Category Archives: Religion

How about as a first step the Chamber pledge… —Jim Parker

Received today on Why the Chamber Supports Unification. -jsq
So true, John. There was no meat in the whole letter. The last line sums it up, “We BELIEVE…” yada, yada, yada. Faith based thinking might fly in religious institutions, but in the education of our children, we have a pretty good handle on what is needed. Deferring to those trained and with years of experience in the education of our children, who have brought countless facts to the discussion, none of which the Chamber can or has bothered to refute, I will go along with both Boards of Education and vote NO to consolidation.

I did note that Mr Gooding offered to “combine our resources and our efforts and work together as a community to transform two average school systems…” Since he used the first person plural “our,”

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Vote No March —Floyd E Rose

Seen yesterday. -jsq
Never before in the history of Valdosta have its citizens been met with a greater challenge. The most powerful business interests in our city have conspired to deceive us with a scheme to dilute the black vote, and thereby rob our community of the political and economic benefits to which we are rightly entitled.

We make up 55 percent of the city’s population. However, we are only 34 percent of the county’s population. If the city and county governments are consolidated, which is the real goal of the Committee for Educational Excellence (CUEE), we will lose forever the opportunity to have access to the millions of federal dollars that will come to Valdosta, with which we can rebuild our community; monies that we are now going to the North side.

This is, and never has been, about school unification. However, legally

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Alabama bishops criticize ALEC’s immigration law

Some churches actually speak in public on what they profess to believe.

Campbell Robertson wrote for the New York Times 13 August 2011, Bishops Criticize Tough Alabama Immigration Law


Josh Anderson for the New York Times
CULLMAN, Ala. —On a sofa in the hallway of his office here, Mitchell Williams, the pastor of First United Methodist Church, announced that he was going to break the law. He is not the only church leader making such a declaration these days.

Since June, when Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican, signed an immigration enforcement law called the toughest in the country by critics and supporters alike, the opposition has been vocal and unceasing.

Thousands of protesters have marched. Anxious farmers

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Private prison operations have been rife with abuse —WV Council of Churches

Another Sunday, another church group against private prisons; this time, a group of churches.

Dan Heyman wrote 12 January 2010 for Public News Service – WV, Churches: No Private Prison For Immigrants In WV,

CHARLESTON, WV – West Virginia’s largest church group has asked U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd and the rest of the state’s congressional delegation to oppose funding a private prison for undocumented immigrants in Pendleton County near the Virginia border. The Council of Churches is one of several groups discussing immigration reform ahead of expected congressional action on the issue. The Council has asked federal lawmakers’ help in the effort, arguing private prison operations have been rife with abuse. GSI Professional Corrections is seeking county commission approval to build the detention center near Sugar Grove to house 1,000 nonviolent immigrant detainees awaiting possible deportation.

Rev. Dennis Sparks, the Council’s executive director, complains private prisons operate outside the mainstream legal

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CCA and The GEO Group have been accused of human rights abuses —United Methodist Church

Methodists lobby private prison companies CCA and GEO as shareholders about human rights issues. Seems like this doesn’t help with the 2008 United Methodist Church Resolution 3281, Welcoming the Migrant to the US, which advocated the “elimination of privately-operated detention centers,” but at least they’re doing something. I expect what they’ll accomplish by such lobbying is to demonstrate that private prison companies have no intention of addressing human rights issues, because that would cut into their profits.

Published by General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church July 2011, Faith-Based Investors Take a Closer Look at Private Prisons,

In 2011, members of the United Methodist Interagency Task Force on Immigration approached the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits (General Board) with concerns about two private prison companies in the General Board’s investment portfolio: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and The GEO Group, Inc. The United Methodist Interagency Task Force on Immigration was created following the General Conference of 2004. Membership includes representatives from the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), the General Commission on Religion and Race, the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), Methodists Associated to Represent the Cause of Hispanic Americans (MARCHA) and two bishops. In addition, GBCS has shared its concern that CCA and The GEO Group have been accused of human rights abuses of young people, immigrants and people of color.

CCA and The GEO Group are the two largest private prison companies in the U.S., operating and/or owning, respectively, 111 and 118 correctional, detention and/or residential treatment facilities. In 2010, CCA earned nearly $1.7 billion; The GEO Group, $1.3 billion.

Investor Engagement with Private Prisons

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an End to ICE/Local Police Collaboration

Another Sunday, more church people against private prisons.

A year ago, on 29 July 2010, Letter to Secretary Napolitano Calling for an End to ICE/Local Police Collaboration and a Halt to Expansion of Immigration Detention System:

On the occasion of the scheduled implementation of Arizona’s racial profiling law, SB 1070, veterans of the civil rights movement and representatives of social justice and faith-based community organizations in Georgia today issued a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, calling on her to put an end to 287(g) and other ICE-local police collaborations which lead to racial profiling and separation of families, and halt the expansion of the inhumane, profit-driven immigration detention system.

“As veterans of the civil rights movement and representatives of social-justice and faith-based organizations in Georgia, we urge you to take the bold steps necessary to end this unjust system that creates divided families and improbable prisoners,” says the letter. Signatories of the letter include: Constance Curry, a veteran of the civil rights movement and Atlanta-based writer and activist; Edward Dubose, President of the Georgia State Conference NAACP; Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director of the U.S. Human Rights Network; Jerome Scott, Founder and Board Chair of Project South; Reverend Gregory Williams, President of Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE); and many others.

Only seven months later Rev. Gregory Williams and others got to speak against the all-too-similar Georgia law, HB 87. Jeremy Redmon wrote for the AJC 3 March 2011, House passes Arizona-style bill aimed at illegal immigration: Continue reading →

“a conflict of interest at its core” —church group on private prisons

Another Sunday, another church group against private prisons. This time, it includes ex-prisoners, and it went to the lion’s den: a CCA shareholder meeting.

Marian Wright Edelman wrote 13 December 2010, Strength to Love: A Challenge to the Private Prison Industry:

A few months ago a group of earnest and determined stockholders traveled together by bus from Washington, D.C., to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend a shareholders’ meeting for the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the country. The group included ex-offenders who now each hold one share of stock in the same prison company that once held them captive, and they attended the meeting in the hopes of sharing their perspective on how the privatized prison industry can better serve society by rehabilitating inmates, rather than just serving its own profits by perpetuating the prison cycle.

The group, part of Washington, D.C.’s Church of the Saviour, is named Strength to Love, after the title of one of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermon collections. Members explain their mission this way:

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We believe the entire law needs to be overturned —UUCA

Another Sunday, another religious group against the incarceration machine.

Jane Osborn sent this, dated 27 June 2011:

Editorial Statement to Atlanta Journal Constitution

Here is the statement Rev. Anthony David and Rev. Marti Keller sent to the Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial page editor today following the federal court ruling placing an injunction on parts of HB 87. We of course do not know if it will be published, but wanted to respond in a timely way.

As Unitarian Universalist ministers, we affirm justice, equity and compassion in human relations. We applaud the federal judge who halted several parts of Georgia’s anti-immigration law, but we believe the entire law needs to be overturned. It cannot substitute for comprehensive immigration reform at a national level. The law in its entirety is unjust, fear-based, and inhumane.

Rev. Anthony David

Rev. Marti Keller

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta

HB 87 feeds private prison profit at taxpayer and farmer expense. We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia: spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

Citizens to be Heard will get moved back earlier —George B. Rhyne s

George Rhynes said he’s positive Citzens to be Heard will get moved back earlier in the agenda. The VDT quoted that part, in a story that doesn’t appear to be online yet. He also criticized the VDT for printing more about animals than about jail deaths.

Here’s the video:


Citizens to be Heard will get moved back earlier —George B. Rhynes
Regular Meeting, Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 June 2011.
Videos by Barbara Stratton for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Here’s George’s own video and writeup of what he said.

-jsq

Quakers and others organized private prison hearings in Tucscon

Churches don’t always sit quietly on their hands when there is injustice impending for their communities. Sometimes they help organize hearings in which pro and con are discussed and recorded, as the American Friends Service Committee did in Tucson last year.

According to Mari Herreras in Tucson Weekly, 26 October 2010,

The American Friends Service Committee, Private Corrections Working Group, UA Latino Law Students Association, and St. Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church have organized a series of private prison hearings across the state that kick off tomorrow in Tucson at Pima Community College, Downtown Campus at 1255 N. Stone Ave., in the Amethyst Room from 6 to 8 p.m., moderated by yours truly, Mari Herreras.

The public is invited to present testimony, but the AFSC has also invited representatives from the Arizona Department of Corrections, Corrections Corporation of America (expected to build a new prison in Tucson) and Management and Training Corporation (which manages the Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility). Word is no one has responded from those organizations, but AFSC organizers know the following presenters will be there to provide critical information on the private prison industry: Stephen Nathan, editor of Prison Privatization Report International; Joe Glen, spokesman for Maricopa and Pima Juvenile Corrections Associations; Brent White, UA law professor; Jim Sanders, real estate appraiser; Susan Maurer, retired corrections commissioner from New Jersey; and Victoria Lopez, from ACLU of Arizona.

The hearing will include the following community leaders who will hear testimony and ask questions: Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias; Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik; Assistant Tucson City Manager Richard Miranda; Representative Phil Lopes; and Mark Kimble, former associate editor of the Tucson Citizen.

They even made sure both the basic positions and the actual debate would be recorded: Continue reading →