Spring 2003, The Newsletter of the Tulsa Interfaith Alliance Volume 9, Issue 1 |
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| Tulsa Police Chief to Meet with Community | |
| Responding to Gibson's Passion | |
| Is Government Funding Right for your Organization? | |
Tulsa Interfaith Alliance P. O. Box 4173 Tulsa, OK 74159-0173
TULSA POLICE CHIEF TO MEET WITH COMMUNITY MARCH 1, 2004
"The Status of and Possibilities for Police and Community Partnerships" is the title of a meeting featuring Tulsa Police Chief David Been and Division Commanders on Monday, March 1 at Rudisill Regional Public Library (1520 N. Hartford) beginning at 7:00 p.m. This meeting is sponsored by Tulsa Interfaith Alliance and offers citizens an opportunity both to hear from police officials and to have the opportunity to be part of a conversation with those officials. The goal of the meeting is to promote an effective and healthy partnership between the police department and citizens in all aspects of community life. This forum is co-sponsored by the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ)
For more information, contact Rev. Russ Bennett at (918) 747-7777.
RESPONDING TO GIBSON’S THE PASSION
Mel Gibson unlocked the secret of why Americans have never confronted anti-Semitism in the way that we did with the other great systems of hatred (racism, sexism, homophobia) when he told a national t.v. audience on February 16 that "the Jews' real complaint isn't with my film (The Passion) but with the Gospels." Few Christians today know the history of anti-Semitism and the way that the Passion stories were central to rekindling hatred of Jews from generation to generation. Many are embracing Gibson's movie and not understanding why Jews seem to be so threatened. Gibson knows that for many Americans it is simply unimaginable to question the Gospels.
Liberals and progressives in the late 20th century did an impressive job of confronting and educating the public about the literary, intellectual, and cultural sources of racism, sexism and homophobia. But they tended to shy away from anti-Semitism, both because of the mistaken assumption that it was no longer a real problem (after all, Jews were economically and politically flourishing in post-WWII America) and because such a confrontation would have forced a challenge to the dominant Western religion at the core of its most dramatic story: the crucifixion.
Nevertheless, ever since the 1960s there have been thousands of sensitive Christians, who, to their credit, have created a Christian spiritual renewal movement which rejects the teaching of hatred in the Gospel by allegorizing the story and giving greater focus to the Resurrection than to the Crucifixion. Returning to Jesus' Jewish roots, and refocusing attention on the bulk of the Gospel, with its stories portraying a Jewish Jesus who builds on and elaborates the ancient Torah commandments to "love your neighbor as yourself" and "love the stranger," the Christian renewalists tended to see the two-thousand-year history of Christian anti-Semitism as a distortion of the deeper truth of the Gospel. Easter became a holiday to celebrate the rebirth of an ancient Jewish hope that the forces of hatred and cruelty manifested in the Crucifixion could be overcome by a triumph of the forces of love, generosity and kindness whose Resurrection and ultimate victory were celebrated at Easter.
Yet, that renewal movement is now being effectively challenged by a Christian fundamentalist movement with deep ties to right-wing politics. In post 9/11 America, many people have given up on the hopeful vision of social change movements. They have turned to a deep pessimism in which the idea of a world based on love, cooperation and generosity to the Other is alternately ridiculed and disdained as unrealistic and dangerous. A cynical realism holds sway in the media and mainstream American culture and political institutions, placing American progressive and visionary thinkers on the defensive. No wonder, then, that many Christians are attracted to interpretations of their religious tradition which emphasize the danger and cruelty in the world while sidelining aspects of the Gospel which teach compassion and solidarity with the oppressed.
So let's understand that the attempt to revive Christian enthusiasm around the part of the story that is focused on cruelty and pain is not only (or even primarily) a threat to the Jews, but rather a threat to all those decent, loving, and generous Christians who have found in the Jesus story a foundation for their most humane and caring instincts. It is these Christians who are under assault by Mel Gibson's movie, and by the particular form of Christian evangelicalism that it is meant to stimulate. Yet, in a deeper way, the Gibson movie is likely to stimulate a broader assault on all of us who seek to build a world based on caring and love, cooperation and generosity, by giving strength to the part within each of us that despairs, the voice within each of us that tells us that cruelty is what is "really how the other is, really how the world is," the voice inside each of us that feels that there is no point in struggling to transform the world because it is too hopeless and too dominated by crazin
The best hope to avoid a new surge of anti-Semitism will not come only from de-coding the anti-Semitic themes in Mel Gibson's film, or the Gospel on which it was based, but rather by re-crediting the ancient Jewish vision of Jesus—that in place of the Old Bottom Line of money and power, a New Bottom Line of Love and Generosity is possible. People of all faiths need to shape a political and social movement that reaffirms the most generous, peace-oriented, social justice-committed, and loving truths of the spiritual heritage of the human race. It is only this resurrection of hope that can save us from a new wave of global hatred.
Selected from A Gospel of Love and Hope: How to Respond to Mel Gibson's "Passion" By Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine, national chair of the interfaith peace and justic organization The Tikkun Community (<http://www.tikkun.org>www.tikkun.org), rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in San Francisco, and author of Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation (HarperPerennial) and most recently, of Healing Israel/Palestine (North Atlantic Books, 2003).
Responses to: RabbiLerner@tikkun.org.
IS GOVERNMENT FUNDING RIGHT FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION?
A one and a half hour workshop on the pros and cons of working with government funding, capacity building and creating partnerships will be held Tuesday, March 30th, 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Fellowship Congregational Church, 2900 South Harvard.
The workshop will be led by C. Lyn Larson, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Tulsa Field office. Call 747-7777 for further information.
Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War
Tulsa Peace Fellowship will be screening the documentary, Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War, on March 18th at 7PM at the Aaronson Auditorium.
Uncovered investigates, through interviews with 26 CIA, Pentagon, and foreign service experts, U.S. intelligence and the decision to invade Iraq. Interviewees include: former CIA operative Robert Baer; former Special Assistant to the President Joe Wilson; and former Assistant Secretary of Defense Philip Coyle, among others.
After the film, the audience will hear comments from Andrew Rice, whose brother David was killed in the World Trade Towers in the terrorist attack against the US on September 11th.
Andrew has quite an interesting background, having traveled the country the last two years on behalf of the September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, speaking regularly on the need for a legal, humane, and rational response to 9/11.
Prior to tragedy of 9/11, he worked for five years with the Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit group which counters the influence of religious fundamentalism in politics.
He has recently returned to his home state of Oklahoma, where he serves as executive director for the Progressive Alliance Foundation, (www.palfound.net), where he is launching a grassroots intiative called the Red River Demoncracy Project (www.rrdp.org). RRDP seeks to inform Oklahoma citizens, through Chautauqua "tent revivals", about the failures of our political system to live up to our democratic principles.
In 1999, he produced FROM ASHES, a documentary about an ex-con who runs a hospice for rejected HIV+ people in rural India. FROM ASHES screened at film festivals in the U.S., Canada and India. He has also worked as a freelance documentary producer and editor for BBC and PBS programs, including The Newshour with Jim Lehrer.
He can be reached at: andrew@palfoundation.net or by phone at 405 488-1462 or (cell) 405-823-5264.
Free Public Forum
Monday, March 29, 2004, 7-9 p.m.
Saint Francis Xavier/Our Lady of Guadalulpe Catholic Church Activities Center
24331 E. Admiral Blvd.
Moderator: Dean Martin H. Belsky, College of Law, The University of Tulsa
Presenter: Mark Leblang, Attorney and Immigration Specialist
Panelists: Irma Chajecki, Catholic Charities Immigration Specialist; Kristy Long, Office of Rep. John Sullivan; Patricia Mancha, Public Affairs Specialist/Community Liaison, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS);
Juanita Ortiz, YWCA Intercultural Center Immigration Specialist; Barry Royce, Interim Officer in Charge of Sub-Office, Oklahoma City, (USCIS)
Spanish Language Interpreter: Sebastian Lantos
Discussing: What is the process to immigrate to the U.S. legally? What rights do immigrants have (vis-à-vis citizens)? How is the process administered? Or mal-administered? What is the impact of national security policies post-9/11? What is the President’s proposed new policy?
Sponsored by: Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry and The National Conference for Community and Justic, in cooperation with Asian American Community Service Association; Catholic Charities; Coalition of Hispanic Organizations; Community Service Council; Congregation B’nai Emunah; Asian Indian Community of Greater Tulsa; Islamic Society of Tulsa; Jewish Federation of Tulsa; Kendall Whittier Ministry; Metropolitan Tulsa Urban League; Tulsa Interfaith Alliance; and the YWCA Intercultural Center.
Please note:This is an introductory educational/resource forum, not an opportunity for individual consultation. For more information, call 582-3147 or 585-1361.
GANDHI VISIT TO TULSA PART OF SEASON FOR NONVIOLENCE
By Nancy Moran
In 1998, inspired by the 50th and 30th memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Arun and Sunanda Gandhi, of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and The Association for Global New Thought, launched the first Season for Nonviolence. Falling between Jan. 30 and April 4, its objective is to "create an awareness of nonviolent principles and practices as a powerful way to heal, transform and empower our lives and communities."
As part of Tulsa's celebration of the season, M.K. Gandhi's grandson, Arun, will visit on March 10 and 11 to share his message of nonviolent social change with Tulsa Community College students and faculty. The public can hear him speak at no cost at 7 p.m. on March 11 at Higher Dimension Church, 8621 S. Memorial Drive.
A few weeks before he was assassinated, Arun's grandfather gave him a talisman engraved with the "Seven Blunders," from which Arun was told the seeds of violence are sown.
The blunders are: wealth without work; pleasure without conscience; knowledge without character; commerce without morality; science without humanity; worship without sacrifice, and politics without principles.
Later, Arun added an eighth blunder, rights without responsibility. In his essay "Nonviolence -- A Way of Life," he said that for M.K. Gandhi nonviolence started first with cultivating an attitude of compassion and "broadening our perspective" so we can "learn more about the intricacies of life." These goals are far more important than material success.
In fact, M.K. Gandhi said, materialism and morality actually have an inverse relationship. Perhaps, as his protegee King put it, the solution must be found in changing from a "thing oriented" society into a "person oriented" one. Yet, the 2003 UCLA college freshman poll showed the importance of "succeeding financially" trumping "finding a meaningful philosophy of life" 73.8 percent to 39.3 percent.
The "Eight Worldly Blunders" illustrate a crisis in ethics and morals that cut across all sectors of society. The Gandhian mandate is to "be the change we wish to see." We can each start by rooting out each of the blunders from ourselves and our institutions.
The first blunder, wealth without work, comes to stockholders who profit on the backs of outsourced sweatshop labor in developing countries. American consumers get pleasure without conscience when they "get a good deal" on name-brand goods produced by desperate workers earning less than a dollar an hour. Rather than raising our consciousness about these issues, free trade proponents say this is what the American people want. Moral leaders know differently.
Institutes of commerce without morality which ignore labor, health and environmental standards while extolling only the virtues of the marketplace are like sociopaths without empathy for their victims. As the value of people is increasingly measured by labor cost and buying power, our nation's characteristics become more like a market than a democratic society.
In King's words, we have "guided missiles and misguided men." Science without humanity can harness the power of an atom to destroy the world many times over. Yet, millions dream for a cure for AIDS, lending credence to President Dwight D. Eisenhower's warning that "the world of arms is not spending money alone," it is spending "the genius of its scientists."
Until the Golden Rule -- the foundation of every major religion -- becomes more important than the gold we accumulate in this lifetime, the blunder of worship without sacrifice will continue. Unless right living through less consumption and more sharing is emphasized, the competition between right creeds will provide little relief to those in need.
A political system corrupted by special interests operates by the principle, "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." Most Americans want a system that divides the pie to serve the common good and meet basic needs. Rights are wasted on our citizens unless we take responsibility for creating that system.
The blunders shared by M.K. and Arun Gandhi resonate with the values of most Americans. The moral confusion experienced by our nation is based on fear, greed and our sense of powerlessness. We have forgotten the moral strength of love and the dignity and worth of each human being. Arun Gandhi's message to Tulsans will simply remind us of what we already know.
Nancy Moran is a member of the Season for Nonviolence Taskforce of Tulsa.
Reprinted from the Tulsa World, February 22, 2004, Reader’s Forum
Tulsa’s Season for Nonviolence Task Force presents:
An Interfaith Evening with Arun Gandhi
(Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson)
"Nonviolent Action in a Violent World"
Higher Dimensions Family Church
8621 S. Memorial Drive
Thursday, March 11th at 7:00 p.m.
Reception and Book Signing Following Service
Tulsa Interfaith Alliance
Board of Directors
Melvin Bailey, M.Div.
Russell Bennett, D.Min., President
Jack Campbell, Publicity & Media
Robert Cohen
Jim Derby, Ph.D.
Theodore V. Foote, Jr., M.Div., Secretary
Milton T. Goodwin, D.Min.
Martha Hardwick, J.D.
Robert Lawton Jones
Clarence Knippa, D.D.
G. Calvin McCutchen, Sr., M.Div.
Fr. Marty Morgan
John Osborne, Treasurer
Howard Plowman
Barbara Santee, Ph.D.
Fr. Clark Shackelford, J.D.
Sheryl Siddiqui
Nancy Siegel
Judie Suess, Vice President
William G. Webb, Jr., M.Div.
William J. Wiseman, S.T.D., Founder
and Spokesperson Emeritus
Contributing Editors:
Russell L. Bennett, Robert Lawton Jones
John Osborne, Barbara Santee, Judie Suess
Typing and Layout: Janet Storts
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world" Margaret Mead