Rev. Dr. James A. Kowalski

Faiths For Safe Water: A Pledge For World Water Day 2013

2013-03-22T07:55:08-04:00

We Don't Honor God when 8,000 children die every day from the lack of something we take it for granted every day: a safe glass of water.

It's the world's dirty secret with a staggering impact, starting with children. You may be surprised to learn when you see those heart-wrenching pictures of distended malnourished bellies, 50 percent of all malnutrition in children is due to unsafe water. Eight thousand children under age 14 die every day and it hits the little ones hardest. Under 5, a little life is extinguished every 20 seconds. The lack of safe water and sanitation is the No. 1 killer of children across the globe, yet remains the greatest under-recognized global humanitarian crisis we face.

Eight hundred million people have no safe water and 2.5 billion lack the dignity of basic sanitation. It all translates into more staggering numbers: 80 percent of disease in developing countries, occupying half of the hospital beds, and killing more children than war, or malaria, AIDS and TB combined.

But these are just numbers.

A young American radiologist named Jordan traveled to the outskirts of Honduras' capital city, Tegucigalpa, to help at a clinic providing basic medical care. During the few months she spent there, she particularly bonded with a full-of-life, 9-year-old boy who enjoyed soccer and laughing with the other children. The boy came to the clinic for an infection that had spread to his left eye. The medical team diagnosed what's called a Neglected Tropical Disease. NTDs are widespread and impact 1.4 billion people every year. But the good news is, the doctors were able to prescribe a course of treatment, the key to which was simple but effective: a steady routine of hand and face washing with clean water.

A year later Jordan returned for a second tour with the clinic and was surprised to see the young boy back. Now the infection had grown and formed a tumor over his left eye and part of his face. The once cheerful child was morose, dark and distant. Despite following doctor's orders, his parents were shocked that their son's condition worsened.

The doctors were not.

Here water -- the foundation of all life -- is a disease-ridden gateway to illness where preventable tragedies fall on little Honduran boys like this one who once loved soccer, and whose name just happens to be Cristian. Eleven-year-old Cristian died from complications from a treatable disease simply because he did not have access to clean water.

This pervasive level of illness and disease deprives adults and children of their health, a better standard of living, an education, a future. It breeds inequality, especially for girls and women, because water is a woman's burden.

When Fatima was just 8 years old, she spent three hours every day getting water for her family, hauling the heavy burden on her small back. Though most of the time the water was unsafe to drink, her family had no choice. In Niger where Fatima lives, more than 80 percent of the rural population has no access to safe drinking water. Niger has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. Not surprising.

Fatima's story is replicated by millions of women and girls around the world. Mothers can spend up to 60 percent of their day hauling (often filthy) water for their families. It takes them away from caring for young children, growing food and earning additional income for their families. Families remain in poverty. Bodies will break down over time under the backbreaking weight of water.

And it's dangerous work. Some will be molested along deserted paths while collecting water, forced to trade sex for water, or like two sisters in India, ages 16 and 21, held at gunpoint and gang-raped by three men when they went to a nearby field in the early morning hours to relieve themselves.

The poverty cycle continues as girls leave school to help their mothers shoulder this burden. Or when there is no gender-appropriate bathroom facility to take care of their personal needs, they will drop out of school rather than face taunting and humiliation.

Not prioritizing the global water crisis defies humanitarian needs, and it defies logic.

We fight malaria but poor sanitation increases breeding grounds for mosquitoes that carry the disease. We work hard to make sure HIV/AIDS patients get the anti-retroviral drugs they need, but already susceptible to disease, they must take these drugs with filthy water. It costs the world $260 billion in lost productivity every year. Even though every U.S. dollar invested in safe water and sanitation has an economic return of $4, our current funding for water and sanitation development amounts to less than one 100th of a percent of the federal budget. Meanwhile, the U.S. leads the world in per person water use. None of this makes sense.

But perhaps the greatest shame of all is this: the problem is solvable.

So why does this crisis remain so enormous and development work only a literal drop in the bucket? Well, when was the last time you thought about a child not having a safe glass of water? Exactly. What's missing is awareness, the sense of urgency and increased support for sustainable water development work.

Water is the singular symbol shared among every world religion. Who better to take the advocacy lead than the faiths? What's missing is us.

Human existence is about much more than water, but it can never be about less. From birth until death, the faiths share this recognition in ritual, symbol and deed.

Faith-based NGOs do a lot of good work, from hunger to AIDS relief, but it's all undercut by the fundamental absence of safe water and sanitation. What a tragic waste. NGOs also do water development fieldwork, but these projects are way too small, under-funded and sadly, after the photos are taken of the shiny new water project, too often NGO leaves without proper future planning and the project deteriorates into a proverbial "rusty pump." What's needed is far wider, sustained support for sustainable projects that bring water and sanitation to people for the long haul.

Real progress is achievable. Just ask some kids from Kansas and the 261 students at Ndururi School in Northern Kenya.

A Success Story:

During the rainy season, these students had rainwater but had no safe storage system and in the dry season, they often had to walk three kilometers every day to fetch water from a polluted stream. The school had sub-standard pit latrines and no clean water to wash their hands, which resulted in frequent bouts of illness.

Eight thousand miles away on a Sunday school field trip, eight middle school and 20 high school students from Kansas learned about the world's water crisis and decided to do something about it. With free support and guidance from a unique nonprofit called H2O for Life, which links U.S. schools with schools needing water and sanitation, these students came up with some clever ideas to help. From sending home empty water bottles with church members -- challenging each person to drop a nickel in the bottle each time they turned on their tap or flushed a toilet, to auctioning off a donated toilet from a local plumber -- these industrious kids raised $6,950. The implementing NGO matches student funds 100 percent, and $13,500 later, a lot has changed for the kids of Ndururi School.

They have roofs and gutters on the school to capture rainwater that goes through bio-sand filters and into a permanent rainwater catchment tank. The boys and girls now have four separate latrines each, plus hand-washing stations with soap. Teachers note a dramatic increase in attendance due to decreased illness, and lots more time in class because students no longer have to leave school midday to fetch water. The school's improvements led to improvements in the students' homes, and hand-washing facilities throughout the community, as students taught their families about the importance of hygiene and sanitation.

As for the American kids? They've learned a lot about kids just like themselves, and they've learned a lot about themselves, as well. Abby, a middle school student says it best, "It blows my mind to think that I have saved lives. It always seemed like that only happened in books, or with someone who was famous. Now I can say I've saved lives." These kids will be our next generation of civic and maybe even faith leaders.

Here's an acronym you need to know: "WASH" It stands for WAter/Sanitation/Hygiene. WASH is the work that needs to be done. Bringing about much-needed attention to WASH will put pressure on leaders, and pressure will lead to more effective policies and greater sustainability, increased innovation and more support for this keystone solution that will also improve health, nutrition, poverty, gender equality, food security and even peace.

Religious water is never neutral and passive and no longer can we be. It has powers and capacities to transform this world; and so do we. We possess some of the most powerful collective voices in the world and together, we can give life to hundreds of millions of people throughout the world.

From pulpit and pew, we need to be strong advocates for prioritizing sustainable WASH development work around the world, and even here in the U.S. Your voice counts. Speak up. Support your faith's water development work. Engage your youth through service-learning projects with H2O for Life. Faith leaders, influence your international counterparts who in turn can influence everything from local WASH policies to changing hygiene behavior. Call your congressmen and tell them to pass the bipartisan Water for the World Act that makes our policies more efficient -- and at no additional cost. And it's time each of us pays better attention to our water consumption at home.

The next time you hold that refreshing glass of water in your hands, remember that children are still dying for lack of the same. We can change that. We must. Together, the faiths can impact millions of lives and be a monumental example of multi-faith cooperation at its life-giving best by making water a source of life and health, for all.

Start here: www.faithsforsafewater.org

Rabbi Jack Bemporad, Executive Director, Center for Interreligious Understanding (New Jersey) and Director, The John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome

The Very Reverend Dr. James A. Kowalski, Dean, The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine (New York)

The Most Reverend Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Armenian Church of America and past President, National Council of Churches (Washington, DC)

Laila Muhammad, African-American Muslim Church, Church leader and daughter of W.D. Muhammad (Chicago)

Father Dennis McManus (Georgetown University) (Washington, DC)

Rinchen Dharlo, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of the Americas and President of the Tibet Fund (New York)

Rev. Dr. Katharine Henderson, President, Auburn Seminary (New York)

Imam Mohamed Magid, President, ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) and Executive Director at ADAMS (All Dulles Area Muslim Society)

Making People's Hopes Our Own

2012-09-27T13:39:37-04:00

"What a wonderful gift you gave us. ... Over his distinguished career in the Foreign Service, Chris won friends for the United States in far-flung places. He made those people's hopes his own. During the revolution in Libya, he risked his life to help protect the Libyan people from a tyrant, and he gave his life helping them build a better country." -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton accepting the body of slain Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens at Joint Base Andrews

"No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline." -- Kofi Annan

Ambassador Stevens was called a patriot and hero. Slain with three other Americans in a U.S. diplomatic mission under siege in Libya, Ambassador Stevens was rightly described by the U.S. President as someone who "loved this country and ... chose to serve it and served it well." President Obama stated that all three men killed "had a mission, and they believed in it. They knew the danger, and they accepted it. They didn't simply embrace the American ideal; they lived it, they embodied it."

Justice Louis D. Brandeis used to say that, "[t]he only title in our democracy superior to that of President is the title of citizen." The President, a Constitutional scholar, knows that people and countries grow into the kind of citizenship that makes freedom and justice for all achievable and sustainable. Our union is still imperfect after centuries. It took years to frame the Constitutional tenets about which we continue to debate, but on which the heart and soul of this great nation depend.

It should escape no one's scrutiny that this Ambassador had transplanted his deeply held American values to a new venture. In fact, he had to do more than go out of his way to get to Libya. A student of the world at a young age, shaped by the Peace Corps, Chris Stevens decided to risk his life as Libya was endeavoring to overthrow a dictator only months ago. He had earned the respect and trust of people who made it possible for him to land by private ship on the shores of a troubled nation and serve as a midwife with others trying to birth freedom and the rule of law.

Most of us know that Teddy Roosevelt was a Rough Rider. Fewer may know that he said, "No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care." Stevens was a very smart guy. He loved the people of the region and its cultures. Not every diplomat or most of us have the gift; he more than engaged with people across ethnic and cultural barriers. People say that he actually fell in love with them.

And Ambassador Stevens brought with him an abiding principle which we seem to be debating during this election cycle in America. Teddy Roosevelt articulates well the premise: "This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in." Stevens knew that would be as true for Libya as their new country emerged as it is for us.

The Church has often celebrated the sainthood of people because they went to a far-flung place and put themselves in harm's way. They were ordinary men and women who cared about those on the margins. In some cases these saints were raised up among their own. They led the struggle for the abundant life meant for all for their own people and countries. Others came among strangers and saw in "the other" a sign of God's love. They knew that the ongoing Divine Commitment to bless what is ordinary and common is God's way of being known. Again and again the ordinary becomes holy and what had been cast down is raised up.

Abraham Heschel used to teach that what made the Prophets so unpopular was that they reminded Israel that God loves justice even more than the chosen. And that being chosen was not a matter of status but of job description -- called to draw the world toward the Light of peace and justice for all.

When Ambassador Stevens asphyxiated in what was supposed to be a safe room in that Consulate, the very air of freedom which he had helped bring to Libya had been contaminated and sucked out making it impossible for him to live. When he was found and rushed to the hospital where he died, he was covered with smoke and soot to the point where it took time for people to recognize him.

I found myself thinking a lot about that example as we prepare for a Sunday at the Cathedral --Sept. 30 at 11 a.m. -- when we celebrate and pray for the United Nations. What was radiant upon Ambassador Stevens' death was that he had made the hopes of others his own as he tried to help them build a better country. That kind of global citizenship from an American public servant speaks volumes about who we truly are and what we want our role in the world to be.

Saving Christianity

2012-07-17T14:18:42-04:00

"I didn't know I had a quarrel with him."
--Henry Thoreau's answer to the question, "Have you made your peace with God?"

"The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism."
--Barry Goldwater

To read "Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?" (Ross Douthat, New York Times, July 14), you would think the more conservative Roman Catholic Church -- more dogmatic and less liberal than its Protestant siblings -- would be over-flowing with priests. Douthat thinks that it is "self-consciously progressive Christian" that has caused an implosion in the Episcopal Church. Even though an "immensely positive force in our national life," the Episcopal Church is too caught up in what he calls relevance to accept that they are going out of business.

What's led us to that precipice? It's simple, goes this assertion: flexibility that is possible only due to indifference to dogma. Be more dogmatic, the argument goes, stand for something, and you will grow as a parish or diocese or denomination. Otherwise, secular liberalism sets in, and attendance declines.

The problem with that static view of dogma -- as an unchanging anchor that keeps faith pure and true -- is that God doesn't work that way. The mighty acts of God, which break into the human condition, bring heaven on earth. Being surprised by God in those ways has led people of faith not only to personal conversation but to social reform as well. Check the history of communities of faith -- in the Bible and across time. Again and again, efforts to categorize faith into systematic dogma had to give way to a faith that was applied to unfolding situations. Christianity has had to adapt. Perhaps more importantly, thank God it does, because it can also be wrong.

The recent decision of the Episcopal Church in America (ECUSA) to bless same-sex relationships did not follow a script, as some might think, written as if every reform ever urged by liberal pundits and theologians was in the story line and animated what has become a denomination adrift. Douthat says ECUSA was "eager to downplay theology entirely in favor of secular political causes" even though "younger and more open-minded" folks haven't joined and don't attend our parishes, and Douthat and others say that's proof of failure or impending death.

Are we witnessing a collapse of liberal Christianity because it's trying to adapt to contemporary liberal values? To accept that argument you have to go along with Douhat in thinking that the Vatican's clampdown on progressive nuns is really because otherwise the orders in question were likely to disappear in a generation, having already turned over their hospitals to "bottom-line-focused administrators." I am a hospital overseer in New York City, and I can promise you that it's more complicated than that.

Actually, the core of liberal Christianity, and its grounding, is that Incarnation means that God dared to become human. Viewed comprehensively and radically, the mighty acts of God, animated by Divine Love, are boundless. And revelation continues and is encountered when people come to us and reveal something of the Divine in their lives.

For me, being open to those miracles has meant that I see more clearly something I had been unable to see before -- usually because dogma had excluded it from the dominant theological world view. But not from God's love.

God breaks in dramatically when we have seen how wrong we have been regarding race, gender and human sexuality. That may cause internal and external conflict -- and cost us dearly in attendance and funds. It may also draw us and others into the Dream of God, where together we delight in the diversity of God, who hates nothing God has created.

Douthat's caveat is timeless and shared by many: We "should pause, amid [our] frantic renovations, and consider not just what [we] would change about historic Christianity, but what they would defend and offer uncompromisingly to the world."

Yet, we have been there before. As Mark Twain said, "Man is a Religious Animal ... the only Religious Animal ... the only animal that has the True Religion - several of them ... the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven."

These are not frantic renovations. They are efforts to discern how that loving God acts again in our midst. I hope we will all walk more humbly, as we take our shoes off and celebrate that we are again on holy ground.

Health Security: We Can Do Better

2012-07-05T16:27:22-04:00

"Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." --1 Corinthians 6:19-20

"If you don't take care of your body, where are you going to live?" --Unknown

"If you look at the studies coming out of the Congressional Budget Office, the number one thing that's going to blow a hole in the deficit as we go forward 20, 30 years is government spending on healthcare." --Christina Romer, former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers

"We have now just enshrined ... the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their healthcare." --Barack Obama

Did it seem odd to you that, after the cacophonous debates leading up to it, the Los Angeles Times opened their report -- as we waited for the Supreme Court's ruling on The Affordable Care Act -- saying that "the White House was unusually quiet"? During three days in March, 26 states, individuals and the National Federation of Individual Businesses, among others, challenged the law's constitutionality. Texas filed suit and 25 percent of the population of Texas lacks health insurance -- the nation's highest rate. California was one of 11 states that filed a court brief supporting the law.

Lots of attention had been paid to the individual mandate, which required that most individuals purchase health insurance. Perhaps less focus was put on the expansion of Medicaid, which ended up not being upheld. Regarding Medicaid (for low-income and sick people), states will be granted flexibility not to expand programs without paying the penalties that were in the law. Gordon Deal of the Wall Street Journal had written before the ruling:

"No matter how the Supreme Court rules Thursday on the federal health-care law, states will face huge struggles paying for ballooning health expenses and swelling uninsured populations -- a problem that has prompted some states to draft their own overhaul plans."

The Houston Chronicle stated that "a Republican Supreme Court handed a Democratic president a massive election year victory Thursday by ruling that the sweeping 2010 health-care law is constitutional" (although under Congress' power to tax, not under the Constitution's Commerce Clause). Do we have to accept as inevitable the politicization of this is issue? If so, we get extremes instead of facts, and lose the complexity and sophistication with which we need to solve the huge healthcare issues that impact all of us. David Maris, blogging in Forbes, suggests that couching the healthcare program, de facto, as a tax program may position Republicans to explain to voters that the president's program is a massive new tax with "the potential for not only enlivening the debates, but energizing the Republican fiscal conservative base."

A 5-4 decision doesn't help keep the focus on what should be a shared objective: the common good. We know we need to overhaul healthcare -- which everyone will need during a lifetime and we must pay for -- one way or another. Should the commitment to insure the uninsured be partisan or more effectively be approached as an economic issue of fairness -- not only to the uninsured, but also to those of us who are insured but pay more for those who enter the healthcare system with no coverage? We know that 50 million people lack healthcare and cannot pay all their medical bills. The result is simple: when hospitals and clinics make up the difference, they charge higher rates to insurance companies, who pass them on to policyholders.

The court limited the federal government's power to terminate states' Medicaid funds. Chief Justice Roberts wrote:

"Nothing in our opinion precludes Congress from offering funds under the ACA to expand the availability of health care, and requiring that states accepting such funds comply with the conditions on their use. What Congress is not free to do is to penalize States that choose not to participate in that new program by taking away their existing Medicaid funding."

That will not satisfy people like Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and other health care law opponents, who will continue to argue that the issue is not about how the government chooses to provide health care to those in need but "about liberty." Curiously, some 56 percent of people were against the health care overhaul with 44 percent in favor, according to a Reuters/Ipsos online poll. That suggests that voters were willing to reject reform even though they liked much of what is in it, especially allowing children to stay on their parents' insurance until age 26 and covering pre-existing conditions. The majority polled were against the "individual mandate" requiring all U.S. residents to own health insurance and want the benefits contained in the legislation. The fact is that the mandate is the only way to pay for what they want. Every State that has put such benefits in place without mandated participation has had to close expanded program features like the popular acceptance of adult children until 26 years old or no restrictions on pre-existing medical conditions.

Some health experts say that reform is also good news for women, because they represent more than 19 million of the uninsured. Under current insurance practices, some experts also argue that women are charged more for health care, which the new law rectifies. According to the National Women's Law Center, in states that have not banned such practices, more than 90 percent of the best-selling plans charge women more than men. And with only 3 percent of them covering maternity services, almost a third of plans charge women at least 30 percent more than men for the same coverage. In one plan, 25-year-old women are charged 85 percent more than men. The practice costs women about $1 billion a year.

America spends far more per capita on health care than any other nation with the average American spending about $7,900 per year on health care. Medical problems contributed to many bankruptcies. And we lag behind many other nations, at least according to the World Health Organization, which reports that the United States ranks 37th in health system performance and far behind many other countries with regard to infant mortality, life expectancy and preventable deaths. Not all Americans believe that all of us should have effective health care coverage as a right and see it as a privilege. The World Health Organization's constitution states that "the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being." If such coverage is the law, then no one should be left out. Then the debate refocuses on how we accomplish that goal affordably and sustainably. With our history of innovation and entrepreneurship, we can do better.

Everything Wrong With Racial Profiling

2012-04-25T12:01:54-04:00

"...God is light and in him there is no darkness at all ... if we walk in the light ... we have fellowship with one another..."
--1 John 1:2

"The central problem is that ... the general public and most academics are entirely comfortable using the kind of generalizations, stereotypes, and profiles based on group traits that underlie racial profiling. The public supports the use of statistical discrimination across the policing and law enforcement spectrum in the United States ... [as] a matter of plain common sense. ... Truth is, statistical discrimination permeates policing and punishment in the United States today. From the use of the I.R.S. Discriminant Index Function to predict potential tax evasion, to the drug-courier and racial profiles to identify suspects to search at airports and on the highways, to risk-assessment instruments to tag violent sexual predators, prediction instruments increasingly determine individual outcomes in policing, enforcement, sentencing, and correctional practices..."
--Bernard E. Harcourt, "Henry Louis Gates and Racial Profiling: What's the Problem?"

Prosecutors have not charged George Zimmerman with uttering a racial slur. In this obviously
racially charged and tragic case, prosecutors have alleged that Zimmerman profiled Martin just before the shooting. Legal experts explain that profiling does not necessarily mean racial profiling. The common law enforcement practice uses perceived "facts and circumstances" to determine whether someone may be committing a crime. Most of us support efforts to identify perpetrators by analyzing crimes and the way they are committed, both to track criminals and to prevent crime. Profiling records and classifies our behaviors. As the Electronic Privacy Information Center explains:

"This occurs through aggregating information from online and offline purchase data, supermarket savings cards, white pages, surveys, sweepstakes and contest entries, financial records, property records, U.S. Census records, motor vehicle data, automatic number information, credit card transactions, phone records (Customer Proprietary Network Information or "CPNI"), credit records, product warranty cards, the sale of magazine and catalog subscriptions, and public records."

We now have what is called "Customer Relations Management" (CRM) or "Personalization" -- a new industry -- birthed by the demand for such analyses.

Racial profiling is more specific in that it disproportionately targets people of color for investigation and enforcement. The ACLU has argued that such discrimination alienates communities from law enforcement, hinders community policing efforts, and causes law enforcement to lose credibility and trust among the people they are sworn to protect and serve. They conclude that "countless people ... live in fear [because of] a system of law enforcement that casts entire communities as suspect."

Adam Serwer, writing for Mother Jones, used the profiling of the Muslim community to caution a similar boomerang affect from abuse or misunderstanding within communities. As Server stated,

"It's no secret that New York City is a huge target for terrorism ... however, the Associated Press has shown that the New York City police have responded to that threat by treating its entire Muslim community like possible suspects. That approach harms the NYPD's ability to respond to threats in the future, since American Muslims are frequently the ones who alert law enforcement to potential threats."

When University of Chicago's Professor of Law and Political Science Bernard E. Harcourt presented a paper at the Malcolm Wiener Inequality & Social Policy Program at Harvard University in 2009, he discussed the racial issues concerning the arrest of Professor Gates. He suggested that the inherent racial profiling bothered many of us most. But Harcourt's warning focused beyond racial discrimination or profiling, as he argued that the underlying premises and basic mathematical assumptions are faulty, saying that:

"... the problem with racial profiling is precisely the misguided use of statistical discrimination in situations where there are potential feedback effects. The problem is that our customary and ordinary forms of rationality, our 'odds reasoning,' our daily uses of statistical discrimination are leading us astray. Race is the miner's canary that signals -- or should signal -- the larger problems of statistical discrimination and profiling. And until we properly understand the problems of statistical discrimination writ large, I fear that we will make little progress on racial profiling." ("Henry Louis Gates and Racial Profiling: What's the Problem?," Bernard E. Harcourt, 2009)

Events of Sept. 11 recast the profiling issue. Public opinion had become strongly against racial profiling in particular. But those terrorist attacks tipped the balance toward reimagining profiling as necessary to fight terrorism. That makes the work of people like David A. Harris, Professor of Law and Values at the University of Toledo College of Law and a Soros Senior Justice Fellow, even more important. What if racial profiling is not only morally wrong but also ineffective? Harris is considered to be one of this nation's leading authorities. His book, "Profiles in Injustice: Why Racial Profiling Cannot Work" (2003), directly challenges the assertion of law enforcement that profiling is an effective crime-fighting tool. Publisher's Weekly, in reviewing Harris' book wrote:

"[Harris] analyzes how each, aside from often not passing basic legal or ethical standards, nearly always fails to discover criminals or deter crime. These conclusions are supplemented by his often surprising analysis of arrest statistics: the New York attorney general's office shows that even though more blacks than whites were stopped and frisked for concealed weapons, the arrest rate of whites for violations was actually higher, while composite profiles of convicted criminals are skewed because 54.3% of violent crimes are never reported to the police. Other studies show just how difficult it is to guess someone's race just by looking at them."

The ineffectiveness goes to catching criminals and to preventing crime. Harris added a new chapter to examine how the events of Sep. 11 impacted public opinion and policy.

According to the New York Post, George Zimmerman has dreamed of a life in law enforcement for more than a decade. A longtime neighbor, retired clergy George Hall, told reporters that Zimmerman wanted to join either the state police or the county police. "But instead of becoming a real cop, he lived out his big blue fantasy by tracking down stray dogs, 'suspicious' children and other intruders in his gated Florida community," wrote reporters Oliveira and Buiso in the New York Post.

Now the justice system will determine what went wrong and whether or not a crime was committed. What we know for sure is that Trayvon Martin is dead. We may also learn again that the false assumptions that undergird all sorts of profiling endanger our citizens and visitors, and divide us against each other.

A Sermon for Water

2012-03-16T07:53:26-04:00

Authors' note: Faiths for Safe Water is a project that seeks to unite all faiths around the singular religious symbol shared by all: Water. On March 17 at the historic Riverside Church in New York City, the faiths will gather for an informative and entertaining opportunity to learn more about this No. 1 global health crisis and what they can do about it. For more information: FaithsForSafeWater.org.

We don't honor God when 4,500 children die every day -- but they do -- from the lack of something so simple, each of us takes it for granted: a safe glass of water.

Four thousand five hundred children -- that's one every 20 seconds, a little life extinguished.

While the last couple of years have seen an increase in awareness about the global water crisis, it's still the No. 1 killer of children around the globe. Safe water and sanitation remains the greatest under-recognized global humanitarian crisis we face and its impact is staggering. It's the world's dirty secret.

Almost a billion people do not have access to safe water globally and 2.5 billion lack the dignity of basic sanitation. This lack of access translates into more stunning numbers:

50 percent of all malnutrition is due to the lack of safe water and sanitation

As is 80 percent of all disease

Half of the world's hospital beds are filled by patients suffering from water-borne diseases

This leading killer of children under five kills more children than malaria, AIDS and TB combined

The result is a catastrophic 2 million, mostly preventable deaths, every year.

We fight malaria but poor sanitation increases breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. We spend millions making sure HIV/AIDS patients get the anti-retroviral drugs they need, but they take these drugs with disease-ridden water.

Current U.S. funding for water and sanitation development amounts to less than one one-hundredth of a percent of the federal budget. Yet for every dollar invested, there's an economic return of $8.

With all the good work the faiths do, from malnutrition to malaria, it's all being undercut by the overarching absence of clean water and sanitation. Not prioritizing the global water crisis defies logic. It prevents productivity, increases poverty and inequality for women.

Water is a woman's burden. Women spend 200 million hours, every day, hauling water. It's nearly impossible to wrap your head around this kind of hard labor. Some spend up to 60 percent of their day, which takes them away from caring for their children or earning additional income for their families. Their bodies quite literally break down. These jerry cans are 40+ pounds and women haul them for miles. Girls are denied education when they leave school to help their mothers with this burden; or when there are no gender appropriate facilities to take care of their personal needs. And it's dangerous work, walking along desolate paths or seeking privacy to take care of one's needs. Just around Christmas last year, two sisters aged 16 and 21, from a rural village in India, went to a nearby field in the early morning hours to relieve themselves. There they were held at gunpoint and gang-raped by three men.

Here is perhaps the greatest shame of all: This problem is solvable. Secular and non secular water development fieldwork is happening all around the world. But these projects need dramatically ramped up and far wider, sustained support.

Let's put a face on all these numbers -- 261 faces in fact...

They're the students at the Ndururi Primary School in Northern Kenya. During the rainy season, they had rainwater but had no safe storage system and in the dry season, they often had to walk three kilometers each day to fetch water from a polluted stream. The school had sub-standard pit latrines and no clean water to wash their hands, which resulted in frequent bouts of illness.

Eight thousand miles away on a Sunday school field trip, eight middle school and 20 high school students from Kansas learned about the world's water crisis and decided to do something about it. With guidance from a unique nonprofit called H2O for Life, which partners U.S. schools with schools around the globe, these students came up with some clever ideas to help. From sending home empty water bottles with church members -- challenging each person to drop a nickel in the bottle each time they used water, especially each time they flushed a toilet -- to auctioning off a donated toilet from a local plumber, these industrious kids raised $6,950. The implementing NGOs match student funds 100 percent, and $13,500 later, a lot has changed for the kids of Ndururi Primary School.

They have roofs and gutters on the school to capture rainwater that goes through bio-sand filters and into a rainwater catchment tank. Boys and girls now have four separate latrines each, plus hand-washing stations with soap. Teachers note a dramatic increase in attendance due to decreased illness, and lots more time in class because students no longer have to walk long distances mid day to fetch water. The school's improvements have lead to water and sanitation improvements in the students' homes and hand-washing facilities throughout the community as students shared their educational awareness about the importance of sanitation with their families.

As for the American kids -- they've learned first-hand that they really can impact the world. Abby, a middle school student, said, ""It blows my mind to think that I have saved lives. It always seemed like that only happened in books, or with someone who was famous. Now I can say I've saved lives." These will be the next generation of civic and maybe even faith leaders.

So why is this crisis still so enormous and development work only a drop in the bucket? Because what's missing is not the know-how or technology, and certainly not the need; it's the sense of urgency and prioritization. Who better to take the lead than the religions? Water is a central shared symbol among every world religion. Water cleanses the body, and by extension purifies it, and these qualities confer a highly symbolic, even sacred, status to water in religion. Human existence is about much more than water, but never about less. From birth until death, the faiths share this recognition in ritual, symbol and need.

Here's an acronym you need to know: "WASH." WASH stands for WAter/Sanitation/Hygiene. It's the world's religions that can and must make "WASH" a household word and push for prioritizing WASH development.

Religious water is never neutral and passive and no longer can we be. It has powers and capacities to transform this world, and so do we. We possess some of the most powerful collective voices in the world. We need to unite, educate and advocate around WASH. This is interfaith at its life-giving best.

Certainly, in today's day and age, no child should ever die for lack of a safe glass of water and a toilet. Together we have a sacred opportunity to bring life to hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. No, we don't honor God by allowing 4,500 children to die every day, but together we can accomplish greatness -- by making water a source of life and health, for all.

At this time of spring rains and renewal, in celebration of World Water Day on March 22, there is no better time to get started. Join with Faiths for Safe Water for free ideas and updates.

Faiths for Safe Water leadership:

Rabbi Jack Bemporad, Executive Director, Center for Interreligious Understanding (New Jersey) and Professor, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Rome)

The Very Reverend Dr. James A. Kowalski, Dean, The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine (New York)

The Most Reverend Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Armenian Church of America and past president National Council of Churches (Washington, DC)

Imam Syed Rafiq Naqvi and Mrs. Anjum Naqvi, Chairman, Islamic Information Center (Washington, DC)

Leila Muhammad, African-American Muslim Church, Church leader and daughter of W.D. Muhammad (Chicago)

Father Dennis McManus, Georgetown University and advisor to Cardinal Dolan (Washington, DC and New York)

Rinchen Dharlo, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of the Americas and President of the Tibet Fund (New York)

The Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson, President, Auburn Seminary

Science, Faith and the War on Women

2012-03-14T15:13:11-04:00

"If we're going to have to pay for this -- then we want something in return... And that would be the videos of all this sex posted online so we can see what we're getting for our money... I said if we're paying for this, it makes these women sluts, prostitutes. What else could it be? We are buying it." -- Rush Limbaugh

Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke testified to congressional Democrats in support of a national health care policy that would compel Georgetown University to offer health plans that cover birth control. It was not enough of a diminution of her testimony that Republican lawmakers had barred her from testifying during the actual hearing. Democrats had to invite her to speak at an unofficial session. Then Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh called her a "slut" and "prostitute."

Adding insult to injury, after a huge public outcry and withdrawal of advertising commitments key to his talk show revenues, Limbaugh claimed to apologize as he proffered: "My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir." On his website Limbaugh added: "I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices."
Philip Elliott reported in the Associated Press that Limbaugh had that the 30-year-old Fluke had bought condoms when she was in junior high. Limbaugh "... scoffed at the Democrats' talk of a conservative "war on women"... [saying]:

"Amazingly, when there is the slightest bit of opposition to this new welfare entitlement being created, then all of a sudden we hate women. We want 'em barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen...And now, at the end of this week, I am the person that the women of America are to fear the most."

As the discourse about healthcare and the rights of women in this country continued to unravel, I had an opportunity to meet briefly with international delegates representing the Anglican Women's Commission. They were in New York for the 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations Headquarters (Feb 27 - Mar 9). Their schedule of events helps to mobilize Anglican women regarding training in economic literacy and advocacy. They also engage in gender budgeting analysis of Aid Effectiveness. These women are advocates at their country level as they return to their provinces. Often over 100 Anglican women attend, and strong Anglican networks of women empower others in their commitment to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Millennium Development goals in their countries.

I am 60 years old. That's old enough to remember the way it used to be for lots of women in this country -- who had limited access to healthcare relating to reproductive rights. I can recall horror stories about dangerous, illegal and fatal abortions. I remember when family planning was anything but reliable, and how many families -- and women in particular -- did not have choices concerning when they would have children and how many.

Limbaugh is wrong to think that he is feared by women and others of us. What is scary is the flip way in which he and others change the conversation about healthcare and women's access to it into a debate about "new welfare entitlement" or about keeping women "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen." They actually seem to think in such terms even about their own mothers, sisters and daughters.

Reproductive health care is part of basic health care for women. And if it is not affordable, many women will lack access to care and choices basic to their quality of life. Very simply they will not be able to get the care they need to stay healthy and to make healthy decisions for themselves and their families. The only way that women's reproductive health is improved sustainably is when access to health insurance coverage for maternity care and family planning services is part of state-wide Medicaid coverage.

As Lisa Miller noted in "Romney, Santorum and archaic ideas on fertility" in The Washington Post (March 2), "Between them, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have as many children -- 12 -- as there were tribes of Israel." I say that is their choice and respect them as family-oriented dads. But as Miller went on to add, her concern about the discourse coming from the Roman Catholic Church, is that

"... with their crusade against birth control, the Catholic bishops are helping to articulate and elevate that unspoken and archaic value in public. Fertility is a gift from God, they say. To mess with that gift goes against God's plan."

I would add that science, which gives us choices about the families we create, is also a gift from God.

We cannot set the clock back on science and choices we all make in how to use the gifts it brings to us. Of course those gifts -- like any gift -- can be abused. But humans have also used their brains and creative abilities to do great things for God and for all creatures with science. Maybe instead of waging war on women, being faithful to religious beliefs means striving to be better stewards as we make the tough choices about life and death. I think Sandra Fluke is that kind of citizen steward.

Religious Freedom or Freedom of Choice?

2012-02-15T12:30:06-05:00

[N]o man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."
Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1786

"He [Jefferson] pointed out that God had it in His power to control man's mind and body, but that He did not see fit to coerce the mind or the body into obedience to even the divine will; and that if God himself was not willing to use coercion to force man to accept certain religious views, man, uninspired and liable to error, ought not to use the means that Jehovah would not employ."
William Jennings Bryan, in introduction to The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. VIII

Did you find it odd that headlines suggest that the President who got us out of Iraq and then in and out of Afghanistan is now being accused of starting another war? It's even stranger that the new war is supposedly being declared against the Roman Catholic Church or against religious freedom.

Those are deceptive headlines. You may have also read that "Catholic leaders are upping the ante" and threatening to challenge the Obama administration over a provision of the new health care law that would require all employers, including religious institutions, to pay for birth control.

Catholic leaders are responding to a provision of President Barack Obama's new heath care reform bill that requires Catholic schools, hospitals and charities as secular employers to provide coverage for birth control pills, abortion-producing drugs and sterilization for their employees.

Full disclosure: I have personally received letters from William Donohue, the head of the Catholic League. It's not unusual for him angrily to label lots of things "anti-Catholic." As he tries now to mobilize 70 million Catholic voters, Donohue's rhetoric sunk to a new low as he claimed, "Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church. This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets."

There are lots of political pundits who can't figure out why the President would pick this fight in what could be a close election year. But what if Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius appropriately acted on the Institute of Medicine's recommendation, which focused on reproductive rights as they relate to best health-care practices? Secretary Sebelius actually exempted churches. Other administration officials said they, "certainly don't want to abridge anyone's religious freedom."

But this requirement protects the freedom of those with coverage to decide about their own healthcare. It's strange that some of the folks who don't want the government involved in healthcare at all or in such "personal" decisions seem willing to allow such interference by other institutions in extremely personal choices under the umbrella of religious freedom.

Writing for National Review Online, Yuval Levin described how institutions such as the Catholic Church provide what he calls "mediating layers" between the individual and the state which create civil society. He argues that this "current fight" is "just one more example of President Obama's attempt to bulldoze civil society .. .to sweep away the middle layer so that individuals may have a more direct and personal encounter with the state." Yuval goes on to conclude:

This approach is especially noxious and pernicious when it is directed at religiously affiliated institutions -- both because they deserve special standing and because they do some of the hardest and most needful work of charity and care in our society. We should use every available means to protect those institutions from this mortal danger, and that certainly includes resorting to the language of conscience and exemption." (Ibid.)

Pro-choice groups have replied with equally intense language, such as the National Abortion Rights Action League's President Andrea Miller, who comments that, "[t]he Catholic hierarchy seems to be playing a cynical game of chicken and they don't seem to care that the health and well being of millions of American woman are what's at stake here."

Many years ago I learned as an Episcopal priest that some of the folks who are my employees are rightly considered "secular hires." What that means is that even though they work in and for the Church, they do jobs that are not defined by the religious doctrine or core beliefs of that Church. Examples might be nurses or janitors or CFO's or security personnel. Clergy, church musicians, religious educators, and other employees whose jobs are grounded in the particular faith tradition of their employer are treated differently under employment law -- the government is loathe to get involved in labor disputes within those categories. But when disputes involve "secular hires" the employer is obligated to conform to standard labor/employment State and Federal regulations and laws.

Pro-choice voices claim this issue is about the right of "secular hire" employees of Catholic institutions to have birth control and other services paid for as part of their health care plan. In other words, such employees may decide not to use such services for religious reasons, but an employer cannot deny them access for religious reasons. If that is correct, Yuval and others are simply wrong to assume that what's at stake is "the hardest and most needful work of charity and care in our society." (Ibid.) This is not a matter of conscience that should be given special exemption because of religious freedom or charitable effectiveness. Rather, with secular hires, the Church should want to be held to the highest standards of employment law and best employer practices. Some who oppose the provision say it forces people of faith to choose between upholding Church doctrine and serving the broader society. Actually, religious employers who responsibly live in that tension help to sustain our civil society.

An Open Letter to Congress From Leaders of the Faith Community: Don't Cut Foreign Aid!

2011-11-03T10:44:03-04:00

The human condition is a precarious one; we cannot separate ourselves from others who are suffering. All of us are vulnerable, and in these particularly vulnerable times, we have to be counted upon to do more to alleviate suffering in the world.

But with all the chatter about religion these days, too often the faith-based imperative--to help those in need--has been missing from the conversation. That includes, unfortunately, some discussions on Capitol Hill around funding for development assistance. As a country founded on religious freedom and equality, we must remember what the faiths actually call on us to do for people in need.

Priests, imams, reverends and rabbis all recognize the significance of the individual and our obligation to him or her.

The ancient rabbinic text, the Mishnah, states: "A single man was created in the world, to teach that if any man has caused a single soul to perish, scripture imputes it to him as if he had caused a whole world to perish, and if any man saves alive a single soul, scripture imputes it to him as if he had saved alive a whole world..." Similarly in the Qu'ran, "the destruction of one innocent life is like the destruction of the whole of humanity and the saving of one life is like the saving of the whole of humanity." (Al-Ma'idah "the Tablespread" 5:32). Matthew 25 famously states, "As you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me."

Equality has special meaning in the Abrahamic faiths. Equality does not refer solely to the spiritual equality of every human being, nor primarily to those of equal rank, or those of the same class, or who have equal possessions. And it is more than justice in the sense of rectification of wrong.

Equality is something positive and it refers to those who are weaker than oneself i.e. the poor, the stranger, the widow, orphan and the slave. Equality means raising those who are vulnerable, disadvantaged, to the status of those who are secure. Thus the Biblical legislation mandates that there be one law for the home born and the stranger. (Exodus 12:49)

These laws and teachings spell out the rights of the poor, the orphan, the widow and the stranger, who share a common bond. All of them lack a protector that can stand up for them. They do not have a next of kin to intercede for them and therefore the law intervenes as the next of kin. And the guarantee is God.

Amos takes it further. He is the first prophet to claim that social injustice will bring about not individual punishment, but national ruination. This is a revolutionary idea: that the value and destiny of the nation is dependent upon how it treats its most vulnerable members. No longer was it enough to engage in sacrifice to be right with God; and no longer was punishment to be meted out only to the individual. Amos is the first of a line of prophets who view the exploitation of the poor and destitute as a crime equivalent to idolatry. A crime against God.

Isaiah chapter 58 gets to the heart of it all: "When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh." This is the new insight that true monotheism brings about: the poor man is your own flesh.

Thus it is only through justice and righteousness that God is properly served. Isaiah 5:16 affirms that God is "sanctified through righteousness" and Leviticus 19 clearly states that the holy and the ethical are inseparable. The Koran is clear: "O you who believe, stand up firmly for justice as witnesses to Almighty God" (al-Nisa "The Women" 4:135) and Jesus gives the "commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12)

So how can we possibly serve God when 4500 of our world's children die every single day from the lack of clean water; when our girls are relegated to the cycle of poverty because they are denied education; when the lack of sanitation contributes to 50 percent of all child malnutrition; when life-saving drugs are denied our impoverished fellow world citizens. We are not embodying the historic goal represented by Messianism and its corresponding idea that humanity as an ideal to be achieved: to embody God's attributes of compassion graciousness, patience, steadfast love and truth. (Exodus 34:6)

To the members of Congress, we know you understand that there remains a humanity to be achieved and the US government and the American people play a critical global role in achieving that humanity. Reducing suffering and improving lives in the world's poorest communities has represented, since WWII, the finest facet of American foreign policy and a true measure of American public compassion.

Our development assistance programs around the world also help others understand the humanitarian and compassionate sides of the US government and American people. It is important to remember that US foreign aid is only 1 percent of the federal budget but that 1 percent cost-effectively helps millions around the world, including us. Every US dollar invested in safe drinking water and sanitation, for example, sees a return of $8 in increased productivity--due in part to lower rates of disease and a healthier workforce. Small economic investments like these exponentially benefit today's closely linked global economy.

The single most important argument for aiding others in greater need than ourselves is the religious argument. And the task is to legislate it so that it can become a reality not just in word but in deed.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine and The Value of Water

2011-10-04T11:39:23-04:00

"If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: thou shalt not ration justice." -- Judge Learned Hand

"When the well is dry, we know the worth of water." -- Benjamin Franklin

"This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands." -- Barack Obama

Something like a sixth of the world's population does not have access to clean drinking water. And we know that more than 2 million people, most of them children, die every year from diseases directly connected to dirty water. It's not only developing countries that are suffering, as parts of the United States know firsthand from recent flooding. Pesticides, some banned by other countries, but still used in the United States, run into rivers and streams, contaminating human food harvests and land used to feed livestock.

Estimates vary predicting when California's water supply will run out - perhaps in 20 years. Drought and demand are key factors.

That's why The Water Project says: "We know that access to clean, safe water changes lives. We know that when a well is installed for a village, girls return to school. Women begin small businesses. Men are no longer too sick to work. Fields are watered and food supply becomes more reliable. Health returns and children grow up to be productive members of their community. The cycle of poverty is broken. Lives change. Access to clean, safe water isn't an end, it's a means."

And we know that water is a pressure point because it is central to life. Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute developed a "Water Conflict Chronology" to understand how water resources and systems impact security and conflict within and among nations. Gleick and the Institute examine and track how state and non-state control of supplies or access creates tensions, as well as the results of using water resources and systems as a weapon or target during military actions. Water is used politically by states and ethnic or interest groups; coercively and violently by terrorists. And water disputes within and between nations can disrupt economic and social stability and development. They know their method is not precise, but no one can reasonably dispute their assertion that "the importance of water to life means that providing for water needs and demands will never be free of politics."

Last year, when I found myself at a World Water in Washington, D.C., waiting for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to speak, I was rather modestly thinking about water. But more ideas about water and sanitation got stirred up as the Secretary stated:

...as pressing as water issues are now, they will become even more important in the near future. Experts predict ... that by 2025, just 15 years from now, nearly two-thirds of the world's countries will be water-stressed. Many sources of freshwater will be under additional strain from climate change and population growth. And 2.4 billion people will face absolute water scarcity - the point at which a lack of water threatens social and economic development.

Secretary Clinton went on to say that such efforts not only benefit individuals, but also create a future in which we are respectful of our environment and aware that water is at the core of life, whereby we would appreciate our common humanity:

The water that we use today has been circulating through the earth since time began. It must sustain humanity for as long as we live on this earth. In that sense, we didn't just inherit this resource from our parents; we are truly, as many indigenous cultures remind us, borrowing it from our children. It is my hope that by making water a front-burner issue, a high priority in our national and international dialogues, we can give our children and our children's-children the future they deserve.

On September 22, the Cathedral embarked on an extensive six-month conversation titled The Value of Water. We will use liturgy, art and other forms of discourse to invite people under the roof of this holy place - encouraging each of us to be transformed into an advocate. If you visit you will see compelling works of art exhibited in dynamic ways that give special voice to the meaning and value of water.

The Cathedral is no ordinary gallery. The challenges of installing such a range of art occasion a unique engagement from anyone coming into the exhibit. That engagement is enhanced by the resources of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) which frame the "tours" we offer - where each person "sees" and the individual's insights are expanded by the shared experience of others brought into the conversation.

This venue is more than a canvas on which such an important conversation can be projected. Liturgy and art and other forms of discourse were always intended to be calls to action. Across cultures and faiths, and across time, we endeavor to create such arcs in much of what we do here. We reach out to and collaborate with others. And in this case we celebrate how water can be something that unites rather than divides people on this fragile planet.

To some the experience of this Cathedral as a place where art is exhibited will not be new. For others, it might be extraordinary - even shocking. Cathedrals actually have always understood the power and function of art. Art was useful in educating people who could not read and learn about their religious traditions. Art has, throughout history, expressed the experiences and dreams of its creators. Viewing it educates the imagination. Art enables us to see more clearly what is, and re-imagine what could be. Responsible citizenship requires us to have the capacity to critique the status quo while deconstructing what are always socially constructed realities.

Poignantly, the cornerstone of the Cathedral was laid in 1892, the same year that Ellis Island opened. As Ellis Island became the major gateway for that immigration wave, the Cathedral's Chapels of the Tongues, representing the diverse ethnicities populating the international city of New York, would emerge. The ongoing discourse or "great conversation" of a cathedral chartered for all people has included the themes of kinship and citizenship. Those themes have animated the Cathedral's mission and ministries for over one hundred years. Jesus responded to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" just as interfaith understandings of respect for the "other" inform moral choices with global impact. Each of us, over a lifetime, affects others, our communities, those who live elsewhere, and those who will come after our lifetime. In the Quran it is written:

And Allah has created from water every living creature: so of them, is that which walks upon its belly, and of them is that which walks upon two feet, and all of them is that which walks upon four; Allah creates what He pleases; surely Allah has power over all things. (24.45)

Is it sacrilegious to say that God's power is actually limited by what we do? Or is the truth that God depends on us to use these resources wisely, not with wanton disregard for others on the planet in our time or in the future? Across faiths people acknowledge the responsibility we have to be stewards. Although water is plentiful, only one percent of it is available as freshwater. More than one billion people already lack safe drinking water. Water shortages will also endanger thousands of animals and habitats - with the possibility that some could be lost forever.

When over 25,000 people gathered for the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul in 2009 (it was the world's biggest water-related event), the international water community called the gathering "Bridging Divides for Water." Yet those who participated "soon realized... that there is more that unites us than divides us, above all, our fervor to provide water to those most in need."

In six months we may have thousands more people visit the Cathedral--our regular visitors and those especially drawn to The Value of Water. As Leonardo da Vinci said, "When you put your hand into a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come."

Stressful Choices

2011-08-02T08:33:00-04:00

"Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success." -- Dale Carnegie

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value." -- Albert Einstein  

I'm not the first born, but second in my sibling pack. Get over it, you say. Well, James Gorman, writing for The New York Times (July 14, 2011, "Baboon Study Shows Benefits for Nice Guys, Who Finish 2nd") about Princeton post-doc Laurence R. Gesquiere's baboon research, got me thinking about it again. After studying alpha baboon males for more than nine years, her team reported that the alphas have as much stress as the lowest-ranking males. It seems that fighting off challengers and guarding access to fertile females comes at a price. And the beta males who fought less because of less mate guarding not only had much lower stress levels but also had more mating opportunities than any lower-ranking males, even if not as many as the alphas. Other researchers are praising this new work. ¹ They see in it insights into how rank creates very different psychological experiences for the baboons.

We know that stress hormones are released during fight-or-flight, short-term challenges. But the hormones released long-term are more dangerous, as they do not serve simply to energize us when we need to respond but eat us alive, subjecting us to an internal chemistry that breaks down our bodies and can cause disease.² Baboons are not humans -- they get lots of exercise and do not seem to develop heart disease, and alpha baboons do not remain the "top dog" very long. Humans, on the other hand, can experience high stress levels for long periods. The evidence is that chronic increased levels of stress hormones increase the chance of developing diseases or worsen existing diseases.³

Scientists engaged in these studies assert that the application to human health or social structure is not direct.⁴ Scientists do believe that such studies raise questions about the costs of being at the top. Even with humans not following the strict hierarchical systems of some animals, the research suggests that those willing to be no. 2 may last longer and achieve relative success over time.

At New Mexico State University, however, 200 college students were tested to see how many had what psychologists call "dark triad traits."⁵ Characteristics such as callousness, impulsive behavior, extroversion, narcissism and outright anti-social "bad boy" behaviors qualified. Many people say they do not like such people. But Peter Jonason, the lead investigator, said his research showed that many women are attracted to such "bad boys," and they had at least short-term success in the number of women who accepted them as one-night stands.⁶ That short-term success may have evolutionary impact, if such dating leads to short-term mating.

Writing for the ABC News Medical Unit, Audrey Grayson, in "Why Nice Guys Finish Last," quoted Heather Rupp, a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, who said that physiology rather than psychology may be the factor:

"I think it goes back to the physiological underpinnings of such an attraction. For  instance, testosterone is a hormone that in men is linked to more dominant personality traits - outgoing personalities and charm and things like that. And men with higher testosterone are rated by independent observers as being more outgoing and charming than others."

But short-term success does not a relationship make. And just as the alpha baboon may find sustaining the lead by frequent fighting and mating stressful and endangering to his health, "bad boy" traits may run their course in time. How do longer-term relationships fare? Tracy McVeigh interviewed Dr. John Gray for the Observer.⁷ McVeigh in "What drives Alpha males to keep on having affairs?" quoted the author of "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" (which has sold some 50 million copies):

"With oxytocin and alpha men, as the women's stress level goes down when she gets oxytocin from a loving monogamous relationship, the man's testosterone level is going down, so he's getting more stressed and more inclined to seek out risky behavior to push it back up again. The concept is that intimacy can lower a man's sexual drive."

Addressing recent sex scandals with high-profile, celebrity men, Gray believes the divide between men and women is being exacerbated by those hormones, making it harder for them to be monogamous in a stressful world. Gray argues that powerful men are used to having more testosterone and seek to replenish their depleted reserves.⁸ The so-called "love-hormone" -- oxytocin -- helps people bond and lowers female stress. But the alpha male seeks risky behavior to restore the previous hormonal level:

"When I was raised, in the fifties, for my mother a good husband was someone who had a job, he didn't drink or smoke too much, he didn't yell or shout. She said that for that generation a provider was what women wanted. She had a lifestyle which kept her oxytocin levels up so she was happy. She says the lack of romance wasn't a big deal and if she suspected he might have 'other responsibilities' somewhere else it didn't bother her. In the eighties women wanted romance. In the nineties women wanted communication. Now noughties women want romance, then communication, then they are saying, 'I get nothing in the way of domestic help.' That's all mixed up. So while women are obsessing with help with the housework and men are obsessing with casual sex, their relationships are being riven apart. In America the startling statistic is that the average length of a relationship is five years. That's three years of passion and two years of gathering the evidence they need to leave."

Not all scientists agree with Gray's theories.⁹ Perhaps the differences between men and women are smaller than he suggests. Dr. Gray does, however, insist that he is not excusing male behaviors. He's not asserting that men are slaves to hormones. John Gray has been married to his wife for 26 years: "If I see an attractive woman, I use my brain to remember my wife, and my arousal goes back to my wife -- you train yourself with that, you control your urges."

That's got to be less stressful than some alternative behavior.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/14/1344266/being-the-top-ranking-baboon-is.html#ixzz1TMrdEVE0 and http://killerstress.stanford.edu

http://www.amazon.com/End-Stress-As-We-Know/dp/0309076404

http://www.newscientist.com/search?rbauthors=Mason+Inman

http://www.pbs.org/stress/

http://www.bradley.edu/academics/las/psy/facstaff/schmitt/documents/Jonason-Schmitt-2009-DarkTriad-STM.pdf

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/22/alpha-males-sex-scandals

http://www.amazon.com/Venus-Fire-Mars-Ice-Hormonal/dp/0978279735

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/22/alpha-males-sex-scandals

http://www.anthro.ucdavis.edu/faculty/monique/MBMWeb/MBMData/Are%20Men%20and%20Women%20Really.pdf

Gay Couples Have Equal Worth

2011-07-07T17:00:36-04:00
"Treat people as if they were what they should be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Their love is worth the same as your love. Their partnership is worth the same
as your partnership. And they are equal in your eyes to you." --New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to a group of Republicans at the governor's mansion, as reported in the New York Times, "Behind N.Y. Gay Marriage, an Unlikely Mix of Forces"

This fall the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine will induct into its Poets' Corner James Baldwin. Baldwin, raised in Harlem and with roots in the rural South, was the son of a Pentecostal preacher. At the age of 17 he left the church and headed south for Greenwich Village to begin writing. His early writings form a collection of essays, "Notes of a Native Son." Baldwin's autobiography, "Go Tell It on the Mountain," followed. He also addressed racism in America, most famously in the two-essay book, "The Fire Next Time." After years in self-imposed exile in Europe, James Baldwin returned in the early 1960s to participate in the Civil Rights Movement. He said, "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." Years later, a success, Baldwin was asked how disadvantaged he had felt, having started out as a poor, Black and homosexual writer. Baldwin replied, "I'd thought I'd hit the jackpot -- it was so outrageous, you could not go any further, you had to learn how to use it."

I think about all the people across human history who have felt disadvantaged -- often oppressed or unwanted. Some had to hide who they were and how they felt about themselves. They were people told that their sexual identity was pathological and dangerous to others. Lately, I have thought especially about the women and men who did not enjoy public affirmation or the legal rights that have upheld me during 35 years of heterosexual marriage. It seemed strange to me that, as the new law was passed in Albany, some religious leaders continued to assert that people who want to make a commitment that binds them responsibly to someone they love are immoral and somehow the cause of the demise of civilization as we know it.

Christine Quinn, the Speaker of the New York City Council, plans next year to marry the woman with whom she has been living. Recently, as they discussed the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York State, she told Charlie Rose:

Think of a child somewhere in New York State, or anywhere in the country who is in their room watching TV. They see this happen. They know they're gay. They think they're gay. They can't tell their parents. They're terrified. They may not know another gay person. And they see New York State, New York just say that gay families are the same as straight families. That's something that child will hold on to when they're bullied, hold on to when their parents don't accept them.

More than a decade ago, the State of Iowa had approached the issue and considered it a matter of equal protection. Then the legislature reacted by passing what it called "The Defense of Marriage Act" to prohibit same-sex marriage in that state. Eventually, Iowa's State Supreme Court ruled that law unconstitutional, asserting in its opinion,

We are firmly convinced the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective. The legislature has excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification.

Same-sex marriage became legal in Iowa on April 3, 2009. The court further addressed the religious concerns, which for some weeks threatened to postpone New York State's legislation, saying that "the sanctity of all religious marriages celebrated in the future will have the same meaning as those celebrated in the past. The only difference is civil marriage will now take on a new meaning that reflects a more complete understanding of equal protection of the law."

Michael Judge, a fifth generation Iowan and contributing editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, has a gay brother. He wrote about the Iowa decision in the Wall Street Journal in a piece he titled, "Why Gay Marriage Matters -- The state should recognize our choice of partner,"

I often tell friends that a part of me is gay, even though I've been happily married to my wife for 12 years. What I mean is that in April 2003 I donated a kidney to my older brother David, who is gay. The transplant took place at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics -- and it was, in a very real sense, a miraculous event for our entire family. So when David called me last Friday excited about the Iowa Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriage legal, I wasn't surprised. "You know what this means, don't you?" he asked. "It means we can visit those we love when they're dying in the hospital; it means we're finally treated like family."

With lots of gay and lesbian friends and family, I share Judge's acclamation, "Here's to marriage, a 'supremely important civil institution.' And here's to including, not excluding, kindhearted people like my brother David, who want nothing more than to find the right person, settle down, and one day perhaps get married." It really is about commitment, which actually is very moral and is what builds up civilization.

Turning Cheeks: Why Christians and Muslims Should Break the Cycle of Hate

2011-04-05T21:03:28-04:00
To figure out how to build freer, better societies, Muslims need not look across the ocean. They need only look back into their own history ... consultation is the magic word. It occurs again and again in classical Islamic texts. It goes back to the time of the Prophet himself ... power was shared such that rulers at the top were checked, so the Arab and Muslim communities of the vast Ottoman Empire came to include certain practices and expectations of limited government. --Bari Weiss, "The Tyrannies Are Doomed," in the Wall Street Journal, after interviewing Bernard Lewis, April 2

When Jesus said we should turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-42 and Luke 6:27-31), he was not asking followers to become door mats. Rather, in the face of violence, Jesus directed us to "break the cycle."

At the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, we read the Quran on various occasions each year -- on New Year's Eve at our Concert for Peace and at the Blessing of Animals during the Saint Francis Day service on the first Sunday of each October. We are a Christian church, rooted in the Anglican and Episcopal traditions. We also are a Cathedral that was chartered in the State of New York to be a cathedral for all people. Across cultures and faiths for more than 100 years, we have not only endeavored to be respectful and hospitable. Perhaps even more importantly, we have tried to be open to learning from others. We don't have to believe what they believe to want to understand what animates their quest for human dignity, freedom and justice as inspired by the Divine. If what they believe is contrary to those values and goals, perhaps we can learn how to discover common ground on which to stand as we build more just societies even as we disagree religiously.

Last fall I was in Switzerland at a seminar that included several Iranian scholars. The topic was Ecological and Environmental Justice, and Jews, Christians and Muslims gathered around a table studying their respective sacred texts and traditions. What did each say about our stewardship of this planet and responsibilities to care for resources without which future generations will not be able to survive? That seminar took place as Florida pastor Terry Jones was threatening to burn a copy the Quran. I came to appreciate what we would lose if the Quran and its teaching about the environment were to be destroyed: a long tradition of theology about what it means to be faithful to this planet and to each other.

Repeatedly, my Muslim colleagues asked, "What could be so much more important to you, when we say that burning a copy of the Quran would rupture our relationship because of the desecration and disrespect shown?" I kept trying to explain that, as an American, as sacred as my religious vows are, I have a socially binding contract in the vow each American citizen makes to the United States Constitution. I thought burning the Quran would be disrespectful and wrong, but that someone still had the right to do it in my country -- even though I hoped they would not.

Terry Jones did not act then. Instead, he traveled to New York City and met with Muslims -- for the first time, I imagined. Perhaps he even read some portions of the Quran -- also likely for the first time. I wanted to believe education and conversation could open anyone to the realities that in diverse societies we either live together or tear each other down. I was not sure Jones would change, but I wanted also to believe he would see that burning the Quran was more dangerous than courageous, and that any idea it "sent a message" was misguided.

Fast forward several months. Maybe it was ridiculous to expect further that if the Florida pastor followed through on a threat to burn the Quran, Muslims everywhere would see the act for what it is: the unrepresentative action of an ignorant and misguided individual or small group. There are fewer members of Jones's Dove World Outreach Center these days. Reports claim that he's broke. Jones says he gets death threats and that even his neighbors vilify him.

It still mystifies me when I try to comprehend why Jones went ahead and organized a mock trial that concluded with the Quran burning. He told The New York Times, "It was intended to stir the pot; if you don't shake the boat, everyone will stay in their complacency." He went on to say, "Emotionally, it's not all that easy. People have tried to make us responsible for the people who are killed. It's unfair and somewhat damaging."

I abhor the disrespect Jones displayed in this action. The Quran is a holy book. Even someone who seems to know little about it or Islam should, especially if religious, respect that the Quran is a sacred text to others. Read and critique it -- fine. But what is the purpose of desecrating it? To understand what the Quran means to Muslims -- as revelation -- the equivalent would not be for them to burn the Bible but to crucify Jesus. I think Michael Peppard's article in the Dec. 5, 2008 Commonweal should be required reading: "The Secret Weapon: Religious Abuse in the War on Terror." Dr. Peppard concludes, "Religious torture generates determined resistance and long-lasting resentments."

That said, I want also to ask this: What's worse, the idiotic acts of this pastor, or the violence and death caused by "believers" who claim as Muslims to be defending their faith in response to his actions? As President George W. Bush used to say about the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, are we talking about a few "bad apples?" Even if that is true, let's be clear: how anyone responds to such situations says as much about the responder as the original act itself.

Islam has a long and glorious tradition of peace and tolerance. Christianity does as well. There are horrific exceptions in each tradition. Turning the other cheek does not condone the wrong of the other, but it affords us an opportunity in our responses to break cycles of violence by not sowing more violence. Then New Communities of Justice can dawn.

Ash Wednesday: Mortality, Humanity and Humility

2011-03-08T20:24:53-05:00
"If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word."
--excerpt from T.S. Eliot's "Ash Wednesday"

Not all Christian churches observe Ash Wednesday or Lent. The Bible does not mention Ash Wednesday or the custom of Lent. Ash Wednesday, unknown in the Eastern Church, developed only in the West. But traditions of repentance and mourning in ashes date back at least to the time of 2 Samuel 13:19; Esther 4:1; Job 2:8; Daniel 9:3 in the Hebrew Bible; and Matthew 11:21 speaks about it.

Those of us who use Ash Wednesday to begin Lent find the 40-day season helpful in reconnecting us to the foundations of faith. We believe that Jesus began his public ministry at the age of 30 by being baptized and was immediately sent into a 40-day period of fasting and temptation. And the first Christians developed various devotional ways of remembering the days of Jesus' passion and resurrection. The Church created a variety of customs to prepare, many focused on the season of penitence and fasting. Ash Wednesday dates to at least the eighth century and appears in the Gregorian Sacramentary. Originally, Lent began on a Sunday, but to have the number of days of Lent correspond to the 40 days Jesus fasted in the wilderness, Lent was eventually transferred to begin on a Wednesday.

What evolved was a time when converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism at the Easter Vigil, which begins in darkness and ends in light. That is the genesis of sunrise services. Poignantly, the Church saw Lent as a special time to acknowledge that those who had committed "notorious sins" and become "separated from the body of the faithful" could be reconciled by penitence and forgiveness.

Restoration to the fellowship of the Church was seen as a miracle -- a sign of God's power to re-create, renew and rebirth. As the Book of Common Prayer in my Episcopal tradition puts it, "...the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith."

The definition of the "observance of a holy Lent" is marked by disciplines of self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word, all moving toward that purpose: to believe again in the power of God to offer us ways to "die to sin" and begin new life again. Harkening back to the garden of our first birth, there are two similar Hebrew words: adam -- the man, who was created from the ground, and adamah -- ground or dust, which emphasizes the fragility of humanity and the total dependence of the creature on the Creator.

On Ash Wednesday ashes are mixed with either holy oil or water and blessed and then put on persons' foreheads with the sign of the cross. Made from burning the palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday, those ashes are imposed as the priest says, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (referring to Genesis 3:19). Thereby we are reminded of our mortality and humanity and invited in humility to welcome the miracles God continues to reveal and empower us to participate in.

It is not sentimentalism that sustains our journey back to that first garden of paradise with intimacy and connection to God. Rather, it is our foundational and definitional need to be grounded -- remembering that we are dust, eternally connected to the source of all being. Even if we fail to open ourselves to that Word, God continues to speak and to act in the world. Listening opens us to be transformed and to become true stewards of all of creation.

Current events will offer us two directions to take Ash Wednesday this year, it seems to me. We can either feel more different and disconnected from the various peoples of the earth ravaged by violence, oppression, injustice and malfeasance. Or we can feel the ruptures as tearing away at the very fabric of humanity we share, knit together by God, who more than shares our pain by daring to become human in Jesus. The focus on the passion and death of Jesus, which culminates in the final phase of Lent -- Holy Week -- does not simply open the door to an Easter celebration. We believe that the Holy Cross redeems the world by lifting onto it all suffering, across time and cultures. That is our authentic shared humanity.

The Clarity of Choices Before Us In Egypt

2011-02-11T14:12:01-05:00
If you choose, you can keep the commandments,
and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
He has placed before you fire and water;
stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.
Before each person are life and death,
and whichever one chooses will be given.
For great is the wisdom of the Lord;
he is mighty in power and sees everything;
his eyes are on those who fear him,
and he knows every human action.
He has not commanded anyone to be wicked,
and he has not given anyone permission to sin.

Ecclesiasticus 15:15-20

Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No';
anything more than this comes from the evil one.

Matthew 5: 37

I was in Egypt just before the revolution started. I had no idea that things would flare up the way they have. Traveling with other clergy and then on my own, I saw the beauty and energy of that nation. We arrived just after the Coptic tragedy of New Year's Day and learned that Muslims, including high profile Imams, had attended the January 7th Christmas worship services with the Coptic communities -- literally putting themselves in harm's way as they sat in pews to protect Christians.

There's a lot to like about Egypt -- its long history, culture, archeology and energy. To be with busy and hardworking Egyptian entrepreneurs is to witness firsthand the can-do attitude and "put the customer first" approach that makes it obvious that they want to grow their business -- beginning with you!

And it's also easy to see the poverty. It's hard not to be hit hard by the realities of the disparity between the haves and have-nots. You hear talk about unemployment -- that 40 percent of the younger people who want to work have no jobs. People work hard for small salaries. You can feel the unrest that festers when people sense that their hope, that their wanting to believe they have a future, could evaporate suddenly.

But most people we have seen and heard during the last few revolutionary weeks have not given up hope. They have channeled their frustrations and anger into protest -- most of it not violent. They have been non-violent even when they have been attacked by thugs or by government officials. The people in power -- who have the most to lose if things change -- have tried all the old tricks to undermine reform.

No wonder one of the most dangerous aspects of America's relationship with Egypt right now is how what we say is heard. The situation is complex. Chaos and violence could be deeply injurious to the emerging nation. But words that obfuscate the facts or stall addressing the real issues are understandably met with great hostility. Sure -- you don't fly the plane until you know where you want to land it. Yet, expecting people to be "patient" when they have been oppressed, lied to and tricked time and again, is simply insulting and will backfire.

I actually trust the American officials charged with responsibilities in our diplomatic relationship with Egypt -- obviously, we have our own interests as a top priority. I know some of them and know how much they also care about Egypt and about freedom. So it always pains me when the allegations and distrust appear to be a result of the misuse or misunderstanding of words, not the substance of positions.

I think Jesus' teaching, "Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No,'" is helpful. That kind of simple clarity is not only good for us and our relationship to each other; it can also frame how we embrace what it means to be a child of God. Again and again the Biblical narratives remind us that we are making choices, and that our words not only matter but often determine our direction and outcomes as well. H.G. Wells said, "I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there." Perhaps more often the choices will not be so dramatic, profound or impactful. But there will be times -- and often the "small choices" are cumulative -- when the choice before us is between life and death -- at least spiritually. George Orwell wrote in his essay "Politics and the English Language," that "political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." We can do better than that. And Egypt deserves better than that.