Mary Cosby tells the story of writing in her journal that Gordon "sauntered into his 80th year with a new call."
Cover Story
John DiIulio 9-01-1997
Criminologist John DiIulio explains why a God-centered and problem-focused approach is needed to save our youth.
Julie Polter, Anne Wayne 7-01-1997
A conversation with Miriam Therese Winter on imagination, women in the church, and finding God between the lines.
Daniel Ramirez 5-01-1997
Change agents often wish to make the church over in an ideal image, and prematurely herald new Pentecosts.
Peg Chamberlin 5-01-1997
A few years back, after the Berlin Wall had fallen, George Bush was talking about a new world order.
William (Bud) Ipema 5-01-1997
Evangelical and ecumenical have been terms unfortunately divided. The "evangel" is the uniter.
Mary Carter Warren 5-01-1997
M y son Daniel asks me when he will have a bar mitzvah like our friend’s son.
Jim Wallis 5-01-1997
From the strength of our church traditions has come a new ecumenical spirit for the 21st century.
Wallace Charles Smith 5-01-1997
Jim Wallis has done an outstanding job of describing the new ecumenism that is fostering dialogue among black, mainline Protestant, Catholic, evangelical, and Pentecostal churches.
Jim Wallis, Sharon Daly, Peter Edelman, Barbara Howell, Wendell Primus 3-01-1997
A conversation on welfare reform.
Marth F. Andujar, Nadine R. Gargrell, Deborah K. King 1-01-1997
The courage and compassion of Jean Sindab.
Amy Elizabeth Fox 1-01-1997
In the breadth of her person, and in the specifics of the projects that she undertook, Jean Sindab wove together the long, proud lineage of struggle for economic, racial, and social justice...
Jim Wallis 9-01-1996
The bitter name-calling, hostility, and rancor that have been so much a part of recent election campaigns have only deepened the popular hunger for a significant reform—if not a complete re-creation—of the way Americans do politics. In his forthcoming book Who Speaks for God?: An Alternative to the Religious Right—A New Politics of Compassion, Community, and Civility (Delacorte, 1996), Jim Wallis challenges the role the Religious Right has played on the American political scene and lays the groundwork for a new politics shaped by three spiritual tests: compassion, community, and civility. The following excerpt is from the chapter on civility.
—The Editors
In the midst of his fight for India's independence, Mohandas Gandhi remarked, "My first fight is with the demons inside of me, my second fight is with the demons in my people, and only my third fight is with the British." There were times in India's long march to freedom that Gandhi would actually call off the movement for years at a time, much to the frustration of his colleagues in the Congress Party. The great Mahatma would say that they weren't ready for freedom yet and that more work on social, economic, and spiritual development was necessary, often including periods of fasting.
If you ask people what they find most offensive about politics today, they will often cite the bitter rhetoric and attack campaigns of modern political warfare. "All they do is shout back and forth and call each other names," said one disgusted citizen after an early 1996 primary debate. Gandhi's self-examination and political introspection contrasts dramatically with our Democratic and Republican partisans today. Across the political spectrum, we suffer from a loss of civility.
"Civility" is really about two things: the quality and integrity of our public discourse, and the level and depth of citizen participation in the political process. The two are deeply connected.
Dianna Ortiz 7-01-1996
On Palm Sunday, March 31, 1996, Sister Dianna Ortiz stood in Lafayette Park, across from the White House, and for the first time spoke in public of the most difficult parts of her torture.
Joe Nangle 7-01-1996
When the reporter asked, “Why do you believe Sister Dianna’s story?” I replied without hesitation.