Occasional reflections, opinions and commentary from the Rev. Dr. Russell L. Meyer, Executive Director. While deeply informed on the teachings and positions of the church members of the Florida Council of Churches, Dr. Meyer’s blog does not communicate the official positions of any member churches or the Council itself unless expressed stated as such.
We are the first generation that has the ability to end hunger. The food, the tools, the transportation systems — we have all that it takes to end extreme poverty, the poverty that kills. We just need to exercise the will to do it. A major first step in ending world hunger is debt cancellation. Much of the impoverished world live in countries that suffer under odious and onerous debt […]
Quality of life is hanging in the balance in Tallahassee these last days of the legislative session. If you don’t have a lot of padding to asorb economic shock, chances are you you’re going to be bruised badly – and receive no care in the meanwhile. Here’s some things to look for: Immigration issues: Thanks to the full-court press of Latino/as, it’s possible Florida will drop Arizona copycat laws. I’ve […]
Rev. Russell L Meyer, Executive Director “It is not acceptable to us as a family owned business that agricultural workers have any less rights than folks working in white collar jobs,” said Jon Esformes, operating partner and chief marketing officer of Pacific Tomato Growers. Calling for a public conversation on social responsibility for farmworkers in the field, Esformes joined with Lucas Benítez, Co-Director of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, in […]
Some folks wonder why we should be active as people of faith in public life. Lots of good reasons can be listed. There are those who’ve decided to use a form of Christianity as a political weapon, and they may be setting cultural opinions about what Christianity is all about. My convictions are otherwise. Read the following about religion as a political weapon: http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/4366/jesus_hates_taxes%3A_biblical_capitalism_created_fertile_anti-union_soil My public witness is founded upon […]
I work with a wide variety of faith leaders both Christian and other religions, from the Catholic to the Pentecostal; Jew and Muslim. When the question about immigration comes up, the universal approach is to welcome the stranger. This is a profound concept. As the New Testament puts it: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Hospitality to […]
The controversy over immigration issues has reached a stalemate over competing values – both of which deserve respect. One is the due regard for the law and the other is compassion for the stranger. One is a matter of rules that apply to all; the other is the measure of our own character. When law and compassion work together, we represent a nobleness to which the world aspires. When they […]
‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. (Act 2:17) Each Spring, thousands of high school students graduate to a dead end. It doesn’t matter how talented, gifted, smart or energetic they are. They’ve simply reached the […]
Orlando Sentinel | October 18, 2010 | By Edwin Goldberg & Russell L. Meyer | Guest columnists Nearly six months after the BP oil spill began, the images of oil-soaked birds struggling for survival remain fresh in our minds. These pictures are unforgettable; they formed the centerpiece of many stories about the spill. Yet, we rarely see images of the damage that will last even longer than the effects […]
Two 17 years olds, one a victim, one a perpetrator, yet each faces a similar outcome: the promise of life cut short. They are icons of a national crisis – an epidemic – for young Black males. Choose the stats you want: schools, jobs, prisons. In everyone of them young males with heavily pigmented skin look down a road to a future that goes nowhere. If you cannot handle a […]
An occasional piece by Russell Meyer, the Executive Director. So many of the issues in the news and on the table in the legislature and Congress are tied together. A divide has swept the country between small government and smart government. Something more profound is underway. It involves our collective will. How do we work together in concert for the good of us all? Government is one way. Corporations are […]