In this Issue:

New Year’s Resolutions – Commentary by Rev. Michael S. Piazza
Join H4PJ Today and Receive a Free Copy of The Real antiChrist
End to Death Penalty is Urged: NJ Panel encourages Life sentence instead
H4PJ Online Action Center: Make a Difference Today!
War protesters rally to mourn deaths of 3,000 Americans in Iraq

Commentary: New Year’s Resolutions
by Rev. Michael S. Piazza

If you are like me, the year is now old enough that several New Year’s resolutions have already been broken. The most common resolves have to do with losing weight or stopping bad habits. Some psychologists say that it is nearly impossible to negatively program our minds. Rather than losing weight, we might have much better luck getting in shape; rather than quitting a bad habit, we might do better to replace it with a good habit.

I’d like to ask you to join me in making a couple of positive resolutions:

1. Resolve to do one thing every week to make the world a better place:

a. Start recycling … and talk to your friends about recycling.
b. Write a letter to the editor, a congressperson or the President. (You can do this every day from the H4PJ website.)
c. Give a little bit more than you want to for causes you care about. Don’t wait for a tsunami or an earthquake to move you.
d. Volunteer for something that doesn’t directly benefit you.
e. Pray about the issues that God brings to your attention. You probably can’t pray about everything that is wrong in the world, but there will be issues that “bother” you.

2. Resolve to be an activist. Individually we can’t change the world, but we all have family, friends and co-workers we can influence. Create an email list from your address book. Periodically, send an email asking people who care about you to help. You can forward emails from H4PJ or other organizations. Simply reading these commentaries or listening to the news will not help. As hard as it is to believe, even complaining doesn’t do a lot of good, unless you complain to people who can make a difference. A core purpose of H4PJ is to equip you to be an activist for progressive, faith-based values.

We may or may not lose weight in 2007. If most patterns are any clue we WILL lose weight, but we will gain at least as much as we lose. Let’s not allow that to be the pattern for our activism. Jesus seemed to think that community was about multiplication, not addition. What I mean is that rather than just trying to change the world himself, he recruited a dozen friends to help him because he knew that would multiply His impact forever. Let’s follow his example and multiply our efforts by asking others to help us make the world a better place in 2007.

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The Real antiChrist: How America Sold Its Soul Join H4PJ and Receive a Free Copy! Bishop John Shelby Spong calls The Real antiChrist, “A searing indictment of popular Christianity by a passionate Christian.” When you sign up to support H4PJ on a monthly basis, we will send you a free copy of Rev. Piazza’s new book. Click here to sign up today! Since September 11, 2001, the Religious Right has used fear to manipulate America. It has used 19 terrorists to make us so afraid that we are willing to abandon our values and do things that are virulently anti-American and un-Christian. The sale of millions of books in the Left Behind series, which portrays the Religious Right’s apocalyptic vision, is just one example of how fear-based religion is foundational to what is going on in this country. That demon has to be named and called out if we are to be free of it.

End to Death Penalty is Urged
NJ Panel: Life sentence costs less,
prevents risk of innocent being executed
by Henry Weinstein
Originally published by the LA Times

A blue-ribbon commission recommended Tuesday that New Jersey abolish the death penalty and urged legislators to replace it with the sentence of life without parole.

The 13-member commission said the costs of the death penalty are greater than the costs of life in prison without parole and concluded that abolition of the death penalty "will eliminate the risk" of uneven sentencing in capital cases.

In addition, the commission said "the penological interest in executing a small number of persons guilty of murder is not sufficiently compelling to justify the risk of making an irreversible mistake."

The alternative of life without parole at a maximum-security prison would ensure public safety and serve the interests of society and families of murder victims, the commission said.

The commission was created by the Legislature, which placed a one-year moratorium on executions pending the outcome of the study. Members included two clergymen, two prosecutors, a police chief, a former state Supreme Court justice, a former president of the New Jersey Senate and a representative of an organization advocating for the families of murder victims.

Money saved by abolishing the death penalty should be used to "ensure adequate services and advocacy for the families of murder victims," the commission recommended.

John F. Russo, former president of the state Senate who sponsored New Jersey's capital punishment law, was the lone dissenter on the commission. He said cost was irrelevant and that the risk of executing an innocent person in New Jersey was minute.

"I believe that the fundamental problem is not the statute, but rather liberal judges and other individuals who have consistently disregarded the legislative will and refused to enforce the law as written," Russo said.

New Jersey last executed someone in 1963 and has nine people on death row.

The commission held several public hearings, taking testimony from prosecutors and defense lawyers, corrections experts, judges, law enforcement officials, citizens, relatives of murder victims and people convicted of murder but later exonerated.

Richard Pompelio, founder of the New Jersey Crime Victims' Law Center and father of a murder victim, testified that the death penalty is the greatest failing of the state's justice system because it re-victimizes victims. He urged that funds spent on the death penalty be used for services for survivors of homicide victims and funding for law enforcement.

Celeste Fitzgerald, director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said she hoped legislators would read the report and act on it soon.

Joseph J. Roberts, (D-Brooklawn), speaker of the state Assembly, said he favored abolishing the death penalty, citing testimony from crime victims and members of the law enforcement community.

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War protesters rally to mourn deaths of 3,000 Americans in Iraq
By Beth DeFalco
Associated Press Writer

TRENTON, N.J. -- For months, Mark Zustovich kept his feelings about the war in Iraq private. It was a matter of respect for his stepson, a 31-year-old Army medic who was serving in Tikrit.

Now, six months after his stepson returned home safely, Zustovich, 41, said he felt Wednesday was the right time to attend his first anti-war rally _ a gathering of about 30 people outside the Statehouse.

"While he was over there, I had mixed feelings about speaking out," said Zustovich, of Brooklyn, N.Y., "but being here is important because we're at a critical turning point."

Wearing a white T-shirt with camouflage letters that read "U.S. Out of Iraq," Zustovich and the other peace protesters rallied in protest of the more than 3,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq since the war began 46 months ago.

"There should have been thousands of people here today," he said of the small crowd. "I think there are a lot of us against a war that has produced so many deaths yet so few results."

Following speeches, the names of the 52 members of the military from New Jersey who died in Iraq were each read and a bell rang in their honor.

A candlelight vigil also was planned for Wednesday evening in Princeton, also organized by the Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action.

The Rev. Robert Moore, the coalition's executive director, said the group has gathered to protest after the first 500 service members were killed, after 1,000 were killed, and after 2,000 were killed.

"We were hoping at each of those rallies that we would never need to protest again," he said.

Moore said Wednesday's protests were part of more than 200 events staged nationally by the American Friends Service Commission, a Quaker peace and social justice organization.

As of Dec. 28, the number of Americans who had died in the Iraq war crossed the grim milestone of at least 3,000, according to an Associated Press count. At least 820 U.S. military personnel died in Iraq in 2006, according to the count.

"There are times to speak truth to power, and this is one of those times," Moore told the crowd. "The policy of this pre-emptive unilateral war is rotten to the core."

Diane Blaszka, 39, of Flemington, said her nephew is currently on "the front lines" in Iraq conducting night patrols for the Army. She said having a family member fight in the war prompted her to start attending rallies a few years ago.

"It hurts even more because I have a loved one over there," Blaszka said. "I had to do something besides sitting on the couch watching it on television. I feel I'm supporting his efforts and his safety by speaking out."

Related Links

Peace Coalition
American Friends Service Committee

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