*************************************************************
S O J O M A I L
Promoting values at the crossroads where
spirituality, politics, and culture meet
Brought to you by the publishers
of Sojourners magazine
http://www.Sojo.net
++++++++++++++++++++++ 12-June-2002 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++ Making the Church Accountable +++++++++++++++++
=============================================================
BE GENEROUS TODAY - deliver a generous message to your family
and friends. Don't you think they'd also like to get SojoMail
weekly? http://www.sojo.net/sojomail/index.cfm/mode/display/action/share.html
=============================================================
Q u o t e o f t h e W e e k
*Thomas Merton on love, hate, and war
H e a r t s & M i n d s
*What must be done about clergy sexual abuse
R e l i g i o n & S o c i e t y
SojoMail exclusives:
*Joan Chittister: The faith - if not the church - will survive
*Richard Rohr: Beyond crime and punishment
*Rose Marie Berger: Catholic scandal, ecumenical solution
F u n n y B u s i n e s s
*Al Qaeda faction goes soft on the West
C u l t u r e W a t c h
*Let freedom sing: Interview with Harry Belafonte
P o l i t i c a l l y C o n n e c t
*Military analyst: Fight terror with a better story, not bigger bombs
C o l o m b i a J o u r n a l
*Many victims, many victimizers
B o o m e r a n g
*SojoMail readers hit reply
W e b s c e n e
*Let there be Lego
*Take their word for it
-------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e o f t h e W e e k
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Instead of hating people you think are warmakers, hate the
appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes
of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny,
hate greed - but hate these things in yourself, not in
another."
- Thomas Merton
-------------------------------------------------------------
H e a r t s & M i n d s
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Making the church accountable
by Jim Wallis
Having a 3-and-a-half-year-old son has made the horrific
revelations about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic
priests even more abhorrent. His innocence and vulnerability
has been my daily context as I listen to one awful story
after another. It makes a person very angry.
Concern for the victims of abuse has to be our first and
overriding concern. Where the church and its leaders have
begun to fully repent of these terrible sins
and make those who have been irreparably damaged its
principle priority, it becomes the beginning of healing. But
where concerns for the perpetrators, or the priesthood, or
the institution, or the financial consequences have dominated
the response, the original sin has been seriously compounded.
Clearly, the path that must be followed now is to put the
welfare of the victims over the protection of the system.
Indeed, that is the only way to save and heal the system in
the long run.
But what must be done? Celibacy is not the problem (though
some reforms in how it might be implemented may be in order).
And while I support both the ordination of women priests (my
wife is an Episcopal cleric) and the welcoming of married
priests, neither of these crucial church reforms would solve
the problem either. Both pedophilia (the sexual abuse of
children) and the abuse of power in sexual relations with
post-pubescent young people are problems in many places,
including other churches where women and married priests
are accepted. Nor is the problem the prevalence of homosexual
men in the Catholic priesthood. Pedophilia is as much a
heterosexual illness as a homosexual one. The underlying
issue in this terrible church sex scandal is not - as the
Left and the Right have variously asserted - celibacy, the
lack of women priests or married priests, or the number of
homosexuals in the priesthood.
The real problem here is a lack of accountability, and only
radical reform that brings new and effective accountability
to every aspect of the church's life will suffice as a
solution. That solution is as possible as it is urgent.
Bringing a new and institution-changing accountability to
the church's life is something that can be done now, at
occasions such as this week's all-important meeting of the
American Catholic bishops in Dallas.
The bishops should institute far-reaching changes that would
bring lay people (women and men) into virtually all the
decision making at the core of the church's life and mission.
That means substantial lay involvement in every aspect of the
church's business and ministry - including decisions
regarding management and administration, finances, grievances,
and the crucial decisions about the evaluation and deployment
of personnel, which are at the heart of this painful
situation. The truth is that such substantial lay
participation is already occurring in many parishes and
dioceses around the country. And many of these issues were
apparently raised during the April Vatican meetings with the
American cardinals.
The result would be greatly increased accountability for the
church, for priests, and for bishops that would, ultimately,
be to everyone's benefit. Women and married people of both
sexes don't need to be ordained to exercise significant and
effective leadership in the church. Many Catholic women and
parents have wise and healing gifts and experience to bring
to this pivotal crisis in the church's history. This is the
time to call upon their gifts. Accountability is the most
basic reform that might transcend both conservative and
liberal constituencies. And most important, accountability is
the reform that could make the most difference. It is what
must be done.
********************* JOB OPENING ***************************
Sojourners and Call to Renewal seek a hard-working, dedicated
administrative professional for the position of Administrative
Assistant to the Executive Director. This position coordinates
all aspects of Jim Wallis' schedule, speaking, travel, phone
calls, correspondence, and other Executive office needs. The
position is available in early July 2002. A complete job
description may be found at www.sojo.net.
**************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------
R e l i g i o n & S o c i e t y
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Exclusive pre-released articles
from the July-August issue of Sojourners magazine:
*The faith will survive
by Joan Chittister, OSB
The question everywhere is the same these days: What, in the
long run, will be the effect of the pedophilia scandal on the
Catholic Church? Speculation ranges from predictions of total
collapse to speculation about total reconfiguration. Given
the long lessons of history, neither hypothesis is likely,
perhaps, but we may have already been given a mirror into the
future of change.
Read more:
http://www.sojo.net/magazine/index.cfm/action/sojourners/issue/soj0207/article/020710.html
*Beyond crime and punishment
by Richard Rohr, OFM
Hearing confessions is a rather dangerous and lethal
profession. It creates a kind of patience with sin that is
often scandalous to outsiders. But confession is a very good
thing about my Catholic tradition that might not be
recognized in the midst of our shame about the pedophilia
scandal.
Read more:
http://www.sojo.net/magazine/index.cfm/action/sojourners/issue/soj0207/article/020711.html
*Catholic scandal, ecumenical solution
by Rose Marie Berger
While much recent media hype has focused on the Catholic
Church's pedophilia scandal, relatively little attention
has been given to the high rate of sexual misconduct in
the rest of American Christendom. This truly is a crisis
that crosses all borders.
Read more:
http://www.sojo.net/magazine/index.cfm/action/sojourners/issue/soj0207/article/020741d.html
***********************ADVERTISEMENT*************************
GET YOUR OWN COPY!
Have you read Sojourners (the paper version) lately? You ought
to check it out for yourself. Produced by the fine folks who
bring you SojoMail each week.
https://www.sojo.net/magazine/index.cfm/action/subscribe_ASM.html
*************************************************************
F u n n y B u s i n e s s
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Al Qaeda faction goes soft on West
Arguing the death penalty has not proven to be an effective
deterrent, the staunchly liberal faction of the al Qaeda
terrorist network today urged the group to change its
official stance from "Death to the West" to "Life in prison
to the West with no chance of parole."
Ministers from Osama bin Laden's government, however, blasted
the proposal as weak and counter-intuitive, though they
conceded it did appeal to the conservative party's desire to
build more prisons.
Get the full satire:
http://www.satirewire.com/news/may02/death.shtml
************************ADVERTISEMENT************************
Attend the FOR National Conference!
June 15-19 in Riverdale, New York
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire, Rev. James Lawson,
Jimmy Breslin, David Kaczynski (Ted's Brother), and many
more! Performances by Pete Seeger, Tom Chapin, and others!
Bid on a rare Dylan photo in our auction! Details and
registration: http://www.forusa.org
*************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------
C u l t u r e W a t c h
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Let freedom sing: Interview with Harry Belafonte
by Sarah Ruth van Gelder
Harry Belafonte's successes as an artist have never eclipsed
his passion for justice and civil rights. His most recent
musical contribution, "The Long Road to Freedom," is a musical
narrative - in 80 tracks on five CDs - of the history of
African Americans.
Sarah Ruth van Gelder: I'm enjoying "The Long Road to Freedom"
very much. Could you tell us the story of how this
extraordinary collection came about?
Harry: I realized that most white Americans knew very little about
our history and our struggle, and were having difficulty
understanding the basis for our agitation and our resistance
and our complaints. I also discovered that while black
Americans had a sense of the beauty and tragedy of the
journey from the time of slavery until now, we were not
rooted in the specifics. I thought one way to familiarize
people with that history would be through the voices of the
great folk artists.
Sarah: What have these African-American traditions taught
the larger American society?
Harry: I don't know what America has really learned. We are too
quick to do what's expedient on behalf of our culture of
greed and hedonism. We're quite prepared to go to
conditions of tyranny in order to sustain that culture,
and we do it in the name of democracy, when nothing could
be more undemocratic. We do it in the name of saving the
values of our society, when the way we behave corrupts
those values. We do it in the name of God in whom we believe,
when in fact we have corrupted our own vision of the
Christian journey.
Sarah: You quote Paul Robeson, who said that the purpose
of art is not just to show life as it is, but also to show
life as it should be. What does this collection tell us
about life as it should be?
Harry: That the human spirit is resilient and that truth - no
matter how long you abuse it and how long you try to crush
it - will, as Dr. King would say, rise up again, and in the
final analysis will prevail. From the point of view of the
poor, the hungry, the disenfranchised, the wretched of the
Earth...there will never be peace until their condition has
been alleviated and until their humanity is in full bloom.
Read the full interview at:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/21American/belafonte.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------
P o l i t i c a l l y C o n n e c t
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The best story, not the biggest bomb
by Francis Pisani
John Arquilla, a former Marine, is now a professor in a U.S.
military academy. He finds it fascinating "that there is a
determined effort to learn the wrong lessons of the
[Afghanistan] campaign."
In the new war on networks, he says, you need "the best story
rather than the biggest bomb." The outcome of conflicts
depends increasingly on intelligence and communications,
which facilitates a flexible response and "favours and
strengthens network forms of organisation while making life
difficult for hierarchical forms" found in conventional
armies. Arquilla estimates that 90% of the current U.S.
military effort is invested in dealing with "state actors."
It is the easy way out. He adds: "It almost becomes the case
of when you don't know what to do, you do what you know. We
know how to deal with nation states very well. We don't know
how to deal with networks so well."
Read more at:
http://mondediplo.com/2002/06/02networks
********************* ADVERTISEMENT **************************
DRINK YOUR MORNING CUP OF JAVA IN GOOD CONSCIENCE
*BUY SOJOBLEND COFFEE*
All of our coffee is "fair trade," which guarantees
coffee farmers a set price at least four times
higher than the industry average. All of our
SojoBlend coffee is shade-grown and organic as well.
Call it the "triple seal" of java justice. And just
to show that justice doesn't have bad taste, the
coffee is just as good or better than you can get
at a premium coffee house.
Consider making your coffee drinking an act
of justice. You can order individual bags - $9.95
a pound - or become a "Constant Cup" member and
we'll deliver to you a fresh pound every month.
Order now at:
http://www.puravidacoffee.com/store_aff_frameset.asp?Aff=5410
**********************************************************
C o l o m b i a J o u r n a l
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Many victims, many victimizers
by Janna Bowman
On the morning of May 2, 300 civilians crowded
together in a small church, whispering prayers as they
plastered themselves to the cement floor, hoping the
sanctuary would afford protection from the bullets whizzing
outside the walls. Fear turned to horror as a homemade
mortar exploded on the church roof, covering the huddling
mass in debris and killing 119 people and injuring dozens of
others. In a country where violence is so commonplace that
massacres are often not reported, the immense scale of the
killing in Bojayá has rocked Colombia.
Although the Catholic Church, community leaders, the
Colombian government's human rights office, and the United
Nations Human Rights Office sent urgent warnings to the
Colombian government at least a week in advance, indicating
the convergence of thousands of troops of two warring
factions, the state took no measures to protect the civilian
population. In fact, the Catholic Diocese of Quibdó denounced
that hundreds of paramilitary troops were able to enter the
region on a river with numerous police and army checkpoints,
suggesting a complicity of the Colombian armed forces with
the paramilitary.
As the U.S. Congress prepares to vote on the Bush
administration's request for more funding to the Colombian
government and more leeway in using past U.S. funds to
directly fight the insurgents, we must learn from the
tragedy in Bojayá. This newest wave of violence clearly
shows that those who suffer most from this senseless, bloody,
and unwinnable war are innocent civilians.
But the tragic loss of life does not end there. According to
our contacts, at least half the paramilitary soldiers involved
in the battle and nearly as many guerrillas died in combat.
The number of dead combatants is rumored to be at least 300.
We remember that soldiers too are people, with parents and
children, and that many of them were either forcibly
recruited or joined the armed groups simply because it was
the only way to earn a living in such an impoverished region.
Read the full story:
http://www.sojo.net/news/index.cfm/action/display_archives/mode/point_of_view/article/POV_061102.html
********************ADVERTISEMENT****************************
Holy Ground: A Resource on Faith and the Environment
from the editors of Sojourners
Are you an environmentalist or are you beginning to explore
environmental issues? This terrific study guide offers an
exciting challenge to all of us who share creation. "Holy
Ground" contains practical reflections and models for action
through articles and study questions concerning issues of
environmental racism, eco-feminism, and more.
To order, click here:
https://www.sojo.net/resources/index.cfm/mode/display_detail/ResourceID/139/action/catalog.html
*************************************************************
B o o m e r a n g
+++++++++++++++++
Jon Franz writes from Atlanta, Georgia:
Jim Wallis' call for the "practical necessity of disavowing
and dismantling nuclear weapons" sounds wonderful on the
surface, but it is naive and impractical in the world today.
The leadership in places like North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Syria,
and Libya, to name a few, are not reasonable negotiators in
search of peaceful options. They have demonstrated that their
words cannot be trusted. Nuclear and chemical weaponry is
their only hold on power. They will not peacefully give up
this power simply because "it's time for sanity" to prevail.
They do not operate from hearts of compassion for their own
people or the people of the world.
While the same could be said of many in Washington, we have a
Constitution that empowers the voting populus to vote out
our leaders who don't measure up. These nations do not. As
long as a chemical and nuclear threat exists in the hands of
evil leaders, it is imperative that we, who operate from a
more reasonable and compassionate platform, maintain the
ability to answer with a like threat. It is the only language
the wicked seem to understand.
--------------------------
Boomerang is an open forum for all kinds of
views. The views expressed are not necessarily
those of Sojourners. Want to make your voice
heard? Send Boomerang e-mails to the editor:
"boomerang@sojo.net"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
W e b s c e n e
+++++++++++++++
This week's best of the Web
*Let there be Lego
From Genesis to the Pauline Epistles, Rev. Brendan
Powell Smith has created elaborate scene-by-scene
productions of Bible stories using Legos. Unlike the
toy, however, this is not for ages 6-12. Rev. Smith has
thoughtfully included content ratings for violence and
sexual content - it is the Bible, after all.
http://www.thereverend.com/brick_testament/
---------
*Take their word for it
"The Weekly Word-Origin Webzine" is how Take Our Word
For It describes itself. Etymology is the fancier term
for the service they provide, researching the history
of obscure terms and phrases:
http://www.takeourword.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
To make a secure donation to support our work,
go to https://www.sojo.net/Online_Giving
------------------------------------------------------------------
......................... E D I T O R I A L ......................
David Batstone T 415.422.6660
Executive Editor
Jim Rice T 202.328.8842
Managing Editor
Molly Marsh T 202.328.8842
Assistant Editor
Rose Marie Berger T 202.328.8842
Assistant Editor
Ryan Beiler T 202.328.8842
Web Editor
....................... A D V E R T I S I N G ....................
Larry Bellinger T 202.328.8842
Advertising Manager
......................... T E C H N I C A L ......................
Bob Sabath T 202.328.8842
Chief Technologist
Jodi Hochstedler T 202.328.8842
Internet Assistant
........................... S 0 J O N E T ........................
Sojourners T 202.328.8842
2401 15th Street NW F 202.328.8757
Washington, DC 20009 http://www.sojo.net
To make a secure donation to support our work,
go to https://www.sojo.net/Online_Giving/
For more information, e-mail us: info@Sojo.net
..................................................................
...................... L E G A L N O T I C E S .................
Copyright (c) 2002 Sojourners. All Rights Reserved.
SojoNet material may be freely distributed, as long as it
bears the following attribution:
Source: SojoNet 2002 (c) http://www.sojo.net
..................................................................
.......................... A R C H I V E S .......................
For a history of SojoMail, visit
http://www.sojo.net/sojomail/index.cfm/action/back_issues.html
..................................................................
..................... S U B S C R I P T I O N S ..................
SojoMail is published weekly. Subscriptions are free.
SUBSCRIBE online at:
http://www.sojo.net/sojomail/index.cfm
or by e-mail: subscribe@Sojo.net
UNSUBSCRIBE online at:
http://www.sojo.net/sojomail/index.cfm/action/unsubscribe.html
or by e-mail: unsubscribe@Sojo.net
***********************************************************
---- SOJONET IS A SPAM-FREE ZONE ----
(SojoNet won't trade, sell, or give away your address.)
