Justice in the City
ARYEH COHEN
Rabbinic Judaism holds residents of a city responsible for the well-being of every stranger who passes through it. To meet this obligation today would require radical social transformation. Islamic Law and the Boundaries of Social Responsibility
RUMEE AHMED
Medieval rural Muslim jurists called on citizens to personally accompany strangers in need, but urban jurists assumed a different model: care mediated through a welfare state. Let’s draw wisdom from both. We Are One Body: A Christian Perspective on Justice In the City
ALEXANDRA SALVATIERRA
Paul the apostle taught that the people in a society are like the members of one body.
The outcome of the recent Academy Awards sweepstakes was a very mixed bag. Argo, the winner of the best-picture prize, is a nice little movie with a timely theme, a feel-good ending, and reminiscences of the 1997 comedy-drama Wag the Dog. Yet while it’s ably directed by Ben Affleck and engagingly acted by a talented cast, it doesn’t have the artistic or emotional heft that distinguishes the best best-picture winners.
In Volume 1, Issue 2 of Tikkun, we published a three-part discussion between Daniel Landes and David Hartman about human autonomy, divine providence, and the vision of finitude expressed in David Hartman’s book A Living Covenant. To download a PDF of this discussion, click here. [brclear]
Purim Wisdom: Explaining the Deeper Meaning of this Jewish Holiday which begins Saturday night, Feb. 23
February 22, 2013
Purim Wisdom Explaining the deeper meaning of this holiday! «Blame, Responsibility, and Care
Weekly Sermon – Breaking Ground: Endless Desire»
Torah Commentary- Purim: Esther- Dawn of a New Age
by: Mark Kirschbaum on February 21st, 2013 | Mark Kirschbaum’s commentary on Torah and Jewish religious holidays can be read weekly on our blog Tikkun Daily. It’s free to subscribe at http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/join-tikkun-daily/
I will admit that I’ve always had a certain hesitation when it came to Purim. It wasn’t that I was so influenced by Bible criticism or historical scholarship, it was my own sense that the Book of Esther, the focus of the holiday of Purim, read more like a novel than a book of prophecy.
Bloice’s analysis raises very important questions. The worst possible outcome: Netanyahu agrees to some cosmetic step toward negotiations or even suspends all construction of settlements on the West Bank, though he intends in the actual negotiations that ensue to offer nothing that Palestinians could agree to, and meanwhile to achieve that end Obama agrees to green light and back up militarily an Israeli assault on Iran.—Rabbi Michael Lerner
Exactly Why Is President Obama Going to Israel?
Carl Bloice
February 15, 2013
Foreign Policy in Focus
As soon was announced that the President would be visiting the Middle East, supporters of the policies of the Netanyahu government went into overdrive in an effort to throw cold water on any idea that the diplomatic mission could achieve any breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process.”
Both Israel and the United States seek to quash expectations that the visit will jump-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he and U.S. President Barak Obama have agreed that when the U.S. President visits Israel they would discuss “three main issues … Iran’s attempt to arm itself with nuclear weapons, the unstable situation in Syria … and the efforts to advance the diplomatic process of peace between the Palestinians and us,” that’s not exactly what others are saying in either Washington or Tel Aviv.As soon was announced that the President would be visiting the Middle East, supporters of the policies of the Netanyahu government went into overdrive in an effort to throw cold water on any idea that the diplomatic mission could achieve any breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process.”
“While the US ambassador to Israel said today that Mr. Obama would visit the country with an ‘urgent’ mission to revive peace negotiations, Israeli diplomats said talks with Benjamin Netanyahu would focus on Iran,” reported the British daily Telegraph.
“Here in this empty air we reckon ink, / Color and volume as a way of life, / Leibnitz’s chain across the galaxy, / A string and a spiral.” A Poem by Kenneth Fields.
In saying that the two pieces below are from Catholic theologians, we in the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives are insisting that Catholicism is more than what the Vatican says it is. The Church is what the Vatican II said it is: “the community of the people of God.”
Pope Benedict XVI’s Legacy
by Matthew Fox
It was a breath of fresh air to hear that the pope has chosen to step down, the first pope in 7 centuries to do so. What he and his predecessor wrought to the Catholic Church as we know it is nothing short of devastation. But as a Christian I see their 42 year reign as so destroying the church we know that now the Holy Spirit can give birth to a community far more attuned to the revolutionary Gospel of Jesus than the current and dying structures ever could be. Those structures are as passe as the Berlin Wall.
Thinking of Benedict the man, I think this was a very wise decision indeed for before he “meets his Maker” he surely has a lot of soul work to accomplish. Below is a short list of some of the issues history will hold him accountable for both as cardinal and as pope. Were I his confessor, I would start work on them very soon. (Since this is a list, I offer page numbers of my study on his life and papacy to see the back up evidence.)
His silence for years about the notorious pedophile priest Father Maciel who was so close to Pope John Paul II that he was invited on his plane often and was feted to a mass ordination of his seminarians by the pope in St Peter’s Square. This man, who sexually abused dozens of his seminarians and had two wives on the side and sexually abused his own children (though a priest with vows of celibacy), was not fully investigated until 2005 even though a New York bishop wrote Ratzinger’s office in 1995. (125-130)
His and the previous pope’s unwillingness to divorce themselves from the politics of Father Maciel who was a great admirers of the blood-soaked dictator Pinochet in Chile.
His attacks when head of the CDF (formerly “Office of the Holy Inquisition”) on theologians the world over who dared to do their job which is to think. He denounced, fired, hounded, at least 105 theologians not only from his chair of CDF but also as pope (they are listed on page 238-241 of my book The Pope’s War ).
He and his predecessor brought back the Inquisition and in fact killed theology, reducing it to 1) a catechism and 2) Saying Yes to whatever the pope (or his curia) said.
His unrelenting attacks on base communities and Liberation Theology (thus fulfilling Ronald Reagan’s plans to “split the church” in Latin America) even though this movement, like the civil rights movement of the U.S., was the most Christ-like movement for democracy and justice and freedom in centuries. One side light of these attacks has been a void of genuine Christianity in Latin America, a void being filled by Pentecostal (and right wing political) churches there. (pp. 41-62)
His (and the previous pope’s) complete pushing of neo-fascist sects as the new “religious order” and shock troops of the pope beginning with the secret “Opus Dei” which is embedded in places of great power including cardinals and bishops all over the world and also financial headquarters of EU, the US Supreme Court, the CIA (especially under George Bush the first), FBI, and the US mainstream media. (pp. 106-124)
His and the previous pope’s rushing the founder of Opus Dei, Fr. Escriva, a card-carrying fascist who actually praised Hitler, into canonization faster than any saint in history (and destroying the age-old process of canonization in the process by eliminating the “devil’s advocate’s” role which is to bring up the shadow side of the candidate). Books by former Opus Dei members include his personal secretary of 7 years were completely ignored and their testimony was never asked for.
The cover-up of pedophile clergy in the US, in Ireland and elsewhere. The recent HBO film tells the facts about some of these horrors and how the buck stopped with Ratzinger. All the cover up put an Institution ahead of the rights of young children (see Jesus on this in ). (pp. 134-174)
His and the previous pope’s putting wind in the sails of extreme right wing groups from Maciel’s Legion of Christ to Communion and Liberation to Opus Dei and their support of zealots such as neo con and theo con George Weigel. (pp. 130-144)
The end of religious ecumenism. Ratzinger as pope managed to insult Islam; Judaism; all Protestant churches (he says they are not churches); also as cardinal Thich Naht Hahn (whom the Vatican called “the anti-Christ”) and yoga—wrote Ratzinger—Christians should not do it because it “puts you too much in touch with your body.”
The dumbing down of the church not only by condemning thinkers but by appointing Bishops and cardinals world-wide whose only qualification for the job is to be a loyal Yes man, thus the loading down of church decision makers for generations who don’t have a conscience, an intellect or a clue about the spiritual needs of people.
A complete reaffirmation of a “morality” of Sexism (no women priests ever; Catholic sisters in America are now subject to investigations like theologians have been); and of Homophobia—Ratzinger composed not one but two documents as head of CDF that were mean-spirited and spiteful about gay persons and ignored scientific research even as pope that has created another Galileo moment in church history. He stuck by his “no condoms even in an age of AIDS” position that is all about St Augustine’s silly sexual ethic and not anything Jesus ever taught. Even birth control in a time of excessive human population on a crowded planet remains, in his rigid world view, the law of the church and any theologian (or bishop) who questions such matters is suspect.
[A side note from Fox]: A. The translator of my book “The Pope’s War” into German wrote me that she cried many times translating the book because her generation was promised “no more fascism.” Yet, she said, my book proved that fascism was back in the church and “especially the German and Polish wings of the church. Susan Sontag defines fascism as “institutionalized violence”–there has been tons of that in the past two papacies from condemnation of theologians to support of pedophile priests to hounding of Catholic sisters living norms of Gospel peace and justice. Benito Mussolini defined fascism as “the marriage of corporations and government.” The United Citizens decision happened in the Supreme Court by votes of five Roman Catholic judges, four of them very conservative Catholics (and probably three Opus Dei Catholics). Declaring corporations “persons”–is anything more fascist than that? Fascism is a commitment to obedience ahead of all other virtues (including justice). It is always patriarchal and anti-women. Yes, sad to say, it has returned. And Ratzinger was its drum major.
12. The interference in the presidential election of 2004 wherein Ratzinger instructed American bishops to read his declaration that any “catholic politician” (i.e. Kerry) who did not denounce gays and abortion could not receive communion. The result was three states had very unusual Republican votes from Catholics—if just one of them had had more normal Catholic vote, Kerry, not Bush, would have been president.
With such a trail of devastation as this, Father Ratzinger, ex-pope and ex-Inquisitor, is right to retire. Hopefully, beginning in this time of Lent, he will do some soul searching and asking for forgiveness. Unfortunately, because he and his predecessor appointed only Yes Men as cardinals, one should not expect any improvement in the next pope. Instead we should recognize that history has passed the papacy by and that now is the time for the Holy Spirit to push the restart button on Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant versions, so as to strip down to the essence of Jesus’ teaching and the Cosmic Christ tradition.
Toward this end, Andrew Harvey and myself are starting up a series of “Christ Path” seminars available on line or in person (see info@christpathseminar.org) This restart of Christianity can be done without basilicas on our backs but mere backpacks. Travel lightly. Walk humbly. Do justice. And peace will follow.
Ratzinger’s retirement and his fifty years of reactionary religion shed the spotlight on the need for a profound re-start of Christianity–not only its Catholic wing but its Protestant wings as well. I [ Matthew Fox] have written about that in my recent books, A New Reformation and The Pope’s War: How Ratzinger’s Crusade Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved.
Now Andrew Harvey and I are teaming up (with another thinker who will join us at each event) for a series of “Initiations” that we call the “Christ Path Seminars.”
They are weekends, four per year; the first meets March 8 to 10; you can attend in person or on line. We are offering the whole thing as a ‘gift economy,’ that is you can join us for only $50 for the entire weekend (though we will ask for donations afterwards to help pay expenses). For more info see: info@christpathseminar.org.
Following is a rationale for our project from Andrew Harvey.
In a sane world – which of course this isn’t – Ratzinger would be hauled before a World Court and arraigned as a criminal whose whole life has been an attack on fundamental human rights. This is a time in which the masks have been stripped from the face of all forms of patriarchal power to reveal the nasty and cruel face beneath.
If we miss the meaning of this stripping away in our desperate need for false certainties and in our addiction to learned helplessness and blind reverence for dying and lethal forms of authority, we will miss the central challenge of our time as Christians. That is, to reinvent a Christianity that blazes with the sacred passion of Jesus for the realization of the truth of justice and universal compassion on every level and in every realm of the world.
Jesus is the supreme revolutionary of love in human history, and his message continues to call us all to the sacrifice of our personal interests to the dangerous creation of radical new forms and ways of protest and social and political transformation.
The adventure that Matthew Fox and I are co-creating in the Christ Path Seminar is not some kind of theological luxury but an absolute necessity. As a series of initiatory workshops, building a beloved community, its vision is to restore the truth of the Christian message and the rousing of…to rouse millions to start acting from sacred love and sacred outrage….and ultimately to change all the existing political, economic, social, sexual and psychological systems that keep us addicted to greed and narcissistically paralyzed before the growing devastation of this planet.
The fall of Ratzinger should make it clear now that the time for this adventure has arrived and that speaking truth to power of all kinds, while it may not work immediately, over time has an extraordinary effect.
I hope as many of you as are awakening to the danger and possibility of our times can join us – because the reinvention of Christianity cannot be done by just a few people. , but It has to be a co-creation in with the Holy Spirit of by all those agonized, inspired and brave enough to follow the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 25, and the great mystics of the Cosmic Christ into a vision of the glory of the creation, and the sanctity of all life…a co-creation spurred by and the necessity of creating systems that honor and protect that glory and sanctity with the full force of justice and compassion and radical action.
Every day we do not undertake this great alchemical transformation is a day that takes us closer to potential extinction of the human race and a great deal of nature. Let us realize this without illusion, and let us together reconsecrate ourselves to the dangerous life of love in action and prophetic passion and compassion that costs everything and gives everything.
The NDAA and the Death of the Democratic State
By Chris Hedges (about the author) Permalink (Page 1 of 2 pages)
OpEdNews Op Eds 2/11/2013 at 12:38:14
Become a Fan
(266 fans)
Related Topic(s): America; Citizens; Decline; Democracy; Justice; Ndaa National Defense Authorization Act; State Terrorism, Add Tags Add to My Group(s)
opednews.com
Cross-posted from Truthdig
Illustration by Mr. Fish
On Wednesday a few hundred activists crowded into the courtroom of the Second Circuit, the spillover room with its faulty audio feed and dearth of chairs, and Foley Square outside the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan where many huddled in the cold. The fate of the nation, we understood, could be decided by the three judges who will rule on our lawsuit against President Barack Obama for signing into law Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The section permits the military to detain anyone, including U.S. citizens, who “substantially support” — an undefined legal term — al-Qaida, the Taliban or “associated forces,” again a term that is legally undefined. Those detained can be imprisoned indefinitely by the military and denied due process until “the end of hostilities.” In an age of permanent war this is probably a lifetime.
David Hartman was one of the most creative Jewish intellectuals of the 20th century. A student of Rav Soloveitchik at Yeshiva University, Hartman served as an orthodox rabbi in Canada before making aliyah to Jerusalem where he created the Shalom Hartman Institute and managed to attract some of the most creative young scholars and thinkers to his venture. There he defined the task of creating a Halakhah and an approach to Judaism for “the third Commonwealth” of Jewish history. Hartman was a brilliant thinker whose re-interpretation of the thinking of Judaism’s most respected (by some, reviled by others, par for the course) Medieval philosopher Moses Maimonides was at once startlingly relevant to modern theological concerns and profoundly challenging to some of the small-minded in the orthodox world. I had the honor and wonderful opportunity to study for a year at the Hartman Institute, and Rabbi Hartman then invited me to come back as a visiting scholar for another year, an offer I unfortunately had to decline because of my role as executive director of the Institute for Labor and Mental Health.
City of gun shots, where Hartford Hospital on Jefferson Street employed my mother, a nurse, dressed in her white uniform with pearl buttons, and now employs me, forty five years later, a chaplain with a black shirt and a white clerical collar. Some nights when I sleep in the on-call room, I think I hear them page my mother’s elegant name, Loretta. “Trouble,” a nurse says, “Why is the city so troubled?”