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Christian Witness, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , , ,

New Holiday in Poland

Breaking News, New Holiday Added By Richard Rolak

WARSAW– The Sejm (Polish Parliament) approved that January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany would become a national holiday and an official non-working day.

In a secular oriented announcement it was explained that the additional free day on Epiphany will be a convenient way of using holiday time from the previous year during first few days of the New Year. It was also explained that it was being instituted so families could spend more time together.

From Poland’s Gazeta Prawna (Legal Gazette): To już pewne: Trzech Króli dniem wolnym od pracy

January 6, or Epiphany, will be a day off from work. Parliament amended the Labour Code and Law on days off from work on Friday, September 24th.

The PO and PSL parties voted for a holiday on the Epiphany. The PiS and the Left added conditions based on lobbying by businesses that do not want to offer an additional holiday.

There were 370 deputies voting for, 44 against, and one abstention. Members also voted to remove the Labour Code allowing for a floating day off for any holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday. Changes to the Code are effective 1 January 2011.

According to calculations provided, the introduction of additional holiday will result in nine additional days off between 2011 to 2020. The abolition of the floating day off provision will return eight working days to the economy over the same period.

Currently, the January 6th holiday is observed in Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Austria, Sweden, and Finland. January 6th was a holiday in Poland until 1960.

Events, Political, , , ,

Human Service Nonprofits and Government Collaboration

The Urban Institute Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and the National Center for Charitable Statistics announces the upcoming release of Human Service Nonprofits and Government Collaboration: Findings from the 2010 National Survey of Nonprofit Government Contracting and Grants on Thursday, October 7, 2010 from 9:00 – 10:30 am at The Urban Institute, 2100 M Street NW, 5th Floor, Katharine Graham Conference Facility, Washington, DC 20037

Please join The Urban Institute for the release of findings from the first national survey documenting the extent of government contracting and grants with human service organizations and problems experienced by nonprofits that contract with governments at the local, state and national levels. There will be discussion of the impact of the recession on these nonprofits and the interaction of contracting problems, such as late payments, and the cutbacks organizations have made to keep their programs operating during the recession.

A panel of experts from the nonprofit and public sectors will talk about the realities on the ground, policy implications and the future of nonprofit-government relations. Additional information and a formal invitation from the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy will be forthcoming. Please contact Pho Palmer with questions at (202) 261-5397.

Perspective, Political, ,

Government Employees Compensation Lower

State and Local Government Compensation Lower Than Private Sector Pay, Report Says

State and local government employees are compensated by an average of 3.75 percent less than private sector workers when education and other factors are taken into account, with a public employee compensation “penalty” of 7.55 percent for state government employees and 1.84 percent for local government employees, according to a study released Sept. 15 by the Economic Policy Institute.

“Comparisons controlling for education, experience, hours of work, organizational size, gender, race, ethnicity and disability, reveal no significant overpayment but a slight undercompensation of public employees when compared to private employee compensation costs on a per hour basis,” according to the report titled “Debunking the Myth of the Overcompensated Public Employee: the Evidence.” EPI, a Washington-based nonprofit, describes its mission as seeking to “broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers.”

Creating an accurate comparison is important, EPI said, because 37 states are struggling with substantial budget deficits and governors in several of those states—including Indiana, Minnesota, and New Jersey—have identified excessive public employee compensation as a major cause of their state’s fiscal woes.

Differing Education Levels a Factor

Part of the perceived pay gap in favor of state and local employees is due to differing education levels, the report said.
On average, it said, state and local public sector employees are more highly educated than private sector employees, with 54 percent of full-time public employees holding at least a four-year degree, compared to 35 percent of full-time private sector employees. However, state and local governments pay college-educated employees on average 25 percent less than private employers, with the greatest differential for professional employees, lawyers, and doctors, the report said.

At the same time, it said, the public sector also “appears to set a floor on compensation,” compensating state and local government employees with high school educations better on average than their peers in the private sector. “This result is due in part because the earnings floor has collapsed in the private sector,” the report said.

The report focused on education levels rather than job categories in comparing compensation, explaining that it is too difficult to compare job categories due to differences in private and public sector jobs.

“Even private and public teaching is significantly different. Public schools accept all students, while private schools are sometimes highly selective and may exclude or remove any poor performers, special needs, or disruptive students. Consequently, comparing workers of similar ‘human capital’ or personal productive characteristics and labor market skills is considered the best alternative, and well accepted by labor economists,” the report said.

Better Benefits, Less Pay in Public Sector

Compared to private sector employees, state and local government employees receive a higher portion of their compensation in the form of employer-provided benefits, and the mix of benefits is different than in the private sector, the report found.

Among other benefits, state and local employees’ health insurance and retirement benefits are more generous on average than what is found in the private sector. However, public employees on average receive less supplemental pay and vacation time, the report said.

“Some benefits are more generous in the public sector, but it is a serious error to imagine that comparability requires that each and every element of compensation is the same. What is important when considering both the employer-provided benefits and direct pay is whether state and local government workers have a total compensation package that costs what they would receive if employed in the private sector,” the report said.

The report, written for EPI by Jeffrey Keefe, an associate professor of labor and employment relations at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations, relied on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The sample size for earnings estimates was 44,280 total observations and 8,737 public employee observations, according to the report.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political,

Replant an olive tree in Palestine

Stand with Farmers — Replant an Olive Tree!

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is proud to partner with Canaan Fair Trade to replant olive trees in Palestine, especially in this special season of charitable giving, centered on Muslim and Jewish holidays.

You can help Palestinian farmers remain steadfast on their land and nonviolently resist Israeli occupation by donating to replant an olive tree.

For centuries, olive trees have formed the backbone of Palestinian agriculture. Yet, as part of its illegal military occupation, Israel has systematically uprooted them by the thousands to clear land for illegal Israeli settlements, apartheid fences and walls, and to dispossess Palestinian farmers of their lands and livelihoods.

For every $25 tax-deductible contribution to support the work of the US Campaign, we will replant one olive tree in Palestine. Donate $100 and we replant five. Make your tax-deductible contribution today.

After receiving your donation, the US Campaign and Canaan Fair Trade will electronically send you a Trees for Life certificate. You can replant a tree in your name or in honor of a loved one. Just let us know how you’d like the certificate to read. Click here to replant an olive tree today.

Remember that it is our taxpayer dollars ($3 billion of annual military aid to Israel) that have financed the Israeli army’s purchase of Caterpillar bulldozers and heavy machinery used to uproot trees. Please make your tax-deductible contribution to the US Campaign today so that we can both help replant olive trees and continue our work to end U.S. support for Israeli abuses of Palestinian human rights.

To make a donation by phone, call 202-332-0994. Or mail a check, cashier’s check or money order to: US Campaign, PO Box 21539, Washington, DC 20009. Be sure to indicate “Replanting Olive Trees Campaign” on your check, and the name to be printed on the certificate.

Additionally, for even more serious solidarity with the olive farmers, anyone can travel to Palestine for the 2010 Olive Harvest Campaign of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a US Campaign member group.

Christian Witness, Political, , , ,

IWJ’s Organizing for Worker Justice Training

Register is open for IWJ’s Organizing for Worker Justice Training to be held October 3-7, 2010 in Chicago, IL.

The training is for those who may be:

  • Board members, leaders, or volunteers of an interfaith organization
  • Organizers with a faith-based organization or worker’s center
  • Religious or community outreach staff of a union

The training is designed to assist in understanding religious and labor structures, learning how to strengthen partnerships between religious and labor leaders, understanding the fundamentals of Direct Action Organizing, designing creative interfaith actions, developing strategies for building your organization and effective fundraising strategies, and framing the message about religious values and workers’ rights to the media.

Information and registration can be found at the IWJ Conference website. The deadline for registration is September 15th.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political, Work, ,

In preparation for Labor Day

From IWJ: It’s been a particularly challenging year for workers. Hundreds of thousands are still without jobs; the rights of immigrant workers are constantly threatened by proposed anti-immigrant legislation; and millions of working families still live below the poverty line.

This Labor Day, we take time to remember and draw strength from the stuggles and victories of workers who came before us. And as we celebrate the past, let us also honor and lift up those individuals whose labor continue to impact our lives today.

For the month of September, I join IWJ, and also invite you, to honor at least one special worker. By honoring a worker today, we not only recognize and thank one or a handful of people in our lives, we are also supporting their efforts to improve wages, benefits and conditions for all workers.

Also, on Labor Day weekend, congregations across the country will be hosting workers and labor leaders to reflect on faith, work, justice, and the meaning of Labor Day. I encourage you to attend! Click to find a service/event near you, and visit IWJ for information on organizing an event in your congregation.

Here is a really nice reflection on Philemon 1:1-21 in Philemon: Lessons for Labor Day

The short book of Philemon is one of the lectionary readings for Labor Day weekend 2010. Only 25 verses long, commentators aren’t clear exactly what is going on in the passage. It is clearly a letter from Paul and Timothy to a man named Philemon.

Let’s identify the main characters. There’s Paul, who’s in jail, and Timothy, his younger colleague and cohort. The letter is written to Philemon, who’s described as a “dear brother and fellow worker,” Apphia, called “our sister,” Archippus, who is a solider, and to the whole Church that meets in Philemon’s home. This makes us think that Philemon is fairly well to do, otherwise the Church probably couldn’t meet in his home. Plus, he clearly has at least one slave – Onesimus.

Paul gives thanks for Philemon’s love of people and prays that he will be active in sharing his faith and recognizing “every good thing we have in Christ.”

Then the crux of the letter begins. Paul is pleading on Onesimus’ behalf. Paul acknowledges that previously Onesimus was “useless” to Philemon. We don’t know why he was useless. Perhaps he was young and foolish. Perhaps he didn’t work hard. Perhaps he was actually a very good worker but Philemon took a dislike to him. We just don’t know.

Paul says, “I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love.” So somehow, it appears that Philemon wasn’t being fair to Onesimus. Philemon is resisting doing what he ought to do, so Paul is appealing out of love.

Onesimus has served Paul well while he was in prison. He has become to him like a son, which is where we get the sense that Onesimus is young. Again, we’re not quite sure how Onesimus happened to get to prison with Paul. Perhaps Philemon had gotten mad and sent him to prison. Perhaps he had sent him with the mission of helping Paul.

Paul wanted to keep Onesimus with him, but he didn’t want to do so without Philemon’s consent, because the text says “so that any favor you do will be spontaneous and not forced.” Paul wants Onesimus to stay with him, but doesn’t want Philemon to feel like he must continue allowing him there. Interesting.

Paul speculates about the real purpose behind why Onesimus was separated. He says, “Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good – no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother.” He goes on to say, “He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother to the Lord.”

You know how we often see God’s hand in situation in the long run, but not in the short run. We view things one way at the time, but another in retrospect. What would explain Paul’s comments? Perhaps Onesimus ran away. Perhaps he bought his way out of being a slave. Perhaps Onesimus stole money or did something so bad that Philemon sent him off to jail. We don’t know. But, we do know that Paul is urging Philemon to see God’s hand in all this. Paul is urging him to see his coming back as a good thing. He is coming back as a brother and not as a slave.

Paul then goes on to say that if Philemon views Paul as a partner, then Philemon should welcome Onesimus “as you would welcome me.” Obviously, Philemon was not going to welcome him back nicely, otherwise Paul would not have had to beg him like this. Somehow or other Philemon is mad at Onesimus. Further, Paul says, “If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.” Paul assures him that “I, Paul, am writing with my own hand.” Paul reiterates, “I will pay it back.”

Then Paul reminds Philemon that “you owe me your very self.” I assume this is referring to the fact that Paul evangelized Philemon. Paul is reminding him of his values and the debts that Philemon owes. Onesimus is not the only one with debts.

Finally, Paul appeals one last time to his good nature: “I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.”

Then Paul asks for a room and sends various greetings.

I can’t help, on this Labor Day weekend, reading this story as one about a rich and kind of spiteful, unforgiving, boss. Paul says Onesimus is a good guy. He is a dear brother. Paul is begging Philemon to welcome him back and treat him well. And, Paul is offering to pay any debt he may have. I don’t know about you, but Philemon seems the difficult one in this passage. Paul is treating him with kid gloves, appealing to love, calling in a debt, putting the situation in a favorable light.

So, what are the lessons for us here this Labor Day weekend? Frankly, the lessons depend in part on who we see ourselves as in the story. But frankly, I think most of the lessons are for bosses and those with influence. Let me suggest four key lessons:

…

Philemon may be a short book, but it is crammed full of lessons for us this Labor Day. None of us is perfect. Err on the side of forgiving mistakes by our co-workers, employees or even our bosses. When you see injustice and unfairness in the workplace, intervene. Be willing to step outside your comfort zone and speak up for your colleagues. And finally, approach those to whom you are appealing in a respectful manner. Pray for them and appeal to their best nature. These are good lessons this Labor Day weekend. Lessons for the workplace. Lessons for our families. And lessons for the Church.

Christian Witness, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political

Do not manipulate the cross

The Roman Catholic Primate of Poland, Archbishop Józef Kowalczyk, speaking at the Częstochowa Shrine on August 15th, called on his countryman to stop using the cross as a political symbol. Now if only the politicians, politicos, and the easily manipulated of all countries would heed the message. More information and background on this issue is available from Reuters in: Warsaw archbishop calls for memorial cross removal

From Wiadomosci: Prymas Polski: nie angażujcie się w tę manipulację krzyżem!

Blisko 100 tys. osób uczestniczyło w niedzielę na Jasnej Górze w uroczystościach święta Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Marii Panny. Prymas Polski, abp Józef Kowalczyk, apelował w homilii o zaprzestanie gorszącej manipulacji symbolem krzyża. Wzywał, by krzyż nie był narzędziem przetargu politycznego…

Roughly translated to: Polish Primate: do not join yourselves to this manipulation of the cross!

Nearly 100 thousand people attended the celebration of the [R.C.] Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Sunday at the Marian Shrine of Jasna Gora in Poland. The Polish Primate, Archbishop Józef Kowalczyk, appealed in his homily to end the scandal of the manipulation of the cross. He urged that the cross was not a political tool up for bid.

Christian Witness, Homilies, Perspective, PNCC, Political, ,

Preparing, a few weeks before Labor Day

From indeed – a job search website: Job Market Competition: Unemployed per Job Posting

How hard is it to find a job in your city? Here’s the number of unemployed per job posting for the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S…

Most upstate New York cities have 1 opening for every 4 unemployed persons, and this is after significant population losses in those cities. Workers are facing job losses, and the loss of prospects in an unprecedented way, and likely without recovery in sight for the next 8-10 years. If jobs aren’t completely gone, hours have been cut and benefits have been slashed. People need the hope an encouragement of the Church, as well as its activism. Recall the PNCCs long history of Labor activism.

If you plan to speak to working people the Sunday before Labor Day, to speak a word of hope and encouragement, Interfaith Worker Justice has resources available in its New Resources for Labor in the Pulpits 2010

Is your congregation holding a Labor Day service or event as part of this year’s Labor in the Pulpits/on the Bimah/in the Minbar program? If so, let us know about it! If not, consider celebrating the sacred link between faith, work, and justice by inviting a union member or labor leader to be a guest speaker on Labor Day weekend, or focus your Labor Day weekend service on worker justice issues.

Perspective, Political, , ,

We need more Erica – we don’t need no educational indoctrination

From SwiftKick: Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech. By the way, her hometown is not too distant from Albany. Do you think anyone in a hallowed halls of the State’s educational bureaucracy is having cold chills?

Last month, Erica Goldson graduated as valedictorian of Coxsackie-Athens High School. Instead of using her graduation speech to celebrate the triumph of her victory, the school, and the teachers that made it happen, she channeled her inner Ivan Illich and de-constructed the logic of a valedictorian and the whole educational system.

Erica originally posted her full speech on Sign of the Times, and without need for editing or cutting, here’s the speech in its entirety:

Here I stand

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, “If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years . .” The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast — How long then?” Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.” “But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?” asked the student. “Thirty years,” replied the Master. “But, I do not understand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?” Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”

This is the dilemma I’ve faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I’m scared.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don’t do that.” Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.

H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not “to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. … Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States…”

Christian Witness, Political, , ,

Whatsoever you do, Wisconsin version

From Jim Wallis at Sojourner’s: Controversy in Wisconsin which speaks to the power of authentic Christian witness in the face of character assignation, threats of financial ruin, improperly making faithful youth a point of leverage, and political machinations of a few pharisees dressed in holy robes.

I doff my cheesehead hat and salute the witnesses in Wisconsin who saw past the sheep’s clothing to the wolves lurking beneath.

It was a nice invitation, not unlike many I’ve received before. Every summer, a number of Christian music and arts festivals convene around the country, featuring musicians and speakers and attracting tens of thousands of young people. I have spoken at many such events over the years and, in fact, met my wife, Joy Carroll, at the Greenbelt festival in England! I’m guessing I’ve spoken there as many as 10 times. Joy is helping to organize an —American Greenbelt— for next summer called the —Wild Goose— Festival, an image that in Celtic spirituality signifies the Holy Spirit.

So when Lifest, a Christian festival in Wisconsin invited me to come and speak this summer, and the date was free, I accepted. Bob Lenz, who directs the annual gathering, is a wonderful man with a big heart and a powerful ministry among high school kids that has saved many from suicide. He’s the kind of guy you want to say yes to. It was put in the calendar.

Then a firestorm erupted. A local Christian radio station, which had always supported Lifest, and a local pastor started circulating attacks against me, suggesting that I was a communist, a deceiver, and, worst of all, an adviser to Barack Obama. My favorite was that I was an —avowed Marxist— and that any young person that heard me would be in —spiritual peril.— They were especially concerned that —the social justice message and agenda [Sojourners] promote[s] is a seed of secular humanism, seeking an unholy alliance between the Church and Government.— Does that sound anything like the language of a certain Fox News talk show host who has recently come after —social justice— Christians and me in particular? Oh no, they insisted, this had nothing to do with Glenn Beck.

The intimidation of Bob Lenz and Lifest began, insisting that I be canceled or they would face pull-outs and protests. A letter was sent to local churches to call for my cancellation and, like Glenn Beck, the authors just made stuff up. Under a great deal of pressure, Bob called me to discuss what to do. He believed that these people were spreading lies and didn’t want to capitulate to their threats. But they were really stirring up trouble, and people were coming after him personally. I decided to call the president of the radio station myself, to ask him what his concerns were, and to offer a dialogue with his board or anybody else he wanted while I was in Wisconsin. But he refused the dialogue unless the station’s demands for my cancellation were met (sounds like Glenn Beck again).

He said he was against the —unholy marriage between the government and the church.— Me too, I said. When I told him how I successfully worked with the Obama administration to preserve religious freedom in hiring for faith-based organizations who receive any public funds (such as World Vision and The Salvation Army), and spent half of my time on health care in preserving the rule against federal funding of abortion, he became silent and kept moving on to —other issues— —“ the last of which was Sojourners supporting a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When I reminded him that there actually were Palestinian Christians, and that most mainline evangelical organizations now support a two-state solution, he got silent again. But he refused to change his position about me not speaking, and his final reason was that I had supported the Bush administration’s faith-based initiative! So my openness to a previous president’s ideas for faith-based partnerships in alleviating poverty was the reason I shouldn’t speak at Lifest? This was getting quite silly. But when the wild and fabricated charges they began with all fell flat in face of the facts, they were left with not much of an argument. But they stuck with it and pulled out of the festival.

I didn’t realize how big a deal this had become until I got to Wisconsin. Green Bay and Milwaukee television stations were there, with the story already in their local media and newspapers. I arrived to a series of press interviews and meetings with local pastors who were very sorry about all this and expressed hope that I would still come back to Wisconsin (I assured them that I loved their state and would love to come back).

Finally I got to speak to the young people, which was the reason that I came in the first place. I told them that I came because of them and the hope their generation provides to me. And that I liked the title of the talk I was to give: —The Call to Jesus and his Kingdom of Justice.— So that’s what I talked about to a very enthusiastic response from the thousands of young people who were there —“ the crowd made even larger because of the controversy, of course.

I said that when we have controversy and conflict in the church and speak badly of one another as Christians, it actually turns people away from Christ. And I said what unites us is not our different cultures, nationalities, or political views. What unites us is the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom, and their job as a new generation was to make that clear. When I quoted Jesus’ opening sermon at Nazareth and concluded that —any gospel that isn’t good news to the poor is not the gospel of Jesus Christ,— they all cheered.

The front page of the local paper in Appleton, Wisconsin, where I boarded my flight for home the next day, led with the story of the night before in nearby Oshkosh by saying, —Jim Wallis shared his Bible-based message of serving the poor Friday night to a large, welcoming crowd at Lifest despite a small number of boos at his introduction.— They reported what Bob Lenz courageously said in his kind introduction: —This is my brother in Christ,— he told the crowd. —I think he has a message for God’s church. Part of who I am is because of this man.—

I told the young crowd that heeding what the Bible says about serving the poor and seeking justice was not about social action or politics, but rather about nothing less than restoring the integrity of the Word of God in our lives, neighborhoods, nation, and world. Their response to that indicated that many young people today are no longer stuck in the old arguments and divisions in the church.

Most seemed to feel that the controversy and protest looked pretty foolish and unnecessary after the event had taken place. Many thanked Bob for standing firm against some pretty nasty attacks and pressure. But if the attackers had succeeded with intimidation to cancel a speaker they didn’t agree with, there is no doubt that the tactics of distortion and intimidation would have been repeated in other places. That is, after all, how some media celebrities now make their living, and they are encouraging others to follow their example. The newspaper article ended with my saying it was time to —replace the gospel of Glenn, Rush, Sean, and Bill with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.—

When I got to the TSA agent at airport security, she looked at my ID, smiled, and said, —So, you’re Jim Wallis! I hope you felt very welcome here; many of us are very glad you came.— I did feel very welcome and am very glad that I came.

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