Faith And The City e.Newsletter
January 10, 2007
Volume 6, Issue 1
Greetings! Faith And The City offers the information below 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.
Visit the new Faith And The City weblog – http://www.interfaithdialogueatlanta.org – and share your comments on the issues below and a range of others.
Faith and Politics
Congressman criticizes election of Muslim
By Rachel L. Swarns
New York Times
December 21, 2006
In a letter sent to hundreds of voters this month, Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of Virginia, warned that the recent election of the first Muslim to Congress posed a serious threat to the nation's traditional values. Mr. Goode was referring to Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Democrat and criminal defense lawyer who converted to Islam as a college student and was elected to the House in November.
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Rep. Goode’s intolerance toward Muslim Congressman is misdirected
Opinion by John Baker Brown Jr.
Faith And The City e.Newsletter
January 5, 2007
Rep. Virgil Goode, the uninformed Republican Congressman from Virginia, sees a “threat to the nation’s traditional values” in the election to Congress of Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat and Muslim American. As a member of Congress, Mr. Goode could better serve our nation by concerning himself with the moral turpitude of a disturbing number of his congressional colleagues of both parties, whose ethical lapses pose the real threat to America’s traditional values.
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A call for inter-faith reconciliation in Congress Invitation to sign petition
Faithful America
January 4, 2007
As religious people from diverse traditions, we call upon Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode to re-examine his opposition to newly-elected Representative Keith Ellison, a Muslim, taking his unofficial oath of office using the Qur'an, and to apologize for his statement that, without punitive immigration reform, "there will be many more Muslims elected to office demanding the use of the Quran."
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Message from a megachurch
Opinion by E. J. Dionne Jr.
Washington Post
December 5, 2006
Pastor Rick Warren is no political liberal. But Warren speaks for a new generation of evangelicals who think that harnessing religious faith too closely to electoral politics is bad for religion, and who are broadening the evangelical public agenda to include a concern for global poverty and the scourge of AIDS.
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Religion for a captive audience, paid for by taxes
By Diana B. Henriques and Andrew Lehren
New York Times
December 10, 2006
Since 2000, courts have cited more than a dozen programs for having unconstitutionally used taxpayer money to pay for religious activities or evangelism aimed at prisoners, recovering addicts, job seekers, teenagers and children. Nevertheless, the programs are proliferating.
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Global Issues
Muslim leader critiques Holocaust denial by the President of Iran
Opinion by Ibrahim Ramey
Tikkun Magazine
December 15, 2006 (via email message)
History will recall the tragedy of the genocide that slaughtered some six million European Jews between the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1933 and the culmination of the Second World War in Europe in May, 1945. The evidence of this crime, and the horrible magnitude of this killing, is irrefutable.
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Palestinian militant critiques Holocaust denial:
A letter to the President of Iran
Opinion by Mahmoud Al-Safadi
Dec. 18, 2006 (email transmission from Tikkun)
Allow me to say, Mr. President, with all due respect to you, that you made these statements without really knowing the Nazi industry of death. To have read the works of some deniers seems to be enough for you – a little like a man who shouts above a well and hears only the echo of his own voice…. The more I learned, the more I realized that the Holocaust was indeed a historical fact and the more I became aware of the monumental dimension of the crime committed by Nazi Germany against the Jews, other social and national groups, and humanity in general.
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Farewell to Pax Americana
Opinion by Robert J. Samuelson
Washington Post
December 14, 2006; A31
With hindsight we may see 2006 as the end of Pax Americana. Ever since World War II, the United States has used its military and economic superiority to promote a stable world order that has, on the whole, kept the peace and spread prosperity. But the United States increasingly lacks both the power and the will to play this role.
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Social Environment
Noted TV chef prepares holiday dinner
for transitioning homeless families
Faith And The City e.Newsletter
January 9, 2006
Five formerly homeless moms relaxed with their children one December evening and enjoyed gourmet cuisine prepared by Marvin Woods, cookbook author, TV cook show host, and head chef at Spice Restaurant, one of Midtown Atlanta’s trendiest eateries. The five families, working with Cascade United Methodist Church, are in the process of transitioning from shelters for the homeless to homes of their own as part of the Faith And The City Mentor A Family Program.
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Critic of Oprah really insulted all black people
Opinion by Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald
December 11, 2006
50 Cent makes the mistake a lot of white people do: assuming that there is but one monolithic black experience and that it is street, poor and hard-core. Which doesn't insult just Oprah Winfrey. It insults all of us because it denies a simple fact: Black is many things. That's something Mr. Cent should consider next time he's holed up in his mansion in Farmington, Conn. (median income $67,000, black population 1.5 percent), writing rhymes about how hard life is for poor black folks on mean streets.
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Facing up to the nation's finances:
Understanding public attitudes about the federal budget
Public Agenda Alert
December 12, 2006
The public has little difficulty understanding the magnitude of the fiscal challenge facing the nation and is willing to consider tough tradeoffs to address the growing national debt. But public support comes with one key condition: finding ways to increase trust that their leaders will spend their money responsibly.
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A U.S. picture, by the numbers
By Bob Dart
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
December 15, 2006
Washington – Next year, Americans will spend 65 days watching TV, 41 days listening to the radio and about a week each surfing the Internet, reading a newspaper and listening to recorded music. That's almost half the hours in the year. Of 8,760 total hours in 2007, 3,518 – almost five months – will be occupied by media.
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Economic Disparity
Want CEO pay reform? Don't hold your breath
Opinion by Bill Virgin
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
January 4, 2007
In the interest of providing real solutions to the nation's healthcare financial crisis, we offer a cost-effective replacement for expensive prescription drugs designed to raise patients' blood pressure: The corporate proxy statement.
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Events
Guidelines for Posting Events
Faith And The City posts brief event notices that must include a website address for additional information. Events should be concerned with faith, interfaith and public issues.
Jan. 20: “Religious Tolerance Conference.” Presented by: Save the Family Institute; International Center for Cultural Studies; and DeKalb Prevention Alliance.
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Feb. 7: “The Role of the Black Church in Combating HIV/AIDS in the African American Community.” Recovery Consultants of Atlanta.
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Feb. 13: “Presbyterian Rally Day 2007.” Georgia Capitol and Central Presbyterian Church. Learn about policy and support policy makers
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