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Showing posts from July, 2013

Interfaith Lecture & Conversations - October in Oklahoma!

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Toward eupan ~ ~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Edward Snowden - and Collaboration with Violence - Am I guilty?

I've been too busy with too many things to think through the myriad and complex issues involving all aspects of Edward Snowden, the NSA leaks, and all the issues engaged. And yet, I am suspicious of calling Snowden, who is exposing troubling activity a simple "criminal" - or "spy," "traitor," or "whistle-blower." There are so many complex issues involved. In the midst of this, though, I've been thinking about complicity in patterns of violence with regard to the Snowden situation.  I teach and talk about these issues when I teach about the Holocaust.  I raise issues about the fact that leading up to and in the midst of the Holocaust - the world needed persons to exist who were agents of positive social change who refused to perpetuate or stand by when violence and hatred was engaged. At the link I'm providing - the author Robert J. Burrowes raises questions I will explore as I read and re-read his post, provided at the Fello

American Religious History & The Hope of Tolerance

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Kenneth C. Davis writes for the Smithsonian in this article about the history of the founding of America - and the religious issues and problems of early settlers. While I am no expert on American History and I have a few misgivings about some specific statements of the author's perspectives in a few places, I am certain the history he highlights is more true than we care to remember and a reminder that the hopes of America were for the good of the all - toward eupan . Davis article ends with this: America can still be, as Madison perceived the nation in 1785, “an Asylum to the persecuted and oppressed of every Nation and Religion.” But recognizing that deep religious discord has been part of America’s social DNA is a healthy and necessary step. When we acknowledge that dark past, perhaps the nation will return to that “promised...lustre” of which Madison so grandiloquently wrote. Kenneth C. Davis is the author of Don’t Know Much About History and A Nation Rising