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chuck freeman Keepin’ It Human

“To be rhymin' without a real reason
is to claim but not to practice a religion,
 if television is the drug of the nation, satellite is immaculate reception beaming in they can look and they can listen
 so you see don't believe in the system
 to legalize you or give you your freedom you want rights ask em', they'll read em'
but every flower got a right to be bloomin' stay human." I opened a bank account with the local Austin Telco credit union last week, and will close my Wells Fargo accounts i… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on November 6, 2009 at 9:17pm — 2 Comments

chuck freeman A Seedling of Hope

"I'm taking a break from politics. I am deeply disillusioned and find I feel better if I don't follow current events right now." This note is from a friend and dedicated supporter of my fledging prophetic efforts and an ardent yellow dog Democrat. A substantial part of me resonates deeply with this despair. During the marathon election cycle I perpetually kept one eye wide open with candidate Obama’s political tent revivals. I didn’t chug the hope kool aid. The genetic idealist in me did howe… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on October 21, 2009 at 11:24am — 13 Comments

chuck freeman Where Are The Politicians Willing To Shoot The Moon For Good?

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” This haunting Jewish proverb rings with thunderous truth today in so many countries and arenas. It is tragically, literally illustrated in our struggle for American universal health care. Help me understand this. Why are political warmongers & dictators the only ones willing to shoot the moon for their cause these days? Since Korea every “conflict” for which we have sacrificed precious lives has been based on shoot the moon fear and exaggerat… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on October 8, 2009 at 6:21pm — 8 Comments

chuck freeman “I Come To You In The Name of the Lord of Hosts”

“I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts.” What an ominous declaration! These days, we educated, sophisticated, skeptical liberals would write the speaker off as a religious right nut case or as a delusional soul in need of proper medication. You will likely be surprised to learn that this proclamation is from one of the most well know heroes of western lore. This confident boast emanated from the lips of David. You know him as the legendary underdog victor in David and Goliath. To inv… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on September 24, 2009 at 3:48pm — 2 Comments

Willie Williams Jr What Is Beauty?

What Is Beauty? Continue

Added by Willie Williams Jr on September 16, 2009 at 10:33am — 1 Comment

chuck freeman Why Liberals Deserve Every Lionish Lashing Meted Out To Us

“Spirituality is a matter of heart culture, of unmeasurable strength.” I have been away from my radio show and blogging for the past month doing workshops, church camp, a spiritual retreat and a plain ole chillin’ out vacation. I have intentionally stayed away from activism, but have remained in touch with t… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on September 14, 2009 at 12:00pm — 4 Comments

chuck freeman Senator Cornyn, Live Your Principles, Give Up Your "Government Run, Inevitable Decreased Quality of Health Care"

I sent this e-mail to Senator John Cornyn via his website contact form. If you are a resident of the great Lone Star state please join me in writing a similar request. If you live in another state consider asking your representative who opposes a public option to give up their government run health plan. Senator Cornyn, On your websi… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on August 21, 2009 at 12:18pm — 10 Comments

Jim Moss Health Care Shouldn't Even Be An Issue

(An excerpt from a sermon preached at Tirzah Presbyterian Church in York, SC on Sunday, August 9) I am sick and tired of the health care debate. And if you think about it, we should all be sick of it. We should be tired of the discussions, the arguments, and the political games. Because if we think about it, and if we pay attention to the Gospels and the way Jesus dealt with sickness, we come to realize that there shouldn't be a healtlh care debate at all. It shouldn't even be an issue. If we… Continue

Added by Jim Moss on August 9, 2009 at 7:41pm — 2 Comments

chuck freeman The “Paid His Debt To Society” Metaphor is Useless Chaff From A Superstitious Era."

"He paid his debt to society." Have you ever paused to ask where this haggard, mindless line came from, or what in blue blazes it means?! Every time a high profile person is released from prison this line launches from the larynx of every pundit and commentator from sea to dulling sea. The latest public extravaganza features former NFL quarterback Michael Vick. He has just completed a 23-month prison sentence for bank rolling and operating the horrid and aptly named Bad Newz Kennels dog fighti… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on July 31, 2009 at 12:11pm — 4 Comments

chuck freeman I Wish More Men Had The Spiritual Guts Of Jimmy Carter!

I wish more men had the spiritual guts of Jimmy Carter! He resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention after sixty years in an editorial he authored this week titled, “The Words of God Do Not Justify Cruelty To Women.” President Carter writes, “I have been a practicing Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me,… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on July 24, 2009 at 12:09pm — 2 Comments

Vicky Dill Sotomayor and "The Family"

Just as Sonia was getting pelted from with questions/accusations from neocons on the right whose self-righteous indignation seemed aimed at her "racism ", media was transmitting unbelievable details about the subterranean cult called "The Family." When in "The Family," apparently the loyalties of all "Christian" white males is to protect The Family, confess and cover up for members of The Family and inspire and deploy hush funds. Perhaps we will never know how many of our tax dollars have gone… Continue

Added by Vicky Dill on July 19, 2009 at 3:47pm — No Comments

Jim Moss Local Food, the Old-Fashioned Way

I live in York County, South Carolina. It's an area where 2 out of 3 people voted for John McCain and Senator Lindsay Graham is widely considered to be a liberal (among other things). Since moving here, however, I have been inspired by my conservative neighbors to take up a cause that is generally associated with the left: local food. Everybody here seems to have a backyard garden. In the warmer months, kitchen tables are brimming with freshly picked tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, squash, and okra.… Continue

Added by Jim Moss on July 17, 2009 at 4:00pm — No Comments

chuck freeman Transitory Flies

“It is their notions about Christianity men have taught as the only living word of God. They have piled their own rubbish against the temple of Truth, where Piety comes to worship...these theological doctrines are fleeting as the leaves on the trees.” The Sotomayor confirmation hearings have brought to mind a connection I have recognized for sometime now. Constitutional “originalists” and Christian “fundamentalists” are playing the same game. They hearken back to a world where their kind contro… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on July 17, 2009 at 3:25pm — 2 Comments

chuck freeman Peace, Diligently

“McNamara represented all of those superficial qualities of brightness, intelligence and education that are so revered in our culture. One of the many things we can learn from this McNamara experience is that we’ve got to stop revering these superficial qualities of brightness and smartness, and bring up a generation which thinks in moral terms, which has moral intelligence, and which asks questions not, “Do we win or do we lose?” But, asks questions, " Is this right? Is it wrong?" These are "… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on July 10, 2009 at 12:21pm — No Comments

Vicky Dill We have indeed lost our way again

Unfortunately, it's this country''s practice to re-write history or deny it. The holocaust upon which this nation was founded is surely the most apparent example; many follow. President Obama has not apologized to those we tortured; political maneuvering, I'm sure. And if I were President, I might feel led in the same direction for reasons unknown. However, what I do know is that the lack of proper nomenclature on this issue is not only not healing, it reintroduces wounds every day. We all heal… Continue

Added by Vicky Dill on July 6, 2009 at 2:44pm — 1 Comment

chuck freeman Simply Yes or No

“There has been no clear consensus on what constitutes torture,” according to Brian Duffy, NPR's former managing editor, a principal in Public Radio’s refusal to use the term “torture” to describe Bush era practices. "I understand the desire to 'call a spade a spade,' but it is not for journalists to start labeling specific practices torture," said Duffy. "That's what the debate is about -- what constitutes torture?" National Public Radio’s Ombudsman Alicia Shepherd concurs, “The role of a ne… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on July 6, 2009 at 2:16pm — 2 Comments

chuck freeman The Rich Man, Poor Man, & The Little Lamb

“The Lord sent Prophet Nathan to King David. When he came to him, he said, 'There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taki… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on June 26, 2009 at 11:06am — 3 Comments

chuck freeman Wars on You

"They gotta war for oil, a war for gold,
 A war for money and a war for souls, 
 A war on terror, a war on drugs,
 A war on kindness and a war on hugs,
 A war on birds and a war on bees. 
 They gotta a war on hippies tryin' save the trees. 
 A war with jets and a war with missiles,
 A war with high seated, government officials, Wall street war on high finance, 
 A war on people who just love to dance, 
 A war on music, a war on speech, 
 A war on teachers and the things they teach, A war for t… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on June 19, 2009 at 12:02pm — No Comments

chuck freeman America’s Holocaust Denial

"To this day, there are those who insist that the Holocaust never happened - a denial of fact and truth that is baseless and ignorant and hateful." These were our President’s words at Buchenwald, Germany, this past weekend. It is infamous as a place of torture for more than a quarter-million, and the place of death for more than 50,000. In 1996 I watched an 8 part PBS documentary, “The Way West.” It chronicled the Europeans steady, determined migration and occupation of the American Indian lan… Continue

Added by chuck freeman on June 12, 2009 at 12:20pm — 4 Comments

Vicky Dill A Well-Hidden Issue of Social Justice

The legislature just left town (I assume without an emergency session) without fixing two urgent issues of social justice: 1) CHIP, which I think all caring people understand as a great miscarriage of compassion and 2) the accountability system for K-12 education. It is this second issue I would like to raise, not as an issue of "educational accountability" as it is so often billed, but as an issue of social justice. High stakes testing, which Governor Perry assured young people on a radio show… Continue

Added by Vicky Dill on June 6, 2009 at 4:09pm — No Comments

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The Free Souls Connection

The Free Souls Connection is an initiative of the Free Souls Project with the intention of cultivating a community of Progressive media producers and users in the areas of Spirituality, Democracy and Ethics.

We invite original written, audio, and video creations in the lineage of Spiritual Humanism, the wellspring of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, forming the basis for a healthy integration of Spirituality, Democracy, and Ethics.

Rev. Theodore Parker expresses this trinity of American values marvelously. “There is what I call the American idea…a democracy, that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.”

Come Ministers, Radio Hosts, Musicians, Poets, Bloggers, Cartoonists, Commentators and all artists for the common good!

Let us support, nurture, encourage, and commune with one other and our sacred world.

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