Pesident Obama will give the commencement address at Notre Dame. The Bishop of South Bend, John D'Arcy has decided to not attend (boycott is the more provacative term). But my guess is that the real excitment will come from the anti-abortion protesters who infiltrate themselves into the audience and call him a murderer one? two? three? times? times.
My thoughts one this are informed by the National Democratic Convention where the opening worship service was interrupted three times by plants in the audience standing up and calling out "Obama kills babies" and the like, and the then senator wasn't even in the room. My guess is that at Notre Dame, when the President is right there, it will be too tempting not to make a statement. The problem for anti-abortion activists is that this generally pisses off people so much that they unwittingly aid the pro-choice movement.
Any guesses? You can put them below and we'll check back in May. For the record I think it will be three times. But that is just my trinitarian impulse.
Chris Kelly reports at Huffingtonpost.com on the sad racist pathology at the Christian backed website Townhall.com. You can tell that this fellow Burt Prelutsky doesn't even really know he is being horribly racist and offensive by any common standard of decency in America. It is shocking that someone like this could have an audience still in 2009. Not to mention that a Christian organization is funding him and amplifying his hateful voice.
If you don't like what you read below contact the owners of Townhall.com here
Burt Prelutsky was a TV writer a long time ago. Then he aged out of it and became a crank. This wasn't one of those major loses like Steinbeck. Now he writes a column for Townhall.com, the popular website owned by a Christian radio network. Here's something from his current offering:
Prelutsky: Take Michelle Obama...please. Every time I turn around, there she is on a magazine cover. Now, normally, like the Mafia, I lay off the spouses, but inasmuch as this particular spouse attended the same racist church as her hubby for 20 years, I'll make an exception in her case. After all, in spite of the fact that affirmative action got her an Ivy League degree and a $7,000-a-week salary and, moreover, has sent billions of dollars for no particularly good reason to Africa, she insists this is a mean country. The burning question in my circle is: if the First Family gets a female dog, will she be the First Bitch or will she have to settle for second place?
Prelutsky: Naturally, the left-wing media is now trying to convince us that this James Brown-look-alike has all the allure, glamour and fashion sense of Jackie Kennedy.
Prelutsky: If we were a racist society, Oprah Winfrey, your fairy godmother, certainly wouldn't be a billionaire; she'd be fetching someone's mint julep. And Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice wouldn't grow up to be secretaries of state; they'd be sweeping out the stables. And Will Smith and Denzel Washington wouldn't be movie stars; they'd be in the fields picking cotton.
And now from the "what the heck were they thinking" department, the South African government has denied the Dalai Lama a visa to attend a peace conference to showcase - get this - South Africa's human rights record in anticipation of the 2010 world cup. Because they didn't want to piss off the Chinese, South African officials decided to deny entry to one of the major figures of peace in the world - the Dalai Lama. Good luck with that South Africa.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africa has refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend an international peace conference in Johannesburg this week, a presidential spokesman said.
The Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Laureate did not receive a visa because it was not in South Africa's interest for him to attend, said Thabo Masebe.
South Africa thinks that, if the Dalai Lama attended the conference, the focus would shift away from the 2010 World Cup -- the global soccer championship it will host next year.
"We cannot allow focus to shift to China and Tibet," Masebe said, adding that South Africa has gained much from its trading relationship with China.
Former president F.W. De Klerk, another laureate, backed Tutu, saying in a statement that he would also not participate in the conference if the Dalai Lama remained excluded.
De Klerk said that the decision to refuse the visa made a "mockery" of the peace conference.
This seriously upsetting article in the New York Times Sunday paper chronicles the increasing influence of the religious right in Israeli's armed forces and its affect on the execution of the war on Gaza. Especially chilling is the quote from the Chief Rabbi of the military Gen. Avichai Rontzki who enouraged the slogan: "He is who is merciful to the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful." What a convenient little motto that can be!
It reminds one of the power that the religious right also has in the armed forces in America. When religious hawks control our military mixing religious fervor with armed strength then every battle becomes one done in God's name and any means justify the ends. If every battle becomes a Holy War then we will have war without end. Here is an excerpt from the Times article written by Ethan Bronner:
"The officer corps of the elite Golani Brigade is now heavily populated by religious right-wing graduates of the preparatory academies," noted Moshe Halbertal, a Jewish philosophy professor who co-wrote the military code of ethics and who is himself religiously observant but politically liberal. "The religious right is trying to have an impact on Israeli society through the army."
For Mr. Halbertal, like for the vast majority of Israelis, the army is an especially sensitive institution because it has always functioned as a social cauldron, throwing together people from all walks of life and scores of ethnic and national backgrounds, and helping form them into a cohesive society with social networks that carry on throughout their lives.
Those who oppose the religious right have been especially concerned about the influence of the military's chief rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki, who is himself a West Bank settler and who was very active during the war, spending most of it in the company of the troops in the field.
He took a quotation from a classical Hebrew text and turned it into a slogan during the war: "He who is merciful to the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful."
A controversy then arose when a booklet handed out to soldiers was found to contain a rabbinical edict against showing the enemy mercy. The Defense Ministry reprimanded the rabbi.
At the time, in January, Avshalom Vilan, then a leftist member of Parliament, accused the rabbi of having "turned the Israeli military's activity from fighting out of necessity into a holy war."
Hmmm, moving from a war of necessity to a war of choice and one viewed through the axis of good vs evil. Sounds familiar to me. I am near despair over the misguided fanaticism of the religious right whether it is Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu. Enlightened religious communities and secular humanists must join together in Israel, Palestine, America, India, Pakistan, and throughout the world to counter the dogma of war and domination that we see in religious fundamentalists throughout the world.
This is a wonderful video for anyone who cars about the civil rights of all people. It puts to rest the false idea that African Americans are more homophobic than other Americans. Homophobia has no race and bigotry towards gay people is equal opportunity. Julian Bond is an American hero and we thank God for him.
Highlights:
Bond puts into words the type of inspirational sentiment and coming-togetherness between gays, blacks, and humanity that we all feel. Says Bond, a gay marriage supporter: "Black people, of all people, should not oppose equality, and that is what gay marriage is. ... At the NAACP, we pledge to do our part." And that's just the beginning of this eloquent indictment of homophobia.
• "God seems to have made room in his plan for interracial marriage, and he or she will no doubt do the same for same-sex marriage."
•
"When someone asks me, 'Are gay rights civil rights?' My answer is always, 'Of course they are.' Civil rights are positive legal prerogatives. The right to equal treatment before the law. These are the rights shared by everyone. There is no one in the United States who does not or should not enjoy or share in enjoying these rights. Gay and lesbian rights are not special rights in any way. It isn't special to be free from discrimination. It is an ordinary universal entitlement of citizenship."
"The fact that many had to struggle to gain these rights makes them precious; it does not make them special and it does not reserve them only for me or restrict them from others. Because when others gain these rights, my rights are not diminished in any way. My rights are not diluted when my neighbor enjoys protection from discrimination. He or she becomes my ally in defending the rights we all share. For some people, comparisons between the African-American civil rights movement, the movement for gay and lesbians rights seems to diminish the long black historical struggle with its suffering, sacrifices, and endless toil. However people of color ought to be flattered that our movement has provided so much inspiration for others. That our movement has been so widely imitated. That our tactics, our methods, our heroes, our heroines, and even our songs have been appropriated or served as models for others."
And in a special message geared towardcertain individuals: "Many gays and lesbians worked side-by-side with me in the 1960s civil rights movement. Am I now to tell them, Thanks for risking life and limb helping me win my rights, but they're excluded because of a condition of their birth, that they can't share now in the victories they helped me to win, that having accepted and embraced them as partners in a common struggle I can now turn my back on them, deny them the rights they helped me win, the rights I enjoy because of them? Not a chance. No."
"You know President Bush, you remember him? He said marriage is the most fundamental institution of our civilization. Is that precisely why we should support, not oppose gay marriage? We've amended the U.S. Constitution only 17 times since the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Aside from prohibition, which was quickly acknowledged to be a mistake and repealed, we've amended the Constitution only to expand and protect people's rights, never to restrict them, never to take them away."
"Rampant homophobia's not just wrong. It's dangerous to our national security."
"We're all okay. And someday, marriage for all of us, will be okay too."
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Diana Butler Bass and Paul Raushenbush both stand firmly within the Mainline Protestant tradition and, along with guest bloggers of all religious backgrounds are dedicated to the revival of religious progressivism and its influence in American politics.
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