This is a piece submitted by a new guest writer, my dad Ron Kephart. I was inspired when he told me this story, and asked if he would write about it for us. The opportunity for transformation has never passed.
I don’t do coincidence, but if I did, Three Cups of Tea, and the latest humanitarian [...]
Mimi and I returned from Colombia a little over a week ago. What an adventure! Through the logistics of traveling on someone else’s time and with a large group, we managed to form new relationships, put human faces on known facts, and step out of our comfort zones and into the complicity our country’s violent [...]
I’ve been thinking a little bit about the scope of things recently. The question of large-scale or small-scale, macro or micro, individual or systemic change has been a continual one for me over the past several years. The tide has ebbed and flowed. My heart-strings are tugged on by the individual and the specific, and [...]
The Shalom House Festival. This is only the second one we’ve done, and so for many of you, you may be saying: What the heck is it? The festival is generally a venue for the community members and guidance team of Shalom House to share what we’ve been up to, where we’re headed, and to [...]
from the Conscience in War website:
Current requirements for Conscientious Objector status require opposition to “war in any form.” This requirement denies freedom of conscience to any service member who believes that some wars may be morally justified while others are not. Service members who oppose a particular war, such as [...]
How do we encounter militarism? My answer to this question has changed over the years, however the answer that is still most closely tied to my heart is one from more than 10 years ago. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, my home county has a population of about 38,000, roughly half the population of [...]
This week we will have some guest writers on the SH Blog. First we welcome a reflection from Josiah Lash, friend and fellow peacemaker.
On Saturday, a group of 18 friends and neighbors, mostly from Circle of Hope, went to the Army Experience Center at Franklin Mills Mall. It was an educational trip to quietly observe [...]
This week we consider the most prominent armed conflict the US is involved in currently: Afghanistan.
The news this week is that NATO and Allied forces are preparing for the largest offensive in Afghanistan since 2001. In reading the news on this development I continued to question the ways world leaders choose to exert and maintain [...]
I’d like to share with you a some lyrics and a song from a dear friend of Shalom House, Zack Jackson. Zack shared this at an open-mic event I attended recently.
Muddy Hands
A child caught with muddy hands A termite mound with bigger plansWe stormed the beach and saved the landBut it turns out it [...]
I’m passing this along from a former Shalom House Guidance Team member, Randy Nyce:
There is an interesting cultural and generational debate. I found this response by a young Anabaptist working for peace to be very interesting. He responds to an article by a former hippie-type Mennonite who mocks “peacenjustice” as if it was a failed [...]