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Archive: social justice
Defund family planning? Is that pro-life?
Family planning mitigates the need for abortion. Is this really a way to treat human life as sacred?
By Debra W. Haffner | February 16, 2011; 02:23 PM ET | Comments (41)
Egypt's pharaohs and living Exodus
Time to light our nonviolent sparks.
By Arthur Waskow | January 30, 2011; 03:26 PM ET | Comments (9)
Israeli Arabs: A challenge to Israel' s democracy
The best way for Israel to fend off the increasing challenges in the international community to its legitimacy is for the country to be a beacon of justice and liberty for all the world to see.
By Sid Schwarz | January 12, 2011; 01:42 PM ET | Comments (0)
The state of hate
Radio talk hosts are wasting their breath and our time in challenging the notion that hateful words spawn hateful action. We know that "hateful words" induce conflict.
By Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo | January 11, 2011; 03:22 PM ET | Comments (5)
Welfare - real help or hindrance?
A lifetime of welfare without the expectation and means to rise out of poverty, will doom the underclass to a permanent place at the bottom of society.
By Shmully Hecht | December 21, 2010; 02:50 PM ET | Comments (1)
The rich benefit from society and should give back
In a time of massive unemployment, huge deficits and falling income for the middle class and the poor, tax cuts for the wealthy are a form of legalized theft.
By Starhawk | December 13, 2010; 11:29 PM ET | Comments (23)
No shortcut to being exceptional
I fear that the proponents of American exceptionalism will create a shortcut for American pride.
By Sid Schwarz | November 29, 2010; 03:01 PM ET | Comments (2)
Voting is a moral and spiritual act
This is the season of Samhain, of Halloween, the time when Witches say the veils between the worlds are thin and the ancestors come close and whisper in our ears. I'll vote tomorrow, remembering what they spoke to me on Samhain night. I heard them say, "Hope is something that must be eternally renewed."
By Starhawk | November 1, 2010; 07:54 PM ET | Comments (4)
Christians and bullying: standing with gays and lesbians
My mother used to give us kids two instructions: If there is a kid on the playground that nobody else is playing with -- you play with them. If there is a bully picking on other kids -- you be the one to stand up to him or her. There is disagreement within the Christian community when it comes to issues of human sexuality. But, there should be a united front against all who would disrespect, disparage, or denigrate anyone created in the image of God.
By Jim Wallis | October 21, 2010; 05:11 PM ET | Comments (2)
A prayer for a social revolution
While we're on the subject of politics and prayer, allow me to state the obvious: It works both ways. Prayer hasn't always been the province of the political oppressor. It hasn't always been used to protect the interests of the wealthier-than-thou.
By Clark Strand | October 4, 2010; 08:02 PM ET | Comments (1)
"Justice Still Denied" -- My mini-sermon at Lincoln Memorial "One Nation" Service
I was asked by the organizers of yesterday's "One America Working Together," rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to give one of three 5-minute mini-sermons at the interfaith service that kicked off the rally. I was asked to speak on ...
By Arthur Waskow | October 3, 2010; 03:58 PM ET | Comments (0)
Terrorists who falsely claim justification in Islam
It is not surprising that -- given the majority ethos in American culture, identifying Christianity and perhaps Judaism with good and Islam with evil, alien -- American usage has allowed the description of some terrorists as "Muslim terrorists," but has failed to call IRA killers or those who have killed abortion providers "Christian terrorists."
By Arthur Waskow | July 12, 2010; 09:03 PM ET | Comments (3)
The oil spill and the soul of nature
In the Pagan view, ecocide is a heinous crime on a level with genocide--for indeed, to kill an ecosystem is to destroy the people and cultures that depend on it for survival.
By Starhawk | June 19, 2010; 02:37 PM ET | Comments (4)
Catholic views of animals
Ethical concern for animals has been on the ascendancy in Catholic thought for the last century.
By Mathew N. Schmalz | June 15, 2010; 11:54 PM ET | Comments (62)
A moral path toward Gaza
A simple moral test might be this: "If children are suffering because of your political ends or the means you choose to achieve them, do something else." From both the Pagan and the Jewish points of view, actions that condemn children to a stunted life cannot be considered moral by any standards. Israel must lift the siege of Gaza in order to step back onto the beginnings of a moral path.
By Starhawk | June 12, 2010; 06:43 PM ET | Comments (19)
From Eden to the Gulf: Abundance, greed and disaster
All our religious and spiritual traditions warn us against this kind of insatiable hunger for material goods -- often called greed -- and urge us to integrate community, calm, and restfulness into our lives along with striving.
By Arthur Waskow | June 2, 2010; 01:16 PM ET | Comments (2)
Human and religious limitations
The Gulf oil spill will also reveal the limitations of our own ability to appreciate the complex and conflicted role of religion in our contemporary world.
By Mathew N. Schmalz | June 2, 2010; 09:16 AM ET | Comments (0)
Arizona immigration law outlaws faithful acts
We who live lives of privilege have a moral and a spiritual obligation to help illegal immigrants trying to better their lives. Our religious obligation to welcome the stranger is stronger than the laws of the state. And not only are we our brother's and sister's keeper, but we are our brother and sister at a different moment.
By Valerie Elverton Dixon | May 25, 2010; 02:35 PM ET | Comments (7)
Immigration, charity and national integrity
While my opposition to the Arizona law was visceral and immediate, I must admit that there is a common sense quality to the argument that there are laws regarding immigration which exist for a reason and should be enforced.
By Mathew N. Schmalz | May 25, 2010; 02:18 PM ET | Comments (3)
A woman's sacred right to choose
The core issue, for me for the pro-choice movement, is this: Who gets to decide what goes on inside a woman's body?
By Starhawk | May 21, 2010; 03:21 PM ET | Comments (8)
Hindu American community building
At over 2.2 million, Hindus in America now form the fifth largest religious group, after Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. However Hindus are often mischaracterized in textbooks and academia and are not well understood by the majority.
By Anju Bhargava | May 2, 2010; 11:23 PM ET | Comments (1)
Methinks Jim Wallis doth protest too much
Anyone who has the barest familiarity with the way different Christian movements are described knows full well that "social justice" is a recognizable and widely used catchphrase for a certain subset of the Christian family.
By Jason Poling | April 15, 2010; 05:04 PM ET | Comments (2)
Glenn Beck is right
His comments should alert church leaders to the very real harms that can come from the misuse of politics and social justice activism within the church. I'm also glad that a younger pastor came to my parish and brought the "social justice" era to a quick end.
By Ronald Rychlak | April 14, 2010; 03:59 PM ET | Comments (54)
Pagans and social justice
Generosity, justice and fairness are old Pagan virtues, and Robin Hood is one aspect of our Pagan Gods. In fairy tales, the hero/a wins the aid of fortune when she shares her loaf with a beggar or lays his cloak at the feet of a poor widow. The greedy, hoarding, grasping or jealous person ends up defeated and despised.
By Starhawk | April 13, 2010; 03:15 AM ET | Comments (19)
