Molech and Herod
A profound thank-you for Rose Marie Berger’s powerful column, “No More Cover-Ups,” in the December 2018 issue. It is a heroic, necessary, and epiphanic piece: I must have read it a score of times. As a cradle Catholic who never left Holy Mother Church, I wish you would send it to USCCB.org for the bishops to read. I was particularly struck by your bringing in Molech and Herod. Kudos to you for saying Catholics helped elect Herod to the presidency. I am quoting you all over the place: God bless you for such a spirited and enlightened essay.
Philip Kolin
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Jesus Dip for Justice
Ed Spivey Jr.’s “H’rumphs” column, “What, This Again?” in the December 2018 issue astounded me so much I had to read it several times to be sure I understood it. I am not a theologian, but I believe that justice is the very reason Christ died, as spelled out in Romans 4:25: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” To claim [as did the authors of the “For the Sake of Christ” statement] that ideals such as living “justly in the world” are not “definitional components of the gospel” is to deny Christ. It is also to deny the words of God as they are found in Micah 6:8: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
L.K. Barker
Bristol, Tennessee
An Act of Desperation
I read with interest Danny Duncan Collum’s “When Zeal Turns Tragic” in the December 2018 issue of Sojourners. I knew Charles Moore. We served as Methodist ministers together in Carthage, Texas, in the late 1950s and ’60s. It was a tense time during the civil rights movement, and Carthage was a place of anger. Moore was intelligent, bold, reflective, and determined to see change come about. His life was committed to justice. I do not think the tragedy of his death was about depression, but more about desperation; he just could not get support from his denomination. He wanted me informed of his act, as my name was in that paper under the windshield wiper. That has plagued me ever since. He had much to offer, and I did not know of his desperation.
Jack Albright
Jacksonville, Texas
Prison Pipeline
The November 2018 issue of Sojourners had extraordinarily worthwhile articles. “Who Pays for Prison?” by Julie Bender was especially relevant for me. I was involved in child welfare services all my adult life, including 20 years in the U.S. Children’s Bureau. There was a time when those services were child- and family-focused. Yet, today, when children are placed in group care, their case plan often does not include their placement in a family once they are discharged. Most of these kids leave the group alone. I hope Bender will be able to write about this issue and the way it increases the prison population.
Jake Terpstra
Grand Rapids, Michigan
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