Vote Coming Thursday on Immoral Budget: Act Now

This Thursday, your representative will vote on a budget that has almost everything upside down. The proposal by Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan would increase the Pentagon budget and lower taxes on the wealthy while dismantling programs that provide food, health care and other services for the most vulnerable. Please urge your representative to vote "no" on Paul Ryan's budget proposal. For more information, please visit the action alert page from FCNL.

Get ready for the economy of sharing

I used to wish for a giant returns counter where I could exchange stuff I didn’t need  for stuff I did need. Behind the counter would be a system for redistributing, reusing, or recycling goods, so that no “returns” were ever junked. We’d all get what we needed, less perfectly good stuff would sit idle in closets and garages, and a lot less new stuff would have to be made.
My dream is coming true. It’s called “collaborative consumption” – a trendy new term for the timeworn habit of sharing.     
Read more . . .

Chasing the Money Changers

This Sunday's common lectionary reading, John 2:13-25, is the reading on Jesus chasing the money changers from the Temple. It is hard to ignore the parallels to the Occupy Movement. Here is a link for a short reflection by M. Shawn Copeland quoting Wes Howard Brook that's helpful and a nice graphic. http://paxchristiusa.org/2012/03/07/lent-2012-reflection-for-the-third-sunday-of-lent-march-11/

Building Peace in Uganda

 The African Faith and Justice Network (AFJN) has been doing a good job staying in touch with folks in Uganda and dealing sensitively with the situation of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). They they recently made a proclamation on nonviolence.

The Acholi Religious Leaders have taken vital roles over many years attempting to deal with the LRA in peaceful fashion. Their web site, and the link to their specific call for "peaceful means" can be found at:

http://afjn.org/focus-campaigns/militarization-us-africa-policy/133-latest-news/1028-urging-nonviolence-in-dealing-with-the-lords-resistance-army-.html

Betty Bigombe, who Joanie mentions, has of course worked here in the States (at Harvard, the World Bank, and most recently the US Institute for Peace).

Betty Bigombe: Building Peace in Uganda from Global Peacebuilding Center on Vimeo.