Tag: Peace and Violence

"The time for enmity is over... few non-Muslims know that Islam considers reconciling with people to be better than many acts of worship. "

"Although my path is now much more ecumenically embracing of all faith traditions that promote connection to the Divine and the common good, I have never turned my back on Christ. I can say, however, that my relationship with Christ is now in a much healthier and inclusive place."

"Everyone knows how important fasting is during Ramadan and daily worship and prayer in Islam; but few know that Islam considers reconciling with people to be better than many acts of worship."

I could see Redemption from Biblical Battering being used as the basis of a wonderful small group book study, and I think church pastors would benefit from keeping a few copies on hand to provide to parishioners struggling within violent relationships.

October 10, 2017 With a push to change Columbus Day into a day that honors indigenous people, it's important to know the truth about who...

There’s just one obstacle in our way: we’re likely to find it’s nearly impossible to make the leap from “I know I’m right” to “I could be wrong.” We have too much invested. The cognitive dissonance can overwhelm us.

August 14, 2017 The weekend events in Charlottesville have left us horrified. If you, like many of us, are wondering what you can do to...

... the naked honesty in this lengthy memoir highlighted both the tremendous persistence involved in reaching genuine forgiveness and the knowledge that there really is no other way for true healing to take place.

Chalice Press shares a poem for Independence Day written by Sandhya Rani Jha. "God, even as we celebrate the blessings of this nation, help us be humble enough to know that you really are the God of all nations..."

"Women in male-dominated societies are left with fewer reasonable choice in the face of structured male power. [And many] men fail to recognize that women are born into a system of scarcity [because of] male supremacy that leads them to see other women as antagonists…”

Today, as in the biblical narratives, instead of focusing on the details of the rape and the sufferings of the women who were victimized, we focus on the accomplishments of the powerful men who caused their suffering. We may even support them without thinking about it.

Delving into topics such as the religious, philosophical, and Christian roots of both war and the War on Women allows Thistlethwaite to educate the reader on the complexity of the historical indoctrination surrounding the topics of war and women, without entirely overwhelming those readers who may not yet be aware of the history surrounding these issues.

Armstrong defines war as “a psychosis caused by the inability to see relationships, “ and describes the First Crusade as particularly psychotic. In Jerusalem the “half-crazed” First Crusaders slaughtered some thirty-thousand people in three days” (p. 214).

Therefore I urge us to remember that if we are willing to expand our notion of anger, if we allow ourselves (and others) to truly and deeply grieve anger, then we see potential for a transformation from fury to passion. We will see an urge for bringing about change that never runs tired. We will see hope for a hurting people.

"This is the most obvious lesson; yet it may be the hardest to accept. If we hear someway say, 'I just can’t see this the way you do,' it probably doesn’t occur to us that what they’re saying might be literally true! "

March 5, 2015 Earlier this week, Kelly Gissendaner was slated to be executed in Georgia.  She was given the death penalty for plotting to kill...

February 17, 2015 Over the Valentines Day weekend the hashtag #SurvivorLoveLetters came alive on Twitter. Women wrote affirming letters to themselves and others who have survived...

...whether a reader is a seasoned student of the Bible or discovering it for the first time, "Whispering the Word" is exceptionally encouraging when it comes to making sense of difficult narratives featuring women in Hebrew Scriptures. Too much of Bible readership, interpretation, and understanding has been saturated by fallen patriarchal cultures. As a result, the speeches, perspectives, and worldviews of women (as well as narrators who tell their stories) are not something that most Bible readers are trained to perceive.

Whipping, pulling out hair, and spitting brought to mind the “enhanced” techniques authorized by Attorney General John Ashcroft on July 24, 2002, and the waterboarding he approved two days later. (What was I doing that summer? For sure, I was not keeping track of my government’s use of torture.)

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” he says. When he himself was the target, he added, “Forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23: 34). Who heard these radical words and copied them down? Who later collected and preserved them? By the grace of God, we can find testimony today for this minority position against revenge in the words and acts of Jesus, Terence, Gandhi, Daryl Davis, and others. By binding our hearts to Jesus and his words, we can counter our intuitive responses and lift up even our enemies to the Creator’s loving care.

With this insightful book, Claassens has articulated a female trinity for our times, ... [presenting] a God who weeps at suffering, cares for the hurting and needy, and works with us to bring about positive change.

For Christians who see the Bible as authoritative, two main steps should be involved in properly interpreting and applying these ancient texts. First, understand what a text meant in its original literary and cultural context. Only then can we wrestle with what it means today.

"Will we respond with anger, casting about for someone to blame, someone to hurt with our words or actions? Or will we make the difficult decision to respond only with love, searching for ways to connect with each other as a people and support those affected, perhaps even directing our attention to creating a world of peace and equality where violence is never considered necessary to achieve an end?"

"The notorious instability of many Middle Eastern countries means a seemingly innocuous walk to a market, across the street, through a park might be disrupted by a suicide bombing. A decade-long U.S. military presence has done little to provide safety for women and children in Afghanistan, Iraq, or elsewhere. "

Sprinkle laments the continuing rise in the number and the brutality of violent crimes against LGBTQ people; young people in America’s schools and neighborhoods are especially being targeted at an alarming rate, as much for their non-traditional presentation of gender as for their sexual orientation.

11. Encourage pastors to name mental illness among other illnesses that are mentioned in prayers and sermons. This destigmatizes it and gets out the message that mental illness is just another illness.

by Anne Linstatter On June 20, 2001, many people were reading and talking about the latest sensational news story: a mother in Texas, Andrea...