- OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

Bush fires and the heat
by Isobel and Jim 04 Jul '21

04 Jul '21

Dear colleagues, Here in Australia it is winter, and yet we read and see so much of what many of you are experiencing with excessive heat and wild fires. We regularly experience these in summer here now. We are thinking of the people especially those living in Canada in British Columbia and the US, in the Pacific North West. St Paul comes to mind, from Corinthians “ always going through it, never going under.” Climate change is reeking havoc on the Great Barrier Reef, here in this country. We are worried, as our Government is very slow to acknowledge and act. However, we remember Canada has just celebrated her National Day and today is July 4, so let us celebrate in the midst of your national identity. Covid is still with us here, and vaccination roll out too slow here. With fond memories of my life in both Canada and the US. Loving greetings, Isobel Bishop Isobel Bishop Mob. 0412 129 425

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Please join the "Critical Decade Dialogue" on 8 July, 7 pm CST
by Robertson Work 01 Jul '21

01 Jul '21

Dear colleague, Kay Nixon, Linda Hamilton, and I invite you to participate in a "Critical Decade Dialogue" on Zoom, on 8 July, at 7 pm CST. The event is on the ICA Global Research Center Calendar, and is sponsored by Room to Read. Here is the URL where you sign in next Thursday: Kay Nixon is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Chicago Chapter Author Event - Rob Work Time: Jul 8, 2021 06:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89858590512?pwd=eUtBYXJwNEE1M2pTNExySXl5dDZLQT09 Meeting ID: 898 5859 0512 Passcode: 064355 One tap mobile +13126266799,,89858590512#,,,,*064355# US (Chicago) +13017158592,,89858590512#,,,,*064355# US (Washington DC) Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 898 5859 0512 Passcode: 064355 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbmvWtKjko Here is the announcement where you sign up so that the organizers - Room to Read - know who is participating: https://give.roomtoread.org/event/chicago-chapter-author-event-with-roberts…<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgive.roomt…> This event is a fundraiser for Room to Read's programs around the world, but you can also join the Zoom event for free. The event is listed on the ICA Social Research Center Global Calendar. Hope to see you next Thursday 8 July, 7 pm CST, Rob ............................................. Author page for my books: https://www.amazon.com/Robertson-Work/e/B075612GBF Blogsite: https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/ Website: https://www.robertsonwork.com/

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Global Schedule
by Timothy Wegner 01 Jul '21

01 Jul '21

Alan Gammel asked me to post the following message. July is here with a choice of studies, conversations and training events. If you missed the inspiring “Miyawaki Approach to Reforestation” presentation hosted by Mary and Cyprian D’Souza, here is the link that will give you access to the recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yorr1nklVs-wac9ZRtS9gJnhnWvnzx3A/view?usp=… <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.goog…> . For JULY, click on this link: https://icaglobalarchives.org/social-research-center-events/. <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ficaglobala…>to see four types of events: studies, significant conversations, training and impactful global events. There are already nine events posted: two book studies are in progress; two trainings on personal skills development; a conversation on compassionate Leadership. Join Jim Troxel, Tim Karpoff , Rob Work, Sarah Patterson, Gene Marshall,Nancy Trask, John Burbidge, Sunny Walker and others in an impactful event in July! The plan is to send monthly reminders to check in and sign up for events that appeal to you. You may have noticed that the ICA USA Facebook page is beginning to announce events ten days before they occur. Please check the website for upcoming events and times during the month. Remember: YOU are invited to: 1. Offer a presentation you are interested in giving; 2. Recommend other people to present; 3. Participate in any of the events and encourage your friends to attend; and 4. Give feedback by emailing: icaglobalschedule(a)gmail.com. *The Behind the Scenes Team of the* *2021 ICA Global Schedule of Events* Alan Gammel ~ Virginia Kanyogonya ~ Karen Snyder ~ Sunny Walker

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7/01/2021, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Roger Wolsey: Paul: Friend or Foe?; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 01 Jul '21

01 Jul '21

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1954457305 #yiv1954457305templateBody .yiv1954457305mcnTextContent, #yiv1954457305 #yiv1954457305templateBody .yiv1954457305mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1954457305 #yiv1954457305templateFooter .yiv1954457305mcnTextContent, #yiv1954457305 #yiv1954457305templateFooter .yiv1954457305mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Paul: Friend or Foe? | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Roger Wolsey July 1, 2021Sometimes we see posts on social media that begin with someone soliciting “Unpopular Views You Hold that Many Others Don’t” as conversation starters. People respond to such posts by saying things like: “I like light beer.” “I think curling is a proper Olympic sport.” “Young people who are graduating from high school would do well to consider not going to college and instead learn a trade to begin their careers.” “I’m a vegan chiropractor who recommends that people get the Covid-19 vaccine.” Or even, “I’m a Republican who embraces progressive Christianity.” I have a couple of apparently unpopular views. I think that constructing thorium and salt reactors as quickly as possible is needed in order to properly address human aggravated global warming. And, I think that that the apostle Paul has gotten an undeserved bum rap by many progressives and that it is good, right, and well for Christian pastors to preach from the letters of the apostle Paul. I will focus on the second of those two contentions in this essay. Zeitgeist – a German word that means “the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time” – or put more simply, “the spirit of the times.” I’ve been an active follower of the progressive Christian movement for many years. One thing I have noticed rather a lot along the way is a frequent disposition and bias against the apostle Paul. I’ve often seen it show up as a knee-jerk hostility – even as allergy and loathing. If one reads the comments posted on social media in progressive Christian circles it’s easy to recognize and confirm this. An anti-Paul attitude seems to be a zeitgeist. As a progressive Christian pastor who takes both the Bible, and academic scholarship seriously, it saddens me each time that I encounter this. The following is an example of such words written by someone in response to a post on a progressive Christian social media page: “..the ‘Paulistas’ as I call them, will scour the letters of Paul for anything which allows them to legalistically refute the actual example of Jesus….” Others have said things like, “those evangelicals are more into Paul than they are into Jesus,” “those fundies are into Paulianity not CHRISTianity,” etc. In my observation, there is often much overlap with the people who would reject the writings of Paul, with those who contend that Christians should “reject the Old Testament and only focus on the New Testament.” My response to people who would have us reject the Hebrew scriptures out of hand is to remind them that that is asking us to commit the heresy of Marcionism – the notion that “the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament; that “the earlier God was wrathful, mean, and cruel”, and the God of Jesus is warm and loving; and that Christians should reject the Hebrew Scriptures. I remind them that Jesus was informed and inspired by many of the Hebrew scriptures and we do well to be informed and inspired by them too (esp. the prophets and the Psalms). Moreover, one really can’t fully understand the content of the New Testament books and letters without being very familiar with the content of the Hebrew texts. Indeed, a high percentage of the words “in red ink” that are attributed to Jesus – are direct or partial quotes from the Hebrew texts, and/or Jesus riffing on verses within the Hebrew texts. I remind them that many of Paul’s letters were written prior to any of the Gospels - including before Mark, the earliest of the Gospels written. That means there is no such thing as a “Gospel-based Christianity” that existed prior to Paul. All early Christianity, including the Gospels, was formed in the context of Paul’s letters circulating. And, finally, I point out how such a view is not only an example of anti-intellectualism, it’s a form of antisemitism – rudely dismissing the religion of Judaism and the people who practice it. To be sure, the books within the Hebrew scriptures contain a great diversity of theologies some of them helpful and some rather toxic and dysfunctional (same with the New Testament). But to dismiss them all out of hand? - intellectual laziness and liberal dog-whistling that does more harm than good. What’s needed is a mature approach to the faith that follows Jesus’s example in prioritizing and affirming certain parts of the scriptures over others. Now to be fair, most all of the people who are critical of Paul tend to be people who care greatly about persons in our world who have been oppressed; i.e. women, LGBTQ+ persons, and people of color. It is of course good, right, and well, to care about such persons and to pro-actively seek to protect them. The problem is basically a matter of lack of education about the Bible. If people think that Paul wrote the so-called pastoral epistles – the skinny little letters in Bible that contain many of the most micro-managing, controlling, and misogynist verses, then it’d be understandable why many people reject Paul. Thing is, Paul didn’t write them – even though some of them are attributed to Paul. It’s long been the consensus of Biblical scholars that Paul was not the author of those letters. They conclude this because of the difference in language used, theology expressed, and references to certain contexts that suggest location in place and time. They also point out how common it was in that era for people to write pseudepigraphically - “in the name of others.” This information however is rarely passed along by the pastors in the conservative evangelicalism that has become mainstream Christianity. Moreover, unlike mainline Protestant pastors and Catholic priests, many of those evangelical pastors aren’t even required to attend seminary. Bottomline, they aren’t aware of this academic consensus. They don’t know what they don’t know. I suppose this is similar to how so many American Christians are unaware of the reality of human aggravated global warming, and thus, don’t consider stewardship of the earth and Creation care to be integral for people who call themselves Christians. However, some of those religious leaders are quite aware of this, but make a point to not share this information with the people in their pews – frequently with an agenda to “keep women in their place.” That said, there are certain verses within the pastoral epistles that are edifying and worthy of preaching upon in Christian worship; and likewise, there are a few verses within some of the letters that scholars have consensus that Paul did actually write, that are still problematic and worthy of critique. But, Romans 1 isn’t one of them. Some have mistakenly contended that this chapter condemns homosexuality. It doesn’t. See: “Why Romans doesn’t condemn homosexuality” and; “Romans 1 A Clobber Passage that Should Lose its Wallop.” Some progressive Christians claim that Paul was anti-women but they completely miss how Paul fully embraced the egalitarian inclusion of Jesus and that Paul celebrated numerous women who were leaders of the early Church, and that he even recognized one of them, Junia, as being a fellow apostle. Yes, it would have been helpful if Paul had overtly condemned slavery, but that is also true for Jesus as well. A logical implication of both Jesus’s and Paul’s teachings is that no Christian could possibly own a fellow human being if they are truly converted to the good news of the Gospel. Some of the most beloved, inspiring, and liberating verses in the Christian Bible are the words of Paul. Which of us would really want a Bible that didn’t include these passages?: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation: The old has gone, the new is here! ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 …In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. ..What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~ Romans 8:22-39 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. ~ Galatians 3:26-29 (a passage massively helpful to the cause of women’s rights, and pro-LGBTQ advocacy – as being in Christ transcends all human constructs!) Sure, Paul might be viewed as a bit too arrogant – but in truth he was going out of his way to express a humble attitude. He wasn’t trying to be a “super Christian,” indeed, he strove to show that he wasn’t one of those sorts of people. Frankly, his trying “too hard” efforts remind me a bit of me – and this endears me to him. Speaking of zeitgeist, on June 3 of this year, Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz published an article on the ProgressiveChristianity.org website entitled “Did Paul Distort the Message of Jesus?“ His essay shares a similar concern about people dismissing Paul without giving him a fair shake. And consider also the following books which provide excellent insights about Paul and his letters from progressive Christian points of view: * Paul the Progressive?: The Compassionate Christians Guide to Reclaiming the Apostle as An Ally, Eric Smith. * The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary, Marcus Borg * Paul: A Biography, N.T. Wright Finally, most of the Christians reading this essay wouldn’t likely be Christians today if it weren’t for the apostle Paul. Prior to him, the following of Jesus was merely a sect within Judaism. Paul felt called by God to extend the good news of the Gospel to the gentiles – following the radically inclusive spirit and hospitality of Jesus in doing so. May this more generous understanding of Paul truly become the new zeitgeist spirit of our times; and may this view of the good apostle not be so unpopular with each passing day. In “the peace that surpasses all understanding,” (Philippians 4:6) ~ Rev. Roger Wolsey Read online here About the Author Rev. Roger Wolsey is a United Methodist pastor who resides in Grand Junction, CO. Roger is author of Kissing Fish: Christianity for people who don’t like Christianity and blogs for Patheos as The Holy Kiss and serves on the Board of Directors of ProgressiveChristianity.Org. Roger became “a Christian on purpose” during his college years and he experienced a call to ordained ministry two years after college. He values the Wesleyan approach to the faith and, as a certified spiritual director, he seeks to help others grow and mature. Roger enjoys yoga; playing trumpet; motorcycling; and camping with his son. He served as the Director of the Wesley Foundation campus ministry at the University of Colorado in Boulder for 14 years, and has served as pastor of churches in Minnesota, Iowa, and currently serves as the pastor of Fruita UMC in Colorado, and also serves as the "CRM" (Congregational Resource Minister/Church Consultant) for the Utah/Western Colorado District of the Mountain Sky Conference. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Karen My oldest child has recently come out as transgender. Not surprisingly, many Christian friends are now pointing to the bible saying that she is a sinner and that God 'condemns' her. Does the Bible and God really say that? A: By Rev. Mark Sandlin Dear Karen,No, the Bible nor God say that. The reality is that the Bible is largely uninterested in same-sex relationships and it completely silent on the question of transgender folks. If the people saying these things to you are sincere in their desire to be Christians, to follow the teachings of Jesus, I encourage them to think about some of the things Jesus most frequently talked about: loving your neighbor as yourself and standing with those who are marginalized as opposed to taking part in marginalizing them. As I say in one of my articles on the Bible and Homosexuality (Clobbering “Biblical” Gay Bashing), “Time and time again, Jesus made it clear that we should not put ourselves in the place of playing God and that, unlike far too many humans, God welcomes and loves us all equally. Period.” The way I see it, if you are being hateful towards a person, it is very clearly not of God. If anything, it's an attempt to pin hateful beliefs on God, to put words into God's mouth that run counter to what Jesus taught us about God. And, that? That's using God's name in vain. It's blasphemy. When religion isn't practiced with intelligence and compassion, it can easily be used as an authoritative confirmation of biases. Without critical thinking and the innate valuing of individuals, perverting religious outlooks to suit personal prejudices is far too easy. Your child is beautiful and loved in the eyes of God. Always has been always will be. And, yes, that's biblical. If others can't see that, they aren't seeing her from God's perspective. God is love. Condemning a person because of who they are does not come from a place of love, it is not from God. Give your child a giant hug, remind them of just how much you love them for being exactly who they are and tell them that is the way God sees them as well. ~ Rev. Mark Sandlin Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Mark Sandlin is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) from the South. He currently serves at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. Mark also serves as the President and Co-executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org. He is a co-founder of The Christian Left. His blog, has been named as one of the “Top Ten Christian Blogs.” Mark received The Associated Church Press’ Award of Excellence in 2012. Follow Mark on Facebook and Twitter @marksandlin. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hi friends, First, I want to thank those who have contributed to ProgressiveChristianity.org for the role you play in keeping this unique source of progressive theology alive and well. We literally cannot do what we do without you. Also, a big “thank you” to our monthly donors. You are my heroes. Seriously. Knowing what outside support we can count on each month enables us to start casting a vision of what we can do in the future – including things like expanding our resources and getting those resources to even more spiritual seekers like you! Not a month goes by when I don't receive a note or message that reminds me just exactly how important is the work we do here at ProgressiveChristianity.org and each time I think of how grateful I am for those who help make it possible. ProgressiveChristianity.org is here for you and we thank everyone who has been here for us. If you are in a position to contribute, please consider doing so. If you can become a monthly donor - Recurring Donation - even better! Below is the link for donating. We appreciate anything you can do to be a part of our supporting family. PEACE! Rev. Mark Sandlin President and Co-Executive Director Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org online and going strong - click here to donate today! * Another way to support us is to leave a bequest in your Will and/or Trust designating us a beneficiary. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Thoughts at the end of 2010 - Darkness Ahead Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong December 30, 2010Momentarily a new year will dawn. 2010 has been difficult economically for this nation and the world. Now is a traditional time both for looking backward and forward. When I watch our politicians discharge their duties at year’s end, I find myself despairing for two reasons. First, few people in public life seem eager to accept accountability and to recognize their role in creating the problems that this nation now faces. It is always someone else’s fault. Second, when one listens to the political rhetoric, it becomes apparent far too often that many of our lawmakers are either uninformed or dishonest. I cite these data that lead me to these depressing conclusions. Many political voices bemoan publicly the out-of-bounds growth in the national debt, but few of them are willing to take any concrete steps to address this issue. Clearly solving the fiscal crisis is not the path to political success. The fact is that this country has been living beyond its means for sometime now. There are three ways only to bring the nation’s finances under control. We can raise taxes, we can cut government spending or we can adopt a combination of both. While that is fairly obvious, the fact is that there is no political constituency developing around any aspect of this equation. How did the debt grow to such threatening proportions? There are four primary, easy to document causes. Two of them are our current wars, neither of which was provided for in the national budget. To finance these wars by calling for sacrifices on the part of our citizens was just too painful politically. No one on either side of the aisle was willing to raise taxes or to cut non-essential spending to spread the sacrifice. To do either ran the risk of eroding support for these wars and so a decision was made at the highest level that the only Americans who would have to sacrifice for these foreign policy initiatives would be the members of the armed services and their families, and sacrifice they did with their lives, their limbs and for many, we are now recognizing, their long- term mental health. No one else had either to pay a nickel or to see his or her life style inconvenienced. War also creates new sources of wealth. Certain businesses seize the war opportunity to make enormous profits. These businesses are primarily in security, construction and oil and each has powerful friends in high places. It is also the case, inappropriately enough, that many of these war profits made abroad find ways of escaping taxation at home. If a nation’s freedom or survival is at risk most would be willing to sacrifice the economy. Can anyone, however, honestly say that the wars in either Iraq or Afghanistan represented a response to either our freedom or our survival? One could argue, I believe, that invading Afghanistan was an act of self-defense, since the Taliban government of that country had sheltered Al Qaeda when they attacked the United States. The Iraq war, however, the far more expensive of the two, was begun on trumped-up charges about that country’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. Those charges turned out to be first blatantly false, second politically calculated lie and third covered up. It is also a fact that neither war has yet achieved popular support. When a nation or a government is not convinced of the rightness of its cause, its leaders always find ancillary excuses to justify their actions. The most popular of these in Afghanistan at least, was the Taliban’s treatment of its women under fundamentalist Muslim rule. We have all read stories of women being beaten and even executed for such crimes as having too much ankle visible in public, for being in the company of males other than their family and for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. Girls were not allowed to go to school. Greg Mortenson’s popular book, Three Cups of Tea, related the attempts by an American to build schools for girls in Afghanistan and touched such a deep place in the American psyche that it remained at the top of American best selling book lists for years, making our citizens feel better about this troubling war. When President Obama supported a surge of troops in Afghanistan he effectively made that war his own. Neither President Bush nor Obama has yet gone to the Congress to secure budgetary support for either war, so their costs continue to feed the increasing deficit. The third cause of our gigantic current deficit was the second round of what were called “The Bush Tax Cuts.” The initial Bush tax cuts early in his first term were judged by most economists to be both reasonable and necessary. The government of the United States had begun to run a surplus in the 1990’s. What to do with this surplus had become a hotly debated political issue. One option was to use the surplus or some part of it to guarantee the solvency of Social Security. That course of action was defeated in favor of tax cuts alone. The second tax cut, however, had no such justification and even a conservative economist like Alan Greenspan called them “irresponsible.” No cuts in government spending were offered to minimize the inevitable addition to the national debt. There was sufficient opposition to these second tax cuts that the only way the Bush administration could get this proposal passed was to make them “temporary.” They were to expire on December 31, 2010. No one anticipated that when that date arrived this country would be in the deepest recession since the Great Depression. The fourth reason for the ever-widening deficit was that same recession. In the fall of 2008 reckless greed ultimately received its comeuppance. The “irrational exuberance” finally broke and began to spiral downward toward a world wide depression. Venerable businesses like Lehman Brothers, Merrill-Lynch, Bear Sterns and Wachovia Bank disappeared into either liquidation or fire sales. Giant banks like Citicorp, Bank of American, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley tottered on the brink of failure. The housing industry collapsed, having been financed by loans based on the premise of continuous inflation on housing prices. Washington Mutual and Countrywide Financial went into bankruptcy. AIG, the world’s biggest insurance company was in ruins. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government housing agencies, were no longer solvent. The American auto industry almost disappeared. Chrysler and General Motors received massive infusions of government money. Ultimately Chrysler went private and General Motors went into bankruptcy. Of course, with massive losses in the stock market, government revenues also tumbled, while government spending went on as if nothing had happened. Eventually, this nation itself flirted with bankruptcy. No president, with the possible exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ever took office in a more difficult time than Barack Obama. Recession, a tottering economy and two unfinished and unfinanced wars greeted him. It has not been an easy time for our nation or our people. Of course, if one believed the political rhetoric, no one was to blame for these disasters except one’s political enemies. It was obvious, according to Republican talking points, that the way to climb out of this downturn was to cut runaway social programs. Democratic talking points countered by suggesting that allowing the Bush tax cuts on the rich to expire was the clear pathway back to prosperity. As the showdown developed in the Senate the Republican minority clearly proved itself to be more politically adept than the Democratic majority. Taking a position of negativity on all issues, they fought the Democrats to a standstill. They exhausted the administration in the Health Care fight, while prohibiting the public option, which was the one thing in the original Obama health care proposal that had any possibility of lowering health care costs. Once that was defeated they began their attack on “the government’s takeover of health care.” It was strange logic and observers noted that the price of the stock in the private health care companies went up during and after the health care debate. Then using the recession as the reason for extending the soon to expire “Bush tax cuts” for all Americans including the top two percent of our wealthiest citizens, they added another huge hole to the national debt causing it to spin out of control for the foreseeable future. The Republican strategy is to build their future political victories by campaigning against the very deficit they helped to create. The Democrats, on the other hand, seemed to have been reduced to whimpering in the dark shadows of Washington about how heartless Republicans are. Yet they were unwilling to initiate any cuts in the national budget. In a similar manner no union seemed willing to face the fact that their companies can no longer compete against foreign businesses because of the cost of labor, making their only choice to be that that of bankruptcy or shifting jobs overseas. No teacher’s union wants to have any teachers judged by the standard of their students’ achievements despite the fact that the purpose of education is to educate. The fact is that this nation spends more money on education and achieves lower results than any developed nation in the world. So we enter 2011 facing difficult days ahead. The recession lingers; the unemployment rate remains just under 10%. Instead of working together to solve these critical issues, the primary agenda in Washington seems to be posturing for the next election. We are sowing the seeds of a disaster. It is not a time to be proud of our elected leaders, but this is there we are as we enter 2011.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements New Online Programs for those called by Earth and Spirit to Return to the Great Conversation We are excited to offer several new virtual and experiential Seminary of the Wild programs designed to support your journey of ecological awakening and a new kind of leadership. Re-member and reclaim the deep, sacramental rhythms of life - Online July 30th & 31st The deep imaginal realm is like treasure hidden in the field of your life, a key to the doorway of your destiny - August 14th, 20th and 27th. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Richard William Howie | The Altamont Enterprise
by Lynda C 28 Jun '21

28 Jun '21

In celebration of the life and service of Richard Howie, whose memorial service was today, I found this delightful small town newspaper interview to be most enlightening about the many aspects of Richard and Ellen’s life that many of us never knew. https://altamontenterprise.com/06092021/richard-william-howie With Ellen, his children and grandchildren, we celebrate the profound service and generosity of Richard (and Ellen) that we do know through their work with EI, OE, and ICA. In keeping with his love of the ocean, “Journey On, Richard, with grace and peace and love, on life’s unending sea, “ Lynda and John

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Global Buzz reminder for July entries
by ICA International 28 Jun '21

28 Jun '21

Reminder for entries This reminder is for the Global Buzz that will be published July 5th. 2021 (Please send your entries at least a day or more ahead) Please send all your entries by regular e-mail to: inform(a)ica-international.org with your entry as an attatchment. 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. Peter, for ICAI Communications Pour les entrées de rappel Ce rappel est à la Global Buzz qui sera publié le 5 juillet 2021 (S'il vous plaît envoyez vos entrées au moins un jour à l'avance) Veuillez envoyer toutes vos entrées maintenant par courriel ordinaire à : inform(a)ica-international.org avec votre entrée comme un attatchment. Envoyer les détails des articles de nouvelles, des programmes de formation, vos connexions peer to peer avec d'autres CIAS, de toute préoccupation que vous pourriez avoir et de tous les événements qui sont à venir à votre emplacement. Votre rapport peut être longue ou courte, mais rappelez-vous que toutes les autres CIAS aimerait vraiment savoir à propos de choses qui importe où vous êtes et ce que vous faites comme une ICA. Recordatorio de las entradas Este aviso es para el Global Buzz que se publicarán 5 mes de julio 2021 (Favor de enviar sus entradas al menos con un día de antelación) Por favor envíe todos sus entradas ahora por correo electrónico a: inform(a)ica-international.org con su entrada como un archivo adjunto. Enviar detalles de noticias, programas de capacitación, el peer to peer las conexiones con otros convenios o acuerdos internacionales, las preocupaciones que usted pueda tener y de los eventos que se aproximan en su ubicación. El informe puede ser a corto o largo, pero hay que recordar que todos los demás convenios quisiera saber realmente sobre lo que realmente importa, y lo que están haciendo una ICA.

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Passing of Joy Richert Huber
by A.M. Noel 17 Jun '21

17 Jun '21

Dear colleagues, Joy Huber, formerly Joy Richert, passed away this morning in Seattle. She was truly a joy to be with, she mentored my wife, Linda VerNooy in her youth, she was a lifelong friend. She was committed to the environment, founded Planet CPR and River CPR and was the Executive Director of the Rivers Council of Washington, and a fundraiser for YMCA. She designed the original 5th City brochure with Bruce Donnelly, and worked in 5th city. Baine Davis performed her wedding with David Huber. She has 4 daughters Kirsten, Rosemary, Ruth, and Diana and her husband David Huber who survive her. Let us hold her in our hearts as we remember who contribution to the world. A.M. Noel

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6/17/2021, Progressing Spirit: Special Edition: Celebrating Bishop John Shelby Spong on his 90th birthday
by Ellie Stock 17 Jun '21

17 Jun '21

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7444770193 #yiv7444770193templateBody .yiv7444770193mcnTextContent, #yiv7444770193 #yiv7444770193templateBody .yiv7444770193mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv7444770193 #yiv7444770193templateFooter .yiv7444770193mcnTextContent, #yiv7444770193 #yiv7444770193templateFooter .yiv7444770193mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Special Edition: Celebrating Bishop John Shelby Spong On His 90th Birthday | | | | | | | | | | As we continue to celebrate yesterday's marking of Bishop Spong's 90th Birthday, we dedicate this week's newsletter to previous Essays and a Q&A from Bishop Spong. In particular, we want to acknowledge his lifelong dedication to human rights and social justice reform as the Nation celebrates Juneteenth this week. We have forwarded hundreds of emails from readers wishing him a Happy Birthday; we encourage you to add your best wishes, please address them to admin(a)progressivechristianity.org. | | | | | | | | Meditation on Turning 80 in London Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong August 25, 2011I marked the 80th anniversary of my birth in Green’s Restaurant, Duke Street in London this summer. What I thought was to be a quiet, romantic dinner with my wife Christine was jarred a bit when we arrived at the restaurant and were told “Your table for five is ready.” Five, I thought, who are the five? I looked at my wife for clues and was told that this was her party not mine. So we went to our table, sat down and waited to see who these invited guests would be.In about five minutes the mystery began to clear up when two of our closest friends, Liz and Geoff Robinson appeared. I had not thought of them since they live in Wellington, New Zealand. Liz has directed each of my book tours to New Zealand and Geoff is the news anchor of Radio New Zealand and thus the best recognized voice in that country. We have together hiked the Milford Track on New Zealand’s South Island and vacationed on the tip of the North Island in previous years. I was vaguely aware that they were going to be in the UK this summer, but did not know that our dates would overlap so I was as amazed and delighted to see them.About 15 minutes passed before the mystery of the final guest was solved. The door opened and in came Karen Armstrong, a close friend and a former nun, whose books have catapulted her to be one of the best commentators on religious matters in the Western world. Her sensitive treatment of Islam has turned her into almost a rock star in Iran. We have known and loved Karen for more than a decade and see her regularly in London and in New York. She travels extensively and finding her home on this particular day was a long shot.So now my birthday dinner guest list was complete and the party lasted until 11:30 pm. There was no one else in the restaurant when we finally departed. The waiters seemed perfectly content to let us continue as long as we wished, but they did look relieved when we finally left. That dinner gathering was the beginning of my meditation on what it means to reach 80 years of age. Age is a gift that I believe must be embraced and even cherished.Frequently the joy of life is not fully appreciated until the years begin to creep up. When I was a young man, my focus was always on the future. I worked hard at each stage of my life to prepare me for the next. There came a time, however, when I realized that I was not preparing for life, I was living it. That is a crucial distinctionI have had three quite distinct and exciting careers. I was a priest, then a bishop and then an author-lecturer. Each was a full time occupation. I loved them all. In my 21 year career as a priest I lived in four distinct and wonderful locations. My first church was located quite literally between Duke University and the Erwin Cotton Mills in Durham, N. C. and its congregation straddled both worlds. The two leaders of my vestry were Dr. Herman Salinger, head of the Department of German at Duke and a published poet, and Milton Barefoot, known as “Piggy,” who was a child of the mill community and was then working as a gas pump regulator for the State of North Carolina. Both were wonderful human beings.My second location was in the farming belt of Eastern North Carolina – the town of Tarboro in Edgecombe County. This rural community was filled with good people, but racial tensions were high in those days as segregation was dying and a new way of life was struggling to be born. Among my responsibilities as a 26 year old priest were Calvary Church, a wonderful community of dedicated white people, and St. Luke’s Church, another wonderful congregation of dedicated black people located just one block away in that deeply segregated world. I loved both of these congregations. The people of Calvary helped me to grow in many ways and the people of St. Luke’s took me in and loved the racism out of me. I was never the same after serving those two churches.My third location was Lynchburg, Virginia, where I shared that town with an up and coming Baptist preacher named Jerry Falwell. Once again the significant issue in that town was a deep racism. St. John’s Church where I was privileged to serve, was also across the street from Randolph Macon Women’s College and for the first time I embraced how powerful a force the presence of an institution of higher learning can be in the life of a community. It was in Lynchburg that I also learned that congregations are made up of people who are not only willing, but quite capable of learning anything that I knew. The people at St. John’s were politically conservative, but biblically uninformed. They were, however, not mushrooms meant to be kept in the dark and covered with manure, and so with them I learned a valuable lesson. It is not lay people, but the clergy who are overwhelmingly afraid of truth, insight and biblical scholarship. Lay people do not need to have their God or their religion protected by frightened clergy.My final priestly location was St. Paul’s Church in the heart of Richmond, Virginia. It was then and remains today the greatest church experience I have ever had. In this congregation the people were leaders in business, finance, law, medicine and government. Yes, they also were politically conservative, but they were open to new possibilities and I loved that congregation passionately. Here people flocked to an adult Bible class that I taught, eager to learn if the church was willing to teach. Being a priest was a deeply satisfying, enormously fulfilling life. Perhaps in the terms of personal meaning, it was the most satisfying of my three careers.In 1976 I was elected bishop of Newark and began my second career. A bishop is an administrator, a conflict manager, a personnel officer, a fund raiser and a figure head. I say this not to be pejorative, but to state a fact. The bishop of a diocese is also, I learned, the articulator of a vision for the church in that area. In the diocese I served I was, by dint of my office, the chairman of the board of a major urban hospital. I had to learn about health care, medical politics and more legal issues than I knew existed. The office of bishop required talents I did not have and knowledge for which I had no training. I embraced a steep learning curve.How does a bishop measure success? That is hard to do. The thing I’m proudest of is that ten of the clergy who worked with me in this diocese at some point in their careers went on to become bishops. Six of our clergy went on to become cathedral deans across America and others served in parishes that occupy critical places in the life of the church and this nation.When I retired from this office in February of 2000, I moved immediately on to my third career in academia. I taught at Harvard, at the University of the Pacific, at Drew Theological School and at the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, California. I began to write a weekly column first for Beliefnet, then for Waterfront Media, then for Every Day Health and now for TCPC. I was amazed at the expanse of that column. We, and I say we because my wife Christine organized and facilitated this phase of our lives, began a lecturing career that carried us not only across America, but to the United Kingdom at least annually; to Australia and New Zealand nine times; to Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Israel, South Africa, Thailand, Canada and IndonesiaThroughout my career I took a crash course in institutional politics and worked to put institutional Christianity on the side of the full inclusion of people of color, women and gay and lesbian people in both church and society. I rejoice today that my nation has an African-American President, my home diocese of North Carolina has an African-American bishop and half of our clergy are now female, including our extraordinarily gifted woman Presiding Bishop.I am proud that when I retired as the bishop of Newark I had 35 out of the closet gay and lesbian clergy serving with high effectiveness and 31 of them lived openly with their partners. I rejoice today that my church has two gay-partnered openly elected and confirmed bishops.In those three phases of my life, I was always planning ahead and looking forward. As I grew older, the present became increasingly where I wanted to live, not the future. Meaning was found, life was lived and relationships were treasured in the present. My family became more and more important to me. Freeing people to be whole and to offer the gifts they have to offer, whether modest or impressive, became an essential mark of life. Faith became existential not theoretical. God became a living presence, not an external being. Christ became a principle lived out fully in history by Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity became a universal experience that crossed all boundaries. Staying connected with old friends became an increasingly precious part of life. Repairing broken relationships, where possible, became a priority and where it was not possible it helped simply to acknowledge my part in the brokenness.I have never been one to speculate on the content of life after death, but I do trust it, feel it, and seek to live into it. The only way I know how to prepare for life after death is to live deeply, richly and fully now, scaling life’s heights, plumbing life’s depths, risking love, affirming others and accepting differences. It is by living fully that I prepare for death.St. Paul was wrong, death is not the last enemy to be defeated. Death is a friend to be embraced. Death adds zest and passion to life by forcing us to live and investing each moment with ultimacy. I thus never want to miss an opportunity to tell my wife how much I love her. I live for the moments when my children or grandchildren call or when we visit. I love to hear about their victories and defeats, their struggles and joys. I want to live every moment of the life that I have, but I also want to relinquish that life with grace and dignity when it is time to do so.These were the streams of consciousness that flowed through my mind as I reveled in turning 80 years old and celebrating that with my wife and three special friends in London on Duke Street in the summer of 2011.~John Shelby Spong Read online here | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Ted I was pondering this past week about the right wing fundamentalists and their real fear of anything that smacks of socialism. For me, the word socialism means that the society cares for those who are marginalized, who have major difficulties coping with basic life issues, the poor, etc. My understanding of Christian belief is that this care is at the core of our belief - to care for those who need our care, our support, our understanding. Why do those who are “fundamentalist” refuse to see this as part of the Christian gospel? Or am I missing something? A: By Bishop John Shelby Spong Dear Ted,Thanks for your letter. Socialism is one of those words bandied about today rather loosely. To you it means care for the marginalized. For members of the Tea Party in America, it seems to mean having the government control one’s life down to telling us when one must die. I do not believe that using loaded, easily misunderstood words is helpful to dialogue, so let me approach your question from a different angle. I do not see any economic system devised by human beings that does more good for more people better than capitalism. Capitalism, however, devoid of social conscience that expresses itself in making sure that the wealth of the nation is not limited to a very small number of people at the top of the economic pyramid on one side and that no one falls through the safety net on the other, simply does not work. This means that I support things like a graduated income tax, Social Security, mandated universal health care and the regulation of institutions to guarantee fair and equal opportunity in wealth creation for all citizens. If capitalism is not tempered with these restrictions then I am convinced that the capitalist system will drive toward the revolution that Karl Marx predicted. So socially responsible and democratically established legislation is today necessary if capitalism is both going to endure and to be effective. This means that it is essential that capitalism develop the means to allow the wealth of this nation to be spread more equitably and thus allow capitalism to continue to be the best economic system yet devised by human beings. We are in fact mandated by our faith to care for the poor, to feed the hungry and to tend the sick. We are also enjoined to love our neighbors as ourselves. I do not see how those ideals can be served if we allow capitalism to develop an underclass in which poverty is never escaped and in which the basic elements of a caring society do not exist. Christian history, which includes the development of capitalism, also reveals that we have not only violated these ideals, but we also have been anti-Semitic, anti -Muslim, anti-people of color, anti-women, and anti-homosexual. That is a strange way to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors. What is going on in America at this moment is the political manipulation of basic human fears in order to gain power over others or to have power, which the ruling classes believe they have lost, restored. One manifestation of this is that the white Anglo-Saxon population that claims to be the “first families” of America is facing the fact that the United States now includes enormous numbers of citizens whose ancestors migrated not from Europe, but from Africa, Latin America and Asia. We are thus engaged in an internal struggle between the American spirit of inclusion and the vested interests of the earliest settlers. The anger in our political system today also reveals our latent racism, our greed and our xenophobia. When these fears are coupled with unstable economic forces that cause the future to feel insecure, the problems are compounded. I believe we will get through this time in our history. We need long term stability in our government so that the big problems in energy, financial reform, health care and the environment may be addressed. Whether we will have that long term stability is the question. My sense is that with an economic revival and the creation of jobs, the fears will subside. Will that economic upturn come before the election of 2012? I do not know, but that election will be crucial to our future as a nation. ~ Bishop John Shelby Spong January 19, 2011 Read and share online here | | | | | | | | | | | To acknowledging the impact and contributions Bishop Spong has made in the lives of people all over the globe, we are asking his readers who have been touched by his life and writings to help keep them alive on ProgressiveChristianity.org and Progressing Spirit by making a donation today assuring his teachings and writing will be preserved for future generations. | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Should this Column Deal with Political Issues? Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong February 24, 2011I value the letters I receive from my readers. They often offer me new perspectives, bringing to my attention new facts that contribute significantly to my understanding or challenge my conclusions. Frequently these letters express appreciation for insights that I have been able to give them. The most appreciative letters come from two major sources: first, from those who are struggling to build or to rebuild their religious frame of reference in the light of knowledge available to those of us living in the 21st century, and, second, from those who share in my attempts to apply insights gained from my faith commitment to the social, political and economic realities of our day. Indeed, the columns that elicit the most positive feedback are those that some would call “political.” The recent column on the role of Texas oil money in American politics, for example, received record positive mail; as did my column more than a year ago entitled “My Manifesto” on my stated refusal to debate any longer the issue of homosexuality. Since I, along with the vast majority of the medical and scientific community, no longer believe that there is any rational basis on which to discriminate against homosexual people, I do not want to dignify continuing ignorance with a willingness to debate what is no longer debatable. I do not debate whether the earth is flat or whether slavery is moral either. Despite these realities, I still get letters from readers complaining about the “political” columns. One reader seems to write every time a column comes out on a theme that is not specifically religious. I have ignored those letters for almost a year but they keep coming from the same source and so I have decided to respond to this limited but consistent criticism. This person professes to be thrilled with my columns and books on religion. Indeed, he tells me that he delights in sending many of these columns to friends to share with them this new religious point of view. He seems, however, to resent any column with which he disagrees. His comments run the gamut of the things I have absorbed all of my professional life from one-dimensional conservatives. He argues that he does not subscribe to my column to get “political analysis,” of which, he claims, he can get all he wants from newspapers, radio and television. I find that a fascinating idea! I would argue that none of these media outlets offers a view of political events from the unique perspective of faith. Nor are any of them expressions of “objective” political reporting as he seems to think. An editorial in the New York Times and another in the Houston Chronicle, for example, will reveal radically different political perspectives. Listening to televised commentaries on the proposed budget of the Obama administration from conservative commentators on Fox News and from liberal commentators on MSNBC will do the same. These spokespersons on both sides of these issues are all legitimate participants in the American debate, some may be more informed than others, but each sees reality through the lens of his or her own priorities and prejudices. I make no claim to do otherwise. My perspective is that I am a Christian, who believes I must examine political and economic decisions in the light of those values. The basis upon which I make political and economic judgments is that I believe every person, rich and poor, Anglo-Saxon and African, Hispanic and Asian, male and female, gay and straight must to be treated with the dignity of being a child of God. They should not, therefore, have their sense of infinite worth compromised by the insensitive decisions of elected officials, whose primary goal is to be reelected. I accept as the purpose of Jesus and thus of his disciples, a category in which I include myself, that the Christ task is to enhance human life. The Fourth Gospel quotes Jesus as saying that his purpose is to bring abundant life to all. I do not see how one can bring abundant life or enhance present life if racism, masquerading as “States’ Rights,” is allowed to linger; if economic decisions are made to balance the nation’s budget on the backs of the poor, while just having passed an extension of tax cuts for the very wealthy top one percent of America’s earners. I do not believe that life can be enhanced if this nation allows the gap between the rich and the poor to continue to expand. I do not believe that life is enhanced if wars are entered into on the basis of deliberately falsified statements about weapons of mass destruction and in which thousands of America’s young people are killed. I do not believe that, in the interest of enhancing the wealth of the oil industry, our sons and daughters lives ought to be put at risk. I do not see how the lives of gay and lesbian people can be enhanced by allowing uninformed and homophobic people to place their prejudices into the law or state constitutions. Yet all of these things have occurred in the recent life of our nation by decisions made in the political arena. I have no intention of abdicating my responsibility both as a commentator and a citizen to speak in and to that arena. To stay outside the debate is to do little more than to create a vacuum that will be filled by the Sarah Palins, the Glen Becks and the Sean Hannitys of the world. I require no one to agree with me. My opinions are certainly not infallible. My thinking has changed dramatically over the years and I hope will continue to do so as “new occasions teach new duties and time makes ancient good uncouth,” to quote the poet James Russell Lowell. The second implication in these letters is that because my professional field is religion, I have no right or competence to speak to political issues. Jimmy Carter’s field of expertise was engineering and peanut farming. He offered his unique life’s experience to lead first the State of Georgia and later the United States. George W. Bush had done some oil drilling and headed a baseball team. Did those backgrounds render them incapable of speaking or acting on political issues? The majority of American people did not think so. Both American and world politics have actually been life studies of mine. At the drop of a hat I can discuss the major political issues with which every president of the United States has had to deal, including the little known ones like Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and Rutherford B. Hayes. I have had very close members of my family deeply involved in politics. One of them, my first cousin, William B. Spong, Jr., defeated the Byrd machine in Virginia in 1966 to wrest the United States Senate seat from A. Willis Robertson, the ultra-conservative father of TV evangelist Pat Robertson. He lost that seat in 1972 running as an incumbent Democrat on a national ticket headed by George McGovern. I study every presidential election to determine what it says about where our nation is at that moment in its history. I have attended, as a political reporter, the nominating conventions of both of our major political parties. I have been interviewed on national television a number of times and have debated Pat Buchanan on Crossfire and William F. Buckley on Firing Line. I am a lot of things, but a political novice is not one of them! I am also amused when receiving these letters that anyone thinks they have a right to determine the content of this weekly column. It would not occur to me to tell Bill O’Reilly or Rachel Maddow what their subject matter should be. Sometimes the letters I receive are little more than hostile and rude rants. I received one recently that read. “Put it all the way to Hell, Sir! I am interested in your spiritual take, not in your stance on political matters. I may have to unsubscribe unless you get back to spirituality and back off from political B.S. Does your new content have anything to do with your new “carrier/ sponsor?” To this reader I am eager to say first, that the content of this column has been consistent for all of its life. The column’s title, begun nine years ago, is “Bishop Spong on the News and the Christian Faith.” No publisher has ever asked or tried to edit my content. Second, spirituality however you define it, is not divorced from life. Third, I am amazed that a reader feels that, since he or she might not agree with a particular column, he or she has a right to attack me personally or to attempt to coerce me into abiding by his or her wishes by threatening to “unsubscribe” to this column. Readers are, of course, free to disagree with anything I write or to unsubscribe at any time. They are not free, however, to dictate to me what the content of my column should be. The idea that religion is a separate activity from politics always feels strange to me, coming as it does normally from a right-wing mentality. If anyone wonders why this seems so strange, all that person has to do is to examine the content of Christianity. It is a radical movement! In Christ, says St. Paul, all tribal identities fade away. One can hardly be an uncritical super-patriot and be a Christian. Christianity calls us to love our enemies. That makes support for wars of aggression difficult. Christianity calls us to deal with the poor in a sensitive manner even if it raises our taxes. A member of Congress who opposes the current version of health care bill, which covers forty million previously uninsured Americans, has an obligation to offer a bill spelling out an alternative way to cover these uninsured. Otherwise, honesty demands that there be a public admission that he or she does not really care about the issue of forty million people without health care because they cannot see beyond their own needs. I mean by this to suggest that I believe political tactics can always be debated, but I do not see how Christians can fail to agree on the goal of universal health care coverage for all our citizens. Politics is the arena in which public issues are decided. I intend therefore to be a participant in the political arena because “faith without works is dead” to quote the New Testament book of James. I treasure the privilege I have to be in dialogue with my readers. I will explore the Christian faith in depth each week and I will speak to public issues from that perspective wherever those issues arise. The growing number of subscribers indicates to me that they are happy to be in this dialogue. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together. Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Work with ICA around the world
by Robertson Work 16 Jun '21

16 Jun '21

Dear colleagues, Thought that some of you might like to hear this recent podcast interview on "Aspire with Osha" concerning my work with ICA around the world: https://oshahayden.com/podcast/compassionate-civilization-a-conversation-wi… Please stay safe and healthy. ............................................. Author page for my books: https://www.amazon.com/Robertson-Work/e/B075612GBF Blogsite: https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/ Website: https://www.robertsonwork.com/

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NYTimes.com: Many Post-Covid Patients Are Experiencing New Medical Problems, Study Finds
by Jack Gilles 15 Jun '21

15 Jun '21

From The New York Times: Many Post-Covid Patients Are Experiencing New Medical Problems, Study Finds An analysis of health insurance records of almost two million coronavirus patients found new issues in nearly a quarter — including those whose Covid infection was mild or asymptomatic. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/health/covid-19-patients.html?smid=em-sh… Just wondering if any of you are experiencing these issues that are in this article. I haven’t but have had only one shot. So far nobody in our community has either. Just sharing. Peace, Jack

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