In the age of the professional military, it’s hard to know how to offer a relevant peace witness. We’re no longer called before draft boards. We don’t have to do anything to avoid military service. We just have to avoid signing up. In the meantime, we continue to fund wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with our tax dollars. Does an all-volunteer military make our witness obsolete?
It is time for top Mennonite leaders to take a dramatic new step and issue a daring new call for a vast expansion of Christian Peacemaker Teams. With only modest resources and less institutional support, CPT’s activities—and a host of other successful nonviolent campaigns in the last few decades—have demonstrated that nonviolence frequently prevents bloodshed and promotes justice. It is time for the Christian church—for the first time ever in our history—to invest large resources to test the possibilities of large-scale nonviolent campaigns …
In a nutshell, this is what I think matters when we look at the book of Revelation. What are we looking for when we look at Revelation? And what does Revelation tell us about the way to see this “little round planet” and this “big universe”? …
Little, perhaps, consumes our time, energy and money more than our health. And when we seek it, we often turn to what Raymond Downing calls “biomedicine.” He also names it as a fallen principality or power that can be a servant but wants to be our master …
The Mennonite Church USA Executive Board has taken specific leadership steps since February, when it declared that our combined leadership habits do not adequately support our vision and mission. Why did they say this? What actions have they taken? …
What does baptism mean today? As John D. Roth says in his article (page 8), when members of our church are baptized, the vows they take should be the beginning of a covenant relationship taken as seriously by the church as are marriage vows. But uncertainty about what baptism means leaves the vows anemic; many who are baptized drift away from their vows and the church …
Bare, white walls. Clean linoleum floors. Hints of disinfectant in the air. I rounded the corner on my way to Cameron’s room in the stroke unit of the hospital. To my delight and surprise, I saw Tom waiting in the hall while a nurse met with Cameron. I don’t know why I was surprised that people from church would pay him a visit …
