Blessed Are the Activists

Blessed Are the Activists
Author: Michael J. Cangemi
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2024
Genre: History
ISBN: 081736126X

Documents the history of Catholic activism to mitigate human rights abuses in Guatemala and the failed US policies in the country and region during the 1970s and 1980s Blessed Are the Activists examines US Catholic activists' influence on US-Guatemalan relations during the Guatemalan civil war's most violent years in the 1970s and 1980s. Cangemi argues that Catholic activists' definition of human rights, advocacy methods, and structure caused them to act as a transnational human rights NGO that engaged Guatemalan and US government officials on human rights issues, reported on Guatemala's human rights violations, and criticized US foreign policy decisions as a contributing factor in Guatemala's inequality, poverty, and violence. His work foregrounds how Catholic activists emphasized dignity for Guatemala's poorest citizens and the connections they made between justice, solidarity, and peace and brought Guatemala's violence, poverty, and inequality to greater global attention, often at great personal risk. Cangemi pays considerable attention to multiple facets of the strained US-Guatemala diplomatic relationship, including how and why Guatemala's military dictatorship exposed the internal flaws within the Carter administration's decision to link military aid to human rights and how internal foreign policy debates in the Carter and Reagan administrations helped to intensify Guatemala's bloody civil war. He also includes interviews conducted with Guatemalan genocide survivors and refugees to provide firsthand accounts of the consequences of those policymaking decisions. Finally, he offers readers an in-depth examination of the US Catholic press's sharp rebukes of US policies on Guatemala and all of Central America when the broader Roman Catholic Church began to move farther toward the ideological right under John Paul II. Blessed Are the Activists offers rich, original research and a gripping narrative. With Guatemala and other countries in Latin America still experiencing human rights abuses, this book will continue to provide context. It will appeal to a broad swath of readers, from scholars to the general public and students.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Blessed Are the Peacemakers
Author: Daniel L. Buttry
Publisher: Read the Spirit Books
Total Pages: 394
Release:
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1939880653

In the pages of this book, you will meet more than 100 heroes, but most of them are not the kind of heroes our culture celebrates for muscle, beauty and wealth. These are peacemakers. They circle the planet. A few are famous like Gandhi and Bono of U2. But most of them you will discover for the first time in these stories. Watch out! Reading about their lives may inspire you to step up into their courageous circle.

Divine Rebels

Divine Rebels
Author: Deena Guzder
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2011-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1569768706

In an effort to reclaim the fundamental principles of Christianity, moving it away from religious right-wing politics and towards the teachings of Jesus, the American Christian activists profiled in this book agitate for a society free from racism, patriarchy, bigotry, retribution, ecocide, torture, poverty, and militarism. These activists view their faith as a personal commitment with public implications; their world consists of people of religious faith protecting the weak and safeguarding the sacred. Recounting social justice activists on the frontlines of the Christian Left since the 1950s--including Daniel Berrigan, Roy Bourgeois, and SueZann Bosler--this book articulates their faith-based alternative to the mainstream conservative religious agenda and liberal cynicism and describes a long-standing American tradition, which began with the nation's earliest Quaker abolitionists.

Activist Faith

Activist Faith
Author: Dillon Burroughs
Publisher: Tyndale House
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2014-02-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1612916015

Join the cofounders of the dynamic Activist Faith movement (ActivistFaith.org) as they shine a light on Christians who are moving beyond politics and opinion to actively engage 12 divisive social issues. Activist Faith shares biblical contexts, personal stories, and practical guidance for a new generation of Christian activists.

Activists in Transition

Activists in Transition
Author: Thushara Dibley
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2019-12-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1501748300

Activists in Transition examines the relationship between social movements and democratization in Indonesia. Collectively, progressive social movements have played a critical role over in ensuring that different groups of citizens can engage directly in—and benefit from—the political process in a way that was not possible under authoritarianism. However, their individual roles have been different, with some playing a decisive role in the destabilization of the regime and others serving as bell-weathers of the advancement, or otherwise, of Indonesia's democracy in the decades since. Equally important, democratization has affected social movements differently depending on the form taken by each movement during the New Order period. The book assesses the contribution that nine progressive social movements have made to the democratization of Indonesia since the late 1980s, and how, in turn, each of those movements has been influenced by democratization.

Inspired to Serve

Inspired to Serve
Author: Mark H. Massé
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2004-10-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0253111161

"'Never underestimate the good you can do,' Rabbi Steve Foster tells his Denver congregation in Mark H. Massé's Inspired to Serve, and it is the book's message, as well." -- Melissa Fay Greene, author of Praying for Sheetrock,The Temple Bombing, and Last Man Out "Anyone who wants to know more about how diverse religious organizations perform civic good works should read this excellent account." -- John J. DiIulio, Jr., University of Pennsylvania "Powerful, real-life stories of people of faith serving and empowering the poor." -- Ronald J. Sider, President, Evangelicals for Social Action Curious about what had happened to the social activism of the 1960s, and in response to the recent interest in "faith-based initiatives," Mark H. Massé set out to identify people who had continued their social activism in the context of a religious commitment to work in aid of the poor and the disenfranchised. The profiled activists include clergy, lay workers, and others, representing a mix of faiths, social issues, and geographic regions. They include a Jesuit priest working in a poor neighborhood in Portland, a Muslim "messenger of good news" to an Islamic community in Texas, an Irish American nun working with migrants and others in central Florida, a black Episcopalian minister on Chicago's Southside, and a "Dharma activist" in California. What sets these and other activists apart is the depth and breadth of their service, vision, and sacrifice. Many risk their reputations and careers, their health, even their lives in pursuit of social change. Massé discovers that these individuals share an unbending belief in the power, potential, and rewards of service to others, as they try to balance their secular and spiritual lives in the face of challenging work.

Activism in the Name of God

Activism in the Name of God
Author: Jami L. Carlacio
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2023-08-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1496845692

Contributions by Janet Allured, Lisa Pertillar Brevard, Jami L. Carlacio, Cheryl J. Fish, Angela Hornsby-Gutting, Jennifer McFarlane-Harris, Neely McLaughlin, Darcy Metcalfe, Phillip Luke Sinitiere, P. Jane Splawn, Laura L. Sullivan, and Hettie V. Williams Activism in the Name of God: Religion and Black Feminist Public Intellectuals from the Nineteenth Century to the Present recognizes and celebrates twelve Black feminists who have made an indelible mark not just on Black women’s intellectual history but on American intellectual history in general. The volume includes essays on Jarena Lee, Theressa Hoover, Pauli Murray, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs, to name a few. These women’s commitment to the social, political, and economic well-being of oppressed people in the United States shaped their work in the public sphere, which took the form of preaching, writing, singing, marching, presiding over religious institutions, teaching, assuming leadership roles in the civil rights movement, and creating politically subversive print and digital art. This anthology offers readers exemplars with whose minds and spirits we can engage, from whose ideas we can learn, and upon whose social justice work we can build. The volume joins a burgeoning chorus of texts that calls attention to the creativity of Black women who galvanized their readers, listeners, and fellow activists to seek justice for the oppressed. Pushing back on centuries of institutionalized injustices that have relegated Black women to the sidelines, the work of these Black feminist public intellectuals reflects both Christian gospel ethics and non-Christian religious traditions that celebrate the wholeness of Black people.

Blessed Anastacia

Blessed Anastacia
Author: John Burdick
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2013-01-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136044221

The weakness of Brazil's black consciousness movement is commonly attributed to the fragility of Afro-Brazilian ethnic identity. In a major account, John Burdick challenges this view by revealing the many-layered reality of popular black consciousness and identity in an arena that is usually overlooked: that of popular Christianity.Blessed Anastacia describes how popular Christianity confronts everyday racism and contributes to the formation of racial identity. The author concludes that if organizers of the black consciousness movement were to recognize the profound racial meaning inherent in this area of popular religiosity, they might be more successful in bridging the gap with its poor and working-class constituency.

Blessed Unrest

Blessed Unrest
Author: Paul Hawken
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2007
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780670038527

One of the world’s most influential environmentalists reveals a worldwide grassroots movement of hope and humanity Blessed Unresttells the story of a worldwide movement that is largely unseen by politicians or the media. Hawken, an environmentalist and author, has spent more than a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person causes, these organizations collectively comprise the largest movement on earth. This is a movement that has no name, leader, or location, but is in every city, town, and culture. It is organizing from the bottom up and is emerging as an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s needs worldwide. Blessed Unrestexplores the diversity of this movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and centuries-old history. The culmination of Hawken’s many years of leadership in these fields, it will inspire, surprise, and delight anyone who is worried about the direction the modern world is headed. Blessed Unrestis a description of humanity’s collective genius and the unstoppable movement to re-imagine our relationship to the environment and one another. Like Hawken’s previous books, Blessed Unrestwill become a classic in its field— a touchstone for anyone concerned about our future.