A free film screening.

United Way of West Alabama invites you to a FREE screening of Waiting for “Superman"

in the effort to continue the ongoing conversation about education in West Alabama. Waiting for “Superman” is a 2010 film made for and about kids who are struggling to get a great education and their parents who are doing everything they can to ensure that they get it. You can join the event on Facebook (Waiting for Superman Screening), and tell your friends you're getting involved!

We'll have a local panel of stakeholders on hand to discuss the film afterwards and talk about ways it can stimulate additional discussion about education issues in West Alabama. Also, you'll have the opportunity to take action in the area of education and other social service areas by signing up to be involved in various ways to help improve education and conditions in West Alabama.

For more information or to find out how you or your organization can be involved, contact Rusty Smith at United Way by calling 205.345.6640 or by emailing rusty@uwwa.org.

Circles of Peace Book Club meeting this Sunday.

Circles of Peace members and friends, please bring yourselves to the home of Patrick and Alina Coryell this fine Sunday afternoon for a Circles of Peace Book Club meeting. We will continue our discussion of Gregory Boyd's book, share some snacks and drinks, and enjoy each other's company.

Where: 42 Cherokee Hills, Tuscaloosa 35404 (Google map and directions coming from Grace Church)

When: Sunday, April 10th from 2:00 to 4:00 pm

If you need a ride or have any questions, please email me at mrsalina at me dot com. I look forward to seeing all of you and perhaps some new faces that I have never seen....

An excerpt from our conversation with Mark Johnson.

Mark Johnson, the Executive Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, met with Circles of Peace members in Tuscaloosa earlier this year. The conversation was a lengthy and interesting one; I hope to have the entire transcription available online soon. Until then, here is an excerpt from the conversation:

John Cooper: I feel that Christians are largely culpable for World War II also because if Christians had followed the principles of loving one another and the principles of Jesus Christ and they were, in fact, two supposedly Christian nations fighting and killing each other. Christians in Germany, Christians in the United States, as well as other faiths, did the same thing. I would say that our hands are not clean and we need to repent of our attitudes of supporting war and violence.

Mirza Beg: That is true for all religions. Actually, more people of the same faith have killed each other than persons of one faith killing persons of another faith. Nobody’s hands are clean in that regard.

Michael Fox: We should point out also the German hostility to religion, in particular to Christianity. They were rapidly discarding Christianity at the time of the rise of Hitler. I’m not necessarily sure its fair to say Germans were Christians fighting other Christians.

Things had changed by the time Hitler had risen to power and invaded Poland. I would like to fine-tune the doctor’s question. Granted, were certain ideas in place and certain powers at the time, Hitler could have been prevented. But I believe the question was more about if those ideas hadn’t been tried, or even if they had not been, what you do when you meet the reality of a Hitler. Not how to prevent a Hitler from arising, but dealing with a Hitler that has arisen.

Mark Johnson: I think there is an important context for that question as well because we tend to live in the past as if some of these problems were no longer with us. The fact of the matter is more Africans have been killed in the last ten or twenty years through genocide than people killed in all of the second World War. We continue to use practices that are horrendous and horrible and so we’re still confronted with that question today. There are leaders who are responsible for those deaths. In fact, one of the more interesting questions is-- How is it possible that a small number of individuals are able to shape the response of masses of people, to draw machetes and kill their brothers and sisters and wives and pastors and so on?

Another answer is the answer that Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave-- that when you’re faced by inexorable evil, some people are called to sin. Bonhoeffer chose to return to Germany and join a plot to assassinate Hitler and he knew that was a violation of God’s will, that it was a sin. In a salvationist sense, he would go to hell. But that was his choice to make. I heard an interesting and challenging argument the other evening in a circle like this in Washington, DC by a socialist who was arguing that the only reason that pacifists are present in the conversation, that nonviolence is in the discussion, is because of the threat of violence of others in those cultures-- that they provide the cover for pacifism or nonviolence. A challenging thesis.... a sort of chicken-and-egg kind of thesis. I’m acknowledging that the question has concrete experiences but it’s still hypothetical, especially retroactively in terms of someone like Hitler. And Bonhoeffer gave the answer.

Professor Juan Cole to lecture on revolutions in the Middle East.

Professor Juan Cole will be lecturing on "Liberty, Power, and Dictatorships: US Foreign Policy in the Middle East" on Wednesday, March 9th in 205 Smith Hall (near the Gorgas Library on the University of Alabama campus). This lecture is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

For more information, see the Circle of Peace calendar or visit the Liberty and Power Lectures website.

Circles of Peace Book Club meeting this Sunday.

Our second Circles of Peace book club meeting will take place this Sunday at the home of John Cooper. We will be discussing the first chapter of The Myth of a Christian Nation. If you haven't had time to read the entire chapter, please come anyway. Feel free to bring family and friends.

Food will be served beginning at 1 PM until 2 PM, at which time the meeting will begin and end at around 4 PM. Children are welcome.

Where: 3443 Arcadia Drive.

Driving Directions:

From Downtown, drive down University Blvd. into Alberta City... Turn right on Arcadia Drive besides Rite Aid. Go to the second stop sign and turn into our driveway immediately past the stop sign.

Coming from 15th street turn left just past Brown's garage. Turn left jsut past the Bible Methodist Church on Arcadia Drive. As you approach the first stop sign, turn left just prior to the sign into our driveway.

If you need a ride or have trouble finding the home, please call 205-554-1889.

Catholic approaches to peace and social justice.

Fran Viselli shared a link to the Catholic Social Teachings website, which offers a plethora of resources for Catholics (and non-Catholics) on Catholic teachings for peace, social justice, and nonviolence. You can browse the page yourself, or do a little guided browsing with the links below:

• Five Models and Resources for Discussing Catholic Social Teachings (PDF)
• Development of the Catholic Church's Thinking on Human Rights (PDF)
• "Who is my neighbor: How six people came to work for human rights" by Christopher Ringwald, an inspiring article
• The Web of the Cross, a website dedicated to turning the stations of the cross into an opportunity to think about our global village
• Catholic Studies Database, a clearinghouse for Catholic thinking on social teachings
• A Day in the Life of a Child in the US (PDF)
• Reading list on Catholic social teaching

Don't Let Nobody: A Letter from John

Can we, as Christians and Jews, support our largely Muslim brothers of the Arab world seeking freedom by largely nonviolent means? Are they our brothers? Let us think of Abraham, our common ancestor, either by blood or engrafting, and Ishmael, the son Abraham also loved. Imagine how much God loved and Abraham loved and still loves Ishmael and his descendant. Can we imagine what the world would be like now, if Ishmael had been accepted? What if his descendants were accepted today? Accepted by both Christians and Jews?

Can we see God’s love for our brothers in God in their struggle for peace, for freedom, and justice in order to set their identities free, the largely self-appointed, unaccountable rulers, principalities, and powers over them?

To all who struggle in this world, may we say that God loves you? To the rulers, to the principalities and powers who rule the kingdoms of this world, we call you back to the original goodness in which God created you. You have fallen, yet you can be transformed. We, who are Christians, hear Jesus’ cry on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. Rulers, principalities, powers, God loves you as well. Although God can constrain you in an instant by the Truth coming from His mouth, God is so patient to give you time, which seems to be running out now.

I am a follow of Jesus, and I only claim authority if my words are the same as His, but I am reminded, that Jesus tells us, that “Whoever does the will of God is my mother, brother, and sister”. Note that no fathers are mentioned here. Note that God is our Father-- the father for all of us-- and we know, or perhaps have heard, “God so loved the world that he gave his Son, that whoever believes………” Maybe you already know the rest of the story. I would only say, if God is your father, and you seek to do the will of the Father, I am your brother, and I love you, and hope your quest for freedom succeeds by nonviolent means.

I am reminded of the words of an American preacher, perhaps it was Billy Sunday, “Don’t let Nobody tell you god don’t love you, cause He do…” The English is bad, but the meaning remains the same in any language.

Your brother,

John Cooper