Happy Pi Day!
Tonight's guests include:
Pastor David Bullock, national spokesperson of the Change Agent Consortium, president of the Detroit Chapter of Rainbow PUSH coalition and the Highland Park chapter of the NAACP. He was also one of the activists behind the traffic protests in Detroit today
Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, and organizer of Nuns on the Bus
Here is our anthem of the week.
And here's executive producer Bill Wolff, in Los Angeles:
Leave a Comment:
Happy Pi Day with Lucy Kaplansky- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfCx8Uymv6c
Only someone like Sister Simone or Sister Joan Chittister should have been named pope, but please don't put the Sister in a tight spot especially regarding Pope Francis or the politics of the church like Opus dei or the internal war to silence progressive catholic priests following liberation theology. We need her voice to continue and there may be some tricky issues for her to deal with. If you want someone to give the progressive catholic take on Francis I, invite Matthew Fox. He is out of the church now and though he is on the left end of the spectrum, he can speak more freely. (Today's Paul Jay interview of Matthew Fox)
BTW- On DemocracyNow, Amy Goodman today had a long interview with Verbitsky, the journalist documenting Francis's interaction with the 76-83 Junta members conducting the Dirty War. Verbitsky's english is slow but they went through most of the allegations, and documentation to back up the story that Francis's comments about two of his priests led to their abduction and prolonged torture and interrogation.
The guy may have merely intended to express his frustration with progressive catholic priests insisting on pursuing social programs to aid the oppressed poor, but this had severe consequences for them.
If he cleans out the Vatican and doesn't get loud about his homophobia or sexist views, then I best that is the best that can be hoped for from the field of likely candidates for Pope.
I'm also a big fan of Sister Simone and of Sister Joan Chittister, btw. But I just don't understand why the new Pope's allegiance to Roman Catholic teaching on sexuality is a shocker for anyone, including Rachel. People who have problems with these positions don't (primarily) have a problem with this Pope, they have beef with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. I'm always amused when the media (and/or Americans in general) debate whether the Pope is liberal or conservative... the Pope is a Roman Catholic, which is (or has become) a conservative identity. The people who get all up in arms and say otherwise (usually emphasizing social justice teachings, or liberation theology) are ignoring the totality of Roman Catholic theology which is not changing anytime soon (if ever). Once I personally came to understand this, I swam past the Tiber and all the way past the English Channel into the Anglican Communion, where at the very least catholicism has been maintained AND is open to the influence of reason and human experience.
Though I do have to say I'm interested to know more about Francis' alleged complicity with Dirty War tragedies, as I've been hearing a lot of conflicting stories; specifically that this was investigated by Amnesty International and found to be unsubstantiated.
Derek, I just don't understand your misunderstanding. Obviously you know something about church history and understand that doctrine does change. In its glacial progress, there is always a moderation of language. Now, if a pope is saying that the cause of Gay Rights being orchestrated by the Devil himself, that is a far cry from JPII's statement that gays "possess the same inherent dignity and rights as everybody else" (source) .
Don't you see? It does matter what Francis says. If he continues with the Father of Lies rhetoric, you have right wing thugs world wide stomping heads in back alleys world wide, murdering, gay bashing, denying jobs, housing- and the perpetrators are congratulating themselves that they are doing God's work fighting the Devil.
Regarding "Liberation theology", it was once an accepted line of thinking within the church, and the Vatican elevated Óscar Romero to Archbishop. But within 3 years he was murderred while delivering mass. Why? He was imploring soldiers in the death squads of El Salvador to obey God's orders and ignore those of their commanders to murder their countrymen.
Although Vatican II commands that there be tolerance for alternative theological perspectives, the church has continued a process of silencing voices who champion the rights of the poor. This is no more Marxist than what the words of Jesus Christ commanded. Archbishops and progressive Jesuit priests may have been murdered in Latin America- the Vatican may continue to attempt to marginalize priests who fight wealth inequality and the power of authoritarians in their countries, but they will not win.
Those voices are still there, and they will grown louder. The Church is not the hierarchy. The Church is the people- the body of Christ. And if you pay attention to what Christ actually said, it is pretty clear that it matches up closer to what "liberation theologians" are saying than what the Vatican and Right wing evangelists are saying.
Sure it will take time. Maybe it will be two centuries before there are women priests. But it is inevitable. The heavily catholic country of Argentina voted for gay marriages. That's where the body of Christ is. That is where the real Church is.
The Vatican and the 1% doesn't want to catch up, but they will lose because they are battling the Spirit doing its mischief in its dance through history.
Sister Simone had such a perfect turn of phrase. Such an excellent person and servant of God.
Please try to have better audio quality in future videos. The traffic noise essentially drowns out the Bill Wolff's voice in this video, making him very hard to understand.
Removing the traffic noise won't help. Wolf is always hard to understand- especially when he slips into sports babble mode.
Then put a mic on the man for the love of all that's holy!
I see that that Dianne Feinstein's Assault Weapons Ban has advanced in the Senate. I'm not sure of the purpose of the Senate show, as it's clearly dead in the House. I believe that closing the "gun show loophole" would be a lot easier if it doesn't get tied up with less popular ideas.
I support requiring background checks and I'm willing to support reasonable magazine capacity limits (NY is not reasonable, IMHO), but I do not support another AWB. I might be a Democrat, but I will not donate to any politician supporting an AWB and if one is on my ballot I will not vote for them.
Thank you Rachel for a excellent nightly political news show.
Why do Nuns not see their own 'Battered Wife Syndrome'? There is a huge difference between Hope and Faith ; I guess you could call that difference Religion, but it seems too facile to do so. Best to call it by what it is - Submission.
An incisive and incendiary first segment tonight! - informative (sometimes horrifyingly), compelling, and the kind of broadcast journalism the country - and it's oppositional congress - needs NOW. I grew up in the SF bay area and will never forget that dark day of the Moscone and Milk murders. And I will always have an immense amount of respect for the way Ms. Feinstein handled herself - and the city - during that horribly sad and brutal event. way to go Rachel!
They should be doing the traffic protests in Lansing. Get the governor's schedule and coordinate it to affect his travel.
I applaud Pastor David Bullock for his courage to fight for the rights of the citizens in Detroit. It's hard to believe that a politician is taking away the rights of the republic and it's not on front page news. Thank you Rachel for bringing this to our attention!
I was professionally trained by professional United States Army instructors to professionally use the M16A1 and A2 M4 type personal weapon both as a Sergeant and Captain in combat arms for the defense of the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. I was trained to use the M60 machine gun, 7.62 caliber squad defensive weapon and the fifty caliber M2 Browning machine gun. At no time did it occur to me that I would like to personally own anyone of these weapons and more, as I knew what there real purpose is, killing enemy combatants before they kill you. The idea that we want just anyone running around with this type of combat designed hardware is inane and without merit. Those who wish the Public to have these devices are consciously willfully ignorant and wish harm to us all and attempt to destroy an abiding sense of safety and trust in society and between one another for the purposes of greed and power, and to consciously mislead the Public into believing they are powerless and meaningless to divide us and keep us in a state of ignorance so they may continue to manipulate us for their own nefarious purposes to enjoy that hideous strength that motivates them to control all of us. Shame on those who manipulate us for their own selfish purposes and shame on us if we let them.
Sen. Feinstein missed an opportunity to remind that Texas jerk that there are now Federal laws limiting ownership of certain guns, have been in place since the 1930s, and they have never been challenged in court. Those laws limit the ownership of automatic weapons, passed in response to the damage done by gangsters and their tommy guns.
Many states further restrict certain guns for the purpose of hunting, limiting shotguns to 3 shells for wild fowl hunting.
Why is that no one EVER mentions these successful restrictions when dealing with the gun nuts. These laws are in place, never contested in court, and they WORK. Great examples.