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Washington DC - a New Chapter for MESJ !

On July 14th, 2007, sixteen people attended the first meeting of the Washington DC Chapter of MESJ held near DuPont circle in the heart of our Nation's Capital. The group discussed the history of the organization, the unique role of MESJ in Washington, and possible initiatives for the group to undertake. In a discussion of issues important to group members, Poverty, homelessness, politics, the environment, healthcare, and equality topped the list. MESJ-DC will select chapter leadership at its next meeting on July 12, 2007.

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If you live in Washington DC or in the surrounding areas and would like to become a part of a local chapter of MESJ, please contact our chapter contact person - Ryan Roberts - by email .

	Today in Washington DC video-clip Many of the children in our nation's capital live below the poverty line, live with a single parent, and many black children live in poor families....
	Washington DC - Discussion Board Interested to find out more about MESJ in the Washington DC area? Want to meet some new friends online to discuss Mormonism and social justice with? Visit our chapter's online discussion board !

Latter-day Temples dot the globe in ever greater numbers, and MESJ would like to reflect on their significance, specifically in regard to what these holy edifices have been dedicated for in relation to an equitable, just, peaceful and sustainable society.

From the Washington D.C. Temple Dedicatory Prayer:

"Father, we are concerned with the political world of today and that nations seem to need only the lighting of a match to bring war and desolation and destruction. Bless, we pray thee, the leaders of nations, that they may rule wisely and righteously and give thy people freedom to worship thee in truth and righteousness. Stay the powers, our Father, that would bring us to the brink of annihilation."

President Kimball in his dedicatory prayer probably made quite a few political dignitaries, present at the dedication of the Washington D.C. Temple, feel uncomfortable with that statement.

Pres. Kimball:
"nations seem to need only the lighting of a match to bring war and desolation and destruction"

President Kimball made it crystal clear, that the general membership of the church in the US should support political leadership that does not manipulate the American people into supporting foreign wars.
The war in Iraq has indeed brought 'desolation and destruction' upon an innocent civilian population, bringing the Iraqi people 'on the brink of annihilation' and despair with the outbreak of a civil war. The number of GI's that gave their lives now exceeds the number of victims of '9/11', not to mention the countless wounded in battle.
Remarkably, we keep score of the casulties on 'our' side, while the numbers of casulties among the people we're 'defending' seem to be irrelevant, or at least of little consequence...

Pres. Kimball continued his dedicatory prayer as follows:
"Our Father, in blessing thy people with prosperity, we pray that they may not be surfeited with flocks and herds and acres and barns and wealth which would bring them to worship these false gods."

Some of the 'false gods' pres. Kimball was refering to are the ones that he described in a statement less then two years later. This historic statement has since been quoted over and over again. It no doubt has become one of the most irritating prohetic statements in the ears of some....

"We are a warlike people...When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel--ships, planes, missiles, fortifications--and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become anti-enemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan's counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior's teaching: "Love your enemies..."
(Spencer W. Kimball, "The False Gods We Worship," Ensign (June 1976): 4.)