Lament, Despair, and Hope
By Rick Barry
Many evangelical Christians confuse lamentation for despair. This confusion can cut us off from one of the most powerful tools in our spiritual arsenal.
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CSA’s free weekly publication, a carefully curated collection of original articles at the intersection of spiritual formation and social action.
By Rick Barry
Many evangelical Christians confuse lamentation for despair. This confusion can cut us off from one of the most powerful tools in our spiritual arsenal.
By Amy Reynolds
The Chicago Declaration Series is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern, a document drafted in 1973 by several evangelical faith leaders, and signed by 53 signatories.
By Bill White
From the back of the gymnasium/fellowship hall, I counted 249 church-goers and leaders, and every one of them was leaning in. No one was on their phone—no, they were too intent on trying to make sense of the unusual scene unfolding in front of them.
By Melanie Springer Mock
My prayer life has never been richer than in the past few years, because my children were becoming adults and I have sometimes felt an acute need for divine intervention in their lives.
By Kayla Craig
They scream with tears in their eyes as they wrestle and fight. “MO-OMMM!” they shout, beckoning me to referee yet another match of brother vs. brother.
I sigh and sit on their bedroom rug, motioning for them to take a seat next to me.
By Michael Stalcup
This poem was originally published in Sojourners Magazine, inspired by James Cone’s book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree.
We shudder at the inhumanity,
the crafted cruelness of that sickening show:
the stripped humiliation, blasphemy
of beaten flesh, death’s agonies stretched slow
by fellow men created in God’s image,
turned terrorists, enslaved to sin’s strange fruit.
By Kaitlin B. Curtice
Originally published on November 26, 2019
I’m constantly asked for resources on how people can move forward learning about Indigenous culture, and I’m often repeating the same thing: read books.
By Kristyn Komarnicki
“The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all [people] human and, therefore, [siblings].”
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The last 12 years of facilitating dialogue across difference through CSA’s Oriented to Love program have taught me many things.
Editor’s note: This piece is part 4 of our 4-part series on the levels of strategy for nonviolent direct action for racial justice. Click here to start at the beginning.
A political miracle for racial justice occurred in Birmingham, Alabama, in the late spring of 1963.
By Liz Cooledge Jenkins
For me, the summer of 2023 feels like the time when the climate crisis finally became impossible to ignore—which may simply mean that the climate crisis has started to impact me personally in more obvious ways.
Editor’s note: This piece is part 3 of our 4-part series on strategic nonviolent direct action for racial justice. Click here to start at the beginning.
“Freedom only comes through persistent revolt — through persistent agitation.”
– Rev.
By Kristyn Komarnicki
As a kid, I was a terrible bully. In 3rd grade, I kidnapped a kid’s blue rock, which he’d brought in for show-and-tell. I left a ransom note that reduced him to a tearful panic, which only made me hate him more.
Editors Note: This piece is part 2 of our 4-part series on strategic nonviolent direct action. Click here for Part 1.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
– Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“Be wise about what is good.
By Misty Irons
Seasoned ministers tell me that preaching and pastoring go hand in hand. You can’t know what to preach to people on Sunday unless you have already spent Monday through Saturday shepherding their hearts.
Editors’ Note: This is part 1 of a 4-part series on the basics of strategy for nonviolent direct action.
So much of our activism is failing for lack of strategy. When it comes to taking to the streets, our protests are often reactive and short-sighted.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:10
You’d never suspect that this short, elderly South African man was once considered a threat to national security.
By Micky ScottBey Jones
After the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, I was forever changed. Nothing could remain the same—not my mothering, not my relationships, not my faith. I needed more than The Power of a Praying Wife.
CSA is a group of Christian scholar-activists, stirring the imagination for a fuller expression of Christian faithfulness and a more just society.
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