{"id":407,"date":"2009-02-04T11:50:24","date_gmt":"2009-02-04T11:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/pushing-obama-towards-justice.html"},"modified":"2009-02-04T11:50:24","modified_gmt":"2009-02-04T11:50:24","slug":"pushing-obama-towards-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/pushing-obama-towards-justice.html","title":{"rendered":"Pushing Obama Towards Justice and Peace (by Mark Johnson)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Johnson is the\u00a0Executive\u00a0Director of The Fellowship of\u00a0Reconciliation<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\n<\/p>\n

These are difficult times in which to discern the truth, to
\nknow what to believe. The language has shifted, the rhetoric softened; but
\nbehavior, actions are still troubling. President Obama and Secretary of State
\nHillary Clinton send an envoy to the Middle East “to listen.”\u00a0 <\/span>A drone operator on the west coast of
\nthe United States drops a bomb on women and children in Pakistan or Afghanistan
\nwith the flick of a switch. Hope and change meet inertia and cynicism. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As products of the most
\nreligiously pluralistic country in the world and the most faith-driven in the
\nWest, I would hope our leaders would model a still more ready posture of
\nlistening for a sacred voice of discernment than a continuing exercise of
\nmisplaced vengeance.<\/p>\n

The president calls for
\nsacrifice; the times call for discipline. My deepest hope is that President
\nObama understands that change and sacrifice require perseverance, persuasion
\nand prescience. My deepest hope is that his transformation of the nation with
\nour support, survives the forces of evil which are still present in the world. The
\ngood Old Testament Cynic in me knows that the inertia is a product of deeply
\nvested interests that profit from warfare, that drive reckless consumption,
\nthat perpetuate privilege whereby gender, race and class perpetuate unfair
\nsocial and economic advantage. I also know that I carry these seeds and wrestle
\nwith these demons.<\/span><\/p>\n

The early days of a new
\nadministration appear to be the most permeable. This is the moment when the
\npeople’s voice should be heard. This is the moment to make it clear that the
\nmajority of Americans elected the President to end the wars, increase
\nwell-being, restore credibility and integrity to domestic and foreign policies.
\nAnd that is a message that needs to be addressed to all the members of Congress
\nas well as the executive branch, day in and day out. Every day, find a way to
\nsay something to someone in a position to make a decision about what needs to
\nbe done. Organize, organize, organize.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nuclear weapons and
\nrampant militarism still threaten global security. Corporate greed still
\ndistributes the fruits of labor with unconscionable inequity. The powers that
\nbe and our silence still lead to the brutal death of innocents every day. Tens
\nof millions still lack affordable health care. Justice is still frozen in the cold
\nconscience of law. And the water of cumulative costly consumption is rising on
\nthe shores of poverty world-wide.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, on the ground,
\nback home we need to continue to confront the military recruiters serving a
\npoverty draft to repeat our mistakes in Iraq all over again in Afghanistan. We
\nmust make a big, safe place for those returning from the moral, physical,
\npsychological horrors of war. Specific, concrete plans and programs need to be
\nput into action to serve troops long after they are mustered out of uniform. We
\nmust adjust our choices one by one each day with deference to an earth able to
\nsustain our children for generations to come. We must begin the long, deeply
\nhumbling practices of reparations and reconciliation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cross Posted at\u00a0http:\/\/www.forpeace.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Johnson is the\u00a0Executive\u00a0Director of The Fellowship of\u00a0Reconciliation These are difficult times in which to discern the truth, to know what to believe. The language has shifted, the rhetoric softened; but behavior, actions are still troubling. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton send an envoy to the Middle East “to listen.”\u00a0 A drone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":305,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-relations","category-poverty","category-war"],"yoast_head":"\nPushing Obama Towards Justice and Peace (by Mark Johnson) - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/pushing-obama-towards-justice.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pushing Obama Towards Justice and Peace (by Mark Johnson) - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mark Johnson is the\u00a0Executive\u00a0Director of The Fellowship of\u00a0Reconciliation These are difficult times in which to discern the truth, to know what to believe. The language has shifted, the rhetoric softened; but behavior, actions are still troubling. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton send an envoy to the Middle East “to listen.”\u00a0 A drone…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/pushing-obama-towards-justice.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-04T11:50:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"guestblogger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pushing Obama Towards Justice and Peace (by Mark Johnson) - Progressive Revival","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/pushing-obama-towards-justice.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pushing Obama Towards Justice and Peace (by Mark Johnson) - Progressive Revival","og_description":"Mark Johnson is the\u00a0Executive\u00a0Director of The Fellowship of\u00a0Reconciliation These are difficult times in which to discern the truth, to know what to believe. The language has shifted, the rhetoric softened; but behavior, actions are still troubling. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton send an envoy to the Middle East “to listen.”\u00a0 A drone…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/pushing-obama-towards-justice.html","og_site_name":"Progressive Revival","article_published_time":"2009-02-04T11:50:24+00:00","author":"guestblogger","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/pushing-obama-towards-justice.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/pushing-obama-towards-justice.html","name":"Pushing Obama Towards Justice and Peace (by Mark Johnson) - Progressive Revival","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-02-04T11:50:24+00:00","dateModified":"2009-02-04T11:50:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/ab30af78c798415183ebaf131152ce9e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/pushing-obama-towards-justice.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/pushing-obama-towards-justice.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/pushing-obama-towards-justice.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pushing Obama Towards Justice and Peace (by Mark Johnson)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/","name":"Progressive Revival","description":"Politics from the New Religious Progressives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/ab30af78c798415183ebaf131152ce9e","name":"guestblogger","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f35\/f3587d75a20cb88f1c76fd277ee82fc5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f35\/f3587d75a20cb88f1c76fd277ee82fc5x96.jpg","caption":"guestblogger"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/guestblogger"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}