!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! ! ! ! Catt's Claws ... A Feminist Newsletter #37 ... April 30, 1995 ! ! ! !.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! The religious supremacists, the far-right of the Republican party and their specially trained media people would have you believe - through the sheer weight of their propaganda - that they speak for people who believe in god. Well, it AIN'T so - they are misleading the general publica on the matter of religion as they are misleading people on their other platforms of hate for women, blacks, Asians and Hispanics and all those others who don't look familiar in the mirror. The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice writes "It's time to speak plainly. The climate in this country for women and their doctors is INTOLERABLE...sadly, outrageously, the threatening, stalking -- yes, the murdering -- is being done in the name of religion. And those who know and appreciate religion's great power for good *must* strongly oppose those who misuse and abuse it. "Randall Terry and other radicals call themselves `Christian saviors." Groups like Rescue America and the Lambs of Christ call their actions `non-violent.' "Not so. THEY ARE VIGILANTES WHO PUT THEMSELVES ABOVE THE LAW. "In their violence toward women and their children, they are terrorists cut from the same cloth as KKK night riders who used terror to stop African American citizens from exercising their right to vote. "In their vicious vilification of *anyone* who refuses to conform to their narrow standards -- be they pregnant women or lesbian and gay people --bullies like Randall Terry reveal their *true agenda*: TO FORCE EVERY AMERICAN TO CONFORM TO ONE RELIGIONS -- THEIRS." What is this RELIGIOUS COALITION? Ann Thompson Cook, it's national director in a recent fund-raising letter explains it speaks on behalf of 37 Christian, Jewish and other religious denominations that "believe women can, and must, make their own moral decisions." She doesn't have anything nice to say about Pat Robertson and his Christian Coalition either. Part of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is the CLERGY FOR CHOICE, more than 8,000 members of the clergy representative 25 mainstream denominations. Who are the RCfRC? Representatives of the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, Church of the Brethren, the Moravian Church in America, the Jewish Conservative Movement, the Reconstructionist Movement, and the Reform Movement, the YWCA, the Unitarian Universalist, the American Humanist Association and organizations such as the Catholics for a Free Choice, the American Baptist Witness for Choice, the Lutheran Women's Caucus and the women's caucus of the Church of the Brethren. If you would like to support this group which is challenging Terry and Robertson, and the other hate-filled supremacists who are attempting to set up a state-run religion, send a check to them at 1025 Vermont Ave., NW, Suite 1130, Washington, DC 20005, telephone 202-628-7700 as the PRO-CHOICE religious response to terrorist groups like Operation Rescue and put a stop to the radical Religious Right's persecution of anyone who refuses to toe THEIR moral line. ....................... * ........................ I know some of you think that I make this stuff up, but honest injun, ladies and gentlemen, this is the truth: Kenneth Starr that great Republican investigator of Whitewater who is spending millions of dollars trying desperately to get SOMETHING, ANYTHING on then-governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas has subpoenaed records from the PRESENT governor Jim Guy Tucker dating back to 1965 - 30 years ago! When Jim Guy was 22 ! When he was in law school. Yep, the esteemed Whitewater prosecutor has subpoenaed the *school* records of Jim Guy Tucker in his investigation into the Whitewater dealings of President Bill Clinton. I can't even put into words what the folks of Arkie-land who KNOW Bill Clinton BEST (warts and all) think of Starr and his TEN MILLION DOLLAR investigation which has not even found a hair out of place on Bill Clinton. The sound would be between a donkey's bray and a wind passing. ....................... * ........................ There's something wrong in our system when the player of a basketball team make more money than many of our cities spend on the education of our children ... especially inner-city ghetto children. ....................... * ........................ From the Choice Net: The Illinois Senate rejected a bill last Monday that would have forced young women to obtain parental consent for abortion. Lawmakers will probably eventually agree on a less stringent measure that requires parental notification. The Senate and House have each approved notification bills. The House bill is reported as a "compromise" between abortion rights advocates and opponents; this is the bill most likely to be sent to Governor Jim Edgar. Edgar has stated that he will sign such a measure into law. The House measure would allow grandparents in the immediate family household to serve as surrogates. The bill would not impose criminal fines on providers. CC -->> What pray tell is the difference between the rape camps of Bosnia and forcing a child who has been raped - often by her own father - to bear the child of the rape? ....................... * ........................ With leaders of Amnesty International, prominent human rights legal experts and U.S. church groups, a Washington-based coalition of mostly Korean-Americans opened a photo exhibit last week dramatizing the plight of an estimated 200,000 "comfort women." During World War II (and before during the war with China) Asian women were held captive so that Japanese soldiers could rape them for "total heart and physical service." The issue arose only within the last five years as Asian women forced into brothels by the Japanese military and ashamed of their past started telling their stories publicly for the first time. Japanese leaders have acknowledged the use of "comfort stations" but the government has resisted a formal apology, with some conservative politicians and citizens groups campaigning against it. Many thousands of the women were then killed at the end of the war and buried in mass graves. They had been forced to have sex with as many as 30 soldiers a day. ....................... * ........................ The person who forwarded this to me wrote, "I almost blew a gasket on this ... I'm going to lay down until the nausea passes..." From the Center for Democratic Renewal, P.O. Box 50469, Atlanta, GA 30302-0469. telephone (202) 221-0025: THE THEOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN IDENTITY Identity is a quasi-theological movement of small churches, tape and book distribution houses, and radio ministries which seeks to broaden the influence of the white supremacist movement under the guise of Christianity. Because many of its core beliefs are now held by members of different Klan and neo-Nazi organizations, Identity binds the movement across the country. Instead of Mein Kampf, Identity uses the Bible as the source of its ideology. It teaches that people of color are pre-Adamic, that is, not fully human and are without souls. Identity followers believe that Jews are the children of Satan and that the white people of northern Europe are the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel. The racial identity of the Israelites in the Old Testament is the central turning point for this quasi-religious movement--hence the name, Identity. The creation of a white Christian republic in the United States is a shared goal within the white supremacist movement, from the hard-core neo-Nazis of the Aryan Nations to the many Christian Patriot groups. The Identity movement provides a theological justification for this racism and breach of the constitutionally- mandated separation of church and state. During the 1970's and early 1980's, Identity was used as a rationale to establish paramilitary survivalist camps far removed from the mainstream of society. During the 1990's, some Identity leaders have attempted to rid their movement of its paramilitary image and establish a larger following with broader influence. ....................... * ........................ The hearings to confirm Dr. Henry Foster for Surgeon-General of the United States should start next week in the U.S. Senate. The Republican majority is set as a lynch mob on this fine doctor who has obeyed the laws of the United States and his pledge as a physician. But that isn't good enough for the Reps who want him to follow their skewered view of what it good for the nation. If you haven't written your Senators to support Dr. Foster, please do so today. Let's not have another lynched black man on our consciences. ....................... * ........................ From: a-arthu@microsoft.com (Arthur Hu) "Study Links HIV, STD Infection Risk with Rape for Poor, Urban Women" Nation's Health (04/95) Vol. 25, No. 4, P. 11 One in seven women from poor, urban neighborhoods reported having been raped in the previous year, found a study reported in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. These women were more likely to be infected with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases than women who had not been raped. Dr. Kathleen L. Irwin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and researchers from New York City, San Francisco, and Miami studied more than 1,000 women in these three cities. Rape was strongly associated with factors linked to HIV infection, CC-->> When I lived in two major American cities some 12-30 years ago, the rate of rapes in housing projects was akin to what the Japanese "comfort women" were. Doors were kicked in, women were forced to have sex or be beaten or murdered. This rape of American women in low-rent areas is something that the police and governmental officials turn their eyes away from - as do the mostly male leaders of the minority ethnic groups affected. ....................... * ........................ From: IN%"ROSENTHAL@polisci.wisc.edu" "Alisa Rosenthal" No comment needed... "Ultimately my goal is to reform this culture, the arts, the entertainment industries, medicine, the sciences, education - to return to right and wrong." -- Randall Terry, 1989, founder of the militant anti- abortion and anti-birth control group Operation Rescue. "The cleansing of our culture must be extended to all fields: theater, art, literature, cinema, press posters, and window displays must be cleansed of all manifestations of our rotting world. The right of personal freedom recedes before duty to preserve the race." -- Adolph Hitler, _Mein Kampf_, 1927 ....................... * ........................ Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy water and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to irenestuber@delphi.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information and is NOT sponsored by any organization. <<<