JOYFUL WANDERING -- 68

+ Where have I been? Where am I going? It's a mystery, isn't it?

+ The New Faith for the New Earth #tnfftne

I have begun to offer tweets on The New Faith for the New Earth with the hashtag #tnfftne

February 5

+ The New Faith for the New Earth > #tnfftne is essential for all creation > #tnfftne is an idea whose time has come (again).  Ideas go round and round.  They come.  They go.  They come again. so #tnfftne is not a new idea but it is as old as life itself.

February 10

#tnfftne #2  THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH is now here and you are an essential participant right now.  You know what it is as well as I do because we are one.

#tnfftne #3  THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH unites all creatures everywhere with this CREDO > We are intimately, intricately, infinitely connected to a matrix of unconditional, unlimited, uniting Love which is miraculous, mysterious and marvelous.

#tnfftne #4  THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH is: non-hierarchical, free, open, loving, caring, compassionate, healing, energizing, inclusive, humble, non-judgmental, fun, creative, yours, mine.

#tnfftne #5 THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH is happening now.  It is essential.  You know when you see it.  It is all of us creating more and more Compassion, Peace, Justice and Sustainable Abundance.  You can consider more ideas at http://abundancetrek.com

#tnfftne #6 Since THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH is mysterious, it is hard to describe.  Actually it is impossible to describe.  But we have clues.  I have a take on what #tnfftne is and that's what I am writing about.  Sometimes I will be right and sometimes I will be wrong.

aq

#tnfftne #7 THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH is open to correction, revision, new ideas, new visions, new possibilities, new directions.  Let us all be open and committed to discovering new ways to create more compassion, peace, justice and sustainable abundance for all.

February 15
#TNFFTNE #8 + we are creating the new faith for the new earth which is creating #compassion, peace, justice and sustainable abundance for all breath after breath.

#TNFFTNE #9 + we are creating the new faith for the new earth which is creating #compassion, peace, justice and sustainable #abundance for all thought after thought after thought.

#TNFFTNE #10 + In the essential practice of #stillness you discover who you are, your purpose, your message, your path and there is simply no other way for you learn that. http://abundancetrek.com/stillness.html

+ Your Turn …

Compassionate Politics -- 1

Make no mistake about it: The Electoral College victory of Donald Trump is a tragedy coupled with the continuing Republican control of Congress even though they lost some seats in both houses. It appears to me like the USA is falling apart. This is a huge crisis facing us and it will take a huge effort by concerned citizens to put this country back together again.. We are in trouble.  Make no mistakle about it.

So, I am beginning a series of posts on Compassionate Politics which will, hopefully, contribute to the huge effort needed by concerned citizens to put this country back together again.

Here are a few websites which are movers and shakers for the compassionate politics our nation so desperately needs:

• Robert Reich
• Bill Moyers
• Michael Moore
• Thom Hartmann
• Common Dreams
• Democracy Now!
• People for the American Way
• Sojourners
• Daily Kos
• TruthDig
• TruthOut

I anticipate adding a few more to this list but this will get you started.

The Torture Report Makes Us All Look Bad

The Torture Report Isn’t Just On Bush—It’s On All Of Us

By Jason Stanford

Excerpt > "The belief that releasing the torture report, and not the torture itself, damages our standing and security in the world is so naïve, it’s nearly endearing. It’s based on the wrong-headed idea that the rest of the world was unaware of the contents of the torture report when Americans were the last to know what was done in our name. And it's not the release of the torture report that incites terrorism. It's the torture."

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

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+ Spirituality and Practice is offering daily wisdom on the practice of Yoga this month. I really like what they shared today: “Yoga is probably the world's most perfect form of exercise. It cultivates cardiovascular health, and musculoskeletal strength and flexibility, without the painful and damaging side effects of high-impact aerobics. It tunes up every organ system — respiratory, digestive, reproductive, endocrine, lymphatic, and nervous. It cultivates the body's capacity to relax and dramatically reduces the negative effects of stress. With regular yoga practice, we breathe better. We sleep better. We digest our food better. We feel better. We may even begin to recover from chronic illness. And, for many Americans, the best part is that none of these amazing outcomes requires long years of training and apprenticeship. The benefits of practice are immediate. We are, by and large, a very practical people. And yoga is a very practical endeavor.” -- Stephen Cope in Yoga and the Quest for the True Self .  

+ Spirituality and Practice offers some practical suggestions for achieving health and reconciliation. Read this  excerpt from Energize Your Heart in Four Directions by Puran and Susanna Bair.

+ The drums of war are beating and the war profiteers are cheering.  But this is a dangerous path,  very dangerous.  TruthOut offers "Say 'No' to War and Media Propaganda" by Mairead Maguire.  This is excellent analysis of the situation and offers some hope. 

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+ Robert Reich offers “Berkeley vs. Big Soda" by Robert Reich”. 

+ Truthdig offers “Driving American Politics Underground” by Chris Hedges. Excerpts: “We have devolved into what Alexis de Tocqueville feared—‘democratic despotism.’” / “Pundits and news celebrities on the airwaves engage in fevered speculation about whether the wife of a former president will run for office—and this after the mediocre son of another president spent eight years in the White House. This is not politics. It is gossip. Opinion polls, the staple of what serves as political reporting, are not politics. They are forms of social control. The use of billions of dollars to fund election campaigns and pay lobbyists to author legislation is not politics. It is legalized bribery. The insistence that austerity and economic rationality, rather than the welfare of the citizenry, be the primary concerns of the government is not politics. It is the death of civic virtue. The government’s system of wholesale surveillance and the militarization of police forces, along with the psychosis of permanent war and state-orchestrated fear of terrorism, are not politics. They are about eradicating civil liberties and justifying endless war and state violence. The chatter about death panels, abortion, gay rights, guns and undocumented children crossing the border is not politics. It is manipulation by the power elites of emotion, hate and fear to divert us from seeing our own powerlessness.”

+ "Why 99, you know we have to murder and kill and destroy in order to preserve everything that's good in the world." --Maxwell Smart to Agent 99

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+ Advent: Day 17: Throughout most of Advent, the focus is not on Christmas. The focus is on the Kingdom, or the realm, of God which is deep within us and near us and beyond us and not here yet. The “not here yet” is the main concern during Advent. That’s why John the Baptist has the leading role. According to scripture and tradition, he is more like Adam than Christ. And, unless we are born again as a heavenly being focused on heavenly things far more than a human being focused on earthly things, then we too are stuck all too often in the “not here yet” which we are called to examine so closely as we perceive and practice Advent as intended, a time of deep reflection and repentance.

+ Here is an excerpt from this week's Inner Frontier Inner Work: "Our many relationships seem to define who we are and rightly so, because what we are does not stop at our skin. Through our social intelligence, we all deal with variable relationships of many kinds, fleeting or long-term, superficial or intimate. We treat these as being between us and someone else, between two discreet people. This is our ordinary world of separateness, governed by the rules of morality, etiquette, and courtesy. But there are deeper levels to every relationship .... There is sameness, there is uniqueness, and there is unity, three qualities at three different levels." Read it all.
 

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+ Truthout offers "The Violence of Organized Forgetting" by Henry A Giroux. Excerpt: "Politicians such as Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich along with talking heads such as Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Anne Coulter are not the problem, they are symptomatic of a much more disturbing assault on critical thought, if not rationale thinking itself.  Under a neoliberal regime, the language of authority, power and command is divorced from ethics, social responsibility, critical analysis and social costs." | Read the article

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+ "Liberals": Partisan or Principled? > Adam Hudson, Truthout: After criticizing Bush's militarism, many "liberals" fail to denounce Obama's targeted killing program. This partisan-based lack of opposition to counter-progressive policies undermines the legitimacy of left-of-center advocacy and calls for new principles-based forms of political organization. | Read the Article

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+ Democracy Now! offers "The Costs of War: 10 Years After Iraq Invasion, New Study Tallies the Massive Human, Financial Toll"

On the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we look at a massive new report by a team of 30 economists, anthropologists, political scientists, legal experts and physicians about the Iraq ... Read More or Watch Video →

+ TruthOut offers “US Climate Bomb is Ticking: What the Gas Industry Doesn't Want You to Know” by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. Excerpt: “We spoke with experts - Cornell engineering professor Dr. Anthony Ingraffea and biologist and author Dr. Sandra Steingraber - to explore what the newest studies show and to bust common myths about gas shale hydraulic fracking. The path out of this situation is a combination of promoting sound science, ending the extraction economy and employing direct action to weaken the stranglehold of industry on the political process. It is time to end the "all of the above" energy strategy which ensures going over the climate tipping point and instead commit to a carbon-free, nuclear-free energy economy.” | Read the article

+ TruthOut offers “Will Capitalism Destroy Civilization?” by Noam Chomsky. Excerpt: “Dewey called for workers to be 'masters of their own industrial fate' and for all institutions to be brought under public control, including the means of production, exchange, publicity, transportation and communication. Short of this, Dewey argued, politics will remain ‘the shadow cast on society by big business.’

 

"The truncated democracy that Dewey condemned has been left in tatters in recent years. Now control of government is narrowly concentrated at the peak of the income scale, while the large majority 'down below' has been virtually disenfranchised. The current political-economic system is a form of plutocracy, diverging sharply from democracy, if by that concept we mean political arrangements in which policy is significantly influenced by the public will.

 

"There have been serious debates over the years about whether capitalism is compatible with democracy. If we keep to really existing capitalist democracy – RECD for short – the question is effectively answered: They are radically incompatible. 

 

"It seems to me unlikely that civilization can survive RECD and the sharply attenuated democracy that goes along with it. But could functioning democracy make a difference?” | Read the article

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+ The New York Times Op Ed page offers “Come Home America” by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman. It begins: “EVERYONE talks about getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan. But what about Germany and Japan? / The sequester — $85 billion this year in across-the-board budget cuts, about half of which will come from the Pentagon — gives Americans an opportunity to discuss a question we’ve put off too long: Why we are still fighting World War II?” Another excerpt: "Partisan debates that focus on shaving a percentage point off the Pentagon budget here or there won’t take us where we need to go. Both parties are stuck in a paradigm of costly international activism while emerging powers like China, India, Brazil and Turkey are accumulating wealth and raising productivity and living standards, as we did in the 19th century. The long-term consequences are obvious."| Read it all

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+ One Billion Rising demands an end to violence against women.  See videos at Spirituality and Practice.

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+ A few lines from a great speech today:

 

For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.

 

We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.

 

...... we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.

 

Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.

 

Read it all.

http://www.heavy.com/regions/2013/01/barack-obama-2nd-inauguration-inaugural-speech-video-text/

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+ How about a little REM? Here is a live version of It's the End of the World as We Know It and here are the lyrics.

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+ updated at 3:06pm ESDT on Monday, April 23, 2012

+ Peaceworks offers "The Right Wing Self Designated Neighborhood Watch" by Alexandria Skinner. This blogger gets it so right as she affirms the ministry of John Shuck and criticizes the self-righteous, mightier-than-thou, thought police trying to bring him down in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Excerpt: "As our nation reels from the murder of Trayvon Martin by a self-designated Neighborhood Watch Vigilante, we observe another equally self-obsessed group of vigilantes within the Presbyterian Church, eager to take matters into their own hands to pass judgment on others they don’t want in their neighborhood. This time, the neighborhood of the Presbyterian Church. Claiming that the institutional mechanisms within the church don’t reflect Biblical truth, they would seek to have Shuck defrocked based upon their own view of the Gospel."

+ This is the Day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.  And, It's a Beautiful Day. Shout it from the rooftops. 

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+ Recently, my father died.  He was 99 going on 100.  Some of you may have seen or participated in the outpouring of support I received on my Facebook page.  It was amazing.  If you have access, scroll down to the late March entries on my page.

+ Here is the Mission Statement of World Faith: "World Faith's mission is to counter religious extremism and strife by demonstrating how faith can inform work for unity and peace, rather than hate, war, and division."

The same sentiment is expressed in The Charter for Compassion.

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+ Naomi Klein has contributed immensely to our understanding of the effects of the radical capitalist policies which have increasingly dominated our planet for the past 4 decades.  A few get fabulously wealthy while most of the rest of us see either little change or see our material wealth decline.  Many have been reduced to poverty by these policies which its advocates still say will improve the lives of everyone. 

She wrote SHOCK DOCTRINE which tells how the disciples of Milton Friedman have used crisis situations over and over again to implement these radical policies.  Often they have taken advantage of situatons during and after some horrible repressive events such as the coup which overthrew the popularly elected Marxist president of Chile in 1973.  There is now a documentary named SHOCK DOCTRINE which tells the stories of some of these terrible events. 

Please watch it.  Get informed. Try to change these destructive policies so often supported by the governments of the planet including the USA, the UK, Russia and Israel.  Find ways to change policies.

Sadly, a vote for the Democrats here in the USA is not nearly enough since many Democrats support these repressive policies including, apparently, President Obama. At least he has done little to stop them.

APOLOGY TO MY FOLLOWERS

I haven't posted much lately on my 3 blogs.  I apologize to anybody who has come to read my blog posts with some regularity.  You deserve better.  I guess I have been distracted when I get in front of the screen by my Twitter and Facebook activities which I do find useful but I don't want my blogs to suffer.

So, I do intend to make a new effort to restore my blogging as a priority in my life.  I would love to see my number of followers increase.  That will depend on some consistency on my part in both quality and quantity. 

I do think I have something unique to offer as we trek together toward more compassion, peace, justice and sustainable abundance on this planet. 

Here goes!

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+ Here is some powerful political analysis dealing with the New Hampshire primary, the concerns of  the Occupy and Tea Party movements, the appeal of Libertarian Ron Paul and more >  http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/11/rivals_attacks_on_romneys_corporate_record

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+ updated at 3:31pm ESDT on Thursday, October 27, 2011

+ I sent an e-mail to a Far Right organization called The Traditional Values Coalition which is leading an effort to cut the NIH budget by tens of millions.  Here it is:

Dear Friends at the Traditional Values Coalition:

Really sad to see that you have such misdirected priorities when it comes to a moral federal budget. We need to cut the bloated Pentagon budget. We need to tax the rich who are benefitting so much from living here. We need to make sure our poor and sick have a strong safety net. Read the prophets. Read Jesus. Believe me, they would not be Republicans protecting the rich while the Middle Class and Poor are increasinglly cut off from our economic system.

I am sure NIH is not perfect but the research they do is vital. Targeting the NIH is simply misguided when it comes to making our budget moral. It is not very moral but that's not the reason. Again, read the prophets. Read Jesus. Read James. Find out what Christians and other compassionate people should be concerned about. Economic Justice is ALWAYS the priority of people of faith. I will pray that you see the Light and turn your attention to that traditional value.

love, john + http://www.abundancetrek.com/ + “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

+ Sojo.net is featuring this quote:

I advocate military engagement when I think it’s necessary, but really you can get more bang for your buck from civilian programs than you can from military engagement most of the time. You’ve got to have more options than just dropping bombs on people.
– South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, on why he’s working to protect foreign aid from budget cuts. (Source: McClatchy News)

Think how much good will we would create on the planet if we would spend tens of billions on all kinds of basic human needs rather than on military campaigns.

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+ updated at 2:22pm ESDT on Monday, October 17, 2011.

+ In "America's 'Primal Scream," Nicholas D. Kristoff offers some important reflections on the Occupy Wall Street movement. He says it's resonating because most of us are quite aware of the growing income inequality here in the USA and elsewhere. 

+ In "A Movement Too Big to Fail," Chris Hedges offers some important reflections on the Occupy Wall Street movement. It begins: "There is no danger that the protesters who have occupied squares, parks and plazas across the nation in defiance of the corporate state will be co-opted by the Democratic Party or groups like MoveOn. The faux liberal reformers, whose abject failure to stand up for the rights of the poor and the working class, have signed on to this movement because they fear becoming irrelevant."

+ In his latest sermon, The Myth of the Call, John Shuck has some very profound thoughts about the call of Abram and how it relates both positively and negatively to our current movements for compassion, peace, justice and sustainable abundance.  Here is the conclusion of that sermon:

The myth of the call is rooted in patriarchal spirituality. The figure is Abraham. He gets the divine summons to leave what is familiar, to leave his comfort zone, and to be a blessing. The call to be a blessing is a source of power that we can tap into in our contemporary movements for justice and peace, such as the movement taking place around the country. That call to go out and demonstrate, to dream of change, and to act is a powerful and necessary thing.

The shadow of the call is fanaticism. Abram’s call involved a displacement of the Canaanites and the willingness to kill his own son for this vision. There is delusion, fanaticism, carelessness, and ruthlessness associated with this call. Abram needs a partner. He needs a strong Sarai. Before going off to sacrifice their son, he might ask her opinion first.

If there is a call, it is to all of us. It is a call to be as well as to do. The values of relationship, companionship, diversity, wisdom, partnership, nurturing, and compassion will make our movement for social and economic justice stronger, more sustainable, and will enlarge that circle of blessing.

+ It is high time for us Presbyterians to do what some courageous, prophetic Methodists are doing. Go to http://johnshore.com/2011/10/17/methodist-ministers-to-perform-gay-weddings-despite-ban/.

By the way, some prophetic and courageous Presbyterians are doing GLBT weddings but more are needed.