These magazine articles and blog posts published by Sojourners through the years pay tribute to the great South African leader.
servant
Jim Wallis 1-03-2014
(360b / Shutterstock)
NELSON MANDELA was the most important political leader of the 20th century. While Roosevelt and Churchill helped protect the West and the world from Hitler’s Nazism, Mandela heroically exemplified the movement against the colonialism and racism that oppressed the global South, shown so dramatically in South Africa’s apartheid. And from a Christian point of view, he combined justice and reconciliation like no other political leader of his time, shaped by the spiritual formation of 27 years in prison.
Shortly after Mandela was released from prison, he came to New York to meet with a small group of Americans who had been involved in the anti-apartheid struggle, and I was blessed to join them. From the start, I felt in Mandela a moral authority I have never experienced with any political leader.
Attending Mandela’s inauguration in 1994 was a highlight of my life. We were picked up at the airport by friends, a couple who had both been in prison and tortured, but now she was about to become a member of the new South African parliament. We saw a group of the infamous South African security police. Having been interrogated by these thugs before, I immediately said, “Let’s get out of here!” To which they replied, “Don’t worry, Jim, they’re ours now.”
At the ceremony, joined by my South African friends, we watched Nelson Mandela announce his vision for a new rainbow nation. More than 100,000 people (and a billion or so more via TV) listened with tears in their eyes and great hope in their hearts.
Martin L. Smith 2-11-2013
(l i g h t p o e t / Shutterstock)
"THIS IS THE LORD'S DOING; it is marvelous in our eyes. On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice in and be glad in it." We will be singing these words from Psalm 118 on Easter Sunday, and they pinpoint a critical issue in our religious witness. Do we have the courage to have God be the subject of sentences, or is God usually the object of our reflections? There is a difference. Do we make ourselves really the subject of our sentences, so that religion is about our doings and ideas and needs? The scriptures insistently talk about what God did and is doing and will do in Christ, the crucified and risen one. Our role is to rejoice in the way God acts upon us, with us, around us, behind us, above us, ahead of us, through us.
Praise is the litmus test. If God is experienced as the one who is acting, the impulse to praise is inevitable. This may help us understand the importance of the psalms in our lectionary. They aren't mere supplementary devotions. As supreme words of praise, they test the authenticity of our reactions to the good news. They test and they can train. The psalter is the church's manual to help practice the "scales of rejoicing," to borrow a phrase from W.H. Auden's "Christmas Oratorio." A phrase on Auden's tombstone comes back to me: "In the prison of his days / Teach the free man how to praise." The psalms come to life only where this teaching is taken seriously.
Aaron Taylor 4-26-2011
Is the gospel about Jesus rescuing us from hell and transporting us to heaven
Kierra Jackson 4-01-2011
I started running because of my sister. Kim and I began when we were pre-teens. I believed running was the key to making me more like her -- 5 foot 9, lean, beautiful, and highly intelligent. There was one problem: I hated running. After forcing myself to do it for a while, I was disappointed. My dreams of who I would become were dashed, and all I got from trotting around was a lower resting heart rate and bulky thighs.
Years later, much has changed -- including my relationship with running. Following her multiple-sclerosis diagnosis in 2009, Kim, who was once a long-distance runner, has retired her running shoes. She hasn't hit the pavement in more than one year. I still run. Something in my spirit won't let me quit.
Last weekend, I completed my fourth half marathon in Washington, D.C. As I toed the start line, a story began to unfold. At 7 a.m., it was barely 35 degrees outside and still dark. I was surrounded by a sea of 16,000 people -- all of whom were present for one thing: to put their bodies to the ultimate test. This morning was all about endurance.
Jim Wallis 1-19-2011
Yesterday afternoon Sargent Shriver, a man of God and dedicated public servant, passed away at the age of 95.
Elizabeth Palmberg 11-29-2010
This year Congress finally passed reform that can get some of Wall Street's most damaging and harebrained schemes under control -- but only if the ground-level regulations written to implement the
Julie Clawson 11-17-2010
Seeking justice for the oppressed. Working to end the connection of child slavery to chocolate. Helping heal a devastated Haiti.
Elizabeth Denlinger Reaves 11-02-2010
Well, we made it to Election Day -- time to pack up the ol' Truth and Civility campaign until the next election
Lynne Hybels 8-30-2010
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a beautiful, lush country, with fertile soil and rich minerals.
Valerie Elverton Dixon 7-22-2010
The controversy over the injustice done to Shirley Sherrod, the African-American woman whose comments on race were taken out of context, misreported, an
Lisa Baumert 7-21-2010
Kindness, gentleness, love, peace, joy. Would you be more likely to describe these character traits as "masculine" or "feminine"?
Sheldon Good 5-27-2010
I'm not a college student anymore, but Dr. Rand Paul just gave me some homework.
Barbara Williams-Skinner 5-04-2010
In an age when many leaders desperately seek their 15 minutes of YouTube fame, Dr. Dorothy Irene Height was celebrated by presidents and everyday citizens alike for being the rarest of all humans -- a servant leader.
Ryan Rodrick Beiler 4-20-2010
[Read more of this blog conversation in response to the Sojourners article "http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&iss
LaVonne Neff 4-05-2010
If you read only one book about the Sabbath, it should be Abraham Joshua Heschel's 1951 classic<
Mimi Haddad 2-23-2010
How many of us feel uneasy when we are told that men, rather than women, are called to be "servant leaders?" Perhaps we are confused by this notion -- that men alone are to be "servant leaders" --