Ryan Rodrick Beiler was the Sojourners web editor from 1999 to 2010. He currently works as a freelance photojournalist based in Oslo, Norway.
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This Blinking Little Light of Mine
And you thought Mel Gibsons portrayal of Jesus crucifixion went too far. Magic Matts "Crucifix Body Light" fashions our Lord with blue, red, and yellow LEDs that blink in an alternating pattern akin to an airplane. Designed to be attached to your earlobe, collar, or anything else
Worth Noting
When this book was published, the Committee to Protect Journalists had just named the West Bank as "the worst place to be a journalist."
After the darkness, dawn
Many Christians who support Israel out of a fundamentalist Zionism forget that they have Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer under the occupation. Collective punishments through fences, walls, checkpoints, and curfews fail to distinguish between the violent and the nonviolent. Israeli soldiers often do no better, as civilian casualties mount in their war on terror.
"We are all traumatized," said Elias Mishrawi, a Christian Palestinian businessman and political activist from Beit Sahour. "We no more know what is normal life.... Not only do I not see a light at the end of the tunnel. I don't see a tunnel."
While such despair is prevalent among Palestinians, following are the stories of three Palestinian Christians living and working in hope of peace while confronting the violence of occupation.
On April 4, 2002, Rev. Mitri Raheb was detained by Israeli soldiers as they ransacked the compound of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, smashing windows, computers, and artwork. That attack, and the curfews that followed, have set back, but not squelched, a vision rooted in nonviolence and "contextual theology."
After a seminary education in Germany gave him answers to questions his people weren't asking, Raheb asked himself: What is good news for people who hear bad news every day?
Don't Have a Sacred Cow, Man!
Noise and Nuance
Hemispheric NAFTA-Shocks
On the day the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect, the Zapatista movement began—a rebellion, they said, against the forces of globalization on behalf of the rights of indigenous Mexicans.
Teach Your Children Well
Leading Venezuelan educators and critics of President Hugo Chavez are calling his creation of 500 schools constructed and supervised by the military a political program for "ideological indoctrin
Police! Put down the puppet, now!
As movements against the harmful effects of globalization are gaining strength in the United States, activists are increasingly outraged at some police behavior employed to control them.
Human Rights Assaulted in Guatemala, Colombia
Despite presidential apologies and lip service to human rights, the Clinton administration continues to offer aid to the Guatemalan and Colombian militaries...
A Move to Ban Cluster Bombs
The movement against land mines has achieved moderate success since the mine ban treaty became international law in March 1999.
Briefly Noted
On September 9, five Catholic nuns were arrested after entering Peterson Air Force Base, headquarters of the U.S. Space Command...
Globalizing Justice
In August, the Chilean Supreme Court stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution for the kidnapping, torture, and murder of thousands of people during his 17-year rule.
Briefly Noted
"No matter how we pray, nor how we sin, we can stand up for each other. We can stand up against hate."—Republican Sen.
Yet Another Ill-Conceived Episode of Star Wars
Mounting criticism of national missile defense by scientific and military experts has corporations such as Boeing on the defensive as they try to secure multibillion dollar contracts
Chiapas' New Bishop
As Bishop Samuel Ruiz, liberation theologian and champion of Chiapas’ indigenous peoples, faced mandatory retirement at age 75, many feared what would come next.