RSS
More Feeds












God's Politics

Posts Tagged ‘Violence

Not long ago, I blogged about my trip to Iraq with fellow God’s Politics blogger Shane Claiborne and later, of my excitement about the upcoming Truth Commission on Conscience in War.  The trip taught me much about the human cost of…

Continue reading this entry »

It’s one thing to go to the “Holy Land” and see where Jesus worked and walked in the past. It’s another thing to combine that with seeing where the Spirit of Jesus is working and walking in the present, teaching…

Continue reading this entry »

100208-vigilAt about midnight we heard the shots ring out.   My friend ran to the door and I heard him yell, “Shane, a kid has been shot, come down.”  As we looked down the street we could see a young man…

Continue reading this entry »

A number of commentators have questioned the accepted logic that disasters bring out the worst in people, directly challenging the pervasive “looters run amok” imagery often perpetuated by the media and held out by lawmakers as a rationale for military…

Continue reading this entry »

100128-howard-zinnTuesday morning — just two days ago — I wrote to half a dozen leaders of progressive thought and action in America, each separately, the letter that follows. One of the people I wrote was the historian/activist Howard Zinn, author…

Continue reading this entry »

10012-090530-3652-palestineIt was 3 a.m. when they came barreling into town — Israeli jeeps and tanks preempting the dawn and hollering menacing messages over their loudspeakers. ‘Wake up you Arab dogs,’ they would exclaim as our team gathered to prepare our…

Continue reading this entry »

Last week my wife and I had the grand opportunity to leave our two kids in the care of her parents and spend five days on vacation in California. Afterward we both agreed that it was probably the most enjoyable…

Continue reading this entry »

Categories: Activism, Poverty

While the story of bible-verses-on-gun-scopes is getting more press, I am just (if not more) disturbed to read of a U.S. chaplain in Afghanistan encouraging soldiers to “hunt people for Jesus,” and encouraging the distribution of Bibles translated into Dari and…

Continue reading this entry »

South Park famously set up how the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is “branded” as a group of “hardcore-any-means-necessary-pirates.” In reality, however, they are just at the spiky-end of nonviolent direct action and have never harmed a single individual in their 33 year…

Continue reading this entry »

On November 20, 2009, to considerable media fanfare, a group of 140 senior Christian leaders issued ‘The Manhattan Declaration.’ In brief, it calls for Christians to defend three “fundamental truths about justice and the common good”:

  1. the sanctity of human life,
  2. the dignity…

Continue reading this entry »

Sad news from Sydney as a headline for the ABC read, “Abusive letter suspect ‘a peace activist’”. The article went on to say the man was in court to face charges of harassment after sending “letters to the families of…

Continue reading this entry »

Does this sound familiar? A poor, minority community experiences high levels of violence and drug dealing. A predominantly white police force sweeps in and arrests many offenders. New drug dealers and gang members almost immediately fill the void, leaving the…

Continue reading this entry »

Categories: Poverty, Race

I didn’t get a chance to watch Barack Obama’s Nobel speech live, but I’ve read the transcript and found very little in the speech that couldn’t have been given by any number of past presidents—including George W. Bush. Granted, absent…

Continue reading this entry »

The president’s campaign speech in Philadelphia on race and his speech earlier this year to the Muslim world from Egypt were, in my mind, two of the most important presidential speeches of my lifetime. I had tears streaming down my…

Continue reading this entry »

What if? What if Obama’s speech had not simply referenced Gandhi and King but followed them in following the way of Jesus? I have a number of friends, like Nobel Prize nominee John Dear and Ken Butigan, who have articulately raised concerns about…

Continue reading this entry »

President Obama laid out a moral defense of the use of force in his acceptance speech in Oslo after winning the Nobel Peace Prize. It was a more philosophical, and even theological, lecture than presidents normally give — and therefore worthy…

Continue reading this entry »

For many of us in the U.S., the sometimes vicious attack ads of last year’s presidential election are more than just a recent memory. The Philippines, a longtime ally of the U.S.,  is gearing up for its own round of elections…

Continue reading this entry »

There are times in the “culture wars” when a very diverse group of religious leaders can come together across the political spectrum in a common cause.  Recent legislation pending in the Ugandan parliament is one of those occasions.  If it becomes…

Continue reading this entry »

Categories: Human Rights

The following is part of the author´s “jail journal,” written in early 2004 while he was serving a 90-day sentence in Georgia for having “crossed the line” at Ft. Benning in protest against the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas.…

Continue reading this entry »

091207-216_78_ambulance_stopAlthough Hani Abu Haikal is a Muslim, he probably can identify with the sense of panic Joseph and Mary must have felt as they searched for a place to stay as the time of Jesus’ birth drew near.

Hani lives in…

Continue reading this entry »


advertise here
  • MOST VIEWED
  • MOST COMMENTED
  • RECENTLY POSTED
advertise here
advertise here
advertise here


HOME | SUBSCRIBE | DONATE | TAKE ACTION | MAGAZINE  
SOJOMAIL | BLOGS | MEDIA | EVENTS | RESOURCES | ABOUT US  
Sojourners | 3333 14th Street NW, Suite 200 | Washington, DC 20010  
Phone 202.328.8842 | Fax 202.328.8757 | sojourners@sojo.net  
Unless otherwise noted, all material © Sojourners 2008