On this day 64 years ago, the US vaporized thousands and poisoned hundreds of thousands with radiation in Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb (nicknamed Little Boy) was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Over 70,000 residents were incinerated. Several days later, on August 9, a second bomb (nicknamed Fat Man) [...]
Editor’s Note: This is a reposting of an article first written on April 27, 2008. “My grandfather fought so that we could have this conversation.” I’ve heard these words (or their equivalent) a dozen times after sharing my pacifist convictions. The assumption here is that it is easy for me to be a pacifist in America. [...]
Editor’s Note: I’ve been going through some previously submitted articles (I’ve realized a number have fallen through the cracks) and found the following thought-provoking article. It is, I hope, the first of a number of articles exploring the topic of homosexuality and the way of Jesus. For the remainder of August, JM welcomes submissions exploring [...]
When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not [...]
“How Does the Kingdom [of God] Come? Its creation is a co-operative task involving both God and man. The pattern of a redeemed society is the thought of God. Its achievement is through the spiritual energy imparted by His spirit in human hearts, but its final consummation comes slowly through the [...]
Nekeisha Alexis-Baker speaks about speciesism, racism and sexism, at Calvin College, January, 2009.
This past spring we helped to organize a small informational gathering on veganism at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, called “peaceable eating.” Mercy for Animals gave a presentation on the egg industry showing that not only regular eggs but also “free range” eggs are part of an industrial system that treats the chickens very poorly in many ways. We then showed a video called “Wegman’s Cruelty” which makes the point very well through images.
The response after the presentation and the video by one of our AMBS professors has had me thinking for quite a while about the use of video and imagery in making a case for veganism. This particular professor told me that everybody can agree that the way the animals are treated is just aweful and something ought to be done to make sure they are treated well. But he could not agree that using nonhuman animals for food is in itself a problem. It is the treatment that is the problem, not our use of nonhuman animals for our own purposes.
I have wondered whether the video (and perhaps the initial presentation) did not reinforce that presumption in this friend and professor.
Although there are many people who are drawn to anarchism’s egalitarian, non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian ideals, a major sticking point is often imagining how it could work. Colin Ward’s Anarchy in Action (Freedom Press) addresses this question. The 130-paged book features fourteen chapters, with the first six dealing primarily with anarchist theories on the state, order, [...]
