[Peace] Church talks in Decatur this Sunday

[C. G. Estabrook]

I'll be giving two talks at the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of 
Decatur this Sunday, September 17.

During the 10:15am service I'll be speaking for 20-30 minutes on how 
religion is involved with the current crisis in the Mideast ("Religious 
Voices from the Middle East").  I'll argue that religion is not the 
cause of the crisis -- the cause is a long-term dispute over political 
control -- but religion has become as it were a collecting-vessel for 
frustrated political demands. (That's not an unknown phenomenon -- the 
Christian right in the US is something like that; and the political 
culture of the US took its rise in the disputes of 17th century Britain, 
where religion was the form of political struggle.)

There are two interesting recent statement from religious leaders in the 
Mideast that were little reported here; I'll start with them.  The first 
was a declaration by Christian and Muslim leaders in Beirut while it was 
being bombed, and the second was a statement by Christian leaders in 
Jerusalem on "Christian Zionism."

At 2pm (in the church building) I'll present 45-60 minutes on "The 
Current Crisis in the Middle East" -- which I suggest needs to be looked 
at in the context of the last half-century: everything didn't change 
after 9/11.

The UUFD is at 3773 N. MacArthur Road.  (Take the Business-51 exit south 
from I-72, go right on Mound and left on MacArthur.)

--Carl Estabrook