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Voice of the Day: Elizabeth O'Connor
It is not what happens to us in any day that gives content to our lives, but whether or not we let its experience sink into us. ... It is one of the highest powers given to anyone. In reflection I come upon feelings that I had been too afraid to experience in the moment. In the quiet of reflection I take the risk and the time to let censored thoughts as well as feelings into consciousness, to discover what is causing the uneasiness in me.
- Elizabeth O'Connor
from Cry Pain, [...]
Jim Rice: Peggy Noonan on Scaring Our Children
Peggy Noonan, a special assistant and speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, isn't exactly my favorite pundit, but she's right on in her OpinionJournal.com column today on the effect on children of our cultural propensity toward in-your-face violence.
Her strongest language is aimed at the callousness of the rich:
Bob Francis: Can You Help Me Find the Free and Independent Press?
Bill Moyers Journal aired a great program Wednesday night called "Buying the War," a commentary asking how the mainstream press got Iraq and the question about WMDs so wrong in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion. You can
Verse of the Day: Lukewarm Works
I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, "I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing." You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
- Revelation 3:15-17
Voice of the Day: Water
Water ... has an enormous range of meanings for us as human beings. Our bodies are mostly water, and our thirst reminds us to replenish that water. We are born from the waters of the womb, and something about a pool draws us to plunge back into it and covers ourselves. But if we stay under for too long, it means death. Coming up to the surface and breathing again is almost like being reborn. ... Water washes us clean and makes us feel fresh and new again. Baptism takes - and adds to - all these [...]
Verse of the Day: "The Lord is Their Refuge"
Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the Lord? There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the company of the righteous. You would confound the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge.
- Psalms 14:4-6
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Verse of the Day: "The Lord is Their Refuge"
Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the Lord? There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the company of the righteous. You would confound the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge.
- Psalms 14:4-6
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Voice of the Day: Eugene H. Peterson
Be still and know. Civilization is littered with unsolved problems, baffling impasses. The best minds of the world are at the end of their tether. The most knowledgeable observers of our condition are badly frightened. The most relevant contribution that Christians make at these points is the act of prayer -determined, repeated, leisurely meetings with the personal and living God. New life is conceived in these meetings.
- Eugene H. Peterson
from "Earth to [...]
Voice of the Day: Frederick D Haynes III
Martin Luther King Jr. is celebrated as the Dreamer. He was more than a dreamer, however; he was a visionary who drum-majored a liberation parade that challenged and changed the status quo. He was not killed for dreaming. He was assassinated because his vision prophetically spoke truth to a powerful status quo. A God-sized vision will always challenge the territorial custodians of what has been. Change is painful and must be nurtured and negotiated, or the vision or pastoral tenure will be [...]
Verse of the Day: Turning Against the Needy
Surely one does not turn against the needy, when in disaster they cry for help. Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came.
- Job 30:24-26
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Verse of the Day: Good and Bad Fruit
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
- Luke 6:43-45
Voice of the Day: Naim Ateek
It is part of the genius of the Bible that it preserved a record both of the good and of the bad.
- Naim Ateek
from "Justice, and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation"
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Senator Tim Mathern: Red State Passes Peace Resolution
I've been told that some Americans can't find North Dakota on the map. We can be considered backward (like some of the folks in the movie Fargo), which is untrue. Our state legislature recently passed North Dakota's own Peace Resolution (Senate Concurrent Resolution 4022), a progressive piece of legislation that has thrived in this red state. The resolution calls for the pursuit of peace in [...]
Voice of the Day: James Baldwin
Time catches up with kingdoms and crushes them, gets its teeth into doctrines and rends them; time reveals the foundations on which any kingdom rests, and eats at those foundations, and it destroys doctrines by proving them to be untrue.
- James Baldwin
from "The Fire Next Time"
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Verse of the Day: 'The spoil of the poor'
The Lord rises to argue his case; he stands to judge the peoples. The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of the people: It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.
- Isaiah 3:13-15
Verse of the Day: 'The spoil of the poor'
The Lord rises to argue his case; he stands to judge the peoples. The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of the people: It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.
- Isaiah 3:13-15
Verse of the Day: "Speak Out For Those Who Cannot Speak"
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
- Proverbs 31:8-9
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Verse of the Day: "Speak Out For Those Who Cannot Speak"
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
- Proverbs 31:8-9
+ Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via [...]
Verse of the Day: "Speak Out For Those Who Cannot Speak"
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
- Proverbs 31:8-9
+ Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via [...]
Verse of the Day: "Speak Out For Those Who Cannot Speak"
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
- Proverbs 31:8-9
+ Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via [...]