Sojourners Magazine: February 2013

OVER OUR FOUR-decade-plus history, Sojourners has been involved in many faithful movements for peace. From the Vietnam War to Afghanistan, and from the Cold War arms race to ongoing nuclear proliferation, we have worked for a time when the world “studies war no more.” Through the years leaders of those peace movements have come primarily from the Catholic and mainline Protestant traditions, but in this issue’s cover package we’re happy to tell the story of a specifically evangelical peacemaking witness, marked in part by a conference at Georgetown University last fall under the rubric Evangelicals for Peace.

Peacemaking takes many forms, so this month we bring you updates from ground-level peace advocates around the planet. “Bullet-Proof Gospel” is a profile of James Byensi, a pastor in eastern Congo helping his community stand up against the cycle of violence in that war-torn region; “Nonviolence and the Drug War” looks at the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity and other groups speaking out against the violence of Mexico’s militarized drug war. In our commentary section, Myla Leguro reports from the ground on the many grassroots peace groups who, along with the Nonviolent Peaceforce, have helped win a historic ceasefire in the long-running conflict in Mindanao, Philippines; Aimee Kang tells us about the activists worldwide who, as part of an event called One Billion Rising this Feb. 14, speak against violence against women.

Also this month, we’re pleased to welcome to our pages recent Sojourners interns Anne Marie Roderick and Joshua Witchger, reflecting on the holy power of bread-making and foot-washing, and on how liturgy “scoops us up locally and globally, backward and forward.” Whatever our form of worship, from liturgy to a praise band, may we all know God’s peace—and find ways to seek peace on earth.