Many faith blogs are closely following the faith-led pro-democracy uprising. Church of the Brethren blog, Nonviolence News asks: "Note the role of prayer and spiritual leadership in this story. What form will your spiritual leadership take?"

Avaaz has a petition aiming for a 250,000 person show of support for the monks. The petition calls on both the UN and China -- the two entities with the most leverage over Myanmar -- to exert pressure on the regime.

Speaking of justice, Mainstream Baptist asks what color it is.

The Rev. Chuck Currie weighs in on the debate over Ahmadinejad's speech. He writes:

We are called to seek reconciliation and peace with those who oppose our communities. Dialogue between those with strong disagreements is important if we are ever to truly bridge the divide. Perhaps churches here in the United States should be reaching out to religious leaders in Iran and attempt to set-up a system of exchanges with a twin goal of building relationships between Iranians and Americans and a long-term goal of bringing reconciliation between our two nations. Maybe religious people have the potential to do something great in this area.

And then look at that, two days later. . .several historic peace churches and about 140 religious leaders met with Iranian president Ahmadinejad on Wednesday.

Jim Wallis remembers a call from the president (US) and in light of S-CHIP, wonders what (the hell) has happened to Bush. The Rev. Chuck Currie gives you something to do about it.

Ouch. Rabbi Jill Jacobs says I told you so to the communities who tossed out immigrants and now want them back.

Xpatriated Texan talks about how to build a pro-choice, pro-woman message, including: "If God wanted to stop abortion, He wouldn't need a law."

Note to Condi Rice: No! This is what the birth-pangs of democracy are. Speaking of, Islamicate states: Communism is the Opiate of the Masses

Faithfully Liberal has been tearing up the 'sphere with interviews of late and this one, with the head of Clergy United for the Equality of Homosexuals covers some interesting ground, including:

I’ve discovered that the refusal to marry same-sex couples comes more from polity than from belief. If the restriction were lifted, there would be immediate and wholesale gay marriages performed all over the country. In spite of the restrictions, many clergy do it anyway, and many others perform union blessings that are in reality marriage by another name. I find it very curious that we won’t allow gays and lesbians to marry, and then accuse them of not behaving as we straights (should) behave!

The other day I stumbled across Interfaith Tech Associates. They write:

The ultimate goal of ITA is peace among communities of faith. In a world more and more troubled by religious fanaticism and sectarian violence, information and communication technology can help to break down walls of ignorance and fear, thus promoting peace

I have no idea what they do. But they just combined a whole lotta good ideas.

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CNN is reporting that Myanmar's military junta is cutting off its people's communication with the outside world in order to suppress reports of government brutality:

The Internet connection in Myanmar was cut Friday, limiting the free flow of information the nation's citizens were sharing with the world depicting the violent crackdown on monks and other peaceful demonstrators.

Myanmar-based blogs went dark suddenly. But London-based blogger Ko Htike -- who has been one of the most prominent bloggers posting information about the violence -- has vowed to keep up the fight, saying where "there is a will, there is a way."

"I sadly announce that the Burmese military junta has cut off the Internet connection throughout the country," he said on his blog Friday. "I, therefore, would not be able to feed in pictures of the brutality by the brutal Burmese military junta."

Sign the petition holding the UN Security Council and the government of China accountable for the bloodshed.

Email their American embassy at info@mewashingtondc.com and webmaster@mewashingtondc.com.

Tell your friends, family, networks and constituencies to get involved.

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Featuring a few pithy religion experts and some revealing video of political faith-influenced language, SoulTV explores the question: should a politician be expected to keep his or her religious beliefs separate from public service?

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By the Rev. Anne Howard, executive director of The Beatitudes Society.

My church is in the headlines again today. The headline is not “Episcopal Church Opposes War” or “Episcopal Church Supports SCHIP” or “Episcopal Church Works to Fight Poverty” or “Episcopal Church Lobbies for Katrina Aid.” No, my church doesn’t have time for such pressing social justice issues.

Today’s headline is “Episcopal Bishops Promise Restraint”, or in a slightly more active choice of verbs: “Episcopal Leaders Act to Avert a Schism” or even more active yet “Episcopal Bishops Reject Anglican Church’s Order”.

Forgive me, but I’m just so tired of it all. Don’t get me wrong, the issue is critical: the full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church is indeed a social justice issue. But I’m not sure that’s the issue at hand. I’m afraid the competing issue is something called “unity”.

Our bishops are big on unity. We have been schism-shy since Henry VIII dumped the Pope for Anne Boleyn. We Episcopalians didn’t split over slavery, as many of our mainline colleagues did. (No doubt a few Episcopalians experienced “unity” and even communion through the cotton of their southern plantations and northern mills).

I’m thinking that unity has become an idol. Our bishops have pledged to “exercise restraint” in ordaining another gay bishop, and they are not authorizing rites for same-sex marriages. While the American bishops rightly did not cave in to pressure from the conservative bishops of the worldwide Anglican communion to stop ordaining gay bishops and reject same-sex marriage, they did assert their over-arching desire to remain part of the international body. Unity trumps integrity?

I hope not. I do love my church. I became an Episcopalian because I saw the Episcopal Church (in the local iteration of All Saints Pasadena) as the church that opposed the war in Vietnam, worked for Civil Rights, championed the ordination of women, fought the Reagan nuclear arms buildup, forged ahead with gay marriage and supported openly gay priests and bishops. And I have been proud to be part of a local church (Trinity in Santa Barbara) and a diocese (Los Angeles) that has been at the forefront of the struggle for our church to become open and welcoming to all.

I love my church, and so I want us to just get on with it. I want us to look like the church of Jesus, where all manner and condition of folks gather for the feast: everybody’s welcome at the banquet table. I want us to stand up for inclusion, and that might mean that unity takes a back seat.

It’s time for the Protestant Principle. Time to exercise not restraint, but protest.

Because, as Gene Robinson, our gay bishop from New Hampshire said about the New Orleans summit, “No one’s vision won.”

And the people need a vision.

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On CBS' The Early Show, Not For Sale campaign's David Batstone talks about the religion-based abolition movement's efforts to stop modern slavery.

According to a relatively long article in Sunday's WaPo, the abolition movement achieves highly levels of bi-partisan support in Congress.

Throughout the 1990s, evangelicals and other Christians grew increasingly concerned about international human rights, fueled by religious persecution in Sudan and other countries. They were also rediscovering a tradition of social reform dating to when Christians fought the slave trade of an earlier era.

And although the numbers are very difficult to get and confirm, experts report a sharp increase in trafficking activity in the 90s, due in part to globalization. The article notes that much of the money appropriated to combat modern slavery has been squandered on PR-firms and ineffective faith-based awareness raising -- that said, the problem persists and provides a platform for diverse activists to make common cause. For example,

"feminist groups and other organizations also seized on trafficking, and a 1999 meeting at the Capitol, organized by former Nixon White House aide Charles W. Colson, helped seal a coalition. The session in the office of then-House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) brought together the Southern Baptist Convention, conservative William Bennett and Rabbi David Saperstein, a prominent Reform Jewish activist."

For more on modern slavery, check out last night's Daily Show interview with John Bowe on his new book, Nobodies, about what lies behind those everyday low prices.

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Crossposted at The Beatitudes Blog.

“IRS DROPS THE CASE” proclaims the homepage of All Saints Church, announcing that the Pasadena, California church is free of an IRS investigation into a 2004 election-eve sermon – but not exactly cleared of wrongdoing. In short, the IRS has said that the church’s tax-exempt status is no longer endangered, but that sermon was still an illegal intervention in the 2004 election.*

All Saints, continuing its courageous stand for freedom of the pulpit, is not content to let bygones be bygones. The church is demanding that the Treasury Department investigate several legal and procedural errors that might indicate intervention—politically-motivated intervention (imagine that!) – by the Department of Justice.

In a press release posted on the church’s website the Church’s rector, the Rev. J. Edwin Bacon, Jr. said:

“While we are pleased that the IRS examination is finally over, the IRS has failed to explain its conclusion regarding the single sermon at issue. Synagogues, mosques, and churches across America have no more guidance about the IRS rules now than when we started this process over two long years ago. The impact of this letter leaves a chilling effect cast over the freedom of America’s pulpits to preach core moral values.”

It’s that chilling effect that worries me and should be worrying us all. Just last week, I used the word “Democrats” in a blog, and a colleague advised that I take it out, lest my words be construed as intervention into the 2008 elections.

We are looking over our shoulders because of the All Saints case. We are unclear about what constitutes illegal politicking, and it’s my experience that most folks in the pews (or the pulpits) think that any mention of politics in church constitutes “a violation of church and state.”

Whether or not the IRS gets clear in its explanation of the All Saints investigation, and the difference between issue advocacy and partisan electioneering, we who speak for justice and peace need to be loud and clear: it’s OK, and more than that, morally imperative, for Christian preachers to speak out for peace, and against war, to speak up for justice, and against the powers of domination. If we need to find the right (and yes, legal) words to back us up, all we need do is quote Mary and her radical Magnificat, or Jesus and his revolutionary Beatitudes, and let those who have ears hear.

The IRS might want to keep the waters murky enough to chill us to the bone, but we need to be crystal clear about our responsibility to the truth and our right to proclaim it.

As one of our colleagues (Maher Hathout of the Islamic Center of Southern California) said, in a quote picked up by today’s Los Angeles Times: “We need to work together to prevent intimidation.”

*If you don’t remember this whole saga, this sorry business started with a letter from the IRS that arrived at the church in June 2005, stating that the church’s tax-exempt status was in jeopardy because of a guest sermon preached shortly before election day 2004 by retired All Saints Rector George F. Regas. (BTW, as an “alum” of All Saints I am proud to say that Dr. Regas is one of my heroes and one of our nation’s greatest social justice preachers! In that sermon, Dr Regas imagined Jesus in a debate with both Bush and Kerry. He of course did not endorse either candidate, saying that “good people of profound faith will be for either George Bush or John Kerry for reasons deeply rooted in their faith.” But he criticized the war in Iraq. The IRS declared that this sermon was political intervention into the election.

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Fifty years ago Sunday, nine black teenagers integrated Little Rock's Central High School under the armed guard an elite U.S. military unit. Little Rock Nine member Jefferson Thomas' spare recollection is a reminder that movements are made of countless acts of individual courage and grace:

Half a century later, sluggish desegregation and rapid resegregation have diluted the legacy of the Little Rock Nine, and the injustice of separate and unequal education persists. Segregation and education are every bit as urgent moral issues now as they were 50 years ago, but the clearly justice-centered approach and energy have dwindled in the "post-Civil Rights era."

From the vantage point of half a century, it seems an absurd drama. You shake your head at the fatuity of the adults in the old news footage, their mouths twisted, fists clenched, eyes alight, and you marvel that they were driven to such a fury, such a madness, by so innocuous an event. You wonder what in the world they could have been thinking.

But of course, that's an easy one. They were thinking they were right.

We always expect evil to look different, obvious. We are always anticipating the pointed ears and the pitchfork, the black stovepipe hat and the Snidely Whiplash mustache. The truth, however, is that evil is rather banal. You might pass it five times a day and never recognize it for what it is.

The pale men and women who took to the streets of Little Rock, Ark., in 1957 would have been, in the overwhelming majority, Christian people. They paid their taxes. They helped the poor. They visited the sick. They held hands over hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance. They were decent folks, except they had this evil belief that people with dark skin were of a savage, yet simultaneously child-like, lower order and that if anyone sought to mix pale and dark, pale must resist by any means necessary.

If you had suggested to them that this was wrong, they would looked at you askance, maybe even laughed, and wondered what was wrong with you. Because they knew they were right, knew it in their bones, knew it in their Bibles, knew it with certitude, knew it beyond all question.

Five decades later, there is a starkness, a black and white purity, to the issues argued those tense days in Little Rock streets: inclusion versus exclusion. It is enough to make one nostalgic. After all, after affirmative action, after busing, after O.J., after Cosby, after Imus, there is little starkness, much less purity, to the conflict between pale and dark. All is complexity, all is gray.

Or maybe that's just the self-deluding conceit of a generation that is pleased to think of itself as enlightened beyond history, pleased to look back on past events and tsk tsk the behavior of the poor, benighted souls who lived through them.

Yet in Jena, La., six American children with dark skin were charged with attempted murder after jumping a pale child whose injuries amounted to a black eye and a concussion.

In Tulia, Tex., 38 mostly dark-skinned people were convicted of drug dealing on the perjured testimony of a pale cop known to describe dark people with a racial slur.

In Paris, Tex., a dark-skinned girl who shoved a teacher's aide was given seven years by a judge who had earlier given probation to a pale-skinned arsonist.

All this not in 1957, but now.

Yet, it has become common for some pale Americans to deny that these and other inequities have anything to do with skin tone. That's an absurdity we left in the '50s, they say. We are beyond that. There are no pale Americans and dark Americans. There are only Americans. They wish dark Americans would understand this and get over it already.

And it's the darnedest thing. If you suggest that they are wrong, they will look at you askance, maybe even laugh, and wonder what is wrong with you. Because they know they're right, know it in their bones, know it in their Bibles, know it with a certitude.

Know it beyond all question.

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The UK's Independent reports: In a remarkable show of defiance Burmese monks and nuns yesterday led 20,000 demonstrators through Rangoon in the largest protest against the country's military regime for almost two decades.

A day after hundreds of monks had walked to the house of the imprisoned democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, thousands more returned to the streets in a show of numbers not seen since the pro-democracy marches of 1988. Back then the regime responded with a brutal crackdown, killing thousands of civilians and monks. While yesterday's march ended peacefully, it was clear that the authorities had increased security in the city and the monks and the other marchers were refused access to Ms Suu Kyi's house when they tried to repeat Saturday's extraordinary meeting.

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The majority of the faith community has been both active and unified on the need to reauthorized S-CHIP funding for poor children. But apparently this Word -- whatever you do unto the least of these, you do to me -- is not the same Word that enters Bush's ears, especially when Big Tobacco is threatened by a 45 to 61 penny tax.

The Carpetbagger Report distills the central issue of how politics trump principles and good policy again.

At yesterday’s White House press conference, the president kept things unusually brief, answering questions for 30 minutes, during which he avoided practically anything of substance. It prompted Dana Milbank to speculate as to why Bush even gathered reporters in the first place.The answer is pretty simple: Bush called a press conference in order to read a lengthy opening statement about S-CHIP. The White House seems to think the president is going to get slammed on this issue, and this was something of a preemptive strike.

The situation is breathtaking. Bush opposes a bipartisan bill on children’s healthcare because it offers too much help to kids who lack insurance. Republican lawmakers want the bill, Republican governors want the bill, American families want the bill, medical professionals want the bill, and congressional Dems are desperate to pass the bill. Bush has not only vowed to veto, he’s arguing that Congress is "putting health coverage for poor children at risk."

Even GOP partisans are calling the president on his lies. First, there was Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Hatch, who helped negotiate the compromise, said it is flatly untrue that the bill would cover children in households with incomes of as much as $83,000. A recent Urban Institute analysis found that 70 percent of the children who would gain or retain coverage under the Senate bill, which resembles the compromise, are in households with incomes below twice the poverty level, or $41,300 for a family of four.

“We’re talking about kids who basically don’t have coverage,” Hatch said. “I think the president’s had some pretty bad advice on this.”

It looks like Bush isn't the only one standing firm to put Big Tobacco ahead of children. Wide-stance Sen. Craig is his domestic (issue) partner on this.

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By now you probably know by heart the details of the Jena 6 case. If not, there are many, many good stories about the absurd miscarriage of justice in this isolated, now-infamous town. The best stories always comes from the people on the ground, though. Who better to capture the essence of a demonstration than a demonstrator?

Fortunately, FPL Board President Rev. Meg Riley and her remarkably articulate 11-year-old daughter Jie have sent us some notes from a march in Jena they took part in on Thursday. Jie sets the stage, and Rev. Riley's insights after the jump.

A dark parking lot is home to action, to a protest finally happening, Jena 6. I am in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is 4 o’clock, the air is fresh and the sky reflects black on the trees. I’ve boarded a bus with people, all with the same mission.

Jena is a dusty, barbecue smelling place. We pulled to a stop in front of two old ball parks. We had passed little businesses and woods. The bus pulled away leaving us on a sandy gravel road.

We wandered a bit and then went to bleachers. The sun blazed down on my face, my sunglasses were sweaty. Static metallic voices boomed out from left field. I’ve met and am meeting many new people. Good music. Many different hairstyles and dos. Different t-shirts and Red Cross handing out free chips, Gatorade, water, cookies, rice crispies, etc.

Rev. Meg Riley:

The march is going two miles to the Jena courthouse, in 90 degree full sun, and then back again. Our row includes Bob and Diana Doroh from Baton Rouge—Bob the courage behind the decision to charter a bus, our bus Captain—and also a family of African American residents of Jena. I am delighted to have the opportunity to talk to them. It is two sisters, their mother, and a son Demetrius who, like Jie is in fifth grade. Unlike Jie, Demetrius is not skipping school today—Jena has closed its schools. Demetrius tells me the school was on ‘lockdown’ the day before, and kids were unable to go down the halls to the bathrooms.

Closed along with the schools are Jena businesses, ranging from McDonalds’ and Popeye’s to local stores. They are eerily surrounded with yellow police tape and orange plastic fencing. We are incredulous; all the money these vendors will lose! But we are delighted to see the entrepreneurial spirit of African American vendors, who sell a wide variety of food and rally paraphernalia. We wonder what the residents of this 85% white town expect to happen today.

I ask Demetrius and his family the questions which have been on my mind as I have made this journey to Jena: Are they worried about white violence after all the ‘outsiders’ have gone home? This extended family (which extends into the entire row behind us, more folks of all ages from Jena) is delighted that we are there. They say some folks they know are worried about ensuing violence, but they’re just happy. I ask them if they see any white folks from Jena in the crowd, and they shake their heads sadly. “No, says the family matriarch, and I been LOOKIN’!”

A man named Timothy who is the ninth member of our row, a slim young man with a battered Bible in his hand, who says “Bless you” to each person he encounters, tells me, “Even if the whites aren’t here, they’re thinking about this. It’s a good thing to bring these kinds of wounds out in the open, so they don’t fester.” Timothy is from another town fifteen miles away. He says life there is very similar to Jena, with whites believing racism is over, all healed, and the people of color holding all the pain of it. Later Jim VanderWeele tells me he did meet one white woman from Jena whose father was a KKK member.

It is a delight to run into one more unexpected colleague, Rev. Forrest Gilmore of Princeton New Jersey, whose black “Free the Jena Six” t-shirt also says “Philly bus.” He tells me that that he is joined by several UUs from Princeton, and that the busride down took 27 hours!

Dozens more NAA buses are held up by sheriffs and never make it. News reports say “tens of thousands of people” were in Jena. In town, there are more speakers, allegedly including families of the young African American men, but the sound system makes it impossible to understand a word they say. Someone tells me it has been announced that the $90,000 bail has been raised to release Mychall Ball.

As the day winds up and we wait for our bus to pick us up, rumors begin to circulate. A young woman walking by says that the third circuit Court of Appeals has stated that Mychall Bell must be released within seventy-two hours. We all cheer wildly. This is the same court of appeals who had said a week earlier that it was illegal to try him as an adult and threw the case out. (Why that decision did not result in his being immediately freed has been the matter of bitter speculation all day.)

Soon someone else walks by and says that Louisiana Supreme Court has dropped all charges against all six young men, and they are now home. We all look like we want to believe it but the cheering is less enthusiastic. Three other people come by and say exuberantly that Mychall Ball is home. On the bus home, those with electronic equipment are desperately seeking corroboration of these great rumors, and when I get back to the Baton Rouge hotel room I do the same. All that an extensive search nets me is that the first statement is true: Within seventy two hours, Mychall Ball must be released.

I report this to Jie,saying happily, YES! At least we know for sure that they have to release Mychall within 72 hours! We can hope that our coming here helped that decision to get made! “Sure it did,” she replies with wisdom which makes me wonder if it can really be that she’s only turning eleven, not fifty, on Sunday, “No one down here wants this kind of fuss.”

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Two news stories today captured the tension between an overzealous, even bigoted government and the American Muslim community. As reported in an AP article (which was included in Faith In Public Life's newsreel, to which you can easily subscribe for free):

Advocacy groups sued the FBI and the Department of Justice on Tuesday for failing to turn over records they requested on surveillance in the Muslim-American community.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Muslim groups, alleges that the FBI has turned over only four pages of documents to community leaders, despite a Freedom of Information Act request filed more than a year ago. The documents were not related to surveillance.

The request sought records that described FBI guidelines and policies for surveillance and investigation of Muslim religious organizations, as well as specific information about FBI inquiries targeting 11 groups or people.

The lawsuit states that all the plaintiffs — who include some of the most prominent Muslim leaders in California — have reason to believe they have been investigated by the FBI since January 2001.

This afternoon, Politico.com ran a story and a video of Congressman Peter King (R-NY) expressing concern that there were "too many mosques" in America, and that the NYPD should be commended rather than investigated for its controversial and possibly illegal tactics during the 2004 Republican Convention.

So, Muslim leaders must sue the government to obtain basic information about the guidelines by which the government investigates them while a non-Muslim member of the United States Congress says there are too many mosques, and that Muslims must be investigated more aggressively. Glad that's cleared up.

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Earlier today the Senate voted down an amendment to a defense authorization bill which would have restored habeas corpus -- the right to contest one's arrest in a court of law -- to foreign "enemy combatants" detained by U.S. authorities. The AP reported that Sen. Lindsey Graham claimed that giving suspected terrorists a right to challenge their detention would allow them to go "judge shopping" for a sympathetic court. This indicates a striking lack of faith in America's judicial system and a belief in the unimpeachable integrity of the military and the executive branch.

By contrast, Sen. Patrick Leahy said the failure to restore habeas corpus "calls into question the United States' historic role of defender of human rights in the world. It accomplishes what opponents could never accomplish on the battlefield, whittling away our own liberties."

As Leahy suggests, this is not just a political issue, it is a moral one. Faith groups such as the National Religious Campaign Against Torture have spoken out on habeas corpus and torture repeatedly. The two issues are intertwined because the suspension of habeas corpus is one of the key enablers of torture.

As it stands right now, the United States government can hold prisoners at Guantanamo and other military prisons indefinitely, without any access to any defense in court. That is not detention, it is "disappearing," a practice associated with dictatorships that we used to denounce.

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Time for Reflection.

This year in God’s plan, Rosh Hashanah coincided with the beginning of Ramadan. On the advent of the Jewish New year the Jews gather in Synagogues and pray for renewal and hope for the future.

Since the war in Bosnia, which brought us together, we have shared many other perilous journeys to conflict-ridden parts of the world in the quest for Peace. Coming from our respective traditions in which lately there has been an unfortunate seepage of politics into our ideological roots, casting us in adversarial roles, our journey has not been easy. Yet not only has our friendship endured, it has only gotten stronger.

As we prayed at the synagogue and the mosque, we were before the God of Abraham, reflecting on the opportunities and the challenges that we face.

As I prayed in the synagogue this week on Rosh Hashanah I reflected on the Torah portion of Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael. Brothers lost, living in darkness, separated by fear and jealously. Would Ishmael and Isaac only gaze upon one another at their father's death? Is not the greatest plague that of ''darkness,'' when brothers remain estranged and cannot feel each other’s pain?

Thousands of years later now the same darkness seems to prevail - one brother not feeling the pain of the other. These Holy days, as I search for new beginnings and a fresh start, I am reminded of my faith’s demands of me to respect and sanctify life. On this Rosh Hashannah, as I read the Torah, my journey of hope and trust with my Muslim brother came to my mind. These are challenging time for Muslims, Jews and Christians but also an opportunity. This is the time to turn our errant behavior into good deeds and dispel the darkness. This demands that we stand up to those who bash and demonize Muslims and others, and discriminate out of ignorance and fear against our biblical brothers and sisters. Unless we act courageously the plague of darkness will continue. May our prayers for Peace be fulfilled in our daily lives.

For the Muslims, the month of Ramadan marks the beginning of the Divine revelatory process of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad. In this month Muslims fast during the day and gather in mosques every night to offer prayers and listen to the Quran. It is considered the most blessed month, in which besides extra attention is given to the needy, the poor and the sick. The Fast must include refraining from anger and violence. The idea of the whole exercise is to refresh a sense of deep spiritual commitment, through which can come renewed efforts to address the prevailing injustices in the society around us.

For Muslims who abhor acts of violence, these are indeed difficult times. The month of Ramadan, which just started and signifies the start of the Quranic revelatory process to Prophet Mohammad, is considered by the Muslims to be a Blessed month. During this month Muslims pray, reflect, meditate and ask for Gods' help. The mosques are full, charity is at its maximum, and the Quran is read and listened to extensively. They stand in prayers all night to offer special prayers for themselves, their family and the rest of the world, for peace and stability. Islam to them means Peace as it literally does. Muslims must attain and internalize this value above all if at all they are abiding by the teachings of the Quran.

All of this seems serene and peaceful.

During the first night after breaking the fast I stood in prayers at the mosque and was listening to the Quranic recitation of the verse

Those who believe and those who follow the scriptures the Jews, the Christian and the Sabians (a small Christian denomination in Iraq), Any who believe in God and the Day of Judgment, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.

My friendship was being reaffirmed. Friendship not just between the two of us but with many others from different Faiths and persuasions with whom I have bonded in our common destiny as the verse was pointing to.

Sadly enough my mind wandered to the daily news of violence and bloodshed committed in the name of Islam. I feared that this month in which all warfare must stop and all bloodshed must end, will be washed away in a torrent of blood, blood of innocent people, Muslims and non-Muslims. This seemed overwhelming for a moment, but the spirit of Ramadan again prevailed in reminding me how emphatic the Quran is in condemning mischief and mayhem. These daily acts of violence are morally offensive in the Quranic sense and give a contrary image of Islam.

The Quran’s declaration in the verse quoted above stood out in my mind. It seemed that it was addressing all of us who believe in our faiths’ commitment to Peace and Justice. It reaffirms not only our friendship but our work together. We must continue to speak out boldly and act against those who are committing these acts in the name of their religion. Realizing that these misguided people will continue to unleash acts of terror on anyone and anywhere in the name of religion, the need for the Muslims to raise their voice and act is urgent. Bold condemnation of these acts, whether committed by individuals, groups of people or even governments, is the right action from our faith perspective. We must not be intimidated.

We know and are convinced through our friendships that the universal ethical calling of a just peace cannot be readily answered if we live only among ourselves. We have learned that we can no longer act as if only what happens in our immediate communities matters. We must act to show that we owe solidarity to others beyond our communities in order to better appreciate the universality of human dignity.

This is the essence of the spirit of Ramadan and Rosh Hashanah.

Shana Tova and Ramadan Mubarak

In the synagogue ---for renewal and hope they all pray

In the mosque, heaven's doors are open, they say.

Tell them -- to open their eyes and see.

That God isn't there besides thee.

If you will only look beyond the prayers and meditation,

You will see Him where there is injustice and oppression.

In the occupied territories of armies grand

And the crowded refugee camps of different lands;

In the pit of the stomach of a hungry child

In the carnage of suicide-bombers reviled.

He is no more at the Haram or Wailing Wall

The message should be clear to us all.

We will now find him only where

There is nothing left but only despair.

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Here's another brick in the wall separating the Christian right from the rest of the country. The Values Voters debate not only didn't attract the top four Republican candidates, but their failure to show antagonized -- and further marginalized -- the likes of Phyllis Schlafly, Paul Weyrich, Rick Scarborough, self-proclaimed representatives from "America's Largest Voting Block."

(If you don't know who these folks are, I recommend a visit to Talk to Action.)

Apparently they conducted a straw poll and Huckabee won overwhelmingly. According to debate's press release:

"The big losers last night were the no-show candidates Fred Thompson who placed at 4 percent, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain who each received 1 percent and Mitt Romney who was the only candidate to receive zero votes at the end of the night."

"How can we expect these no-show candidates to take on Osama Bin Laden and other world leaders when they're afraid to show up and answer questions from Phyllis Schlafly?" asked Rabbi Aryeh Spero of the Jewish Action Alliance, and Values Voter debate panelist. Rick Scarborough, President of Vision America, and Values Voter Debate Committee member added, "If you care about our votes, you need to care about our values enough to show up."

Or perhaps pollsters are doing some work and realizing that even most Republicans don't want this crowd's mix of privatized Social Security, increased funding for abstinence education, opposition to hate crimes legislation and attacks on embryonic stem cell research?

Posted by Alex Carpenter at 02:09 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (0)

In the current New York Review of Books, Ian Buruma examines arch neocon Norm Podhoretz's toughness problem. Describing a short history of the Jewish wing of neoconservatism, Buruma goes back to a 1963 Podhoretz essay: "My Nego Problem--and Ours" in which Podhoretz complains about not being tough enough physically to stand up to the school yard bullies of his youth. For Podhoretz, the power to change life for the better is a physical more than intellectual thing -- even ethnic -- rooted in the history of Jewish resistance and loss and the 9/11 threat that evil was again trying to take away our change.

Cutting through this scaredy cant, Buruma concludes:

The key to Podhoretz's politics seems to me to lie right there: the longing for power, for toughness, for the Shtarker who doesn't give a damn about anyone or anything, and hatred of the contemptible, cowardly liberals with their pandering ways and their double standards. Since Podhoretz, himself a bookish man, can never be a Shtarker, his government must fill that role, and not give a damn about anyone or anything.

However, beyond this bulvon way -- an undergrad mix of Nietzsche and Rand -- there now emerges a new mighty Jewish alternative for engaging the contemporary problems of the world. The current Nation reports:

A new wave of Jewish activists, from synagogues and other groups, seeks to challenge (and learn from) the rise of the religious right. They want to renew the Jewish ethic of tikkun olam--healing the world from social and economic injustice. Until the late 1990s, few Jewish congregations were involved in the burgeoning multi-issue grassroots organizing coalitions. By 2000 twenty synagogues had joined one of these local interfaith activist groups. Today nearly 100 synagogues are involved, and the number is growing steadily. The foundation Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ) has helped catalyze this movement.

This JFSJ video features rabbis and lay leaders from synagogues around the country sharing their inspiring stories and reflections on getting involved in this model of social justice work.

Of course JSpot is happy about the coverage, but they note that ". . .more than the numbers is the cultural shift this will have on synagogues - agitating them to be more relational (where congregants know one another’s stories) and less transactional (I pay dues, you provide me with services) - as well as learning how to operate in the public arena in interfaith partnership."

This tough, but dividend-reaping work of religious community organizing -- forming relationships, re-pairing the world -- is what will actually save us from the inhumanity of the brutal school and the battlefield.

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The EPA's ENERGY STAR program gave out three awards to congregations that are working to save energy and prevent pollution. Check out this video of a local Detroit NBC affiliate report on how a group of Michigan nuns -- Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary -- are going green!

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In today's WaPo, E.J. Dionne points out that the political landscape is shifting in the suburbs and exurbs in what were pretty red states. He notes: "The suburbs are changing demographically as more nonwhites move in, and many suburban voters are turned off by the ideological politics of the right, particularly the Christian right."

Suburbs are, of course, the home of the megachurchs -- but also increasing numbers of house foreclosures and real domestic concerns. Dionne notes the brewing showdown in Northern Virginia between the old world of social conservatives and the increasingly manifest desire for competence and results from elected representation.

Posted by Alex Carpenter at 02:26 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (1)

For those who care about real ethical engagement between the faith community and the larger culture, the moral and scientific issue of global warming stands as a growing success. That said, we haven't solved the problem yet and Congress continues to stall. (Help by supporting the Boxer/Sanders bill.) Adding to the climate change on climate change, Yale Divinity School's journal Reflections -- a magazine of theological and ethical inquiry -- has devoted the current to God's Green Earth and the current meanings of Creation, Faith and Crisis.

The lead authors, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, write:

"A many-faceted alliance of religion and ecology along with a new global ethics is awakening around the planet...This is a new moment for the world's religions, and they have a vital role to play in the emergence of a more comprehensive environmental ethics. The urgency cannot be underestimated. Indeed, the flourishing of the Earth community may depend on it."

Other contributers include ethicist Larry Rasmussen, evangelical thinker Richard Cizik, activist the Rev. Sally Bingham and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai.

Oh yeah, and you can order the journal online for free.

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Looking for good news? Proof that caring about the world pays off in actual lives bettered. . .

The United Nations Children's Fund reports that: "For the first time since record keeping began in 1960, the number of deaths of young children around the world has fallen below 10 million a year." In 1960, 20 million young children died, now that number is 9.7 million, which shows that there is still plenty of work to do.

What's making the difference? Education on how to avoid diseases such as malaria and measles, and stronger economies, especially in China and India. Africa still lags the rest of the world, especially in the south and war-torn countries like Sierra Leone and Congo.

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President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld pushed for war with Iraq immediately after 9/11. One and a half years later, they fulfilled their wish by launching "Operation Iraqi Freedom," and the bloodshed continued ever since.

Just as 9/11 served as a starting pistol for the race to war in Iraq, the sixth anniversary of that abominable day should mark the start of a decisive leg of the long march to peace. Regardless of whether the surge ends, President Bush will prolong this war for as long as we let him.

Religious groups continue to sound a prophetic call for peace. An Interfaith fast, organized by numerous Muslim, Jewish and Christian groups, will occur on October 8, and you can register to organize a fast in your community, or find one near you, at the Interfaith Fast web site.

Christian Peace Witness, which held an inspiring religious service and march for peace on the war's fourth anniversary, is organizing peace vigils across the country, which will continue occur continually between now and the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war in April. You can register to lead a vigil in your community at their web site.

If peace were easy, we would have it by now. Ending the war will continue to take tremendous effort on numerous fronts, and the movement's spiritual health will be necessary for its ultimate success. Interfaith Fast and Christian Peace Witness can provide this nourishment. Please take part.

Posted by Dan at 02:23 PM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (0)

Someone asked this morning, “What year were the terrorist attacks?” The answer, “Six years ago, 2001" struck me. Was it that long ago? It seems like yesterday.

Even as I know 9/11 has been used politically to whip up fear; I will admit it: I am afraid. I find my fear, and therefore my courage intensified by the confluence of 9/11/01 with first day of my married life with Glenn, who was moving to New York City that day to join me, arriving to find us walled off from one another. This morning I went over our catastrophe plan again, and we told each other with a kiss, “have a good day.”

Today the spiritual struggle for me is what it was in 2001. In 2001, as NPR informed me of the first plane striking the twin towers, I calmly alerted my interns at our office across from the United Nations. As the NPR station went dead (it was in one of the towers), I turned on TV to monitor events. As more planes hit and rumors spread the prayer, “Where there is fear, let me sow…” I couldn’t complete the sentence in the turmoil, so I made up the words, but it helped. A few days later I found St Francis’ prayer in Union Square Park in a makeshift vigil surrounded by people of all nationalities and faiths, many wrapped in American flags.

My tradition tells me that I am to act out of love, not fear. From “Fear not!” to “Perfect love casts out fear,” my marching orders are clear. We often think of fear and love solely as uncontrollable feelings. But they are also choices. I have a choice every day and every hour: be guided by fear, which leads to more violence, or choose hope and love, which leads to creative solutions.

Are these naïve words; empty clichés? “God gave us not a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love and self-discipline.” The opposite of fear is power. The opposite of fear is self-discipline and love. This is what I learn from my staff, from all of you, when you choose to sit down with those who supposedly are our enemies and hammer solutions. When you forge coalitions to retake your communities from intolerance, greed, fear mongering, corruption, abuse of power. When we cross divides, speak the truth, sacrifice comfort to do what is right. And when we push our national leaders to do the same.

Rev. Jennifer Butler is Executive Director of Faith in Public Life

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Five years ago, on September 11, 2001, I and other staff members of the United Church of Christ Washington DC office were in a Congressional hearing room with 20 poor people from across the country waiting to give testimony on a bill to reauthorize funding for low income Americans, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. We knew there had been an attack of some kind, and were nervous, especially when the members of Congress didn’t show. We soon realized that we needed to get out, and then the evacuation of the Capitol started.

Why we were still sitting there in a Capitol Hill hearing room in the midst of chaos and what was then still a rumor that the nation had been attacked, I don’t know. We had already seen the images on television of the twin towers going down, the Pentagon could be seen smoldering in the distance from the front steps of the Cannon House Office building as we entered.

No one in Washington on that day knew what to do, where to go, or how to think or even talk about how the world would be made different by what we were experiencing. All we knew was that it would be time for this nation to act. The only question was how and when.

Fast forward to September 10, 2007. Yesterday’s testimony before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committee by General Petraeus, our top commander in Iraq, indicated, more than anything, that the world has changed very little since 9/11. Vulnerable people (then New Yorkers and DC Pentagon workers, now Iraqis) are paying for the sins of an overmilitarized world with their lives. As the General sat and provided cover for a President, a Congress, and a nation mired in an unpopular war that still has no purpose or direction, I truly felt that this sideshow is about as far from a tribute to the lives lost on 9/11 as one could imagine.

The General’s speech writers did succeed in using a headline-grabbing catchy phrase to characterize supporters of withdrawal from Iraq, warning that they would be “rushing to failure.” Where would those Americans in poverty we sat with 6 years ago on 9/11 be today had this Administration and Congress not decided to squander $195 million a week on one war? Probably better off. Where would Al Qaeda be had this nation fought the war on terror through development assistance to the poor instead of military support for the rich and the powerful in the Middle East? Probably worse off.

Some of those “rush to failure” members of Congress released statistics yesterday on what $195 million a day, one day in Iraq, could buy. It is staggering. One day in Iraq could provide unemployment benefits for almost 722,000 unemployed Americans for one week. One day in Iraq could fund Social Security retirement benefits for one day for over 6.75 million Americans. One day in Iraq could vaccinate three-quarters of the children in Africa for measles and give millions a lifetime protection from the disease. One day in Iraq could provide paid sick leave to half a million workers for an entire year.

No, General Petraeus, the nation has already “rushed to failure.” It’s time we rush to victory and get out of Iraq and redirect our priorities once and for all.

Rev. Ron Stief is the Director of Organizing Strategy for Faith in Public Life and on September 11, 2001, was working across from the U.S. Capitol directing the offices of the United Church of Christ.

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There's not much more to say about the hearings this week from a faith perspective -- yet this remains: blessed are the peacemakers. But is America making peace in Iraq?

But now the administration has gone from giving dog and pony shows to think tankers, congresspersons, and journalists to giving it to the American public directly this week. Or as Fox News names its exclusive interview with Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker: "A Briefing for America."

One of my favorite YouTube film projects is Hometown Baghdad, shot by Ausama, a medical student living in the Iraqi capital city. This video gets beyond the Petraeus charts and al Qaeda rhetoric and shows how American troops contribute to the problem, turning educated middle class Iraqis against the 'liberators" precisely because it is impossible for American troops to police without also disturbing the peace.

Posted by Alex Carpenter at 09:13 AM | Link | del.icio.us | Digg | Comments (2)

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a new poll about the presidential candidates' favorability ratings and popular perceptions of their faith. Pew's summary leads off by saying that

So far religion is not proving to be a clear-cut positive in the 2008 presidential campaign. The candidates viewed by voters as the least religious among the leading contenders are the current frontrunners for the Democratic and Republican nominations - Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, respectively. On the other hand, the candidate seen as far and away the most religious - Mitt Romney - is handicapped by this perception because of voter concerns about Mormonism.

The report's introduction doesn't seem to match its results. Being perceived as religious clearly is a net positive for each candidate, including Romney. While there's no disputing that Clinton and Giuliani are frontrunners in election polls and in "Godless numbers," correlation doesn't even suggest causation here. In fact, there's a much clearer correlation between their popularity and perceptions that they are religious. Buried far beneath the study's introduction is this:

Overall views of the presidential candidates are linked with views of their religiosity; those who perceive a candidate as being very religious tend to express the most favorable overall views of each candidate, followed by those who perceive the candidate as being somewhat religious. Those who view candidates as being not too or not at all religious, on the other hand, are much less likely to express favorable views.

A multitude of impressions, values and beliefs contribute to people's candidate preference. That perceptions of religiosity vs irreligiosity do not perfectly mirror the results of the latest election polls is not an argument against the clear importance of religion to voters. If anything, Clinton and Giuliani succeed in spite of their "godless numbers." For them and for all candidates studied, a religious image is an unmistakable asset.

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Over at the New Yorker, George Packer writes, "If there were a threat level on the possibility of war with Iran, it might have just gone up to orange. Barnett Rubin, the highly respected Afghanistan expert at New York University, has written an account of a conversation with a friend who has connections to someone at a neoconservative institution in Washington."

Many around the prog. faith blogosphere have noticed this surge in rhetoric from the Bush administration and their conservative fringe about going to war with Iran.

Faithful Progressive notes the drum beats coming from Fox News.

Notice the giddiness with which religious right mouthpiece Glenn Beck connects Iraq, Iran, WWIII and, yes, he says it: the coming of the messiah.

Over at Street Prophets, Rain writes on the weakened Bush administration: The temptation to distract by starting another war must be strong.

Brian McLaren has a great piece over at God's Politics entitled, A Nuclear Plank in the Eye. He writes:

I hope that more and more of us will become motivated – and resourced by our faith – not simply to complain about violent solutions to the problem of violence, but instead to make better proposals, because this one, I believe, is a recipe for disaster. To continue living by the sword, according to a reputable authority, is not a sustainable long-term strategy for living at all.

And finally, Get Religion tackles the recent attention to revelations about Mother Teresa's personal spirituality. Here's Chris Hitchens' piece for Newsweek. Commenting on it, Get Religion writes:

Hitchens nods to the Dark Night as a reality for several Christian saints throughout the centuries, yet still misses its fundamental point: The saints who have endured the Dark Night have not surrendered to disbelief.

As Faithfully Liberal points out "oh, my God, Mother Teresa had doubts."

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Here are three examples of the role of faith in Gulf Coast lives. While it's not news that faith groups have picked up the FEMA slack, what is particularly interesting here is the emerging prophetic voice. Like during the Civil Rights Movement, the role of a prophetic religious boldness contra a conservative me-first political culture is rising again.

St. Peter Claver Catholic Church Choir, under the direction of Veronica Downs-Dorsey, was invited to share their stories and their music with the makers of a documentary on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans.

The Rev. David Knight, rector of St. Patrick's Episcopal Church, Long Beach, MS, reflects on the anniversary of Katrina hitting his community.

It happened about 11:00 this morning. Today, of ALL days, I was at a hospital having some tests run. Every thing's fine, and I am glad it's over. Today, of ALL days - a STRESS test! Somewhere God is laughing....

It's the two year anniversary of Katrina's landfall. I've tried my best to ignore it, to de-emphasize it. The people of my parish begged us not to do anything special. Instead we will have our regular Wednesday night service of healing and Holy Eucharist, and I will add some special prayers and music to mark the occasion.

I thought I was ok with this day.....of ALL days.

It's not the memories. I won't ever forget what it was like riding that storm out. The howling of the unceasing wind, the fear of what was being done to our community, our homes, our church. I was in a house about 5 miles inland, and it was not pleasant. The days afterward are just a blur, a blur of images of devastation, collapse, ruin, people-in-shock, rumors, worries, unreal heat, lack of sleep, and complete puzzlement over what exactly to do, other than wake up from the little sleep you could manage and get somewhere and help someone. Day after day.
A first year of watching massive debris piles finally picked up, of people, one by one, coming by to say goodbye, of struggles with a church decimated by this storm, of worries about my own family, my son especially, and what this is doing to them.

A second year of increasing frustration with the slow-ness of EVERYTHING. The way people feel absolutely raped by their insurance carriers, the same ones that reported RECORD profits. The steady and good and solid and amazing work going on, bit by bit, brick by brick, with the incredible army of volunteers who come and labor and pray and hopefully go home better for having been here, hopefully go home and tell our story so others will come.
I didn't need to watch CNN or any other program to remember. I didn't even want to.

Yesterday I received in the mail a package from a seminary classmate. In it was an autographed copy of our graduating class, signed by all the members. You see, when we graduated we each signed the mattes for each other's pictures, and my copy was framed and hanging in my office when the storm surge came, when the waters burst my church into a million little pieces, and all my books, my ordination certificates, my diploma....and my class picture, washed away, out to sea or buried in rubble never to be found, floating along with our pews and our altar. My loss was minuscule compared to most others, but a few things were gone that I could not recreate.
On Palm Sunday of 2006 our class president, Larry Motz, died from cancer. A few days before his death a classmate, Nicolette Papanek, visited with our dear friend. Larry asked her to get his picture, his signed graduation picture and take it with her. He asked her to frame it and mail it to ME, for he knew mine was long gone. We'd talked about it just a week before, in my last conversation with Larry, that my picture was gone. He didn't say anything to me about his picture, but he made Nicolette promise to send it to me.

So it came. Yesterday. I opened it and was overcome....overcome....

Today when I got into my car at the hospital, thinking about what words to say tonight at our anniversary service, I thought of Larry and that amazing gift. I thought of my classmates, many who have been down here to help. I thought also of the scores, SCORES, of volunteers who have come to our aid, who have changed us and who have themselves been changed, I thought of all the people I have gotten to meet, to work with and laugh with and eat with and pray with, people I would have never known otherwise. I thought of that great image of St. Paul, the body of Christ, all connected, all vital, all needed, ALL needed.

And then it came. Sitting in my truck the tears came, they fell hard and fast and surprising. I really haven't had the "good cry" yet, two years later it happened and I was totally unprepared, on this anniversary I was trying to ignore.
For those who read this blog and journey with us, we are connected, my brothers and sisters. Thank you for your willingness to make that so apparent to me, to all of us.

We will get through today, and wake up tomorrow and wonder how long this will go on, how long Oh Lord, how long. And then someone else shows up, to help, to pray, to smile, to laugh, to cry with us.

God bless you all.

Church of the Brethren Disaster Ministries reports on the slow progress on the recovery and rebuilding.

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Religion and the Public Square with Alan Wolfe, The Rev. Jim Wallis, Nancy Gibbs, Reza Aslan and Rabbi Irwin Kula speaking at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival. Jon Meacham moderates the panel.

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Five years ago last week, Vice President Cheney started pounding the drum for war in a now-infamous speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention about the imminent threat Iraq posed to the Middle East and the United States:

Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek domination of the entire Middle East, take control of a great portion of the world's energy supplies, directly threaten America's friends throughout the region and subject the United States or any other nation to nuclear blackmail.

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction; there is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us. And there is no doubt that his aggressive regional ambitions will lead him into future confrontations with his neighbors, confrontations that will involve both the weapons he has today and the ones he will continue to develop with his oil wealth...

We are, after all, dealing with the same dictator who shoots at American and British pilots in the no-fly zone on a regular basis, the same dictator who dispatched a team of assassins to murder former President Bush as he traveled abroad, the same dictator who invaded Iran and Kuwait and has fired ballistic missiles at Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel, the same dictator who has been on a State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism for better than two decades.

In the face of such a threat, we must indeed proceed with care, deliberation and consultation with our allies. I know our president very well. I've worked beside him as he directed our response to the events of 9/11. I know that he will proceed cautiously and deliberately to consider all possible options to deal with the threat that an Iraq ruled by Saddam Hussein represents.

Nearly six-in-ten (57%) of those who regularly attend religious services say their clergy has spoken about the prospect of war with Iraq. But just a fifth (21%) say their priest or minister has taken a position on the issue. When churchgoers do hear a point of view, it mostly comports with the national stance of their religious faith: white Catholics and African-Americans are hearing anti-war messages, while white evangelical Protestants are getting a pro-war point of view.

Five years later -- almost to the day -- President Bush made a disturbingly reminiscent case for war with Iran:

Iran has long been a source of trouble in the region. It is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. Iran backs Hezbollah who are trying to undermine the democratic government of Lebanon. Iran funds terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which murder the innocent, and target Israel, and destabilize the Palestinian territories. Iran is sending arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan, which could be used to attack American and NATO troops. Iran has arrested visiting American scholars who have committed no crimes and pose no threat to their regime. And Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.

Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere. And that is why the United States is rallying friends and allies around the world to isolate the regime, to impose economic sanctions. We will confront this danger before it is too late.

I want our fellow citizens to consider what would happen if these forces of radicalism and extremism are allowed to drive us out of the Middle East...

Extremists would control a key part of the world's energy supply, could blackmail and sabotage the global economy. They could use billions of dollars of oil revenues to buy weapons and pursue their deadly ambitions. Our allies in the region would be under greater siege by the enemies of freedom. Early movements toward democracy in the region would be violently reversed. This scenario would be a disaster for the people of the Middle East, a danger to our friends and allies, and a direct threat to American peace and security. This is what the extremists plan. For the sake of our own security, we'll pursue our enemies, we'll persevere and we will prevail.

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