border-fence-op-ed-1

More than border security

A personal commentary by the Rev. Dr. Russell Meyer

As the full U.S. Senate begins to consider the bipartisan S.744 immigration bill, the light is shining on Sen. Marco Rubio to lead enough fellow Republicans to support modernizing our immigration system. The stakes are high for all involved.

The last elected predecessor in his Senate seat, Mel Martinez, resigned from office after fellow GOP members refused to support his immigration efforts. Being chair of the national party at the time did not help Martinez. Rubio’s future aspirations may be equally problematic now as an often-named front-runner for 2016.

border-fence-op-ed-1

rmeyer250

Electing a New Bishop

  Today (May 1), I head off to the Assembly of the Florida-Bahamas Synod. It starts tomorrow in Orlando, and I’ll be overseeing the audio and visual again. The Assembly will elect a new bishop. For the ELCA in Florida, this is a “change year.” In my various capacities with Read more…

On Prison Reform

  Faith leaders met in Tallahassee on January 30-31, 2012, during Children’s Week. On Monday afternoon they heard presentations on prison reform, tax reform, Medicaid reform, energy reform and immigration reform. In a nutshell, Florida’s prisons are overflowing with minorities serving mandatory long sentences for non-violent (often drug related) crimes. Read more…

Bishop Calls for Foreclosure Moratorium

By Bishop Charles Leigh, Apostolic Catholic Church Yesterday I listened to the pain and desperation of a young mother whose husband’s paycheck had been garnished by a subsidiary of CitiBank. In light of the current corporate bailout, I could not help but recall Jesus’ description of a very similar situation Read more…

Lenten Advocacy

For the first time, I attended Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Washington DC (www.advocacydays.org) this past weekend and visited congressional offices to speak up for issues I have come to believe in. While I’ve often supported advocacy in principle and even admired some people for taking strong stances, I’ve not really Read more…

Jubilee is Debt Justice

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 Read more…