Psychology: Drones, Death Penalty, and Abortion
 
        The American Psychological Association (APA), the largest governing body for the U.S. psychology profession, has a division focused on peace psychology (Division 48). It elected Rachel MacNair for its one-year 2013 president. Divisional presidents often appoint two-year task forces on specific topics, so she chose three: drones as killing weapons; capital punishment; and abortion. The discerning mind will notice a consistent-life theme to the selection of topics, as would be expected with her activism with CL.
        In all cases, the call for nominations to be on the task force went out APA-wide to get a variety of perspectives. Each pulls together what is known already, figures out which points there is already agreement on, articulates where disagreements are, and suggests what more research needs to be done.
       The original plan for the abortion task force included a comprehensive set of questions, but those of multiple perspectives couldn’t agree on what to cover. It has finally settled on narrowing it down the “The Relationship of Abortion and Violence against Women: Violence-Prevention Strategies and Research Needs.” Stay tuned.
        Rachel presented information on these task forces at University Faculty for Life (see last issue) and a week later at Friends Association for Higher Education (Friends being Quakers). For audiences that think of things in academic ways, this project was much appreciated.  
 

 

Pictured: Slides from the symposium of the three task forces at the 2013 APA convention
 

 
What the Volunteers Don’t Know – the Sierra Club
 
       A CL supporter reports getting a phone call solicitation for membership in the Sierra Club. When she responded she supported local campaigns but couldn’t support the national group because they had an abortion-defending position, she got quite an earful about how this wasn’t so. The Sierra Club is only an environmental group, she was told, and it’s the right-wingers with the large oil companies that are trying to disparage them.
       It’s gratifying that this volunteer is aware of how such a position would sabotage their fine work, but unfortunately, it is indeed the Sierra Club that is shooting itself in the foot. See the bottom of page 3 of its Official Policy on Population, where it refers to avoiding “unwanted births” and identifies itself explicitly as a “pro-choice organization.”
        It is, unfortunately, one of several organizations who lose support for crucial work by contaminating it with euphemisms for killing children.
 

 
Marching through Death’s Desert
 
        CL Endorser Shane Claiborne has an article relating the death penalty to racism and poverty on the God’s Politics Blog. Texas is a state where abortion clinics are closing but not execution chambers, so we would relate the general principle behind closing both.
 

Quotation of the Week

Catherine Meeks, “Not in My Name,” June 4, 2014

        Thus whenever it is possible, killing should be avoided. It is not necessary to have state-sanctioned killings, abortions, war or euthanasia. These acts can be avoided if and when we begin to want to avoid them. All across our country more and more voices can be heard saying, “not in my name.”