Agenda for a Prophetic Faith

Lecture:

"Why We Need Public Banking"

Ellen Brown

Tickets are available at the door or at participating churches

Steering Committee: Dick Bunce (chair), Louis Chase, John Cobb Jr., John Forney, Alex Morales, Steve Sittig, Julie Wheeler, Carl Williams

Dr. Ellen Brown is an author, attorney, public speaker, and advocate for financial reform, most prominently public banking. She is founder and president of the Public Banking Institute, a nonpartisan think tank devoted to the creation of publically-operated banks. Her latest book is entitled Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age.

Dr. Brown earned her law degree followed by a J.D. at UCLA where she was editor of the UCLA Law Review. Her article for the law review on the topic of alternative medicine won praise in 1979 from California Chief Justice Rose Bird, calling it “an excellent and exhaustive review of case and statutory law.” She has written many articles and appeared on network and cable television, in prominent newspapers including the New York Times, and on internet programs and podcasts. Her earlier books are entitled Web of Debt and The Public Bank Solution.

Check this video featuring her progress in gaining support for public banking!

Lecture

"America: The Farewell Tour"

Chris Hedges

The Rev. Chris Hedges is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and a Pulitzer Prize-winning former journalist for The New York Times. He is author of eleven books, including the NYT bestsellers War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, American Fascists, and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he coauthored with Joe Sacco. He spent two decades abroad as a war correspondent covering conflicts in Central America, the Middle East, and the former Yugoslavia. He has taught at Princeton University, Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Toronto. He also teaches college credit courses for students in the New Jersey prison system through Rutgers University.

Rev. Hedges is a Presbyterian minister, writes a weekly column for the website Truthdig, and hosts the Emmy-nominated show On Contact on RT America. His latest book is entitled America: The Farewell Tour.

Lecture:

“Engaged Compassion”

John B. Cobb, Jr.

John Cobb was born of Methodist missionary parents in Japan in 1925.  His graduate education was at the University of Chicago.  He taught at Emory University and Claremont School of Theology.  He was co-founder of Progressive Christians Uniting.  He also founded with David Griffin the Center for Process Studies and other institutions for the promotion and application of the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead.  This application is especially for the development of an "ecological civilization, a project he is pursuing especially in China.  He now lives in Pilgrim Place.  Among his books are A Christian Natural Theology, Christ in a Pluralistic Age, The Liberation of Life (with Charles Birch), For the Common Good (with Herman Daly, Spiritual Bankruptcy, and Jesus' Abba: the God Who Has Not Failed.

Response Panel: Dr. Andrew Winnick, Steve Sittig and Linda Lowrey

Lecture:

“We are Becoming:

Taking the Next Faithful Step on the Journey to Dismantling Racism.”

Erin Hawkins

Ms. Erin M. Hawkins is General Secretary of the General Commission on Religion and Race of The United Methodist Church. She is lead official of the denominational agency that cultivates racial inclusion and the full participation of all people into the work, witness and life of The UMC. GCORR empowers church clergy and lay leadership to utilize the values of inclusion, racial equity and justice in the transformative work of vital congregations in order to build up the body of Christ. Ms. Hawkins works to share lessons in creating holy relationship with God by, “holding in tension our capacity for greatness that calls us, as Christians, to persevere in the struggle towards becoming our better selves, and to combat our worst tendencies, of racism, sexism and classism.”

Ms. Hawkins’ Master’s Degree in Organizational Development from American University in Washington, D.C. and her Masters degree in Public Policy from Indiana University have provided her an awareness of how system processes can perpetuate the sin of racism and carry from the local to the global arena.