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Peace & Life Connections for May 31, 2013 May 31st, 2013
We reproduce the Consistent Life “Peace & Life Connections” weekly newsletter on this website. If you are interested in more information, or in subscribing to the e-newsletter directly, please visit www.consistent-life.org/ Please note that we do not edit the content of this publication.
Life/Peace/Justice Youth Conference
Aimee Murphy of Life Matters Journal, a member of the CL Advisory Board, has initiated a regional CLE conference in the Philadelphia area: “Life/Peace/Justice: A Conference on Life Issues.” It will be held March 29, 2014 at Villanova University. It’s for all ages with a large university student component. Several CL Board members have been involved with the planning.
To keep costs low, sponsoring groups are contributing funds. Gold Sponsorship costs $1000. We’re trying to raise special funds above normal donations to cover all or part of that cost. Funds donated here go directly towards the conference, and are credited towards our sponsorship. We greatly appreciate your support for this important effort.
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Legislation to Protect U.S. Taxpayers from Funding Violence
Our U.S. subscribers might want to contact their representatives, and subscribers outside the U.S. might have U.S. friends to spread the word about these ways of having the money that’s being cut from the federal budget come from places the federal budget has no business funding in the first place:
No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act (H.R. 7 in the House and S.B. 946 in the Senate) would replace all the annual riders and scattered amendments with one permanent rule: taxpayers don’t pay for abortions. This doesn’t just protect taxpayers; the numbers of abortions drop dramatically when there’s no taxpayer funding available for them. (See co-sponsors in the House and co-sponsors in the Senate)
The Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act (SANE) (H.R. 1506) would cut billions of dollars and several programs out of nuclear weapons. See House and Senate co-sponsors.
Various amendments will come up during the budget process to cut Pentagon extravagance at a time when desperately needed anti-poverty programs are being cut instead. It’s a good idea to communicate the principle to representatives – money going for violence and taken away from life-affirming services is a double whammy against the vulnerable.
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CL Endorser David Gushee has published a new book, The Sacredness of Human Life: Why an Ancient Biblical Vision is Key to the World’s Future. From the publisher’s blurb: “Tracing the concept of the sacredness of human life from Scripture through church history to the present day, David Gushee argues that viewing human life as sacred is one of the most precious legacies of biblical faith — albeit one that the church has too often failed to uphold. Besides providing a masterful historical survey, Gushee’s discussion covers the many current ethical challenges and perspectives that will impact the survival and flourishing of human life, including biotechnology, the death penalty, abortion, human rights, nuclear weapons, just war theory, women’s rights, and creation care.”
CL member group Evangelicals for Social Action has also published a review (and we have one coming up in our print newsletter, due out in June).
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Quotation of the Week
Kelsey Hazzard
The Catholic World “Atheist, Secular, and Pro-Life,” January 24, 2013
History has many lessons about human beings who were not legal “persons.” What seems like common sense to one generation—“Of course Negroes aren’t real people”—is horrific to the next. What criteria can we set that will prevent this from happening? Every criterion proposed to exclude the unborn can also be used to exclude others . . . At the end of the day, human rights are for all humans. If we don’t protect them for the weakest among us, they’re rather worthless.”
issue #162 05.31.13 Consistent Life web page / Join or Donate / Previous Issues / Index
NRCAT Urges in Congress: Close Guantanamo! May 10th, 2013
A Congressional Briefing, broadcast on C-SPAN, offers important information about the realities at Guantanamo and how the President can move forward with closing the prison there. We encourage you to watch it. The briefing is hosted by Rep. Jim Moran and is sponsored by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), The Constitution Project, and the New America Foundation. The Oblate JPIC Office is a member of NRCAT.
The situation at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center continues to deteriorate. Eleven years after it first opened, and more than 4 years after President Obama mandated its closure, there are still 166 men being held at Guantanamo – 86 of whom have already been cleared for transfer or release. Currently, 100 of the detainees, responding to a growing sense of hopelessness and despair over their continued detention, in most cases without charge or trial, are engaged in a prolonged hunger strike.
Click here to read more »
Support Just and Compassionate Immigration Reform May 9th, 2013
Call on Congress to Pass Just and Compassionate Immigration Reform!
Send the electronic postcard below to your U.S. Senators and Representatives and ask for passage of immigration reform legislation in the 113th Congress.
Simply click on the postcard below or this “Take Action” link to send the postcard.
Go to www.justiceforimmigrants.org for more information.
After you have sent the postcard to your Washington, DC lawmakers, forward this message to your email contacts throughout the country and urge them to send the e-card to their U.S. Senators and Representatives. Thank you!
Urgent! Tell Congress, COSPONSOR the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act (H.R.1554) April 24th, 2013
This legislation addresses a systemic cause of poverty – the fact that many multinational corporations don’t pay taxes to the developing governments that need the revenue most. Between 2000 and 2008, 6.5 trillion dollars left the developing world completely untaxed. If this money had been taxed modestly, we wouldn’t be facing a global debt crisis and there would be better access to food in the poorest countries. A key way this legislation curbs tax dodging is by requiring country-by-country reporting of corporate payments to governments.
This is good legislation that also has positive impacts for us in the United States, curbs corruption globally and gives us the information we need to start addressing global corporate tax avoidance.
Photo: The building is a well-known tax haven called the Ugland House in the Cayman Islands that houses 18,857 registered businesses.
Thanks to Jubilee USA for the information in this Action Alert!
Immigration Reform Legislation Introduced April 18th, 2013
Senators introduced, late on Tuesday, an 844-page immigration reform bill in Congress called the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act.” The bill aims to make the most substantive changes to immigration laws in nearly three decades.
The bi-partisan “Gang of Eight” Senators and staff have been working tirelessly to create a bi-partisan solution that attempts to fix the broken immigration system in the United States. Read the bill here…
In the coming weeks the bill will be analyzed, and the JPIC Office will share opportunities to get involved.
Thanks to the Senators involved, who should be commended for having the courage to tackle this difficult issue.
