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.

Peacemaking at School

No Name-Calling Week

No Name-Calling Week, January 23-27, 2012, is an annual week of educational activities aimed at ending name-calling of all kinds and providing schools with the tools and inspiration to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate bullying in their communities.

Visit the No Name-Calling Week website for more information, to join the network and receive anti-bullying resources throughout the year, and to access resources.

Jan. 17, birth of Martin Luther King, Jr.

From the LPF website:

Martin Luther King quotes reflecting some of the breadth of Dr. King's thought.

Useful as a bulletin insert.

A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: “this way of settling differences is not just”.… A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Where Do We Go From Here

Now Online: Martin Luther King's Works -- talks, sermons, letters (including early drafts & mark-ups) etc. The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change has opened an online digital archive of Dr. King's works.  http://www.mlkonline.net/

Two great recent articles:

Occupy: Resurrecting Rev. King's Final Dream
by Leo W. Gerard
International President, United Steelworkers

How to Learn Nonviolent Resistance as King Did
by Mary Elizabeth King
also distributed by Common Dreams

Christmas Day - December 25th

It is not always “simple” to live and work for simplicity and sustainability in our world.
This is especially true during the holiday season when consumerism is working overtime.

Here are ideas on simplicity in the way we live, the gifts we give, the time we share, and the ways we prepare to receive the Prince of Peace.
Peacepoints: Reclaim the Season

And here's a poignant piece by Jim Wallis:
The Real War on Christmas ... by Fox News