This page lists all reports and commentary from October, 2006

Form of Government task force issues proposed outline for briefer, leaner polity

October 25, 2006 – LOUISVILLE – Members of the Form of Government Task Force have met only twice since being created by this year’s General Assembly in June, and already they are posting initial drafts of their work online.

A progress report issued by the group at the end of its meeting on October 22, 2006, detailed the work to date. Highlights include "The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity," a proposed new section of the Book of Order that "preserves the basic contents of the present Chapters I-IV but in a reorganized and somewhat shortened form," and a proposed outline for the remainder of the Form of Government. The task force has also produced a sample Chapter One.

Drafts of these documents are available at http://www.pcusa.org/formofgovernment.

A Web site dedicated to the work of the task force will be available in the coming weeks, featuring surveys that will allow readers to share their comments, questions, and insights.

Members of the task force are elder Diana Barber, associate synod executive for leadership, Synod of Lakes and Prairies; elder Cindy Bolbach, attorney, clerk of session, National Capital Presbytery; elder Sharon Davison, attorney, member of committee on ministry, New York City Presbytery; the Reverend Gemechisa Guja, new immigrant pastor, Donegal Presbytery; the Reverend Paul Hooker, executive presbyter and stated clerk, St. Augustine Presbytery, representative to the task force from the Advisory Committee on the Constitution; the Reverend James H Y Kim, pastor, Grace Presbytery; the Reverend Neal Lloyd, pastor, Rochester Presbytery; the Reverend Paige McRight, executive presbyter, Central Florida Presbytery; and the Reverend Stephen Smith, associate executive and stated clerk, Pacific Presbytery.

We have previously posted a "Christian Voters' Values Guide 2006" prepared by the Christian Alliance for Progress, and a brief note about the guide prepared by Sojourners. 

If you're still looking for thoughtful pieces on the "values thing," here are two recent contributions:

Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, commenting on the coming election in Brazil, offers what might be a helpful way to talk about the ethical issues in our own U.S. elections. He draws a contrast between what he calls the classical ethic of justice, and the newer ethic that has arisen out of feminist perspectives – an ethic of caring.

Such a contrast is vastly oversimplified, but perhaps it could lead to some helpful conversation.

From a progressive point of view, both justice and caring seem to be values we would clearly claim as our own, while in the current American scene, conservatives seem to claim values of freedom and security, along with the virtues of purity and self-reliance.

"We Answer to the Name of Liberals"

In a statement published in The American Prospect, Bruce Ackerman (professor of law and political science at Yale) and Todd Gitlin (professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University) offer some basic affirmations in the liberal tradition, and lay out the ways in which the present Administration is violating those values -- things such as (in the words of George McGovern) "idealism, democracy, tolerance, and decency."

Former South Dakota Sen. George McGovern has recently published Out of Iraq, co-authored with Middle East scholar William Polk. Their point is that "out of Iraq" is precisely where the US needs to get. Soon. They argue that the war is doing such severe damage to the United States – financially, psychologically, and in undermining our basic values of idealism, democracy, tolerance, and decency – that for our own sake, as well as for the well-being of the Iraqi people, we should move quickly toward withdrawal.

And what do they propose?

They suggest that America should help fund and create an effective national police force, along with helping to establish an international force that would help police the country until the national force takes shape. Some of the other steps would include the release of all prisoners of war, and closing of all detention centers; support for a national reconstruction corps; removal of all private security firms; support for rebuilding, using Iraqi rather than American firms to do the work; financial reparations to Iraqis for loss of life and property ... and more.

Read the review in the Missoulian >>        Or you can order the book >>>>

"Immigration has been one of the most contentious issues in United States politics during this past year. It cuts across the typical liberal/conservative divide." So begins an essay by Dr. Lindy Scott, Associate Professor of Spanish at evangelical Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. He gives evidence of this himself, tracing the Biblical roots of a Christian perspective on immigration.

He begins with the basic affirmation that "God is the absolute owner of the earth," and then that "every human being has an intrinsic dignity."  He traces the immigrant history of Israel through Abraham, the Exodus, Ruth and Esther, the prophetic tradition, and finally Jesus as "the immigrant par excellence."

He then looks at the contradictions in American policy – a nation of immigrants oppressing and displacing the "natives" for generations; a nation of capitalists demanding the free flow of capital and products, but not of labor.

And finally, our special scary story for Halloween

A man is walking home alone late one foggy night, when behind him he hears:

BUMP...        BUMP...        BUMP...

BUMP...    BUMP...    BUMP...

Terrified, the man begins to run toward his home, the casket bouncing quickly behind him

FASTER...  FASTER...

BUMP... BUMP... BUMP...

He runs up to his door, fumbles with his keys, opens the door, rushes in, slams and locks the door behind him.

The casket crashes through his door, with the lid of the casket clapping

clappity-BUMP...  clappity-BUMP...  clappity-BUMP...

on his heels, the terrified man runs.

With a loud CRASH the casket breaks down the door.

Bumping and clapping toward him.

The man screams and reaches for something, anything, but all he can find is a bottle of cough syrup!

Desperate, he throws the cough syrup at the casket...

and.....

(hope you're really ready for this!)

In a reversal for supporters of inclusive ordination in the Presbyterian Church, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission has reversed two lower-court rulings in favor of a Kansas City, MO, congregation that challenged a neighboring church in its ordination of a woman thought to be a lesbian as an elder.

The report from Presbyterian News Service >>

We welcome comments and analyses of this decision and the wider issue of ordination.
Just send a note, to be shared here.

100 years of milestones in the PC(USA)'s efforts to achieve full equality in ministry

U.S. needs to consider consequences of its own power

Bill Gibson, Presbyterian minister and one of the strongest voices rousing our church, and many of us individuals, to a respectful and passionate concern for our environment, died on Tuesday, October 17. But even at the end of September he was still writing, reflecting on our nation’s reluctance to come to any real understanding of 9/11.

He suggested that "the American people need to consider whether their nation has too much power for the world's well-being." But he insisted that this means more than just political or even economic power, and so he concluded with this word for us all:

A personal note from your WebWeaver:

Bill was my first "boss" after I finished seminary, supervising me in a two-year internship in the campus ministry at the University of Pennsylvania. He was unfailingly kind and helpful to me, and was also firm in wanting us to do quality work for the students and faculty that we served, and for the wider church and community. Seeing him has been one of my great pleasures in attending General Assemblies over the past couple decades. I will miss him, and I know I’m not alone in that. Many of us will miss him as a friend, and will miss his voice in our church, calling us to continue witnessing and working for peace and justice, and for loving, faithful stewardship of the creation.

Len Bjorkman, a leader in the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and a long-time friend of Bill’s, sent this word of his death:

We invite you to hold his wife, Judy, and the rest of their family in your prayers, and to remember in prayer, too, his commitment to God’s wondrous work of Creation.

We reported a few weeks ago on the book Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action, in which theologian David Ray Griffin puts questions about the 9/11 event in a deeper perspective – and gives reasons for deeper concern.

Chris Iosso, who is the coordinator for social witness policy of the Presbyterian Church (USA), considers Griffin’s case for the existence of some kind of conspiracy to set up attacks on US targets, for the purpose of consolidating power in the hands of the Administration in Washington.   Iosso's comments >>

Utne Webwatch provides a quick guide to some good articles on the growing commitment of people of faith to dealing with environmental issues and consumerism. These efforts reflect growing "concern for the planet and the spirituality of the people who live on it."

The survey article begins:

"Buy, buy, buy. Sell, sell, sell," goes the mantra of the capitalist. But our disposable lifestyle has gotten us into quite a mess, and if there's one thing all the talk about biofuels and wind power confirms, it's that we can't buy more space on the planet to fulfill our food and energy needs or sell our way out of the environmental damages we've already inflicted. Many on the left see the stereotypical conservative Christian consumer as the villain in this story -- Bush crystallized the image with his post-9/11 call for Americans to open their pocketbooks and ward off economic collapse. Giving the lie to that stereotype are the leagues of religious groups looking inward -- and to each other -- to find an escape from the consumerist trap responsible for the current state of planet Earth.

Here’s the latest report from The Rev. Noelle Damico, PC(USA) Associate for Fair Food

Christian values and the coming elections

The Christian Alliance for Progress has prepared set of brief points as a guide for progressive Christian voters in the coming elections. We recently mentioned another such guide, prepared by Sojourners.

Hedges was a war correspondent for 20 years. He knows what he's talking about.

Tom Driver is the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology and Culture Emeritus, Union Theological Seminary in New York.  Tom, with his wife Anne Barstow, received Witherspoon’s Andrew Murray Award at our luncheon during the 217^th General Assembly.

Pres. Bush has admitted to the outsourcing of torture (known in polite Administration circles as "rendition").

The Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council (FRC) is sponsoring the Oct. 15 event, which it describes as an examination of how the gay-rights movement allegedly threatens religious liberty. The gathering will take place at Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston and it will be simulcast to churches throughout the nation. (Ann Romney, wife of Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, has agreed to speak.)

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, noted that in September the FRC and allied groups held a "Values Voter Summit" in Washington that featured copious amounts of gay bashing and attacks on church-state separation. Lynn said he expects more of the same during "Liberty Sunday."

We’ve already shared the report on the witness for peace held in Washington this past Tuesday, September 26, through the Presbyterian News Service report on the arrest of former PC(USA) Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase.

This page lists all reports and commentary from October, 2006