CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAM - A PROTEST MARCH NEAR TUWANI

By invitation from Palestinians living in the village of Tuwani, we traveled from Hebron to Tuwani on the morning of July 8 for a Walking Action. Palestinians were protesting the extension of a settlement onto land belonging to Palestinians. At Tuwani we joined Palestinians, Israelis and internationals at a school for the march. School children lead the way with banners. One banner read: “We want to live in peace and dignity.” About 100 participated in the Action.

When the group had traveled to Humra, the children began to water trees which settlers from the Havot Maon Outpost had destroyed two months ago. The Military, using a bullhorn, declared the March Action area a “closed military zone.” The land we were marching on had Palestinian gardens, although some of the land near the settlement was fallow. Some Israeli activists in our group began to go toward the illegal extension of the Havot Maon Outpost. The Palestinians tried to reason with the commanding offer, an Israeli general and the police. An Operation Dove member and a Palestinian were arrested, and the soldiers, Border Police and Blue Police advanced and threw sound bombs followed by tear gas. A number of marchers were affected by the tear gas and smoke. No one was seriously hurt. The Palestinians dispersed, but Amiel, leader of Tay’yush gathered the Israelis and internationals and debriefed with them about what happened. He pointed out that the the Palestinians decided to offer no resistance. All activists followed suit.

CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAMS - HEBRON

During the month of July I am participating as a Christian Peacemaker Team member in Hebron, Palestine. Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is a faith-based organization that supports Palestinian-led, nonviolent, grassroos resistance to the Israeli occupation and the unjust structures that uphold it. CPT has demonstrated that teams of four to six people trained in the skills of documentation, observation, nonviolent intervention, and non-anxious presence can make a difference in explosive situations. Peacemaker teams are present in places like Hebron where the distribution and exercise of power stimies real peace efforts. Hebron typifies conditions in which one party has most of the power and the other has little. Until both parties have hope for a fair relationship at the nogotiating table,the conflict appears to be headed toward an ever vanishing place called Palestine. CPT workers try to emphasize or encourage nonviolent methods for redress and get in the way of violence when they can.

CPT maintains one team at two sites in Palestine. Half of the team is in the city of Hebron/al-Khalil in the southern West Bank. The second half is located 25 kilometers (15) miles further south in the Palestinian village at-Tiwane (near Yatta) very close to the Israel settlement of Ma'on.

VOTER ID CARDS FOR SOUTH CAROLINA A BAD IDEA

Is there voter fraud in South Carolina? Voter fraud probably exist in the minds of ID Card proponents like Rep. Alan Clemmons, but it seems to be almost non-existent in South Carolina, and Clemmons should be challenged to prove it exists. Democratic state Representative Paul Agnew has said such claims of voter fraud are unfounded. “There have been no prosecuted cases of voter fraud in South Carolina, nothing that we can point to that caused us to have to pass legislation like this…” Voter ID is also expensive. South Carolina has a shrinking tax base. Money to fund vital areas of the state's infrastructure is hard to come by, or we miss opportunities to gain the resources. In 2010 South Carolina failed to qualify for $143 million for public school teachers. Expect to see school teachers and other state employees laid off in the not too distant future. According to S.C. Education Superintendent Jim Rex two years of state budget cuts have cost South Carolina 3,676 public school teachers' jobs, including 2,145 in the last year alone. It is hard to believe that the General Assembly plans to use over a million dollars in state money to fund picture ID cards. The new voter ID law carries a hefty price tag for our cash-strapped state. Given the much larger issues facing South Carolina nowadays, is the drive for voter ID really something the people of South Carolina can afford? You can also expect that South Carolina lawmakers are not adequately budgeting for essential elements of carrying out a voter ID law, including informing voters, administrative costs, hiring and training staff and other necessary expenses.

The Voter ID bill is a bad idea for another reason. There are people in South Carolina such as senior citizens, non-drivers, people with disabilities, people who depend solely on mass transit or those living in assisted living and nursing facilities, who just don’t have photo IDs and in some cases not even birth certificates. You can be sure that these people are not impersonating anybody at the polls. Requiring a voter ID card will effectively disenfranchise many of them. It will turn back the clock on expanding the franchise. Contact your representatives and tell them that voter ID is not what is needed in South Carolina. Click on scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/house2.html

SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT

Feb 4, 2011

President Barack Obama
The White House, 1st Floor, West Wing
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

As a person of faith, I believe we are all called to be peacemakers. I
am inspired by the courage of the Egyptian people and have been praying
for the protests to remain nonviolent. Now that armed thugs are
attacking civilians, I must speak up.

Now is the time for you to call for the immediate resignation of
President Hosni Mubarak, and to support all efforts to keep the
protesters safe.

If he does not step down immediately, we should immediately cease all
forms of military aid to his country.

You and our nation's leaders are in my prayers as we stand in
solidarity with the people of Egypt. Please demonstrate courage and
true moral leadership as you respond to people mobilizing for their
rights and freedoms.

Sincerely,

Dr. James Thomas
Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary
4201 Main St
Columbia, SC 29203-5863

HELPING HAITIAN RAPE VICTIMS

Amnesty International is one of several humanitarian and human rights organizations which have issued reports addressesing the plight of woman who are being brutally attacked - raped by men preying on survivors in quake-damaged Haiti. Grassroots organizations are the only source of information on cases of sexual violence according to Amnesty International.The grassroots Commission of Women Victims for Victims, a women's group run by survivors of sexual violence, registered more than 250 cases of rape in several camps in the five months after the quake, but Amnesty believes that number is just the tip of the iceberg.

A new report by Amnesty International says Haitian women are the targets of armed rapists roaming camps that were set up to shelter more than 1 million quake survivors. The report identifies a trend of rape in some 1,200 camps set up to shelter more than 1 million quake survivors. Another 270,000 people died in the quake.

In the Amnesty's report, "Aftershocks: Women Speak Out Against Sexual Violence in Haiti's Camps," more than 50 survivors of sexual violence in post-earthquake Haiti share their stories.

Machou, a 14 year old girl said she was raped in a public toilet last March at the quake survivors' camp where she lives in Carrefour Feuilles, southwest of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.

"A boy came in after me and opened the door. He gagged me with his hand and did what he wanted to do," she said.

"He hit me. He punched me. I didn't go to the police because I don't know the boy, it wouldn't help," she said. "I feel really sad all the time. ... I'm afraid it will happen again."

Such stories show that the Haitian government is not doing enough to protect women and girls, Amnesty International's Haiti researcher, Gerardo Ducos, said in a statement on the group's website.

"For the prevalence of sexual violence to end, the incoming government must ensure that the protection of women and girls in the camps is a priority," he said. "This has so far been largely ignored in the response to the wider humanitarian crisis."

Police presence has not been adequate in the quake survivors' camps, Ducos said, and there are reports that even the few officers who are on patrol have told rape victims they can't help them.

"There is no security for the women and girls in the camps. They feel abandoned and vulnerable to being attacked," he said. "Armed gangs attack at will, safe in the knowledge that there is still little prospect that they will be brought to justice."

Today's Amnesty International report is not the first word that rape and sexual violence are rampant in Haiti. Such attacks were even common before last January's earthquake, but they are believed to have grown exponentially after it.

Amnesty International is documenting a real time tragedy. Support for the work of Amnesty International can be made online.Contributions will make a real difference and help Amnesty International demand justice and end impunity wherever human rights violations occur.

MIS AMIGOS JUAN Y FELIPE

Juan and Felipe are two Mexican boys who live in Chicago. For nearly a month this summer, while I attended Christian Peacemaker School, I spent a few minutes in daily conversation with them. The boys, ages 8 and 6 responded to a question and answer routine I developed with them. I asked questions which included geography, history, numbers, and famous people. When I stepped out of the classroom for scheduled breaks they were most often standing at the fence with their own question: "Ask us some more questions mister? While I was in Chicago, their father was arrested and was held in jail for a short while. He was deported to Mexico because he was undocumented. Juan and Felipe live with their mother.

LIVE OUT LOUD!

Emile Zola has written,"If you ask me what I can do in this world, as an artist I will answer you, I can live out loud."

I like that! What does it mean for Christians to live out loud? To “live out loud” as a Christian allows one to enter various arenas of life with concern and voice for life. Loud voices of faith are useful ones when they rally human beings around issues such as the green-house effect, depletion of scarce resources, global concentration of financial capital, population explosion, marginalization of unskilled workers, internet-pornography and issues of peace and justice. Loud voices of faith are useful voices when they announce God's passion for the world and God's desires to bring salvation to it.

In the Celtic tradition the Holy Spirit is represented as a bird, but not the peaceful and serene dove landing on Jesus at his baptism. For their symbol of the Holy Spirit, the Celtic Christians chose the Wild Goose. Doves are docile and delicate, but the wild goose is intractable, and unpredictable. Instead of a soft coo, the wild goose is noisy and raucous. The goose is also a messy bird! And it seemed always to be on a pilgrimage. Jesus said that those Christians who were led by the Spirit were like the wind — you don't know where it comes from and you don't know where it's going. Perhaps Christians who take their clue from the wild goose are loose and free themselves. They live lives that are less than predictable. They live life to the fullest (John 10:10). They are wild and free, loud, untamable either by a world that would bind them with lies or by some denominations that would chain them with duty and obligation.

But what does it mean to live our lives out loud? It often means that we have to step out of familiar roles of institutional church membership. Church membership alone is not enough to establish God’s truth; we need ongoing theological reflection and faith in action. Scriptures, creeds, doctrines, offices, sacraments, and liturgies are all “means of salvation”. They are instruments of the Word of God which arouse and sustain faith in the power of the Spirit. But, as Zola writes, we need to “live out loud.” If Christians are not “loud” about faith, the church and her message will be condemned to irrelevance. People are attracted today to the voices and actions of Christians where they find credible responses to felt needs – whether material, communal or spiritual. The question is whether the response offered empowers such people to face their problems, or whether they provide escape routes into fantasy and compensation.

As a Christian I don't want my faith to be reduced to handing out religious tracks, preaching sermons, or entering buildings where I am not supposed to be to “evangelize”. I don’t want my religious life to get stuck in a place like that. For me, living life out loud has meant embracing the view that salvation is about everything, and sharing this message with everyone everywhere. Living life out loud has meant finding a way to create a place or presence for life in my everyday world--with family, with friends, and with strangers. I haven't been completely successful in figuring out how to do this. It is a process that changes as I change. It is a process that engages the world beyond my own everyday world.

The church is also struggling with living its life out loud. In a historic change, non-celibate gays and lesbians can now lead parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Everyone doesn't like the decision. But you know what I think? I think the 549 delegates to the ELCA Assembly last August who voted for this change were actually trying to live their lives, and their faith out loud in the model of Jesus Christ. That's what I think. In a manner that is loving, supportive, and open-minded, but definitely out loud.