>More articles

End of the pro-democracy pretense (Glenn Greenwald, Salon, 2 Jan 2012)

Military Maneuvers in the Country Without an Army (Luis Roberto Zamora, Americas Program, 4 Jan 2012)

More Than Able (Fitz Cahall, Climbing)

>Moyers and Company

Bill Moyers’ new show sounds interesting:

• http://www.hulu.com/watch/317948/the-colbert-report-tue-jan-10-2012
• http://billmoyers.com/2012/01/10/mother-jones-editors-clara-jeffery-and-monika-bauerlein-on-dark-money/

 

>Economics and Militarism

Previously, I have written about Smedley Butler. To his views, I now add three additional perspectives.

(1) Chair of Standard Oil in a 1946 speak before the National Foreign Trade Convention, as quoted in School of Assassins (Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, 2001), p. 64: “The goal of U.S. foreign policy was, he said, to insure the ‘safety and stability of our foreign investments.’”

(2) And on the next page of the book we find these quotes by George Kennan, whom Nelson-Pallmeyer calls “the most important U.S. foreign policy planner in the post-World War II period”:

We have about 50% of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3% of its population…. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so we have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction.

We should cease talk about vague and…unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.

(3) Finally, on page 124 he quotes from The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman, a leading journalist and prophet of globalization: “The globalization system cannot hold together…without an activist and generous American foreign policy.” “The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist.”

These quotes help explain why the US needs so many bases around the world.

>Grad School Papers (and more)

These are some of the essays I’ve written over the past few years in my peace studies program. I would likely approach them differently now–some are down-right sloppy–but this is what I wrote while hip-deep in the process.

• Christian Attitudes to War, Peace & Revolution: A Brief History of US SDAs & Military Service [Go here for more on the topic.]
• Economic Justice: Jubilee and Meritocracy
• Issues in Community Development: Genocide
• Independent Study: Christian Peacemaking
• Education for Peace & Justice: Vision for EPJ
• Christian Nonviolence: People Power in the Philippines
• Peace & Justice: Latin America Perspectives: The God that Failed
• Mission and Peace: Theology of Mission & Peace
• Anabaptist History & Theology: Comparison of Anabaptist and Adventist Movements [Quotations, not a formal paper.]
• Peace Research: 19th Century Restoration Movements [Collection of original writings.]
• Research Methods: Adventists & Torture [I should have never mentioned military issues, and instead focused solely on torture.]
• Comprehensive Exams, Day 1: Relationship between Peace & Justice
• Comprehensive Exams, Day 2: Three Difficult Sayings of Jesus

Also…

Click here to see a list of my film reviews, book reviews, interviews and other writings at Spectrum, Adventist Today, and other outlets.

These are my best essays and lists at Adventist Activism:

• Close the SOA/WHINSEC
• Food: Diet, Production, Health & the Environment
• The Nonviolence of Humility
• The Limits of Christian Ethics
• Agenda
• Boulder (CO) & Project 5:2
• Christian Nonviolence
• Lakeview SDA Church Cheers for a Cure
• Still Waters
• Peace Messenger: Peacemaking Heritage Series
• The Peacemaking Remnant
• 100 Days Campaign
• Christian Peace Witness for Iraq
• Kiva
• Preface 2 – Success & Motivation
• Preface 1 – Tzedekah

And these are my what I consider to be my more important pieces at Adventists for the Environment:

• The Beauty of Creation and the Sabbath
• Motivation for Creation Care is More Than Heat
• Adventist Review – Letter to the Editor
• Global Warming Reader
• Mammals in Decline
• A Walk on the Wild Side(walk)
• Unintended Consequences – Corn & the Zone of Death
• The Development of a Theme
• A Path Toward Awareness
• Environmental Film Festival

>Adventists and the Military

These essays, books and films speak to Adventist history relating to both war and peace:

• A Brief History of US Adventists & Military Service (PDF). I wrote this paper in 2009 for the seminary class Christian Attitudes to War, Peace, and Revolution. The bibliography to that paper provides many resources for further study.
• History Lecture Slideshow – Adventists and War. Jeff Crocombe, a professor in South Africa, included more international information in his lecture than I included in the above class paper.
• A Brief History of Seventh-day Adventists in Times of War. Ronald Osborn, the new leader of Adventist Peace Fellowship (APF), wrote this brief account. Doug Morgan, who has books and essay listed below, was the previous head of APF.
• Adventist Peacemaking Heritage. These are a number of historical resources posted at Adventist Peace Fellowship (a new website is under construction). See also Peace Messenger, the APF blog.
• Should I Fight? Essays on Conscientious Objection & the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I have not read this book yet. It is a collection of papers presented at the Should I Fight? conference in Canada in 2008.
• Osborn, Ronald E. Anarchy and Apocalypse: Essays on Faith, Violence, and Theodicy. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2010. Chapters 5 and 6 address Adventist history.
• Morgan, Douglas. “Following the Prince of Peace in a Time of War: How the Adventist Pioneers Dealt with Issues of War, Peace, and Military Service.” Adventist Review, June 14, 2007.
• Morgan, Douglas. “The Beginnings of a Peace Church: Eschatology, Ethics, and Expedience in Seventh-day Adventist Responses to the Civil War.” Andrews University Seminary Studies 45, no. 1 (Spring 2007): 35-43.
• Morgan, Douglas, ed. The Peacemaking Remnant: Essays and Historical Documents. Silver Spring, MD: Adventist Peace Fellowship, 2005.
• Morgan, Douglas. Adventism and the American Republic: The Public Involvement of a Major Apocalyptic Movement. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2001.
• Scriven, Charles. The Promise of Peace: Dare to Live the Advent Hope. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2009.
• Wilcox, Francis McLellan. Seventh-Day Adventists in Time of War. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1936.
• Phillips, Keith and Karl Tsatalbasidis. I Pledge Allegiance: The Role of Seventh-day Adventists in the Military. 2007.
• The Conscientious Objector (2004, film). This is the story of Desmond Doss, the first of three conscientious objectors to receive the Medal of Honor. His experience of being a medic in WWII can also be read in The Unlikeliest Hero by Booton Herndon (Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press, 1967).
• For Conscience Sake (film). This film is not yet released. A preview can be seen at the link provided.

More thought-provoking Adventist writings–Adventist Activism Resources.

>Anabaptists on Mutual Aid/Community of Goods

Balthasar Hubmaier (on voluntary mutual aid, not talking about collective ownership vs. private ownership; that came later in the Hutterites): “I have ever and always spoken thus of the community of goods: that one person should always look out for the other, so that the hungry are fed, the thirsty given drink, the naked clothed, etc. For we are not lords of our goods, but stewards and distributors. There are certainly none who say that one should take what belongs to the other and make it in common.”

Pilgram Marpeck adds: “Even though they control their possessions, such true believers do not say in their hearts that these are theirs; rather, their possessions belong to God and the needy. For this reason, among true Christians who display the freedom of love, all things are communal and are as if they had been offered, since they have been offered by the heart.”

Menno Simons (from whence Mennonites) agrees: Those who follow the Spirit “show mercy and love, as much as they can…. They entertain those in distress. They take the stranger into their houses. They comfort the afflicted; assist the needy; clothe the naked; feed the hungry; do not turn their face from the poor; do not despise their own flesh. Isaiah 59:7,8. Behold, such a community we teach.”

>God’s Kingdom and Righteousness

“Seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness/justice* (Matt. 6:33).” What does this mean to you? What does it look like? How does one do this?

*NOTE: for more on translating justice/righteousness, see:

• http://concordances.org/greek/1343.htm
• http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/kjv/tsedeq.html
• http://www.basden.demon.co.uk/xn/tsedeq.html

Now back to the main question: How do we seek God’s kingdom and righteousness/justice?

>Links

Economics

• Facts about the top 1%
• How 1% made money
• Inequality in the US
• Suburban poverty
• First vs. Third world problems
• Free Trade Agreements

Peace Education

• EMU Summer Peacebuilding Institute

>Vegetarian/Vegan Info

A friend shared these resources:

Videos Vegan Myths Song – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc8TrchWeO0 Cows with Guns – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5s5qGg01nE The Meatrix – http://www.themeatrix.com/ Books Animal Theology (Andrew Linzey) Creatures of the Same God (Andrew Linzey) Eating Animals (Jonathan Safran Foer) – http://www.eatinganimals.com/ Eating and Believing (David Grummet and Rachel Muers) The Friends We Keep (Laura Hobgood-Oster) Making a Killing (Bob Torres) – http://www.akpress.org/2007/items/makingakillingakpress The Sexual Politics of Meat (Carol J. Adams) – http://www.caroljadams.com/spom.html On God and Dogs (Stephen Webb) – http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/PhilosophyofReligion/?view=usa&ci=9780195152296 Vegan Freak (Bob Torres and Jenna Torres) – http://veganfreak.com/

Thanks, Nekeisha.

MORE FOOD FILMS

>Films relating to Latin America

• Recycled Life (doc) — Documentary about the people who scavenge in Guatemala City’s dump. [Guatemala]
• On the Line (doc) – Movement to close SOA/WHINSEC
• Sin Nombre (movie, intense) — Trailer [Mexico]
• Wetbacks (doc) – Wikipedia
• Return to El Salvador (doc) — The website has the trailer and the first 7 minutes, along with a short film (Marcelo) on a related topic. It’s by the same director (Jamie Moffett) who made The Ordinary Radicals. [El Salvador]
• El Norte (movie) — Trailer [Guatemala+]
• Romero (movie) [El Salvador]
• 180° South (~doc) — Less related to our topic than the other films. It’s more for those interested in adventure sports and ecological conservation. [Patagonia—Chile/Argentina+]
• The Corporation (doc)
• This series on Narco Cinema by CNN/VBS.TV was interesting [Mexico]:
  • INTRO @ CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/03/30/vbs.narco.cinema/index.html?iref=allsearch
  • PART 1: http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/mexican-narco-cinema-part-1-of-3–2
  • PART 2: http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/mexican-narco-cinema-part-2-of-3–2
  • PART 3: http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/mexican-narco-cinema-part-3-of-3–2

Films I haven’t seen but that look engaging:

• They Killed Sister Dorothy (doc) – The enviro activism and murder of Dorothy Stang. [Brazil]
• Which Way Home (doc)
• Reparando (doc) | IMDb – This looks like it could be more positive and hopeful than some. [Guatemala]
• Becoming Fools (doc) – [Guatemala]