The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Thirty-One mainstream to left-leaning Religious Organizations Unite to Push FOR Health Care Reform

    By amike on Sun, 08/16/2009 - 9:44pm |
    .Last week I posted an entry which drew attention to the mobilizing of mainstream and left-leaning religious organizations in support of Barack Obama's health care reform initiative.  Consider this an update of the information presented in that post, specifically information about the Forty Minute Call:  You're invited! 5PM EDT Wednesday, August 19th, the faith community is hosting a national call in and audio webcast on health care reform and President Barack Obama has accepted the faith community's invitation to join the call.  The Faith for Health website coordinates the efforts of a very diverse group of religious organizations.  As best I can tell, Faith for Health is the child of Faith in Public Life.  I'll let Faith in Public Life tell you a little bit about itself:

            
        Mission
        Faith in Public Life is a strategy center advancing faith in the public square as a positive and unifying force for justice, compassion and the common good. In order to maximize the faith community's unique ability to shape public debates, Faith in Public Life identifies and creates moments of opportunity, builds and supports broad coalitions, and designs and implements innovative campaigns, bold initiatives and capacity-building tools. Faith in Public Life's approach emphasizes results, rapid response, cutting-edge skills and media savvy.
       
        History
        Following the 2004 election, in which faith was often deployed in service of a narrow and partisan agenda, a diverse group of 40 religious leaders came together to advance a positive alternative: an inclusive and unifying faith movement advancing the common good in the public square. This group, including leaders such as Jim Wallis, Rabbi David Saperstein, Melissa Rogers, Rev. Jim Forbes, Ricken Patel and Sr. Catherine Pinkerton, envisioned a more robust and effective faith movement with the savvy, flexibility and nimbleness to thrive in a new political and media environment.

     
    I recommend perusing the blogroll at Faith in Public Life--you should find at least one familiar name there.  No hints, and no cheeseburgers to the first person who discovers him. 

    Anyhow, I count thirty-one organizations sponsoring this phone-in with President Obama, representing organizations from the religious traditions of Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, and Protestantism.  If you're curious about how I chose to introduce these for monothesitic faiths in this order, I used the alphabet.  It seemed safer somehow.  Here is a list of the Call Sponsors as I found them on the website.  My little contribution is to provide links to their websites, and also an annotation or two.  Where possible, I've linked to either a page with a link to the organization's participation in Health Care Reform or directly to the statement itself.  That wasn't always possible.  One thing I've noticed is that the megachurches are generally more media savvy and better financed in their creation of media.  Some of the websites listed below haven't been updated in awhile.

    The Call Sponsors:




    (No information about the call on the home page)

    (Click through to the link, "For advocacy news and information about advocacy-related events")









    (Couldn't find anything, but I didn't check every nook and cranny)

    (Also couldn't find anything here.  Some of these organizations really need help in website design.  Some also don't update as frequently as they should).






    (Another website which keeps its information well hidden)


    (Website doesn't look like it has been updated recently)


    (Three links on the front page)

    (Link to statement in support of H.R. 3200)

    (If there's anything recent on health care reform, I didn't find it.)

    • THE NEW EVANGELICALS
    (An organization without a website?  I couldn't find one, and I looked through 8 pages on the Google search.  I saw enough to know that the right wing thinks they're heretical for being too catholic in their belief in "works," while the left wing hates them for the association with Rick Warren.  Oh well...)




    • WASHINGTON OFFICE OF WOMEN'S DIVISIONS, GENERAL BOARD OF GLOBAL MINISTRIES, UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, A.K.A. UNITED METHODIST WOMEN
    (Don't know why the Call folks listed them in the awkward and cumbersome way they did, but they did.)

    What can you do with this information?  If you have friends of one of these persuasions or of a closely allied one, and those friends are fence-sitting about Health Care Reform, you might use this as testimonial. 

    One thing which inspires me about this list is its breadth.  There are organizations on this list who go at each other hammer and tongs on issues like West Bank Settlements or Ordination of Gay Clergy, but who have put aside those issues of division to work cooperatively on an issue of common interest.  I say bravo to that, and amen. 

    I haven't given you a video for awhile...I thought one of an operation might be too yucky for a Sunday Evening, so I decided maybe something from my youth (1955) with a social gospel air about it.  I was going to post Mahalia Jackson's version, but posting has been disabled.  So my choice was between Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, and Don Cornell.  Don who????  Don won by the lack of a bouffant hairdo. 



    Don Cornell's Lyrics:

    (How does he know)
    Oh, how do I know
    (How does he know)
    Oh, how do I know
    (This is how he knows)

    Have faith, hope and charity
    That's the way to live successfully
    How do I know, the Bible tells me so
    (The Bible tells him)

    Do good to your enemies
    And the Blessed Lord you'll surely please
    How do I know, the Bible tells me so
    (The Bible tells him)

    Don't worry 'bout tomorrow
    Just be real good today
    The Lord is right beside you
    He'll guide you all the way

    Have faith, hope and charity
    That's the way to live successfully
    How do I know, the bible tells me so
    (The Bible tells him)