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Sojourners Magazine: August 2010

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Along with the important individual changes we all must make to reduce our carbon footprint, even more significant is the needed transformation of our public policy around energy, away from fossil fuels and toward environmentally friendlier alternatives. Such a transformation, of course, is at heart a spiritual issue. And who better to be at the forefront of such change than people of faith, those of us called to proclaim “the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36)?

Read continued coverage of the BP oil spill on the God's Politics blog.

Find resources on Christians and the Middle East.

Cover Story

The BP catastrophe invites us to take a hard look at ourselves. We invited eight writers to offer their reflections on images from the Gulf Coast disaster.

Feature

An economist explains why reducing the deficit will require big cuts in military spending.
Atlanta does battle against the sex trafficking of kids.
The Israeli group Zochrot seeks to introduce fellow Israelis to the people who lived on the land before them -- and to engage Jews and Palestinians in an open recounting of their painful common history.
A New York cabbie offers food, and more, to the city's homeless.

Commentary

We need to listen carefully to those hurt by the oil spill.
Evangelicals, race, and sexual orientation.
Why national flags don't belong in church.

Columns

An ethic of endless economic growth, powered by fossil fuels, is ultimately unsustainable.
Dragonflies have a way of turning up at threshold moments -- like God's early warning system for amazing grace.
For David Fraccaro, the immigration debate isn't just politics: It's faith.
Humans are like ants, only less productive.

Culture Watch

On being the people of God in a particular place.
Bettie Mae Fikes talks about the music of the civil rights movement.
Lit: A Memoir, by Mary Karr. HarperCollins.
Let's just call the Music City deluge a naturally occurring metaphor.
Tattoos on the Heart, by Gregory Boyle. Free Press.
It’s ironic that the explosive, high-budget thrill rides understand so little about their own themes.

Departments

Thank you for the revealing “A Visit to Birkenau” (by Sami Awad, May 2010).
I was quoted by Dr. Soong-Chan Rah and Jason Mach in “Is the Emerging Church for Whites Only?” (May 2010).
David Cortright calls for realism in his excellent “How to Rid the World of Nuclear Weapons” (May 2010), but he hardly mentions the role our war industry/military/congressional alliance
Thank you for the recent John Fea essay ("Those Who Will Not Learn from History," May 2010) on the educational lunacy going on in Texas.
The hospital chaplain who sits in the room of a sick child in Chicago and brings the child to God—not with words but by her quiet presence.
Your article "Destroying West Virginia" (Onleilove Alston, June 2010) tore at me.

Web Extra

The God’s Politics blog launched “Voices From the Gulf” — a series of blo
Read our continued blog coverage on Christians and the Middle East.