Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice

The State of The National Security State 2012: A Talk by Ray McGovern

Ray McGovern MVPJ and the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center invite you to attend this event on Tuesday April 10th at 7:30pm.

The State of the National Security State 2012

A talk by Ray McGovern
Former CIA Intelligence Analyst
Founding Member, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 7:30 PM
First Baptist Church, 305 N. California Avenue, Palo Alto
(Between Waverley and Bryant, one block off Oregon Expressway)
FREE and open to all. Contributions will be requested.
Wheelchair accessible.

Ray McGovern came to Washington in the early Sixties as an Army infantry/intelligence officer and then served as a CIA analyst from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Ray's duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President's Daily Brief. In January 2003, Ray helped create Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) to expose the way intelligence was being falsified to "justify" war on Iraq. His continues to be a leading voice to challenge the lies that lead us to war, spying on citizens, torture and indefinite detention.

Sponsored by the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center and Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice

Mother of Mother's Day - Greeting Cards for Peace

Julia Ward Howe

In 1870 Mother's Day was instituted by Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation. Ward called for
all women who have hearts
to join with the voice of a devastated earth
and say: Disarm! Disarm!
Let women then solemnly take counsel with each other
as to the means whereby
the great human family can live in peace.

These all occasion cards make great Mother's Day Cards OR
a pack of 6 makes an awesome Mother's Day GIFT!

Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice commissioned the cards. They are being sold in many local congregations, or can be ordered online from our website (click "read more" below). Art by Design Action, printed on recycled paper with soy inks by Inkworks Press, a worker-owned cooperative union shop, and distributed by Reach And Teach, a local peace and social justice learning company, the cards can be used to carry their profound message all year long. (To sell them in your own community, email craig@reachandteach.com.)

Why not buy a few extra and send them as Mother's Day greetings to women such as our First Lady, Secretary of State, Senators, or local Congresswomen?

Here Is Something You Can Do About Nuclear Weapons!

The Soviet Union is gone. The nuclear weapons aren't. Some say that reducing our nuclear arsenal is too risky. But how risky is the status quo? The answer is - nobody knows! Congress can call for a scientific assessment. Ask them to do it. Ask them today!

Conscience in War

Our nation has now been at war for almost a decade. As our soldiers consider re-deployment or combat veterans return to rebuild their lives in light of their experiences in war, we are increasingly aware of the crisis of conscience some soldiers wrestle with and the moral injury some have experieced in combat.

In our founding commitments, MVPJ states that we "insist that war is a moral, ethical and religious issue involving matters of life and death for children, youth and adults who share our common humanity," and, "We pray, speak and act for the well-being of all people. Members of our own armed forces and the armed forces of all nations will be respected. It is in part on their behalf and for their safety that we say NO to war."

We are proud to partner with other organizations to support the discernment and struggles of conscience which our soldiers face, and to pray, speak and act for their healing and well-being.

Remembering a Dear Friend and Colleague - John Butcher

John Butcher The steering committee of MVPJ celebrates the life of Father John Beverley Butcher, a man who brought love and laughter to every gathering, a deep commitment to social justice to all of his work, a passion for life that was contagious, and a level of determination to achieve even the most difficult of challenges.

JOIN IN HONORING JOHN'S LIFE on Sunday, September 4, at 11am at the Pescadero Community Church, 363 Stage Road, in Pescadero. A potluck will follow the service.

We celebrate his amazing life and we shall miss him dearly. Our thoughts and prayers are with John's wife, Grace, and the entire family. We also hold in our hearts the people of the Pescadero Community Church where John preached for the last few years.

The following is a write-up about John from the Episcopal Diocese of California.
read more

Congressional Hearings Unfairly Target Islam

Multifaith Voices for Peace & Justice (MVPJ) objects to the presumption of guilt implicit in Congressional hearings under the title "The Radicalization of Muslim communities in America" being convened by Rep. Peter King (R, NY). Since no religious community can claim exemption from the human tendency to resort to radical violence, it is unfair and very likely unconstitutional for a Congressman to single out Muslims for investigation. MVPJ stands with those who protest the biased McCarthy-like opinions expressed by Sen. King. We are sure that a truthful investigation would reveal that American Muslims are as dismayed and frightened by religion-based violence as American Christians, if not more so.

Working, praying, serving and marching with our Muslim sisters and brothers for the past 8 years, in MVPJ there is no longer an "us" or "them", but only one people, one race, one human family. Together we must show the rest of our nation and world that the friendship and trust we share cannot be divided.

Afghan Call to Listen

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers recently wrote:

In this noise of militarized mania,
to listen is to unclench history's grip on the poor and powerless,
to listen is to shoulder the inconveniences of love,
it would be an act of non-violent resistance.

Unity NOT Division

Rev. Diana Gibson, one of MVPJ's leaders, and a large group of faith leaders from the Bay Area gathered yesterday for a press conference, urging unity instead of division, in light of plans for a Florida pastor to make September 11th a day to burn the Koran.

At the end of the report, you will have heard about a rally in San Jose on Friday September 10th. We encourage you to attend that event.

Click here for details.

The Words of Children Living with War

The following are the words of children compiled by members of the steering committee of Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice. They come from children in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Palestine and Canada. All of these children are living in the midst of war. Some of these messages from children arrived within the last 72 hours.

We thank the Rebuilding Alliance (and especially intern Bryce Druzin) for bringing us many of these messages from partner organizations like Other Voice - Sderat, Al Basma Club for the Disabled in Gaza, the Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative and the UNRWA School for Girls in Gaza, and the children at the Al Aqaba Kindergarten in the West Bank.

Other messages from children were gathered through personal interviews by Deborah Ellis, an author whose award-winning work includes the Breadwinner trilogy, novels that portray the life of a young Afghan girl, pretending to be a boy so that she can feed her family. In Ellis' Three Wishes, Off to War, and Children of War, she brings us directly into the daily lives, hopes, dreams and fears of Palestinian, Israeli, and Iraqi children, plus she shares the voices of American and Canadian children whose parents are stationed in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

We encourage you to read these words and if you'd like to respond, please submit a comment. We will gather those comments and as possible and appropriate, share them with the children.

These and more were shared during a public worship service on March 21st at 2pm at Lytton Plaza in Palo Alto California. The gathering was hosted by the Palo Alto Friends Meeting and Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice. Together, we heard their words, prayed for peace, and committed ourselves to continuing our work to bring about a world where children won't have to be afraid to sleep at night or face the terrors of trying to live through another day at war.

Click each of the links to read the words of children at war.

If you'd like to post a general comment about the event, these messages from children, or the work we are doing at Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice, use the comment link below.

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MVPJ Steering Committee Member Featured Online for Peace Work

InMenlo, a Menlo Park blog site, recently featured MVPJ's own Dick Duda, talking about his passion for eliminating nuclear weapons from the planet. Dick is one of the people who stepped up to the plate around a year ago when the MVPJ team was wondering if there were new people who would be willing to help MVPJ continue the work we've been doing since 2001. He's a joy to work with and we're pleased that he is being featured on InMenlo.com Click here to check out the article.

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