OUR CURRENT UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS IS HUGE

+ DailyKos offers "Official Unemployment Hits 9.5%" by Meteor Blades. Excerpts:

• "The official count – known as U3 and dutifully reported by most of the media – fails to show the true extent of the wreckage."
• "In late May, 74% of economists surveyed by the National Association of Business Economists said the economy would begin expanding this quarter although they expected unemployment to continue rising into 2010 before beginning its recovery. One disturbing trend can be found in how long it took in the four previous recessions before the number of workers with jobs equaled the number employed at the beginning of those recessions. In 1974, the job recovery took 19 months; in 1981, 28 months; in 1991, 32 months; in 2001, 47 months."
• "'There are going to be massive, massive numbers of people who are out of work for long periods of time,' said Andrew Stettner, deputy director for the National Employment Law Project. 'It’s one of the most important aspects of where the economy is right now.'"
• "(A) pair of scary charts (in the article) compare the past 40 years. The first shows a huge rise in the current recession over past years of workers who have permanently lost their jobs instead of being temporarily laid off. The second shows that for every job opening there are now nearly six people queued for it."

GO TO ARTICLE

Provocative & Illuminating Thoughts on Religion without Revelation

"Religion without Revelation" is another illuminating, provocative post at a great blog, John Shuck's Shuck & Jive.

Excerpts:

I ask this question honestly. Given the historical-critical method, in what sense is saying 'the Bible is the Word of God' meaningful? Or the Qur'an? Or the Book of Mormon?

+++

The intellectual community regards the church as a joke. It is a relic from a superstitious past. Who were the intellectual giants of the Middle Ages? The theologians. As revelation gave way to reason, theology could not adapt and from the perspective of the modern university it has gone the way of alchemy and astrology.

+++

The fundamentalists are buying. They are using the Bible as the Word of God to call evolution a farce and to enforce an oppressive social agenda not only within the confines of their sects but within the larger sphere of secular society.

DEALING WITH THE DAMAGE DONE BY THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT

God's Politics offers "Jesus Did NOT Kill Mohammad" by Jarrod McKenna.

Mckenna is responding here to a very troubling incident depicted in a film where soldiers try to convert Moslems in Iraq and feel justified in killing any who take offense at the claims of Jesus.

Excerpt: "While the U.S. military is seeking to go into damage control and discipline soldiers who have broken the proselytizing laws, the church must also deal with the damage to our witness that saying 'Jesus is the Way' while failing to live 'the Way of Jesus' causes. There are deep questions we as the church must ask that go to the heart of who God is, what the gospel is, and what God’s grace calls us to and empowers us for."

This article, like the book John Shuck reviewed (below), helps us to realize how we Progressive Christians must fight back and reclaim our faith from those who don't get it. McKenna mentions some other timely books and offers important ideas of his own.

• Go to "Jesus Did NOT Kill Mohammad"

THE END OF OVEREATING

The Diane Rehm show today was even better than usual! In the first hour she dealt with President Obama's Tax Policies. I learned a lot about taxes.

But the second hour, The End of Overeating, was truly mind blowing or maybe I should say stomach-blowing! She interviewed David Kessler who has just written The End of Overeating (Rodale). Kessler is a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, currently dean and vice chancellor of the University of California--San Francisco School of Medicine, and author of A Question of Intent.

He has some very important insights on the huge power of fats and sweets and what we can do to reduce our consumption of them.

A SHUCK & JIVE REVIEW OF THE BOOK: ALL MY BONES SHAKE

+ John Shuck, in his great Shuck & Jive blog, reviews All My Bones Shake by Robert Jensen. This is an important book offering powerful reasons why the growing Progressive Christianity movement needs our strong commitment.

Excerpts:

• Dr. Jensen's story is heartbreaking and heartwarming. Heartbreaking in that this is yet another instance in which the institution caves into fear, control, and irrelevance. Heartwarming in that this community embraced one of its own, stood by him, and refused to be bullied."
• His Presbyterian story is only the beginning of this important book. All My Bones Shake is a theology book. It is theology where it matters. It is about life and what it means to be human. It is also about politics. He calls it political theology or theological politics.

Jensen says we must resist and overcome what he calls the 4 fundamentalisms which are putting all of us on the path to annihilation. Please read John's review and find out what these 4 fundamentalisms are.

The book is powerful and John's review will give you a taste of this power.

• Go to John's review.

FREDERIC BRUSSAT IS TWITTERING WITH GREAT QUOTES

+ This tweeter alone should sell you on Twitter! FB is a lontime spiritual guide and offers immense wisdom at Spirituality & Practice.

I am participating in a fantastic internet retreat right now. It's called Love's Universe: "A Seven-Week Online Retreat with the Sacred Poetry of Rumi. Led by Kabir and Camille Helminski, Friends of the Threshold Society, Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat."

Today is day 4 and its not too late to sign up. The cost is $40 and it is worth every penny, not only for the retreat but to support the best website on the planet!

• Go to http://twitter.com/FredericBrussat
• I twitter at http://twitter.com/Abundancetrek

PRESBYTERIAN BLOGGERS ARE UNITING TO END POVERTY TODAY

+ PC(USA) moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow has asked Presbyterian bloggers to focus on poverty today. In areas I frequent (Central New York & Western New York) the severe recession hitting the nation has not hit quite as hard because we had already lost a lot of our economic assets in previous years. But I do understand there has been a big uptick in people needing food. Also, unemployment has increased significantly in the last year.

+ I will update this post during the next day or 2 as I discover what Presbyterian bloggers are saying about poverty. You can go to Presbyterian Bloggers Unite.

+ Stephen Whitaker offers "Poverty, Small Towns, and Church Cooperation" in his blog, Presbyneering: Pioneering New Ground in the Presbyterian Church.

+ My favorite Presbyterian blogger, John Shuck, offers "Poverty in Appalachia" in his blog, Shuck and Jive.

+ 1pm update > The Presbyterian Global Food Crisis Center is a closely related effort. It is amazing what one can discover through my friends at Facebook. Several of my Facebook friends work at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville.

SUSAN BOYLE BRINGS ME TO TEARS

Millions have already seen and heard this fantastic singer making her (presumably) TV debut and (presumably) her YouTube debut. I was brought to tears when I first heard an excerpt on the Bill Press Show last week. But it took me a few days ... and a new computer! ... before I got to see and hear this amazing artistry by an unknown Brit appearing on the British TV show Britains Got Talent.

Listen now or as soon as you can to Susan Boyle singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. "I Dreamed a Dream" is a solo sung by Fantine during the first act of Les Miserables.

The crowd reaction and the judges reaction is simply a moment of amazing grace because the unexpected performance was simply delightful, no, delicious, divine, amazing, wonderful and everyone knew it at once. You've gotta love the English style which is so evident during this fantastic clip from Britains Got Talent.

I am brought to tears rather easily but I have heard that I am not the only one! Michael Paulson, who covers religion for the Boston Globe asks "Why does video of Susan Boyle move us?" He writes: "I admit, I’m a bit of an easy cry, but even after watching over and over again, something about the combination of the performance and performer, the reaction of the audience and the judges, the song itself, and, it must be said, the expert but manipulative editing of the video, brings tears to my eyes."

See and hear for yourself if you are one of those who have yet to see and hear Susan Boyle singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables.

+ GO TO THE VIDEO AND BE AMAZED
+ GO TO THE ARTICLE BY MICHAEL PAULSON

PBS SERIES ON AND BY AMERICAN INDIANS HAS BEGUN

WE SHALL REMAIN, a special presentation of The American Experience on PBS began airing episode 1 this week. Check your PBS listings if you haven't seen it yet.

American Indians are not only the subject of the 5 episodes but they are the authors, the presenters.

Here is information from the website:

Episode 1 - After the Mayflower - In 1621, the Wampanoag of New England negotiated a treaty with Pilgrim settlers. A half-century later, as a brutal war flared between the English and a confederation of Indians, this diplomatic gamble seemed to have been a grave miscalculation.

More About the Film

Episode 2 - Tecumseh's Vision - In the course of his brief and meteoric career, Tecumseh would become one of the greatest Native American leaders of all time, orchestrating the most ambitious pan-Indian resistance movement ever mounted on the North American continent.

Watch the trailer

More About the Film

Episode 3 - Trail of Tears - Though the Cherokee embraced “civilization” and won recognition of tribal sovereignty in the U.S. Supreme Court, their resistance to removal from their homeland failed. Thousands were forced on a perilous march to Oklahoma.

More About the Film

Episode 4 - Geronimo - As the leader of the last Native American fighting force to capitulate to the U.S. government, Geronimo was seen by some as the perpetrator of unspeakable savage cruelties, while to others he was the embodiment of proud resistance.

Watch the trailer

More About the Film

Episode 5 - Wounded Knee - In 1973, American Indian Movement activists and residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation occupied the town of Wounded Knee, demanding redress for grievances. As a result of the siege, Indians across the country forged a new path into the future.

Watch the trailer

More About the Film

A RENEWED CALL FOR A GREEN NEW DEAL

Common Dreams offers "Why We Should Listen to the Protesters: The way out of the credit and the climate crunch is the same - a Green New Deal" by Johann Hari. Here are some excerpts:

+ We are facing a collapsed economy and a rapidly warming world because an extreme ideology has dominated world affairs for decades.

+ The climate is currently going the same way as the banks. Last month, the world's climate scientists gathered in Copenhagen to explain we are facing "devastating consequences" - not in some distant future, but in my lifetime and yours.

+ A major study by the University of Massachusetts compared the effects of an old-style stimulus that simply gives people more cash to a green stimulus. They found that a green stimulus creates four times more jobs, and three times more "good jobs", defined as those that pay more than $16 per hour. Why? Because a green stimulus is labour-intensive: you spend more money on people and less on machines. And the money you spend stays at home, making it easier to sell: you can only insulate a loft in Hull in Hull; you can only build a wind farm in the Mid-West in the Mid-West.

CATCHING UP AFTER TWO WEEKS IN ENGLAND

I have made some entries at The Abundancetrek Travel Blog and this blog will become active again soon.

WEALTH AS PROGRESSIVES DEFINE IT

Common Dreams offers "Beyond Scarcity: Re-Inventing Wealth in a Progressive World" by Joe Brewer. Excerpts:

• We are bound to make the world in our own image. So we had better be sure we have the right values in mind as we think about our selves in this historic transition.
• Conservatives treat wealth as material accumulation - those who show discipline and work hard can be seen through their material success. We progressives see wealth at a more fundamental level. The progressive understanding of wealth comes from a deeper idea: Wealth is seen as the well-being of individuals, society, and the earth. Wealth is already present in nature; it is not “created.” Clean air and water, strong communities, and fertile soils are inherently valuable because our well-being depends on them – independent of markets.
• The source of our wealth is the foundation of well-being. Our rewards are many - providing for our families while also resting peacefully at night because we devote ourselves to helping our neighbors. One very important way that we protect our communities is by challenging perspectives that threaten our ability to provide for one another. We reject the false choice of “making money” versus “doing good” and instead create new institutions that promote well-being across society by valuing the work of nonprofit employees, teachers, social workers, and anyone else who dedicates themselves to the betterment of society.

IMPORTANT ARTICLE ON DOING THE RECOVERY RIGHT

Thanks to The Witherspoon Society, I found this important article: "Doing the Recovery Right" by Robert Pollin. It was published by The Nation. Excerpts:

+ For most of the past generation, the aims of environmental sustainability and social justice were seen as equally worthy, yet painfully and unavoidably in conflict. Tree huggers and spotted owls were pitted against loggers and hard hats. Fighting global warming was held to inevitably worsen global poverty and vice versa.

+ Over the past couple of years, there has been a dramatic reversal of thinking: the idea has emerged that protecting the environment - in particular, defeating global warming - can also be an effective engine of economic growth, job creation and even poverty reduction.

+ The transformation of our fossil fuel driven economy into a clean energy economy will be the work of a generation, engaging a huge range of people and activities.

+ As a tool for fighting the recession, the green recovery project has as its first purpose injecting more money into the economy as quickly as possible. In this way, a $100 billion green investment program would create on the order of 1.7 million new jobs.

OBAMA MOVES QUICKLY ON ENVIRONMENT POLICIES

RealClearPolitics offers "Obama orders push to cleaner, more efficient cars" by Ben Feller. Excerpt:

"I want to be clear from the beginning of this administration that we have made our choice: America will not be held hostage to dwindling resources, hostile regimes and warming planet," Obama said in the ornate East Room of the White House, where an audience of environmentalists cheered him on.

LEONARDO BOFF SPEAKS AT WFLT ON URGENT NEED TO CHANGE OUR RELATIONSHIP TO ENVIRONMENT

Here is the ENI report:

Belem - January 23. Brazilian liberation theologian Leonardo Boff, once a thorn in the side of the Vatican, is now on a mission to convince humanity of the desperate need to change its relationship to the environment. "We cannot go on. We have to change," Boff, a 70 year-old former Roman Catholic priest, said in a keynote address on 22 January to the 3rd World Forum on Liberation and Theology, meeting on the theme "Water, Earth, Theology - for another possible world", in Belem, northeast Brazil.

WORLD FORUM ON THEOLOGY & LIBERATION IS MEETING IN BRAZIL

A World Forum on Theology & Liberation is happening now in Belem, Brazil.

Here are 2 reports from Ecumenical News International:

Belem, Brazil - January 21. Theologians from around the world are converging on Belém, near the mouth of the Amazon River in northeast Brazil, to develop a theology for the "sustainability of life on Earth". Their meeting comes in advance of the World Social Forum, a global gathering addressing exploitative globalisation. "The social and political reality in the Amazonian context promotes a direct relationship with the earth, water and biodiversity and reveals the limits and alternatives of the relation of human beings with their immediate environment," noted a statement posted on the Web site (www.wftl.org) of the 21 to 25 January World Forum on Theology and Liberation.Belem,

Brazil - January 22. Christian theology needs to seek forgiveness for theecological damage resulting from the misinterpretation of the creation stories in the Bible, a global gathering of theologians meeting in northeastern Brazil has been told. Sergio Torres, a Chilean Roman Catholic theologian, told the 21 to 25 January World Forum on Theology and Liberation in Belem that an "incomplete and unexplained interpretation of Genesis", the first book in the Bible, had led Christianity to promote an "excessive" concentration on human beings.

THE BEST SPIRITUAL FILMS OF 2008 ACCORDING TO SPIRITUALITY & PRACTICE

This list will keep me going for a long time since I have seen only one of the 55 which are recommended so highly by Spirituality & Practice. What an amazing website! The Brussats have been doing this amazing work for decades. Their suggestions of books and films and other media are simply the best! No one else comes close.

The one I have seen so far is Happy-Go-Lucky. It is delightful and meaningful.

I AM BEGINNING AGAIN RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE

I am beginning again. I am emptying myself so that I can start all over as a beginner, completely open to new things, new ways, new ideas, new truths, new wisdom, new friends, new life, etc. That’s what we all need to do again and again and again. Other wise we get in a rut, get addicted, get afraid, get lost. Let us breathe deeply and breathe fully and begin again … right now … right here.

SPIRITUALITY AND POLITICS (1)

God and politics can not be separated. God is intimately and intricately involved in everything we do. This definitely includes politics.

Since I watched the Democratic Convention on C-SPAN, I got to see and hear what few people saw or heard. I got to see and hear some very effective prayers after the big speeches were over, during the time when the pundits were chattering. So, my friends, It seems that there are Democrats who believe in God! This, of course, should not be a surprse but some Republicans seem to be very misinformed about this.

I know that most Republicans believe in God. That's great. Fantastic. Wonderful. I would like Republicans to know that most Democrats believe in God. Now that is a lot of common ground. That is a basis for a lot of mutual respect and good will.

I would be curious to find out if those who are stealing or mutilating campaign signs right now or saying really obnoxious things right now -- on both sides -- believe in God. Because God says: "Thous shalt not steal." Because God says: "Love One another."

McCain and Obama and Palin and Biden believe in God. Most Republicans and most Democrats believe in God. We can and must unite as a nation even now before the campaign is over. We can be respectful. We can appreciate those who disagree on issues facing us. Let's keep it in mind right now that "we the people" are one people "under God." We all want "liberty and justice for all." We can and will and indeed should differ on ideas about how to accomplish this goal. But let us always keep it in mind that God is involved in our thinking whether we lean to the Right or lean to the Left or seek to be in the Center.

SPECTACULAR AUTUMN FOLIAGE

Many leaves have fallen. Many leaves are still clinging to their branches. They are red and yellow and orange and green. It is definitely one of the most beautiful autumns I can remember here in Upstate New York. Even with several days of rain and wind, many beautiful leaves hang on and delight the senses. Often, we hit peak one day and it's all brown in a day or 2. Not this year. It has remained at peak for a week or more. It's as if the trees and branches and leaves are communicating with each other so as to sustain the beauty for as long as possible. Some leaves fell off a long time ago. Some leaves don't show any sign of falling yet. This is true even on individual trees. Nice!