Magazine
Sojourners Magazine: March-April 2001
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Cover Story
In Eritrea, an American painter finds friends, suffering, and inspiration.
Feature
A national study documents what many congregations already knew—that the arts are good for faith, and faith can be good for the arts.
Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church's new building demonstrates how architecture can incarnate the history, strength, and spirit of a people.
Lisa Sullivan has set her heart on politicizing the hip-hop nation.
What we are able to remember is important, but how we remember is even more so. Nowhere is this more true than in the Middle East.
What does it take to create community? A calm and tender manner isn't a bad place to start.
Commentary
Once again, an outpouring in the streets brings change to the Philippines.
The moratorium movement is changing the politics of death.
A conservative Republican makes the case for reparations for African Americans.
Columns
Breakfast in the White House can be dangerous to the prophetic vocation.
Within the next 20 years, we'll see the evolving convergence of humans and machines.
I was either having a major cardiac event or was standing in a pool of water being repeatedly struck by lightning.
Culture Watch
This collection has no reason to exist, except as a shameless exploitation of the Lennon-McCarney catalog.
Like many North American Christians, I had my spiritual journey upended in the 1980s by an encounter with poor believers from Latin America.
Spiritual Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups on the Twelve
Spiritual Disciplines, edited by Richard Foster.
There are two unrelated things that people learn quickly about me. The first is that
you probably shouldn't talk to me early in the morning. And the second is that I love
U2.
David LaMotte's sixth album fills the void left by sentimental, synthesizer-laden Christian pop-rock and modern rock lyrics about shopping, leather pants, and next year's Infiniti model.
It's easy for us to assume that no matter what comes our way, America will prevail
politically and economically.
Departments
I JOIN THE CHORUS of readers who applaud the remodeling of Sojourners. The new feel
and attitude invite a different category of reader and adds freshness to the reading
experience.
YOUR 'GRACE MATTERS' by Chris Rice ("Is That Racism on Your Shoe?" November-December 2000) was interesting. If Chris Rice is honest and credible, he should marry a black person to prove it.
Only when we know ourselves as broken yet fiercely loved can we share the gift of new life.
Convicted murderer and gang leader Stanley "Tookie" Williams has been
nominated for the 2001 Nobel Prize for Peace.
THE EXIT POLLS ("Between the Lines," January-February 2001) taken on the morning
after the election were most revealing.
The YouthPeace organizing packet has graphics, media information, literature lists, and training, workshop, and organizing ideas for local youth activists.
HAS SOJOURNERS GONE soft? That's what I wondered after I read Holly Liebowitz' article on the "Responsible Wealth" movement ("What's Right With This Picture?" January February 2001).
WRITING 'FAN LETTERS' is not something I do, yet after reading through all of your November-December 2000 issue of Sojourners I felt so grateful that I want to share my feelings.
Jennifer Harbury's eight-year fight for justice in the death of her husband,
Guatemalan resistance leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, has ended in victory.
The United Farm Workers union has called off its 16-year boycott of California table
grapes, citing recent organizing and contract victories as the reason.
The Church of Pakistan has ordained its first two women deacons, despite civil court action by a breakaway church that believes the Bible bans women from the clergy.
I FOUND YOUR article on "Virtual Hate" (by Stacia Brown, September-October
2000).
According to the United Nations, one child in four lives in an unstable, often violent, environment. The World Council of Churches is determined to change those statistics-one city at a time.
I WOULD LIKE to copy your article "A Cry for Atonement" (by Rabbi Michael Lerner, January-February 2001) and send it to all the lawmakers who make a difference in the Middle East situation.
Employment Opportunities
Married couple wanted for innovative new public charter school and foster home near
Taos, N.M.
The Alliance of Religions and Conservation and the World Wildlife Fund
brought together 11 major faiths-representing some 4 billion people-to ask that
very question.
John Sage is low-key in approach and evangelistic in mission: Save the
world through coffee. Can't be done, you say?
I RECEIVED MY January-February 2001 Sojourners yesterday, and I love the new look
and the beautiful colors.
April 23-29 is national "Turn off Your TV" week. Coincidentally, it is also "Roll Back the Rug and Teach the Kids the Electric Slide" week.
TAG EVERS' ARTICLE on Contemporary Christian Music ("Fiddling While Rome Burns," January-February 2001) reminded me of a long debated question among those of us in the actual biz...
'When the children are well enough to go home, it is a gift to me.'
Leading Venezuelan educators and critics of President Hugo Chavez are calling his
creation of 500 schools constructed and supervised by the military a political program for
"ideological indoctrin