"Church Folks for a Better America"

[DemoTex]

Torture is not a divisive issue for religious people. No religious person, and no person of conscience, can possibly justify it morally. An example of this is an emerging new network of religious progressives which recently published an "Open Letter to Alberto Gonzales."

My fledgling organization, Church Folks for a Better America, took the lead. In a short time we garnered over 225 signatures from a wide variety of religious leaders: Not only Catholics, Protestants and Jews, but also Muslims and Sikhs. We also made inroads among leading evangelicals.

The Open Letter got some good coverage. We were often mentioned alongside the ex-military lawyers who came out against Gonzales in press accounts. In the final Gonzales debate, our letter was quoted on the Senate floor.

Church Folks for a Better America came into existence almost by accident. On September 12, 2001, I found myself spending more time on the Internet than I care to remember trying to get a handle on what was really happening. I could see the ominous implications for war as well as for a crackdown on liberty at home. I wrote an Urgent Appeal opposing the invasion of Iraq on just-war grounds, signed by prominent academic theologians like Sarah Coakley, Stanley Hauerwas and Nicholas Wolterstorff as well as activists like Jim Wallis and William Sloane Coffin, Jr., and published in Sojourners. I started flooding the inboxes of my friends each day with what I found by scouring the net.

http://www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?bid=7&pid=2206

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Isn't this the 'no true Scotsman' argument?

To say torture is not a divisive issue, because 'no religious person could possibly justify it', is to imply that all the Republican congressmen and regime members are, despite their repeated statements that they are religious, not religious at all. We may not like their morals, but can you say that therefore their religion doesn't really exist? I don't think so. They just have a religion in which, among other things, torture is justified.

[Liberty Belle]

2. Why don't you try to get news about your group

into some of the mainstream women's magazines? I'd think a lot of their Bible-Belt readers might enjoy this refreshing approach. Or other types of magazines. How about Guidepost? Go to a bookstore to browse through them, or get a copy of Writer's Market. Also send copies of your materials to all of those Bible Bookstores.