Jim Wallis in Denver, this coming Tuesday!

[bobbolink]

Jim Wallis will be at Iliff on Tuesday, and it's my understanding that he speaks at about 11:30.

This crowd is already in the "choir", so this should be quite stirring!

Hope to see some of you Colorado DUers there!

bobbolink

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Cool!

[bobbolink]

2. Yup, an oasis of sanity...

:hi:

[Tom Joad]

3. I was reading sojourners from its early days.

Between that, the Catholic Worker, and several other publications, they all had an impact on my life.
I don't read it now, though.

[bobbolink]

4. Ah, you're one of "them", eh?

:hi:

I think it was the Daniel Berrigan quote that gave you away.. :)

If I can, I'm thinking of re-subbing to Sojourners. I'm sad at the disappearance of Call To REnewal, tho... That was very important. :(

Have you heard Jim speak? He's DY-NO-MITE. :)

[Tom Joad]

6. Yes, I read the Trial of the Catonsville 9. I think i was still

in high school at the time. For those who don't know, 9 people, including two priests (dan and his brohter Phillip) destroyed draft files with homemade napalm, the weapon of choice during the vietnam war.

You can read Dan's full meditation here, and an excerpt is below...
http://tomjoad.org/catonsville9.htm

I am a bit put off by Jim Wallis's cozyness with the powers that be these days. Though i am not in a position to offer a good critique, like i said, i no longer get the magazine.

I also used to read "The Other Side". Which went under a few years ago.


From the Trial of the Catonsville 9, which is tragically so timely today:

Our apologies good friends

for the fracture of good order the burning of paper

instead of children the angering of the orderlies

in the front parlor of the charnel house

We could not so help us God do otherwise

For we are sick at heart our hearts

give us no rest for thinking of the Land of Burning Children
....
We say: Killing is disorder

life and gentleness and community and unselfishness

is the only order we recognize


For the sake of that order

we risk our liberty our good name

The time is past when good men may be silent

when obedience

can segregate men from public risk

when the poor can die without defense

How many indeed must die

before our voices are heard

how many must be tortured dislocated

starved maddened?

How long must the world's resources

be raped in the service of legalized murder?

[bobbolink]

8. Could you say more about being "put off" by his "cozyness"?

I don't think I know to what you're referring, and I'm interested in what you have to say.

Thanks so much for posting the words from the Catonsville 9. They are such wonderful words, and it makes me very sad to see them again.

When will we ever learn???

[Tom Joad]

9. Conference held with Dems and republican politicians.

Many of whom have supported the Iraq war (hillary,as one of the most extreme... she also was instrumental in attacking the poor during Bill's reign with her support of anti-welfare legislation). I think it gave Hillary a political opportunity to get people to imagine her a liberal, as someone who cares about poor people.
I suppose the sojourners thought it might help advance their agenda of social justice, in getting politicians to listen to their alternative.
Maybe so. Maybe i am being too harsh. I didn't go to the conference.
http://www.calltorenewal.com/events/pentecost06/speakers.html

On the other hand, I think in their youth they would probably had protested vigorously if, back when they started in the waning days of the Vietnam war, pro-war politicians would had been invited to some such religious conference to give lip-service of caring about the poor, while their actions day in and day out supported the slaughter of Vietnamese.

Hillary (and actually most of congress) daily support war and terror against people in the Middle East... Palestinian, Lebanese, Iraqi, Why give the politicians the platforms? Don't they always have platforms?

If it were up to me, i would invite politicians to sit down and shut up while the victims of their policies were given a platform to speak their mind.

Again, I wasn't at the conference, havent been reading the magazine for years.

[bobbolink]

10. I definitely hear ya on that! I don't know what went on at that

conference you mention, but I agree with everything you said.

Having just come from hearing Jim speak, I can tell you that he "doesn't suffer fools gladly". He lets people speak, and listens, but he's very clear about what is right and what is wrong.

"I suppose the sojourners thought it might help advance their agenda of social justice, in getting politicians to listen to their alternative."

Jim isn't "political" in that sense. He listens to people, because that is his nonviolent way. But, he's very clear about moral imperatives, and war is very clearly immoral to him.

Actually, we just heard the story about how much they were doing before the invasion to try to keep it from happening. I'm going to post that, as some of it is even rather humorous.

Thanks so much for your input! I'm certainly in agreement with you.

:hi:

[niyad]

5. and he will be at Colorado College on wed at 7:30 as part of the

"Religion and Public Life: Why Be Afraid" symposium. All of the events at the symposium are free and open to the public. Hope to see some of you here as well!!

[bobbolink]

7. Thanks for this! That's Colorado Springs, right?

It might be a good idea to post that seperately... sure would be good for some DUers to attend!

Thanks again! :hi: