Contents

Hymns of Inspiration
Recent and Upcoming Events
MESJ - International
International Observances
Sunday School Notebook
Call for Submissions

Hymns of Inspiration

All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and with us sing
Thou burning sun with golden beam,thou silver moon with softer gleam
Thou rushing wind that art so strong, ye clouds that sail in heav'n along
Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice, ye light of evening find a voice
Thou flowing water pure and clear, make music for the Lord to hear
Thou fire so masterful and bright, that gives to man both warmth and light
Dear Mother Earth, who day by day unfoldest blessings on our way
The flow'rs and fruit that in thee grow, let them his glory also show

Alleluia !

Hymn 62 - All Creatures of Our God and King
(Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

Recent and Upcoming Events

Recent Events




Working for Peace, Resting in Peace

Christian Peacemaker Teams member Tom Fox was found dead near Baghdad.

As we mourn Tom's death, we focus on his solidarity with the unnamed tens of thousands of Iraqi dead, disappeared, detained, and tortured. Yet, we also recognize that Tom's suffering is special because it was in voluntary obedience to Christ's call to suffer as he did to prove his love for both neighbors and enemies: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it" (Mark 8:34-35).

As evidenced by the outpouring of support and sympathy from across religious and national boundaries, Tom's life and death are a testimony to the truth of Jesus' gospel - and a challenge to all who claim to follow it.

MESJ member William van Wagenen has spent the summer of 2005 as a volunteer for the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Baghdad. Anxiously Engaged reported on some of his experiences in:
Mass Graves: Theirs or Ours? and Letter from Baghdad

Free at Last - remaining three Christian Peacemakers finally been released
by Rose Marie Berger, an associate editor of Sojourners, is a Catholic peace activist and poet.

I woke at 5:30 a.m. to the news on the BBC that the remaining three Christian Peacemakers held captive in Iraq and finally been released. I knelt by the side of my bed and wept - with the joy of liberation and the grief of the suffering these brothers have endured for the sake of the cross.

For nearly four months, as a global community, we have prayed our way down this via dolorosa. We have prayed for Jim Loney, Norman Kember, Harmeet Sooden, and Tom Fox's safety and protection. We have prayed for the state of the soul of their captors. We have mourned and cried out to God when Tom's broken body was found on the airport road in Baghdad. We have prayed and labored for the thousands of detained, disappeared, kidnapped, abused and tortured Iraqis. And now, we break our Lenten fast from the resurrection word, and say "Alleluia! Alleluia! Our brothers are free at last!" As the news of their experience unfolds it will no doubt be controversial that the release of these pacifists was catalyzed by a multi-national military force. No doubt, some will use it as proof that Christian nonviolence and unarmed peacemaking are a fool's errand. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Christian Peacemaker Teams have done more to advance "liberty and justice for all" without ever wielding a weapon than all our "shock and awe" campaigns. Every Christian is charged with resisting evil, but none are given the right to kill. Jesus did not kill anyone, nor threaten to kill anyone if they didn't follow his command. His strength and persuasion were in his spiritual authority, not in the weapon. The "peace" that comes through military action is a weak creature that develops through submission and fear, not the deep peace of Christ rooted in righteousness and justice. Conversely, "sword of righteousness" wielded by the Christian peacemaker is a metaphor for the Word of God that cuts through the gauze of worldly custom; a sword to prick the conscience; a choice that must be made to take up the cross of Christ. We pray for the soldiers who risked their lives to free Jim, Norman, and Harmeet. We give thanks to God that, through excellent intelligence work and skilled operations, they manifested an unprecedented respect for CPT's commitment to nonviolence by rescuing them without a shot being fired and without injury to any parties. Like the soldier in Matthew 8: 5-13, they too were able to participate in the moment of God's liberation. We pray that they will be convicted by the spiritual authority of these brave Christian peacemakers and with the wisdom and knowledge of Christ who said "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

It would be easy to pit the peacemaker against the soldier - but it would be wrong to do so. There are soldiers who serve "the least of these" in Iraq. It was an unknown American soldier who decided to drape Tom Fox's casket with a flag to honor his sacrifice. And there are peacemakers who thrive more on their own anger, self-righteousness, and personal purity, than on authentic deeply rooted sacrificial love.

"In the Exodus-Sinai tradition," writes black liberation theologian James Cone, "Yahweh is disclosed as the God of history, whose revelation is identical with [God's] power to liberate the oppressed. There is no knowledge of Yahweh except through [God's] political activity on behalf of the weak and the helpless of the land." We rejoice that our brothers have been "brought out" of and liberated from their captivity by the God of history - working through our human capacities. We celebrate with their families, loved ones, and colleagues around the world. We give thanks for all those who risked their lives to speak out on behalf of the Christian peacemakers - especially those in the Muslim world. Now, also, we are free to grieve completely for Tom Fox, who laid down his life for his friends. We revel in our knowledge of a God who "acts on behalf of the weak and the helpless of the land" - a living God of history. It is this living God that gives us the strength and commitment to continue advocating for the the estimated 14,000 Iraqis held in prison by Coalition, Multi-National and Iraqi forces, of whom, according to Coalition intelligence officers, "between 70 percent and 90 percent of the persons deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake."

MESJ Boston - Harvard Divinity School joint discussion on Mormon feminism

Kristine Haglund Harris is a member of MESJ Boston and participated in the Sunday March 19th 2006 panel discusion on Mormon feminism, a joint discussion with some members from the Harvard
Divinity School, and with participation of HDS Visiting scholar, Maxine Hanks, Editor and co-author of Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism, and Mormon Faith in America, and MESJ Boston's own Pulitzer Prize winning Laurel Ulrich (who teaches a class at Harvard on the history of the feminist movement in the US) and wrote A Midwife's Tale and Good Wives.

Kristine Haglund Harris is also a noted author of The Times and Seasons weblog and wrote a report about this important event and we share the introduction ot it here in Anxiously Engaged. For the full report and the many reactions to it: click here.

A Funny Thing Happened at the Forum on Mormon Feminism
Yes, really. Actual fun--even laughing. With feminists!

Like good Mormons, the panelists lined up according to seniority. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich spoke first. She said she had been surprised to read the headline question of Peggy Fletcher Stack's article, "Where Have All the Mormon Feminists Gone?" since she and the Mormon feminists she knows haven't gone anywhere. Still Mormon, still feminist, still very much here. She acknowledged that some of the big questions of Mormon feminism(s--it hasn't ever been monolithic) of the 70's--the divine feminine, ordination for women--have gone unanswered or been answered no. However, she felt that those may not have been the most important questions to Mormon feminists, even though they got the most airtime. Questions about equality within marriage partnerships, opportunities for women to pursue interests or careers outside of housewifery, fairness in hiring and compensation were all very important to Mormon feminists, and those questions have been answered with a ringing yes. It may be that younger Mormon feminists are quiet because they take the achievements of the feminism of the 70s as a given--they feel free to finish their education, to pursue all kinds of careers, to space their children using birth control, to work as equal partners with their husbands in creating a family life that balances the needs of all its members.

Gently pressed on the issue of women and priesthood, Laurel said that she has "complex feelings" about this issue, and that she really believes that, as promised in the 9th Article of Faith, God "will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God," including with
respect to women and the priesthood. She told a story of a friend who
chose not to convert to the Church, even though her friend felt the
spirit and loved the Church, because her friend could not stomach the
thought of bringing up her daughters in such a patriarchal church. We will eventually need to more fully live up to the ideal of men and women as equal partners in order to effectively spread the gospel. She concluded by expressing appreciation for the power of priesthood service to help men grow into the full expression of their goodness, calling the priesthood a "brilliant system for socializing men."

Maxine Hanks echoed Laurel's sentiment that feminists are not dead yet (cue the Monty Python sketch), although the word "feminism" may be. (By this point, I was furiously crossing things out in my notes, as Laurel and Maxine made every point I had thought of more cogently and articulately than I could hope to do. However, I did have one line I was sad to let go, about the muddling effects of the word "feminism." Here it is, a T&S exclusive: "When I hear the words "Mormon feminism," I usually think of Claudia Let's-Do-a-Musical! Bushman, while General Authorities of a certain age hear "Mormon feminist" and conjure up an alarming image of a hairy-legged, Birkenstock-clad protester demanding immediate ordination. It's hard to have much of a conversation once those competing preconceptions get invoked.) Maxine asserted that many, maybe most, young Mormon women are feminists in all the ways that 70s feminists hoped for, despite the fact that they eschew the label--they pursue education in many fields, they expect their husbands to contribute to household work, they are aware of methods for family planning. The goals of "Second Wave" feminism are mainstream, even taken for granted by today's young women.

Maxine suggested that things have changed in the church in part because the church is conscious of ways in which being perceived as too anachronistic will impede the progress of missionary work. If the disjunction between what women are allowed and encouraged to do outside of the church and inside, then the careful balance of being in, but not of the world, is upset, and fewer people will be able to choose membership in the church. She noted that it is in part because of women she called "independent feminists," those who are no longer working within the church structure, that the perception of anachronism is sharpened. While those within the church tend to discount the voices of those who have "voted with their feet," over the long term those voices do matter a great deal to perceptions within the church. The benefits of feminism are now mainstream in the church partly because of the work and sacrifice of those who have found it necessary to work from outside the institutional structure. We should acknowledge their contributions and work towards fuller cooperation.

You may also want to read the March 2005 women's-edition of Anxiously Engaged!

God Is Not a Republican...Or a Democrat

Just as it has in many recent election years, in a letter read in church gatherings on Sunday, March 19th 2006, the First Presidency urged political participation without endorsing any candidate or party, but this year it also said, "Principles compatible with the gospel may be found in the platforms of all major political parties."

Channel 5, KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, features an online article and a video clip with a number of reactions about the news item you may find interesting.The media immediately zoomed in on this news item, and mostly focused on the familiar perception that one cannot be a good member of the church and a Democrat at the same time, undoubtly a popular idea among the religious right throughout the Mormon Belt.
While the statement may be seen as an encouraging development towards political diversity in our communities and in the church, MESJ would like to add that, also contrary to popular belief, there are other political parties out there besides Republicans and Democrats also with platforms that present "principles compatible with the gospel", like the Libertarian, Green, and Constitution parties, as well as a host of other smaller parties.

Apart from the simple fact that in the international church the majority of members are neither Republicans nor Democrats, it is encouraging that the church regularly emphasizes her political neutrality. Author Jim Wallis agrees when he observes in his book "God's Politics":
"The best contribution of religion is precisely not to be ideologically predictable nor loyally partisan."

And last but not least, we recommend watching the Heavenly Convention flash video, after which you'll be more motivated than ever to order a CTL- Choose the Left t-shirt !

This month's homepage of the MESJ website is entirely dedicated to the recent First Presidency Letter and examines some political directions in which Latter-day Saints may choose to travel.
Can you be a good Mormon and have political free agency at the same time?

MESJ - Madison

Alexa Dimick, contactperson for MESJ Madison (Wisconsin) reports:

The members of our chapter have been busy, but we did have a MESJ meeting in
January, at which we watched "WalMart: The High Cost of Low Prices".
Learn more about the the film, watch the trailer online!

MEJ Madison is having a MESJ brunch and Conference Discussion on Sunday April 2




MESJ - Los Angeles

On Saturday March 25th a small group of MESJ members joined 500,000 to 1 million people at a march in downtown Los Angeles to protest legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives which would further criminalize illegal immigration and undocumented workers. This legislation was seen by many as a racist and draconian response to the influx of the largely Latino workforce that has entered the country without proper documentation. Of course it is immigrant workers, both past and present, who have literally made this country what it is. It was a very gratifying and uplifting experience to participate in this action. A number of Latino demonstrators thanked our small caucasian group for our support. An injury to one is an injury to all and the people of the world need to stand together against all forms of oppression and tyranny. - watch some great media pictures of the event

MESJ - Salt Lake City

Click here for the CORC 2006 final report of bills and appropriations pertaining to the work that CORC (and MESJ) did during the legislative session. They went up to the hill several times to push for certain bills - mostly pertaining to the "poor" - and this is the report on the various bills that were passed/not passed. The legislative session in Utah is now over, but a special session will be held the afternoon of May 17 to address the question of income tax reform. Will there be a flatter tax?
Stay tuned.

Ad Council Launches New Global Warming Awareness Campaign - Watch the video clips!

The Ad Council and Environmental Defense announced that they are launching an aggressive new radio and TV ad campaign urging Americans to fight global warming in their everyday lives. The goal is to raise public awareness of the issue and spur people to save energy and cut pollution. Some of the most well-known media campaigns of the past century were created by the Ad Council, featuring characters such as Smokey Bear and Iron Eyes Cody (the “Crying Indian”). The Ad Council is a nonprofit group that produces public service campaigns for government agencies and nonprofit organizations Bill Chameides, chief scientist with Environmental Defense, an environmental advocacy group, said the objective of this campaign is to "remind Americans how urgent and serious the problem is" and suggest "things they can do to make a difference." "Even driving a car with 3 mpg more would make a huge difference," he said. "We're not telling people to give up their SUVs." Environmental Defense also released a new national opinion poll, conducted by Republican pollster Whit Ayres, showing that 71 percent of Americans think global warming is probably happening and 53 percent say it is caused by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels. Most also feel that society can reduce the effects of global warming and said they are willing to take steps in their own lives to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The poll surveyed Democrats, Independents and Republicans.

Watch these three great Ad Council's video-clips: The Great Warming - Train - Tick




The Daily Utah Chronicle: Joseph Smith wouldn't support the war in Iraq.

Early LDS revelation supports non-violent response to conflict. Read this article by Jay Richards.

Upcoming Events

Jump to the Calendar to see upcoming activities by local chapters.

MESJ International

MESJ encourages speakers of languages other than English to consider starting language-based websites that can function much like MESJ's English website.

By encouraging the creation of independent "sister" organizations in other languages, we recognize the cultural diversity that exists in the Church and in the world. At the same time, approaching issues from the broad perspective provided by a language group, rather than from the perspective of a specific nationality, can help put things in a larger perspective.

As independent language-based LDS social justice web sites are created, we hope they will closely cooperate, exchanging ideas and experiences, and promoting social action among Latter-day Saints worldwide.

Presently, MESJ International supports sister websites in the following languages: Dutch, Afrikaans, and Esperanto.

This month we report on: MPE - Mormonaro por Paco kaj Egaleco ( Mormons for Peace and Equality)

MPE is a website for a small group of Latter-day Saint Esperanto enthousiasts that are interested in social justice and language equality. You may just vaguely be familiar with the International Language Esperanto, but as a member of a increasingly international church, you undoubtly have sometimes wondered how language equality fits in our worldwide church. As you read this edition of Anxiously Engaged do you realize that we sometimes take it for granted that English seems to be the language of choice? So what about language equality?
Are there celestial and telestial languages out there? Will English continue to be the language of choice in the church? Are we just as willing to learn Spanish as our hispanic brothers and sisters are willing to learn English? We're enjoying the many publications in the English language that keep us informed of Mormonism and of the Restored Gospel, but non-English speakers do not have that advantage. Even in Spanish the opportunities are much less, not to mention the disadvantaged position of most other languages. Is the present approach of adding ever more translators for the Church Magazines a real solution, and have you ever realized how much these things cost?
Esperanto enjoys a renewed interest particularly within the European Union, where language confusion and language inequality is a real hindrance to the desired unity within Europe.
There are many aspects of language inequality that most people probably never really consider.
For example,even educated English speakers, whose native tongue is other than English, let's say some of our General Authorities in the church, are often perceived as somewhat less intelligent because we pick up their imperfect English. Just the same our worldwide missionaries and mission presidents abroad are often ridiculed, or at least not taken too seriously, for that same reason.
Esperanto is not only a simple solution to language confusion, but first and foremost makes the point that we cannot simply demand that English will continue to be the standard.

Learn more about the International Language Esperanto (even if you don't speak English)

Listen to a song in Esperanto : Maristoj de l' ter - by Morice Benin

International Observances in April

From our list of international observances promoted by the United Nations: click on each link for suggestions about how to commemorate the observance with a brief family devotional (perhaps at the dinner table or before family prayer).

April 07 - World Health Day

April 23 - World Book and Copyright Day

Remember in your prayers ( regarding the April International Observances )

• Give thanks for the blessing of health and for advances in medicine.
• Give thanks for the teachings of the Word of Wisdom regarding good health.
• Pray that God will continue to pour down knowledge on the heads of medical researchers.
• Pray for the efforts of those who strive to make health care services available to people in need.
• Pray that individuals will take steps to lead healthier lives and that societies will make health for all people a greater priority.
  
  
• Give thanks for the rise of literacy and printing, which make it possible for many more people than ever before to read for themselves the world's best books.
• Give thanks for specific books that have impacted your life.
• Pray that the Spirit will inspire authors around the world to write books that can be a force for good.
• Pray for the efforts of those who are working to end illiteracy.

Amen!




Sunday School Notebook by Susan Morgan

MESJ: We're excited to introduce Susan Morgan as our new columnist for Sunday School Notebook.
Starting May 2006 you'll find her reflections at the bottom of each monthly edition of Anxiously Engaged, but don't be fooled! Sunday School Notebook may very well prove to become one of MESJ's main features, recognizing the importance of connecting spirituality and social justice through the scriptures. We'll follow the Gospel Doctrine Lesson Schedule for each week, encouraging you to actively participate in the class discussions. You may enjoy using the Audio Version of the Scriptures.

Susan: To give you some background about me, I am a lifelong active member of the LDS church living in Salt Lake City. My academic background is in English, with a B.A. from the University of Utah, but I also have a strong interest in Mathematics and a lifelong passion for books. Please consider this column as if I were writing you a monthly letter. I want to talk to you as if we were friends having a conversation about the assigned lessons.

Anxiously Engaged and MESJ welcome submissions! We're especially interested in the following:

• Reports of acitivities from local chapters or of efforts on behalf of social justice by MESJ members who don't live near an organized chapter.
• Reviews of books about social justice or the intersection of faith and activism.
• Personal reflections from an LDS perspective about working toward a more just and equitable society.
• Real-life stories that show anxiously engaged citizens can make a difference.

Send submissions to the editor at poortfinau@aol.com Please put Submissions in the subject line.