Obama’s Just War Nobel Speech
President Obama’s address to the Nobel Peace Prize Assembly has been justly praised for reintroducing the tradition of “just war” thinking into discussions of peace-building. His carefully reasoned exploration of …
The Junaluska Conferences
Last week Sylvia and I were heavily involved in two conferences at the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center a few miles from our home. Both occurred in pouring rain …
Connecting with Health Care
I often return to Lanier Johnson’s comment in Red Clay, Blood River that “Connection is the name of the ecological game.” (p. 32) The angry debates over reforming our health …
Rupert Ross’s Returning to the Teachings
For some time my friend Tom Porter has urged me to read Rupert Ross’s, Returning to the Teachings: Exploring Aboriginal Justice (Penguin, 1996, 2006). I just finished it with the …
Remembering Holy Ground
On June 28 friends and supporters of Holy Ground, the retreat ministry here in western North Carolina which I have advised and supported for the past fifteen years, gathered to …
On War and the Soul
When I wrote up my reflections on military trauma after the JustPeace Conference, I had not yet read Edward Tick’s book, War and the Soul: Healing our Nation’s Veterans from …
Military Trauma, Ethics, and Conflict Transformation
“Trauma Healing: Preparing Churches to Receive Returning Military Personnel” was the focus of the JustPeace Gathering I attended on April 1-2 in Nashville, TN. JustPeace is the Mediation and Conflict …
On Time, Memory, and Reconciliation
Several things have converged in the last few days to make me think about time, memory, and reconciliation. But it’s not an easy topic! St. Augustine had it right: “If …
On Markets and Families
American Conservatism is indeed at a crossroads without a map. In a recent article, Yuval Levin (“The Republicans’ Road Back,’ Newsweek, March 16, 2009, p. 33) states “conservatives have sought …
The OIKOS Word on Ecology
Environmental concerns reach back to my earliest years, when I spent my summers on a family farm in northern Virginia and even formed a “Nature Club” when I was about …
My Approach to Restorative Justice
The concept of restorative justice has emerged strongly in the past few years to sit as an equal beside more familiar forms of retribution, distribution, and exchange. At its heart …