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
This article provides interesting insights: Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity
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
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 […]
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 […]
North Carolina briefly had the “Racial Justice Act” as part of its law, but the Legislature repealed it, and racial bias is rampant again.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
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 […]
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.
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 […]
A juror who helped sentence a man to death speaks powerfully in this 16-minute video. I encourage people to watch all of it – and perhaps also to share it with other people. https://www.ted.com/talks/lindy_lou_isonhood_a_juror_s_reflections_on_the_death_penalty?language=en
Trump’s Atty. Gen. Barr demands absolute obedience to police and attacks “social reformers.” See article: https://www.businessinsider.com/william-barr-zero-tolerance-fraternal-order-police-speech-2019-8 The Justice Collaborative (www.thejusticecollaborative.com) reported in August 2019 that “[i]n a public speech, Barr took a major jab at prosecutors who fight to end mass incarceration – claiming they lead to more crime and more victims. He warned of ‘District Attorneys that style themselves as ‘social justice’ reformers,” claiming they are “anti-law enforcement.’ But here are the facts: between 2007 and 2017, 34 states reduced both rates of incarceration and crime – proving that mass incarceration does absolutely nothing to improve public safety. […]
The term “terrorist” has been slanted to make people think of Muslims. The term “gang” has been slanted to make people think of Blacks or Latinos. But actually, nearly all of the mass shooters have been white, and many of them have been RIGHT-WING EXTREMISTS (some quoting Trump’s rhetoric) who targeted the groups that the Trump regime and other propagandists have been pressuring the public to fear and hate (LGBTQ folks, Muslims, Jews, etc.), along with random people. If we want to stop the epidemic of mass shootings — and hate crimes — we must look at who is committing […]
I wrote this essay to encourage people to create a very good future for all of us” CLICK THIS LINK: Let’s Boldly Create the Future We Really Want
This smart, insightful article deserves to be read widely and acted upon: https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-U-S-Deserves-Its-Own-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Afghanistan-War_Donald-Rumsfeld_George-W-Bush_International-190325-349.html
Economic inequality is a SERIOUS CRISIS in the U.S. — not only because it is economically unjust, but also because it hurts our health and mental health. See this article: https://truthout.org/articles/extreme-inequality-is-driving-anxiety-and-depression-in-the-u-s/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=84b92979-bb4e-43d9-975d-6146d244cab9
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