general
Last week's announcement that the Bush administration is seeking to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization is the latest drumbeat in an intensifying confrontation that could lead to war.
In an interview with The New York Times, former Iranian deputy [...]
An interview with Brian Steidle, a former American military observer in Darfur and the subject of the documentary film and book The Devil Came on Horseback.
Briefly explain why you were in Darfur.
I had been in Sudan for seven months prior going to Darfur. Even though I was in Sudan, I had very little idea what was going [...]
I first heard about the letter of the evangelical leaders through an e-mail from Professor Ron Sider, who used to teach at Messiah College, where I graduated. It was a gift from heaven after so many bad statements by evangelicals justifying killings, occupation, and the pillage of our land using [...]
I've gotta admit, it hasn't been easy being a Christian Arab-American, much less in the evangelical church. How many times can you explain that Jesus wasn't baptized in the Rio Grande, that there are tens of thousands of indigenous Palestinian Christians still living in the Holy Land, and that loving Jewish people and "blessing Israel" (as is oft cited from scripture) doesn't mean giving the modern (and mind you, secular) nation-state of Israel a carte blanche on foreign policy or grant it some [...]
Mitsuyoshi Toge, born in Hiroshima in 1917, was a Catholic and a poet. He was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped on the city on August 6, 1945, when he was 24 years old. Toge died at the age of thirty-six. His first hand experience of the bomb, his passion for peace, and his realistic insight into the event made him a leading poet in Hiroshima. This poem is from Hiroshima-Nagasaki: A Pictorial Record of the Atomic Destruction (1978).
How could I ever forget [...]
For those who'll accuse me of Bush-bashing, the headline was Christianity Today's. Ted Olsen has an interesting round-up of conservative bloggers, mostly criticizing recent statements by Bush about his theology of foreign [...]
For those who'll accuse me of Bush-bashing, the headline was Christianity Today's. Ted Olsen has an interesting round-up of conservative bloggers, mostly criticizing recent statements by Bush about his theology of foreign [...]
A few weeks ago, I wrote that a group of Catholic members of Congress sent a letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, asking to meet [...]
An interview with Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, general director, The International Center of Bethlehem; senior pastor, Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church; and president, Diyar Consortium.
Can you give us a snapshot of what daily life is like for people living in Bethlehem?
The [...]
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker talks to Sojourners associate editor Rose Marie Berger about Hurricane Katrina, bubble baths, and the art of remembering.
+ Listen to highlights of the interview (20 minutes, 18MB)
A number of my friends have given up blogging, either temporarily or permanently. The reason? The blogosphere seems to indulge a certain kind of rhetoric that they don't want to be associated with anymore.
Although I continue to post here at the God's Politics blog on occasion, and I believe in the power and potential of the blogosphere, I share my friends' frustration with the kind of [...]
The news coverage of our candidates forum was a good chance to see how Sojourners is described in the media. The three best were The Washington Times (interestingly), McClatchy Newspapers, and The Miami Herald:
The Washington Times: "Sojourners, a Christian social justice network"
McClatchy Newspapers: "Sojourners/Call to Renewal, a Christian group [...]
Following last week's candidates forum, we asked the religious leaders on our panel if there were any other questions they wish they could have asked any of the candidates. Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, a senior pastor at the Bronx Christian Fellowship, had this question for Barack Obama:
Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby have been criticized for speaking out about the [...]
I spent this morning with the Sisters of Charity at their shelter for disabled children in downtown Gaza City.
When I first started going to the shelter, a boy called Na'el, with a consistent look of fear in his eyes, would hold on to me - not wanting to let go. Sister Delphina told me that it was the first time since he had arrived at the home that he had allowed a male to hold him. Na'el is deaf and [...]
OK. I've got to admit it - being a part of the panel to ask candidates for the presidency of the United States about their faith and moral values was just plain surreal. Kudos to Jim Wallis (and Jack Pannell and the rest of the Sojourners organization) for creating this historic event!
As I reflected on [...]
Legislation for comprehensive immigration reform collapsed in the U.S. Senate yesterday as an effort to move to a final vote was defeated, leaving the future in serious doubt. It’s the perfect example of an observation I’ve often made - that most people I talk to around the country think that the political process isn’t working in America; it is failing to resolve the big moral issues of our time.