A special request at the suggestion of  Rev. Cecil Murray

Download Word version - for reprinting on letterheads for institutions or organizations, or in other ways "that will further the cause"

 

 

Get this out to religious institutions you are part of or in your area.  Ask them to send out to others they know.

Rev Murray: "I gladly allow the use of the letter on church scholarships and second collection by all those who wish to use it in any way that will further the cause."

 

Dear Friends,

Hope you are well in these intense times. 

We are writing to you to ask your church and congregation to make a very important contribution.  We are asking you to provide scholarships and hold second collections to raise travel funds for those who have no means to attend an extraordinary event in New York City on November 15th.   We are talking about providing planefare to those in our communities for whom this fight for emancipation holds a special meaning, those whose lives have counted for nothing but whose lives can count for everything in a struggle to end all of this oppression and madness.

The event: Revolution and Religion: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion: A Dialogue between Cornel West and Bob Avakian.  The event will be held at Riverside Church in New York City.

This is an urgent and much-needed dialogue.

The world is a horror: mass incarceration and police murder of Black and Brown youth from Ferguson to NY to LA, the environmental crisis, an epidemic of violence and degradation of women and the endless wars..

Meanwhile, billions on this planet yearn for lives worthy of their humanity. The defiance and rebellion in Ferguson are a powerful expression.

Against this global backdrop, the high-profile dialogue between Cornel West and Bob Avakian will put revolution and emancipation before society in a way that has not been done before. Both speakers put great store in morality, but each is rooted in different political and philosophical frameworks, Cornel West coming from the Christian Black Prophetic tradition and Bob Avakian, as a Revolutionary Communist.  Bob Avakian is the chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, who has, over the past 40 years, developed a "new synthesis of communism. To learn more about the speakers go here http://www.revcom.us/revolution-and-religion/bios-cornel-west-and-bob-avakian-en.html.

This Dialogue is about revolution and religion. It will touch on the deepest questions of what it means to be human. Just think of everything that is bound up with religion, spirituality, the moral dimension and how people see that relating to revolution and getting free. This is a question affecting the lives of billions in the world, including those at the bottom of society who would have to be and would be in the front ranks of any revolution worth fighting.

These two people are coming together from different perspectives with largeness of mind and generosity of spirit, with sincerity and heart and deep unity about the need to be rid of centuries of oppression at the earliest possible time.

Rev. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray has joined with many others of diverse backgrounds and beliefs to host this event, and this special request is being made at his suggestion.  

The current host committee includes people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs—Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., Columbia University Dept. of Religion & Institute for Research in African American Studies, actor Ed Asner, artist Emory Douglas, Nicholas Heyward (father of Nicholas Heyward Jr., killed by NYPD at the age of 13, October 22nd Coalition Against Police Brutality), and Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party, USA and Stop Mass Incarceration Network.  A full list can be found here: http://www.revcom.us/revolution-and-religion/host-committee.html.

You can learn much more about this event at http://www.revcom.us/revolution-and-religion/index.html.  To learn more about where contributions would be sent go to:  http://www.revcom.us/revolution-and-religion/donate-raise-funds.html.

Again, we are asking for church scholarships and second collections to provide airfare those who would not otherwise be able attend this historic event.  

There are many in our communities who need to be there—during what is expected to be a three hour deep dialogue.  There are many who do not have the means to be there, whose lives have counted for nothing in this society, but for whom being there would be transformative.

Thank you.

Michael Slate  (michaelslate@redfuture.com)