Action Alert from The Fellowship of Reconciliation

“…in such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.

- Albert Camus

This is a true turning point in U.S. history. Action is critical. The Fellowship of Reconciliation is joining with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) to register opposition to any effort to undermine the Geneva Conventions or to allow torture or cruel, degrading or inhumane treatment of detainees, including sponsoring delegations of faith leaders to meet with the White House and key Members of Congress. You can help. 

Here is what you can do:

• Email/fax and call your Representative and Senators and tell them to support the Geneva Conventions and to oppose anything that deviates from the Geneva Conventions. Contact your members of Congress (courtesy of the Friends Committee on National Legislation).
• Form a delegation in your community and request a meeting with your Representative and Senators or their staffs in the district or state offices. Tell them that the U.S. must support the Geneva Conventions and must oppose all U.S.-sponsored torture and cruel and inhumane treatment of detainees.
• Write a Letter to the Editor of your local paper in support of the U.S. adherence to the Geneva Conventions.
• Sign the NRCAT petition.
• Visit the NRCAT Web site, which has helpful talking points, resources, links to other organizations working on this issue, and a calendar of upcoming events.

This is a critical junction in our nation’s history. Please act now. Torture degrades us all. 

Keeping Close to the Word of Jesus by Henri Nouwen

The words of Jesus can keep us erect and confident in the midst of the turmoil of the end-time. They can support us, encourage us, and give us life even when everything around us speaks of death. Jesus’ words are food for eternal life. They do much more than give us ideas and inspiration. They lead us into the eternal life while we are still being clothed in mortal flesh.

When we keep close to the word of Jesus, reflecting on it, “chewing” on it, eating it as food for the soul, we will enter even more deeply into the everlasting love of God.

Peace

If we believe,

as we say we believe,

that there is a

knowledge that passes

beyond all we know

or can even hope to know

now, past all we can dream by

the rushing river or realize once

the frenzy of mystical vision is gone,

and if, in choosing to believe,

we get to knowledge-beyond-knowledge

that we do not fully possess

but believe is God-imbued,

so that just as the stream,

encountering the worn rocks and the urgent falls,

does not question the source

either of its being or its continuance,

but flows—trusting—toward the closest sea,

somehow we know without knowing

that we more than endure,

ride in wide-loving arms.

 

Now that’s something to know.

 

So why don’t we live

like the bell-shaped lilies live,

growing and thriving in peace?

 

first published in Domicile

 

Please continue to remember Jennings Cline and  family in prayer.