What’s new in the neighborhood? Disaster edition
Boulevard of Broken Dreams with Hurricane Katrina footage
JSpot celebrates Katrina’s second birthday with some whithering posts. One the rhetoric vs. the reality and also on the role of women in the recovery.
And so does Pam’s House Blend, drawing attention to indicting video of the still-broken Gulf Coast: To get a true sense of what it is like two years later, go to Voices from the Gulf from ColorofChange.org — unvarnished video perspectives from the region.
On the Gulf Coast, one of the sharpest men in show biz, Harry Shearer has been on the hurricane recovery beat for two years now. At the HuffPo, he writes: “Along with other New Orleanians, I’ve been amazed at the lack of alacrity with which both Republicans and Democrats have approached the problem of a federally caused flood that destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes, wrecking whole neighborhoods and communities, and spinning half a city’s population into involuntary, semi-permanent exile. Now the answer becomes clear: the post-Katrina flooding just didn’t destroy enough houses.”
Faithfully Liberal interviews Rev. Tim Ahrens, senior pastor at First Church in Columbus, Ohio and the leader of We Believe Ohio, which played a significant role in balancing out the religious voice in 2006 and mitigating the effect of the right-wing Patriot Pastors network. If you’re interested in the futures of faith in American public life, check out his words here:
First, I would say, the term “liberal†is over used and outdated. We are sometimes referred to as progressive people of faith. But, like Thomas Paine over 200 years ago, I feel like we are people of faith and conscience with “Common Sense.†It is common sense to care for the common good of all your state’s citizens.
We have been silent too long in the mainline traditions of Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam, and Judaism. We are folks who believe in the goodness of humanity and quietly go about living in the pathway of faith. However, we have given away the media and various mediums of communications to those who are hi-jacking our faith and abusing it in the process. We need to stand up, speak out, and be a prophetic witness for Christ – and our various traditions of faith in a growing and diverse religious America.
Mother Jones‘ recent article “Hillary’s Prayer” on Sen. Clinton’s “Fellowship faith” has stirred up some controversy. Pastor Dan sees her at best a “useful idiot” and wonders why she is hanging around “creeps.” But over at Faithful Democrats, Eric Sapp writes, “This article demonstrates how the fear of the unknown can lead to accusations that are nothing short of surreal. It shows how completely clueless some on the left are about people of faith…and it shows how badly damaged we have allowed the witness of the Church to become where the mere mention of Christ’s name can generate such fear.”
I usually enjoy a Jeff Sharlet article and appreciate the nuance he brings to reporting on the often-strange cultures of religion. But this piece came across as reaching too hard for a hook and ended up hinting at a vast bible study conspiracy. Faith in Public Life’s Dan critiqued the article pessimism toward “common ground issues” and Sharlet defended his skepticism, stating: “There have been instances where liberals have maintained their liberalism, and instances where conservatives who were also bigots have abandoned certain bigotries, but none where conservatives have moved leftward on any philosophical or political issue.”
My contention is that the article stirs up worries that by praying with “those people,” Sen. Clinton is compromising. That above all else she is a true believer in her own ability to triangulate. And while there’s little doubt about her not being the most liberal senator and candidate for president, the article would prove stronger not by pulling a half “Colson” and hinting at her compromises with the Hill faithful, but rather by showing that this mixing has led to significant (i.e., beyond flag burning) policy moves rightward. I guess that I’m less worried about whispers about how, and who with, a politico prays and I am more interested in what my representative does, and for whom. As a believer, I actually compare what a politician does, to my moral convictions, not who they sometimes pray around.
The Rev. Deb Haffner shares her sex and religion perspective regarding Sen. Craig’s closeted homosexuality:
Because in the world that I am working for he would be able to affirm his sexual orientation whatever it is, have meaningful intimate relationships, and engage in moral, ethical sexual behavior. The values he espoused about sexuality would be the values he lived.
God’s Politics has a back-to-school reading list.
Islamicate on Bush and torture.
Alex — I can’t complain too much, since you’ve nice words for my work in general. But I’ll defend this piece, and my response to Dan, on two grounds. The latter first — I didn’t deny the possibility of common ground work, but rather argued that based on a review of thousands of documents and, over the years, literally hundreds of interviews, I can fairly say that the Fellowship’s version of common ground almost always — if not always — trends rightward.
That’s certainly the case with Senator Clinton — Kathryn Joyce and I, like you, dismiss the flag burning nonsense as just that. But we can’t be so blase about Hillary’s participation in efforts to punish prostitutes in developing nations, the contempt for religious freedom in the workplace expressed in a bill given just that name (the bill started out all right; but it mutated so much that even some Republicans bailed, concerned about civil liberties. Not Hillary.)
But worst, and most dangerous by far, is her intimacy with the Fellowship and its potential impact on foreign policy. As I’ve documented elsewhere, the Fellowship has been a backroom channel for what George H.W. Bush called “quiet diplomacy” on behalf of American empire at least since the Nixon adminstration used it to prop up Suharto’s genocidal regime. There’s blood on the Fellowship’s hands in Indonesia, Brazil, and Somalia, to name just a few theaters of operation.