In case you haven't heard, it was reported in the Lancaster New Era that Bush has been appealing to his "higher Father" again. In a meeting with a group of Old Order Amish in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Bush was reported as saying, “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.’’ Of course, I find this troubling, because, as we know, when God speaks through George Bush it invariably ends up sounding a lot like George Bush and his fellow neocons. It never sounds like God, who I know to be loving and compassionate. Granted, She is also challenging sometimes--trying to nudge us to do things we don't want to do (or think we can't do) but really, doesn't any good parent do that? This, for example, doesn't sound very much like God to me: "According to Abbas, Bush said: 'God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.'" It is times like this that I sometimes wish that God would just appear to everyone, like in a scene in a Monty Python movie and boom, "I said no such thing! Don't listen to him!" Now I can imagine God saying to me, like in an old Bill Cosby sketch about Noah's Ark, "You know I don't work like that!" "But someone has to tell the people--the Christians who do take Bush at his word when he says he is doing your will--that Bush's will is not what you want for the earth!" "Please don't look at me like that. I'm no good at this sort of thing!" "Could I at least have some help?" Fortunately, once I start looking, I discover that I have a lot of help available to me. Bill Moyers, for example, recently wrote: Let's get Jesus back. The Jesus who inspired a Methodist ship-caulker named Edward Rogers to crusade across New England for an eight-hour work day. Let's get back the Jesus who caused Frances William to rise up against the sweatshop. The Jesus who called a young priest named John Ryan to champion child labor laws, unemployment insurance, a minimum wage, and decent housing for the poor - 10 years before the New Deal. The Jesus in whose name Dorothy Day challenged the church to march alongside auto workers in Michigan, fishermen and textile workers in Massachusetts, brewery workers in New York, and marble cutters in Vermont. The Jesus who led Martin Luther King to Memphis to join sanitation workers in their struggle for a decent wage. I like that. People need to be reminded of that Jesus, who was really big on caring for the poor and disenfranchised, and urged us to love our neighbors as ouselves--even to the point of loving our enemies.

Sort of the antithesis to the "Catholic Voters Guide"--the National Council of Churches USA is releasing "Christian Principles in an Election Year". It is available as a PDF that you can print and share--especially, one supposes with anyone who wants to convince you that the five non-negotiable issues in an election are abortion, euthanasia, stem-cell research, human cloning, and same-sex marriage. Our Christian faith compels us to address the world through the lens of our relationship to God and to one another. Public discourse is enhanced as we engage civic leaders on the values and ethics affirmed by our faith. At the same time, religious liberty and the integrity of our democracy will be protected as candidates refrain from using faith-based organizations and institutions for partisan gain. We offer these ten principles to those seeking to accept the responsibility that comes with holding public office. Click here to read the principles, which emphasize peacemaking and cooperation, global, economic, racial, and enviromental justice, a restorative, not retributive, approach to the criminal justice system, affordable and accessible health care for all, and a commitment to equal educational opportunity for all.

Is there anything we can or should be doing to help support Rev. Barry Lynn and Americans United in this effort? Americans United: IRS Should Investigate Partisan Political Activity By Jerry Falwell Ministries, Says Americans United TV preacher Jerry Falwell has used his Jerry Falwell Ministries to endorse President George W. Bush's re-election in apparent violation of federal tax law, Americans United for Separation of Church and State has told the Internal Revenue Service. In a complaint to the federal tax agency, Americans United told the IRS that Falwell endorsed Bush in a July 1 e-mail to supporters and also urged followers to send money to a political action committee that supports Republican candidates. Falwell also posted the partisan election-year appeal on his ministry website. The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, said Falwell's action clearly merits an IRS investigation. Falwell, in his "Falwell Confidential" bulletin, wrote, "For conservative people of faith, voting for principle this year means voting for the re-election of George W. Bush. The alternative, in my mind, is simply unthinkable. To the pro-life, pro-family, pro-traditional marriage, pro-America voters in this nation, we must determine that President Bush is the man with our interests at heart. It is that simple." Falwell continued, "However, simply voting may not be enough. I believe it is the responsibility of every political conservative, every evangelical Christian, every pro-life Catholic, every traditional Jew, every Reagan Democrat, and everyone in between to get serious about re-electing President Bush. That is why I am utilizing this column to urge you to support the Campaign for Working Families, which is headed by Gary Bauer. It is the organization that I believe can have the greatest impact in re-electing Mr. Bush to the Oval Office." Here is an excerpt from the New York Times article about Lynn's appeal to the IRS: In an interview yesterday, Mr. Falwell said that an affiliated tax-exempt lobbying organization, not his religious organization, Jerry Falwell Ministries, had paid for the e-mail message and the Web site. Mr. Falwell also argued that his comments constituted only his personal view, and not an endorsement by his lobbying organization, Liberty Alliance. "We report news, write editorials, etc., all of which is protected by the First Amendment," he said. Despite the urgency of his calls to "get serious about re-electing President Bush,'' Mr. Falwell said the lobbying organization "doesn't support candidates or endorse them.'' He said, "It speaks to moral and social issues and it does encourage contributions to organizations like Gary Bauer's." Mr. Falwell defended the right of a pastor to endorse political candidates in his personal capacity, even from the pulpit. Mr. Falwell said he often did this at his church, the Thomas Road Baptist Church. "I support President Bush,'' he said. "I support him on Sunday mornings from the pulpit where it doesn't cost the church or anybody anything. I make it very clear, just like at most African-American churches and many liberal churches, that as a tax-paying citizen I vote. And I tell people who I vote for." He called Mr. Lynn's charges "a fright tactic" intended to silence conservative Christians. "His problem is that I am a Ronald Reagan, George Bush conservative evangelist," Mr. Falwell said.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation is having a national conference in Los Angeles, August 5-9. ORGANIZING THE REAL SUPERPOWER: People of the World Choose Peace Kathy Kelly, organizer of Voices in the Wilderness Rev. James Lawson, one of the principal architects of the civil rights movement Dorothy Cotton, who worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bishop Gene Robinson, first openly gay bishop ordained in the Episcopal Church of the United States. Donzaleigh Abernathy, daughter of Ralph Abernathy, who worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Cindy and Craig Corrie, who lost their daughter, Rachel, when she was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip Fernando Suarez del Solar, A member of Military Families Speak Out, a national advocacy group of over 600 families, Suarez has traveled around the country speaking out against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Program workshops will cover a wide variety of issues such as workers' and immigrants' rights, military disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, conscientious objection to war, Muslim-Jewish / interfaith peace relations, the protection of civil liberties and legal rights, end of capital punishment, regional focus on Colombia, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, racial reconciliation, non-violence training and education, and more.

I have a favor to ask... Here you can find an updated version of a 4th of July flyer Demetrius and I offered last year. While the Bush administration was busy pushing "support our troops--don't ask any questions" as the way to be patriotic, I set to Googling and Demetrius started working on graphics layout, and we created a flyer illustrating the values upon which the United States was founded. One might even consider them to be liberal values. But the idea was to take a subtle approach--rather then whacking people over the head with anything overtly anti-Bush (which many people shut out right away)--we were just letting the words of the Founding Fathers remind them of what this country was meant to stand for. Last year around this time, I had a lot more spare time, apparently, because I managed to e-mail a bunch of bloggers and some major ones put up a link to the flyer. Tom Tomorrow's blog, This Modern World put up a link to it, and we got so many hits that we had to upgrade our web service. In the end, we made good use of that upgrade, because we used it to offer free grassroots graphics at The Peace Pretzel and People-Powered Graphics. This year the flyer has been updated a bit, to show more diversity, but is still more "historical" than current, showcasing the wisdom of our forefathers and mothers. Mathew Gross was kind enough to put up a link to the flyer a little while back, which I really appreciate, after I posted a link to it in the comments section on his blog. I just don't have the time to post about this and e-mail lots of people, but since the 4th is coming up so soon, I would really like to see this reach as wide an audience as possible. So, if you like the flyer, I would really appreciate any help you can give as far as spreading the word about it. You know, you tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on...

The Human Rights Campaign has posted an example of an ad that was released in Ohio, supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment. The text of the ad starts with, "Why Don't [Ohio] Senators DeWine and Voinovich Believe Every Child Needs a Mother and a Father?" and continues with: "...Here's the bottom line: homosexual marriage intentionally creates fatherless families or motherless families. Think about it. Every child understands how important a mom and a dad are. Help make your senators as smart as a kid. Pick up the phone and tell their staffs you support the Federal Marriage Amendment, and they should too." That is so offensive and hateful, it leaves me speechless, at least at the moment. If you, however, are not speechless right now, please speak out.