Jena Six Update

Thanks to the work of a lot of people, there has been a development in the Jena Six case. According to a friend who is following it closely, the sentencing of Mychal Bell has been postponed to 9/20, and the FBI is going to Jena to investigate civil rights abuses! For those of us who have become somewhat cynical about these matters, that does not mean as much as it might. But at least the sentencing has been postponed.

There is still work to do; pressure on local authorities and church leaders needs to be maintained, even increased. Please contact anyone you know who can help bring this issue to light. The New York Times has yet to cover this story. One of you must know someone at the Times.

Deacon Ormonde Plater, who is in Louisiana, has written eloquently on the Jena Six. See http://oplater.blogspot.com/2007/07/jena-six.html.

I am also told by The Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Louisiana that the church leaders are aware of and looking into the situation. That’s good to hear. Please encourage them and offer your support.

This morning I read an article by a British atheist who described the Church of England as a dog mostly concerned with scratching its own fleas (which he named, by example, as gay marriage and women’s ordination). His point is that the church (and I include now the Episcopal Church) is too often only concerned with its internal affairs, many of which are not as important as the church makes them seem. Here is a matter of considerable concern to people of faith who believe that God is a God who asks us to do justice. In Jena, Louisiana, there are no Episcopal churches. All the more reason for us to be there.