By Jeff Brumley A Baylor University study shows that faith-based prisoner re-entry programs – at least in one case – help ex-cons, society and taxpayers. The study analyzed the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a Minnesota program that uses volunteers and private…
They are your brothers
The news of late has been enough to depress just about anyone who longs for and fights for justice, fairness, and equality. We have seen states trying to limit a woman’s access to healthcare and limit her right to make her own…
Demanding a living wage
By Molly T. Marshall Fast-food workers in Kansas City have been marching, taking an “unofficial strike” from their jobs at Burger King, Wendy’s and McDonald’s, to name three of the worst offenders. Joining similar rallies all over the nation, they…
Doing the gospel
By Miguel De La Torre To engage in justice is to do it with, and from, the perspective of those whom society considers nobodies. While many within the Eurocentric context question the existence of God, those on the margins are…
Pastor treads lightly on Zimmerman trial
By Bob Allen The day after George Zimmerman was found not guilty of the second-degree murder of Sanford, Fla., teenager Trayvon Martin, a local pastor’s sermon series on the Ten Commandments landed on the Sixth Commandment, “thou shalt not kill.”…
Jury selection helped Zimmerman
By Alan Bean A jury comprised of five white women and one Latina has acquitted George Zimmerman on all charges. This outcome was largely determined by the way we select juries in America. Imagine that two women who looked like…
Christians and capital punishment
By Roger Olson To this day, the majority of Americans favor capital punishment for certain crimes, in spite of — or perhaps because of — the almost overwhelming negative judgment about it on the parts of intellectuals and writers. I…
A zeal he does not own
There is a wonderful, thought-provoking text by the hymn writer Frederick W. Faber (1814-1863) titled “There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy. It speaks to this generation perhaps even more powerfully than to his own. It is not sung as often…
Forgiving Judas
By Miguel De La Torre Lately I have been rethinking Judas — history’s ultimate villain. Dante in Canto XXXIV places Judas in the Ninth Circle — the deepest realm of the Inferno. Under his feet are the most evil of…