The April 2006 issue was well-written, especially the articles on abortion and immigration. Janet Parker’s article, “Can These Bones Live?” especially moved me.
Letters
Jim Forest 6-01-2006
I wonder if there are not many Sojourners readers who were dismayed with Brian McLaren’s essay in the March 2006 issue (“Found in Translation”)?
Lucy Fuchs 4-01-2006
I loved the cover of the February issue with the African children playing and pumping water (“Fighting Global Poverty: What Works,” by Stephen Smith). They looked so happy and well.
John Thomas 4-01-2006
In “Falsehoods and the Iraq War” (January 2005), Jim Wallis invites Dick Cheney to debate all the religious leaders who say this war of choice does not meet the criteria of a just war.
Susan Oatis 4-01-2006
The trade-off outlined in David Batstone’s “The HIV Trade-Off” (February 2006) doesn’t have to be made.
Gail A. Bruder 3-01-2006
While agreeing with Ted Peters (“Intelligent Religion,” December 2005) that one can both embrace the science of Darwinian theory and be religious, I take exception to his assertion that “the scientific establishment tries to assert that to be religious is like having a disease that quarantines a person against participation in science.” I don’t believe there is any such ideology in the scientific community. As a scientist, I would ask for his evidence of such a position.
Linda Monk 3-01-2006
Thank you for publishing Dan Charles’ hymn to the life of Nelson Good (“Everything He Touched Turned to Community,” December 2005). I’m one of those people who benefited from the “expanding circles” of Nelson’s life. I never met the man, but I loved someone who loved him, and thus was privileged to read Betty Good’s e-mail epistles about life in the midst of dying and grief. One was aptly titled “Abrupt Grace.” It offered deep wisdom about living and leaving a good life.
Sue Brooks 3-01-2006
“Taking Back Our Kids” flagrantly overlooks the fact that African-American women have always worked outside the home—before, during, and after the 1950s. Further, it has only been in the last couple hundred years that some women—specifically white upper-class American and British women—did not work outside the home. Immigrants, slaves, and women of lower socioeconomic standing have always worked outside the home.
Sue Brooks
Dickinson, Texas
Robert H. Baker 3-01-2006
“Taking Back our Kids,” by Danny and Polly Duncan Collum (January 2006), has many important things to say about raising children in today’s American culture, but I take issue with one assertion: that it has been the “choice” of women to enter the workforce in the 1970s and beyond that is at least one cause of the degradation of the lives of children when compared to the 1950s.
Angela M. Skinner 3-01-2006
I was disturbed by the article “Taking Back Our Kids.” The authors seem to think the best way to combat the consumer culture in which we live, and the problems it causes our children, is for one parent to stay at home. I disagree.
They assume that parents work only to keep up with the mounting bills created by a capitalist society. They neglect to acknowledge that many people, especially women, work for self-fulfillment. This is not being selfish. This is being healthy.
Robert D. Williams 2-01-2006
I just read “Vital Signs,” by Diana Butler Bass (December 2005). It is interesting, and I know two of the three churches featured.
Katina Rogers 2-01-2006
I wanted to thank you for the thoughtful content of the December 2005 issue. As I turned the pages, I encountered so many articles that struck a chord with what I have been thinking.
William Glasner 2-01-2006
As I read Sojourners, I am struck by how often the real issue seems to come down to one simple question: What is a Christian?
Wesley Winslette 1-01-2006
I read with great interest the article about the homeschooling parents who found themselves among the conservative Christian homeschooling culture (“When Them is Us,” by Danny Duncan C
Timothy Ray 1-01-2006
Regarding the boot marks on Brian McLaren’s backside (“A Bridge Far Enough?” September-October 2005), I would suggest that to be condemned by the right wing for truth-telling is
Matt Martson 1-01-2006
Julie Polter’s thoughtful piece (“Replacing Songs With Silence,” November 2005) is a helpful reminder of how influential music can be and how dangerous it is to overlook this art form as a vehicle for change. However, Polter seems to suggest that the power of music lies in its direct engagement with issues such as poverty and war and that music itself may be a “secondary concern.” In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us that seemingly small things, such as keeping our promises, are as important as big things, such as the refusal to kill.