I almost missed this wonderful diary, because the title, Thank you for helping my family made me think it was about a blog community pulling together to help someone (as I have seen them do) rather than an effort to put a human face (that of the author's grandmother) on the issue of Social Security. Thank you to Maura in VA for giving the heads-up as to what the diary was really about. Click here for the pictures and the story, which ends like this: We all have people who are close to us that benefit from the help that Social Security gives us. Social security is far more than a retirement program. It is Americans standing together to honor their past, and Americans standing together to ensure their future. It is the public expression of our collective goodwill. I am very angry that people, who for years have wanted to kill Social Security, now are speaking as if they alone can save it. Social Security is an extension of the goodwill of the American people. It honors the past and promises the future. These people pushing for radical reform intend to bleed dry the goodwill of the American people and replace it with another investment account that starts $2 trillion in the red. It is an amazing display of hubris. In the twilight of our lives or when family tragedy strikes, Social Security is there; you are there extending a helping hand to your fellow Americans, to your family. Asking people to stand alone at these times, in the wealthiest nation in history, is selfish and mean. Americans are not selfish and mean. If you would like to lend a hand in saving Social Security, please stop talking about dollars and cents and start showing people the faces of those benefitting from Social Security. Thank you again for the help you have given my family.

I've posted some links recently addressing budgets as moral documents. Here, Joan Chittister, OSB, weighs in, asking, Is this kind of Christianity Christian? National budgets are a nation's theology walking. In an era in which we call poverty "low-income" and hunger "lack of food security," the number of poor, according to the U.S Census Bureau, is increasing and the number of hungry in the richest country in the world has been rising steadily for four years. To pay for a war we should never have fought -- at least not for the reasons they gave us -- this budget is slashing domestic programs. The budget of this Christian presidency cuts food stamps. It reduces support for subsidized housing. It suggests pillaging social security. It reduces environmental enforcement programs and scientific research in a scientific age. It even reduces veteran's health benefits. Clearly, the country is in danger of going the way of all oligarchies; power and wealth are sucked to the top, while those on the bottom bleed. We can call it "Christian" as it collapses. And all the while, we watch more food lines forming, more homeless on the streets, more environmental degradation and more of the elderly living destitute lives. More than that, according to the budget analysis done by Bread for the World, (www.bread.org) while we honor our tax breaks to the rich in this country, we are not keeping our promise to fight HIV/AIDS around the world or to support the Third World development programs that might really make us secure in the future. From where I stand, it seems that the poor who will be most affected by these budget cuts have no political voice with which to protest them and the rich can hardly be expected to object since they are benefiting from them That leaves only the Christians -- the pastors and the bishops and the Religious Right -- who worked so hard to put this administration into office, to require that the rest of the Christian agenda finally be faced. Otherwise, forget the prayer in schools, the definition of marriage, or the fight against abortion. We lost the Christianity of this Christian nation a long time ago.

I've seen a few things in the past several days that I want to draw people's attention to, but didn't really have much comment to offer, so I have held off on posting. Rather than let stories come and go without a mention, I thought I should just go ahead and do a general "some stuff you might be interested in" post. First of all, I highly recommend checking out Accessible Airwaves, which is "A Campaign by the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ Inc." There is a guest entry there by Rev. William Sloane Coffin about CBS and NBC's refusal to air a UCC ad that included an image of a same-sex couple holding hands. I have been hearing for a while that Coffin is very ill and near the end of his life. It is truly an inspiration to see him continue to do Good Work wherever and however he is able to. On an entirely different note, I wanted to share this story about a "Men's Night Out" at Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. I found it linked in a Kos diary entitled "Was Allawi Iraq's Kerry?" (The diary author, dddemocrat, notes that Allawi and Kerry both failed to stem the tide of radical fundamentalists.) An excerpt from the conservative blogger, locomono, who shared, in words and pictures, what he found disturbing about the Men's Night Out in the Kentucky Baptist church: Even as I had already taken these photographs of something that I clearly know is wrong, hell we ended with “I‘m proud to be an American”, after a sermon and a combined rendition of all the services anthems. I was conflicted. I knew, and know that almost all of the people I’m depending on to bring this to light disagree with me on virtually every issue. I wasn’t going to release this unless they were recruiting. They were. Jesus himself only got mad once. It was because merchants were using the church to sell their wares, he flipped their tables, seized a whip, and attacked them. This day the answer to “what would Jesus do?” is grab one of the m-16s laying around and start kneecapping. Speaking of "what Jesus would do", I just found this web site called Jesus Politics today. There are a number of interesting posts there, including: Presbyterians and the Federal Budget Charles Haynes on Buster Bunny The Most Polluting Nation on God's Earth The Political Jesus and the Crazy Jesus Anyway, it looks like a blog with a lot of good "food for thought". And finally, yesterday I made a first attempt to start a dialog about the need for genuine dialog--the kind where we listen and genuinely try to understand where the other person is coming from instead of just trying to make sure that our side "wins". I have no idea how we get there, but I think we at least need to start talking about it.

A couple days ago I posted a diary about Bush's budget, and Ohio Governor Bob Taft's, and how immoral they were from a Christian perspective. Today, I heard from Chuck Currie that religious groups representing a number of different faith traditions have come together to speak out against the budget Bush has proposed. A Faith Reflection on the Federal Budget As communities of faith, we are grounded in a shared tradition of justice and compassion, and we are called upon to hold ourselves and our communities accountable to the moral standard of our Biblical tradition. We speak out now because we are concerned about our national priorities. The federal budget serves as a fundamental statement of who we are as a nation. The decisions we make about how we generate revenue and spend resources test our commitment to these values. Thus, we hold that the federal budget should be viewed and evaluated through a moral lens: does it uphold values that will strengthen our life together as a nation and as part of the global community? I won't copy the whole thing here, but I highly recommend reading the whole thing, and spreading the word. Anyone up to a letter to the editor? Check out the list of endorsing organizations below--might want to ask why our "Christian" president isn't listening to what they have to say about the immoral nature of his proposed budget. Endorsing organizations American Baptist Churches USA American Friends Service Committee Bread for the World Call to Renewal Central Conference of American Rabbis Church of the Brethren Witness/Washington Office The Episcopal Church, USA Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Friends Committee on National Legislation Jewish Council for Public Affairs Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Washington Office National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Washington Office Union for Reform Judaism Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries The United Methodist Church - General Board of Church and Society Women of Reform Judaism These groups ask that you send a message to Congress, reminding our elected representatives that a budget is a moral document, and that they should consider the effect this budget will have on our nation's poor before voting on it.

For anyone who may not know this, for Christians around the world, today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the season of Lent. When I was growing up Catholic, Fridays in Lent were a time of creative rationalizing for me. When I was in high school, after cooking up some ham and eggs for breakfast, I would realize, "D'oh! It's Friday! But which is the greater sin--eating meat on Friday, or wasting food?" So I guess creative rationalizing is the wrong thing to call it. Actually, it was pretty darn predictable. But in those days, being a Good Catholic was important to me, so I tried to fit myself into that mold. It was many years later before I encountered the idea of "Building Your Own Theology" (actually the name of an adult education course at Unitarian Universalist churches). Even in college, I somehow had the notion that matters of faith and belief were black and white. You had two choices, it seemed--accepting what you were taught or rejecting it. Discovering that there was another way was pretty exciting to me, although I wondered why this hadn't occurred to me before. You can *build* your own theology? Well, why not? We don't need to completely accept or reject what we have been given by our parents, our churches, and our society. We can examine it, carefully, piece by piece. Keep some of the old as building blocks, but discard the pieces that simply won't fit. Or reshape/reinterpret them so that they do fit. I'm not sure the process can ever be considered complete during this lifetime, so I'm always on the lookout for new building material. Many Christian holidays have early connections to earth-based spirituality celebrations. At Christmas (Hannukah, Solstice) time it is dark and we long for the light. Later in winter, we look forward to the rebirth of spring--the word "Lent" actually comes from the Middle English "lenten", which means spring. I am soooo ready for spring right now, but that won't make it come any faster. Might as well try to do something constructive with that time. As is often the case, I believe Marcus Borg has some useful food for thought... This process is at the heart not only of Christianity, but of the other enduring religions of the world. The image of following "the way" is common in Judaism, and "the way" involves a new heart, a new self centered in God. One of the meanings of the word "Islam" is "surrender": to surrender one's life to God by radically centering in God. And Muhammad is reported to have said, "Die before you die." Die spiritually before you die physically, die metaphorically (and really) before you die literally. At the heart of the Buddhist path is "letting go"--the same internal path as dying to an old way of being and being born into a new. According to the Tao te Ching, a foundational text for both Taoism and Zen Buddhism, Lao Tzu said: "If you want to become full, let yourself be empty; if you want to be reborn, let yourself die." This process of personal spiritual transformation--what we as Christians call being born again, dying and rising with Christ, life in the Spirit--is thus central to the world's religions. To relate this to John's affirmation that Jesus is "the way": the way that Jesus incarnated is a universal way, not an exclusive way. Jesus is the embodiment, the incarnation, of the path of transformation known in the religions that have stood the test of time. Seeing this commonality between the way of Jesus and the ways of the world's religions is sometimes disconcerting to Christians, given our history of "Jesus is the only way." But the commonality is cause for celebration, not consternation. Not only does it mean, to echo an exclamation in the book of Acts, the Spirit has gone out to Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, and so forth, but it also adds credibility to Christianity.27 When the Christian path is seen as utterly unique, it is suspect. But when Jesus is seen as the incarnation of a path universally spoken about elsewhere, the path we see in him has great credibility.

Why do so many Republicans hate Jesus? Or maybe a better question is, why are they consistently able to favor the rich, while doing real, life-threatening harm to the "least of these" and not get publicly, loudly called on it. How is it that *anyone* still frames this as the party of Christian values. Consider these news stories, from the past 24 hours: Taft plan: Cut taxes, slash aid for poor Bush Seeks Sweeping Cuts to Curb Deficit State dismantles aid program for people with chronic health conditions The state is ending a program that paid for medicines and treatment for homeless and extremely poor Ohioans with chronic health conditions such as heart problems, diabetes or mental illness. Disability Medical Assistance is a $73 million state effort designed to bridge the gap while people await approval for Medicaid, Social Security or other benefits. Income guidelines mean a single person would have to earn less than $115 a month to qualify. Gov. Bob Taft warned agencies he'll be cutting many services in the two-year state budget plan he releases Thursday. State lawmakers have until the end of June to pass a budget that fills an anticipated deficit of up to $5 billion. Combine that piece of news with this from the article about Bush's "sweeping cuts": President Bush on Monday proposed a $2.5 trillion budget that slashes domestic programs from farm aid to housing grants for the poor, as he sought to curb budget deficits that have soared on his watch. There *must* be more ethical, humane, and yes, since these men claim it as their faith, *Christian* ways to balance the budget. Matthew 25 (New International Version) 41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ The "least of these" are getting hit by cuts at the state and the federal level. Who will speak for the poor?