Religion is being abused and used to hurt people and democracy. Honest religion suffers as a result.
See this smart, insightful article: Conservative Christians and Republicans are abusing religion. They hurt people, democracy, and religion itself.
Month: September 2019
Conservative Christianity’s merger with Republican Party hurt both of them — and our entire nation.
I wrote this short insightful article to explain some aspects of our nation’s current political crisis: After conservative Christianity merged with the Republican Party, everyone has been hurt
The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity
This article provides interesting insights: Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity
Reclaiming Jesus — A smart 3-page article
This smart 3-page article provided some of the content for our October 2019 TV program: reclaiming_jesus This short follow-up item is relevant too: Call to Prayer, Fasting and Action
Immigration concerns are activating liberal and progressive religious people.
The Trump regime’s attacks on immigrants have motivated many liberal and progressive religious people (Christians and other folks) to become more active. See the short article at this link: Christian left is reviving in America
The Heresy of Christian Nationalism
See the short article at this link: The Heresy of Christian Nationalism
More than 1,100 Congregations Have Agreed to Provide Sanctuary to Migrants
One paragraph in the article linked below provides a few brief biblical quotations. Providing sanctuary for immigrants is deeply rooted in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Leviticus 19:34 states that “the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native born.” Likewise, Mark 12:30-31 advises us that there is no commandment greater than loving our neighbors. Exodus 22:21 emphasizes the point further: “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Then there’s Deuteronomy 10:19, “You shall love the immigrant.” The article mentions examples from different parts […]
New report exposes Republicans’ 2017 tax scam as another handout to the rich instead of helping the poor
Trump and the Republicans lied about their 2017 massive tax cut for extremely rich people and big business. They said it would help the middle class, and that it would stimulate investments that would help poor people. Of course, the opposite is what turned out. Extremely rich people and big businesses reaped huge savings and profits, but the rest of us suffered. This new report provides additional information: https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/report-reveals-that-like-everything-else-about-gop-tax-scam-program-purported-to-help-the-poor-really-just-another-handout-to-the-rich/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1324
Right-wing Christianity merged with the Republican Party and is hurting America.
After the 2016 election I wrote a thorough essay about how we got into our nation’s current political mess. This “mess” had already existed before Trump came along as a politician. The “mess” has several component parts. One of the problems leading to our current crisis is that right-wing Christianity merged with the Republican Party in the 1970s. This corrupted both Christianity and our nation’s political and societal realities. Here is a VERY SHORT SUMMARY of this: In the 1970s several right-wing Christian TV preachers and junk mail organizers mobilized millions of right-wing people around “culture war” issues. They worked […]
A landmark case exposes rampant racial bias in the death penalty.
North Carolina briefly had the “Racial Justice Act” as part of its law, but the Legislature repealed it, and racial bias is rampant again. Racial bias in jury selection, for example, is rampant. See this article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/24/landmark-us-case-to-expose-rampant-racial-bias-behind-the-death-penalty MORE INFORMATION about North Carolina’s “Racial Justice Act” — 6 death penalty cases are being appealed now. See this article: https://www.naacpldf.org/press-release/ldf-to-argue-death-penalty-cases-before-north-carolina-supreme-court?track=DE20H30&utm_source=1908supporterupdate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fy20supporterupdate
Our militarized society fails to appreciate Conscientious Objectors.
Every year several holidays celebrate war and militarism: Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Veterans Day are national holidays. In many, many ways militarism is honored and celebrated, but peace and people with religious and conscientious objections to war are ignored, if not vilified. On September 4, 2019, the Port of Olympia announced that it will celebrate military troops on Sept. 6 with sirens and flashing lights. I’m still waiting for nearly 50 years for any local governments to celebrate Conscientious Objectors – the many people in the U.S. and elsewhere whose consciences or religious faiths prevent us from […]
Short article: The currently dominant worldview is hurting our society in many ways.
Our society is suffering in many, many ways. The problems are all around us — and they are interconnected. They are rooted in a worldview that has been dominating the U.S. (and some other nations) increasingly in recent decades. I wrote a long article about this. Here is a very short article that summarizes a few of the main points. I published it in a recent issue of Works in Progress (www.olywip.org): This currently dominant worldview is hurting us.
SUN SEPT 29 in Seattle: People’s Town Hall on Nuclear Weapons
You can catch a bus from Lacey’s Panorama community to this Seattle event opposing nuclear weapons. Contact Joanne Dufour at (206) 550-1841 jdufourhc@msn.com for info about the bus and to reserve your seat. Here is information about the event: https://www.wpsr.org/wpsr-events/2019/9/29/peoples-town-hall-on-nuclear-weapons Tickets for the event (but not the bus): https://townhallseattle.org/event/peoples-town-hall-on-nuclear-weapons/ To reserve your space on the bus, contact Joanne Dufour at (206) 550-1841 jdufourhc@msn.com For more opportunities to work toward abolishing nuclear weapons, please join with the Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Contact Glen Anderson, OCANW’s chair at (360) 491-9093 or glenanderson@integra.net. See much information at the Nuclear Weapons part […]
WED SEPT 25 webinar to help you organize locally to prevent nuclear war — Sponsored by Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists (www.ucsusa.org) is a very knowledgeable and credible organization that works on some important issues, including nuclear weapons. They are offering a webinar on WED SEPT 25, 2019, to help us become more effective in organizing locally to prevent nuclear war. If you are interested, please sign up through this reputable organization. Here is a sign-up link: https://secure.ucsusa.org/onlineactions/rWzCCQIzukWifzX7UghFjg2?emci=45196c27-cfc9-e911-bcd0-281878391efb&emdi=b51c447e-3ecf-e911-bcd0-281878391efb&ceid=1677746&contactdata=BphVcbR26wicHdM8%2bZZ38hJsgJ%2bAfHQfFu%2fnoWZoZNIhDZIyDsCD9w63EXxeECImJVg6DNWICgVehwZ0NBhmf58LJ7hKC%2bV8k9wVlmkrorEPi3CPRAaQB12Z%2fEFWe27PdA%2fDNu2PpqmdoCS4iNJrgQ%3d%3d Their e-mail announcing this opportunity says this: The Trump administration is currently moving forward with plans to spend more than $1 trillion to replace the entire US nuclear arsenal and build new more “usable” nuclear weapons. All while […]
Prison sentences are TOO LONG — and therefore, cruel, ineffective and wasteful.
In general, the American people want our criminal justice system to protect us from harm, and also to be fair and effective and efficient. Instead, our system is the OPPOSITE in many ways. It is ineffective, cruel, unfair, and wastes tax dollars. For example, research keeps proving that PRISON SENTENCES ARE FAR TOO LONG. The Justice Collaborative (www.thejusticecollaborative.com) provided this information: More than 2.2 million people are incarcerated in our country – many serving extreme sentences that don’t advance public safety. These sentences comes at a great cost to taxpayers and our society as a whole. To advance justice […]