As a member of the Ignatian Family, the PICO Network is informing many Jesuit Provinces, institutions and networks around the healthcare debate. We are encouraged by their leadership in this issue and support their call for a Congressional Call-In day next Tuesday, September 15, 2009. Don't wait -- do it now!
"We are not here to fear the future. We are here to shape it." - President Barack Obama (9/9/09)
If you heard President Obama's health care speech last night, the most important thing each of us can do now is to communicate our support for health reform to our Senators and Congresspersons.
And now is the time to not just make your own voice heard, but to ask your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers to weigh in as well, even if it is the first time they've called their Members of Congress.
That's why PICO and our faith allies are organizing a massive Congressional Call-In Day next Tuesday, September 15. The goal is 30,000+ calls to Congress in support of health reform on the same day. We want our Members of Congress to hear loud and clear that people of faith feel the moral urgency of fixing our health care system and strongly support reform that includes strong affordability protections for working families.
We'll be using PICO's toll-free hotline 866-279-5474 so that we can track the number of calls into each state and district. This number is available now and until we've won health reform.
PICO is a non-partisan organization that does not endorse or support candidates. PICO strongly encourages people of faith to study the health care teachings and policy positions of their own religious denominations and traditions.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
"Human Efforts, God' Grace" by Joe Mulligan, S.J.
Published in the Catholic Worker, June-July 2009
“The people united will never be defeated” has been a popular slogan of struggle in Chile and other Latin American countries.
“We shall overcome,” proclaimed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., along with those who organized, marched, and went to jail with him.
“Yes, it can be done” (“sí, se puede”) chanted César Chavez and the United Farm Workers.
“Don’t mourn, organize” was the message of labor songwriter Joe Hill and other union activists.
These encouraging messages show us how to cooperate with God in bringing about the coming of the Kingdom and the implementation of God’s will. It couldn’t be clearer that God’s will for the Kingdom is to be carried out on earth, not just among the departed souls and angels. How? By using our God-given intelligence and freedom to solve our problems, working together with God for a better world.
We must let God’s will be done in our lives, families, and communities and organize so that God’s will for justice and freedom may become a reality for all in social, political, and economic structures. In these structures and systems, it is people’s power, united and smart, which makes change, for the entrenched power of the ruling class does not yield without a struggle. As Dr. King said in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
Organized Truth-force, speaking truth to power, non-cooperation, boycotts, marches, sit-ins, draft resistance, tax resistance, and other forms of civil disobedience, organizing unions and neighborhood groups, especially when the stakes are significant -- these are some of the methods of exerting power non-violently at our disposal.
God’s will is not that women and children be beaten, that more people be unemployed or exploited, that millions suffer malnutrition or AIDS, that the prisons and jails of the U.S. contain over 2 million inmates, that the U.S. invade other countries at will. These evils happen because we misuse the freedom and potential God has given us. Problems made by humans, can be solved by humans. In this seemingly impossible and overwhelming task, we may feel alone, even if we organize millions to act in unison.
But we are not left to our own devices, limited energy, and propensity toward despair. Moses and the prophets were always assured of Abba’s presence and strength even in the face of fierce opposition. Jesus often told His disciples: “Do not be afraid; I am with you.” United to the Vine, we will produce much fruit.
It was not God’s will that Jesus suffer cruelly and perish ignominiously on the cross "for our sins,” to assuage some divine wrath, to make a sacrifice of expiation, to save us. These are images which were applied to Jesus after His death and resurrection. In retrospect, Christian theology sees that they were fulfilled in a magnificent way by Jesus. It was God’s will that Jesus announce the Kingdom of justice and love and inaugurate it by His work, that He be faithful to this dangerous mission in face of the intense persecution it would unleash against Him, and that Jesus and His cause be vindicated in the Resurrection.
“Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want”(Mk 14:36). Jesus’ will was one with Abba’s; He was the faithful prophet and courageous liberator to the very end.
******************
This article is from my journal written while I was in two county jails from late January to late April, 2004, serving a 90-day sentence for “crossing the line” onto Ft. Benning, Ga., in a November 2003 protest against the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas. The School, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), has trained thousands of Latin American soldiers, some of whom have returned to their countries to be notorious torturers, assassins, and other human-rights violators.
The complete version of the article can be found at: www.jailjournal.blogspot.com
“The people united will never be defeated” has been a popular slogan of struggle in Chile and other Latin American countries.
“We shall overcome,” proclaimed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., along with those who organized, marched, and went to jail with him.
“Yes, it can be done” (“sí, se puede”) chanted César Chavez and the United Farm Workers.
“Don’t mourn, organize” was the message of labor songwriter Joe Hill and other union activists.
These encouraging messages show us how to cooperate with God in bringing about the coming of the Kingdom and the implementation of God’s will. It couldn’t be clearer that God’s will for the Kingdom is to be carried out on earth, not just among the departed souls and angels. How? By using our God-given intelligence and freedom to solve our problems, working together with God for a better world.
We must let God’s will be done in our lives, families, and communities and organize so that God’s will for justice and freedom may become a reality for all in social, political, and economic structures. In these structures and systems, it is people’s power, united and smart, which makes change, for the entrenched power of the ruling class does not yield without a struggle. As Dr. King said in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
Organized Truth-force, speaking truth to power, non-cooperation, boycotts, marches, sit-ins, draft resistance, tax resistance, and other forms of civil disobedience, organizing unions and neighborhood groups, especially when the stakes are significant -- these are some of the methods of exerting power non-violently at our disposal.
God’s will is not that women and children be beaten, that more people be unemployed or exploited, that millions suffer malnutrition or AIDS, that the prisons and jails of the U.S. contain over 2 million inmates, that the U.S. invade other countries at will. These evils happen because we misuse the freedom and potential God has given us. Problems made by humans, can be solved by humans. In this seemingly impossible and overwhelming task, we may feel alone, even if we organize millions to act in unison.
But we are not left to our own devices, limited energy, and propensity toward despair. Moses and the prophets were always assured of Abba’s presence and strength even in the face of fierce opposition. Jesus often told His disciples: “Do not be afraid; I am with you.” United to the Vine, we will produce much fruit.
It was not God’s will that Jesus suffer cruelly and perish ignominiously on the cross "for our sins,” to assuage some divine wrath, to make a sacrifice of expiation, to save us. These are images which were applied to Jesus after His death and resurrection. In retrospect, Christian theology sees that they were fulfilled in a magnificent way by Jesus. It was God’s will that Jesus announce the Kingdom of justice and love and inaugurate it by His work, that He be faithful to this dangerous mission in face of the intense persecution it would unleash against Him, and that Jesus and His cause be vindicated in the Resurrection.
“Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want”(Mk 14:36). Jesus’ will was one with Abba’s; He was the faithful prophet and courageous liberator to the very end.
******************
This article is from my journal written while I was in two county jails from late January to late April, 2004, serving a 90-day sentence for “crossing the line” onto Ft. Benning, Ga., in a November 2003 protest against the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas. The School, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), has trained thousands of Latin American soldiers, some of whom have returned to their countries to be notorious torturers, assassins, and other human-rights violators.
The complete version of the article can be found at: www.jailjournal.blogspot.com
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Honduran Updates
Dear Friends,
From the beginning, a Jesuit from the Missouri Province has been sharing updates and reflections on his experiences in Honduras since the recent governmental upheaval. I'm thankful to my counterpart for the Missouri Province, Sean Agniel, for passing these along for our edification.
If you would like to receive them, please email me at sim@jesuits-det.org or sim@jesuits-chi.org so that I might pass them along.
Peace!
Carrie
From the beginning, a Jesuit from the Missouri Province has been sharing updates and reflections on his experiences in Honduras since the recent governmental upheaval. I'm thankful to my counterpart for the Missouri Province, Sean Agniel, for passing these along for our edification.
If you would like to receive them, please email me at sim@jesuits-det.org or sim@jesuits-chi.org so that I might pass them along.
Peace!
Carrie
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