Vigil planned in response to "Justice Sunday" -Apr. 24

Please read more about it here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3490332#3491359

In response, to "Justice Sunday" several events have been scheduled in Louisville....

On Friday at 10:00 a.m. there will be a press conference at Highland Baptist Church - 1101 Cherokee Road

On Sunday at 2:30 there will be a response (Social Justice Sunday) at Douglas Blvd Christian Church - 2005 Douglass Boulevard - this is being implemented by the Clergy and Laity Network - an interfaith community and will be somewhat spiritual/religious in nature. They have invited several national speakers and are expecting 1000+ in attendance.

Then at 4:30 on Sunday there will be a response by the local Democratic party outside the courthouse downtown.

The 2:30 gathering (Social Justice Sunday) has moved to Central Presbyterian Church at 318 W. Kentucky St (the corner of Kentucky St. and 4th Street).

They suggest bringing blankets and folding chairs.

As you all no doubt know, the Family Research Council is sponsoring an event called "Justice Sunday-Stopping the Filibuster Against People of Faith".  The express goal of this program is to defeat the proposed filibuster of Bush's judicial nominees -- by bashing all opponents as, essentially, liberals who are against God, religion and people of faith.  

The event will be held this Sunday, April 24, 2005, 7:00 p.m. ET, at the Highview Baptist mega-church in Louisville, Kentucky.  There will be a national live simulcast  to interested churches and media outlets.  The star speaker will be none other than Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who has, with this shameless political action, abrogated any pretense of a belief in the separation of church and state and further demonstrated the right's willingness to exploit religion as a partisan political bludgeon.

Here's the FRC's Press Release (http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PR05D09 ), which is filled with just a taste of the inflammatory rhetoric sure to be the key talking points of this theo-political event.  In addition to First, speakers include Dr. James Dobson, Founder and Chairman of Focus on the Family, Dr. Al Mohler, head of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries at Highview Baptist Church.  (Remember Chuck Colson - Richard Nixon's special counsel, who also recruited a young John O'Neill to politically attack John Kerry?)

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PROGRESSIVE RELIGIOUS LEADER RALLY

I wanted to remind us all that - in response - a rally lead by progressive religious leaders is planned the same day (but a few hours earlier) in Louisville (details here: see http://www.clnnlc.org /):

Social Justice Sunday

WHAT: Social Justice Sunday - Faith and Freedom Vigil

WHEN: 2:30 pm, April 24, 2005

WHERE: Central Presbyterian Church
                   318 W. Kentucky St. Louisville, Kentucky

CONTACT: Clergy and Laity Network and DriveDemocracy


Progressive Religious Communities, our leaders and our community friends are gathering to witness:


OUR OUTRAGE over the attempt by the Family Research Council and its radical Christian Right colleagues to highjack the judicial selection process for their politiclal/theocratic agenda


OUR DISMAY Senate Majority Leader, Senator Bill Frist, is lending his name and influence to the Family Research Council's claim of universal support from  "people of faith" for its strategy, thereby giving false religious credentials to a thinly veiled political agenda


OUR POSITIVE COMMITMENT to defend and strengthen our social context in its commitment to fairness for all people, free of biased religious doctrines and prejudiced attitudes which are inimical to a mature religious understanding of the standards of inclusiveness and justice in American life


The Social Justice Sunday invitation is available at the Building the Beloved Community. Please distribute the invitation to all progressives. You can download the invitation as a word document here.


For more information, pelase see these dailyKos diaries:

Social Justice Sunday - Who is Participating?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/20/1994/16087

Social Justice Sunday - by George Lakoff
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/15/2016/11711

Louisville Sluggers...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/18/172142/504

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WHAT YOU CAN DO LOCALLY


If you can't get to Louisville, please consider local activisim if a church or media outlet near you is receiving a simulcast of this event (to find out, enter your zip code here: http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=JS_SIMULCAST ).  NOTE:  THERE IS NOW A SUBSTANTIAL LIST OF TV STATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY CARRYING THIS PROGRAM.  

Please either contact the church, TV or radio station in question, or organize your own local vigil/rally, to help ensure that the the message gets out -- in a peaceful, safe and polite but forceful manner -- that this tactic of exploiting religion for political gain, and belittling the faith of progressives in general, is totally unacceptable.  It is an affront both to religion and the founding principles of this nation.



Further reading:

Frist Set to Use Religious Stage on Judicial Issue, New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/politics/15judges.htm...  5&ei=5094&partner=homepage) (free subscription required).  

Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs, Rabbi of Kol Tikvah Synagogue in Woodland Hills, California and Dr. Nazir Khaja, Chairman of the Islamic Information Service -- joint statement (http://www.fvcommunity.org/beloved/fristresponse ).