Red Letter group looks to broaden moral issues
by Sylvia A. Smith
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (Indiana) 10-01-2006
Abortion and gay marriage are important issues, but they're not the only concerns of many deeply religious American voters, according to faith-based organizations that want politicians to have a more robust discussion during election time. Calling themselves Red Letter Christians because many Bibles print Jesus' words in red ink they are trying to energize evangelicals who think Christian political activism was hijacked by Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and top GOP operatives. "A debate on moral issues should be central to American politics, but how should we define religious values?" said Jim Wallis, a leading evangelical and president of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, a faith-based group concerned with poverty and the intersection of faith and politics. He said poverty, the environment, education and the war should also be addressed when any religious voter talks to a candidate. »read more

Israel Confirms Plan to Seize West Bank Land for Barrier
The New York Times 8-25-2005
Israeli officials confirmed Wednesday that the government had issued orders to seize West Bank land needed to extend the separation barrier around the largest Jewish settlement, Maale Adumim, and link it to Jerusalem. »read more

Chavez seeks influence with oil diplomacy
The Christian Science Monitor 8-25-2005
Chavez's antiglobalization and anti-U.S. discourse, which comes part and parcel with the petrodollars, "is resonating more and more with marginal sectors throughout the region, many of whom have been ignored by the US and are now looking for alternatives to their stubbornly acute poverty." »read more

Scientists Speak Up on Mix of God and Science
The New York Times 8-24-2005
Disdain for religion is far from universal among scientists. And today, as religious groups challenge scientists in arenas as various as evolution in the classroom, AIDS prevention and stem cell research, scientists who embrace religion are beginning to speak out about their faith. »read more

Gaza Coverage Offers Many Questions, Few Answers
AlterNet 8-23-2005
Conflict, drama and the plight of "sympathetic" victims are the mainstays of television narratives. Initially the settlers played that role, in what was pictured as a tragic dilemma that forced good people to lose their homes and faith in their leaders. »read more

Why Pat Robertson's Statements Help Hugo Chavez
Time (NY) 8-23-2005
With his astonishing call for the left-wing leader's assassination last night - "I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it...We have the ability to take him out"- Robertson will have surely made Chavez an even more popular anti-yanqui icon in Venezuela, Latin America and around the world. »read more

Gaza withdrawal: Only the Beginning
The New York Times 8-15-2005
But Mr. Bush must make clear to Mr. Sharon that the Gaza withdrawal is a first step. He must not allow Mr. Sharon to maneuver him into blessing an indefinite Israeli occupation of the West Bank. »read more

Antiwar sentiment gets champion
The Christian Science Monitor 8-15-2005
The plain-spoken words and image of a mother carrying a wooden cross to commemorate the son she lost in Iraq have suddenly brought focus to what has been largely an unseen and ineffective protest movement in the US. »read more

Speaking With the Enemy
AlterNet 8-11-2005
The controversy surrounding the Nightline interview with Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev exposes the double standard of the Pentagon's treatment of Al Jazeera and interviews with anti-American terrorists. »read more

Colombia weighs fresh tack in drug war
The Christian Science Monitor 8-11-2005
In a bid to further eliminate coca crops and cut off funding for armed rebels, President Alvaro Uribe has proposed that the government pay peasant farmers for their coca crops. »read more

Gaza pullout and peace
The Christian Science Monitor 8-11-2005
Mr. Sharon's plan has two key differences from the road map. It seeks to pull the IDF out of Gaza only, while promising no troop pullback from the West Bank. And it's quite unilateral: Israel has never committed itself to negotiating any particulars of its pullback - with either the Palestinians, the U.S., or any of the three U.S. allies that cosponsored the road map. »read more

U.S. plays both Venezuela sides
The Chistian Science Monitor 8-10-2005
While the Bush administration engages in a war of words with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the U.S. government has been giving permits to American arms dealers to sell weapons, tear gas, and other riot-control equipment to Venezuela. »read more

One Mother in Crawford
The New York Times 8-09-2005
President Bush has refused to ask the nation to sacrifice in any way, so the sacrifice gap has never been greater. A few families, like Ms. Sheehan's, have paid the ultimate price. Many more, including National Guard families, are bearing enormous burdens, struggling to get by while a parent, a child or a spouse serves in Iraq. But the rest of the nation is spending its tax cuts and guzzling gas as if there were no war. »read more

U.S. antiterror ally ousted, but a democracy promised
The Christian Science Monitor 8-09-2005
Prior to the coup, however, some analysts warned that heavy-handed US military and financial support for Taya could backfire. »read more

On a Break, at 78, From Aiding the Desperate in Iraq
The New York Times 8-08-2005
At a time when most other American civilians were leaving the country, she was just arriving. Sister Anne Montgomery, a 78-year-old nun, avoided the United States-patrolled Green Zone when she moved to Baghdad, opting instead to live in Karada, a mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhood across the Tigris River from the American Embassy. »read more

The blasphemy of flag worship
AlterNet 6-21-2005
The evidence that we literally worship the flag is overwhelming. Unique among all nations, we have a Flag Day, a Flag code etiquette, a national anthem dedicated to the flag and a verbal salute to the flag. Twenty-seven states require school children to salute the flag daily. »read more

Guantanamo's long shadow
The New York Times 6-21-2005
In the view of the administration, then, it is "humane" to give a detainee 3½ bags of I.V. fluid and then make him urinate on himself, force him to bark like a dog, or chain him to the floor for 18 hours. »read more

Uzbek ministries in crackdown received U.S. aid
The New York Times 6-18-2005
The United States has worked closely with Uzbekistan, a corrupt and autocratic state with a chilling human rights record, in the fight against international terrorism. But such policies can backfire, improving the martial abilities of units that commit crimes against Uzbek citizens, and associating the United States with repression in the eyes of Uzbek people and the Islamic world. »read more

Onward, Moderate Christian Soldiers
The New York Times 6-17-2005
But for us, the only absolute standard of behavior is the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. Repeatedly in the Gospels, we find that the Love Commandment takes precedence when it conflicts with laws. We struggle to follow that commandment as we face the realities of everyday living, and we do not agree that our responsibility to live as Christians can be codified by legislators. »read more

U.S. opposed calls at NATO for probe of Uzbek killings
The Washington Post 6-14-2005
Defense officials from Russia and the United States last week helped block a new demand for an international probe into the Uzbekistan government's shooting of hundreds of protesters last month, according to U.S. and diplomatic officials. »read more