Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write off the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Showing posts with label Government and Governing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Government and Governing. Show all posts

Sunday, December 17, 2023

America is First "A Land of Rights and Freedoms" Before it ever was a Christian Nation


Under MAGA'ism America is become torn apart... - re slater

Before America was ever a Christian nation it was First and
Foremost a Land for Individual Rights and Liberties. - re slater

AMERICA - A LAND OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
by R.E. Slater

When reading the CNN article further below I came across some apt commentary on the Internet which I will use here, by rearranging it and re-applying it. It comes from an essay, I found on Bartleby.com entitled, "Failure to Learn from History in George Orwell's treatise, Animal Farm."

To being, let me refer to an old adage which we all have grown up with but seems especially relevant for our present lives at this time. It goes like this...
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” This was most likely spoken by the writer and philosopher George Santayana who originally wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Meaning that there is a truism to the memorable quote that if we do not learn from our failures and errors in the past then we are condemned to repeat those same lessons again and again until they are learned.
In the neo-conservative and hardliner Trump's case - along with his MAGA republican party and ardent White evangelical adherents - Trump's divisive White Christian Nationalist planks speaks to Santayana's adage.... That every dictatorship or a tyrannical government eventually had led to a deeply unsettling revolution....  And in this case, just about every revolution which places "total power" into the hands of a single ruler will always lead to an authoritarian, autocratic rule....
Consequently, popularly supported but unfiltered propaganda and misinformation when embraced and institutionalized, will always create cycles of reinforcing "positive" feedback which are difficult to reverse by their implications and divisive content.... Moreover, as that same propaganda encourages violent behavior it will in turn create weaker, less responsible civil societies.
Accordingly, authoritarian institutions which are funneling the majority of corruptible wealth into the hands of a politically elite and corrupt minority will never progress towards societal equality and fairness....
More rather, these (MAGA) elitist power centers will run downhill becoming more and more craven, despotic, and totalitarian, towards those who originally placed them into power by supporting the (MAGA) autocratic movement away from an openly civil democracy towards forms of controlling, neo-fascism. And when done, will be very difficult - if not impossible - to break up, or up-end, as the world recently discovered again under Hitler's Nazification of monarchal Germany (1933-1945).


History Is Brimming With Great Accomplishments And Great Mistakes

Thomas Edison once replied when asked why he continued working after so many failures, “I didn 't fail," he said. "I found 10,000 ways that didn 't work.” This contrary view to Santayana's insightful adage above simply repeats in reverse the saying that one is "condemned to repeating the past" when not learning from the horrific past history of others.
People who remember their failures and errors; who contemplate in what ways they could have made things better; who familiarize themselves with their past; simply will not make the same mistakes again.
Why? Because they now know how NOT to accomplish their goals. Their "hindsight has become 20/20"... when re-capturing their acknowledgement that mistakes were made in the past but then they will no longer remain ambiguous as to why those mistakes had occurred and under what circumstances.
More simply, those same errors in thinking and judgment will not be made again under similar future events.


Power Corrupts... And it Corrupts Completely

This is something our MAGA-ridden government needs to take heed, because they are the ones repeating history at present. By teaching the angry "mis-versions" of America's religious history - that it began as a Christian nation and is intended to remain a Christian nation - they are creating situations for violent response.

Especially when forgetting that America first-and-foremost was a safe haven and refuge to the oppressed unwanteds of foreign lands.... That the first American colonies grew and expanded because they offered places to worship and think independently to non-national (protesting) reformists... and away from the well-entrenched and established Catholicized or State-based Christian faiths in Central Europe.
That the reformationists to the Catholic Christian faith had fundamentally left the state-supported Catholic Church to establish protesting (aka, Protestant) Christian faiths of various ilks and sorts in America's newborn colonies.
Consequently, such a national history as America's thereby attests more to the fact that America was born out of the necessity to live somewhere where individuals and families could live apart from religious oppression, inquisition, loss of wealth and life.

As Massachusetts went, so did the rest
of Colonial America... - re slater

America is First "A Land of Rights and Freedoms" Before it ever was a Christian Nation
Thus and thus, America is a land of individual rights and freedoms before it ever was a breakoff Christian state where European reformists might come and worship how they wished and by what standards they wished to embrace.
Which beggars the question, how is America any different today from it's Colonial history?
Firstly, we are continually blessed with religious, anti-statist, faithful migrants from around the world. Those peoples who have left unsafe local communities in their former countries to live in an America better known for it's blended families of migrants than for what it has more recently become as unwanting fleeing migrants from impoverished, criminally corrupt local governments blinded to the individual rights and freedoms of individuals and families, friends and neighbors.
Moreover, these same global migrants who are fleeing their homes to come to America's Lands of Reformists are first-and-foremost seeking security and protection to their individual and familial rights and interests.
Which is why America is first an Open Democracy before it is anything else, such as an acclaimed Christian Land.
If anything, because of America's Christianizing ideals of equality, fairness, and freedom, all other Christian and non-Christian faiths may now enter into America to find a promising community lifestyle of peace, toleration, and amiability with one another.
Spoken another way, America is becoming what it had always been birthed as... as a "Land where differents and difference is welcomed, accepted, and embraced" (except for those poor Native Americans inhabiting North, Central, and South America first).
Hence, America's enculturated differences are its biggest strength. That it's union of dissimilars is it's highest priority... and NOT it's division into competing racist groupings.

Power Corrupts Absolutely in George Orwell's Animal House...
Click here to read of Animal House's Character List


In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, one of the major themes was power. And how absolute power corrupts absolutely.

To the animals, Drunk Farmer Jones was a tyrant, always mistreating and abusing them, until one day Old Major (Pig) told them of a dream he had, where the animals will be able to live in a utopia, and lead lives of peace. After the rebellion occurred the animals overthrew Jones and in his place Napoleon Pig soon came to power. He promised the animals lives of prosperity, and for a while Animal Farm was a blissful place, however after a while Napoleon's reign became a tyranny, one very similar to Jones, if not worse.

George Orwell's Indictment Of Totalitarianism

Earlier promises were retracted, and the avowed commandments which once were irrevocable are changed to meet the needs of Napoleon Pig and his “henchmen.” 

Napoleon begins to engage in trade with Pilkington, a former "easy-going" partner of Mr. Jones who runs the neighboring farm of Foxwood. This results in a situation which is little different from the original farm of Mr. Jones which the animals had revolted against in years prior. It also repeated their former reality in which man and pig could not be differentiated:
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig…it was impossible to say which was which.” (Orwell, 141)
This statement demonstrates the incongruous nature of totalitarianism. Regardless of whatever ideals a totalitarian leader may endorse, the end product of a totalitarian state, whether it be a “capitalist” or “communist” one, does not vary much—if at all.

A State of Ignorance in George Orwell's Animal Farm

Ignorance is the most fatal flaw in human nature. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, he expressed through his characters the motif that ignorance is the worst of all flaws.

Each of the animal characters in the book, symbolize specific characteristics that are found in humans. Mollie Mare, Benjamin Donkey, and the sheep are the main animals that have the greatest ignorance and can bring the greatest harm into the farm.

Similarities Between Animal Farm and Joseph Stalin's Russia

Throughout history, dictators of many nations have all shared similar traits; whether they be stubborn, power-hungry, or just callous, they are all corrupted and built constitutionally in nearly the same way.

This holds true in both reality and in fiction, through the analyzation of Josef Stalin, the Soviet dictator of Russia, and Napoleon Pig, the dictator of Animal Farm

George Orwell meant for Animal Farm to be a satire of the Russian Revolution, and he succeeded. In Animal Farm, Napoleon Pig is a blatant representation of Josef Stalin, ruling by fear, paranoia, and who are tyrannical, ultimately leading to their  separate falls.

Is Animal Farm Better Than Farmer Jones's Time?

Animal Farm by George Orwell can directly relate to George Santayana's quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

This quote means we are prone to repeat ourselves if we cannot remember our mistakes from the past.... Nor learn from them. And by the time we notice our error as a repetition in history, it is already too late to repair the circumstances we find ourselves in.

The animals in Animal Farm are not able to tell if their situation is better or worse than Jones's time because they cannot remember their life in the past:
"There were times when it seemed to the animals that they worked longer hours and fed no better than they had done in Jones’s day. On Sunday mornings Squealer Pig, holding down a long strip of paper with his trotter, would read out to them lists of figures proving their chaining bondage.
The Characteristics Of Lying In Animal Farm by George Orwell
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth,” this is a quote from the Soviet Union dictator, Vladimir Lenin.
This quote is a perfect example of Napoleon in the book Animal Farm. Herein, Napoleon Pig has become a very controlling, manipulative and extremely self-absorbed leader - not unlike Joseph Stalin.
Thus, the underlying idea is signified when revealing the truth that the most harmful people in society are people who lie so often to themselves, and to those who are willing to listen to them, that they forget what was in exchange for what they pretend things to be....

How George Orwell Use the Theme of Power In Animal Farm

Power can be recognized as the most dangerous weapon to use against a civilization.

In George Orwell’s work of fiction Napoleon takes personal (sovereign) supremacy in a communist/totalitarian animal society, and becomes corrupted by the power  he usurped when applying (state-based) cruelty to the other animals when disobeying the commandments they had acclaimed to observe.

Cruelty then is used with one's usurped privilege of power whenever an autocratic leader forming an autocratic state applies such means of power to the people who placed him into power.

As such, when Napoleon removes Snowball Pig (aka, Leon Trotsky in real life) from the animal farm using his predator dogs, the other farm animals finally perceive who the dogs really are:

“They were the puppies whom Napoleon had taken away from their mothers and raised privately [to be his own].” (Orwell 53).

The Rise Of Nazi Power

In summation,

“One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today's present societies have been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and again.” (Sowell) - aka, the essayist
An abridged commentary,

by R.E. Slater
December 17, 2023







* * * * * * * *


Author Jon Ward: "The idea that America is a Christian nation
is actually not faithful to historic Christianity."Lawrence Jackson


He left his White evangelical bubble.
Here’s what he says it would take
for others to do the same

by John Blake, CNN
November 6, 2023

CNN —

If you don’t realize how powerful White Christian evangelicals have become, consider this:

A White Christian evangelical, who has been described as “the embodiment of White Christian nationalism in a tailored suit,” is now second in line to the presidency.

Rep. Mike Johnson, the new Speaker of the House, is a White evangelical. His ascension represents one of the greatest political ironies of our time. White evangelical Protestants make up only about 14% of Americans, and that number has been steadily shrinking. But White evangelicals have amassed more political power than ever. They helped inspire the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade last year, and their steadfast support of former President Trump could return him to the White House.

Yet there is still widespread misunderstanding of White evangelical subculture. The media tends to depict White evangelicals as foaming-at-the-mouth Christian insurrectionists like some of those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

One former evangelical, though, has done something rare: He’s written a new memoir that illustrates how White evangelicals were led astray by their thirst for political power but also depicts many of them as earnest spiritual strivers who still retain “immense power for good.”

The book is titled “Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation,” and it’s by Jon Ward, the chief national correspondent at Yahoo! News. Ward describes being raised in a Christian bubble where watching secular television shows like “Sesame Street” was forbidden. He attended churches where people were “slain in the spirit” while singing songs with choruses such as, “all of us deserve to die.”

The son of a pastor, Ward would go on to become a White House reporter, traveling the world on Air Force One with former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Ward recounts in his brutally honest memoir how his family, like others, were torn apart by the rise of Donald Trump.

“I felt abandoned by my own father,” he writes about his dad, who led an influential evangelical church and who he declines to name in the book. He and his father had argued about Trump describing the media as “the enemy of the people,” Ward said.

“But it helped me understand how good people could stand by and make excuses for bad people in power,” he wrote. “They couldn’t not see past their own resentments and bias, even when people they loved were hurting or scared.”

CNN talked to Ward about why he thinks White evangelicals remain misunderstood, why he’ s leery of using the term “Christian nationalist,” and what it would take for White evangelicals to abandon Trump. Ward’s remarks were edited for brevity and clarity.

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The new speaker of the house is a White Christian evangelical and is second in the line for the presidency. Does this inspire or concern you? Or maybe a bit of both?

I think that with his (Johnson’s) sort of surprise ascent into such a position of power so close to the presidency, there’s a lot more attention now on the kind of conservative Christian beliefs that have been common among millions of evangelicals for decades. What’s unusual about Johnson is that while his views are fairly common, it’s uncommon to have somebody get so high in a position of power with his views because usually they have to go through much more vetting. His views about America being a Christian nation are a pretty telling marker of what a lot of experts call “Christian nationalism.”

That’s a term that gets thrown around a lot. I’m wary of using it because I think it’s used as a caricature. There are people who are trying to weaponize Christian nationalism. And I don’t think that that’s most evangelicals. I think it’s people who are associated with the former president’s attempt to overturn the last election. These beliefs have been common for a long time. But this, at this moment, they’re merging with a strain of anti-democratic apocalyptic forms of Christianity that have already shown a willingness to throw out respect for the Constitution and democracy.

I think most evangelicals probably have a mix of views. And one of them is that America is a Christian nation, and they don’t have a lot of implications that flow out from that. When you categorize everybody as an extremist just because they hold these views, I think it pushes more evangelicals towards the bad actors who are trying to bring people into an anti-democratic movement.

Newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson takes his oath of office in the
US Capitol. Johnson is an evangelical Christian. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images


You seem leery of using the term ‘White Christian nationalism.’ Am I correct?

Yeah, because first of all, most people don’t call themselves Christian nationalists. When you call somebody something that they say, ‘Hey, I’m not one of those,’ I think that’s not great. In many cases, it’s just going to make people more defensive and turn them off and push them away from you. And secondly, there are fully built-out forms of Christian nationalism. But in many cases, it’s just a very amorphous thing. I think many of them are just normal patriotic Americans.

And again, there are a small group of extremists who want to use these ideas to drag people into an anti-democratic movement. And I think the more you sort of say to people, “You’re one of them,” I think the more you leave them little room, and you’re pushing them towards those extremists.

Christian nationalism is not actually faithful to Christianity. In churches, pastors, they’re the ones who are going to be crucial to pushing back against the forces of extremism because they’re the ones who need to speak to their neighbors, friends and church members about the idea that America is a Christian nation is actually not faithful to historic Christianity.

You tell a story about a former colleague in the fall of 2016 who emailed you saying he was alarmed to see Christian evangelical leaders endorsing Trump. And then he became one of Trump’s most ferocious defenders. Why did he and others make a similar shift?

I don’t know what was in their motivation or their hearts. I think a lot of people in those early days of the Trump presidency were known as anti-anti-Trump. They might have been anti-Trump at first, but then they got fed up with the criticism of Trump and the backlash against Trump. And they’re like, I’m now done being anti-Trump. I’m anti-anti-Trump. And so that was part of it. I think that was in large part a rationalization for getting to where their audiences were. When your audience wants more pro-Trump stuff, that often ends up leading people around by the nose.

Members of what was once called the Jesus Movement sing at a Los Angeles
building in 1971. Ward says his parents came out of a movement of Christians during
that decade who were disenchanted with the mainstream church. | George Brich/AP


You’ve said, ‘I still believe in evangelicals, but I don’t believe in evangelism.’ What does that mean?

It means that there’s a lot of really great people in these evangelical churches, all over the country and in the world. Just fantastic individuals and families. But there’s a whole culture of political beliefs and cultural practices that have been added on to the faith that I was indoctrinated in. It’s taken me decades to unpack all the assumptions that were layered on to my worldview by these teachings.

You say you were taught what to feel, what to believe, but not how to think. Can you elaborate?

When you’re in that kind of place where all the answers to life’s questions start with a very firm set of beliefs that are based on a text that is interpreted and read in a way that is actually not even the way that the Bible has been read for most of Christianity’s history, then you’re backed into a corner when it comes to asking questions. You can ask them up to a certain point. But once you bump up against any of the "answers that are set in stone", the answers start to become labeled as dangerous, sinful, or evil.

What shifted your beliefs from the way you were raised?

If I had to put it on one thing, it would be given the permission to ask questions and follow the truth wherever the facts lead.

Who or what gave you that permission?

Becoming a journalist.

Are you still an evangelical, or do you call yourself something else?

I don’t think I would use that label. I think I would just call myself a Christian.

Faith leaders pray over President Donald Trump during an "Evangelicals for Trump"
campaign event on January 3, 2020, in Miami, Florida. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images


Is there anything that could cause former President Trump to lose the allegiance of the White evangelicals who support him?

I think it would have to be something more pragmatic and political than theological or moral. If it got down to him versus Nikki Haley (the former South Carolina governor and 2023 Republican presidential contender), and it was clear in the polling that Trump would lose to a Democrat and Haley would beat the Democrat, many evangelicals would switch their support to Haley because they would want a Republican to win the presidency. People are often looking for some revelation that’s going to get people to stop supporting him (Trump) but I think we’re beyond that in most cases.

If Trump wins a second term, what will the impact be on the White evangelical world?

You would see adulation from a lot of evangelicals. You would see a minority of evangelicals peeling away not just from Trump, and not just from Republican politics, but away from evangelicalism. But that’s probably the minority. The word “evangelical” has become more and more wobbly over the last decade because the Trump movement has been able to bring in a lot of people to this style of fusing religion and politics. That attracts a lot of people who are not even really churchgoers.

How has your father reacted to your book?

We spent several hours one day talking about it. He expressed some positive feelings about parts of the book, but his overwhelming response was negative. It may have been a surprise, the level of disagreement that I have with him. It has to be really hard for your son to write anything that’s not praising you.

I went back to him later and I walked him through every moment in the book that he’s mentioned and pointed out that 75% of those mentions are very positive. I was grateful for his love and for his place in my life and for the person he is. Through our conversations, we’ve come to a better place.

Time will tell whether that holds, I guess. It was good for us to talk it out rather than let a lot of stuff fester.

Sunday, December 3, 2023

Process-based Eco-Community Links & Resources



John Cobb Bio
John Boswell Cobb, Jr. (born 9 February 1925) is an American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist. Cobb is often regarded as the preeminent scholar in the field of process philosophy and process theology, the school of thought associated with the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. Cobb is the author of more than fifty books. In 2014, Cobb was elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Cobb is a founding co-director of the Center for Process Studies and Process & Faith that celebrated its 50th anniversary February 2023. He also serves as Chairman of the Board for the Living Earth Movement established in 2022 to celebrate his 97th birthday. He has held many positions, such as Ingraham Professor of Theology at the School of Theology at Claremont, Avery Professor at the Claremont Graduate School, Fullbright Professor at the University of Mainz, Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt, Harvard Divinity, Chicago Divinity Schools. His writings include over 50 books including: Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology, God and the World; For the Common Good. Co-winner of Grawemeyer Award of Ideas Improving World Order.

John B Cobb - Seizing an Alternative
Center for Process Studies  |  Mar 9, 2015


Message from John B. Cobb, Seizing an Alternative Conference 2015



John Cobb - Whitehead's Model and Multiple Spiritualities
Center for Process Studies  |   Feb 13, 2015

Seizing an Alternative Conference John B. Cobb, Jr. "Whitehead's Model and Multiple Spiritualities" at the Center for Process Studies Seminar at Claremont School of Theology, Spring 2002.


Hi,

I’m putting together a series of articles for you online which I’ll forward asap. All of them will be focusing on process philosophy (and theology) across various industries and endeavors. For you, I imagine you may apply this into:

  • Environmental process ecology (and / or process-based agriculture) or,
  • Urban and rural process-based development (sic, habitat and social justice)
  • Process thought is perfect for this areas per John Cobb’s 3 minute video below.

If you go this route I can help mentor you in this area. Below please find a few books (there’s many more online and at my website; you’ll just have to search them out).

  • I suggest the full website and not the mobile platform where you may utilize:
  • the topical and INDEX lists;
  • the INDEXES are a compilation of topics on a topic… thus saving search time;
  • you’ll find these in the topical list as alphabetized

Suggestions below with more to come,

Enjoy,

R.E. Slater
November 17, 2023

* * * * * * *


Process-based Eco-Community
Links & Resources


1 - Earth Charter - https://earthcharter.org/

2 - (John) Cobb Institute - https://cobb.institute/about/

  • There are books, articles, and video resources here; 
  • I was fortunate to go through John’s Whiteheadian class five years ago qualifying
  • me as a third generation Whiteheadian (without John I’d be a fourth gen’er)



3 - Philip Clayton’s Institute for Ecological Civilization - https://ecociv.org



Amazon link


4 - Living Earth (International) Movement Videos (all 2023) (their wordpress website isn’t working):

Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr. of the Living Earth Movement
Introduces the Understanding China Program
Nov 8, 2023  |  1:46:04


Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr. and other members of the Living Earth Movement for International Peace and Cooperation on Climate Solutions Introduced the Understanding China Program and conducted a discussion on the first few China Papers. More details in Nov 9, 2023 newsletter at http://mailchi.mp/livingearthmovement...

INTRODUCTION: Many of us participating in the Living Earth Movement believe that the global problems we face in both the natural world and society are in grave danger of bringing our civilization to its end. Many of us believe that only well-led global cooperation can save us. We think that the real leaders today are the United States and China, and that their joint leadership would have the best chance of unifying the world in facing the desperate situation. 

Given the urgency of the United States working with China for the sake of all of us, the barrage of news and propaganda preparing us for war is deeply disturbing. If the priority of the United States is unilateral domination of the planet, then the nuclear destruction of China may result. but we believe that most Americans would prefer to partner with others in working for the survival of humanity than to dominate a largely uninhabitable globe. Cooperation with an enemy is hard to implement.

If civilization is to survive, enemies must be changed into partners. A major obstacle to partnering with China for the good of all is that American propaganda has dehumanized or demonized China’s leadership in the minds of so many Americans. Many cannot think of China as a partner in light of all its wrongdoings. It is that understanding of China that we want to see set aside by a more realistic interpretation of what has happened that makes Chinese actions understandable.

Our goal is not to persuade Americans that China is correct on disputed matters, that Chinese motives are always pure, that China’s actions have always been wise. We do want to persuade readers that Chinese actions and policies are understandable, and that they do not justify the judgment that China cannot serve as our partner in envisioning the changes required for survival.

We want human civilization to survive on a living Earth. We want China and the United States to co-lead the world to take the actions that will keep the planet habitable, We think that balanced and objective knowledge will show that China can do its part if it is treated as a partner. We hope that the information we offer will help Americans open themselves to the cooperation so urgently needed. After reading Chinese propaganda, we are likely to be less easily swayed by American, and, of course, vice versa.

Our project is different. We want to provide neutral information. We are writing for Americans. We think that misunderstanding China in ways encouraged by American propaganda blocks the path to the cooperation with China that would benefit all of us. Our task is to tell the truth about what China is doing and planning in such a way that Americans can understand, whether or not we approve. We hope that mutual understanding will enable us to cooperate for the sake of everyone rather than give priority to weakening and damaging China. This means that we are not “neutral” about everything. We really, passionately, want to save the planetary biosphere.

The papers we are sharing are the work of a group of a dozen persons who want peace and partnership between the world’s two greatest powers and polluters. A list of the initial 11 papers is provided. We hope we have freed our papers from error, and that they offer sufficient information to show that while China is far from perfect, it is as committed as any country to the survival of civilization. Its mistakes and failures do not justify crossing it off our list of nations with which we would partner to save the world.

If you find errors or distortions, please let us know. We are open to correction. If you find errors, please let us know. Also, if you feel that we are omitting or obscuring important features of what has happened, please help us achieve a more balanced account. Our conviction is that China and the United States working together could give great leadership to the world with respect to climate change and other matters. We believe that there are legitimate criticisms of both these countries and of all others. We do not believe that in the case of the United States and China the shortcomings and missteps indicate that one or the other of these two countries is incapable of giving priority to truly critical matters or working with the other.

Initial List of Understanding China Papers• U.S. China Cooperation Energy Grid• Difference in Thinking Between Chinese and Americans• Ecological Civilization• Economic Hitmen American and Chinese• The Two Mountain Theory• Taiwan• One-Child Policy• Hong Kong• Propaganda• South and North Korea• COVID Epidemic in the PRC

Why Cooperation Between the U.S. and China Is
Essential for World Peace and Climate Solutions
 Living Earth Movement  |  Sep 27, 2023  |  1:34:26

The Living Earth Movement (LEM) https://livingearthmovement.eco/ produced this program on Why Cooperation Between the U.S. and China Is Essential for World Peace and Climate Solutions for Peace Week 2023.
LEM founding members John B. Cobb, Jr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B.... and Charles Betterton https://oneworld.earth/members/11813678 share a presentation on why the LEM’s priority mission is encouraging cooperation between the U.S. and China. They describe how the organization came into existence, share their goals and strategies, and discuss how those relate to Peace Week.
The program also includes two moving presentations by LEM key participants Robert Detrano and Bruce Hanson on their recent visits to China They both are among the devoted members of the Understanding China program and each of them have made substantial contributions to the papers being written and edited collaboratively by members of the team.
Dr. Cobb, 98, author of 50+ books including the 50th anniversary edition of IS IT TOO LATE? A Theology of Ecology, will also share his vision of A Peaceful World As A Community of Communities. The mission of the Living Earth Movement is twofold. The short-term priority is to get the U.S. and China to cooperate for the sake of all life on this planet. Without their full and joint participation, the necessary changes will not be made in time. However, with their joint leadership, virtually all nations will follow.
The second and equally important priority is to promote the foundations for a new kind of civilization in which humans would learn to value and cooperate with the rest of the ecosphere. We need a world in which humans understand themselves as part of a living earth community. We call this an ecological civilization.
The ongoing activities of the Living Earth Movement include monthly Youth Dialogues with American and Chinese Youth Sharing from the Heart
and weekly meetings of the Understanding China program
that is developing a series of papers to help Americans better understand Chinese people, culture, and government.
Please join our grassroots activism by signing up today!
Climate change is no longer theoretical. We see its effects everyday with cataclysmic weather events in our own communities and those around the world. The time to act is NOW.

 

5 - Pando Ecological Society, Los Angeles, CA for building sustainable and equitable civic engagement programs - https://pandopopulus.com/


6 - Claremont Graduate School for Sustainable Futures (Pasadena, CA) -


7 - Institute for Postmodern Development of China - https://postmodernchina.org/
*FYI - John Cobb is meeting with Chairman Xi sometime soon as part of his 25-30 year school of process societies which is well attended by many university intellectuals. Of note, XI was part of this group (not Cobb’s) in his youth. Videos on the home page share the vision.

A Few Introductory Process Titles 

Fourth Generation Process Lectures,
Discussions, Papers, and Whatnot


The Collected Papers of Process II - of Philosopher & Theologian Andrew M. Davis
Published by R.E. Slater

Elvi Bjorkquist - Process Thought, Aesthetic Qualities, and Beyond
Published by R.E. Slater

Andrew Davis - The Becomingness of Cosmology
Published by R.E. Slater

Andrew David - Process Cosmology
Published by R.E. Slater

Matt Segall: Process Philosopohical Perspectives on Biology
Published by R.E. Slater

The Processual Complex Memory of the Universe Is Significant for Cosmic Life
Published by R.E. Slater

R.E. Slater & ChatGPT - The Purpose & Meaning of Life for a Christian Eugelion, Part 1
Published by R.E. Slater

*I included this latter article which I produced a week ago as a reminder to myself to focus on process philosophy as a complex relational iteration bearing integral novelty, compassion, and social justice. I used CHATBOT to help me speak my thoughts a bit more simply. 😊


Building Ecological Civilizations in Response to MAGA's Oppressive Kingdoms



Building Ecological Civilizations in
Response to MAGA's Oppressive Kingdoms

by R.E. Slater


6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 [And] of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. - Isa 9.6-7


31Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. 33Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. 34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. - John 13.31-35
* * * * * * * *


Across this series we've looked at how:

1 - To read the bible in its historical era by questioning its religious beliefs then and now:
2 - That MAGA is always an unhealthy Christian response for any nation to entertain:
3 - That France's many revolutions from monarchy to democracy was difficult to form:
4 - That the MAGA Church has oppressed all people over the millennias since Jesus:
5 - That the kind of God we chose is the kind of Society we get:
6 - And finally, today, the best cross-sect for a strengthening of democracy and for oppressed people around the world, is the national and international (global) pursuit towards building ecological civilizations:

* * * * * * * *


Firstlydemocracies born from the imperfections of monarchal kingdoms were  once perceived to be led by rulers place unto their throne by divine consent. But with Protestantism's Reformational rise helped by an era of European Enlightenment, the Royal Catholic Papacy died out to the newer strains of Constitutional democratic republics ruled by elected societal officers (also thought to be blessed by God) as humanity's preferred form of governance over earlier, imperfect kingdom forms.
  • That the bible's display of failed monarchy's and kingdom empires were no blessing to the people living under unaccountable throneship's to the people. That all thrones rather than being divine were consequently very human in the aftermaths of their very human and non-divined legacies.
  • That Israel's kingdoms likewise failed under the auspices of ruling kings begun by Saul, David, and Solomon, and concluded in a litany of evils and sins. That the bible's supposed "divine model" as projected by today's MAGA church is no more divine then as now... that all lead to forms of oppression and irresponsibility when separated from being accountable to the citizens and members of their realms.
  • That MAGA's stubborn belief that a "Theocratic Kingdom" is the best governance model is shown to be fatally flawed throughout its bible origination concept. That truly open democracies concentrating on social blending, equality, justice, and resource sharing are the better forms of governance. And that the standard for today's open democracies has become the common basis for addressing man-caused ecological collapses in his destruction of the earth.
To sum up, the whole inappropriate and antiquated biblical idea of "theocratic kingdoms" as best have shown themselves to be "variant models of oppression". And that other forms of governance via trial-and-error forms of economies from capitalism to socialism and back again, have also showed their failures.

That generally, for a society to form cooperative communes of locality interlinked to other local, regional, national, and globally interlinked communities of locality is a really, really, really difficult operational mode to obtain.

And finally, that a common harm to humanity - that of ecological disaster - is the most appropriate cause of response in pursuing open economies of resource sharing whether capitalist or socialist.

That the reality of building ecological civilizations of difference is the most common form of re-synching humanity across divisional lines of suspicion, pride and hate.

Hence, today's democracies are harmfully moving away from ecological societies when experimenting with various forms of hardline, rightwing authoritarianism bespeaking discrimination and oppression of migrants, minorities, women, gender, sexes, and civil disempowerment.

But by committing to the renewal of compassionate societal equality, cooperation, and unity, will give today's Gen X, Y, Z, and it's progeny the greatest futures when based upon (Whiteheadian) process forms of ecological civilization principles and behaviors.


* * * * * * * *


MAGA's New Words of Oppression are 
Unacknowledged in their Socio-Political 
Campaigns of Subversive Disinformation


Watching late 1700s France move between King's Fascist rights and People's Republic brought to mind the difficulty of becoming, and maintaining, a full fledged democracy. To some degree, the United States has achieved this rare distinction. But to another degree is still has a long ways to go. At present, we're falling into a half and half state of anocracy... part democratic and part autocracy.

In Russia, Putin is guilty on both counts of revanchism and irredentism ... put together Putin has acted as a despot chargeable for a power land grab of genocidal proportions.

Wikipedia Excerpt:
Revanchism draws its strength from patriotic and retributionist thought and is often motivated by economic or geopolitical factors. Extreme revanchist ideologues often represent a hawkish stance, suggesting that their desired objectives can be achieved through the positive outcome of another war. It is linked with "irredentism", the conception that a part of the cultural and ethnic nation remains "unredeemed" outside the borders of its appropriate nation-state.

"...Ethnic homogeneity within a state makes Irredentism more likely. Discrimination against the ethnic group in the neighboring territory is another contributing factor. A closely related explanation argues that national identities based primarily on ethnicity, culture, and history increase irredentist tendencies. Another approach is to explain irredentism as an attempt to increase power and wealth. In this regard, it is argued that irredentist claims are more likely if the neighboring territory is relatively rich. Many explanations also focus on the regime type and hold that democracies are less likely to engage in irredentism while anocracies are particularly open to it.

Cobbled together Putin's ethnic land cleansing of Ukrainians from their home land is an attempted to join old Tsarist Russian back together in the imagined glory days of wealth and power (using other people's wealth and power, of course).

To justify his imperious mania Putin "persuaded" the Russian Orthodox Christian church to support his nefarious "conservative reformist" designs so that Moscow's perceive so-called heretical (liberal) Christian opponents might end:
  • (1) Ukraine's Eastern Orthodox Christian church located in Kiev, which is coupled together with...
  • (2) Its Eastern Orthodox Turkish Twin residing in the old Ottomon/Turkish Empire in Istanbul, Turkey.
Hence, Putin imposed his religious view that the Easter Orthodox Church is the heretical spin off from Russia's own Russian Orthodox Church. This, he thought, would provide adequate disinformation for his evil actions.

In summary, America's MAGA components see in Putin their model for a new imperial Kingdom in America... one that supports the evangelical Chruch as it sees itself and intends for itself to rule oppressively over all the elites, liberals, and religious in the way they wish to rule.

MAGA's theocratic kingdom... or church-based kingdom... is a farce and an evil to the land it wishes to rule over so as to usher in their imagined "Kingdom of God." A Kingdom I'm told, which has come in Christ and to his disciples to witness and minister, caretake and shepherd in love. But to which the MAGA Christian faithful believe are their to inherit to inforce all kinds of religious restrictions, jots and tittles upon their vanquished via MAGA-sponsored and unConstitutional Republicanism.

And so, we back where we started in Napoleon's day when the people threw off Louis XVI's reign, and with it, the papacy of the ruling church, to flounder in the muds and slimes of how to build an open society of difference and resource sharing.

America did the same with it's Royalists groups in its Colonies so that after an eight year rule it could build upon the Bill of Rights and Independence Constitution. Yet in its enactment if failed to remove slavery and nearly a hundred years later fought a bloody insurrection against non-Constitutionalists refusing to enact the Bill of Rights of another fully into America's economy.

Quoting Scripture and God these Christian erudites taught tyranny and rule over "inferior" races. Which lands us here today at the doorstep of Trumpian MAGA'gots imposing their religious ideations and rule upon an open democracy by acts of blashphemy and anathema in the eyes of God and man.

Proving once again that "Democracies" are less likely than "anocrisies" to exploit homogenous ethnic regions but yet, to the unenlightened religious troglodytes of America's white conservative churches, a "theocratic kingdom of God" is noised about by evil hands and sinful hearts.

R.E. Slater
Dec 3, 2023


Ahem, One last...

Do not think we, and the world, are any less guilty of the abomination going on under the rule of Israeli MAGA'gots in their hardline stances against Hamas and Hezebolla which conflagration has caught the innocents of the land of Canaan in Palestine and Israel in deeply grievous actions of loss and death. The world either learns to love one another and share with one another as we can or we will die the ugly deaths of our own destruction as illustrated by the book of Revelation in the bible. It's message is not of God's evil but man's own evil which God comes to save by redeeming actions (rather than the popular Christian opinions of divine vengeance and retribution). One way or another, earth and sky, seas and wind, will rise upon us to decimate and destroy as harshly as we did it's own biotic communities. The wisdom here is to see one-and-all, man and earth, as surviving participants with one another that each in its own way thrives and nourishes the other.

Sing to the Lord a New Song!
(Psalm 149:1-9; Isaiah 42:10-17)

1{A Psalm.} O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

2The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.

3He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

4Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

5Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

6With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.

7Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

8Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

9Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.