The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2015 - (Page 20)

resourCe revIews Prayer&politiks: A Review of Ken Sehested's Online Journal by Dale Roberts T he theologian Karl Barth exhorts Christians to read with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. When you visit prayer&politiks (www.prayerandpolitiks.org), you'll also want your appointment calendar open in front of you. Prayer&politiks calls us to active prayer and stirs us to prayerful and mindful action. Prayer&politiks is Ken Sehested's weekly online journal of news and opinion, a fresh admixture of voices and ideas unlike any other journal I know of, print or electronic. The word politiks in the title comes from the German Realpolitik, meaning "real politics." This is politics as practiced in the suites and in the streets, the struggle between the powers and principalities and the people of faith who resist them. The subtitle is apt: "At the intersection of spiritual formation and prophetic action." The blizzard of bad news in the mainstream media can overwhelm us and push us toward despair. Prayer&politiks tells stories missed or ignored by the commercial media-and tells them in ways that are clear-eyed, yet hopeful. Prayer&politics provides a faith perspective on unfolding events-the news seen through the lens of the Good News-and shows how scripture is a timely and timeless guide to today's struggle toward peace and justice. "Signs of the Times," on the journal's home page, gathers "News, Views, Notes and Quotes." Some are tragic, some infuriating, some frightening, some funny, some provocative, all cogent and engaging. Some will stick in your mind like cockleburs, prodding you to take notice, to think, to pray and to act. "Prayer&politiks tells stories missed or ignored by the commercial media-and tells them in ways that are clear-eyed, yet hopeful." Some news and ideas from recent issues: * A documentary on trauma and suicide among military veterans-CRISIS HOTLINE: VETERANS PRESS 1-won an Academy Award. * An essay on the 100th anniversary of Thomas Merton's birth. * "We're killing a lot of [ISIS fighters] .... " said a US State Department spokesperson, "But we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war." * The North Miami Beach police department was found to be using mug shots of black men as targets on their firing range. A group of Lutheran pastors sent the police department photos of themselves, in clerical garb, with the message, "Use me instead." * A piece on Constance Baker Motley, a lawyer and federal judge, one of the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement. * Quotations from Dag Hammarskjold, from the 14th-century Persian poet Hafez, from Walter Wink, and from Lynda Blackmon Lowery, the youngest person on the 1965 SelmaMontgomery march. Prayer&politiks features essays, articles, reviews, sermons, prayers, and poetry by the journal's editor and other writers, both regular and occasional. Prayer&politiks is essential reading for anyone seeking to connect personal faith with public witness. Preachers will find a wealth of timely and compelling sermon ideas. Ken Sehested was the founding director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and a founding co-pastor of the Circle of Mercy Congregation in Asheville, NC. He has written books, essays, articles,and poems. His work with Christian Peacemaker 20 Baptist Peacemaker APR-JUN 2015 http://www.prayerandpolitiks.org http://www.prayerandpolitiks.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2015

Crossing Borders in 2015
BPFNA Welcomes New Office Manager
Unsettled By Truth: A Border Awareness Experience
What Nagaland Needs: Report from a Conflict Transformation Training
Songs of Victory in Uganda: Report from a Conflict Transformation Training
It Was a Large Day: Reflections on the US-Cuba Policy Change Announcement
My Vocation as a Peacemaker
Christians & Commitment To Truth & Justice: How Churches Are Responding to the Ayotzinapa Kidnapping
Report from the SOA Watch Vigil
BPFNA World Peace Network to Fund Five African Peace Projects
In the Land of the Willing: A Review of Ken Sehested's New Book
Prayer & Politiks: A Review of Ken Sehested's Online Journal
Resources & Opportunities
2014 BPFNA Highlights
Contributors
Rags of Weariness

The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2015