Category Archives: Current Events

June 18, 2015 · 10:59 pm

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) reaches out to its sisters and brothers of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston

From the leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.):

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) reaches out to its sisters and brothers of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, South Carolina, where nine people were killed when a gunman opened fire Wednesday night during Bible study. We grieve with the families of the victims and members of their church community. We hope the perpetrator is soon captured and brought to justice.

The chief of police in Charleston has named this a hate crime. We know of no other name for a crime that forces a five-year-old child to play dead in her church in order to live. Arresting the shooter is the job of law enforcement. Arresting hate is the work we are all called to do as disciples of Jesus Christ. May God never give up on us as we face our own racism and its tragic impact on congregations, their communities, and our very souls.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, God who has brought us thus far on our way, only you know why someone would enter into your house of worship and open fire on your children. Only you know why hate would run so deep that it would cause one of your creations to kill others you have formed. In our confusion over this senseless act, we appeal to you for understanding and courage to continue to fight for justice. We pray right now for the families of those who lost lives at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. on June 17, and ask that you would wrap your loving arms around them and the entire community. Likewise, we pray for an end to the continued racial unrest and violence that permeates the United States and the world, and ask you to guide us to work earnestly for change. Now unto you who is able to keep us from falling, we pray all these things.

Amen

Gradye Parsons
Stated Clerk, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Linda Valentine
Executive Director, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Heath K. Rada
Moderator, 221st General Assembly (2014) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Larissa Kwong Abazia
Vice Moderator, 221st General Assembly (2014) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

 

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June 4, 2015 · 11:23 pm

All created in God’s image

There is no crying in baseball. Everyone who has viewed A League of Their Own knows that.

There should also be no racism in baseball. Or at least as little racism as possible. And there certainly should not be racism in teams names, mascot, and imagery.

For that reason I, who have owned a home in Cleveland Heights since 1985, believe it is time for the Cleveland baseball team to change its name and mascot.

I was delighted to see, and honored to sign, a petition to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and the Paul Nolan, the CEO of the Cleveland team.

The petition, started by Toni Buffalo, a Lakota person of faith and a member of the United Church of Christ and posted under the name of the the Justice & Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ states:

Our faith tradition teaches us that we are all created in God’s image. Holding on to racist images and inappropriate names only serves to injure our common humanity and to disfigure God’s image in all of us.

I urge you use your power to change the name of the Cleveland baseball team and to eliminate the use of its current mascot, Chief Wahoo.

Amen.

I signed. I hope you will too.

It is time for this change.

It is past time.

See you along the Trail.

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May 20, 2015 · 11:06 pm

The illogic of the death penalty

No to Death PenaltyBill Tammeus has a great reflection on the death penalty: Killing people to stop people from killing people: 5-18-15. He writes in the aftermath of the  Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev receiving a death penalty sentence.

Bill notes that there are several reasons for opposing the death penalty. Most importantly among them is the possibility that  the state might sometime execute innocent people.

In this post, he explores the logic of “killing people to stop people from killing people.” To do so, he notes lowers the state to the level of the criminal. He concludes:

Is execution cruel and unusual punishment? Of course, even if the U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t ruled it so yet. But it’s worse than that. It’s absolutely illogical. We can do better. We must.

Thanks Bill for the article. Check it out!

See you along the Trail.

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May 15, 2015 · 4:43 pm

Amnesty International USA Responds to Death Penalty in Boston Bombing Case

Thanks to Steven W. Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty International USA for this statement about the death penalty verdict in the Boston bombing case.

“We condemn the bombings that took place in Boston two years ago, and we mourn the loss of life and grave injuries they caused. The death penalty, however, is not justice. It will only compound the violence, and it will not deter others from committing similar crimes in the future.

It is outrageous that the federal government imposes this cruel and inhuman punishment, particularly when the people of Massachusetts have abolished it in their state. As death sentences decline worldwide, no government can claim to be a leader in human rights when it sentences its prisoners to death.”

See you along the Trail.

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May 13, 2015 · 2:23 pm

New York City AIDS Walk – five updates

AIDS WalkFive updates on the New York City AIDS Walk – Sunday, May 17, 2017

1. I will probably not walk on Sunday. I had not paid close enough attention to my flights and now know I arrive at JFK at 7:25 AM. I will give it a go, but it seems unlikely to me that I will be able to make it to registration. I will also try to find Sean​ and the Marie’s Crisis team.

2. I will walk 10K at some point if I do not make it on Sunday.

3. I will let you know when I walk and I invite friends to walk with me if they are so inclined and available.

4. Sean has pretty well crushed me in fundraising. That’s great because the cause is worthy!.

5. But you still have time to make a gift and decrease the margin of my fundraising defeat.

See you along the Trail.

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May 13, 2015 · 1:03 pm

NCCK Young Adults Peace March

An invitation from our partners in Korea to participate in a peace walk
2015 DMZ Walkathon for Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula
Christian Young Adults,
Harvesting Peace from the Site of Division
Dates: July 20(Mon.) – 25(Sat.), 2015

kurtesslinger's avatarHyeyoung and Kurt's Korean Adventure

gangwondo barbed wire

This coming July, my partner, the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) is inviting Korean young adults residing around the world to participate in a Peace March week long program on Korea’s division, war, and hope for reconciliation. They are especially interested in Korean Americans participating, and they have asked me to send a special invite to Korean Americans in the PC(USA). They hope this will be a significant time, the 70th anniversary of Korea’s division, for Korean residents in other countries to encourage their communities to join the movement for reconciliation on the Korean peninsula. It is VERY SHORT notice, I am afraid, so if you have this week free in July, please jump on this. Details below!

2015 DMZ Walkathon for Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula

Christian Young Adults,
Harvesting Peace from the Site of Division

Dates: July 20(Mon.) – 25(Sat.), 2015
*The actual program…

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April 13, 2015 · 10:45 pm

In the shadow of execution

On April 3, 2015, Anthony Ray Hinton walked from a prison in Birmingham, a free man. Free after almost thirty years on death row. Thirty years spent in the shadow of execution – for a crime he did not commit.

The Death Penalty Information Center notes that Hinton is the 152nd person sentenced to death to be exonerated since 1973.

The New York Times cites two documented cases in which individuals who were almost certainly innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted were put to death.

The possibility of executing one innocent person should give us considerable pause. It provides a strong argument against capital punishment.

Speaking after Hinton’s release, “Bryan Stevenson, one of Mr. Hinton’s lawyers and the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, said Mr. Hinton’s right to justice had been limited as an impoverished black man.”

The racial and economic inequities in the application of justice in relation to provide additional arguments against capital punishment.

The exoneration of Anthony Ray Hinton and the others prove that the system does work, however long it may take the wheels to grind.

But when the sentence is death and serious inequities exist, the stakes are simply too high.

It is time to end the death penalty.

See you along the Trail.

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March 17, 2015 · 6:53 pm

#‎cecilonmymind‬

I contacted Missouri’s Governor Nixon asking him to stop the execution of Cecil Clayton.

I mourn for the family and friends of police officer Christopher Castetter.

Clayton was convicted of the murder of Christopher Castetter. There appears no question of his guilt for. No excuse. None. It was an appalling crime.

But, in executing Clayton, the state, we demean human life and degrade ourselves. We become murderers. I become a murderer. And I refuse to do that, as far as possible, silently.

The execution may proceed but it will not do so without my protest. However small my voice, however ignored my voice, I will raise my voice!

It is past time to abolish the death penalty.

See you along the Trail.

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March 17, 2015 · 8:03 am

17 March – each year, every year

I speak for no others,
only for myself.
For me, this day has
nothing to do with
green beer or
green rivers or
green clothing,
this day has nothing to do with
pinching me or kissing me;
my bad jokes aside,
this day has nothing to do even with Jameson.
Today is a day
to remember oppression
to honor resistance
to recognize that, despite the efforts of
systems of race and racialization
to separate us,
struggles for dignity and justice,
freedom and equality,
human rights and humanity
are inseparably linked:
none of us are free until all of us are free.
for that reason, in that spirit, and in my own fashion,
I mark this day, and each 17th of March.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Fitzgerald, from County Cork, on my mother’s side.

See you along the Trail!

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March 7, 2015 · 6:47 am

Career move?

As the Presbyterian participants in the 59th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women gathered for an orientation, I discovered that I had to hand write two name tags.

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Do I have a career in font design?

See you along the Trail.

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