May 8th

I feel saturated by Sustainable Agriculture. The ideas don’t interest me as much any more. I don’t feel inspired by another wholesome farming poem or analysis of the good life or good work anymore. I don’t feel energized by knowledge about industrial agriculture, CAFOs, and eating choices at the supermarket. Granted, I still want to do it. and believe in it. But as a movement of ideas and philosophy, I need to get away from it, or maybe it needs to get away from me, for a little while. Even good water flows away from plants as it sinks into the ground, and if it stays it rots them. The soil is saturated and now must infiltrate deeper and flow away before I can appreciate the next rains….

Rev. Gabriel Salguero: My Living Paradox

Often when speaking to a new group of people, many assumptions are made depending on how I am introduced. If they lead with "Pentecostal" or "Nazarene" I’m pegged as a conservative Republican who has made up his mind about most things. If they lead with "Latino" and "Union Ph.D. student," the assumption is that I am a theological social liberal who has made up his mind about most things. Now I know I'm not the only one who, in searching to be a faithful disciple of Christ, eschews facile definitions too often used to divide and alienate. There are an increasing number of Latino/a, black, white, and Asian evangelicals (just to name a few groups) who in their search to be faithful to the gospel draw from a plethora of sources. Perhaps we are labeled as post-modern believers or anti-traditionalists. The truth is we are part of a long history of Christians struggling to be faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ.

get the full essay from "God's Politics" a Blog by Jim Wallis and friends
http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics/2007/04/rev-gabriel-salguero-my-living-paradox.html

"From where do I get my hope? From the people of this place, and those Israeli/Palestinian peace activists who believe passionately that given justice and equality for all its citizens, peace and human security is possible in this holy land. I take hope, too, from the courage of the young Israeli reservists who, following their conscience, have refused military duty in the territories. ... I have watched, too, those in the resistance movements who believe justice will only come through violence, and in their frustration, pain, and anger have turned to armed resistance, suicide bombs. Suicide bombs tragically take the life of those who use them, and have taken the lives of many Israeli people, and others, and such actions can never be justified. I would therefore like to appeal to those who use such violence, (including those who use the threat of violence by calling for the destruction of Israel) to abandon these immoral and illegal methods, and use nonviolent language and means of working for justice and freedom."

- Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work as co-founder of the Community of Peace People in Northern Ireland, speaking to a nonviolence conference in the West Bank. Later that same day, during a nonviolent protest against Israel's separation barrier, she was shot in the leg with a rubber-coated steel bullet by Israeli soldiers.