFKhand-written speech that was to be delivered in Austin, Texas on the evening ofthe fateful day. The speech's ending,addressed to the Democratic Party in Texas, went: Neither the fanatics nor thefaint-hearted are needed. And our dutyas a Party is not to our Party alone, but to the nation, and, indeed, to allmankind ... So let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us notquarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation's future is at stake ... determinedthat this land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace andabundance. Thevoice of America's Camelot was stilled that day before it had the chance toutter those words. TheIvy league look of our Methodist-related school by Central Expressway onHighland Park belied its vaunted progressive credentials as children offamilies dripping in crude drove their V-8 guzzlers on campus from spreadsdotted with derricks and cattle in the range. The studentry showed more frenzy in fraternity and sorority traditionsthan the scholastic virtues of academé. Like the manicured lawns in the surrounding homes, University yards werekept trimmed, the buildings swept clean, and residences maintained by southernblacks and Mejico Tejano servants who appeared properly cowed still wearingimaginary white gloves to do their chores. Itdid not take long before our youthful gait joined the parliament of the street,holding vigil by the flagpole with a professor prayerfully protesting the warin Vietnam; we also walked with placards in front of a Washateria near theHilton that displayed a sign: "For Whites Only." As a foreign student, a mendicant monastic ina sea of privilege and wealth, I was tolerated but was socially kept at adistance. Theworld that snuffed JFK's breathe was alive and well in Lyndon Johnson's widesprawl of '67 when I tally-hoed into Highland Park. A decade later, primetime TV chronicled thelives at Big D's Southfolks. A few yearsinto the series, I gave up my "JR" nickname when the character J. R.Ewing played by smirk-faced Larry Hagman became the poster boy for Texasdrawl's smarts and cunning! JFK'shope for new frontiers of peace andabundance, in his view, from a nation of immigrants to one poised to send ahuman to the moon, continued as thenation's metaphor to justify military expansion, its arrogance rudely awakenedby the collapse of the twin towers of NYC one fateful day in September. The shot that felled JFK in Dallas turnedinto a booming crash in New York with repercussions haunting corridors ofpowers that do not tire in spit-polishing Uncle Sam's uniformed soul. Fiftyyears later, the nation struggles with its undocumented immigrants. A message we saw on a young boy's t-shirtwould have made JFK smile: there are no immigrants on planet earth! Jaime Vergara wangzhimu2031(a)aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

1 0

Jaime in Saipan Tribune Nov. 18
by wangzhimu2031＠aol.com 16 Nov '13

16 Nov '13

The winter of our disconnect A Brush Dance calendar sent to us by an SF colleague has the following writing for November: "Promise yourself not to solve all of life's problems at once." We call this month the winter of our discomfort, a play on Shakespeare's lines made famous by Steinbeck's The Winter of our Discontent. The aftermath of Yolanda's fury (Haiyan in international winds) caught the world's attention, mobilizing flurries of compassion from many sectors, with the dire reality of logistics and of safety net infrastructures in taters or just plainly absent now finding desperate rages, of opportunistic looting, and even armed rebellion from victims and suffering masses. It got us unhinged; thus, our "disconnect". Leyte in the Philippines was a stumping ground when we lived in Lapu-Lapu City of in Cebu Province, locale to the International Airport, now the hub of national and international relief efforts as the Tacloban International is slowly getting useful. We promoted corporate procedures in the new global economic structures, trained folks in participatory methods as local folks shed off their reliance on top-down "charity", and drummed awareness of the new humanization of world culture that impinged on everyone's consciousness everywhere! We heeded Pierre Tielhard de Chardin's admonition: "The task before us now, if we shall not perish, is to shed off our ancient prejudices and rebuild the earth." Our investment, personally and professionally, was considerable, from southern Luzon to northern Mindanao and the whole swath of the Visayas from Borongan of Eastern Samar to the NIDO fields of Palawan, and many points in between. To be sure, the area spanning the San Bernardino Straits between Samar and Leyte is not where one would locate Benigno Noynoy Aquino's popularity zone. The President was once characterized by a former campaign aide as "not one of the brightest lights in the national marquee". Not surprisingly, he committed a graceless faux pas when he contradicted the published estimate of 10,000 casualties in Tacloban and pegged it at 25% of that number. The latest count is now proving his naiveté. His claim to fame is being an offspring of the Ninoy and Cory Aquino household, blight to the Marcos regime, and Leyte is a Romualdez country with its unrepentant matron d'eterneof extravagance Imelda Romualdez Marcos and her extended family maintaining a grip on politics. We did once date a fair maiden from Palo, the devastated area south of Tacloban, in our late teens, visited Isabel a few times when it was just opening as the locale for an industrial park, and facilitated numerous cooperative and credit union financial operations from Catarman of Northern Samar to Maasin of Southern Leyte, laying our head on hard boards and puffed pillows in places like Catbalogan, Ormoc, Baybay, Sugod, etc. We were also involved in natural resource management from the uplands to the nearshore in now globally familiar places like Bohol (recent site of a 7+ magnitude quake), Siquijor, Cebu, the Negros provinces of famed Bacolod and Dumaguete cities, and among the lilting cadences of the voices of Iloilo. While we would like to think that the area is a bit better off than when we first hit its shores a good fifty years ago, we had never been one to be anxious about the marks of accomplishment as we were simply determined to be there and with disciplined colleagues to " just do it"! Some of my co-workers, however, are not as detached, particularly of the current dispensation. Considerable emotional investments continue to flow even as we learn that a Pinoy physical therapist from New York got on the first plane he could catch to personally go to Palo in search of family and do an onsite ocular look-see on his ancestral home no longer visible on Google Earth pictures. We find the varied responses from the international community encouraging, including those from Indonesia and Malaysia. I am reminded of my sister-in-laws narration of the time she and my brother were in an Indonesia market where he tried to bargain his way through some of the artifacts. His Ilongga wife pulled him over and whispered: "I already know what their real price is." "How do you know," my Iloco brother asked. "Nagbi-bisaya sila, eh! (they are speaking Visayan)," she replied. Though ASEAN collaborators, the three countries might just find again their common ethno-linguistic heritage! In a world where we spend millions on drones for legalized murder, and can position supplies and materials to enable deployment of a battalion of Marines anywhere in the world in no time, have floating hospitals that can be rapidly staffed, and satellite photo capabilities 24/7 of any location on the planet to update databases accessible to the general public in the Cloud, our disconnect represents simply a wipe-out of all previous methods of relief delivery in the past. With strong quakes and fierce winds getting more common, it is time to get back to our drawing boards, institutionalize relief efforts, so it will not take six days to clear a tarmac or body bag the dead when another disaster hits anywhere in the planet. Ang aking dos sentimos! (Para mi dos centimos, for my two-cent piece!)

1 0

Part VII Matthew: The Shady Ladies of Matthew's Genealogy
by Ellie Stock 14 Nov '13

14 Nov '13

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Part VII Matthew The Shady Ladies of Matthew's Genealogy The audience for which Matthew wrote was conversant with the Jewish Scriptures, so when he mentions Tamar in the genealogy, they would know her story. The Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) was read in its entirety in the traditional synagogues on the Sabbaths of a single year. The 38th chapter of Genesis, where Tamar’s story is told would thus be read on the sixth or seventh Sabbath following the beginning of the liturgical cycle in the month of Nisan. Tamar’s story interrupted the familiar story of Joseph, so it stood out in clear relief. Listen now to her story. Judah, the son of Jacob, had married the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua and by her he had three sons, Er, Onan and Shelah. While in the land of Chezib, Judah took for Er, his oldest son, a wife whose name was Tamar. She too was a Canaanite. Er, we are told in the Bible, was wicked and “God killed him.” So Tamar, in accordance with Jewish practice, was given to Onan, Er’s brother, to be his wife. Onan, however, did not want to raise up children to his deceased brother, so he practiced “coitus interruptus,” which has given us the word “Onanism.” This so displeased God, the Bible tells us, that God killed Onan also. Shelah was next in line to take Tamar as his wife, but he was only a small boy and by this time Tamar’s reputation for being responsible for the deaths of her first two husbands was fixed. Shelah, therefore, was not interested in or desirous of doing his culturally-assigned duty. So, Judah, Tamar’s father-in-law, sent Tamar back to her father’s house in disgrace. She was now considered “damaged goods,” one who would not bring a proper “bride price.” Judah did promise her that when Shelah came of age, she would be sent for and would become his wife. Time passed and this promise was soon forgotten. During those years of passage, however, Judah lost his wife and thus became a widower. After a period of mourning, Judah planned to go to the village of Timnah to have his sheep sheared. Tamar learned of this proposed trip and made her own plans. By this time, she was aware that Shelah, now grown, had not been offered to her as a husband. So Tamar took off her widow’s garments, put on a veil, wrapping herself in the garb of a prostitute and took a seat at the gate of her village. She knew that her village was on the road to Timnah and that Judah would have to pass her way. When Judah saw her, assuming that she was a prostitute, he went over to her to negotiate for her services offering her a lamb from his flock in payment for her “favors.” She demanded that he give her something of value to secure the promise; a pledge, if you will, until the lamb was delivered. She requested Judah’s signet ring, his cord and his staff. Judah gave them to her without debate and so the act was consummated. The next day Judah, acting, he felt, in good faith sent the lamb with one of his servants and asked Tamar to return his possessions. Tamar, however, could not be found. The people of her village denied that there ever was a prostitute who solicited business at their gate. So the lamb came back to Judah. To avoid embarrassment, he simply charged this experience off as a bad business deal. Three months later, the rumor came to Judah that Tamar his daughter-in-law was pregnant. He was angry and when this rumor was confirmed, he took action to have her put to death at the stake for the crime of “harlotry.” As Tamar was being brought forth to be burned, she sent a message and some gifts to Judah. “I am with child,” she said, “by the owner of this ring, this cord and this staff.” Judah recognized them as his own. He then repented of the way he had treated Tamar and took her into his home and harem. She produced twins and one of them, a boy named Perez, was in the line between Abraham and Jesus. By the standards of that day, sex with one’s father-in-law was considered to be incest and was condemned. In Matthew’s genealogy, however, the proclamation was made that the line that produced Jesus had flowed through the incest of Tamar. It was a strange and fascinating way to open the story of Jesus. The second woman mentioned in this genealogy was named Rahab. Her story is told in chapters two and six of the book of Joshua. She lived in Jericho, a Canaanite city, where she ran a brothel in the red light district. She was known in the book of Joshua as “Rahab the prostitute.” When Joshua sent spies into Jericho, they went to the house of Rahab, which was built into the walls that encircled the city. When rumors of the presence of these spies spread throughout the city, Rahab hid them from the searching authorities and when the gates of the city were locked after dark, she let them down outside the walls in a basket so that they could make their escape. She exacted a promise from them, however, that when the invasion of Jericho came, she and her family, all of whom would be gathered in her house, would be spared. It was done and they were saved. Rahab married a Jew named Salmon, perhaps he was a soldier in Joshua’s army, perhaps he was even one of the spies. In this story Matthew now says that the line that produced Jesus flowed through Rahab, the prostitute. The intrigue grows. The third woman in Matthew’s genealogy was Ruth the Moabite, whose story is told in the book that bears her name. A Jewish family, Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion, moved from Israel to Moab to escape a famine. Both sons soon married Moabite women, whose names were Orpah and Ruth. Then tragedy struck and the three men in this family died, leaving a Jewish widow and her two Moabite daughters-in-law. Naomi urged her two daughters in law to return to the protection of their fathers. Orpah did so, but Ruth refused and she and Nomi returned together to the land of the Jews. Two widowed, and thus single women, did not constitute a viable family in the Jewish world. There were no jobs for women; they lived by begging and gleaning. Gleaning was the process of allowing the poor to scour the fields after the harvest for enough grain to keep one alive. This is what Ruth did each day for Naomi. In this capacity, she came to the attention of the owner of the fields, a man named Boaz, who was a distant relative of Elimelech, Naomi’s deceased husband. Boaz protected Ruth from the male workers in the field and ordered them to leave some grain deliberately in the field for her to gather. He also saw to it that she got water. Naomi, pleased when she heard of these signs, planned her own course of action. A celebration was to be held when the crop was harvested. At this celebration there would be revelry and much wine. Naomi instructed Ruth to go to the celebration, bathed, perfumed and in her best dress. She was, however, not to make herself known to Boaz until “his heart was merry” with wine. Ruth agreed. When Boaz was well drunk, he lay down on the floor and went to sleep. Ruth put a pillow under his head and a blanket across his body and then climbed under the blanket with him. At midnight Boaz awoke and discovered Ruth under the blanket with him. “Who are you?” he asked, but Ruth having successfully seduced him, responded by saying, “Marry me,” for “you are next of kin.” Boaz protested that there was a kinsman closer than he. That kinsman, however, renounced that claim and Boaz married Ruth and they produced a son named Obed. The line that produced Jesus, said Matthew, now flowed through the seduction of Ruth. The mystery thickens. The final woman in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus was “the wife of Uriah, the Hittite.” Her story is told in II Samuel 11. Her name is Bathsheba. She came to King David’s attention while bathing on the rooftop of her home in what she thought was privacy. David’s rooftop towered above hers, however, and he could and did look down on the bathing scene. Smitten by her charms, he sent emissaries to her house inviting her to come to the king’s palace for a “tryst.” She came. Whether she had a right to refuse is not stated, but it was improbable. A few months after this tryst, Bathsheba sent word to King David that she was pregnant with his child. David demurred. She was a married woman, how did she know in this pre-DNA world that it was his child? Bathsheba responded that her husband was away serving in the king’s army and that he had been gone for months. You alone, she said, can be the father of this baby. David sought to give Uriah a furlough so that he could come home, enjoy his wife and thus become the “presumptive father.” The baby just came early, people would say. Uriah, however, refused to cooperate. So David had Uriah killed in battle and took Bathsheba into his harem. Matthew was now saying that the line that produced Jesus of Nazareth flowed through the adultery of Bathsheba. We cannot help but wonder why he is introducing his story of Jesus in this way. The incest of Tamar, the prostitution of Rahab, the seduction of Ruth and the adultery of Bathsheba were the experiences in his ancestry through which Jesus came to be born, as shown in the story of Matthew’s genealogy. All of these women were foreign, and by the standards of that day, all of these women were sexually compromised. This is the way Matthew introduces the story of Jesus’ birth. What was Matthew seeking to communicate? Surely he did not have birth records so that he could trace Jesus’ lineage with any degree of accuracy. Both Matthew and his reading audience would have known this. They would have been amused that anyone at any time would have thought of this family tree as literal history. We need to recognize, however, that Matthew is the first gospel writer to suggest that the birth of Jesus was supernatural and miraculous. He introduced this tradition into Christianity, but it was not until the ninth decade of the Christian era that it appeared. Simultaneously he suggested that the line that produced Jesus passed through incest, prostitution, seduction and adultery. When this series continues we will begin to unpack this dramatic introduction. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer David Dodson, via the Internet, writes: Question: With so much modern information embedded in your views, I find it odd that you would still believe in prophecy. Do you? Or do you call Jesus of Nazareth “Christ” out of habit and not because he did or will fulfill the messianic prophesies of Jewish lore? Do you actually believe that anyone can know the distant future in great detail? Or, do you believe that the stories of Jesus of Nazareth were made up from an inaccurate Greek translation of those prophecies long after the events transpired and by ghost writers and not the sources cited? Answer: Dear David, Your letter makes so many strange assumptions and then on the basis of those assumptions engages in hostile charges that it is almost unanswerable, but I shall try to make sense out of it for you and for my readers. Biblical prophecy had little to do with predicting future events. Prophets in the Old Testament served primarily to articulate the yearnings of the Jewish people for vindication as they suffered the slings and arrows of their rather violent history. The word “messiah” in the Jewish scriptures literally meant “the Anointed One” and was originally no more than a title for the King of the Jews, who was inducted into his office by being anointed with oil. If you were to read the two books of Samuel you would discover that Samuel, the prophet, anointed both Saul and David to be kings of the Hebrew nation. When the Jewish monarchy was destroyed, following the defeat of the Jews at the hands of the Babylonians in the 6th century BCE, the Jewish concept of the “anointed one,” departed from their history and entered into their dreams and their mythology. Messianic images then began to appear in Jewish thinking in many forms ranging from a messiah who would be a conquering military leader riding to victory in order to restore the Jewish nation, to the suffering servant who would drain the world of its hostility by absorbing it and returning it as love. Between the death of Jesus about 30 CE and the writing of the gospels from 70-100 CE, it is clear that the followers of Jesus searched the Jewish Scriptures to find what they came to believe were hidden references to what they had experienced in Jesus of Nazareth and then they wrote their stories of Jesus to conform to those prophetic expectations. The idea that people years before predicted events in Jesus’ life is patent nonsense. The fact is that it was exactly the opposite; the memory of Jesus was twisted so that he could be seen to conform to messianic expectations in the Bible. I treated this subject in much greater detail than I can do in this question and answer format in my book: Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World where I have a whole section on the prophets. No, I do not think that anyone can know the future in any way: I include in this would be fortune tellers, those quacks who regularly predict the end of the world and certainly those who predict political events by reading the book of Revelation! In regard to the stories of Jesus, there is clearly an historical memory of a powerful person and personality imprinted on the lives of Jesus’ followers that the gospel writers drew on when they wrote their books. By the time those books were written, however, some 40-70 years after Jesus’ death had passed. One translation from Aramaic to Greek had also taken place for Greek was a language that neither Jesus nor his disciples spoke. The gospels are not therefore either history or biography. They are interpretive portraits painted by Jewish artists trying to give expression to an experience of transcendence that they had experienced in the life of Jesus. One cannot literalize that which was never meant to be literalized. Since you seem to be aware of none of this, I do not find the categories you mention to be helpful in getting to the truth. My best, John Shelby Spong Announcements A Few Things About ProgressiveChristianity.org You Might Be Surprised to Learn... You might be surprised to learn that we are a small non-profit with a small budget and only four part-time staff members. You might be surprised to learn that our President/Director works full time as a volunteer. You might be surprised to learn that we funnel most of our donations right back into the meaningful projects that we have taken on to help evolve and support faith communities. You might be surprised to learn that we offer most of our resources- like our Weekly Liturgy- for free to our web visitors. You may even be surprised to learn that we do all that we do with very few donations and no grants. But mostly you may be surprised that as a non-profit we often forget to ask for donations! Surprised? Can you help support our little organization? We are here for you! And we would love to continue creating and gathering resources for your spiritual evolution, which includes the Bishop Spong Website. But every once in awhile, we do need to ask that you be there for us too. Please donate today… and maybe you’ll surprise us! READ MORE HERE .

1 0