We all live in bubbles. That truth hit home this week as I caught up with my friend Eric at Panera Bread. He described in his travel last fall along the “justice road” of the Civil Rights movement of the...
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“Change Gonna Come” was one of the staple songs during the Civil Rights era. Immigrants who came to America found the change they were looking for. Now newly arriving immigrants are discovering our society...
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While on the faculty of Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., J. Lawrence Burkholder participated in an integration effort on March 31, 1964, in Saint Augustine, Fla., which made headlines in newspapers...
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Hardly anyone could have imagined the dramatic shift in relationships that has happened in the past year in the United States. Our communities have become edgy, waiting for the next tragedy to happen. The...
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My job requires me to spend a lot of time thinking about leadership. I oversee a ministry with programs, staff and board members in five states. Keeping everyone one the same page while providing the space to...
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MERIDIAN, Miss. — A bullet tore through the home of Glenn and Emma Myers. It punctured the frame of a bed set against an outside wall. The shooting happened in 1967 in Philadelphia, the heart of civil-rights...
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It isn’t just on MLK Day that we watch it unfold. It happens with national race incidents. It happens in heated conversations. It happens in tweets and Facebook comments. If you are someone who regularly...
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GOSHEN, Ind. — Regina Shands Stoltzfus, assistant professor of peace, justice and conflict studies at Goshen College, has been awarded the Spirit of Justice Award by the State of Indiana Civil Rights...
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Today is the International Day of Peace. Yesterday was recognized in many faith communities as Peace Sunday, and I had the privilege of delivering the sermon with a good friend of mine at Slate Hill Mennonite...
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In 1961, when the Congress for Racial Equality planned a “freedom ride” through the South to test the integration of interstate transit, they were experimenting in nonviolent direct action — a radical...
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I thought I knew the civil rights story, but a weeklong seminar with Hesston College students, faculty, staff and friends March 7-14 gave me much more. What I knew were the broad outlines, major events and...
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HESSTON, Kan. — A former Kansas budget director who served both Democrat and Republican governors says the question for Anabaptists is not “Should we be political?” but “How should we be...
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Tens of thousands of Americans made the pilgrimage to Selma, Ala., March 7. They came to remember the sacrifices of everyday people who risked their lives to expand voting rights in this country. As President...
[read more]A Mennonite couple in Iowa who declined to host a gay wedding at their business have reached a settlement to dismiss discrimination litigation. To avoid further controversy, they will no longer pursue business...
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Last night I went to see Selma, and I was absolutely enthralled. The artistry was beautiful. The actors authentic. The lines soul stirring. When the credits began to roll, I felt as if I had just been through...
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Vincent Harding, a civil rights activist and former Mennonite pastor who wrote Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “Beyond Vietnam” antiwar speech, died May 19 in Philadelphia. He was 82. Harding served as...
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Dr. Vincent Harding, great keeper of the Southern Freedom Movement flame, died May 19th. He was 82 years old. A graduate student in history during the late 1950s, Harding took an integrated road trip through...
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Civil rights leader C.T. Vivian recently spoke at a peace and justice gathering in Detroit. He recalled the struggles of the civil rights era. He said they were successful because justice seekers supported...
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