Letters to the Editor

Unchaining Hope

Thank you for uplifting one of North America’s most prophetic and inspirational persons of our time, Daniel Berrigan, SJ (“The Unchained Life of Daniel Berrigan,” August 2016). He was one of the most hopeful people for change in a time and an era when many of us felt little hope for change in the status quo. I never met him personally but was inspired by both who he was as a person and his commitment to a theology of personal involvement and activism for peacemaking.

John Fogleman
Ontario, Canada

Shame and Blame

Jim Wallis’ analysis of “intersectionality” (“The Categories That Divide Humanity,” July 2016) felt to me like an attack on local, traditional cultures, particularly those that are “white.” As a lifelong rural pastor, I know well the propensity of rural communities toward ethnocentrism. And within the context of American society, all white traditional cultures certainly bear the burden of racism. But the solution is not to dismantle all local, traditional cultures, but to fashion communities that value their heritage along with the heritage of all other cultures. Wallis’ shame-and-blame language not only fails to effect positive change in local, traditional cultures but also may well be the kind of “politically correct” discourse that drives traditional “whites” to embrace political demagogues.

S. Roy Kaufman
Freeman, South Dakota

Quakers in the “Powder Keg”

I enjoyed Julienne Gage’s article (“Making Peace in a Powder Keg,” June 2016) very much, especially her report on the activities of Naomi Mwangi. It is interesting to me, a Quaker, that there are more Quakers in Kenya than in any other African country, and in fact more than 153,000—a considerable group in any nation. I have met with Quaker representatives from Kenya here in the U.S. who were attending meetings of the Philadelphia yearly meeting. It is my impression that Kenyan Quakers would be interested in supporting the work of the young activist who is described in Gage’s article.

Alice Hoffman
via email

Concealed Fear

Is there a difference between “fear” and “concern that triggers action” (“Should Christians Own Guns?” by Rob Schenk, May 2016)? Of course there is. The Bible is chock-full of injunctions—“do not fear,” “do not be afraid,” “don’t worry,” and so forth. These are littered through both the Old and New Testaments, including numerous times by Jesus in the gospels. But it is clear that God is not allowing us a lackadaisical attitude of unconcern. Jesus counters the world’s system of hyping fear as a motivator. “Look at the flowers,” Jesus says. The call is not to make us lazy, but to counter fear-mongering. My experience is that the overwhelming bulk of what we hear to justify guns for self-defense is fear-mongering.

Steve Goering
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Correction: “A Veterans Day Confession for America,” a sermon by Chris Antal referenced in our September-October issue, was preached in 2012, not 2016.