Here We Go Again – Anti-War Groups Want to Stay Small
From the May 26 press release of our member group: “Rehumanize International has been rejected by the Women’s March to Ban the Bomb (WMTBTB) in New York City as a contributing sponsor. The woman-led Consistent Life Ethic organization works internationally to ‘end aggressive violence against human beings through education, discourse, and action.’ But due to the fact that Rehumanize International (RI) also seeks non-violent solutions to injustices against women and children, rejecting the violence of abortion, the WMTBTB organizers . . . refuse to work with them, up to refunding the $500 donation RI made as a sponsor. ‘Given that our committee’s fundamental agreement that [abortion] is an essential part of a woman’s rights agenda,’ says Allison Pytlak of WILPF, ‘We are unable to accept RI’s sponsorship . . . ‘ ‘This seems to be a theme,’ says CJ Williams, Rehumanize International’s Director of Outreach & Education, ‘These other organizations working passionately to end violence against vulnerable human beings divide their power, reject support, and exclude us because we apply the principles of non-violence consistently.’” Rosemary Geraghty (pictured) has an excellent Facebook video with several thoughts.
Terrorism This last month has seen a horrific attack in Manchester, England, by a man motivated by ISIS ideology, and more recently an attack in Portland, Oregon, U.S., by a man motivated in part by anti-Muslim hatred. Our hearts are broken over this continual violence. Here are some resources for information about stopping them: ∞ Muslim scholars, who are the highest authority in Islam, have published a thoroughly-documented Open Letter to Al-Baghdadi explaining how terrorism (along with mistreatment of women, currently keeping people as slaves, and several other points) is contrary to Islam. ∞ We ran an item called “Stopping Terrorism 101” that summarizes information from CL Endorser Glen Stassen, showing what has actually worked and not worked in stopping terrorism in the past. Strategies of economic development, human rights, and democratic representation have been shown to work well. Military strategies are generally counter-productive. ∞ After previous attacks, we discussed some rules of nonviolent responses to terrorism and gave resources for nonviolence in Islam.
Latest CL Blog: Activists Reminisce The short-sightedness of so many groups in the anti-war movement on how they treat the movement’s pro-life members is nothing new. Four of the women that were active back in the late 1970s and early 1980s with Prolifers for Survival, predecessor of the Consistent Life Network, held a teleconference to create an oral history of the time. The transcript is Chapter 12 of our book, Consistently Opposing Killing: From Abortion to Assisted Suicide, the Death Penalty, and War. We offer an excerpt.
Quotation of the Week Carol Crossed, April 29, 2017 I just came from a climate change rally here in Rochester. I cobbled together a sign with the bumper sticker “Save the Human Race” in the middle and wrote around it “no poverty,” “no war,” “no abortion,” “no fracking” (a big issue in Rochester). A person came up and told me this was a rally focused on only one issue. That my sign was divisive. I said that war and poverty and abortion were interconnected with human destruction, and that I was going to a defund Planned Parenthood rally immediately from this climate change one, and I was taking the same sign. That the pro-lifers would welcome my sign, that they were tolerant. She kind of skirted away quickly because we were drawing a crowd. (By the way, the pro-life people at the anti-PP rally loved my sign.)
Remember to see what we have to offer and register for our conference, "Creating a Holistic Culture of Life: Bridging the Life/Peace Divide" August 4-6, Eastern University, near Philadelphia, PA.
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