Religion Violence

Ever wonder why much of American Christianity is pro-spanking, pro-tough-on-crime, anti-gun control, pro-war, and hell-affirming, even though Jesus taught mercy, non-violence and enemy love? When Michael Camp started deconstructing his evangelical faith, he noticed a pattern. The doctrines he questioned—original depravity, substitutionary atonement, God-ordained genocide in the Old Testament, the doctrine of hell, etc.—were all tied to retribution and violence.

In An Antidote to Violence, Barry Spivack and Patricia Anne Saunders examine the peer-reviewed research and suggest that TM can influence the collective consciousness of a society which leads to a decrease in negative social trends, such as a decline in war fatalities, and to an increase in cooperation between nations. Weaving together psychology, sociology, philosophy, statistics, politics, physics, and meditation, An Antidote to Violence provides evidence that we have the knowledge to reduce all kinds of violence in society.

Warum radikalisieren sich Teenager in aufgeklärten und freien Gesellschaften wie Österreich, Deutschland und Frankreich? Anhand von fünf Biographien bieten Anja Melzer und Fabian Reicher authentische Einblicke in die perfide Propaganda von IS und Islamisten bei europäischen Jugendlichen und klären über die dschihadistische Jugendsubkultur auf. Sie beschreiben ihren in der Praxis erfolgreichen neuen Ansatz, wie radikalisierte Jugendliche zurückgewonnen und weitere dschihadistische Anschläge in Europa verhindert werden können.

Black Americans' resilience during centuries of racially motivated violence is beyond remarkable. But continuing to endure this harm allows for generations of trauma to fester and grow. Healing has to be the priority going forward. For decades, Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts clung to her upbringing in the church, believing that racial reconciliation would come through faith and discipline, being respectable, and doing what's right. But when her cousin became the victim of a white supremacist's hateful rampage, her body and soul said, "no more."

While millions of believers around the world are finding their understanding of Christianity to be outdated and untenable, Matthew Distefano has managed to paint the gospel in such a way that even an atheist could appreciate its beauty. Rather than a message of rapture, or rewards and reprisals, Distefano presents the good news of what God has done in history to stem the tide of our own violence and evil - inviting us into a whole new way of living and being in this world.

Have Christians settled for artistic bankruptcy? To understand Jesus and the Bible, you have to understand art. The art God creates and commissions comforts and encourages, and it disturbs and offends. What is art? Does it ever go too far? How should Christians understand, receive, and create it?

God at War explores the dark attraction between religion and warfare. Virtually every religious tradition leaves behind it a bloody trail of stories, legends, and images of war, and most wars call upon the divine for blessings in battle. This book finds the connection between religion and warfare in the alternative realities created in the human imagination in response to crises both personal and social.

Over the 20-year period that I was trapped in an abusive marriage, I left and reconciled with my husband many times before God gave me the courage to break free once and for all. I wanted to find a book that would soothe my troubled spirit and show me clearly the Scriptures that speak of God's heart for hurting and abused women. I could not find such a book and so, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I wrote this 40-day devotional. This devotional aims to comfort and uplift the hurting heart of any woman who, like me, was overwhelmed by the pain of an abusive marriage.

Jesus an anarchist? That doesn't sound like the Jesus preached by the political establishment, mega church pastors, or even most small town ministers. Nevertheless, Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God that makes all other political loyalties inconsequential.