In September, cities on the Atlantic seaboard between Boston and Charleston, South Carolina, will host a dramatic journey of truth telling and reconciliation.
Departments
Rose Marie Berger, Brian Bolton 9-01-2004
White evangelicals in the United States are living a paradox, according to a study by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc. Seventy-two percent of white evangelical Christians feel hostility from the mainstream media, yet more than 75 percent of evangelical Christians also believe they are
Mark Nielsen 9-01-2004
Thanks so much for publishing the Wendell Berry interview ("Heaven in Henry County," by Rose Berger, July 2004), and for including more of it on the Web site. Berry truly amazes in his ability to balance the global, the local, and the interpersonal aspects of faith and ethics. I only wish his critique was less abstract and more actionable.
Rev. Stephen W. Rankin 9-01-2004
Ive been "checking in" with Sojourners off and on for a number of years. I appreciate and strongly support your commitment to Christian discipleship in every aspect of life.
Steven White 8-01-2004
What an incredible article ("No Place to Stand?"). It is nice to know that others out there find the debate of choice and life too narrow. Thank you for a great article!
Steven White
Blackwell, Oklahoma
Bill Oehlkers 8-01-2004
Your article ("No Place to Stand?") was very helpful, particularly the focus on reducing the incidence of abortion, regardless of a pro-life or pro-choice stance.
Georgia de Katona 8-01-2004
"No Place to Stand?" was one of the best pieces I've read on the subject in a long, long time. I have always been adamantly pro-choice because of the dire results that come from the criminalization of abortion and the politicization of sexual health education.
Gerard Burford 8-01-2004
I just read the article "No Place to Stand?" by Heidi Schlumpf (June 2004). As a new subscriber to Sojourners I am looking forward to more articles like this. I have struggled for a long time, being liberal in most areas but not in favor of abortion.
Rose Marie Berger, Brian Bolton 8-01-2004
More than 50 leaders from Christian organizations across Asia met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to develop a coordinated response to child sexual abuse and child trafficking.
Rose Marie Berger, Brian Bolton 8-01-2004
Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private operator of prisons in the United States, has partnered with Institute in Basic Life Principles, an evangelical Christian ministry founded by Bill Gothard, to provide four- to six-month Christian rehabilitation programs aimed at reducing recidivism rates and inm
Rose Marie Berger, Brian Bolton 8-01-2004
The Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem hosted more than 500 representatives from 31 countries in April to address the dangers of Christian Zionism.
Rose Marie Berger, Brian Bolton 8-01-2004
Who knew that the pentecostal "tongues of fire" experience was the inaugural meeting of smokers anonymous? If you think smoking is cool, then extinguishing your cigarette by pushing its searing hot tip against an image of Jesus' face might convince you otherwise.
Rose Marie Berger, Brian Bolton 8-01-2004
Seeming is believing, according to the Program on International Policy Attitudes, which released a March 2004 survey of U.S. public perception regarding weapons of mass destruction. Americans think that the United States has 200 nuclear weapons ready to be used on short notice.
Rose Marie Berger, Brian Bolton 8-01-2004
Star Woes. Twenty Canadian church leaders, including several Orthodox bishops, sent a letter in March to Prime Minister Paul Martin urging Canada to abandon plans to join with the United States in its ballistic missile defense strategy.
Michaela Bruzzese 8-01-2004
Six months after Ash Wednesday, we are gifted with another month of reminders of its most basic and important lessons.
The Editors 8-01-2004
Our cover feature by veteran journalist Bill Moyers is an adaptation of the keynote speech he delivered to a standing-room-only crowd at Call to Renewal's Pentecost 2004 event.
Michaela Bruzzese 7-01-2004
"In my chest full of flowers, Flowering wholly and only for Him, There He remained sleeping; I cared for Him there, And the fan of the high cedars cooled Him." In Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross recalls the tenderness with which he cared for God. Clearly, he knew not only how to welcome God, but how to treat God as beloved. His experience is echoed this month in the numerous ways the faithful have welcomed and cared for the Holy One: Abraham welcomes God as guest and dialogue partner; the disciple Mary welcomes God as teacher, and Jesus teaches us to welcome God first as an enemy in need, and then as "Abba," our beloved dad. This Abba is not a remote, distant father but a devoted parent who cares for us with a mother's tenderness: "As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you...your heart shall rejoice; your bodies shall flourish like the grass" (Isaiah 66:13-14).
In a world filled with overwhelming suffering and persistent injustice, the work of discipleship can easily become life-draining instead of life-giving. Discipleship can become a burden that prevents us from recognizing the most important thing: the presence of God with us, and loving this Abba as we are first loved - with all our hearts and souls. When we, like St. John, not only welcome but cherish God's presence, whether in the stranger, enemy, or friend, we are comforted so that our hearts shall rejoice, and our work of discipleship shall flourish.
Rose Marie Berger, Brian Bolton 7-01-2004
Ten Years of Freedom
South African voters elected a new national parliament and nine provincial governments in the nation's third "all-races" elections since the end of apartheid in 1994. Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu (above) applauds after casting his vote. "Often they say the first election after democracy is the last," Tutu told SABCNews. "Many countries degenerate into dictatorships. We are disproving that. We are taking it in our stride."
Counting Your Cubits
Maybe your thwarted dreams of urban development, ancient Hebrew-style, have got you down. Or you could just be pining for a reason to turn off the television. Either way, pout no more! Uberplay and Inspiration Games brings you "The Ark of the Covenant," an intriguing tile-laying game for all ages that adds biblical themes to the award-winning German game "Carcassonne." Each drawn tile adds to land, a road, a temple, or a city. Then sheep, wolves, and strategically placed followers and prophets add to the earned points of completed projects.
"The game doesn't try to teach doctrine. It just gives people an opportunity to talk about history and have fun," said Uberplay's Matt Molen. He says it's the perfect combination of collaboration and competition. (Of course, in Jesus' version the rules are reversed. You win by how much you give away.)
Rose Marie Berger, Brian Bolton 7-01-2004
Xtreme Peace. Eight Palestinians and Israelis completed an Antarctic expedition called "Breaking the Ice" to prove that "our peoples can and deserve to live together in peace and friendship," according to their statement. Two of the Palestinians had served time in an Israeli prison. Two of the Israelis were former members of a commando unit.
Riot Report. Obdulio Villanueva - a former Guatemalan military officer serving a 30-year sentence for the 1998 assassination of Catholic Bishop Juan Gerardi, a human rights leader - was killed in February during a prison riot in Guatemala City, according to Reuters.
Spotlight. South African Quaker, anti-apartheid activist, and theoretical cosmologist George F.R. Ellis won the 2004 Templeton Prize for advances in religion and science. Ellis is splitting the $1.4 million award between his retirement trust and a number of small South African nonprofit agencies.