Could someone please help me debunk this piece of crap!

[mrgorth]

Someone on another political board I participate in posted this piece of garbage about Kerry's "religious outreach director":

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=\Politics\archive\200406\POL20040615b.html

<snip>
According to Catholic League President William Donohue, when Vanderslice was in college she was active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, a group that supports convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and openly embraces Marxism-Leninism.

Upon college graduation, Donohue said, Vanderslice spoke at rallies organized by ACT-UP, an anti-Catholic group that disrupted Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1989 and spit the Eucharist on the floor.

In 2000, according to Donohue, Vanderslice practiced civil disobedience by taking part in a protest of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, and in 2002, she was among those who tried to shut down the nation's capital in a protest against the IMF and the World Bank.
<snip>

Since this is on a Philly related board, mentioning Mumia and "anti-catholic" is sure to get people riled up. I need 411 fast. Thanks!

[silverlib]

1. I wish I could help,

but the only thing I have is what a seventy-five year-old retired nun told me this last weekend.

"If you are in trouble with the Catholic Church, you must be doing something right."

It was a generalized statement, but she was referring to Kerry.

[Killarney]

2. I can't help with that

but if they are Catholics, you could point out that Bush supports Bob Jones University who says that Catholicism is a cult and that all Catholics are going to hell. Bush most likely believes this as well. It is a commonly held belief amongst evangelicals and born-agains that Catholics aren't "true Christians."

This is one of the reasons that my Catholic family will not support Bush.

[Jim__]

3. Sounds to me like guilt by association

According to Catholic League President William Donohue, when Vanderslice was in college she was active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, a group that supports convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and openly embraces Marxism-Leninism.

According to Donohue ... "active in" - what does that mean? Does anyone but Donohue make this claim? Is there any documentation to support it? What does 'active in" mean? Was she a member of the Earlham Socialist Alliance? Or, dod she sometimes speak at events?

Upon college graduation, Donohue said, Vanderslice spoke at rallies organized by ACT-UP, an anti-Catholic group that disrupted Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1989 and spit the Eucharist on the floor.

Spoke at rallies organized by ... Is Vanderslice anti-Catholic? What did she say at these rallies? W's grandfather supported the nazis. Is that any different? If everything Vanderslice has ever done is to be held against John Kerry, can we hold everything w's grandfather did against w?

In 2000, according to Donohue, Vanderslice practiced civil disobedience by taking part in a protest of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, and in 2002, she was among those who tried to shut down the nation's capital in a protest against the IMF and the World Bank.

Civil disobedience is as American as apple pie. Was she arrested?

[doni_georgia]

4. According to Christianity Today: Vanderslice became a Christian at Earlham

She was raised UU and became a Christian at Earlham.

snip:
But while Donohue says, "Vanderslice was raised without any faith and didn't become an evangelical Christian until she attended Earlham College, a Quaker school known for its adherence to pacifism," he doesn't note that it looks like her evangelical faith stuck with her. In 1998, she was an intern with the evangelical community and magazine Sojourners, and later became outreach coordinator for the anti-debt Jubilee USA Network.

"I was raised as a Unitarian Universalist; I'm really grateful for the openness that tradition gave me," Vanderslice wrote for Sojourners in 2002 (here's a photo). "When I later learned about Jesus and studied the scriptures in college, I could feel that I came to know myself as a Christian through my own study and prayer. I am now active in the United Church of Christ and plan to go into ministry some time."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/125/24.0.html

[struggle4progress]

5. Google cache: Charter of the Earlham Socialist Alliance

The Earlham Socialist Alliance is formed out of the undying belief that the state of the world can be drastically changed for the better, leaving behind the old ways of oppression, dehumanization, and violence. The following is the account of how the organization works.

I. Major decisions may be made only after consensus is reached by the entirety of the membership present, consisting of whatever convenors consider to be a representative sample at an organization-wide meeting held at a reasonable time and place for all, with proper written notification four days in advance. The note must make specific mention of the intention to make the major decision or decisions in question. Any major decision which does not meet these conditions is null and void. The following are considered "major decisions": altering the Charter, altering the Mission Statement, removing an officer, and any other action that a member asks to be declared major.

When making a decision, consensus will be attempted first (see page 36, "Consensus Decision-Making" in theStudent Handbook to better understand how this method works). If there are students who are unwilling to stand aside (again, see page 36 of the Student Handbook to understand better what is meant by this term) if they are blocking consensus, the group can choose to call for a vote in which a 2/3 majority is needed to win.

II. Membership is open to Earlham Students, faculty, and staff as well as members of the Richmond community at large who show up for a meeting. All those who show up and provide their name and box number to a Contact Person or Affairs Manager become members indefinitely unless the person at the time specifies otherwise. "Membership" means that the person will be kept on the mailing list. Membership lasts until the member withdraws, graduates, or disassociates from Earlham, or requests to terminate his or her membership. The maintained mailing list must list all members and their Earlham Post Office Box numbers.

III. The Business Manager, hereafter referred to as the "Affairs Manager", the Convener, hereafter referred to as the "Contact Person", and the Treasurer, who together compose the officers, are charged with the following shared duties: providing the mailing list, Mission Statement, or Charter, or a copy of it or them, with reasonable haste to a member who asks to see it, and not failing to act within the positions of nonviolent advocacy and action, hereafter referred to as the "Positions", when acting for ESA. The Affairs Manager and the Treasurer are furthermore charged with serving ESA as appropriate by fulfilling to a reasonable extent the requirements placed upon ESA by SOC and Earlham College. The Contact Person is charged with facilitating meetings, decision making, and events, and maintaining the email list. Meetings and events should be at regular and reasonable intervals.

If the membership at a meeting is unable to generally decide whether to voice a particular statement, such as one expressing solidarity with a particular group, or whether to take a particular course of action or hold a particular event, then a consensus process will be implemented to determine the official stance or plan of ESA. All official stances or plans must be in accordance with the positions. Such motions must consist of at least three members at a meeting with only a majority becoming official. In pursuit of any of these matters, the officers may seek assistants within the membership or, rarely, not within the membership. The officers are further charged with the maintenance and the holding of the copies of the Mission Statement, which is a document needed by SOC, and the Charter, which is the description of how the organization works.

ESA explicitly states that we do not forbid personal non-group actions by members. No one will be expelled for any such actions, provided that they do not misrepresent their actions as ESA actions. However, members are expected to discuss all relevant actions with the group and understand that if they choose to act against the sense of the group, members may engage in personal intervention.

IV. Officers will serve a term of one semester as decided by consensus according to section I. Any one member can declare herself or himself or another member as an eligible choice at the decision meeting. Any member who wishes to not be elected to the position of officer may withdraw her or his name from the decision-making process. Up to two members may be Contact Persons. Up to two members may be Co-Affairs Managers. Only one person may be Treasurer. All officers must be members. An officer may resign at nay time by providing the organization with a formal request. If an officer resigns before her or his term expires, the group will decide on a replacement at the nearest reasonable opportunity.

V. We form ESA within the regulation of the Community Code on Student Life to nonviolently act on and advocate a series of positions, listed below, referred to as "The Positions".

freedom of belief, expression, speech, writing, thought, publication, assembly, communication, and dissent
freedom of religious practices and conscience to the extent that it does not interfere with democratic socialism
full enfranchisement of women and men, and all humans which are neither
egalitarian feminism
full enfranchisement of all humans regardless of alleged or actual race
termination of white supremacy and establishment of harmonious race relations
full enfranchisement of all humans regardless of sexuality, reproductive choices, size, shape, mental or physical capacity, personal appearance, alleged or actual social place, or cultural identification
environmental justice
decay of power structures complicit in sexism, racism, imperialism, and tyranny
opposition to persecution
replacement of capitalism with socioeconomic egalitarianism
democratic socialism
ESA seeks to promote democratic socialism at Earlham, in Richmond, and throughout the world, but never at the expense of peace or the cause of humanity. We personally pledge to continue to work on countering our own prejudices and biases which would hinder the achievement of these goals.

www.earlham.edu/~esa/charter.htm
(I can't get this link to work)

Note the vague and harmless character of the "Earlham Socialist Alliance." Note further that all their positions are adopted "consensus," which presumably means the positions vary from year to year. Note further that there is no reference to Mumia or to Marxist-Leninist philosophy. Of course, anyone familiar with the Left will distinguish "democratic socialists" from "communists" and hence, in particular, from "Marxist-Leninists."

[struggle4progress]

6. Mumia Abu-Jamal

Many people around the world "support" Mumia Abu-Jamal, not because he was convicted of murder, but because they believe him to be innocent.

Free Mumia Coalition NYC
http://www.freemumia.com/


On October 4, 2003, the city of Paris made an honorary citizen of celebrated US death row inmate and black activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, falsely accused and sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of white Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

It is the first time Paris has bestowed the honor since Pablo Picasso was made honorary citizen in 1971, Socialist Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe told an audience of 200 people, taking the occasion to attack the barbarity of the death penalty. In attacking the "barbarity called the death penalty," the mayor said "as long as there is a place on this planet where one can be killed in the name of the community, we haven't finished our work." Raising his fist in a sign of solidarity, Delanoe then shouted "Mumia is a Parisian!" as the crowd cheered and applauded.

Black activist Angela Davis, a former member of the Black Panthers and the Communist Party, hailed the "profound sense of humanity" of Abu-Jamal, attacking American unilateralism and racist attacks against immigrants.

The movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal "takes on a new sense in face of American unilateralism, the aggression against the Iraqi people and the racist attacks against immigrants which can only further gnaw away at the vestiges of democracy in the United States," said Davis, a professor at the University of California in Santa Cruz.
<snip>
http://www.freemumia.com/frenchdelegation.html

[struggle4progress]

7. Religious Democrats?

Religious Democrats? by Mara Vanderslice. Sojourners Magazine, May 2004 (Vol. 33, No. 5, pp. 8). Commentary.
You wouldn't know it by the candidates, but Christians form the base of the party.
<snip>
Ultimately, I can’t separate my Christianity from my values or my values from my politics. For me, being engaged in politics is an expression of my deepest held religious beliefs—it is about actualizing a collective commitment to protect the integrity of God’s creation, it’s about meeting the needs of the "least of these," and about our nation being a generous and trustworthy leader in the world. There are certainly positions taken by leading Democrats with which many Christians won’t agree—and many Christians are appalled by what they see as the exploitation of religion for political gain on the part of the Republican Party. The bottom line in applying our beliefs in the political arena is making an across-the-board assessment of who best represents the values we hold most dear.
<snip>
Mara Vanderslice, a Christian activist and political organizer, was the religious outreach coordinator for the Dean for America presidential campaign in Iowa.
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&mode=printer_friendly&issue=soj0405&article=040541b


There you have it, from Mara's own mouth: she can't separate her Christianity from her values or her values from her politics. Pretty spooky, huh?


Ths should terrify us all: she was apparently a "Peace and Global Studies" major in college (class of '97 -- so she can scarcely be accused of having much to do with any political protest in '89):
http://www.earlham.edu/~pags/news.html
http://www.earlham.edu/~pags/What%20Do%20You%20Do%20with%20a%20PAGS%20Major.htm


Oh no! She apparently worked on third-world debt forgiveness (the multinational corporations won't like that):

Jubilee 2000 movement still works for debt relief
<snip>
"The Jubilee is a concept from Leviticus," says Duncan, "whereby every 50 years there was a call for the release of slaves and the forgiveness of any debt that accrued over the 50 years prior."
Jubilee 2000 was an effort in the 1990s by more than 24 million individual petitioners and organizations worldwide to secure debt relief for more than 60 countries. Though U.S. Congress passed legislation, only four countries (Bolivia, Uganda, Mozambique and Tanzania) have been given debt relief.
<snip>
"We have to call for a true Jubilee, in the Biblical sense, where full debt cancellation wipes away the power creditors exercise over millions of lives through debt," says Mara Vanderslice, Outreach Coordinator for Jubilee USA.
How can local churches help?
<snip>
http://www.ucc.org/ucnews/may02/jubilee.htm


<snip>
"Congress must fight for debt cancellation to save lives," said Mara Vanderslice of the Jubilee USA Network. "Over half of African countries are still spending more on their debts than on health care." African nations spend about $13.5 billion each year servicing debts. Much of those funds could be used for critical HIV treatment and prevention efforts.
<snip>
http://www.healthgap.org/press_releases/02/041002_HGAP_PR_Fund_demo.html

[struggle4progress]

8. Origin of this poison: "Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights"

which identifies itself as "the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization"
http://www.catholicleague.org/04press_releases/quarter2/040614_mara.htm

The general tenor of the press release can be gathered from a few sentences:

"Mara Vanderslice was raised without any faith and didn’t become an evangelical Christian until she attended Earlham College, a Quaker school known for its adherence to pacifism."

“All the polls show Kerry getting whipped badly by Bush among practicing Catholics, Protestants and Jews. Moreover, the latest edition of Time magazine reports that only 7 percent of likely voters think Kerry is a man of strong religious faith. Given all this, his choice of Mara Vanderslice as his religious point woman is confounding. Her resume is that of a person looking for a job working for Fidel Castro, not John Kerry. Just wait until Catholics and Protestants learn who this lady really is.”


This is a vicious right-wing hatchet job. Under the false guise of protecting "Religious and Civil Rights," William Donohue is deliberately smearing a young woman by innuendo, clearly breaking the commandment against bearing false witness.