Moral Clarity About Our Own Atrocities---Bishop William Barber II

The following came out as an e-mail from Bishop Barber and Repairers of the Breach on Saturday, April 30. Please learn about and support Repairers of the Breach by going here.

Dear Movement Family,

In Philadelphia this week, the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign organized a march from City Hall to a church downtown, where Carolyn Hill shared the story of losing her two nieces to poverty. “The child welfare department decided I was too poor to raise them,” Ms. Hill testified. “I had a roof over my head and food in the fridge and the girls were doing well in my care… But if I had had the Child Tax Credit earlier, child welfare might not have taken my nieces from me.” She hasn’t seen the babies she helped to raise in nine years because of policy decisions by Republicans and Democrats who believe lies about scarcity.

Over the past couple of months, Russia’s assault on Ukraine has produced scenes that demand action from people who want to hold onto our humanity. To see the butchery at Bucha or the massacre at Mariupol and do nothing would be to forfeit any claim to moral authority. We know this instinctively. It is why, despite the political gridlock on Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats have acted swiftly to approve historic military aid to Ukraine. In the face of such a moral imperative, it would be anathema for either party to ask, “How are we going to pay for it?”

But our moral clarity on the question of Ukraine exposes the contradiction at the heart of American politics for the past 40 years. In 1967, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. told the story of visiting Marks, Mississippi, and meeting a teacher who cut her apple into several pieces at lunch each day so that students who had nothing else to eat could share it for nourishment. In the richest nation in the history of the world, King knew it was a moral contradiction to witness such poverty and do nothing. So he agreed to work with a coalition of Black, White, Latino and Native poor people to make America see the human suffering in its midst. King was gunned down for his efforts to build a Poor People’s Campaign, but the mobilization helped compel the government to launch a War on Poverty. Republicans and Democrats agreed it was unimaginable to simply look away.

America has not sustained that moral clarity about the catastrophe of poverty. As we continue our national tour to prepare for the Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls on June 18, 2022, poor and low-income people like Ms. Hill are putting a face on the moral crisis of poverty in the richest nation in the history of the world.

As we all watch the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine, Americans are aware that the main difference between us and the Russian people is that we see the truth of the human slaughter that is hidden from them by Putin’s propaganda. If they could see what we see, we know they could not allow it to continue in their names. But if this is true of human suffering half a world away, then it must be also true of the catastrophes hidden in our cities’ homeless encampments and Walmart parking lots, filled with families sleeping in cars because they cannot afford housing. If it is true for babies in Ukraine, then it is also true for Ms. Hill’s babies.

We are no less culpable than the Russian people because we have been willing to go along with narratives that blame poor people or hide their suffering behind arguments about book bans or “critical race theory.” It is our moral duty to see the suffering of other human beings, especially those closest to us. And when we witness unnecessary suffering, it is our duty to act.

If Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine demand action, then so too does the failure of the US Senate to pass Build Back Better’s provisions for affordable housing, green jobs, living wages for care workers, and a child tax credit that will immediately lift 4 million children out of poverty. If Putin’s attack on democracy in Europe can unite Western democracies, then the assault on voting rights in state houses across America must, at the very least, unite Senate Democrats in their resolve to pass federal voting rights protections before the midterms this fall.

The moral imperative of these issues is no less pressing than the human suffering in Ukraine. We cannot ignore the cry for help from Ukraine, just as we cannot look away from the poor people and low-wage workers who are calling for a Mass Poor People's & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls.

This historic gathering at a watershed moment in our nation’s history isn’t just another rally. It is a call coming from grassroots movements in communities across America where people are learning that we have power when we get together, and we have authority when we act to stop the atrocities that we have allowed here at home for far too long.

Forward together,

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
President and Senior Lecturer
Repairers of the Breach

PS: As we focus our attention on mobilizing people for June 18th, our organizers have put together a great set of resources to help you organize a bus from your community. Please reach out to your faith community, union, neighborhood association, or civic organization to start signing people up for a bus this week. We’re putting everything we’ve got into building a national platform where we can demand that this nation see the suffering of people like Ms. Hill.

Forward together, not one step back!

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
President and Senior Lecturer
Repairers of the Breach

“The way to heal the soul of the nation is to pass policies that heal the body of the nation. It’s the just thing to do. That’s how we as a nation can together move forward.” -Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

AN EASTER PRAYER: TO RECOVER THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX TRADITION OF PEACE (Michael Centore in religioussocialism.org)

Taken from ReligiousSocialism.org. Please support them. I believe that Michael Centore's article is especially important right now. 

For those of us with a deep love of Russian Orthodox spirituality, the events of the past two months, heartbreaking enough on their own, have brought additional grief. We mourn the warping of the Russian Orthodox faith for nefarious nationalistic ends. We see Patriarch Kirill’s longstanding capitulation to the violent messianism of Vladimir Putin as a tragic case of succumbing to a false god.

We are not alone in this. In March, nearly 300 Russian Orthodox clerics issued a statement decrying the war and comparing Russia’s actions against Ukraine to Cain’s fratricide of Abel in the book of Genesis. Archbishop Leo of Helsinki, the spiritual leader of the Finnish Orthodox Church, challenged Kirill to “wake up and condemn this evil.” Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams made the case for expelling the Russian Orthodox Church from the World Council of Churches. Pope Francis has been unequivocal in his criticism, breaking protocol to appeal directly to the Russian Embassy in February and exclaiming during a general audience on April 6, “Let the weapons fall silent! Stop sowing death and destruction!”

Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, which has a hierarchical leadership structure centered on the person of the pope, Eastern Orthodoxy exists as an association of 16 (or 14; there are still internal debates over the status of two) autocephalous, or self-governing churches. Many of these are organized as national churches—think of the Russian Orthodox or Bulgarian Orthodox Churches, for example. Though modern ideas of the nation-state and its relationship to ethnicity did not exist when many of these churches were founded, some members have anachronistically applied them to advance nationalistic agendas.

This is precisely what Kirill and Putin are doing when they invoke “Holy Russia” or the “Russian world” as justification for the invasion. In a dangerous alliance of church and state that links up with a longstanding vision of Russia as the “Third Rome,” imperial heir to the Byzantine Empire and defender of “Christian civilization” against a decadent, secular West, they are proposing what the authors of a dissenting open letter at the website Public Orthodoxy describe as “a transnational Russian sphere or civilization . . . which includes Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (and sometimes Moldova and Kazakhstan), as well as ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking people throughout the world.”

Read the rest here.

From the 1980s---Still Relevant

From the USSR in the 1980s

 

Pope Francis' Prayer For Peace

The Vatican has released this unofficial translation, a video and a news story concerning Pope Francis' special prayer for the end of the war in Ukraine. Go here to see the complete story. 

Forgive us for war, O Lord.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners!
Lord Jesus, born in the shadows of bombs falling on Kyiv, have mercy on us!
Lord Jesus, who died in a mother’s arms in a bunker in Kharkiv, have mercy on us!
Lord Jesus, a 20-year-old sent to the frontlines, have mercy on us!
Lord Jesus, who still behold armed hands in the shadow of your Cross, have mercy on us!

Forgive us, O Lord.

Forgive us, if we are not satisfied with the nails with which we crucified Your hands, as we continue to slate our thirst with the blood of those mauled by weapons.
Forgive us, if these hands which You created to tend have been transformed into instruments of death.
Forgive us, O Lord, if we continue to kill our brother;

Forgive us, if we continue like Cain to pick up the stones of our fields to kill Abel.
Forgive us, if we continue to justify our cruelty with our labors, if we legitimize the brutality of our actions with our pain.
Forgive us for war, O Lord. Forgive us for war, O Lord.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, we implore You! Hold fast the hand of Cain!
Illumine our consciences;
May our will not be done;
Abandon us not to our own actions!

Stop us, O Lord, stop us!
And when you have held back the hand of Cain, care also for him. He is our brother.
O Lord, put a halt to the violence!
Stop us, O Lord!

Amen.

Mushroom And Yellow Bean Soup

Get one can of yellow wax beans and drain it into a large soup pot. Save those beans for later.

Add a can of chopped mushrooms, or use fresh ones in liquid or broth. Don't drain them and put those in your soup pot.

Add about two quarts of water and bring it to a light boil. Some folks add salt. (I don't.)

Add two diced carrots, a couple of cloves of diced garlic or a good bit of garlic power, and one stick of celery if you like that (I don't). 

Let that boil maybe ten minutes. 

Dice and add two potatoes. (I like to use red potatoes, and I use three or four if they're small.)

Cook everything together until the potatoes are almost tender.

Some folks put a bit of fennel in a pestle, grind that up, heat it just a bit and add that. (I like that.)

Add those beans and parsley flakes or dill weed---not much unless you really like that.

Let it simmer.

Melt some margarine in a skillet, add some flour, and make a paste.

Take the skillet from your burner and add in some of the hot soup, not more than one cup. Stir it in carefully. Watch out for lumps---those are not your friends.

Remove the soup from the heat and add what you have in the skillet.

Did I mention that you need to not have lumps in the skillet?

That should be it. Now, I like a thick soup on a cold day, but if this is too thick for you then just add some water.

  

Potato Pancakes and Machanka (Tomato Dip)

Beat together the yolks of 3 eggs, 4 cups of grated potatoes (drain them first!), six tablespoons of grated onions, three tablespoon of bread crumbs (you can also use flour), just a dash of cayenne pepper, some salt and pepper to taste.

Mix it up, take a look, and add more bread crumbs or flour if you need to. I like to use the Italian bread crumbs.

Now, beat the whites of the three eggs in a separate bowl until stiff and fold that into the mix.

Things may get messy now.

Heat about one-half of an inch of oil in a skillet. Drop in the mix with a spoon before it gets too hot. When the edges of the pancake are getting brown, flip it over. This takes a little practice. Be patient with yourself.

I like this with apple sauce, some folks like it with sour cream, and some people make a tomato dip (machanka) to have with this. 

Here's how you make the dip:

Fry two or three tablespoons of oil and four or so tablespoons of flour slowly, b7ut stay there and stir it. Don't let it burn or get lumpy. Add pone cup of tomato juice or one cup of drained tomatoes. Keep stirring---lumps are your enemy You want this thick. Add salt and pepper to taste. You can chop up some onion and use that as a garnish.

Eggplant "Caviar"

Bake a large eggplant whole in a 400 degree oven until it's soft. This will take 30-45 minutes. Stick a fork in it to test it. It's done when you can stick the fork in easily. Let it cool.

Remove the skin from the eggplant. This should just be a matter of peeling it back. Chop up the eggplant meat and leave in the seeds.

Grate one medium or large onion and add it to the eggplant.

Some people will add a little garlic.

Add about one-half cup of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, and one tablespoon of lemon juice. Mix everything together.

Some people sprinkle paprika on before serving, or maybe a small amount of olive oil.

Let it chill. 

Some folks will cut the eggplant into big pieces and stick them in a blender and let it. Some folks will put everything mixed together in the blender and blend it that way. The problem with this is that it's easy to overblend, and then you either have a mess on your hands or you need to add more ingredients. You want something that is like hummus, something that will go on a cracker or that can be spread on bread.

Sweet-Sour Onions

Cook about two dozen small white onions covered in salted water until almost tender. They should all be about the same size.

Drain and peel the onions. Do it when they cool down.

Heat about 3 tablespoons of butter in a heavy skillet. I use a bit more.

Add the onions, cook over medium heat until golden (not brown---but it's okay if they do brown a little).

Remove the onions with a slotted spoon. I put them in a bowl covered over with a towel. The point is to keep them warm.

Add a tablespoon, or a little more, of butter or margarine to your skillet and add about one tablespoon of flour, not much more. 

Carefully and slowly stir in some vegetable/vegan broth or bouillon (for Lent) or beef broth or bouillon (other times).

Stir this carefully, let it thicken but be careful not to let it get lumpy or burn.

Stir in two tablespoons of cider vinegar. (Some folks use wine vinegar.)

Add one or two tablespoons of sugar if you like that. Most folks do.

Taste it. Adjust it to your taste.

Remember those warm onions? Add those in now.

Cover, let the pan set on low heat, and shake the pan or stir carefully and very quickly to prevent sticking. Really, it's better to shake the pan than stir, believe me.

It should be done in 5 minutes or so, not much longer.

You can sprinkle it with parsley if you like. We don't eat enough parsley, do we?

I think that this recipe came from the Carpathian Cookery cookbook done by the folks at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church in Uniontown, Pa. Whether it did or didn't, that's a great cookbook and it stays in print. I've been through three of them and used to give them as gifts. You can try e-mailing them at carpathiancookery@gmail.com to get one of your own.

   

Lenten Mushroom Soup--Easier To Make Than I Make It Sound!

I'm taking this (more or less) from the Hanya's Kitchen Cookbook that I mentioned yesterday. I can't find it in print these days, but it is one of the best church cookbooks, and especially so for Lenten and "ethnic" dishes. It was published by St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary in South Canaan, Pa. Pick one up if you can find it.

You can use any small macaroni product for this recipe.

Peel and dice 4 potatoes.

Add them to 10 cups of water and cook them 'til they're at least half done (but don't over-cook them).

Chop up two cups of mushrooms and add to the potatoes. I like to mix different kinds of mushrooms.

Cook this, and use the potatoes as your marker---you want them tender, but not mushy.

Add a cup or so of small soup macaroni or egg barley and cook. The book says to cook 'til tender, but I cook 'til they're not quite tender.

Chop up and brown one onion with two tablespoons of flour. I use a big onion and more flour--do what you like.

Add some of the liquid from what you have cooking to the onion and flour and mix it 'til its smooth.

Add the onion, flour and mix to the soup.

Let it boil and them simmer 'til it loses that flour taste. You may need to add a little more water, or even a little of some of that vegan soup stock

Add some pepper.

Enjoy!

 

Waging War Betrays The Pursuit Of Peace

 

Saint Maximilian of Tebessa, pray for us!

 

Read the story of St. Maximilian here.

From Catholic Online:

When asked his name, Maximilian replied, "Why do you wish to know my name? I cannot serve (in the army) because I am a Christian." Nevertheless, orders were given for him to be given the military seal. He answered, "I cannot do it: I cannot be a soldier." When told he must serve or die, he said, "You may cut off my head, but I will not serve. My army is the army of God, and I cannot fight for this world," it was pointed out to him that there were Christians serving as bodyguards for the emperors Diocletian and Maximian.

To this he replied, "That is their business. I am a Christian, too, and I cannot serve." Dion then told Victor to correct his son. Victor, who had become a Christian like his son, said, "He knows what he believes, and he won't change his mind." Dion insisted, "Agree to serve and receive the military seal." "I already have the seal of Christ, my God . . . I will not accept the seal of this world; if you give it to me, I will break it for it is worthless. I cannot wear a piece of lead around my neck after I have received the saving sign of Jesus Christ, my Lord, the son of the living God. You do not know Him; yet He suffered for our salvation: God delivered Him up for our sins. He is the one whom all Christians serve; we follow Him as the Prince of Life and Author of Salvation."

Again Dion stated that there are other Christians who are soldiers. Maximilian answered, "They know what is best for them. I am a Christian and I cannot do what is wrong." Dion continued, "What wrong do those commit who serve in the army?" Maximilian answered, "You know very well what they do." Threatened with death if he remained obstinate, Maximilian answered, "This is the greatest thing that I desire. Dispatch me quickly. Therein lies my glory." Then he added, "I shall not die. When I leave this earth, I shall live with Christ, my Lord."

He was sentenced accordingly: "Whereas Maximilian has disloyally refused the military oath, he is sentenced to die by the sword." Just before his execution, Maximilian encouraged his companions to persevere and asked his father to give his new clothes to the executioner. We are told that Fabius Victor "went home happily, thanking God for having allowed him to send such a gift to heaven."

In case of war...

 

Pope Francis says his heart aches over the situation in Ukraine and announces a “Day of Fasting for Peace” on Ash Wednesday.

From the Vatican News. Please read the entire article here.

During the General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis made a heartfelt appeal for peace in Ukraine, saying that the threat of war had caused “great pain in my heart.”

“Despite the diplomatic efforts of the last few weeks,” the Pope said, “increasingly alarming scenarios are opening up,” with many people all over the world feeling anguish and pain.

““Once again the peace of all is threatened by partisan interests,” he stressed. Pope Francis appealed to those “with political responsibility to examine their consciences seriously before God, who is the God of peace and not of war, who is the Father of all, not just of some, who wants us to be brothers and not enemies.””

He also prayed that “all the parties involved refrain from any action that would cause even more suffering to the people, destabilizing coexistence between nations and bringing international law into disrepute.”

Will we strive for justice & peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

 

Lenten Cookies

Well, you're going to need one-half of a pound of margarine and nuts for this one. And for some people who observe Lent this recipe won't do at all.

Beat the margarine and one-half of a cup of sugar together, add about one teaspoon or a little more of lemon juice and the grated rind of one big lemon, and beat all of that together until they're fluffy.

Add in one cup of ground nuts. Walnuts are the best, but use what you have. (Peanuts won't work so well.) Add in two cups of flour.

Mix this by hand. 

Roll out what you have to about one-eighth of an inch thick. That looks kind of thin, but it will work just fine. You can cut it with a cookie cutter or the lid of an average-sized jar or can.

Bake these at 325 degrees for no longer than 20 minutes. Even at that you're pushing it, so check in at 15 or 18 minutes. 

Now here you have some choices. This works best if you spoon some jam on one cookie and put another on top of it and sprinkle over some powered sugar. You don't need much jam at all. But you also have some tasty cookies by themselves that you can eat as they are or sprinkle the powdered sugar over.  

Haluski Noodles & Cabbage

Another recipe from my past and one that even I can manage:

Play some good Slovak music on a CD while you cook. I like to have Del Sinchak playing. Tex-Mex or Texas-Czech/Bohemian music also works very well.

Cook a one-pound package of medium or wide noodles. I usually use egg noodles. Drin them.

Chop one head of cabbage that weighs maybe three pounds or so very fine a fry in butter 'til it browns. I like to keep mine a little crunchy, but not everyone does.

Perhaps you would like to add some fennel, onion, or caraway. You don't have to do this, but it's a nice touch. If you're aedding caraway seeds add a tablespoon or two of vinegar. At that point it isn't haluski. Who cares?

Mix the noodles and the cabbage together.

Pour about 6 tablespoons of melted butter over it all.

Have a good hot sausage with it. Wash it down with a good union-made dark beer

Avoid the scale or blood pressure monitors or a visit to the doctor for about a month.

 Photo from Chocolatemoosey.com. Their recipe is different than mine, of course.

Memorial Wheat: Part of responding to death and comforting those who mourn

In my tradition it's common to offer memorial wheat to mourners when someone dies. It's a good tradition because while you're making this you can think of the person who passed on and those who are mourning them and it gives you something to offer people and comfort them instead of hurrying away from a funeral or memorial service. It's good to make it the day before you share it. Some folks give it two days.

Get about one-and-one-half pounds of brown wheat berries or something similar. I've seen people use kasha or wheat cereals. Wash it thoroughly and have it boil for a few hours until it is done. Pour cold water over it and let it sit over night.

Spread it out in a pan and---this part REALLY matters---sop up any extra moisture with paper towels. Put it in a large bowl and mix in one-pound of fine walnuts, one-quarter pound of chopped pecans, one teaspoon (or a bit more) of honey, a good bit of powdered sugar, one-half teaspoon of salt, and maybe one-half of a carton of plain bread crumbs or so. Some people add pomegranate seeds. Mix it by hand.

Some people mound it on a platter and shape it with wax paper. I always left it in a bowl, but it's good to smooth it out. Use wax paper for all of the smoothing and molding.

Add some more bread crumbs when it's all smooth so that the wheat is covered over by the bread crumbs. Top it with powdered sugar, raisins, and cinnamon. If the person who has passed is a Christian, you can make a cross on top out of raisins, pistachios or Jordan almonds. It's nice to put a beeswax candle in and light it.

It's also nice when one person serves it to others in little paper cups. Give the leftovers to the family in your bowl and then call in a week or so to get your bowl back and check in to see how they're doing.

 

Meat Pies Recipe

Back when I learned how to make this you could not get pizza dough in the supermarkets. You can use that or any yeast bread dough from the store or that kind of thing and make the dough yourself, but it should be about one-and-one-half inches thick.

Chop up 2 pounds of beef and one big onion, or use lots of onion powder. Cut the dough into 5-inch circles and flatten them out. Combine the meat and onions on top of each piece and fold them into triangles.

Be sure to leave a small opening in the top around the center. 

Oil up a baking sheet, place the pies on it about 1 inch apart, and bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes.

Now, you can get a little fancy and add some taco mix and cumin powder and garlic powder and add those things after you brown the beef and onion and drain them. You can use round or sirloin steak cut up, and potatoes and onions sliced thin. If you do that, put some butter on top. You can use flour tortillas. You can beat a few eggs and grate up some cheese and pour those over the pies as they bake. Baking time should be about 30 minutes or so if you go a little fancy, or maybe 1 hour if you use the steak and potatoes. 

We pray and bow before the Lord God/O Lord have mercy

We pray and bow before the Lord God

For all of the hurt and oppressed

For all those who are imprisoned and lost

For all of the hungry and thirsty we pray

For all of the sick and suffering and the dying

For all those who are sad and tired

For all of the Orphans and Widows

For all who are in mourning

For all of those in need

For all of the houseless

For those without work and

For those who work in dangerous occupations

For those who are weary and burdened

For peace and for justice we pray

O Lord have mercy