Friday marks the 10th anniversary of the United States' invasion of Afghanistan.
In his speech on the war in Afghanistan this summer, President Obama pledged that U.S. combat troops will all leave by the end of 2014.
In the latest news, however, U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Marine Corps General John Allen said that "while some folks might hear that we're departing in 2014 ... we're actually going to be here for a long time."
In fact, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph has reported that the strategic agreement being negotiated between the U.S. and Afghanistan would allow thousands of troops to remain until 2024.
Sojourners produced this video to highlight the moral, human and financial costs of the war:
If the moral and financial costs weren't enough to end the war, public opinion has turned against it, and its strategic importance has long been in question.
Tomorrow, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be more than $1.259 trillion.
Tomorrow, almost 14 million Americans will still be unemployed.
Tomorrow, the homes of more than 2,500 new U.S. families will enter foreclosure.
Tomorrow, one in seven U.S. households still won't know where their next meal is coming from.
Tomorrow, one in four American children under the age of six will still be living below the poverty line.
Tomorrow, three billion people around the globe will still be living on less than $2.50 a day.
Tomorrow, 400 million children will still lack access to clean water.
Tomorrow, 300 children under the age of five will die in the Horn of Africa because of famine.
People are feeling crushed from all sides.
Parents who aren't sure where their kid's next meal will come from, and the college students who have tens of thousands of dollars in loans and can't find a job.
Families that have lost their homes in bank foreclosures, and the tens of millions of people who live below the poverty line even though they HAVE jobs.
Problems in our nation and around the globe are huge, and the odds for overcoming them seem insurmountable.
The institutions and systems -- whether business or government -- meant to serve the people, seem beyond the reach of basic human kindness and completely unaccountable.
And the ever-widening gap between the very top one percent who control more wealth than the bottom 99 percent is a recipe for disastrous social instability and unrest.
The new movement called Occupy Wall Street now has spread across the country, from the very seats of our political and financial power and our largest cities, to suburbs and small towns. In some communities, small groups of a few dozen have formed and in some cities thousands have gathered.
In each instance, no matter the size, people's frustrations, hurts, and feelings of being betrayed by our nation's politicians and economic leaders are clear. They want to be heard.
We will likely see images and hear things from Occupy Wall Street demonstrators that will offend us and some that will inspire.
We'll hear demands that we agree with and some that we don't.
And that's OK.
The Occupy Wall Street protests make some people nervous, while others scratch their heads, and more than a few grab their sleeping bags and join in.
There is a lot of speculation as to who the "Occupiers" are and what they might accomplish. There is much I still don't know about the movement, but undeniably it has caught the imagination of a generation -- and that matters.
Here are a few things I do know about the Occupy Wall Street protesters:
When they stand with the poor, they stand with Jesus.
When they stand with the hungry, they stand with Jesus.
When they stand for those without a job or a home, they stand with Jesus.
When they are peaceful, non-violent, and love their neighbors (even the ones they don't agree with and who don't agree with them), they are walking as Jesus walked.
When they talk about holding banks and corporations accountable, they sound like Jesus and the biblical prophets before him who all spoke about holding the wealthy and powerful accountable.
Pray for those out on the streets.
Think of ways that you or your church can be Jesus to them.
And do one of the things that church folks do best: Bring them a covered casserole!
Take your church potluck down to the occupations. Sit, eat, and talk with the protesters. Offer them the sacred gifts of hospitality, company, and friendship.
Or a hot cup of coffee.
Or send them a pizza. (Think of it as a peace-za.)
The Occupiers' desire for change and willingness to take action to do something about it should be an inspiration to us all.
It is for me that, even after 10 years of war, we can still act and pray for peace.
For as Isaiah 2:4 says: "[God] will judge between the nations 
and will settle disputes for many peoples. 
They will beat their swords into plowshare s
and their spears into pruning hooks.
 Nation will not take up sword against nation,
 nor will they train for war anymore."
Tomorrow I'll be in New York City, where I will head to the financial district to visit with Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, because they are carrying on the most interesting conversation going on in that city -- or any other -- right now.
Besides, I love a good potluck or pizza party where people imagine a better world.
Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. He blogs at www.godspolitics.com. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
Follow Jim Wallis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jimwallis
Would Jesus occupy Wall Street? - Yahoo! Answers
Occupy Wall Street Protest: A Message From Jesus to the Mammon ...
You seem to miss the point: The people who most identify wiht the best of religion (that is, those that _actually_ try and follow the teachings of, varriously, the prophet, or the deity) actually side with the secular actions of the occupy Wall Street group.
Their involvement in this particular way is VERY HELPFUL and even key.
Haven't you noticed that a HUGE fraction of the people who keep voting against the best interests of all of us are self-proclaimed "christians?" If they can be moved to see some real truth - that the political institutions they have been supporting (primarily Republicans) are actually contrary to their religious beliefs - they may well come around to a more rational viewpoint that is less damaging to the rest of us.
Get a clue, this is VERY helpful.
Tomorrow, almost 14 million Americans will still be unemployed.
Tomorrow, the homes of more than 2,500 new U.S. families will enter foreclosure.
Tomorrow, one in seven U.S. households still won't know where their next meal is coming from.
Tomorrow, one in four American children under the age of six will still be living below the poverty line..
The challenges are insurmountable but the Republic'CONS' led congress in the House and GOP presidential candidates will only kowtow to Ayatollah Grover Norquist on no tax increases at all costs. They will only kowtow to the extremist religious rights to even calling one of their own who happened to be a Mormon that Mormonism is a "cult". They kowtow to the super and mega wealthy 1% Americans to keep their tax rates lower than the average workers on the payroll.
It is time for Jesus followers to throw out money influenced and corrupted elected officials and lobbyists alike as Jesus did in The Temple thousands of years ago.
"And Yeshua (Jesus) entered The Temple of God and cast out all of those who sold and bought in The Temple and upset the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves."
Amen.
Just a Jesus is a Romanized version of Yeshua, the OWS movement could be a political creation to divert and control the ideas from the 'Left'.
Keep your Jesus. I will fllow Yeshua. Keep your OWS. I will follow my own agenda.
Yet, christians overwhelmingly support the authoritarian, objectivist, libertarian views of Tea-Publicans.
That says a great deal about the difference between what christians supposedly espouse in their churches and how they actually act based upon what is actually preached in their churches.
Doesn't it?
Cynical, hypocrisy from church organizations that really support the suppression of the poor for their corporate purposes is the reality.
Jefferson was right:
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.
-Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec. 6, 1813.
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814
If you are Christian, you have to remember that Jesus was offered in His Human form Power and Wealth. If God really cared about the earthly state of man as opposed to the spiritual state of man, He would have sent Jesus as a King, but the flesh he wore would have not with stood the test if he were King, look at all the Jewish Kings and their in ability to use Gods power without their flesh betraying them.
The Southern Baptist decry Catholics as not being Christians, and Call Mormons a cult. Now in the back pedal mode they say Mormons are christians, just not Christian enough. If you let these people in power they will bring back the Inquisitions because they have traded their raiment of Humility for the robes of false Judges.
Beware those who worship false Gods and Proclaim them as The God.
The question is whether their character and decision making is likely to be moral, ethical and just.
What we must address is whether it is moral for any government to take from the poor and give to the corporate rich.
What we must address is whether it is moral for any government to take no action at all while 14 million children go to bed hungry; whether it is moral to do nothing to help people, to give those in a hole a ladder to help them out of that hole.
Whether it is moral to give corporations, licensed by our governments and "supposedly" part of our communities, unequal tax expenditures to help them destroy the American economy; moral to destroy our environment and increase medical suffering.
Tea-Publicans, Americans, must decide what their morality really is.
see George Whitfield, that tough old christian preacher, coping a squat and eating pizza. Yah, sure
he would Jimmy, sure he would. That's the difference between the past and today. Preachers back then were consumed with the fire of the word of God, today they are having potlucks and pizza parties.
When they stand with the hungry, they stand with Jesus.
When they stand for those without a job or a home, they stand with Jesus."
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Wallis is missing the most important item. If you are a follower of Jesus, then you are standing with Jesus. Even Jesus acknowledge there will always be poor. But first and foremost, God wants us to have a relationship with Him.
Wallis is missing the most important ingredient.