Current Affairs and Causes on Peacemaking

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Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

James 3:18, Micah 6:8, Matthew 5:9, Isaiah 1:16-17, Proverbs 16:7

Peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice.

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Fixing the Road

Author

Michelle Ferrigno Warren

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 82:3-4, Amos 5:24, Jeremiah 22:3, Matthew 25:35-40, Proverbs 31:8-9, Isaiah 1:17, Micah 6:8

After several years of engagement in justice work Warren says in reflection on the story of the Good Samaritan, “I realized it’s not okay to have a road that perpetuates the beating, robbing, and pote...

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Love and Power

Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:7-12 , 1 Kings 3:16-28, Isaiah 1:16-17, Luke 4:16-21, Psalm 72:1-4 , Ephesians 3:16-19

One of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites, polar opposites, so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and powe...

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A Guard Against Paternalism

Author

Kent Annan

Keywords

Justice

Scripture

Galatians 6:2, Romans 12:10, Isaiah 1:17, Micah 6:8, James 5:16

Practicing confession is one way to guard against paternalism in both extreme and more subtle ways. For example, we can tell stories of justice in a way that discounts other people’s agency—that is, t...

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Almighty God, too often we settle for

Author

Laura B. Murray

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 12:18, Psalm 51:10, Isaiah 1:17, James 2:13, Micah 6:8, Matthew 5:6

Almighty God, too often we settle for brokenness in our lives. Rather than offering forgiveness, we hold onto offense. Rather than pursuing justice, we turn away . Rather than offering mercy, we c...

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Confess Your Mixed Motives

Author

Kent Annan

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, James 1:27, Isaiah 1:17, Romans 12:2, Galatians 6:9-10

In U2’s song “One,” Bono sings, “Have you come here to play Jesus / To the lepers in your head?”2 Yes, if you are involved in justice work, you probably have. So have I. This isn’t bad. Just honest. W...

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Author

Clayborne Carson, Kris Shepard

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 3:18, Luke 4:18-19, Proverbs 31:8-9, Romans 12:21, Isaiah 1:17

Martin’s [Luther King] voice was more than the communication of intellectual ideals and spiritual vision. It was a call for action, action which he personally led. . . . [Martin] saw leadership as a p...

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A Review of "The Minority Experience" by Adrian Pei

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:14, Galatians 3:28, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Proverbs 31:8-9, James 2:1-4, Amos 5:24, Isaiah 1:17

Editors Note: This is perhaps less a review as a jumping off part to articulate some thoughts I developed while reading The Minority Experience. For a full review of the title, a cursory google search...

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Author

Albert Lutuli

Keywords

Scripture

John 13:34-35, Isaiah 1:17, Proverbs 31:8-9, Acts 17:26, Micah 6:8, James 2:1, Galatians 3:28

To remain neutral in a situation where the laws of the land virtually criticized God for having created men of color was the sort of thing I could not, as a Christian, tolerate.

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Author

Lesslie Newbigin

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17, Amos 5:24, Proverbs 21:15, Psalm 33:5, Isaiah 61:8, Psalm 106:3, Zechariah 7:9-10, Psalm 82:3, Jeremiah 22:3, Hosea 12:6, Deuteronomy 16:20, Jeremiah 7:5-7, Matthew 23:23

If we acknowledge the God of the Bible, we are committed to struggle for justice in society. Justice means giving to each his due. Our problem, as seen in the light of the gospel, is that each of us o...

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God, the fact that we feel

Author

Mark D. Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 24:1, Genesis 1:26, James 1:27, Matthew 25:40, Amos 5:24, Isaiah 1:17

God, the fact that we feel uncomfortable is evidence that we perceive the injustices in our world. We don’t ask you to help us hear the cries of injustice, but rather to give us courage to act against...

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Violence is Intentional

Author

Gary A.Haugen

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 1:17, Micah 6:8, Exodus 22:22-23, Proverbs 14:31, Luke 4:18

In his excellent book, Just Courage , founder and CEO of the International Justice Mission, Gary Haugen articulates some of the realities behind the systemic oppression of the poor around the world...

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Author

Miroslav Volf

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 7:21, Ephesians 2:10, Titus 1:16, Matthew 25:40, Romans 12:21, Isaiah 1:17, Micah 6:8

There is something profoundly hypocritical about praising God for God’s mighty deeds of salvation and cooperating at the same time with the demons of destruction, whether by neglecting to do good or b...

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Litany of Penitence

Scripture

2 Chronicles 7:14, Luke 19:1-10, Luke 15:11-32, Isaiah 1:18, James 5:16

The Celebrant and People together, all kneeling Most holy and merciful Father: We confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinne...

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Dying from the Unspoken War Back Home

Author

John M. Perkins

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 2:11-25 , Amos 5:21-24, Isaiah 1:16-17 , Luke 4:16-21 , Romans 12:17-21 , Psalm 34:18-19

I was sixteen when a white deputy sheriff shot and killed my twenty-five-year-old brother, Clyde, in New Hebron, Mississippi, where we had grown up. Clyde had returned home from fighting in World War ...

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Eternal God, our judge and redeemer, we

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 1:9, Psalm 32:5, Isaiah 1:18, Psalm 51:1-2, Micah 7:18-19, Ephesians 1:7, 2 Chronicles 7:14

Eternal God, our judge and redeemer, we confess that we have tried to hide from You, for we have done wrong. We have lived for ourselves, and apart from You. We have turned from our neighbors and refu...

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Atonement

Author

Ian McEwan

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 1:7, Romans 5:8, Micah 6:8, Hebrews 9:22, Psalm 51:1-2, Isaiah 1:18

When something has gone wrong, justice needs to be done and seen to be done. Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement examines exactly this same dynamic. The central character, Bryony Tallis, makes a grave mista...

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MLK Day Prayers for Church Services: Liturgy & Sermon Resources

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, Amos 5:24, Isaiah 1:17, Galatians 3:28, James 2:1, Ephesians 2:14

Updated for 2026. January 19, 2026 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day— the only U.S. national holiday commemorating a pastor. Under his leadership, non-violent civil rights advocacy achieved leaps f...

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Adapted from a variety of scriptures

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 1:18, Joel 2:13, Psalm 103:8, 1 John 1:9, Psalm 51:17, James 4:10, James 4:10

Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be like wool. Rend your heart, and not...

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Author

Cornel West

Keywords

Scripture

James 3:17-18, 1 Timothy 3:2-3, John 8:32, Jeremiah 23:5, Isaiah 1:17, Proverbs 29:4, Exodus 18:21

If your success is defined as being well adjusted to injustice and well adapted to indifference, then we don’t want successful leaders. We want great leaders who love the people enough and respect the...

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Author

Christian Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 5:22-23, Romans 2:14-15, Matthew 22:37-39, Isaiah 1:17, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 119:9-11, Micah 6:8

“Moral”…is an orientation toward understandings about what is right and wrong, just and unjust, that are not established by our own actual desires or preferences but instead are believed to exist apar...

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Justice is Personal

Author

Andy Crouch

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 25:40, Leviticus 19:15, Galatians 3:28, James 2:8-9, Amos 5:24, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17

When did the topic of justice become important to you?” Gideon Strauss posed that question to two dozen people crammed into our living room one fall evening in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Some of us wer...

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Rosa Parks & Helpful Comparisons

Author

Richella J. Parham

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 12:2, Luke 4:18-19, Ecclesiastes 3:7-8, Amos 5:24, Proverbs 31:8-9, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17

Very often, comparison to an ideal is a helpful practice, not a harmful one. Helpful comparisons are those that place a normal or ideal condition on one side of a scale and a real-life condition on th...

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Understanding How Violence Exploits the Poor

Author

Gary A. Haugen

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 22:22-24, Judges 19:22-30 , Isaiah 1:17, Luke 4:18-19, Ephesians 5:11, Psalm 10:8-9

The first thing to notice is that violence is intentional. For example, one of the most brutal forms of violence affecting millions of poor women and girls in our world is sex trafficking. Lured a...

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Author

Clement of Alexandria

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 1:9, 2 Timothy 2:22, Romans 12:2, Isaiah 1:16-17, Proverbs 1:7, James 1:5

Therefore let us repent and pass from ignorance to knowledge, from foolishness to wisdom, from licentiousness to self-control, from injustice to righteousness, from godlessness to God.

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Pious Irrelevancies and Sanctimonious Trivialities

Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 4:18-19, Matthew 23:23, Galatians 3:28, Jeremiah 22:3, Amos 5:24, Isaiah 1:17

In his now famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. offers a scathing rebuke of his white clergy colleagues, whose inaction caused him much frustration: I have heard numero...

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Biblical Rigtheousness Goes Beyond the Private

Author

John R. W. Stott

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:16-17, Amos 5:24, Jeremiah 22:3, Zechariah 7:9-10

For biblical righteousness is more than a private and personal affair; it includes social righteousness as well. And social righteousness, as we learn from the law and the prophets, is concerned with ...

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Tell Them About the Dream, Martin!

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 5:9, James 2:8, Proverbs 21:3, Romans 12:21, Isaiah 1:17, Galatians 3:28

Most of us in the United States know the famous “I have a Dream” speech Martin Luther King Jr. gave at the Lincoln Memorial as part of the 1963 March on Washington. On a sweltering, humid day in the n...

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Caring For Them is What We’re on this Earth For

Author

Thomas G. Long

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 1:17, Colossians 3:12, Romans 12:10, Proverbs 31:8-9, Galatians 6:2, Matthew 25:40, James 1:27

In this beautiful illustration from Tom Long’s well-known preaching guide, The Witness of Preaching , a pastor shares a true story of what valuing human life can look like when God’s Kingdom takes ro...

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Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing

Keywords

Scripture

Titus 3:5, Micah 7:18-19, Joel 2:12-13, Ephesians 1:7, 2 Chronicles 7:14, 1 John 1:9, Isaiah 1:18

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and ackno...

current affairs and causes on Peacemaking

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