Carl Wilkens Interview (AToday)

Carl Wilkens is the focus of the 7th installment of the Viewpoints interview series at Adventist Today. Carl stayed in Rwanda during the genocide in 1994, and he now travels with his wife speaking on issues of human rights and peacemaking. An excerpt from the interview: Jeff: You have said that when faced with evil [...]

Disagreeing Well

Yesterday we had a lively “debate” about women’s ordination in the A2 Facebook group. I appreciated two aspects of the conversation. First, there was diversity of opinion. Adventist “ethicists” have a wide range of views, interpretations and approaches. This is good. Groupthink is not helpful. No view, no matter how foundational to Adventism or Christianity [...]

Daniel Buttry, Baptist Peacemaker

Tonight I had the privilege of attending a nearly two-hour presentation and meet-n-greet with peacemaking activist, theologian and missionary, Dan Buttry. In a Christian Peacemaking independent study I did last year, two of the books I used were by Dan–Christian Peacemaking (1994) and Peace Ministry: A Handbook for Local Churches (1995). I recommend both. This [...]

Andrews Univ: Summit on Social Consciousness

Summit on Social Consciousness: Lessons from Rwanda (April 11-14, 2012) This past weekend, Andrews University hosted Carl Wilkens at the Summit on Social Consciousness.[i] Wilkens, who worked for ADRA at the time and is now the co-founder of World Outside My Shoes, was the only U.S. citizen who remained in Rwanda during the 100-day genocide [...]

Union College — Conflict & Peacemaking Class

Thank you, Union College Agitators, for hosting us this week. Below are resources I told Chris Blake I would share with the Conflict and Peacemaking class. DISCLAIMER: This list does not mean I endorse every sentiment expressed in the songs, articles, books and films, but they are sources of thought-provoking material. May we ever rely [...]

SDA Potpourri

Faith in the Public Sector? Young Adventist Professionals Speak Out (NARLA) Valley View University’s green campus [video] (ANN, 24 Feb 2012) Dangerous Redefinition: Candidates Recast Role of Religion in American Life (Jason Hines, Religious Liberty.TV, 24 Feb 2012) When Women Break the Bread of Life (Donna J. Haerich, Spectrum, 23 Feb 2012) A House Divided [...]

SDA Potpourri

Here is a bit of reading for your Sabbath: One in Christ – Petition Virginia Seventh-day Adventists Reach Across Globe to Help Kenya’s Children (Rebecca Jackson, Adv Review) College Remembers Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy (Giovanni Hashimoto, PUC, 13 Jan 2012) U.S. Supreme Court ruling is First Amendment defense, Adventist legal counselors say (ANN, 13 [...]

Close the SOA/WHINSEC

Reflections on the Vigil to Close the SOA November 18-20, 2011 “It’s a beautiful day. Sky falls, you feel like it’s a beautiful day. Don’t let it get away.” Our wake-up call was the sound of U2’s “Beautiful Day” pumping through the bus’s speakers. Despite being groggy from the over-night bus ride from Ann Arbor [...]

Half the Sky

Half the Sky: Sexual Honor, Violence, and Maternal Health (Jared Wright, Adv Women’s Blog, 6 Nov 2011). Excerpts: Shockingly high rates of women and girls are killed each year for falling in love or being accused of immodesty, and often there is no proof that they have had sex. “The paradox of honor killings,” the authors [...]

Global Days of Listening

The next Global Days of Listening will be beginning September 20 at 8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific and continues for 24 hours. “Listen to, and talk about, what it is like to live in war-torn countries & about the wish to live without wars.” Noam Chomsky (10:30 am EasternUS 9/21); Kabul-based Afghan Peace Volunteers (9:30 am Eastern US [...]