The Shalom Center - Blog

MLK, LBJ, & GRASS-ROOTS CHANGE: PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS THROUGH SPIRITUAL EYES

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:48:58 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

In the present Presidential campaign, suddenly the question has arisen whether Martin Luther King or Lyndon Baines Johnson was more responsible for passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s.

I was there, folks: working on Capitol Hill and then in the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive research/action center. And the answer is – both MLK and LBJ were responsible – AND one might add with some exaggeration, NEITHER. .

The "NEITHER" part -- even though I'm overstating it -- is the most important. The people MOST responsible were, in the beginning, dozens, then hundreds, finally thousands and hundreds of thousands – of grass-roots activists.

The Road to Crawford

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:16:06 -0500

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 8/24/2005

As you can see on our Home Page or in the Section on the Iraq-US confrontation, in August I had a moving journey to and encounter with "Camp Casey," organized by Cindy Sheehan in memory of her son who was killed in Iraq.

40 Years Ago, the first Teach-in

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:12:41 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 3/23/2005

Forty years ago, in March 1965, the students and faculty of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) held the first Teach-in against the Vietnam War — an all-night study session involving thousands of students and dozens of faculty that began about 6 p.m. and lasted till 6 a.m.

I was one of the speakers.

Big Oil's War against Europe

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:12:56 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 3/8/2005

Dear Friends,

We have posted on our Website a BBC report on rising European wrath against the US for its CO2 emissions. During early March, I was in Edinburgh to speak & teach at a conference on the spiritual roots of peacemaking. In one of my talks, I said:

Why is that White-Bearded Man Interrupting Ted Koppel's Town Meeting?

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:13:11 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 2/11/2005

Dear Friends,

It started this way: I was invited to bring a religious voice to Ted Koppel's Town Meeting show on January 27 to address the Iraq war. It was held in the same place, St. John's Church across from the White House, as his Town Meeting had been held in March 2003, two weeks before the invasion of Iraq.

But at the show itself, the producers asked for a written card summarizing the comments I intended to make. They had invited me knowing in general what my views were. So with honesty but perhaps a whiff of naivete I wrote that I intended to speak about a power-addicted Presidency that is bringing down plagues upon our heads, reminiscent of the archetypal power-addicted Pharaoh whose downfall is at the heart of our tradition.

A Letter to Arlen (Senator Specter) about Torture

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:13:26 -0400

David Kairys, Esq 2/4/2005

Dear Arlen:

I have not seen you in many years, and am quite aware that we have different views on many issues, but I was saddened to hear that you voted in committee in favor of the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General. I thought we would share at least the fundamental belief, for the nation and the world, in the wisdom, vitality and necessity of the Geneva Accords and the basic tenets of treaties and international law that forbid torture and mistreatment of prisoners.

Should we have an Attorney General who supports torture?

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:13:39 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 1/26/2005

Dear Friends,

Objections to a swift decision on Alberto Gonzalez, stemming especially from Sen. Kennedy's concerns about his responses to questions about torture, have delayed the vote on whether to confirm him as Attorney General.

This gives us a momentary window in time to slow down or even halt the confirmation, and to make the record of the truth about the Administration's use of torture. SEE BELOW FOR HOW TO USE THIS MOMENT.

What is the Deepest Sacrifice? --Muslims Observe Eid al-Adha

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:13:54 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 1/21/2005

Asalaam aleikum, eid mubarak! Peace be with you, may the festival Muslims are now celebrating be one of blessing!

As Muslims celebrate Eid al Adha, the Festival of the Sacrifice, we can all learn from this commemoration of Abraham's (Ibrahim's) willingness to obey God's demand that he make an offering of what was most precious to him. The story begins (but does not end) with the understanding that the offering should be Ibrahim's son — Ishmael, in Muslim tradition.

The Taste of Freedom: Manna & Shabbat

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:14:11 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 1/19/2005

Dear Friends,

In the current issue of the Jerusalem Report, you can find an essay I wrote for their "The People and the Book" column. It responds to the Torah portion that Jewish congregations traditionally read the Shabbat of January 21. (I write such a biblical commentary for JR two or three times a year.)

Facing Pharaoh

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:14:26 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 1/13/2005

In the Torah portion read in synagogues January 14, God sends Moses to face Pharaoh. It invites us to face this question:

How can we face the Pharaohs in our own lives?

MLKing & Eid Al-Adha: Ten Anti-War Days in January

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:14:41 -0400

Philadelphia Area Interfaith Peace Network 12/27/2004

Dear Friends,

This coming January, Martin Luther King Birthday weekend, the Re-Inauguration of our War President, and the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, marking Abrahams near-sacrifice of his son Ishmael — all come during the period from Friday January 14 to Sunday January 23.

CBS & NBC blacklist inclusive religion

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:14:54 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 12/2/2004

Dear Friends,

I am astonished and outraged that CBS and NBC have refused to air an ad from the United Church of Christ because it spoke of that Church as inclusive of many sorts of people often left out of conventional religious life — including gay people.

When Sisters Godwrestle

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:15:35 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 11/18/2004

[The Biblical passage that Jews traditionally read this week includes Gen 29: 15 to 30: 8. Here is a briefer excerpt from the Words of Wisdom for this week in the article,
Rachel, Leah, & the First Godwrestle

In this passage, the two sisters Rachel and Leah struggle over who is to have more children, their own version of the struggle for the rights of the first-born that their husband Jacob earlier carried on with his brother Esau.

Their struggle is so tense that Rachel says, " "With Godwrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed", [or, better, "have coped"].

Should the US Atty-Gen encourage torture?

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:16:16 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 11/18/2004

Should the next Attorney General of the United States be someone who advised the President he could annul the Geneva Conventions and OK the use of torture ?

President Bush's new nominee for Attorney General — Alberto Gonzales — did exactly that.

Post-election Questions

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:16:28 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 11/11/2004

Dear friends,

I am feeling both concern about the possibility of election fraud and doubt that it turned the election around. So The Shalom Report and I have held back from the intense focus that some progressives are expressing.