Jesus, as the ultimate peacemaker, shows us that the life and work of peacemaking isn't some fairy tale euphoria, but the gritty, subversive and sacrificial life of faithfulness to a God and kingdom that ...

“[O]nly 40% of churchgoers are convinced that the new Archbishop of Canterbury can resolve the problems of the Church of England," said the new Archbishop, Justin Welby, in his Easter sermon last month. & ...

Fifty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged white church leaders to confront racism, an ecumenical network has responded to his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” F ...

Patrick O'Neill Farm labor organizer Baldemar Velasquez on making it real in the here and now. A RECENT ...

Christian Churches Together Church leaders respond, 50 years later, to King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." ...

Jews worldwide welcomed newly elected Pope Francis as a friend on Wednesday, and pointed in particular to his sympathetic and strong reaction to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in his native Argentina — th ...

I grew up in the Canadian north of Watson Lake, Yukon. My elementary years were spent in a public school with children of the Kaska nation. As I became an adult I was pretty proud of my exposure to and knowled ...

Congressman John Lewis boarded my bus from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham, and this living testament to nonviolent activism told us his story. This past weekend, The Faith and Politi ...

Richard's unique ministry gave many Native people the opportunity to experience that Jesus is not just the "White man's God" but he came for all people from every language and every culture ...

The Editors This pledge, which draws on one used by Mahatma Gandhi's independence campaign in India, was used in the U.S. civil righ ...

Martin L. Smith Reflections on the Common Lectionary, Cycle C "THIS IS THE LORD'S DOING; it is marv ...

It sounds like Tony is the poster child for the kind of person who should be deported: two felony convictions and possession of a gun. But you haven’t heard the whole story. Five ...

Geoff Tunnicliffe Rick Love Lisa Sharon Harper Tyler Wig ...

Danny Duncan Collum Turning from Old Ways IN THE U.S., the Cold War has served to justify a permanent wartime ...

While the Season of Advent is viewed in various ways, one method is to perceive it in anticipation of reconciliation, for such personal and public reconciliation is dearly needed in our present day and age. ...

Aaron McCarroll Gallegos Gangs in El Salvador call a truce from behind prison walls. IN THE TRAGIC, often-hop ...

Swimming against a global tide of religious violence and political polarization, about 550 religious and humanitarian leaders met recently in the birthplace of St. Francis to propose a new way forward: love an ...

In December, I will be hosting a public reading of the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. I am doing so because page 45 of this 67 page document contains ...

Ubuntu. It was the secret of how Mandela reconciled his people to the violent criminals of their cruel white oppressors in post-apartheid South Africa. Co-existence was vital, not only to the peace of the nati ...

Before we lay the cross of our nation’s racism upon Darius' shoulders, we should remember just how small they are. Before we look at the abundance of #WeAreDarius and 6 p.m. news sound bites, we should re ...

Lynne Hybels "Do you invest it in revenge, or do you think creatively?” Robi Damelin has always fought i ...

On Ash Wednesday, Catholics and many others will walk around with ashen crosses (or, by the end of the day, what look like indeterminate smudges) on our foreheads. Those ashes are strong symbols of core princi ...

Everybody needs forgiveness. But it’s hard to face that. It feels threatening, like an accusation. So we tend to get defensive and start justifying ourselves, rather than seeing the one we’ve hurt. ...

For a story about conversion, death is a necessary character. It is in the finality of death that our eyes are able to readjust and see the horizon of our life and being. It is wi ...

A round-up of recent Op-Ed columns from the mainstream media. A round-up of recent Op-Ed columns from the mainstream media. Susan Straight , an author whose nove ...

During interviews with more than a dozen Afghan women leaders, researchers, international aid workers and former Afghan government officials, we learned of persistent dangers and threats to the country's ...

On Sunday (10/30), the Anglican Bishop of London, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Richard Chartres, met with Occupy London protesters who have encamped for several weeks now on the ground of St. ...

An eye for an eye, a life for a life. This is one way -- based, some argue, in scripture and biblical ethics -- that proponents of capital punishment justify the death penalty. ...

What can you learn from an Israeli Hindu-monk-in-training about peace? As Palestine makes a bid for nationhood status at the United Nations, and Israel and the United States. do what they can to block it, I think back to May 2010, when I wa ...

Late last week Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke at the United Nations to request an official recognition of Palestine as an independent state with full statehood status at the UN. ...

Recent analyses of the Arab Spring have questioned the efficacy of nonviolent resistance compared to armed struggle in ousting authoritarian regimes. Recent analyses of the Arab ...

The forthcoming dedication of the national memorial monument honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., affords an opening for considering the complexity and meaning of his leadership. ...

The recent British film In Our Name is a returning-soldier drama featuring a married woman, Suzy, who leaves her husband and little girl to fight in Iraq. Th ...

I was in Baghdad in March 2003, where I lived as a Christian and as a peacemaker during the "shock-and-awe" bombing. I was in Baghdad in March 2003, where I lived ...

Americans have a hard time knowing how to respond to the sins of our colonial past. Americans have a hard time knowing how to respond to the sins of our colonial past. Excep ...

What is wrong with the typical photo of world leaders making decisions for their countries? The general absence of women -- at the table, in the room, and, as a result, from the agenda. ...

<p><a href="http://blog.sojo.net/2011/06/29/8-inspiring-movies-about-social-change/" target="_self"></a>Ah the joy of watching movies in the summer! Of course, there are a ...

Although I've never been a Southern Baptist, I have a special place in my heart for them. Although I've never been a Southern Baptist, I have a special place in my heart ...

Places and spaces become holy because they are locations where the human and the divine meet. Places and spaces become holy because they are locations where the human and the divi ...

When evangelical politicians pronounce on topics like the origins of the universe, the results are almost always awful -- embarrassing, infuriating, unwatchable. When evang ...

<p><a href="/sites/default/files/images/soj11031.jpg"></a>Dear Mr. President,</p> Dear Mr. President, As your target date to begin U.S. ...

In 2008, as I heard the increasing public rhetoric of hostility emanating from the Middle East, I found myself wondering what Jesus would say and do if he were here in the flesh today. ...

This past weekend, Christians around the world celebrated one of our holiest holi-days: Pentecost. This past weekend, Christians around the world celebrated one of our holiest hol ...

I find it discomforting that the Lord instructs someone to wage war and therefore reasoning that God-sanctioned war is justifiable even though as Christians we are called to be peacemakers in the w ...

I can appreciate how difficult it must be to craft a good commencement address. The need to avoid well-worn pieties while also offering something of the best-distilled wisdom of the ages. ...

<p><a href="http://blog.sojo.net/2011/05/06/books-films-and-studies-on-the-surprising-power-of-nonviolence/" target="_blank"></a>At Sojourners, we have always been advocat ...

I received a question from a reader recently that asked: You write a lot about the plight of the Palestinians. I received a question from a reader recently that asked: You write ...

Our ability to love others who have sinned against us flows out of our real experience of Jesus forgiving our own sins. Our ability to love others who have sinned against us flows ...

<p><a href="http://blog.sojo.net/2011/04/19/let-us-not-forget-its-not-about-us/" target="_self"></a>I'm very fond of this season in the Christian calendar because I c ...

Today is the annual <a href="http://www.dayofsilence.org/" target="_blank">National Day of Silence</a>, a day where students across America pledge to be silent for a day in orde ...