Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

His Message: Jailed But Not Barred from God

TIERRA NUEVA'S CHAPLAIN REACHES OUT FROM THE INSIDE by Ralph Schwartz

The door to a meeting room in the Skagit County Jail suddenly clanged open and a handful of inmates, clad in red jumpsuits and sandals, drifted in.

Guards call the space the multiuse room or library, and it serves that function with tattered paperbacks stacked in tall piles, a table and some plastic chairs. The room is dark, its cinderblock walls painted a dull brown.

Meandering Rant (Don't Read) by Eric Janzen

It is quite possible that I am currently dreaming.  And it is certainly possible that I am fully awake.  I wonder some times about the bubble I live in.  If I just pushed hard enough with those invisible hands could I pop what must be a fragile frontier?  Probably not...and that is probably a good thing.  What is beyond that bubble? Terrifying realities or the confirmation of all the things I have come to believe?

The Beatitudes: When Mountain Meets Valley by R. Dart

Review of Ron Dart's The Beatitudes: when Mountain Meets Valley, published by Freshwind Press, Abbotsford, B.C., 2005;  91 pages, and $14.99  Review by Barry K. Morris

Ron Dart has written a concisely compelling reflection on the classic beatitudes. This book is very readable, and even a  quick browse yields gleanings that lure a more attentive return read, soon after.

The sub-title focuses the interpretation of Mathew's Gospel's  material. To excerpt one: "Each of the  Beatitudes begins and ends with a peak and positive insight, but there is a valley to be hiked between..." and again: "... each Beatitude begins and ends with a peak promise, but between each peak is a dark and difficult valley through which we must pass"(34,40). Dart shares scholarly sources, hints at lots more ( than what he actually  cites), and writes confessionally as well as polemically. The preface, introduction and two appendices -- "The Christian Prophetic Tradition" and "The Neo-Gnostic Tradition: Three Acts in an Unfolding Drama" -- are worth the price of the book alone! There are creative polemics going on, herein, in the service of a useable past.

Faith-based Terrorism: State and Retail by Cyril Sweetville

The media has continually shown various forms of violence across the globe. Part of this violence includes faith-based terrorism.  This type of terrorism is a fundamental factor in the conflicts that are being carried out across the world.  From Islamic extremist states supporting terrorist acts to private organizations, such as the IRA and the Tamil Tigers, all have an element of faith foundations. Faith-based terrorism is so complex that modern day democracies are sometimes incapable of dealing with it effectively.

The Reddenbops of Saturn by Christine Pendleton

On Saturn, a planet far, far away lived a large group of Reddenbops that drooled over anything red. 

Their chubby cheeks and furry bellies could make anyone laugh and their Red Rock Palace was a breathtaking sight to behold.  There lived the King and Queen Reddenbop with all their expensive red objects and glistening red fur.  No one was redder than the King and Queen and their palace was heaven to the eyes of all the Reddenbops.

"My God, my genie, why have you forsaken me?" by Cam Stuart

I was having one of those wonderful father moments chatting with my son at bed time when I asked him if there was anything that he would like to pray about. His answer startled me in its raw honesty. He asked, “Why should I pray when God never answers my prayers?” This comment brought to mind many faces of others who have expressed similar disappointment. 

When people talk to me about disappointment in their prayer lives, I might ask them to also describe the God to whom they pray. Over the last few years as I have listened to people praying and to their disappointment in prayer, I have come to wonder if they need to rethink their theology concerning the god to whom they pray. Is the God to whom they are praying in fact the God that has revealed himself in Scripture? Just because someone says they pray to god does not necessarily mean they are praying to the God of Scripture. 

 

Covenant of Peace by W.M. Swartley Book Review by W. Northey

Book Review of Covenant of Peace: The Missing Peace in New Testament Theology and Ethics, Willard M. Swartley, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmanns, 2006; 542 pp.

By Wayne Northey 

It was my good fortune to have spent a little time with Mennonite New Testament theologian Willard Swartley at the June, 2006 Colloquium on Violence and Religion (COV&R) in Ottawa, Canada. I first heard from him about what surely is his magnum opus, the volume under review. Though he has written and edited over 20 books during his fruitful career as professor (now emeritus) of New Testament at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhard, Indiana.

Diefenbaker and Harper by Ron Dart

Diefenbaker and Harper:
Classical Canadian Tory Meets Republican Conservative
 

I would be quite willing, personally, to leave the Hudson Bay Company awilderness for the next half century, but I fear if  the Englishmen do not go there, Yankees will.

Sir John A. Macdonald 1865 

There were two heads of state that President Kennedy had little patience for and often faced off with in nasty sparring sessions: General Sukarno of Indonesia and Prime Minister John Diefenbaker of Canada. Diefenbaker, again and again, refused to give Kennedy his way. The King of Camelot was never pleased with the way he was treated in Canada.