Promoting compassion and responsibility, the nation's progressive religious community will gather Sunday, 9/11, to give aid to the victims of Katrina.
DriveDemocracy.org is helping out on the event in Lexington, Kentucky, although it is the initiative of local leaders -- including Kentucky Council of Churches director Nancy Jo Kemper and state Treasurer (and synagogue youth leader) Jonathan Miller.
The nationwide event will be held at the Central Baptist Church in Lexington at 3 p.m. Featured speakers include the Rev. Thomas Hoyt Jr., president of the National Council of Churches and Bishop of the Christiean Methodist Episcopal Church, Louisiana-Mississippi Conference. Rev. Hoyt is pastor to people in those areas most devasted by Katrina.
The speakers and sponsors stress that their emphasis is on helping the victims of the deadly storm. It is not a political event. As the saying goes, they want to unite, not divide. But the event takes place in a politically charged atmosphere, as criticism grows of the Bush Administration's Katrina- related failures. Also, the Pentagon is pressing ahead with its Sunday 9/11 country music fest. Many have urged that event be cancelled as inappropriate to the aftermath of the deadly Gulf Coast storm.
Sponsors of the Louisville event ask that people of all faiths and political persuasions join then in their effort focus the nation once again on values that were once central to our mission: compassion, the responsibility to help those fortunate than ourselves, the need for government, faith, and civic organizations to work together during times of nationaldifficulty.
The so-called Christian Right was also urged to join the effort to promote values that truly unite America.
Other speakers include Rabbi David Saperstein, Director, Religous Action Center of Reform Judaism and Sayyid M. Syeed, Secretary General, Islamic Society of North America.
For more information contact Paul Scanlon, 859-263-1822.