FORGIVING GOD
Rabbi Michael Whitman

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. …

DOUBT IS THE JOY OF BEING A BELIEVER
Father John Walsh

We often forget that there is one thing that faith and belief require and that is the element of doubt. Unfortunately many people allow their doubts to overwhelm them. Doubts are challenges to rethink faith and belief. The reality is that there can be no faith without a good dose of doubt. The lack of doubt would turn faith and belief into absolutes. Absolutes define faith and belief in such a way that divide believers from non-believers. The defense of the …

FINDING OUR WAY IN A SECULAR WORLD
Father John Walsh

We are surrounded by a secular culture in which few people publicly make mention of God. Today, God is shelved into history. In our Western culture people can live and see themselves thriving without any reference to God. The culture has voided God. The question still begs to be asked: who is the God we have abandoned? Many people express the thought that the God they believed in let them down. Prayers were not answered when people pleaded with God to help …

AFTER THE CRISIS IN THE CHURCH THERE IS NEW LIFE AHEAD
Father John Walsh

The Catholic Church is imploding before our eyes. We are in crisis. The list of priests who committed criminal acts of sex-abuse against children is growing longer every day and the subsequent cover-ups by the authorities is a shameful moment in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. The greatest change that has been effected has gone unmentioned: The Church is a grass-roots church to be built from the ground up and not from the top down. The …

MY VISITS TO ANGOLA PRISON
Rabbi Michael Whitman

In 1984, shortly into my first rabbinic position in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, with very little pastoral experience, I received a call from a stranger. There was a prisoner in Angola State Prison, on death row, who requested a visit from a rabbi, would I come? When, years later, I saw the film “Dead Man Walking,” I recognized the walk through the housing project at the beginning, filmed on scene. I took that walk to meet the woman who would become my …

HELEN PREJEAN — POPE FRANCIS ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY

Father John Walsh
In 1976, after an impassioned, last-minute speech by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, the House of Commons narrowly passed Bill C-84, abolishing the death penalty in Canada. It was abolished after a decade of fierce debate. Sister Helen Prejean writes Dead Man Walking and narrates the movie of the same name for which Susan Sarandon received an academy award playing the role of Sister Helen. Years later I attended a talk by Sister Helen at UQAM in Montreal. She was forceful and …

SEPARATING CHILDREN FROM PARENTS IS INHUMAN
Imam Dr. Zijad Delic

The American policy of separating children from their parents and locking them up without committing a crime is criminal. The color of their skin and the geographic location of their birth is no reason whatsoever to treat them like criminals. It is inhuman and incomprehensible. Pope Francis, the role-model of the Catholic Church, described the policy as immoral. The implementation of the policy of zero tolerance is an act, the lowest of the low, indicating what humans are capable of doing to …

LETTER TO ATTORNEY GENERAL SESSIONS AND SECRETARY NIELSEN
ZERO TOLERANCE FOR SEPARATING FAMILIES
Rabbi Michael Whitman

Dear Attorney General Sessions and Secretary Nielsen,
On behalf of the 26 undersigned national Jewish organizations and institutions, we write to express our strong opposition to the recently expanded “zero-tolerance” policy that includes separating children from their migrant parents when they cross the border. This policy undermines the values of our nation and jeopardizes the safety and well-being of thousands of people.
As Jews, we understand the plight of being an immigrant fleeing violence and oppression. We believe that …

OUR CHILDREN WERE SEPARATED FROM OUR MOTHERS
FATHER JOHN WALSH

As Canadians we know our aboriginal sisters and brothers were restrained on reserves and many of our sisters went missing and were confirmed dead. It began with the separation of our sisters and brothers from our mothers and when they were put in residential schools they were mistreated and abused. A cultural genocide ensued when native girls and boys were culturally morphed into little white girls and boys. So it is easy to mouth the words “we are all sisters and brothers” …

WEAVING THE FABRIC OF LIFE IN ISRAEL
Father John Walsh

In our North American culture there is a divide between the secular and the religious, to the point of privatizing religion to the family and places of worship. CJA sponsored a group of thirty-seven people under the leadership of Jeff Segal and Steve Gross to be on a Mission to Israel. Our greatest discovery was that the tension between the secular threads and the religious threads weave the fabric of life in Israel. At the Knesset Tzipi Livni, opposition leader of the …