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Windows into Transcendence: Lightning and Sophia in "Red Tails"

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In the movie “Red Tails”, the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, we see how religious icons serve as “windows into the Kingdom of God.” The images that the fighter pilots take into combat with them help them to see a kind of divine transcendence that gives their lives meaning. The icons help them to come closer to God. One of the major characters in the movie is the skilled, fearless, self-confident, improvisational and independent-minded pilot nicknamed “Lightning.” He is a womanizer who falls in love at first sight with an Italian woman named Sophia.

General News

"Don't Be Realistic": Rabbi Lerner's Sermon at NYC's Riverside Church

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As part of his tour to promote his latest book, Embracing Israel/Palestine, Rabbi Lerner delivered this sermon at the historic Riverside Church in New York on January 22, 2012. Listen to find out why he encourages activists not to be “realistic” as they strive to transform consciousness in their communities and in the world. [singleplayer url=”/media/service.mp3″ title=”Rabbi Lerner at Riverside Church” info=”http://www.spiritualprogressives.org”]
If you’d like to download the MP3 so that you can load it onto your iPod or other MP3 player, right-click (or control-click on Macs) here.

Judaism

Come to Beyt Tikkun's Tu B'shvat Seder This Saturday!

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Can you join us this Saturday for Beyt Tikkun Torah study (the portion that includes “the ten commandments”) and for our Tu B’shvat seder followed by a veggie pot-luck? Please let ashley@tikkun.org know so that we can buy the right amount of food for the seder and supplement for the pot-luck! The only admission charge is to bring a main course vegetarian dish for the pot-luck– something you’d feel honored if someone else served to you! And if you can’t, come anyway and bring your friends. The event takes place at the Friends Meeting House on the NE corner of Vine and Walnut in Berkeley at 2151 Vine St.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Introducing New Leader of Israel's Left-Zionist Party

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On Monday night, Zehava Gal-On was overwhelmingly elected the new chair of the Meretz party. She is now the third female leader of an Israeli political party represented in the Knesset, joining Tzipi Livni of Kadima and Shelly Yachimovich of Labor. (In addition, Einat Wilif is the Knesset caucus leader of Ehud Barak’s new Independence party.)

In her victory speech, Gal-On promised to re-energize the party, and bring back its sharp, smart, brash, against-the-stream spirit. She said the party would be the party of the Left, and would not court the “Center” or choose its positions based on what was easily marketable. Y-net sums up her speech with this quote:

Under my leadership, Meretz will bring Israel’s Left home…

Judaism

Torah Commentary Perashat Yitro: I. Yitro's Visit As Response II. Seeing the Sounds of Sinai

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I. Yitro’s Visit As Response:
This week’s reading is a momentous one, it contains the narrative of the revelation at Mt Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments, as described in the longer essay below. What is striking is that this week’s reading doesn’t begin with that crucial section, it actually begins with a family visit of Moshe’s father-in-law, Yitro, and in fact, this central reading is not known in traditional circles as “Sinai” or “Giving of the Torah” but as Perashat Yitro, by the name of an outsider, described as a foreign Priest! Even if the division of the weekly readings is viewed as accidental, still, why is this the section immediately preceding the central section of the Torah, in fact, some of the medieval commentators argue that the meeting with Yitro actually happened after Sinai. Thus placing Yitro’s visit ahead of the revelation of Sinai is meant to be intentional.

Rethinking Religion

A Response to Frederick Sparks over "Reason and Racism in New Atheism"

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Frederick Sparks over at Black Skeptics penned a response to my article “Reason and Racism in the New Atheist Movement.” Here are a few of my comments on his analysis. His words are in bold. Yet if he bothered to read the rest of the book besides the passages criticizing new atheism, he’d see that Hutchinson hardly argues for walling off god belief and African-American religious institutions from criticism. I’ve never stated or even suggested that African American religion or religion at large should be walled off or shielded from criticism.

Education

Lessons Learned About Resilience & Resistance from the Occupy Oakland Street Medics

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Between January 9-13, I taught an ethics course called “Resilience and Resistance” at Starr King School for the Ministry, a member school of the Graduate Theological Union. Eleven faith leaders of multiple religious traditions explored life stressors, historical trauma, and health in the context of oppression, white supremacy and social movements. Through rigorous study, dialogue and spiritual reflection, the students analyzed and interrogated the historical and cultural dynamics of stress and resilience, hoping to identify contextual factors and healthy strategies and promote cultures of resistance in their ministries and activism. Course readings, guest presentations, and class discussion drew heavily from the scholarship from and lessons learned through movements led by people of color and poor/working class people. A website designed for the course will make available to the public some of the student’s final projects and begin a collection of web resources designed by seminarians for faith leaders involved seeking social justice.

General News

Iran & the Myth of Israel as Superpower

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There’s no question that Israel is vulnerable to attack, and unlike Iranians, Israeli Jews have a living memory of being subject to genocide. … Israel has about 1/10 the population of Iran and a little over one percent of Iran’s land mass.

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Please Go to See "Red Tails"

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When I saw “Red Tails”, it reminded me of the humiliations that our elders suffered, and it reminded me that every generation has to continue to fight stereotypes that seek to distort the history of a people, deny the dignity of a people, and poison the body politic with on-going racially charged rhetoric. It is a politics of distraction.