Learn. Pray. Blog.

On this solemn day, we must think about all those who have sacrificed. Elaine in Roanoke over at Blue Virginia has a great blog post about the history of Memorial Day:

Perhaps we all would benefit from following then-President Clinton’s May 2000 resolution asking all Americans to pause for one minute at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day in order to “consider the true meaning of this holiday. Memorial Day represents one day of national awareness and reverence, honoring those Americans who died while defending our Nation and its values.”

We encourage faithful Virginians to take a few minutes at 3:00 P.M. today to pray:

Merciful God, we honor those who have fallen in war and our hearts are with loved ones overseas. We ask for your blessing to bring them home unharmed. May your grace and mercy give rest to those who made it home, but left a piece of themselves elsewhere. Above all, give us courage & wisdom to work for peace & justice so fewer and fewer of our best should have to leave for war. For this we pray, Amen.

How do we, in honor of such sacrifice, build a world that is safer? That has less war and violent conflict? Since September 11, 2001 there have been over 5,000 deployed from the Virginia National Guard alone, plus thousands more who are active duty Army, Navy, Air Force & Marine Corp. How do establish justice and peace in ways that reduce violent conflict to only where it is absolutely necessary?

Valerie Dixon at Sojourners talks about the importance of having a vision for peace and never forgetting peace when we think of war:

We cannot bring the vision to fruition if we do not believe that such is possible.  Rather than acting in faith, we go with what we know.  We know human fear, greed, and will to power.  We know the bluster of ultimatum.  We know the will to vengeance.  We know less of love, generosity, the will to cooperation, and forgiveness.  However, these virtues are not completely unknown.  They are not impossible to live and to expand to the level of international conflict.

I’ll end with words from one of our most celebrated veterans:

“Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Interfaith Center has been a champion on the issue of reforming predatory lending in Virginia for several years. The issue of pay day lending and car-title lending is now getting national attention:

“Our loan is $1.50 per hundred per day, so after 5 days, $7.50,” Berry says. “It would be $107.50 is what they owe back.”

That’s an annual interest rate of 547 percent. A year after taking out the loan, you’d owe more than five times what you originally borrowed.

The predatory lender mentioned in the article above says all that needs to be said:

Berry says he would never take out a payday loan

During the 2010 legislative session, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation to regulate car title lending in Virginia. Although far from ideal, the measure is a significant step forward for low and moderate income consumers. For starters, the bill closes the open-end credit loophole to car title lenders and establishes a new code section for their product. The bill also requires car title lenders to be licensed and regulated by the State Corporation Commission.

Equally important, the legislation sets multiple parameters for individual loan transactions. It establishes a minimum loan term of 120 days, a maximum loan term of one year, and limits loan size to 50 percent of a vehicle’s fair market value. The measure also requires car title loans to be closed-end transactions and mandates repayment in substantially equal monthly installments of principal and interest. Additionally, the bill prohibits refinancing, renewals, or roll-overs. If a borrower defaults, the lender’s only recourse is to repossess the vehicle.

The glaring flaw of Senate Bill 606 is that it continues to allow car title lenders to charge triple-digit annual interest rates, as high as 264 percent. Even this, however, is a marginal step up from the status quo where annual interest rates range from 300 to 360 percent. So, on balance, Senate Bill 606 is a measure of progress for consumers.

The name of their project says it all: Blank Street.

Like a couple of empty canvases, Ben Saunders and Joey Schihl, two film students at Virginia Commonwealth University, head out next week in a VW van named Iris to film the faces of poverty, and those overcoming hardship throughout Virginia. They are not entirely sure what they will find.

Read more…

This is a guest post by Darren Rippy. Darren is a graduate student in the Master of Public Policy program at the College of William & Mary. He is a summer policy fellow at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.

The new health reform law is Good Business for Virginia’s Small Businesses because it provides tax credits to lower health care costs for Virginia’s small businesses.

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The story of Jose Rosales helped us remember how immigrants and immigration are what have made America great. But we still have a daunting task: fixing our broken immigration system and dealing with the 11-12 million “illegals.” Christian Ethics Professor David Gushee writes with much needed clarity about how we must reform our system:

Those of us who have advocated for some kind of comprehensive immigration reform are fully aware that it is not good that immigration laws have been broken en masse. But we are also aware that because America is not the kind of nation (thank God) that will deploy its military and police forces to embark on a Nazi- or Soviet-style forced deportation of eleven million people, we have to find a more creative approach that fits with our values.

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Last week, an immigrant from Guatemala was murdered defending his neighbors in Chantilly VA:

Jose Rosales was a devout Christian. He sent every spare penny he made as a landscaper and handyman back to his family in Guatemala, and he was so strong and industrious that he did the work of three men. He had the complete trust of the Brar family who hired him.

In turn, Rosales appreciated the steady work the Brars gave him in their construction and real estate businesses and around their 10-acre Centreville property and 9,000-square foot mansion, especially in tough economic times.

So on Monday morning, when two armed men broke into the family’s four-car garage, Rosales stood between them and the Brars. “Get away from my brother and my mom,” he said.

Jose Rosales was shot and killed defending the Brar family. His death reflected his life, working hard and being faithful. His death also comes at a time when our Nation is trying to grapple with a broken immigration system.

Read more…

Today, the McDonnell administration rolled out changes to the voting rights restoration process.  Most notably, the new rules impose a 60-day turnaround for processing applications and reduce the waiting period for non-violent offenders to submit their requests.  The new changes could be a meaningful step forward for ex-offenders seeking to regain their civil rights and becoming productive members of society.

The right to vote forms the core of American democracy. In Virginia, individuals with felony convictions are barred from voting, even after completing their sentence. The process to regain this fundamental right is so outdated and logistically cumbersome that felony disenfranchisement is a de facto permanent condition. What’s more, felony disenfranchisement has at its root Jim Crow era laws adopted in the 1902 Virginia Constitutional Convention aimed at preventing African-Americans from voting and circumventing the XVth amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Many are worried that having to carry your papers in Arizona is un-American. Some have even compared it to Nazi Germany’s treatment of the Jews.

Rabbi Thomas Louchheim, from Tucson Arizona, writes movingly:

The Prophet Micah demands in God’s name that we “live justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.” This legislation is an affront to God’s command. It is an affront to human dignity and to human rights. It fractures our sense of community, even those who are here legally, who now become afraid and unsure of just how equal they are in the eyes of this odious law, which is the embodiment of hubris and arrogance. As religious faithful we must stand up and say “No!” This piece of legislation is too close to having those who look Hispanic wear a badge, like the Jews had to wear in other countries prior to and during World War II. We fought (and won) that war to end such injustice and discrimination.

This comparison has Glenn Beck outraged! C’mon, using comparisons to Hitler to make a political point is ridiculous, right…?

What goes around…

A great prayer from our friends at Sojourners about the disaster in the gulf:

As the cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico continues, we pray once again for those involved in those efforts, and for those who have lost livelihoods. We mourn the devastation and pollution, and we repent of our complicity in the systems that allow such destructive accidents. Forgive us, Lord, and by your Spirit, make us better stewards of your creation. Amen.

Click here to protect clean air and take action on Climate Change legislation in Congress.

Below, Imam Muhammad Salaam of Richmond VA talks about a Muslim perspective on creation care.

A piece in the Midlothian Exchange describes an interfaith effort in Chesterfield County VA:

In any interfaith engagement, the balance between practical issues and theological dialogue is not easy.  Our dialogue, however, functions in a “beyond-the-talk” kind of attitude in the hope that these encounters will produce concrete results on the ground.  Such dialogue has unveiled a joint community service project with the International Hospital for Children.  The three faith communities are seeking to raise funds ($5,000) to sponsor a critically ill child from South America and bring that child to the one of the local hospitals for treatment.

This is exactly the kind of interfaith community engagement that Virginia needs. Faith should no longer build walls among communities.  Instead it should be a conduit that connects Virginians together as they try to promote the common good.

It’s great to see that the folks in the Bon Air area of Chesterfield County are living this richer understanding of faith. It’s something we’ve seen at the General Assembly as Virginians of many faiths came together to protect health care for children, seniors and the disabled.

We hope to see more Virginians of faith stand up for the low and middle income Virginians, especially now that Gov. McDonnell is raising their taxes.

a thousand words.

But the corporate idol worship continues, even in the face of this catastrophic oil spill. In the face of Wall Street reform, the corporatists were siding with Wall Street too,even though they wrecked our economy.

It’s probably just a coincidence…

This is a guest post by Anjum A. Ali. Anjum has her MA in Islamic Studies, concentrating on Islamic Law, and is trained as a paralegal. She currently works with Hope in the Cities/Initiatives of Change and has two small children. Her husband Hadi YazdanPanah serves on the Board of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.

I attended the Virginia Law Foundation’s 2010 Law Day Conference which brought together law professionals, public policy analysts, advocates and educators to discuss how speech, as a tool, can impact our world positively or negatively. We discussed how to maintain free speech while still controlling words of hate and fear that contribute to, and almost always incite, the kind of violence which besets our world today.

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This is a guest post by Martin Beifield Jr. Rabbi Biefield is the Sophia and Nathan Gumenick Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Ahabah in Richmond Virginia. He is also a member of the Board of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.

The United States faces a multitude of problems which demand our vigilant attention.   The economy, war in Iraq, healthcare, and climate change, among others, compete in the polls for the number one position for what the American people are most concerned about.  Each has a legitimate claim.  Let me add one more to our agenda.  It does not have the same urgency as some of the others but it is, in its own way, quite important to the health of our nation.  There is a clear erosion in our country of the wall of separation between church and state.  All of our constitutional rights, privileges, and obligations are precious, and we should not ignore threats to any of them.

When the first amendment to the Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” it is saying two things.   It prohibits Congress from passing laws which restrict or interfere with an individual’s exercise of religion.  This is referred to as the free exercise clause.  It means that we are free to practice a religion or free not to practice a religion and that the government can not interfere with the way we do either one.  When it says that Congress may not establish religion, it means that Congress can not create a state or national religion, favor one religion over another, or favor religion in general.  This is referred to as the establishment clause.

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Although the maelstrom of coverage around “boob-gate” has been amusing to behold, Attorney-General Cuccinelli is right: it is a distraction. The attention this non-issue has received is completely ridiculous.

Why?

Because we have dramatically more important issues that need the public’s attention such as the $6 Million tax increase Gov. Bob McDonnell is hoisting upon over 100,000 low income families in Virginia. Many media outlets have spent resources scrutinizing a detail on a tiny lapel pin that most people wouldn’t have noticed even if it was a foot away from their face. But none of the main stream media outlets have corrected their reporting which claims that the budget passed by the General Assembly and Governor was free of tax-increases.

The Governor still has the opportunity to fix this unfortunate policy change. Until then however, this change is still on the books and with the economy in the early stages of recovery, our brothers and sisters of low and moderate means cannot afford a tax increase as Gov. McDonnell himself said so many times on the campaign trail. We hope he won’t raise taxes on low-income Virginians and we hope our friends in the media will correct this factual error.