Peace Messenger

Peacemaking Weekend at Walla Walla University

“In a world where hate, violence, revenge, and war have become the norm, there needs to be a voice and a people to proclaim afresh the words of Jesus, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’” says Dr. Pedrito Maynard-Reid (left), organizer of the inaugural Peacemaking Weekend at Walla Walla University to be held April 15-17.

Weekend events include presentations on environmental issues and the "Just War" theory, a symposium on Adventism and peacemaking, and a screening of the award-winning film, "The Conscientious Objector."  The Peacemaking Weekend at the Seventh-day Adventist school near Walla Walla, Washington, stems from a recommendation issued by the denomination's North American leadership that its educational institutions set aside time each year to “emphasize and highlight respect, cultural awareness, nonviolence, peacemaking, conflict resolution, and reconciliation.”  more

The War, the Well, and the Wall

Chris Rice reflects on three current tests of our fidelity to the gospel, posed by the "giant triplets" of evil identified by Martin Luther King, Jr as militarism, materialism, and racism:

First, militarism: the alarming trend of addressing conflict through violence as default mode rather than last resort, seen in a U.S. war in Iraq and Afghanistan, engaged and deepened with precious little debate within churches.  The violence of the two-thirds world is in the open.  America’s is hidden and distant (including in our broken urban communities), and the danger is not to see and feel and wrestle with the trauma.

Second, materialism: an oil well spilling out a catastrophe in the Gulf from a human-made volcano cultivated deep in the sea to feed

From Garden to City: Richard Bauckham on the Theology of Revelation - 7

In the beginning God had planted a garden for humanity to live in (Gen. 2:8).  In the end he will give them a city.  In the New Jerusalem the blessings of paradise will be restored, but the New Jerusalem is more than paradise regained.  As a city it fulfils humanity's desire to build out of nature a human place of human culture and community.  True, it is given by God and so comes down from heaven.  But this does not mean humanity makes no contribution to it.  It consummates human history and culture insofar as these have been dedicated to God (cf. 21:2, 14, 24, 26), while excluding the distortions of history

Christian Faith and Ecological Disaster: Confessions of a Conservative Evangelical

Commentary by Russell D. Moore, Dean of the School of Theology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary:

For too long, we evangelical Christians have maintained an uneasy ecological conscience. I include myself in this indictment.

We’ve had an inadequate view of human sin.

Because we believe in free markets, we’ve acted as though this means we should trust corporations to protect the natural resources and habitats. But a laissez-faire view of government regulation of corporations is akin to the youth minister who lets the teenage girl and boy sleep in the same sleeping bag at church camp because he “believes in young people.” ...

National Day of Prayer for Creation Care

From: Michelle Vu's report at Christian Post, May 26

Evangelical leaders from several prominent organizations gathered on Capitol Hill Tuesday to pray, repent and sing about creation care.

The afternoon rally at the Upper Senate Park was among several events that took place for the first-ever National Day of Prayer for Creation Care.

“We pray today especially for those who suffer because of our mistreatment of your world,” prayed Galen Carey [above], director of government affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals, on Tuesday.