“I have set before you life and death . . . Choose life.” (Deut. 30:19) Scientists tell us that an environmental catastrophe which has already begun threatens every aspect of life as we know it on planet earth. The choice… Read More ›
War and Peace
Troubling Our Souls: Selling Arms to Saudi Arabia, the War in Yemen, and the US Military Industrial Complex by Carol P. Christ
There is a very big elephant in the room. Apparently it is invisible because even the left is not discussing it. This elephant is the civil war in Yemen to which Saudi Arabia has contributed 19,000 (19,000!) deadly (deadly!) air… Read More ›
Kingdom of Women BOOK REVIEW by Katie M. Deaver
In her novel, Kingdom of Women, Rosalie Morales Kearns imagines a reality that is post-patriarchy, and post male violence while showing us what near-future women had to go through in order to get to that reality. Morales Kearns weaves this… Read More ›
Lessons from Shofetim by Ivy Helman.
This is the first part of a series of reflections on the weekly Torah portions. For those of you unfamiliar with Judaism, we read the Torah in sections. There are 52 parshot (or portions), one parshah (portion) is read each… Read More ›
I Dated an American Sniper by Karen Leslie Hernandez
“Happy Memorial Day!” Did you hear that this past Monday? I find this “celebration” confusing. Memorial Day isn’t a celebration, it’s a remembrance. It’s about more than BBQ’s and parades. It’s about honoring those who’ve died while serving our country…. Read More ›
The Pull of Mara by Oxana Poberejnaia
Recently I need to take a deep breath every time I glance at the news headlines. There are terror attacks and military conflicts. People kill each other and cause each other immense suffering. The worst thing is that so many… Read More ›
Sometimes I Think I Am a Voice Crying in the Wilderness … by Carol P. Christ
Just last week I was dumbfounded when an acquaintance told me that his philosopher partner calls a woman leading a workshop on labyrinths “a tree hugger.” “What,” I wanted to say, “is wrong with being a tree hugger? Are we… Read More ›
The Trees and We Breathe Bombs Long Gone by Lache S.
I wish that in our pursuit of finding cures for illnesses we would do more as a collective species to prevent the causes, sometimes environmental ones. Why do we vote for people to make decisions that represent us but that… Read More ›
Outraged? Yes, I Am! by Karen Leslie Hernandez
Readers, please note: this post includes accounts of rape and violence agianst women and quotes distrubing statements of assault made by Donald Trump. These are easily identifiable by the use of italics or as indented, quoted text. Of course I’m… Read More ›
The Reason for Hope Is the Creative Process of Life by Carol P. Christ
In these these days when many of us are gripped by paralyzing despair as we come to terms with the election as President of a racist, sexist bigot who has created a climate of fear and promises to undo much… Read More ›
Keepin’ On Keepin’ On by Carol P. Christ
It is now Monday morning, five days after the new President was elected, despite losing the popular vote. For many of us, and for me too, losing this election feels like losing everything we have worked to achieve during our… Read More ›
The End is Nigh by John Erickson
How will the world end? No, it isn’t Lucifer himself coming from hell to bring in the end times, it is someone far worse, and his name is Donald Trump.
Killing Us Slowly by Judith Shaw
Killing us slowly with your rules. Killing us slowly with your technology. Killing us slowly with your bureaucracy. Killing us slowly…….
Today, I am 50. And I Know Jack-Diddly Squat by Karen Leslie Hernandez
You’d think after all these years I would know, right? I would be sure. I could walk comfortably, touting that I am certain, as so many others my age do. The reality is however, I still don’t know. I am… Read More ›
Education as Resistance by Dawn Morais Webster
Ivy Helman’s recent commentary (((Israel))) criticizes what she sees as “a new form of anti-Semitism” from organizations such as Jewish Voices for Peace in their advocacy of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement. So I begin this account of… Read More ›
Stop Using the H-Word to Greet This Day by Kate Brunner
Happy Memorial Day. Happy? Really? Every year, on the last Monday in May, this prosaic American phrase causes me to physically recoil whenever I see or hear it. Happy Memorial Day. With those casual words, tossed over shoulders on our way to… Read More ›
Feminist Grace – Leading to the Why and the How by Karen Leslie Hernandez
On the occasion of my first post as a new regular contributor to FAR, I decided to share with you my ponderings on my stance as a feminist and what that means to me. I’m a staunch feminist. However, that… Read More ›
Wisdom Fiction (Part 2) by Elise M. Edwards
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston In my previous two posts, I’ve discussed the wisdom that can be found in black women’s literature. Continuing this series,… Read More ›
Can You Imagine a Society of Peace? by Carol P. Christ
As war and the fruits of war, including hatred and the desire for vengeance, threaten our human community, I take this opportunity republish a vision of a Society of Peace. If we cannot imagine a Society of Peace, we will… Read More ›
MORE WAR=MORE REFUGEES: OBAMA IN AFGHANISTAN by Carol P. Christ
President Barack Obama recently decided NOT to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan before his term of office ends in 2016, as he had earlier promised to do. California Congresswoman Barbara Lee—the only member of Congress to vote against the Afghanistan… Read More ›
The Utter and Undeniable Need For Walls of Compassion by Karen Leslie Hernandez
For all souls who died on, because of, and since 9/11 … We build a lot of walls, especially when we are fearful, hateful, angry, and retaliatory. There are personal walls, our own little “bubbles,” that give us the illusion… Read More ›
THE REFUGEE CRISIS IN GREECE: A TEST OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY by Michael Bakas, translated by Carol P. Christ
Note from Carol Christ: I returned home from the Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete a week ago to find my island, Lesbos, and my village, Molivos, overwhelmed with a refugee crisis of enormous proportions. We are a town of about 1000… Read More ›
The Difficult Truth: “Terrorists” are also Human by Hanadi Riyad
This past month Jordan has witnessed a lot of grief, as well as a certain shift in politics and popular opinion regarding Da’esh and the government’s position towards it. On 3 Feb, Da’esh released a video of the immolation of… Read More ›
We Could Have Been Canadians and Other Thoughts about My New England Colonial Heritage by Carol P. Christ
My 2x great-grandparents Nathaniel Searing and Louisa Caroline Martin were pioneers who cleared the land and built a log cabin in Lyons, Michigan in 1840. They were descended from English Puritan Colonial settlers in New England. At least two of… Read More ›
BARBARA LEE SPEAKS FOR ME by Carol P. Christ
While I was in Crete on the Goddess Pilgrimage teaching about and experiencing a Society of Peace where violence and domination were neither celebrated nor encouraged, another war broke out in Iraq, breaking my heart, breaking all of our hearts—yet… Read More ›
Thank You For Your Service by Esther Nelson
We hear it everywhere these days–five words directed towards women and men in military uniform, but also directed towards “vets”–people whose histories include “time served” in some branch of the armed services. TV show hosts say those five words before… Read More ›
Lest We Forget: Jeannette Rankin, the ANZACs, & Me by Kate Brunner
Jeannette Rankin, the first American woman elected as a federal legislator, is probably best known in mainstream American history, if at all, as an ardent pacifist who voted against American military action in both WWI and WWII. I still remember… Read More ›
Evangelical Missionaries Preach Death in Uganda by Andreea Nica
A former evangelical Christian friend of mine sent me information on the intriguing documentary God Loves Uganda. The newly released documentary addresses how the American evangelical movement has prompted a political and social shockwave in the country of Uganda. While… Read More ›
“Never Again…” by Ivy Helman
Every year, the Greater Lowell Interfaith Leadership Alliance, GLILA, sponsors an interfaith service on genocide. During these services, the community gathers together to remember, to mourn, to heal, to honor and to work towards a world in which Elie Wiesel’s… Read More ›
WAR, WAR, WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR? by Carol P. Christ
“They used chemical weapons, we must do something to stop them.” A justification widely used in support of President Obama’s decision to launch a military strike against Syria. We fought the Civil War to end slavery and racism. We fought… Read More ›
