Faith And The City e.Letter
August 17, 2005
Volume 4, Issue 8

Greetings! Faith And The City offers the following information for your review. Use the associated links to learn more about each topic. For information on a wider range of public issues, visit our home page at http://www.faithandthecity.org.

When the Right Breaks the Barrier, How Should a Spiritual Left Respond?
Opinion by Michael Lerner
Tikkun
July/August 2005
The task of the Tikkun Community and our Network of Spiritual Progressives is to acknowledge what is legitimate in the Religious Right's concern about the undermining of spiritual consciousness, but then to show that the solution is not to impose religion or spirituality through the mechanisms of the state, but rather to challenge the capitalist ethos in every aspect of life (and in the process to defend secularists from being unfairly targeted by the Religious Right).
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The Discreet Charm of the Terrorist Cause
Opinion by Anne Applebaum
The Washington Post
August 3, 2005
Like British Muslim support for Muslim extremist terrorism, Irish American support for Irish terrorism came in many forms. There were Irish Americans who waved the Irish flag once a year on St. Patrick's Day and admired the IRA's cause but felt queasy about the methods. There were Irish Americans who collected money for Catholic charities in Northern Ireland without condoning the IRA at all. There were also Irish Americans who, while claiming to be "aiding the families of political prisoners," were in fact helping to arm IRA terrorists. Throughout the 1970s, until Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher asked President Ronald Reagan to stop them, they were the IRA's primary source of funding.
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Religion in America: Fatwas Issued
Against Killings
By Silla Brush
USNews.com
July 2, 2005
Several Islamic groups quickly …. issued fatwas, or religious opinions, condemning the London attacks, with some going so far as to say that suicide bombing in general is against the teachings of Islam. One such fatwa, organized by the British Muslim Forum, was signed by more than 500 clerics and scholars representing about 300 mosques across the country. The fatwa was read outside the Houses of Parliament.
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Interfaith Alliance Supports American Muslim Initiative to Combat Terrorism
Press Release
The Interfaith Alliance
July 25, 2005
The Interfaith Alliance joined with the American Muslim community to announce a national campaign to combat terrorism (Faith Over Fear and Justice for All) sponsored by the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.
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Lessons Learned, Lessons Not Learned
By Matthew Wheeland
AlterNet
August 5, 2005
More than 30,000 nuclear weapons remain in the arsenals of the eight countries that admit to having any. As Walter Cronkite says in a new radio documentary, "Lessons from Hiroshima: 60 Years Later," "some 4,000 of these are on hair-trigger alert." The documentary explores the consequences of the bombs for Japan and the world. Survivors of the blasts, Japanese and American alike, paint a human picture of how the world was forever changed on those two days.
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For Blacks, Caricatures Jab at Old Scars: Foreign Images Revive Debate on Racial Attitudes
By Mary Lou Pickel
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 27, 2005
Just a few weeks after Mexican President Vicente Fox blundered by saying Mexican immigrants in the United States do work that "not even blacks" will do, the country came out with a postage stamp touting a 1940s-era comic book character of a black boy with ape-like features, reviving a debate about racial attitudes.
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Real Election Chicanery on Other Foot
Opinion by Jim Wooten
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 9, 2005
Barely three years ago, Georgia was in the final stages of the most bodacious power grab since 1876, when the county-unit system of tallying votes was adopted, guaranteeing that a country vote would count more than a city slicker's. The black and white Democrats who ran Georgia vanished behind closed doors and concocted a modern version of the outlawed county-unit system that was designed to keep them in power for another decade.
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U.S. Sacrifices Science on the Altar of Religion
Opinion by Cynthia Tucker
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 7, 2005
When the Soviets stunned the world with the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the United States rushed to the barricades with money for science labs and math classrooms. Nor was there any conflict among mainstream Christians about promoting scientific advancement. But that was then. Now, this country is led by a cult of religious fundamentalists who wish to impose their narrow thinking on the rest of us.
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From the Vedas: One God, Many Functions
Hinduism Today
April/May/June 2005
Imagery of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva performing the acts of creation, preservation and destruction as three separate beings has wrought confusion for elementary school children, all the way up to Internet forums where Western academics pontificate on Hindu polytheism-monotheisim-henotheism, while missing the point altogether, which is: all of the above are true. There is only one Supreme Being, Who creates preserves and destroys. There are also many great Mahadevas who are not mere diverse mental projections of the Supreme, but who are real Purushas, Persons, living in the causal plane, as souls, as real as you or I.
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NAEP Report Shows Improvements
for 9-Year-Olds
Public Agenda Alert
July 14, 2005
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as "the nation's report card," was released today and found 9-year-olds earned their highest scores in both reading and math since the tests were first given in the early 1970s. There were smaller gains by 13-year-olds, but the performance of 17-year-olds remained flat. The report also shows that achievement gaps between white students and black and Hispanic students remain, but have narrowed.
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College Grads Fully Repay Uncle Sam
Opinion By Mary Brown Bullock, Carl V. Patton, and Walter E. Massey
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 20, 2005
Reducing or eroding current federal student aid is unwise. It would do great harm not just to the students and families directly affected, but also to the U.S. economy, the business community, and the finances of every state government in the country, including Georgia's. The overwhelming majority of all students in the United States — 87 percent according to one study — today need federal aid to attend college. That makes this assistance one of the key engines driving the U.S. economy and something that must be a priority.
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Calendar Events

Ethics and Compliance in the Global Marketplace: Management Strategies for Doing Business Abroad (August 24)
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World Pilgrims Trip to Israel (August 2005)
Contact: Sherry Frank, 404.233.5501

Using Nonviolent Communication Skills: Workshop with Marshall Rosenberg
(Friday, Sept. 2)
Read more…

Atlanta Regional Commission’s Community Planning Academy: "Training for Planning Officials” (Sep. 8)
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Undoing Racism Workshop (Oct. 21-23)
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