Rwanda Dispatches May 18 to July 12, 2018
At 30 years on to this day, April 7, 2024, the Rwanda Genocide broke out, that saw more than 1 million Rwandans murdered. CBC did the interview you see below. 30 years after Rwandan genocide, Roméo Dallaire feels ‘rage’ amid global crises | Watch (msn.com) Roméo Dallaire led the UN’s peacekeeping mission when more than […]
Easter Song and Reflections on the Resurrection
***NOTE: Please check out the footnotes for additional, more detailed commentary. Also, there are poetry and songs in the final footnote; and four additional songs below that.*** Please also see two great sermons, one on Good Friday, the other on Easter Sunday, by my colleague Randy Klassen: both in the context of criminal/restorative justice. Easter […]
Irrelevant Saints
By Terence Sweeney November 1, 2021 WN: A great challenge to everyday sainthood. excerpts: [su_dropcap]W[/su_dropcap]hen I made my First Communion, I received some money, a few rosaries, and copy of Picture Book of Saints. I don’t remember what I did with the money, and I lost the rosaries to my voracious dog. But the Picture […]
Legacy of Shame:
October 19, 2021 by Kenn Orphan photo above: Photograph Source: Reagan White House Photographs – Public Domain WN: Saint Augustine recounts this story of Empire: The king asked the fellow, “What is your idea, in infesting the sea?” And the pirate answered, with uninhibited insolence, “the same as yours, in infesting the earth! But because […]
Bomber Biden Sends in B-52 Bombers in a Tantrum over Taliban Advance
August 12, 2021 by Dave Lindorff photo above: AC-130 Spectre gunship rains random death from the sky in the name of America (US Air Force photo) WN: So much for “Mr. Nice Guy Biden”–who is just one more of a long line of Presidential mass murderers. The West fawns over his repeated–indeed admirable–rising above personal […]
Gospel as Counter-Narrative to Empire
SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. The website is dedicated to: The Gospel as Counter-Narrative to Empire. More on Empire below. PLEASE NOTE: the Sitemap. There is also a list of all Book Reviews separately, and alongside each post. You may search the Blog too. Please consider […]
Daily Wisdom
February 19, 2021 WN: Read the devotional below, then read a much longer and powerful reflection: Living in Communion: AN INTERVIEW WITH FATHER THOMAS HOPKO. ♦ What heals the wounds of division is love. Love unites, unifies and heals the wound of the divided self. It overcomes the deep wounds of our alienation. It simplifies […]
“A FIRE STRONG ENOUGH TO CONSUME THE HOUSE”:
by William T. Cavanaugh first published in: Modem Theology 11:4 October 1995 ISSN 0266-7177 WN: Dr. Cavanaugh has been producing an impressive list of scholarly works challenging certain Enlightenment narratives about Christianity in the West. I previously reviewed two of his books together: The Myth of Religious Violence and Migrations of the Holy. I can […]
Early Christian Readings of Genesis One
Early Christian Readings of Genesis One: Patristic Exegesis and Literal Interpretation, Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2018; author Craig Allert WN: Full disclosure is, that thanks to Ron, I have been a member of a catholic Anglican/ecumenical contemplative order called “Sons of the Holy Cross”. I’ve had a longstanding interest in Patristics as well, again thanks […]
Book Review of Long Have I Loved You
Book Review of Long Have I Loved You: A Theologian Reflects on His Church, Orbis Books, 2000, Walter J. Burghardt by Ron Dart WN: I so appreciate the wisdom of Professor Burghardt’s book seen in Ron Dart’s excellent review below. I love to discover new witnesses to joy and justice in the faith journey! Please […]
The Cross: God’s Peace Work – Towards a Restorative Peacemaking Understanding of the Atonement
The Cross: God’s Peace Work – Towards a Restorative Peacemaking Understanding of the Atonement WN: This was written initially as a chapter in Stricken By God?: Nonviolent Identification & The Victory of Christ. There are other iterations of this paper. That atonement and Restorative Justice are closely aligned is the contention of this paper. An […]
A Paradigm Shift in Christian Theology: What It Means to Say “God is Jesus”
August 6, 2018 by Roger E. Olson 19 Comments That “God is Jesus” is commonplace for Christian peace theologians/peacemakers of every era. The “paradigm shift” I suggest is really therefore with two kinds of believers: those throughout Church history who have refused to read the New Testament as God’s final or ultimate self-revelation in […]
Pope revises catechism to say death penalty is ‘inadmissible’
Commits the church to working toward its abolition worldwide1 Aug 2, 2018 by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service Theology photo above: Pope Francis gestures before speaking about the death penalty at an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, at the Vatican in this Oct. 11, 2017, file photo. […]
Trump is now dangerous – that makes his mental health a matter of public interest
Bandy Lee This world authority in psychiatry, consulted by US politicians, argues that the president’s mental fitness deserves scrutiny Sun 7 Jan 2018 00.05 GMT Last modified on Fri 9 Feb 2018 18.35 GMT WN: Today in Rwanda, we discussed why many African leaders have destroyed home and people over whom they rule(d). When traits such as […]
Erasmus: Wild Bird
WN: I had the privilege of editing, copy-editing, writing the Foreword, and publishing on Amazon/Kindle, Ron Dart’s excellent book on Erasmus. Ron describes 10 points about Erasmus in this brief video, done in his home, December 19. 2017: Below is my Foreword, then Ron’s Introduction. And finally, there is a quote from another article on […]
Worried About Those Global Cyber Attacks? They Were Started by Washington
Worried About Those Global Cyber Attacks? They Were Started by Washington The notorious US spy agencies invented this monster, first with the Stuxnet virus against Iran—but then they lost control over it. By William Greider JUNE 30, 2017 WN: Of course, the United States has never been the “peacekeeper that upholds the world’s higher values”, as […]
America’s Iran Hysteria
The Irrationality of Iran Vilification By Danny Sjursen Posted by Danny Sjursen at 7:46am, May 30, 2017. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. WN: It is now almost in every geopolitical instance a truism that if the United States says “black” the reality is the inverse – or significantly other. Such is the case in the article highlighted below. America’s view […]
The CIA’s Involvement in Indonesia and the Assassinations of JFK and Dag Hammarskjold
By Edward Curtin and Greg Poulgrain Global Research, July 22, 2016 In the “City of God,” St. Augustine tells the story of a pirate captured by Alexander the Great. The Emperor angrily demanded of him, “How dare you molest the seas?” To which the pirate replied, “How dare you molest the whole world? Because I […]
North Korea accused of ‘maniacal recklessness’ after new nuclear test
US Geological Survey records 5.3 seismic event at ground level near nuclear test site Friday 9 September 2016 Martin Farrer and agencies WN: The grand irony is ever there: the US and the Western world accuse North Korea of “maniacal recklessness” (indeed, absolutely accurately), and we read in the article linked below that “the United […]
Eat Me: The Cannibalistic Origins of the State
David Gornoski Friday, August 05, 2016 This an outstanding piece, especially in the writer’s powerful juxtaposition of Jesus’ invitation to a common meal of his “flesh and blood”,and our otherwise consuming each other in ongoing acts of mimetic rivalry. However, I take serious note of this caveat: Eat Me: The Cannabilistic Origins of State – […]
“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 […]
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 […]
Capital Punishment
image above: izquotes.com WN: I was invited to dialogue with Dr. Richard Land of (later) “The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission” of the Southern Baptist Convention. The dialogue was organized by the Presbyterian Church in Alaska, and took place March 22, 1997 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It was teleconferenced throughout Alaska including into […]
Christian Anarchy
Jesus’ Primacy over the Powers, Vernard Eller, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987. Jacques Ellul first introduced me to this theme after I had been raised in the faith for over 25 years. Strange to say that, when the Bible begins with the theme in Genesis One! (See my book review of The Lost World of Genesis […]
“Not Enough!” and International Restorative Justice
Colloquium on Violence & Religion (COV&R) Presentation, May 31 – June 4, 2006, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada WN: When I finally decided to register to present a paper at my friend Vern Redekop’s urging (he was the Conference host), there was only a slot left under French language workshops. I immediately asked two bilingual colleagues about […]