Letters
In Karen Swallow Prior’s excellent article “Nukes and the Pro-Life Christian,” she quotes R. Albert Mohler Jr. questioning “the conventional narrative that dropping the bombs saved lives by ending the war.”
It would have been important for Prior to make clear her opinion with respect to that question. Perhaps it is a given for readers that Sojourners considers that bombing was immoral. Pardon the intrusion by this veteran of WWII who has not let that atrocity out of his mind since flying over Nagasaki three days after. Keep up the great work.
Peter C. Hinde, OCarm
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
The cover story (“Nukes and the Pro-Life Christian”) comparing nuclear war to abortion was just totally out of line, not at all consistent with the more moderate stance that I’ve always appreciated with Sojourners. In fact, I really believed that the staff at Sojourners was trying to help reach middle ground on this issue, as with other controversial topics. Terms such as “abortion-on-demand” serve only to inflame a debate that already causes enough violence, anger, and rhetoric. I am proud to be pro-choice and even prouder to be pro-woman, because being pro-woman is really the crux of this issue. Let’s give women credit for being able to make choices about what will impact our bodies not only for nine months but also for the rest of our lives. Empowering women to stand against gender-based violence must include the ability to make choices about all aspects of our lives.
Kathy W. Walker
Hampden, Main
I appreciate your magazine. It helps me not feel alone in a state that isn’t often sympathetic to your stance on many issues. But as a retired pastor and a retired U.S. Air Force pilot with combat experience, I cannot let go of the articles by Karen Swallow Prior (“Nukes and the Pro-Life Christian,” August 2015) and Atsuyoshi Fujiwara (“A Love That Disarms”).
History seems to tell us using these arms was the right thing to do to end (probably) the most justified war in humankind’s long exposure to armed conflict. The use of such weapons was thought moral by Niebuhr and others theologically thinking their way through the evils of the time. Prior, quoting R. Albert Mohler Jr., highlights the need for Christians “to struggle with the morality of our atomic age.” People who have not experienced combat can only judge those making decisions in combat after struggling with what it was like to make those decisions.
Robert Turk
Ft. Worth, Texas
The “accommodation” discussed in “Reimagining the Bible Belt” is new to me and explains a lot about Texas. In fact, school integration (and public areas integration) in Sherman, Texas, followed the “accommodationist” pattern, and while integration was accomplished without major conflict, it left the African-American community in a weakened position. Teachers from the African-American community, for example, were not given the same positions in the integrated schools.
I interpreted Danielle Ayers and Lydia Bean’s “Reimagining the Bible Belt” (July 2015) as a reminder to myself and other progressives that we need to stop distancing ourselves from our Southern identity. Indeed, the “laborers are few” and, at times, it’s tempting to leave the South to its ghosts. But our community is growing as we learn to successfully negotiate the legacy of the Old South with a prophetic theology.
I am moved by Julia Alvarez’s “‘Unless Somebody Steps in to Help ...’” (July 2015) on the treatment of Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Joining others in places of suffering is our service to humankind. Still, witnessing is not sufficient. In order to address the deepest needs of Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic, we must reinforce the principle of dignity.
I was challenged and inspired by Virginia Gilbert’s “Forgive Us Our Debts” (April 2015). My congregation, Columbus Mennonite Church, recently had a Sunday focus on debt forgiveness—in scripture and in our present reality. I invited the congregation to give toward a Jubilee Fund that would be distributed to those among us carrying burdensome debt, challenging our congregation of about 150 people to raise $10,000 in two weeks.
“A Sacred Beat” by the late Richard Twiss (June 2015) gladdened my heart, until I got to the part that explained how the native drum has been demonized and forbidden in Christian worship. Do these “Christians” not remember how the Hebrews honored and praised God with “flute, harp, and drum”? I am a liturgical dancer and have introduced the drum into my praise dances, but after a couple years, somebody complained and the next year it was forbidden.
While Verena Radulovic’s “‘They Saved My Life’” (June 2015) tells a positive story about one woman moving out of homelessness, it doesn’t engage the issue of homelessness from a Christian perspective. Many faith-based programs working with people who are homeless are doing excellent work. For years, I directed a rehabilitative shelter program in New York. Many of us on staff found the Housing First model inadequate. The program seemed driven by statistical outcomes.
For years, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has had a social statement on environmental stewardship, “Care for Creation,” calling churches to care for God’s creation and hold environmentally exploitive companies accountable. I bought into the ELCA’s social purpose investment funds, thinking there would be no companies included that had caused environmental devastation. Unfortunately, the ELCA hasn’t always put its money where its mouth is.