Month: March 2015

Who Are the War Criminals?

WN: Another now-and-then article. An excerpt: In Errol Morris’ 2003 film, The Fog of War, former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, architect of the Vietnam War strategy, reminisces on lessons learned from his life, organized by Morris around issues of war. At one point, some detail has been gone into about the military campaign against […]

When Billy Graham Planned To Kill One Million People

photo above: Billy Graham visited troops in Vietnam around Christmastime 1966 and returned in 1968. His son Franklin Graham, CEO and president of the BGEA, shared: “My father felt it was important to go and minister to the U.S. Military. He went to Vietnam not because he supported the war, he was going there to […]

What Olympic Ideal?

By DANIEL MENDELSOHN image above: Ancient Olympia – Ruin in Greece – Thousand Wonders An excerpt: So too, all too obviously, with Athena and Phevos, whose demotion from august divinities to harmless cartoons is, if anything, emblematic of the way in which our Games differ from those of the ancient Greeks. This is nowhere more true […]

Western “Civilization” or Lessons on History and a Blind Eye

WN: Another now-and-then article. An excerpt: We Westerners live in a civilization of vaunted global human rights and universal equality. The reality could not be further from the truth. “Western civilization doth protest too much, methinks” to paraphrase Shakespeare. Or to quote Mahatma Gandhi’s response to, “What do you think of Western civilization?”: “I think […]

The Sickness of America, The Sickness of Humanity

image above: Walter Wink preaching at the Fellowship of Reconciliation WN: Another now-and-then article. An excerpt: The “face of fascism” turns out to be my face and your face, unless we turn our faces individually and collectively towards the neighbour and enemy in relentlessly creative new embrace. The Gospel addresses this: “For whoever wants to save […]

The Rev. Billy Graham is No Phil Berrigan!

By: William Hughes originally published in The People’s Voice WN: Neither are most of us… An excerpt: Rev. Graham has been doing his preaching gig for over 60 years. He has reportedly spoken to “more than 210 million people in 185 countries and territories.” (1) My question is this: To what end? Rev. Graham has […]

The Man Who Knew

CBS News An excerpt: In the run-up to the war in Iraq, one moment seemed to be a turning point: the day Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the United Nations to make the case for the invasion. Millions of people watched as he laid out the evidence and reached a damning conclusion — […]

The London Bombs, July 2005

By Wayne Northey July 9, 2005 Dear Editor: Prime Minister Tony Blair hypocritically called the London bombings “barbaric attacks.” On September 1, 1939, President Roosevelt similarly wrote to the major powers that aerial bombing of civilians had “profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity” and was “inhuman barbarism.” He later as disingenuously referred to the December 7, 1941 […]

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

image above: Benito Mussolini (left) and Adolf Hitler (right), the leaders of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, respectively, were both fascists. WN: Sobering. Canada anyone? See too: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder. Of it: The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces […]

Thank A Trained Killer Week, December 19 – 25, 2005

An excerpt: The week before Christmas south of the border has been designated “Thank a Soldier Week.” It may be dubbed as accurately “Thank a Trained Killer Week”.1 Retired Lt. Col. David Grossman indicates that no institution in America pays more attention to brutalization and desensitization of its recruits than the modern U.S. military: This […]

Mr. Harper, But Emperor Bush Has Nothing on At All!!!

By Wayne Northey Stephen Harper is a scary man. He is at best sycophant, at worst dupe, of the confidence racket called American Foreign Policy. There is a growing collection of articles on my computer about American Empire and “Emperor” George W. Bush. The assortment exceeds to the point of crescendo journalist Serge Schmemann’s agonizing […]

Sifting Dresden’s ashes

image above: Enormous 360-degree panoramic picture of Dresden after Allied bombing| pinterest.com WN: Sixty years after the Allies’ bombing of Dresden enveloped the city in flames, controversy persists over whether the attack was militarily justified or morally indefensible. But another question, no less crucial, is seldom asked: Did wartime conditions allow military leaders to look away as […]

Secret World of US Jails

By Jason Burke The Observer U.K. An excerpt: The United States government, in conjunction with key allies, is running an “invisible” network of prisons and detention centres into which thousands of suspects have disappeared without trace since the “war on terror” began. In the past three years, thousands of alleged militants have been transferred around […]

RAMSEY CLARK: THE TRAGEDY OF WAR AS AN END IN ITSELF

WN: This is illustrative of all war. An excerpt: Above all, it is the premeditated attack on life, the human casualties, that make “the scourge of war” so horrible and dehumanizing. The first Gulf War in January-February, 1991, is a classic example of the human destructiveness of war as an end in itself. The Pentagon […]

“Pardon Me?!”

“Pardon Me?!” A one-time friend, Lloyd Billingsley, years ago confidently told me that “the left” by definition is ideological, “the right” by contrast normal/normative. Such in turn ideological blindness still gobsmacks me. Lloyd is an intelligent man but profoundly doctrinaire, and like a close acquaintance, Lloyd sadly is highly unloving – even hateful – towards […]

Onward, Moderate Christian Soldiers

By JOHN C. DANFORTH image above: bayardfaithresources.com–article valid, but the above image is how we “serve?” (whom)! An excerpt: By contrast, moderate Christians see ourselves, literally, as moderators. Far from claiming to possess God’s truth, we claim only to be imperfect seekers of the truth. We reject the notion that religion should present a series […]

Only Then… Hasidic

A rabbi asked his students, “When is it at dawn that one can tell the light from the darkness?” One student replied, “When I can tell a goat from a donkey.” “No,” answered the rabbi. Another said, “When I can tell a palm tree from a fig.” “No,” answered the rabbi again. “Well, then what […]

One War is Enough

By Edgar L. Jones image above: Love is the only way. There has been enough pain, enough war … picturequotes.com WN: This is a very sobering piece by a war correspondent and a veteran about what is usually considered a “just war”: World War II. An excerpt: WE Americans have the dangerous tendency in our international […]

Militarism Leads to Torture

By Scott Galindez image above: Revealed: Senate report contains new details on CIA black sites WN: There is no Empire known to history not guilty of “militarism.” An excerpt: I am not anti-soldier. They joined the military, like I did, to defend their country, get an education, learn a skill, etc. I am against militarism, a […]

Mercy, Mr. Harper, Not Sacrifice (Jesus)

WN: Canada’s Prime Minister Harper has consistently chosen to “enemize” the other in response to Canada’s domestic (criminals) and international (whatever flavour) neighbours, thereby creating ever greater numbers of “enemies” to vanquish. An excerpt: Is the final biblical word for God love or hate? Is there any scriptural word for God that means hate? How […]

Just War Theory Revisited

by Olga Bonfiglio image above: What is the just war theory? | GotQuestions.org WN: In light of what has happened since in the region, this article shows a lot of wisdom. An excerpt: Secondly, four and a half years of war have gotten us over 3,700 dead Americans and between 70,182 and 655,000 dead Iraqis; mass […]

Jarhead, Montréal Shooting Spree, and Western Civilization

It was while descending from a hike up Elk Mountain in the eastern Fraser Valley of British Columbia that someone shared about his son, one of Canada’s finest trained élite soldiers, who had recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. His son said the movie Jarhead would be the closest to depicting accurately […]

Is War the Real [U.S.] National Pastime?

These are excerpts from an interview with Eugene Jarecki, director of the documentary: “Why We Fight“. For consideration: “Pax Americana: War is the means by which Americans learn geography.” – Ambrose Bierce an excerpt: Q: It is very interesting that in the film you used the footage of [current US Defence Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld’s meeting […]

Is U.S. like Germany of the ’30s?

WN: I think this is a classic – by Andrew Greeley. An excerpt: He is not another Hitler. Yet there is a certain parallelism. They have in common a demagogic appeal to the worst side of a country’s heritage in a crisis. Bush is doubtless sincere in his vision of what is best for America. […]

Inhuman Barbarism of President Roosevelt

This, issued by President Roosevelt on the eve of World War II, speaks for itself. No. 325 Appeal of President Roosevelt to Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Poland September 1, 1939. “THE ruthless bombing from the air of civilians in unfortified centres of population during the course of the hostilities which have raged in […]

I Was Told It Was Necessary

by Charles C. McCarthy WN: See also on this site: Blessing The Bombs. An excerpt: Zabelka: The destruction of civilians in war was always forbidden by the Church, and if a soldier came to me and asked if he could put a bullet through a child’s head, I would have told him absolutely not. That […]

We Are Mansfield Park

image above: The young Fanny and the “well-meant condescensions of Sir Thomas Bertram” on her arrival at Mansfield Park. A 1903 edition WN: This was published in the Calgary Herald on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of D-Day. An excerpt: Western culture is committed to a mass mythology of the righteousness of war. The […]

Bush’s “Christian” Blood Cult

by Wayne Masden image above: New Poll: George W. Bush Now Ranked 3rd Best President, Was 40th Last …  bullshit.ist An excerpt: George W. Bush proclaims himself a born-again Christian. However, Bush and fellow self-anointed neo-Christians like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, and sports arena Book of Revelations [sic] carnival hawker Franklin Graham appear […]

Bush the Would-Be Torturer

by Marjorie Cohn WN: Bush’s presidency established torture as legal practice, though it has been used by the C.I.A. and other agencies all along with impunity. An excerpt: The legal advice which would permit Bush to order torture without sanction is consistent with his policy to ignore or denounce treaties and federal laws that don’t […]

The International George W. Bush Laugh-In Campaign

WN: This never did happen – but was a good idea… An excerpt: It is time for all people of good mirth on earth to begin laughing at George W. Bush. Hilariously. Uproariously. To utter scorn. He is owed innate dignity as a fellow-human, but his political leadership is absurdly laughable – while so tragically […]

Boycott Chicken!

This again a now-and-then piece. An excerpt: I told him of an organization in America that marched annually in a death penalty state. One of those was born-again Governor George Bush’s Texas, whose Huntsville was site of the most “killing fields” in the history of American governors. One could not be a member, I explained, […]

Blessing the Bombs

WN: This speech was given by George Zabelka, former U.S. chaplain who blessed the dropping of the two atomic bombs in August 1945. It also appears here. Please also see on this site: I Was Told It Was Necessary. An excerpt: I never preached a single sermon against killing civilians to the men who were […]

Blessed Are the Warmakers?

WN: This is in my view an excellent piece by Christopher Manion – from 2003. An excerpt: Mr. Thomas, normally a sensible man writing from an evangelical Christian point of view, has just announced that the biblical “Time for War” is at hand. Invoking Woodrow Wilson, that most peaceable, honest, Christian creature, Thomas explains that […]

Billy Graham – Echoes in the Shadows

This was written by Bill C. Davis. WN: Billy Graham has been the most known representative Evangelical for the last half of the twentieth century. No one has emerged in the twenty-first to take his place. This is why in my novel he appeared as THE representative Evangelical. As such, he most represents the tragedy […]

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence

photo above: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964 WN: The sermon, preached one year to the day before his murder (April 4, 1968), by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. perhaps explains why, especially the excerpt below, the U.S. government conspired to kill Dr. King. There was also his participation in organizing a March in […]

Sixtieth Anniversary of Hiroshima and The World Safe

WN: This was a “what if” piece that when first published online several took to be in fact true… image above: Atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right) An excerpt: They said it would hasten making the world safe for democracy. It was novel and bold. British Joint Chiefs of Staff first floated it, and the Americans […]

A Partial List of Democides in the Last Hundred Years

WN: Democide: “the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder.” While this is a partial list, Wikipedia contains an expanded list of Genocide here. The Most Dangerous Animal by David Livingstone Smith of course puts humans at the top of the list. [pullquote]If there were a Last […]

A Modest Proposal Lite

WN: Another now-and-then article. An excerpt: In Western civilization, logic and ethics are usually mutually exclusive, while ideology and ethics are invariably bedfellows. Take Michael Ignatieff for instance, a great Canadian intellectual and current Liberal Party leadership hopeful. He salutes the United States as Empire-Lite (title of one of his books), and applauds its Nation-Building […]

Three Quotes and Two Dictionary Entries

Three Quotes and Two Dictionary Entries 1. “In [a true fairy-story] when the sudden ‘turn’ [or ‘eucatastrophe’] comes we get a piercing glimpse of joy, and heart’s desire, that for a moment passes outside the frame, rends indeed the very web of story, and lets a gleam come through… The Birth of Christ is the […]

The Bombs of August 1945

image above: wm.org.uk WN: This was written by Howard Zinn. You may also find it here. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki stand as the two greatest one-time mass murders in history. Yet they cannot publicly be so named without huge backlash. What kind of mostrosity is Western “civilization” to have for even a moment […]

Homosexuality Question, October 23, 2004

WN: Dr. Willard Swartley is an outstanding New Testament exegete, whom I now consider a friend, after our meeting in 2006. I had this two-part question that did not receive an answer (not his fault) on the occasion of his presentation on the subject in Abbotsford BC in 2004. Homosexuality Question, October 23, 2004 Dr. […]

“First They Came For”…

by Reverend Martin Niemöller In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then the came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a […]

Canadian Federal Candidates Questions: June 2004

Two questions that never received a response during election year 2004 . . . Mr. Warawa, the Conservative Party of Canada in its earlier incarnations was committed to upholding victims rights, and opposing criminal behaviour. According to The Langley Advance, February, 2004: [Stephen] Harper clearly accepted a connection between Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11, […]

Letter To the Editor: September 12, 2001

WN: One small attempt at perspective… An excerpt: Yesterday’s tragedy is horrific beyond words. Victims’ and their families’ losses are unspeakable. When retaliation is countenanced, some perspective, though, is needed. Tuesday’s reprehensible terrorist attack was not unprecedented, unless by definition (which is the art of myth making, otherwise known as propaganda). Lest we forget (though […]

Introduction to Crime Forum

June 3, 2001, Matsqui Centennial Auditorium, 7:00 – 9:30 p.m. WN: I definitely remembered this forum! Randy White, one of the panelists, then an MP for what now is called the Conservative Party (“Reform” back then) commented to one of our staff that he thought he might get “crucified” – or words to that effect. […]

Scapegoating The Sex Offender

WN: This was written 16 years ago, but is ever pertinent. An excerpt: Can one hope that some Canadian communities will refuse to scapegoat, and develop safe ways of working with sex offenders in their midst? In fact, that is what has emerged in the past four years through Correctional Services Canada funded community agencies. […]

The Spirit of Antichrist

WN: Another of my now-and-then reflections. An excerpt: One of my good friends several years ago gave up on the church. Still a “believer,” he embarked on a private study of Christian doctrine, only to “discover” that the traditional biblical texts were no longer to be trusted, and instead needed to be rewritten à la […]

Why I Am (Try to Be) Consistently Pro-Life

An excerpt: During World War II, famed literary scholar and “mere Christian” C.S. Lewis delivered a lecture to a pacifist society entitled, “Why I am Not a Pacifist.” From a writer whose pen could never be dull, this piece was Lewis’ authorial nadir. It is akin to Bertrand Russell’s essay, “Why I am Not a […]

Why Most Christians Are Not Consistently Pro-Life

An excerpt: The other day Pat Robertson of the 700 Club called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela. That would be, bluntly, counsel to commit murder. And some people acted surprised! One thing that should not surprise anyone is Christians supporting and carrying out murder of others. Almost ever since good religious […]

Whither Now?

Justice Without Violence Conference, June 5 – 7, 1997, Albany, New York An excerpt: Introduction Whither Now? The question presupposes a prior: Whence Already? Part of knowing who we are is discerning from where we have come. Do we feel rooted in a hopeful story? Part of our cultural milieu is to deny there is […]

Victims, violence and Christianity

by René Girard. WN: It is an edited version of The Martin D’Arcy Lecture delivered in Oxford in November 1997. Please click on: Victims, violence and Christianity

U.S., Like McVeigh, Guilty of Terrorist Attacks

This article of course states the all-too-obvious. It does not absolve ISIS or the Boko Haram (for instance): it simply puts their killings in perspective. An excerpt: AUSTIN, Texas – Timothy McVeigh killed twice in his life. For one of those acts, he was sentenced to die. For the other, he was awarded a Bronze […]

True Christian Spirituality

An excerpt: It seems that we Christians always have had difficulty keeping together Christian points of tension. Whether the two natures of Christ, our will and God’s choice, faith and works, etc., we tend almost invariably towards extremes. Likewise on the issue of spirituality. I was raised in a conservative evangelical church tradition. The spirituality […]

Transformative Justice Vision and Spirituality

WN: Some of the material in the essay below, now reworked, first appeared in The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice, “Christianity: The Rediscovery of Restorative Justice”, editor, Michael Hadley, by Pierre Allard and Wayne Northey; New York: SUNY Press, 2001. In light of two books by historian William Cavanaugh, I would be less sweeping about […]

The world is a beautiful place… and Yes

The first was written by Lawrence Ferlinghetti; the second by Wendell Berry. I also juxtapose the first with David Bentley Hart‘s The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth. It is a brilliant (and for me difficult-to-read) Christian interaction with modernity and postmodernity. Please click on: The world is a beautiful place… Please […]

The War Prayer

By Mark Twain WN: It is a quite powerful piece. Read it in its entirety. It may be found online as well here. Under Teddy Roosevelt (later President), the Americans “pacified” (read liquidated) thousands of soldiers and as many as 200,000 civilians. (See here, and here.) Please click on: The War Prayer

The Mother of All Christian Heresies

WN: Another incidental writing. An excerpt: The War just fought against pirate Saddam Hussein and Iraq, with recently reported Iraqi civilian casualties of over 37,000(1) [Twelve times the civilian casualties of September 11, 2001, in America!] is another classic instance of the pot calling the kettle black; of Emperor Bush demonstrating moral equivalency to Saddam […]

The Sickness of America, The Sickness of Humanity

WN: Another now-and-then piece. An excerpt: This was sent to me over the Internet: All Time Best Quote In a recent interview, General Norman Schwarzkopf was asked if he thought there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harbored and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on America. His answer was […]

The Jesus Quest & The Real Jesus

WN: This is still a worthwhile article by New Testament scholar Richard B. Hays almost 20 years later. The original may be found here. An excerpt: As the “historical Jesus” debate heats up and more participants enter the fray, the general reader may understandably feel bewildered by the claims and counterclaims being bandied about. Ben […]

Statements About the Church

WN: I collected such for a while… They are all below: The church is hopeless, but it is the only hope. (African saying) The church is that great totalitarian beast with an irreducible kernel of truth. (Simone Weil, 20th century French mystic) The church is like Noah’s ark: you wouldn’t stand the stench within were […]

The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice – Christianity

WN: This paper was jointly written by Pierre Allard and me. It arose from a book publication by the same title as above (minus “Christianity”). The actual paper as it appeared in the book in part may be found here. The paper as I believe sent to the publisher’s is below. An excerpt: Introduction “It […]

War, Police and Prisons: Cross-Examining State-Sanctioned Violence

War, Police and Prisons: Cross-Examining State-Sanctioned Violence Streams of Justice, September 28, 2009 WN: I was asked by the above-named Justice group to do this as part of a series. I never learn well to do such presentations to the right tailor length! You may also find interesting my discussion of WAR and HELL. An […]

Spirituality of Restorative Justice

WN: Presented at Arts & Peace Festival, Restorative Justice Workshop, March 1, 2001. Something similar was also presented at Regent College in 2003. It is also clickable. an excerpt: Centrality of Western Christian Spirituality for Criminal Justice The defining religious ethos of Western spirituality historically has been Christianity. Christianity has also been the reigning ideology […]

Spirituality Evaluation of Restorative Justice

Sixth International Conference on Restorative Justice, “Best Practices in Restorative Justice”, June 4, 2003 WN: I attended and presented at a few such Conferences over the years, especially in the years I worked for Mennonite Central Committee (MCCC): 1989 to 1998. an excerpt: I thought I’d look at a Christian Spirituality of Restorative Justice through […]

Restorative Justice and M2/W2 Ministry

M2/W2 (Man-To-Man/Woman-To-Woman) is the Restorative Justice agency with which I was associated for forty years. An excerpt: A few years ago, at a VOMA (Victim Offender Mediation Association) conference in Des Moines, Iowa, I saw a plaintive note on a bulletin board: DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY RESTORATIVE JUSTICE VIDEO RESOURCES THAT ARE NOT RELIGIOUS?! […]

Restorative Justice

WN: This was written for a now defunct magazine called “Friend“. It is a brief statement about Restorative Justice. Please click on: Restorative Justice – for Friend

“A Great Irony of History”: The Cross and Peace

WN: There is a similar paper on this site. This was the original. Exactly a week before I was to deliver this to a Regent College class of first year students in a “World Christianity” course (April 8, 2007 was the day of the lecture, at the invitation of Loren Wilkinson), Dean Davey declared to […]

Reflections on Capital Punishment

An excerpt: Christian support for capital punishment, like Christian participation in war, has known a majority Christendom approbation since the era of Constantine in the fourth century. This support has likewise dominated Western secular jurisdictions until the last century – a tragic Christian legacy of fear and vengeance! The church moved in the fourth century […]

The Sports Crowd is Untruth

WN: This was written in response to the Vancouver Stanley Cup riot in 2011. An excerpt: Søren Kierkegaard wrote “The crowd is untruth.” René Girard saw it in the hidden uncouth: Scapegoating violence, originary, in all human cultures. It is all innocent fun say dominant culture vultures Of every sports win. Yet there lurks deeper […]

Rediscovering Spiritual Roots:

WN: This was done in 1996 for a double issue of a U.S. journal, called The Justice Professional. I began and ended with the story of Claire Culhane who, though atheistic, so represented justice to me. A few peculiarities: the «» marks could not be replaced with quotation marks; and the Endnotes could not be […]

All Allied/NATO Political Leaders Since World War II are Racist and Nepotistic

WN: The rest of the title reads: (and so are their supporting constituents); OR: Tell Me it Isn’t So, and I’ll Tell You About 120,000 Civilian Bombing Deaths, August, 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and 5,000 Civilian Bombing Deaths, Fall, 2001, in Afghanistan; OR: What Do You Think of Western Civilization? – It Would Be […]

Peace and the Church

WN: There are several short papers (hundreds) that I wrote in this or that context in the past. This is one such. An excerpt: One frequent argument from the non-pacifist historians went: If the early church was pacifist, how is it that by the era of Constantine (fourth century) it jettisoned that position effortlessly, with […]

Call For a Church Apology Vis À Vis Crime and Punishment

photo above: freeimages.com An excerpt: When Anselm of Canterbury wrote Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man) in the 11th century, the Church gradually changed the nature of the understanding of God, salvation, grace, law, sin, and crime. God became increasingly a “sentencing Judge”, salvation became something earned, sin, crime and law became separated from […]

Politics and Religion in the Thought of Ivan Illich

WN: This paper is on David Cayley’s website here. You may read about David Cayley here. David has broadcast and written about Ivan Illich numerous times. He is currently (2015) working on yet another book on him. (Update: published in 2021 and clickable.) An excerpt: One could say a lot more about the segregation of […]

Clark Pinnock Letters, June 14, 1991; October 9, 1991; October 22, 1991

image above: topfamousquotes.com WN:When I lived for nearly two years in the basement of noted Evangelical scholar Clark Pinnock’s home, I was a student at Regent College (1974 – 1976). Clark was my mentor in occasioning two conversions: 1. that the Gospel had to do centrally with the social and political because it had to […]

Paul’s Gospel and Caesar’s Empire

WN: Arguably the two greatest New Testament era historians in the world today are James D. G. Dunn and N. T. Wright, both British. In this piece by N.T. Wright, we see Paul as the towering dissenter against (Roman) Empire. Paul was impossibly radical, whose life and ideas shatter social conventions of the civitas terrena […]

On the Front Lines

WN: Brian Stewart is a well-known Canadian journalist who a dozen or so years ago found his way to Christian faith. The piece here was a Convocation address to a bunch of Presbyterian seminary graduates. I showed this piece to a friend who long since, though raised a Christian, disavowed the Church as an evil […]

Jesus, Evangelicals, and American Empire

image above: thenile.com.au WN: “Empire” by nature is gargantuan evil. There is none known to history that has not been such. Most American Evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics amongst other religious instinctively oppose thinking the United States is precisely such an Empire. Billy Graham and a host of lesser religious routinely prayed for Empire victory […]

The Man Who Chose To See

WN: Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy is a tireless Eastern Catholic voice for nonviolence. See his: Center for Christian Nonviolence website. This is a sermon preached in 1993 on the life of Franz Jägerstätter, executed by the Nazis 50 years previously for his refusal to kill for the Nazis. More about him may be found here: […]

Spirituality of Penal Abolition

image above: goodreads.com WN: Ruth Morris, Canadian Quaker who won numerous humanitarian awards, invited me to present this paper at ICOPA IX in 2000. ICOPA stands for: International Conference on Penal Abolition. It was the ninth conference, held in Toronto, where the first such conference, then on “Prison Abolition”, was held, also organized by Ruth. […]

Making Friends of Enemies: Father Elias Chacour

WN: I love this story! Father Elias Chacour, a Palestinian Christian still very active today (and now Archbishop Chacour) in making peace between Palestinians and Jews, was confronted for several months by the cold, unforgiving hearts of his parishioners. Then: On Palm Sunday of his first year as pastor of Ibillin, Elias looked from the […]

Is Paul the Father of Misogyny and Antisemitism?

WN: This paper highlighted below answers in the negative the question posed in the title. It was written by Pamela Eisenbaum, Pauline scholar, practising Jew, feminist, and professor at a Christian seminary. She subsequently wrote Paul was not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle. I delivered a sermon inspired by her, entitled […]

‘In the Middle:’ Biblical Reflections on Restorative Justice

WN: Tom Yoder Neufeld presented this to the Mennonite Central Committee Canada Restorative Justice Network in Winnipeg in 2003. It well deserves a current readership. The second footnote below was a reader compiled by me for MCCC. An excerpt: I have been asked to reflect on Restorative Justice in relation both to ways the Bible […]

The Camel in the Anointment: Homosexuality and the Church

WN: I invite response. To be noted: two authors adduced below–Willard Swartley and Richard Hays–both support/ed a church ban on homosexuality. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices– mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law– justice, […]

The Craft of Forgiveness

WN: This was prepared in 2005 for a church curriculum. An excerpt: Forgiveness is not only the ultimate “craft” for all wishing to become fully human, it is also ticket to freedom and joy. New Testament theologian Luke Timothy Johnson says the greatest act of forgiveness must be towards our fathers (or parents, one could […]

Living in Communion: AN INTERVIEW WITH FATHER THOMAS HOPKO

Excerpted from Parabola: The Magazine of Myth and Tradition, “Forgiveness”, Volume XII, Number 3, August 1987, pp. 50 – 59. WN: This piece had an immediate profound impact on me – at least I return to it repeatedly! How much internalized? Ah… The connection of forgiveness to our being made in the image of God […]

Emperor Bush, Pirate bin Laden, Calvin College, and the Gospel

image above: webpages.uidaho.edu WN: Evangelicals were in bed with former President George W. Bush like never before. They of course are out of sorts with President Obama. The Christian Left however hugely welcomed Obama, who has hardly since in any way (if ever) shown desert of the Nobel Peace Prize. The paper, written during the […]

Cruciform anthropology: an introduction to the thought of René Girard

WN: This was written by Simon J. Taylor, and is so helpful in understanding René Girard. An excerpt: What difference does it make to human society that Jesus was crucified? This is, I think, the fundamental question that René Girard addresses in what he has called ‘the anthropology of the cross’. Girard’s work on anthropology, […]

A Great Irony of History: The Anthropological Significance of the Cross, and Peace

WN: I wrote this and presented it at the Colloquium on Violence and Religion (COV&R) June 19, 2008. Paul Nuechterlein whom I cited often, as it turns out, was present at the workshop… He has done a wonderful Lectionary of Readings from a Girardian perspective. An excerpt: In this presentation, I propose a very simple […]

The Criminal Justice System and “Criminal” Justice

image above: hub.wsu.edu WN: This is a true story in which in 2000 we intervened on behalf of a friend, with names changed or removed. The first part was a letter sent to two police officers; the second part an attached reflection. They never responded. They were also never heard from again in relation to […]

The Gospel and Prisons

image above: christianlifemissions.org WN: I wrote this several years ago. A very brief touching on biblical prison abolitionism. An excerpt: “The gospel is profoundly scandalous, and until we hear at least a whisper of its scandal, we risk not hearing any part of it (The Fall of the Prison: Biblical Perspectives on Prison Abolition, Lee […]

Christians! – Don’t You Just Love to Hate ‘Em?

image above: turnbacktogod.com WN: I might not have written this today… But there is irony in the piece, and some names could be updated to fit similar current circumstances… An excerpt: I’m glad in our apoplectic politically correct world it’s still open season on Christians. Jews, Aboriginals, Blacks, etc. – not a chance! But Christians! […]