Jerry Brown Says He Thinks of the Berlin Wall When It Comes to Trump’s W...

New California law allows jail time for using wrong gender pronoun, sponsor denies that would happen

Oct 09, 2017
Eddie Torr




Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation on October 4, 2017 that would punish health care workers with fine, and potential jail time, if they decline to use a senior transgender patient’s “preferred name or pronouns.” The bill was sponsored by California State Sen. Scott Wiener. (AP )

California health care workers who “willfully and repeatedly” decline to use a senior transgender patient’s “preferred name or pronouns” could face punishments ranging from a fine to jail time under a newly signed law.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the legislation last week.

The sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, has argued adamantly that nobody is going to be criminally prosecuted for using the wrong pronoun.

“It’s just more scare tactics by people who oppose all LGBT civil rights and protections,” he said in a statement last month.

But the language seemingly allows for the possibility, however remote.

The bill itself is aimed at protecting transgender and other LGBT individuals in hospitals, retirement homes and assisted living facilities. The bill would ensure those facilities accommodate transgender people and their needs, including letting them decide which gender-specific bathroom they prefer to use.

“It shall be unlawful for a long-term care facility or facility staff to take any of the following actions wholly or partially on the basis of a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status,” the bill reads.

Among the unlawful actions are “willfully and repeatedly” failing to use a transgender person’s “preferred name or pronouns” after he or she is “clearly informed of the preferred name or pronouns.”

The law states that if provisions are violated, the violator could be punished by a fine “not to exceed one thousand dollars” or “by imprisonment in the county jail for a period not to exceed one year,” or both.

Wiener’s office noted that violations for residential care facilities under existing law rarely resulted in criminal charges, especially for minor violations. Criminal penalties are meant more for violations that expose a patient to risk of death or serious harm, his office said.

Wiener’s office noted that the law “does not create any new criminal provisions,” but rather creates “new rights within an existing structure.”

One opponent of the law, the California Family Council’s Greg Burt, slammed the measure when the bill was in its early stages.

“How can you believe in free speech, but think the government can compel people to use certain pronouns when talking to others?” he said to the California Assembly Judiciary Committee in August, according to CBN News.


Brooke Singman is a Politics Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @brookefoxnews.

Source: Fox News

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Jerry Brown places hope for climate change action in church

Jerry Brown places hope for climate change action in church


Former Jesuit seminarian once said rituals of seminary were ‘dry and remote’ to him

Brown says Pope Francis will influence millions of people

Effort comes amid decline in Christianity in United States




California Gov. Jerry Brown, right, delivers his speech flanked by the head of the pontifical academy of Science, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, during a conference on Modern Slavery and Climate Change at the Vatican on Wednesday. Dozens of environmentally friendly mayors from around the world are meeting at the Vatican this week to bask in the star power of eco-Pope Francis and commit to reducing global warming and helping the urban poor deal with its effects. | Alessandra Tarantino The Associated Press


BY DAVID SIDERS

dsiders@sacbee.com




VATICAN CITY


Jerry Brown walked away from the seminary as a young man because, he would write decades later, “the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience no longer made sense to me.”

The rituals of the novitiate, Brown said in 1988, “had become dry and remote in comparison to the freedom and exhilaration I expected to find in the world.”


Brown would return to religion in later years. And now in his fourth term as governor – and in his signature initiative, climate change – Brown is placing hope in the church.

For two days at a climate summit in this center of Christendom, Brown repeatedly called for the “moral dimension” to help coalesce support for policies to reduce carbon emissions ahead of global talks in Paris in December. In speeches and interviews, he affixed his agenda to that of Pope Francis, whose recent encyclical on climate change focused public attention on the issue.

Francis, Brown said, “will influence tens of millions – and maybe hundreds of millions of people – so that’s important.”

In the United States, home to more Christians than any other country, congregations are in decline. The proportion of the U.S. population that identifies as Christian fell nearly 8 percentage points, to just less than 71 percent, between 2007 and last year, according to a survey released in May by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.


MY WIFE THINKS I’M VERY CATHOLIC. BUT THAT’S BECAUSE SHE’S A PRESBYTERIAN.

Gov. Jerry Brown

The percentage of Americans who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” has increased to nearly 23 percent. In California, that percentage is even higher – 27.

“It’s a major downward spiral,” said Phil Zuckerman, a sociology professor at Pitzer College. “We’ve seen more and more people walking away from religion and disaffiliating, more so than ever in our nation’s history.”

For the church – and for Brown’s hope for its influence in the climate change debate – the movement toward disaffiliation holds significance. Filled pews in American churches once provided captive audiences for the church, and “politicians really had to be careful how they voted on a certain issue,” Zuckerman said.

“You don’t have an equivalent of that in the secular world,” he said.

Brown stood in the Sistine Chapel before its opening to the public on Wednesday, admiring Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment. Earlier this week, he attended a private mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, and one of his first meetings in Rome was with Adolfo Nicolás, superior general of the Jesuits.

In an interview, Brown said they talked about the “role of the Jesuits in dealing with climate change, like the pope, in promoting the encyclical.”

He said, “I think they’re going to do that.”

Brown left Sacred Heart Novitiate in 1960, on the eve of the Second Vatican Council. In an effort at modernization in the 1960s, the church expanded its activism in politics in America. Bishops called for economic reforms and a nuclear freeze, and they lobbied in California for improved treatment of migrant farmworkers.

In 2003, Sacramento Bishop William Weigand, who has since retired, publicly urged then-Gov. Gray Davis to “have the integrity” to stop receiving Communion unless he abandoned his support of abortion rights. Anti-abortion activists sponsored advertisements targeting Davis and other Catholic Democrats.

“Ten or 12 years ago there was a real effort on the part of some bishops to build up a Catholic voting bloc,” said Charles Reid, a canon law expert at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. “That effort has more or less just faded.”

Earlier this month, California lawmakers pulled a bill that would have allowed doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients amid vocal opposition from the Catholic Church, among other groups. But religion comes up so rarely at the Capitol that when the state Senate approved a resolution last week formally praising Francis’ encyclical, lawmakers found themselves in an uncommon debate about the role of the church in public affairs.

The resolution called for lawmakers to convene hearings to consider the implications of the document and to seek testimony from religious leaders, among others.

“That’s pretty rare,” said state Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber. “State officials, environmental organizations, business groups and the general public, that’s the way we normally do business. But accepting the doctrine of any given denomination as the basis for a legislative hearing, I think that clearly is mixing church and state.”

Francis is hugely popular in the Christian world, but Brown’s faith in the encyclical will test the influence of the church on public policy.

Brown spent much of the week deriding Republicans who are skeptical of climate change, calling them “troglodytes” and purveyors of misinformation. But Brown said “there are not that many authoritative voices in a skeptical world,” and that the pope is one to whom “people are going to listen.”

“First of all, I think the priests will talk about it at Sunday Mass,” he said. “I think they’ll talk about it at Catholic schools, so that does have an influence. … We’re not talking about an election next year, we’re talking about getting more people on the side of de-carbonizing the economy.”

In an essay in 1988, Brown wrote that after leaving the seminary and finishing his first two terms in office, he “recaptured my faith” while observing a religious service in Chiapas, Mexico. Village elders, he wrote, had expelled their priest years beforehand and performed a “mixture of Christianity and native pre-Columbian ritual.” He also studied Zen Buddhism in Japan.

Brown’s acquaintances say he is Catholic. But Brown flinches at discussing his religious practices – deflecting the question with a joke.

“My wife thinks I’m very Catholic,” he said. “But that’s because she’s a Presbyterian.”

He added, “You’d have to say I’m a rather independent thinker in both political and religious matters, but I am steeped in the tradition of the Catholic Church and the Jesuit order.”

Pressed on the point by a local reporter Wednesday, Brown suggested it is the confinement of a label – not religion – that he resists.

“There’s a whole train of doctrines and beliefs, and I don’t want it to be understood that I’m ready to underwrite everything,” he said.

Like many Catholic Democrats, Brown supports abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He frequently cites Scripture, and he routinely grants pardons around Christmas and Easter, major days on the Christian calendar. In Mexico last year, he urged politicians to heed the “religious call … to welcome the stranger” in addressing a surge in border crossings of thousands of young immigrants from Central America.

But Davis, Brown’s former chief of staff, said despite occasional flare-ups, “I don’t think religion has played a prominent role in California politics for quite a while. … I don’t think the electorate cares that much about it.”

Davis said religion did not figure prominently in Brown’s first administration, from 1975 to 1983, though he recalled Brown visiting the San Francisco Zen Center and a seminary once when “he just felt like going by.”

“He had almost this salon the first time around,” Davis said. “Everyone from Buckminster Fuller to Amory Lovins, who were both prominent environmentalists, and then you’d have somebody who was a big nuclear advocate, so we’d have all these people come by about 6:30 and we’d have something from Frank Fat’s, takeout food, and we’d stay there until 11 or 12 just talking about things.”

Davis said there are now practical reasons for Brown to embrace the church. Despite the state’s advances on environmental issues, he said, California “cannot go it alone … and there’s no more persuasive global advocate than Pope Francis.”

Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, said in an email that “America needs to rediscover the concept of justice together with freedom, which is at the basis of all religious traditions.”

But he said Americans “are still, at their core, a people of faith and a people of strong morality,” and that “moral beliefs still guide us in everything we do and say, whether we are conscious of it or not.”

Brown said the effect of Francis’ encyclical, and of his own efforts on climate change, will likely unfold gradually. He acknowledged some people will not be persuaded.

“But some of their children will,” Brown said. “It’s like turning a ship in the ocean. It turns slowly, and the pope is another gust of influence here turning us in the right direction.”

David Siders: 916-321-1215, @davidsiders

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California Governor Orders New Target for Emissions Cuts

U.S.



By ADAM NAGOURNEY

APRIL 29, 2015

Gov. Jerry Brown at a news conference with California mayors on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he issued an executive order aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions.CreditMax Whittaker/European Pressphoto Agency


LOS ANGELES — Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order Wednesday sharply ramping up this state’s already ambitious program aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, saying it was critical to address “an ever-growing threat” posed by global warming to the state’s economy and well-being.

Under Mr. Brown’s order, by 2030, emission levels will have to be reduced by 40 percent compared with 1990. Under existing state law, emissions are supposed to be cut 80 percent from what they were in 1990 by 2050, and Mr. Brown said this tough new interim target was essential to helping the state make investment and regulatory decisions that would assure that goal was reached.

Mr. Brown faulted Republicans in Congress for “pooh-poohing” the threat of global warming. He said that he wanted California to set an example for the rest of the country and the world on the urgency of responding to what he described as a slow-moving crisis.

The Parched West: Drought Frames Economic Divide of Californians APRIL 26, 2015


California Releases Revised Water Consumption Rules APRIL 18, 2015


How to Save Water: The California Way APRIL 2, 2015

“It’s a real test,” Mr. Brown, a Democrat, said in a speech at an environmental conference in downtown Los Angeles. “Not just for California, not just for America, but for the world. Can we rise above the parochialisms, the ethno-centric perspectives, the immediacy of I-want-I-need, to a vision, a way of life, that is sustainable?”

The Parched West

Articles in this series will explore the impact of the drought that has hit states from the Pacific Coast to the Great Plains.

Mr. Brown’s order marks an aggressive turn in what already was one of the toughest programs in the nation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Under the law put into place by Mr. Brown’s predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state was required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 on the way to reach the 2050 target; California is already well on its way to meeting the 2020 goal, and may exceed it, officials said Thursday.

“With this order, California sets a very high bar for itself and other states and nations, but it’s one that must be reached – for this generation and generations to come,” Mr. Brown said.

The order marks the latest effort by Mr. Brown to position California as a leading force in the world’s effort to address climate change – and himself as a leader of that campaign effort as he faces his final years in public office. In his State of the State address in January, the governor called for reducing gas consumption by cars and trucks by up to 50 percent over the next 15 years.

These efforts come as this state has been struggling with a drought that Mr. Brown has said is, at least in part, exacerbated by global warming. “Climate change poses an ever-growing threat to the well-being, public health, natural resources, economy, and the environment of California, including loss of snowpack, drought, sea level rise, more frequent and intense wildfires, heat waves, more severe smog, and harm to natural and working lands, and these effects are already being felt in the state,” Mr. Brown said in his executive order.

The governor’s speech, coming at a time when he has been trying to rally the state behind tough water conservation measures, was a reminder of the often conflicting demands of these twin challenges. Some of the central efforts proposed to alleviate the drought – including the building of desalinization plants to make ocean water potable – are highly energy intensive.

main story

Interactive Graphic: How Water Cuts Could Affect Every Community in California

The governor’s order did not give details of how the state would reach the new goals, though Mr. Brown in his speech here noted the success of the auto and energy industry so far in meeting the emission targets that the state has set over the years. He disputed the argument — voiced by Republicans in recent years — that such efforts would increase the cost of doing business in California.

“We’re sending the signals to the private economy to create, to innovate, and to make the kind of response that will enable Californians to live in compatibility with the environment,” he said. “We can do it.”

Lawmakers in Sacramento have been pushing through legislation intended to help achieve long-term cuts in emissions. Kevin de Leon, the Democratic leader of the State Senate, said Mr. Brown’s order exemplified “California’s global leadership on climate change.”

“We see the framework of a new economy for tomorrow,” Mr. de Leon said in an interview. “And that’s why it’s critical that we move forward with these far-reaching and progressive policies. That is why the world is watching what we are doing here in California.”

California’s target reflects those set by other governments — including the European Union — ahead of the United Nations conference on climate change in Paris this year. Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the conference, issued a statement praising Mr. Brown’s order.

“California’s announcement is a realization and a determination that will gladly resonate with other inspiring actions within the United States and around the globe,” she said. “It is yet another reason for optimism in advance of the U.N. climate conference in Paris in December.”

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State of emergency declared after Calif. quake

A powerful earthquake rattled through Northern California early Sunday morning, leaving dozens wounded and thousands without power. It is the strongest temblor to hit the Napa Valley area in nearly 25 years. VPC

Elizabeth Weise , USA TODAY4:47 p.m. EDT August 24, 2014

(Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)



NAPA, Calif. — The largest earthquake in a quarter century to rock the San Francisco Bay area left scores injured, at least 15 buildings uninhabitable and thousands without electricity Sunday in the heart of Northern California's scenic wine country.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Napa, Solano, and Sonoma counties after the magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck around 3:20 a.m.

Mike Parness, city manager, said 15 or 16 buildings in the central downtown were "red tagged" after inspectors found damage left them too dangerous for people to enter. Several dozen other buildings were awaiting further evaluation.

"We've got a lot of workers out checking out homes and buildings,'' Parness said.

In the city's downtown section, a 10-foot chunk of brick and concrete was shaken from the corner of the old county courthouse building. Big chunks of rubble littered the lawn and street in front of the building.

The quake was centered near American Canyon about 6 miles southwest of Napa, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It's the largest quake to hit the Napa Valley region near San Francisco since the Loma Prieta temblor in 1989.

At three people were reported in critical condition following quake injuries, officials said. One of them, a child injured by a falling fireplace, was airlifted to the University of California-Davis hospital for surgery.

Jack LaRochelle, public works director of the city of about 77,000 people, said 30 water mains were broken and requiring repairs.

After the initial shock wore off, an almost festive air prevailed in the city with tourists on rented bicycles riding through closed streets. At one point so many people were sending photos from their mobile phones that cellular systems were overwhelmed.

Most of the heavily damaged buildings were in the older, central area of town. Newer homes and buildings away from the center of city city suffered less damage, but many were without power, officials said.


That lack of power meant some residents who rely on well water were unable to get water. John Furtado headed into Napa to look for water.

"But we're doing fine overall. It's just some minor damage. A couple bottles of wine broke,'' he said.

Kelly Huston, a deputy director with the California Office of Emergency Services, said there were no reports of fatalities, but dozens were taken to local hospitals. Most injuries, he anticipated, would be from falling objects and debris.


Napa's local hospital, Queen of the Valley Medical Center, treated 120 patients Sunday, CEO Walt Mickens said. Most were treated for cuts and bruises, while three were admitted for broken bones and two for heart attacks.

"Our ER team has done so many sutures today," hospital spokeswoman Vanessa DeGier said.

Huston said several fires were burning in the area of the quake and that the state was dispatching urban search and rescue teams "much like we would on a wildfire." He said state officials would do a flyover shortly to assess damage. Further inspections could reveal more damage, he warned.

USATODAY

Calif. residents shocked awake by quake

Six structure fires were reported, John Callanan, Napa fire chief, said. In one of those fires, four mobile homes were destroyed.

At least 64,000 people are without power, state emergency officials say. The hardest hit area is Napa, where 20,786 homes and businesses have lost power, according to Pacific Gas & Electric, the largest power provider in the area. Other hard hit areas include Saint Helena, where nearly 4,300 customers are without power, Santa Rosa, where 4,500 customers have lost power and Sonoma, where 3,900 customers have lost power.

USATODAY

Calif. quake photos, updates take over social media
Napa Police Capt. Steve Potter said the area's 911 system was briefly overwhelmed by calls that came in shortly after the quake, but the system quickly came back.

There were no reported highway blockages, though Huston said there was a report of a buckled offramp on state Highway 72 at Sonoma.

Winemaker Tom Montgomery stands in spilled wine to inspect the damage at the B.R. Cohn Winery barrel storage facility following and early morning earthquake in Napa, California on Aug. 24. (Photo: Eric Risberg, AP)

Napa is a picturesque town known for its lush vineyards, robust wines and rolling hills. There was no electricity downtown early Sunday as residents walked looking fordamage. On Second Street, the masonry, wires and girders that make up the corner of the roof of a three-story historic building hung precariously over the sidewalk. A gaping hole was left where the masonry used to be. On the ground below a pile of bricks and rubble littered the sidewalk. Falling concrete damaged trees.

The historic Napa Valley Courthouse lost a portion of its roof, and police blocked off sections of the downtown to keep crowds away from the debris. Two other historical buildings — the Sam Kee Laundry, the Goodman Library — were also damaged.

Firefighters in the Napa Valley worked fast to slow home fires after arriving on scene to find water main breaks had damaged their ability to get water on the fires. VPC

The state has not requested federal assistance, as it was still evaluating the damage, Brad Alexander, chief of media relations for California's Office of Emergency Services, said.

"My Office of Emergency Services has been on full activation since early this morning and is working closely with state and local emergency managers, first responders and transportation officials to respond to impacts to residents and critical infrastructure," the governor said in a statement. "These public safety officials are doing all they can to help residents and those living in affected areas should follow their guidance and instruction."

As Napa, California business owners look over the damage, they say this is worse than the 1989 earthquake that hit the area. A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit the Napa Valley early Sunday morning.

Douglas Edwards, 27, Napa resident, said the earthquake woke him up from a sound sleep.

"It was shaking so hard I was barely able to get myself and my daughter out," he said. "When I stood up, the floor moved so much, I fell back down again. I ran outside and you could see the transformers exploding in the sky. It was just flash, flash, flash."

Napa County Supervisor Bill Dodd inspected damage at the Napa County administration building Sunday morning.

"It's devastated in there," he said. Ceilings collapsed, furniture scattered and file cabinets were upturned and on the floor. Dodd said normally the building would have been the site of emergency services coordination, however, because of the damage, emergency operations were moved to the sheriff's office in the southern part of the county.

"It'll be some time before we can go back to work in there," he said.
​

Dodd said the historic three-story Winship building, which lost a corner of its roof, looks to be a total loss. He said it had been completely renovated 10 years ago, and the renovation included a seismic upgrade, which is supposed to make buildings able to withstand an earthquake.

In the city of Sonoma, west of Napa, police and fire officials reported no significant damage or injuries from the earthquake, officials said on the city's website. It said they had no information from PG&E about when power would be restored to those homes and businesses experiences outages.

USATODAY

Napa earthquake evokes memories of 1989 quake

The quake — which occurred at a depth of just less than 7 miles — was felt as far north as Sacramento and as far south as Santa Cruz and was immediately followed by a series of small aftershocks.

According to USGS, nearly nine million people were estimated to have been exposed to varying levels of ground shaking.

It remains too early to provide a specific economic or insured loss estimate at this time, according to Aon Benfield, a reinsurance firm. However, the USGS's automated economic loss software predicted that there was a 27% chance that economic losses will end up beyond $1 billion, and a 35% chance that economic losses will top $100 million.

USATODAY

California quake one of the USA's strongest this year
The USGS said the quake is likely to produce 30 to 70 small aftershocks with magnitude 3 to 5 within the next week. The probability of a strong and possibly damaging aftershock with a magnitude of 5 or greater in the next week is 54%, the USGS said.

The quake is the strongest temblor to hit the USA outside Alaska this year, according to USGS. About five quakes of this magnitude or stronger hit the USA each year, many in or near Alaska.

Contributing: Greg Toppo, Donna Leinwand Leger, Katharine Lackey, Marisol Bello and Doyle Rice from McLean, Va.; Catalina Camia from D.C.; William M. Welch from Los Angeles

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VIDEO: Jerry Brown at ease for now, cautious about November

June 3, 2014





OAKLAND - Gov. Jerry Brown strolled from his home in the Oakland hills on Tuesday to the fire station where he regularly votes, the heavy favorite not only to finish first in the primary election, but also to win a historic fourth term in November.

This is despite running no visible campaign, an effort so nonchalant that one of Brown's advisers, unable to find a microphone stand, fashioned one from a chest of drawers taken from a "free" pile by a dumpster near the polling place.

Taking his place behind the piece of furniture, Brown said projected low turnout in the primary election may indicate "people are relatively confident and are not troubled by any great challenge or issue." He said it makes no difference which Republican,Tim Donnelly or Neel Kashkari, advances to face him in the runoff election, and he declined to say if he would debate either one of them.

He may not have to. Forty years after he first won election to the governor's office, in 1974, Brown enjoys high public approval ratings and has amassed about $21 million for the general election campaign. He is far ahead in public opinion polls.

Asked about his prospects in November, Brown was circumspect.

"Confidence is a tricky business in politics, because if we've learned anything it's that the future is uncertain, that fortune is fickle, and one kind of goes forward with a certain amount of trepidation. And, yes, everything looks good, but no one knows what tomorrow will bring. There's always issues, there's catastrophes, there's scandals, there's mistakes. So, I'm a bit wary as I do this for the fourth time."

But the general election is five months away. As for the primary, Brown was planning to go hiking on family land outside of Williams, as he has on previous election days, before watching returns in Sacramento.

Brown told reporters, "The fact that you have so few questions, I think indicates the impending result."



PHOTO: Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Anne Gust Brown, arrive at the fire station in Oakland where Brown votes on June 3, 2014. The Sacramento Bee/David Siders


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Considering the long view for California’s future, Gov. Jerry Brown embraces continuity

Considering the long view for California’s future, Gov. Jerry Brown embraces continuity (07:37)


May 9, 2014 at 6:00 PM ET

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God, Man & Jerry Brown’s Ignatian Indifference

(Feb 16, 2010)

Our friend Dan Balz did a nice job after he scored a sit-down interview with Jerry Brown, in advance of Crusty’s formal annunciation that he’s running for governor. We were especially intrigued when we read this:

If she wins the GOP nomination, Whitman will have a sizable financial advantage over Brown. She has already put $39 million of her money into the race and could spend $150 million or more by the election in November. Brown can’t compete with that kind of money, but he said of Whitman, “Her money is not kryptonite.”

Asked how he will prepare for that, he offered a lesson from St. Ignatius. He would summon all the “Ignatian indifference” that he could. That is, he added, the idea of eschewing attachments to wealth or glory and preparing “to do the will of God, however it manifests.”

“Here we have the will of the people,” Brown said, “and how it turns out will be fine for me.”

Huh? Wussup with that ?

Was Jerry really saying he’s preparing “to do the will of God?” And if so, how come Balz didn’t make that the lede of his piece? Because if that’s what Jerry is saying – that he is bracing for Meg’s onslaught by preparing “to do the will of God” — then by golly, he’s right in there with Pat Robertson and Rick Warren, isn’t he?

So we called Jerry’s office for some clarification. Brown wouldn’t come to the phone for a quick theological discussion, but spokesman, Sterling Clifford (who sat in on the Balz interview but who was raised Mormon, not Catholic and certainly not Jesuit) said Jerry was trying to explain “Ignatian indifference” as an acceptance of God’s will, which he distinguished from the election, which is a matter of the peoples’ will.

We weren’t convinced.

Wasn’t Jerry saying that in preparing to accept eMeg’s multi-million-dollar attacks, he would be doing God’s will? “Jerry was not saying that,” Clifford said. “He was saying he’s making an effort not to take the personal attacks too seriously.”

When we checked with Balz, he agreed that Brown wasn’t saying he’s preparing to do the will of God but, “That the will of the people is in this case like the will of God — that is, whatever the voters decide he will accept.”

OK, but flashback to 1998. We were there when former Attorney General Dan Lungren got in some trouble talking about the role of God in public life as he launched his campaign for governor.

Is Brown on the verge of doing the same thing? It’s a fair question because Brown’s theology is deeply embedded. He took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Los Gatos in 1958 where, according to biographer Roger Rapoport, “It seemed to Jerry there was no limit to what you might accomplish if you let go of your personal ambitions and committed your life to the greater glory of God, as his instrument.”

Of course, Brown was released from those vows two years later, when he left the seminary. By then, however, he was ingrained with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, which were designed by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) to help “conquer oneself and regulate one’s life and avoid coming to a determination through any inordinate affection.”

Though not a Jesuit priest, as he might have become, Brown has never cast off the doctrine of contemplatio ad amorem – with its belief that the spirit of God can be found everywhere – in chaos and order, intelligence and ignorance, fame and obscurity — and that contemplation and action go hand in hand because being is active.

The same clash of concepts, unity of opposites, battling dualities (think: against Prop 13 and for it, for example) has been a hallmark of Brown’s theology, ontology – not to mention politics — throughout his life, as suggested in his comment to Balz that he would do the will of God and the will of the people at the same time.

It was no accident that the young Jerry was fascinated by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit paleontologist and phenomenologist. About the time Brown was in the seminary, Teilhard was silenced by the Jesuit hierarchy for his attempts to synthesize theology and evolutionary biology. As Brown biographer Richard Rappoport described Teilhard’s theories, he sought “to reconcile humanism and grace, nature and the Cross, prudence and heroism, freedom and obedience.”

It’s not hard to understand why Brown would – then and now — be attracted to a priest who wrote: “Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.”

In Jerry time, it was a mere nanosecond from the study of Teilhard to the Tassajara Hot Springs, the Carmel Valley Zen retreat that Brown and his one-time aide de camp Jacques Barzaghi used to visit; to E.F. Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful” and onward to C.K. Chesterton, who was labeled “The Apostle of Common Sense,” in a book by Dale Ahlquist, published by (drum roll here) Ignatius Press.

It wasn’t coincidence that in his first interview heading toward this election – with Calbuzz back in April of last year — Brown said he is planning to be an “apostle of common sense.” We saw then, an echo of his 1992 Winter Soldier presidential campaign in which he autographed copies of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense.”

But the phrase – actually the title of Ahlquist’s 2003 book — pays homage to Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), the 300-pound, cigar-smoking English writer, journalist and Catholic convert who labeled common sense “that extinct branch of psychology” and who wrote: “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors and also to love our enemies, probably because they are generally the same people.”

Chesterton, who attacked both socialism and capitalism, who defended the Catholic faith and the common man is just another in the line of thinkers whose ideas seem woven into Brown’s rhetoric.

His thinking seems little changed from the window into his psyche he offered in the 1975 commencement at the University of Santa Clara – the Jesuit school he had attended for a year before joining the seminary. In part of that speech, Brown reached back to the Father Teilhard de Chardin who, he said:

“…saw that there was an evolution of the mind as well as the body. The evolution of the spirit was bringing the divergence of this planet together, not only the nuclear problems, the problem of learning to live with people who are very different, the problem of one generation accepting the different lifestyle, of accepting one another. I think we can very well think of the philosophy that all diversity is being converged toward a greater unit. That’s the way I see things and it won’t be done unless each one of us can do this for ourselves so that together we can do what none of us can do separately.”

His spokespeople can deny it, but Jerry Brown has always seemed to see himself as an instrument of God’s will and an instrument of the people’s will, simultaneously. He has never had any interest in imposing his religious beliefs on others but to assert that he is not shaped and driven by his Jesuitical ontology is to deny the obvious.

Brown’s first guru was not Baba Ram Dass, who published “Be Here Now” in 1971, but his forerunner — Ignatius — who told Jerry and all the other would-be keepers of the flame and sword from the 16th Century onward: “Age quod agis” – “Do what you are doing.”

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In U.S., workplace religious freedom legislation finds traction at local level

Sep. 13, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN

Seventh-day Adventist religious liberty advocates say a new bill banning workplace religious discrimination in the U.S. state of California offers more protection for church members whose jobs are jeopardized by Sabbath observance.

California Governor Jerry Brown signs AB 1964 outside the state capital on September 8. The bill, supported by an interfaith coalition including the Sikh community and Sabbath-keepers, requires companies to accommodate the beliefs and practices of religious employees. [photo courtesy Office of Assemblymember Mariko Yamada]

The bill, signed into law last week by California Governor Jerry Brown, clarifies an employer’s responsibility to accommodate the religious beliefs and practices of employees under the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. Religious dress and grooming – such as turbans, hijabs and beards – now fall under protections granted by the legislation.

The bill, called AB 1964, also prevents employers from keeping visibly religious employees in back offices or basements.

“No longer will it be legal to segregate a worker from public view because their appearance did not fit a corporate image,” California Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada (D-Davis) said in a press release from the 8th District she represents.

Yamada said her bill responds to changing demographics in California. Growing Sikh and Muslim communities in the state and nationwide have contributed to a recent uptick in workplace discrimination cases, the press release said. Last year alone, California employers faced more than 500 such cases.

For Adventist supporters, the bill also extends rights to employees whose religious expression, while perhaps less tangible, is no less intrinsic.

The bill sends a “clear signal” to companies regarding their obligations to religious employees, said Alan J. Reinach, director of the Church State Council, a religious liberty ministry of the Adventist Church’s Pacific Union Conference, based in Westlake Village, California.

“Hopefully, fewer Californians will lose their jobs, and Seventh-day Adventists will be more secure in their right to keep holy the Sabbath day,” Reinach said.

Passage of AB 1964, an homage to the federal Civil Rights Act, makes California the third state in the union to legislate so-called workplace religious freedom. Previously, New York and Oregon passed laws granting similar provisions.

Adventist religious liberty advocates have worked for years with an interfaith coalition to secure a workplace religious freedom act at the national level, but waning Congressional interest and disagreement over the scope of such legislation has tempered enthusiasm.

Dwayne Leslie, director of Legislative Affairs for the Seventh-day Adventist world church, says the California bill signals a grassroots approach to finding traction for workplace religious liberty protections.

“This is a big step forward for all people of faith,” Leslie said.

“I commend them for pushing for this to get it done in California, and I’m hopeful that this will happen in other states,” he added.

AB 1964 goes into effect on January 1, 2013.

Source: © Adventist News Network

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California Gay History Law: Jerry Brown Signs Landmark Bill

JUDY LIN 07/14/11 08:22 PM ET Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill making California the first state in the nation to add lessons about gays and lesbians to social studies classes in public schools.

Brown, a Democrat, signed the landmark bill requiring public schools to include the contributions of people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender in social studies curriculum. The Democratic-majority Legislature had passed the bill last week on a largely party-line vote.

"History should be honest," the governor said in a statement Thursday. "This bill revises existing laws that prohibit discrimination in education and ensures that the important contributions of Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life are included in our history books."

Brown signed the bill Wednesday, but announced on Thursday that he had done so.

The bill has drawn criticism from some churches and conservative groups that argue such instruction would expose students to a subject that some parents find objectionable.

Republican lawmakers who opposed the bill had called it a well-intentioned but ill-conceived bill. Some raised concerns that it would indoctrinate children to accept homosexuality.

State Sen. Mark Leno, a Democrat from San Francisco and the bill's author, hailed the bill signing as a step toward teaching tolerance. Supporters say the bill will teach students to be more accepting of gays and lesbians in light of the bullying that happens to gay students.

"Today we are making history in California by ensuring that our textbooks and instructional materials no longer exclude the contributions of LGBT Americans," Leno said in a statement.

California law already requires schools to teach about women, African Americans, Mexican Americans, entrepreneurs, Asian Americans, European Americans, American Indians and labor. The Legislature over the years also has prescribed specific lessons about the Irish potato famine and the Holocaust, among other topics.

The new law, SB48, requires the California Board of Education and local school districts to adopt textbooks and other teaching materials that cover the contributions and roles of sexual minorities, as soon as the 2013-2014 school year.

The legislation leaves it to local school boards to decide how to implement the requirement. It does not specify a grade level for the instruction to begin.

Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, a conservative family group, said under the new law parents will have no choice but to take their children out of public school and homeschool them to avoid what he said was "immoral indoctrination." The new law applies only to public schools, not private schools or families who homeschool.

"Jerry Brown has trampled the parental rights of the overwhelming majority of California fathers and mothers who don't want their children to be sexually brainwashed at school," Thomasson said. "This new law will prohibit textbooks and teachers from telling children the facts that homosexuality is neither healthy nor biological."

The bill was supported by gay rights organizations including Equality California and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. Teacher groups also said the bill would help students prepare for a diverse and evolving society.

"There is no room for discrimination of any kind in our classrooms, our communities or our state," said Dean Vogel, president of the California Teachers Association.

 

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P.S. My words to Gov. Jerry Brown: Don't it make my brown eyes blue.

Don't it make my Brown eyes blue...

If you thought things were bad with Schwarzenegger,

Wait until Jerry Brown is through.

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Dem gov candidate Jerry Brown, former Jesuit seminarian, discusses politics and his spirituality

Reuters Pictures 12 hours ago
Democratic candidate Jerry Brown speaks at the first of three debates in the California governors race at the University of California, Davis September 28, 2010.

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PHOTO (Courtesy)http://www.daylife.com/photo/08QYdnGbM5f60?q=alternative+energy

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown has some unique credentials as a former Jesuit seminarian -- and takes some unusual questions from the press as a result.

In Newark Thursday, talking alternative energy at PetersenDean Roofing and Solar Systems, he was queried about how he reconciles his political ambitions -- as a former two-term governor, who's run for president three times -- with his past in religious life.

He said he believes "civic engagement, at its best" can reflect "the Christian commitment to do justice, seek mercy and to be compassionate -- and to create a more just society."

Good question from the LA Times, and our very own SFGate.com Shaky Hand Productions was there to bring you right to the campaign trail to hear his complete answer.

But Brown, the State Attorney General, wasn't inclined to open up completely to reporters on this theme of religion and spirituality. Asked -- twice -- if he still meditates, Brown said firmly "that's not something I care to discuss."

Check out the moment: VIDEO @ Article

Weigh in with your reactions: do you care about candidates' spirtual or religious beliefs? Should they discuss them publicly -- or even be asked about them by the media?

Posted By: Carla Marinucci (Email, Twitter) September 24 2010 at 10:56 AM

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