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Sojourners Magazine: June 2007

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Cover Story

The depth of my sorrow for the loss of life on all sides seems beyond expression.
I WATCHED FOR MONTHS as many of my coworkers devoted themselves to preparation for the Christian Peace Witness, including weeks of negotiation for the civil disobedience.
Whenever there are billions of dollars and then billions more available to bomb Baghdad, but never enough to rebuild New Orleans, an American city, parts of which still look like a Third World coun
Though I have stood weekly at a vigil for the last five years, been in several marches, and even participated in civil disobedience, I have never had the opportunity to do direct action in an inten
I am Celeste Zappala, of the First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia, of Military Families Speak Out, and, sadly, of Gold Star Families Speak Out, because I am the mother of a f
Rollercoaster feelings all around began with the storming weather that day. While it kept many away, for those gathered in the National Cathedral it seemed to enhance the energy of the evening.
There were dozens of people in a bleak group. It's a very specific look, one you will find only outside the Baghdad morgue.
I was born just before the United States entered World War II, and I've been participating in peace walks and vigils since the war in Vietnam. This was one of the best organized and deeply felt.
Walking beside me was our 15-year-old son, David, and Odess Monsanje, from Zambia, who is living with us for a year.
Ambassadors. I'm a sometimes preacher, these days a Methodist holding forth among an Episcopal congregation in Detroit.
As we stepped out of the cathedral, wind blew snow from the rooftops, past the lit windows of the Cotswold-like cottage beside the cathedral.
No one person, and yet seemingly every person in on the planning of this event, was in charge.
Christians step out against the war.
From my seat in the balcony in the National Cathedral, I realized that the crowd I saw numbered nearly the same as the number of American soldiers who had fallen in the last four years.
It's about the journey. As the cathedral dean, Rev.
As a Jewish person in this Christian peace witness, I felt affirmed and welcomed by the other participants.

Feature

Do military recruiters disproportionately target communities of color and the poor?
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Alice Walker talks about Katrina, bubble baths, and the art of remembering.
When it comes to defending the vote, democracy is in the details.

Commentary

The horror of death does not have the last word.
Do shows like 24 help make torture acceptable?
The better half of peacemaking.

Columns

This war is morally wrong, and it was from the very start.
3,000 coffees to go please. And one decaf.
Our children are coming home from the front lines- and they have questions.

Culture Watch

Since the box-office success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, there's been a lot of hoopla about the big, previously neglected "Christian audience" (and how to cash in on it).
The Southern soul - and community - of Stax Records.
Clothing the world with justice.
The rightward drift of both Catholic and Protestant churches during the past 40 years has left an enormous number of Americans with the feeling that their church doesn't speak for them.
Ending Poverty in America is an insightful and readable book that contains concise chapters by experts who describe the complex and intertwined aspects of poverty in America—includin

Departments

Our church has formed a discussion group around your periodical, and our discussion on "Cry Freedom" (by David Batstone, March 2007) met with some disappointment—not in the article itself, bu
In "Big is Beautiful?" (March 2007), Marie Dennis rightly says that more must be done to help the millions of people living in poverty around the world.
As part of a global movement marking the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq, thousands of demonstrators holding burning torches formed a peace sign at the Heroes' Square in Budapest, Hungary.
In March the Southern Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church voted 10 to 4 to allow land at Southern Methodist University in Dallas to be used for the George W.
Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C.
Struggling to explain God's ways to your Sunday school class? Nothing says "atonement" like sugar tinted with Red Dye No. 3.
In mid-March, our staffers were busily putting the final touches on plans for the Christian Peace Witness, an event organized by 39 Christian organizations (including Sojourners/Call to Renewal) to
In January, the new Democratic House passed a clean minimum wage bill, but in early February the Senate tagged on $8.3 billion in tax cuts for businesses, effectively delaying final action until a
As if it matters noticing the migrant workers— two to a wheelbarrow of concrete— mending the walls of the rich that exclude them As if religion
Christian Aid's 2007 report "A Rich Seam: Who Benefits from Rising Commodity Prices?" indicates that mining companies that extract raw commodities—such as oil, nickel, or copper—turn th