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
-----
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 Civil Injustices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Civil Injustices. Show all posts
I'm told Alexa is the writer and inspiration behind this book and that her dad was the helper behind her heartfelt project. As transgenderism is the topic of the day it should also be explored by those trans-- writers who have something to say about themselves and their Faith.
Older generations may continue in their misunderstandings of the LGBTQ+ society as might conservative churches - but a God who loves neither shuns, belittles, or looks at others without checking the planks in their own bible verse interpretations and beliefs.
I, for one, believe it is right and necessary for all individuals to have civil rights under America's Constitution. And, as Christians, to acknowledge that the salvation of Christ extends to all recipients regardless of who we think should be in or out of the Christian faith.
There are Christian transgenders who need and want fellowship. We may not be the ones to help but we must all be able to see one another in Christ. If not, the sin lies not in the other but in our own eyes and hearts.
Perhaps, to see Christ better, Alexa's book should be read to help reduce the self-righteous spirits which grips the heart of all religionists and churchly faithful.
This book fundamentally changes the game for the Church of the Nazarene.
A growing number of people are calling for fresh conversations about sexuality and gender. And many want fundamental change. This book gives voice to those people.
There are strong reasons the Church of the Nazarene should become fully LGBTQ+ affirming. The writers of these essays – whether queer or straight – lay out those reasons, share their experiences, and explain why change is needed.
Love rests at the heart of the denomination’s view of God. And yet its statement about human sexuality does not support the ways of love.
At least in America, the Church of the Nazarene is rapidly shrinking. Many people are leaving the denomination because of its views on LGBTQ+ matters. According to research, in fact, the holiness movement is the worst at keeping young people.
This book offers hope. Hearing the voices of queer people, allies, and scholars is a crucial step toward transformation.
For love to win in the Church of the Nazarene, change is needed.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. Oord has been an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene for more than 30 years, taught at two Nazarene institutions of higher education, and published many books through the denomination’s publishing house. A best-selling author, Oord currently directs doctoral students at Northwind Theological Seminary. Website: thomasjayoord.com
Alexa MacKenzie Oord is a graduate of Harvard University and Simmons University. Oord currently serves as an Administrative Assistant in Undergraduate Student Life at Columbia University in New York. She also works as Senior Editor at SacraSage Press. Website: sacrasagepress.com
The Elephant is Running: Process and Open and Relational
Theologies and Religious Pluralism,
by Bruce Gordon Epperly (Author)
Book Description
Bruce Epperly believes that God invites us to affirm religious pluralism while remaining faithful to the way of Jesus and the prophetic spirit of Christianity. Unique among texts on religious pluralism, The Elephant is Running integrates theological reflection, encounters with the wisdom world’s spiritual traditions, the author’s personal experience as a spiritual adventurer, and inspirational and innovative spiritual practices.
RE Slater Comment
Here, in Epperly's writing, I find process-based religion to be it's own common denominator. That is, the more religious theologies become affected by process thought in their foundational philosophies the more commonality all religions will find with one another. This also holds true for today's quantum sciences as their cosmological particulars begin to resemble the processual qualities of the cosmos.
One other note I find pertinent is that all religions, whether they know it or not, have processual elements in their theology where they know it or not. Some more than others, such as Buddhism. Process is how the world works; religions' observing this characteristic in creation would inadvertantly practice and teach some form of their observations unconsciously.
Lastly, Whiteheadian Process thought is a more recent development of a processual quantumtative and evolutionary world. One that flows with itself and continually course-corrects to stay in rhythm and synchronicity to itself. This cosmological internaIity one may describ as panrelational, panexperiential, and panpsychic per process philosophy and theology.
As an aside, the cosmic quality of panpsychicism I use here in i) the scientific sense of a "quasi-sentience-like responsiveness" by cosmic quantum structures to it's own processual quantum elements such as emissions of force and energy. Or ii) of the cosmological whole to its parts and back again from its parts to its whole. A processual universe seeking to be in rhythm to itself however chaotic, however random, it's processually evolving evolution may appear.
We live in conflicted times. Our newsfeeds are filled with inequality, division, and fear. We want to make a difference and see justice restored because Jesus calls us to be a peacemaking and reconciling people. But how do we do this? Based on their work with diverse churches, colleges, and other organizations, Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Graham Hill offer Christian practices that can bring healing and hope to a broken world. They provide ten ways to transform society, from lament and repentance to relinquishing power, reinforcing agency, and more. Embodying these practices enables us to be the new humanity in Jesus Christ, so the church and world can experience reconciliation, justice, unity, peace, and love. With small group activities, discussion questions, and exercises in each chapter, this book is ideal to read together in community. Discover here how to bring real change to a dehumanized world.
* * * * * * *
Judicial Courts v LGBTQ+ Civil Rights
by R.E. Slater
What do you get when you cross a judge with a skunk? "Law and Odor." - a common schoolyard quip
The 9'10" mark of the MSNBC video summarizes the argument put before the December 2022 Supreme Court by a conservative defense wishing to protect their client's "white rights" over the presumed "non-rights of minority victims of white majority rule. In this case, the "revoking of the rights of a gay businesses."
The case revolves around a web designer who did not wish to do business with gay clients who live a different lifestyle then their own. In this case, a gay business requiring a website which the web designer refused to create if so asked. Supposedly this was not an actual event but a hypothetical event which the web designer fear might happen.
Since this is a personal column, if I were gay I would choose not to use the bigoted web designer as I would feel such a person would produce an "inferior" product to the one my business may require.
Further, to allay any fears conservative businesses may have I would want them to know that I would chose other businesses which would accept my gay business. I would find businesses which were "color-blind" and will do business with both non-conservative and conservative religious sectors.
In short, there are LGBTQ+ designers and non-LGBTQ+ designers who would be glad to provide their talents and services to clientele like myself thus making use of discriminatory business practices and lawsuits unnecessary.
But here, in this legal presentation before the Supreme Court, we have a reversal of circumstances to which the majority Other - in this case, a religiously-oriented business - is claiming they feel Colorado's nondiscriminatory law is actively discriminating against their own discriminatory practices (which was why Colorado's law was written in the first place). The thinking here being argued by the religious web designer that discriminatory practices should be allowable rather than disallowable, contra Colorado's current laws.
Firstly, any person having experienced discrimination will readily admit all forms of bigotry are neither kind, fair, or fairly treating to those they are actively oppressing another.
Secondly, the bigots of society are not the victims here but the victimizers. They are showing themselves willing to victimize the victim by their unfair treatment of the Other - and by their unwillingness to see their own personal and religious beliefs as offensive and motivated by racism, bigotry and discrimination. Essentially they do not recognize anyone beyond their own kind as people of value.
Thirdly, the conservative judges of the Supreme Court are showing themselves to be working for the racist minorities of white America and not for the true victims of white supremacy and Jim Crow laws. By it's actions it is showing it's callousness towards racism and thus eschewing it's legal profession to stand against racist juris prudence.
Consequently, the Supreme Court is protecting the "rights" of the religionist whose "God" is as racist as they are in their racist interpretation of the bible.
More so, the conservative elements of the Supreme Court are announcing their preference to support laws which will exercise discrimination against the LGBTQ+ populations of America in its current hearing of all such legal cases.
This then is the harm which comes when the "Supreme Court of the Land" does not work to legally expand Constitutional civil law for all citizens when looking only to blindly protect the majority rule's active practice of religious racism.
Fourthly, any person standing behind religion declaring their rights to be racist as God-ordained is, in my opinion, sinful and evil. Religion aside, any actions of racism, bigotry, or practice of oppression upon others is morally wrong. That wrong cannot be protected by a religious group's racist faith. It simply tells us that that church, fellowship, or religion is actively justifying its racism as unloving acts of oppression and bigotry. Too, they are NOT the victims in this story they are telling themselves. No. They are the victimzers.
Contra the "God of the conservative Bible" which most evangelical churches cling to, do not see anti-gay religious sentiment as sinful and evil but biblical and morally right. But this is not true. At no time is it right to practice bigotry and civil injustice.
Conversely, the "God of the Bible" which many historic religious groups are presenting differs from the "God of Wrath and Judgment" conservative Christian churches and denominations are preaching as right and good. From my own perspective I find these kind of faith expressions, doctrines, creeds, and practices by the conservative church and its followers as ungodly and unloving... as I'm sure God does as well. Their model of God is inaccurate and the biblical model followed is based on bigoted religious expressions from the bible which have survived its library. Rather than as an observation of sinful practices by ancient Israel these same bible passages have been assumed to be God ordained. A God of Love does not ordain these sentiments. But a God of wrath and judgment would.
Fifthly, there is a Christianity of love and welcome, embrace and support and then there are Christian faiths which preach love and exclusion with limited forms of welcome, embrace and support. Each faith group interprets the bible to their own view of God.
For myself, I have chosen to rewrite all my conservative evangelical Christian beliefs, teachings, doctrines, creeds, and practices around a God of Love rather than a God who loves sometimes. Which makes me at minimum a post-conservative or traditionalist I believe in teaching a God with no exclusions, no wraths, and no judgments. If for no other reason than its faith outcomes will be healthier for a transformative world given to hate and exclusion. It eliminates at best one more source of wars and friction between human societies.
That the bible I've received in the past I may now read as a library attesting to previous socio-religious reactions to this God of Love who has been misapprehended so very early in human history. A history which continues to unfold even today in its misinterpretations of a loving God based upon ancient ethical and moral constructs which were sadly "set in stone" by religious beliefs... Even as they are today seemingly set in stone now because of the church's current teachings.
Against all these previous religious histories I assert that God is still a God of Love even as God was when first thought of by early religious man. That this Redeemer God is not a God of wrath and judgment nor a God of bigotry or discrimination. No. This religious practice of sin, wrath, and judgment we do quite well on our own against one another. We do not need a God of wrath and judgment to tell us that what we are doing to one another is wrong and evil.
And lastly, one might describe conservative religious beliefs as yet another form of religious legalism... preached by conservative churches against civil democratic societies which are actively attempting to recognize the worth, dignity, and value of all its people.
America's Civil Constitution protects the rights of all its peoples whereas the dominionist beliefs of uncivil religious institutions would divide and destroy such civil unions committed to the liberty and freedom of the common man.
The irony is, the United State's Constitution was written in the name of God by colonial segregationalists, slave owners, church-dominionists, native extermination, and ecctera. All preaching a God of exclusion, judgment and wrath. But in reality, this very same nationalized legal document we know as the Constitution (undergirt by the Bill of Rights) has become a righteous voice for the despised, hated, unwanted, overlooked, and disapproved Other.
These are the ones Jesus would hang with today if he were around. A Jesus whom I somehow hope the Church of "God" might likewise follow in their Savior's practices rather than to overlook its own Pharisaical deeds of hypocrisy and legalism which pronounced anathema upon Jesus, abandoned his vision of atoning unity, and killed and buried Jesus in a life-stealing tomb. Essentially, the God of love became a brutal sacrifice to the unlove of man whose own idol was raised upon the tomb of Jesus. To this we say Anathema! Let us be done with such gods!
Thursday, February 24, 2022, has become a day of mourning for the peoples of Ukraine and their brothers and sisters found throughout Crimea, Georgia, Belarus and Eastern Russia as the Communist dictator, Putin, continues his campaigns against the free sovereign states of the former Union of Soviet Russia (USSR) serving as proxy territories to Russia's own imperialist safety and security concerns.
We pray for the free peoples of the Russian empire. For their courage, wisdom, caution, and resistance to the propagandist campaigns of Russian autocracy even as we pray for the unity and community support of the peoples of Russia during another era of manic harm and suffering imposed by the cruel and evil forces found in this unjust world.
Together with the peoples of both the free world as well as all those held under imperialist dictatorships we pray for the peace and protection of loved ones, community and countries unfairly harmed or broken by the wicked of this age. An age which has continued in its agony since man's beginning when in search of power, rule, and wealth - but not for God, love, or the solidarity of one's countrymen.
Lastly, we pray to the God who is everywhere present to use the resources He has to save the innocents of this world - the families of men, women, and children - who cry out for a Savior to help them from their dilemma wrought at the hands of evil men. That God comfort and protect all who seek His help and favour who might bring God's own peace and presence into these horrific times of fear and need.
For our loved Ones,
R.E. Slater
February 24, 2022
Western Russia
A brief history of modern Ukraine - BBC News
Feb 25, 2022
When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s Ukraine was one of the largest new nations to emerge. It held its first elections in 1991.
Bordered by Russia on the east and by Hungary, Poland and Slovakia on the west, politics in Ukraine have always been divided along those looking east towards Russia and those looking to the West.
Putin has said that Ukraine is “ancient Russian soil” but the majority of Ukrainians don’t feel this way, with 68% of Ukrainians in favour of joining the EU.
Let's retrace on maps the first origins of Russia, from the creation of Novgorod during the IXth century, until the end of the Time of Troubles and the beginning of the Romanov dynasty.
Music: Created for Geo History Software: Adobe After Effects
Chapters 00:00 The Varangians 01:15 Kievan Rus’ 02:52 Russian principalities 04:56 Catholic and Mongol threats 06:24 Mongol invasion 08:00 Grand Duchy of Moscow and Lithuania 09:59 Ivan the Terrible 11:43 End of the Rurik Dynasty 12:56 Time of Troubles
A History of Eastern Europe: Ukraine-Russia Crisis
Dec 15, 2016
Wondrium
Taught by Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, an award-winning professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, these 24 insightful lectures offer a sweeping 1,000-year history of Eastern Europe with a particular focus on the region’s modern history. You’ll observe waves of migration and invasion, watch empires rise and fall, witness wars and their deadly consequences—and come away with a comprehensive knowledge of one of the world’s most fascinating places.
This video is episode 23 from the series A History of Eastern Europe, Presented by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius
This course goes far beyond issues of military and political history. Professor Liulevicius delves deeply into the cultures of this region—the 20 nations that stretch from the Baltic to the Black Seas. You’ll meet the everyday citizens—including artists and writers—who shaped the politics of Eastern Europe, from poets-turned-politicians to proletarian workers who led dissident uprisings. Breathtaking in scope and crucially relevant to today’s world, A History of Eastern Europe is a powerful survey of a diverse region and its people.
00:00 Ukraine Erupts Into Crisis in 2014
02:10 Background to Ukraine-Russia Crisis
07:26 West Vs. East Conflict in Ukrainian History
11:03 A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
13:52 Ukraine Gains Independence
15:59 Ukraine Becomes Dependent on Russia
18:37 Gains for Ukrainian Reform Lead to Disappointment
22:31 Russian Media Denounces Protesters as Nazis
25:54 Ukraine-Russia Conflict Becomes "New Normal"
"War is ruined time. It is forged for the sake of ego and empire, and it leaves those who put their faith in it forever hungry for more, with an insatiable thirst that is never satisfied, all while those who so desperately want to avoid war instead find themselves weeping for irretrievable pasts and lost futures, wondering how they will endure it all, or if they can endure it all.
"War doesn’t fill the void, it exploits it, exposes it, enlarges it. Violence begets violence, and the world loses count. There is no glory in warfare, only loss, only sorrow. Loss of life for the victims, loss of soul for the perpetrators, and loss of promise and possibility beyond anything we will ever know. War is an incalculable evil that breeds irreparable loss. That nations try to find meaning and purpose in it is a sickness unto death.
"In Dante’s Inferno, there’s a place in hell where despots and warmongers have to acknowledge the traumatic truth of who they are, to come face to face with how much suffering they caused. Only then can they change. But the problem with that is not just that it’s fiction. Even if it were real, by then it is still too late for this world, where the warmongers have already created too many hells on earth. And it does nothing for those in Ukraine, who just want to sleep and just want to live, who just want to be able to step outside and walk down their street. Which shouldn’t be asking too much.
"Justice is always too late for this world, it seems, and I guess sometimes that just grieves me beyond words.
"My heart and prayers are with the people of Ukraine."
Post-Colonialism never really leaves, it just morphs into something else. To be trully committed to freedom one must be willing to give up biases and hatreds and learn a new language of love, respect, and understanding. - re slater
REPORT
What has set the stage for the conflict?
Ukraine was a cornerstone of the Soviet Union until it voted overwhelmingly for independence in a democratic referendum in 1991, a milestone that turned out to be a death knell for the failing superpower.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO pushed eastward, bringing into the fold most of the Eastern European nations that had been in the Communist orbit. In 2004, NATO added the former Soviet Baltic republics Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Four years later, it declared its intention to offer membership to Ukraine some day in the distant future -- crossing a red line for Russia.
Putin sees NATO's expansion as an existential threat, and the prospect of Ukraine joining the Western military alliance a "hostile act" -- a view he invoked in a televised speech on Thursday, saying that Ukraine's aspiration to join the military alliance was a dire threat to Russia.
In interviews and speeches, Putin has previously emphasized his view that Ukraine is part of Russia, culturally, linguistically and politically. While some of the mostly Russian-speaking population in Ukraine's east feel the same, a more nationalist, Ukrainian-speaking population in the west has historically supported greater integration with Europe.
In early 2014, mass protests in the capital Kyiv known as Euromaidan forced out a Russia-friendly president after he refused to sign an EU association agreement. Russia responded by annexing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and fomenting a separatist rebellion in Ukraine's east, which seized control of part of the Donbas region. Despite a ceasefire agreement in 2015, the two sides have not seen a stable peace, and the front line has barely moved since. Nearly 14,000 people have died in the conflict, and there are 1.5 million people internally displaced in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian government.
In the eight years since, Moscow has been accused of engaging in hybrid warfare against Ukraine, using cyberattacks, economic pressure and propaganda to whip up discord. Those tactics have escalated in recent months, and in early February the State Department claimed Putin was preparing a false-flag operation to create "a pretext for an invasion."
What does Putin want?
In a lengthy essay penned in July 2021, Putin referred to Russians and Ukrainians as "one people," and suggested the West had corrupted Ukraine and yanked it out of Russia's orbit through a "forced change of identity."
That type of historical revisionism was on full display in Putin's emotional and grievance-packed address to the nation on Monday announcing his decision to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, while casting doubt on Ukraine's own sovereignty.
But Ukrainians, who in the last three decades have sought to align more closely with Western institutions like the European Union and NATO, have pushed back against the notion that they are little more than the West's "puppet."
In fact, Putin's efforts to bring Ukraine back into Russia's sphere have been met with a backlash, with several recent polls showing that a majority of Ukrainians now favor membership of the US-led transatlantic military alliance.
In December, Putin presented the US and NATO with a list of security demands. Chief among them was a guarantee that Ukraine will never enter NATO and that the alliance rolls back its military footprint in Eastern and Central Europe -- proposals that the US and its allies have repeatedly said are non-starters.
Putin indicated he was not interested in lengthy negotiations on the topic. "It is you who must give us guarantees, and you must do it immediately, right now," he said at his annual news conference late last year. "Are we deploying missiles near the US border? No, we are not. It is the United States that has come to our home with its missiles and is already standing at our doorstep."
High-level talks between the West and Russia wrapped in January without any breakthroughs. The standoff left Europe's leaders to engage in a frenzy of shuttle diplomacy, exploring whether a negotiating channel established between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine to resolve the conflict in Ukraine's east -- known as the Normandy Format talks -- could provide an avenue for calming the current crisis.
In a news conference with the new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on February 16, Putin repeated unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine is carrying out a "genocide" against Russian speakers in the Donbas region and called for the conflict to be resolved through the Minsk peace progress -- echoing similar rhetoric that was used as a pretext for annexing Crimea.
But less than a week later, after Russia's upper house of parliament approved the deployment of military forces outside the country on February 22, Putin told reporters that the Minsk agreements "no longer exist," adding: "What is there to implement if we have recognized these two entities?"
The agreements, known as Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 -- which were hammered out in the Belarusian capital in a bid to end a bloody in eastern Ukraine -- have never been fully implemented, with key issues remaining unresolved.
Moscow and Kyiv have long been at odds over key elements of the peace deal, the second of which was inked in 2015 and lays out a plan for reintegrating the two breakaway republics into Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently stated that he did not like a single point of the Minsk accords, which require dialogue on local elections in the Russian-backed separatist regions and -- although unclear in what sequence -- would also restore the Ukrainian government's control over its eastern borders. Critics say the agreement could give Moscow undue sway over Ukrainian politics.
Putin previously responded in blunt terms by saying that regardless of whether Zelensky likes the plan, it must be implemented. "Like it or don't like it, it's your duty, my beauty," Putin said in a news conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. Zelensky, a former comedian and TV star, won a 2019 election in a landslide on promises to end the war in Donbas, but little has changed. Responding to a question about Putin's stark, undiplomatic language, Zelensky responded in Russian, saying bluntly: "We are not his."
- CNN
What does Putin want in Ukraine? The conflict explained
I am pro-life. I believe abortion is wrong, and I want to make it absolutely unthinkable. However, I am also practical. If those of you who consider yourselves pro-life will not use your resources to care for the children already alive, then you have no moral high ground. Solely condemning abortion and calling for its abolishment, even if you are morally correct, does not solve the problem. Who will care for these children? Many pro-life Christians aren’t opening their homes for the children who already exist, nor supporting those people who do.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2017, 862,320 abortions were performed in the U.S. My home state of Massachusetts performed 18,590 of these. According to The Imprint, in Massachusetts in 2020, there were 9,693 children in custody of the state, yet there are only 5,868 licensed foster homes in Massachusetts. These statistics are sobering, and reflect the national trend of having almost double the number of foster children as there are licensed foster homes. In 2020, there were 214,421 licenced foster homes and 418,917 foster youth in the system nationally, according to The Imprint.
Today, even though hundreds of thousands of unwanted fetuses were never born, the foster care system — which works to provide safe homes, temporary or permanent, for kids from unfortunate family situations — is completely flooded. Let’s say that in the future, the pro-life movement achieves its goal and abortion is heavily restricted or banned. If the lack of involvement with foster care persists as it does today, and if even half of these unwanted fetuses are born, what will we do with all the babies?
If the pro-life movement redirected its resources and energy into lobbying for positive policy reform, as well as increased involvement in the foster care system, I believe we as a nation could eventually be in a position to care for not only the children in the system but also the babies that could be born if abortion is banned in the future. At the bare minimum, the kids who are in the system should have homes while we work to ban abortion. And, while we attempt to ban abortion, we should also be working to reduce the social conditions that often factor into the decision to have an abortion.
As a college student, it isn’t practical to become a foster parent, but there are a plethora of opportunities to support foster families. Together We Rise and One Simple Wish are two of many organizations that make it easy to contribute to caring for foster youth. Or simply ask around at church to see if any foster families would benefit from an evening of childcare. If kids aren’t your thing, maybe make dinner for said family.
I realize many individual Christians in my community, and yours, are involved in the foster care system to the furthest extent they can. I honor that. The emotional stress is taxing. But even though systemic change of the foster care system is desperately needed, do not use that as an excuse to do nothing. I know it is hard. But it is unimaginably harder for the traumatized kids who live this reality.
My family babysat a boy who was born addicted to drugs. A tiny little baby going through the pain of withdrawal, without anyone to call mother, is one of the saddest sights in the world. Another kid was taken from his parents for a month at the age of seven. In that month, he didn’t stay at the same foster home for more than four consecutive nights. Can you imagine that level of uncertainty in your life? Hearing the countless stories of brokenness shatters my heart over and over again.
The pain of loving my foster sister, while living in the anticipation of potentially having to let her go, is beyond words. This pain is the excuse I hear most often when I ask people why they are not involved with foster care. People say things like: “I couldn’t do it. It would hurt too much to let them go.” I understand. But these children need love so much more than you need comfort. “Pain did not stop Jesus from loving,” as Pastor Mary said on communion Sunday. Pain will not stop me either. Do not let it stop you.
