God's Politics Blog

Deadly Viper: Personal Apologies and Power Structures

Soong-Chan Rah — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:30:20 +0000

Without trying to be too presumptuous about the resolution of an ongoing story, I’m doing some personal reflection on the last few days. And hoping this blog post responds to some questions that have been raised. I am thankful for…

Afghanistan: Women and Children First

Laurel Frodge — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:00:17 +0000

It may be too idealistic to believe that one day the U.S. will elect a pacifist as president or that Gen. Stanley McChrystal will be convicted by the wise words of Dispatch. Perhaps we will never see President Karzai, Abdullah…

Crossing the Lines: A White Reporter’s View of the Civil Rights Movement

Becky Garrison — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:00:06 +0000

In Crossing the Lines: A Novel, author Richard Doster enabled me to enter the world of Jack Hall, an idealistic white reporter based in the South during the late 1950s who struggled between his need to report the truth with…

Repeat After Me: Profit is NOT Satanic

Chuck Gutenson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:00:40 +0000

Don’t you love it when someone tries to argue for one thing by distracting your attention to another? Consider the claims of Barclay’s CEO, John Varley. I mean, really now, while there may be a few diehards who would make…

Big Oil, Corporate Greed, and Social Sin

John Gehring — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

As an urbanite fortunate to live within walking distance of work and trendy restaurants, I rarely drive these days. But running late to a pickup basketball game recently, I was low on gas and quickly pulled into the first station…

Fort Hood Shootings and the Prophetic ‘IF’

Rabbi Arthur Waskow — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:30 +0000

One reader wrote me to ask: ” “What effect will the Fort Hood shootings have on the American public’s perception of Islam?” That question asks us to be foretellers, fortune tellers, to predict. But The Shalom Center has had the holy…

Tuesday’s Elections Don’t Change the Fierce Urgency of Now

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:30:25 +0000

In the wake of Tuesday’s elections where the Democrats lost governor’s races in New Jersey and in Virginia, some observers are advising President Obama to scale back his agenda. Health care and energy and education and banking reform and war…

The latest news on Health Care, Unemployment, Climate Change, Afghanistan, Iran, Mideast, Pakistan, Honduras, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Select op-eds.

Duane Shank — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Fort Hood. The Texas military base that was the scene of a mass shooting Thursday has been hard hit by the growing strain on the Army from multiple combat deployments -- with its personnel suffering the highest number of suicides among Army installations since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

AIDS Funding. Slowed funding from international donors, including the United States, is imperiling recent dramatic gains in treating AIDS patients in the developing world, according to a new report.

Unemployment. More than one in 10 members of the American workforce were unable to get a job in October, the Labor Department said Friday, the first time in nearly three decades that the unemployment rate has soared into double digits.

Quote of the Day. “Winning and losing is part of the game. From the time you start playing, you understand that at the end of the season only one can win and it’s not always going to be you. They won. Congratulations.” Jimmy Rollins of the Philadelphia Phillies on the World Series won by the New York Yankees. (New York Times)

Prayer of the Day: St Francis of Assisi

God's Politics Editor — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is…

Verse of the Day: Restore Us

God's Politics Editor — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old.

- Lamentations 5:21

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Voice of the Day: Jeffrey Sachs

God's Politics Editor — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Government support in the fight against poverty is crucial. Yet the year [of travel and observation] taught us never to sit back and rely on such commitments. Our politicians, in the final analysis, will follow our lead, not vice versa.

-…

Robed Revolutionary: Thoughts on Progressivism from the Ultimate ‘Conservative’

Amy Barger — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:40:16 +0000

The bearded, robed, and bespectacled keynote speaker at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall on Tuesday made a wise first move. His All Holiness Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Christian World, began his speech by naming the elephant in the…

The Elections You May Not Have Noticed

Jim Wallis — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:00:50 +0000

Most of the country probably didn’t notice. Unless you live in Virginia, New Jersey, a couple areas in New York, or maybe even Maine or Washington state, it’s quite possible you heard little about Tuesday’s elections. But to the chattering…

Neighbors We May Rarely See

Jennifer Kottler — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:45:40 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I rarely, if ever travel the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. I’ve heard it’s a rough neighborhood — people get robbed, beaten and left for dead. But yesterday — somewhat out of necessity, and…

Continuing an Honest Conversation on Race

Eugene Cho — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:30:59 +0000

I want to follow up on yesterday’s post which I believe has broken the record for the longest title in history: “Three General Thoughts on Deadly Vipers, Mike Foster, Jud Wilhite, Soong-Chan Rah, Chuck Norris, Joyluck Club, Angry Asian Man,…

The Deadly Viper Conversation: ‘We’re sorry. We didn’t know. We want to learn. How do we do that?’

Soong-Chan Rah — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:30:02 +0000

Wednesday afternoon I was part of a conversation with the authors of Deadly Viper (and Chris Huertz) and a number of Asian-American leaders. I am thankful that we were able to engage in a direct conversation over what has become a…

An Apology from Deadly Viper Authors Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite

Multiple Authors — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:10:48 +0000

An update to an ongoing discussion with our Asian and Asian-American friends. We tried to apologize in some of our earlier messages delivered through texting, blogging and on the iPhone, but unfortunately those efforts were mixed in with some defensiveness on…

The latest news on Health Care, Economic Aid, Election Analysis, War Funding, Adoption & Gun Ownership, Kids’ Stress, Climate Change, Afghanistan-British Troop Deaths, Iran, Iraq, Mideast, and Select op-eds.

Duane Shank — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Afghanistan-U.N. The United Nations is temporarily pulling hundreds of staff members out of Afghanistan while it reviews security arrangements in the wake of an attack by militants on a Kabul guesthouse last week that killed five U.N. employees.

Honduras. The panel overseeing a deal to end the four month political crisis in Honduras has said that Roberto Micheletti, the country's interim president, will stand down although it has not given details as to when.

Faith Leaders & Climate Change. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged religious leaders on Tuesday to push their governments to take bolder action on climate change at a key U.N. summit next month.

Quote of the Day. "This decision sends a clear message to all governments that even in the fight against terrorism you can't forsake the basic rights of our democracies." Armando Spataro, deputy public prosecutor in Milan, Italy, after an Italian court convicted 22 CIA operatives and a U.S. Air Force colonel on kidnapping charges for the U.S. government's long-standing practice of covertly seizing terrorism suspects abroad without a warrant. (Washington Post)

Prayer of the Day:

God's Politics Editor — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Verse of the Day: Glorify God in All Things

God's Politics Editor — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the…