Open Hearts, Closed Doors

Open Hearts, Closed Doors
Author: Nicholas T. Pruitt
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2021-06-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1479803545

A history of mainline Protestant responses to immigrants and refugees during the twentieth century Open Hearts, Closed Doors uncovers the largely overlooked role that liberal Protestants played in fostering cultural diversity in America and pushing for new immigration laws during the forty years following the passage of the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924. These efforts resulted in the complete reshaping of the US cultural and religious landscape. During this period, mainline Protestants contributed to the national debate over immigration policy and joined the charge for immigration reform, advocating for a more diverse pool of newcomers. They were successful in their efforts, and in 1965 the quota system based on race and national origin was abolished. But their activism had unintended consequences, because the liberal immigration policies they supported helped to end over three centuries of white Protestant dominance in American society. Yet, Pruitt argues, in losing their cultural supremacy, mainline Protestants were able to reassess their mission. They rolled back more strident forms of xenophobia, substantively altering the face of mainline Protestantism and laying foundations for their responses to today’s immigration debates. More than just a historical portrait, this volume is a timely reminder of the power of religious influence in political matters.

Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Doors
Author: Joanne Stanton
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2017-09-26
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 168350576X

Behind Closed Doors tells the story of two mothers who began investigating serious health issues in their own son and daughter—and ended up writing an expose about the declining health of an entire generation of American children. In their relentless attempts to improve the health of their own children, they uncovered harmful trends in our food, pharmaceuticals, and environment, all stemming from weak laws and conflicts of interest. What they discovered shocked and ultimately empowered them to get actively involved in questioning and reforming these harmful, out-of-balance practices, and to inspire other moms to do the same. Behind Closed Doors not only offers scientifically verified evidence of how declining industry practices are harming our kids, but showcases solutions like environmental medicine and other integrative health practices, shares personal success stories, and provides tools and solutions parents can immediately implement—equipping and inspiring us all to stand together for change.

Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Doors
Author: Miriam Halahmy
Publisher: Holiday House
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2017-03-30
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0823437930

Josie has a secret: her mother is a hoarder. Tasha has a secret, too: her mother’s new boyfriend keeps trying to sneak into her room and seduce her. The two 16-year-olds don’t get along at school, but one night Tasha bolts from her dangerous home and finds herself at Josie’s door. Josie’s mother is in jail for debt, and the girls are alone in the cramped, crowded, bursting home. Slowly, they begin to talk about the challenges they face, a process of sharing that lessens their shame, guilt and fear. With each other’s support, they may even find a way to save themselves from their parents’ demons. Behind Closed Doors is an unflinching examination of the stigmas surrounding mental illness, abuse and poverty, and an affirming portrayal of the power of female friendships and the power of honesty to heal.

Pier 21

Pier 21
Author: Steven Schwinghamer
Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2020-08-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0776631381

Between 1928 and 1971, nearly one million immigrants landed in Canada at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During those years, it was one of the main ocean immigration facilities in Canada, including when it welcomed home nearly 400,000 Canadians after service overseas during the Second World War. In the immediate postwar period, Pier 21 became the busiest ocean port of entry in the country. Today, people across Canada still enjoy connections to Pier 21 through family history and stories of arrival at the site. Since 1998, researchers at the Pier 21 Interpretive Centre and now the Canadian Museum of Immigration have been conducting interviews, reviewing archival materials, gathering written stories, and acquiring photographs, documents, and other objects reflecting the history of Pier 21. Pier 21: A History builds upon the resulting collection. It presents a history of this important Canadian ocean immigration facility during its years of operation and later emergence as a site of public commemoration. Published in English. Also available in French: Quai 21: Une histoire.

Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Doors
Author: B.A. Paris
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2016-08-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250121000

"First published in Great Britain by MIRA/Harlequin, HarperCollins UK"--Title page verso.

Open the Door

Open the Door
Author: Joyce Rupp
Publisher: Ave Maria Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2008-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1933495405

The long-awaited book from best-selling spiritual guide Joyce Rupp, creatively leads readers to explore how the image of the door can guide them in a process of discovering their true self. Joyce Rupp brings new life to the ageless spiritual image of the door, weaving insights from East and West with the wisdom of contemporary spiritual writers, poets, and novelists in a practical format that is just right for contemporary readers. Structured as a daily prayer guide for everyday use over six weeks, each day offers a thematic reflection, a guided meditation, an original prayer, a thoughtful question, and a related scripture quote. A built-in guide for small groups makes this the perfect resource for groups of all kinds as well as individuals.

The Crucifixion

The Crucifixion
Author: Fleming Rutledge
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 695
Release: 2015
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802847323

Few treatments of the death of Jesus Christ have made a point of accounting for the gruesome, degrading, public manner of his death by crucifixion, a mode of execution so loathsome that the ancient Romans never spoke of it in polite society. Rutledge probes all the various themes and motifs used by the New Testament evangelists and apostolic writers to explain the meaning of the cross of Christ. She shows how each of the biblical themes contributes to the whole, with the Christus Victor motif and the concept of substitution sharing pride of place along with Irenaeus's recapitulation model.

Dear Canada: Pieces of the Past

Dear Canada: Pieces of the Past
Author: Carol Matas
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2013-02-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1443124567

A young Jewish girl recounts her experiences during a horrifying time in recent history. As Rose begins her diary, she is in her third home since coming to Winnipeg. Traumatized by her experiences in the Holocaust, she struggles to connect with others, and above all, to trust again. When her new guardian, Saul, tries to get Rose to deal with what happened to her during the war, she begins writing in her diary about how she survived the murder of the Jews in Poland by going into hiding. Memories of herself and her mother being taken in by those willing to risk sheltering Jews, moving from place to place, being constantly on the run to escape capture, begin to flood her diary pages. Recalling those harrowing days, includingwhen they stumbled on a resistance cell deep in the forest and lived underground in filthy conditions, begins to take its toll on Rose. As she delves deeper into her past, she is haunted by the most terrifying memory of all. Will she find the courage to bear witness to her mother's ultimate sacrifice?

How to Accept German Reparations

How to Accept German Reparations
Author: Susan Slyomovics
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2014-06-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0812209656

In a landmark process that transformed global reparations after the Holocaust, Germany created the largest sustained redress program in history, amounting to more than $60 billion. When human rights violations are presented primarily in material terms, acknowledging an indemnity claim becomes one way for a victim to be recognized. At the same time, indemnifications provoke a number of difficult questions about how suffering and loss can be measured: How much is an individual life worth? How much or what kind of violence merits compensation? What is "financial pain," and what does it mean to monetize "concentration camp survivor syndrome"? Susan Slyomovics explores this and other compensation programs, both those past and those that might exist in the future, through the lens of anthropological and human rights discourse. How to account for variation in German reparations and French restitution directed solely at Algerian Jewry for Vichy-era losses? Do crimes of colonialism merit reparations? How might reparations models apply to the modern-day conflict in Israel and Palestine? The author points to the examples of her grandmother and mother, Czechoslovakian Jews who survived the Auschwitz, Plaszow, and Markkleeberg camps together but disagreed about applying for the post-World War II Wiedergutmachung ("to make good again") reparation programs. Slyomovics maintains that we can use the legacies of German reparations to reconsider approaches to reparations in the future, and the result is an investigation of practical implications, complicated by the difficult legal, ethnographic, and personal questions that reparations inevitably prompt.

Follow the New Way

Follow the New Way
Author: Melissa May Borja
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2023-02-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 067429002X

An incisive look at Hmong religion in the United States, where resettled refugees found creative ways to maintain their traditions, even as Christian organizations deputized by the government were granted an outsized influence on the refugees’ new lives. Every year, members of the Hmong Christian Church of God in Minneapolis gather for a cherished Thanksgiving celebration. But this Thanksgiving takes place in the spring, in remembrance of the turbulent days in May 1975 when thousands of Laotians were evacuated for resettlement in the United States. For many Hmong, passage to America was also a spiritual crossing. As they found novel approaches to living, they also embraced Christianity—called kev cai tshiab, “the new way”—as a means of navigating their complex spiritual landscapes. Melissa May Borja explores how this religious change happened and what it has meant for Hmong culture. American resettlement policies unintentionally deprived Hmong of the resources necessary for their time-honored rituals, in part because these practices, blending animism, ancestor worship, and shamanism, challenged many Christian-centric definitions of religion. At the same time, because the government delegated much of the resettlement work to Christian organizations, refugees developed close and dependent relationships with Christian groups. Ultimately the Hmong embraced Christianity on their own terms, adjusting to American spiritual life while finding opportunities to preserve their customs. Follow the New Way illustrates America’s wavering commitments to pluralism and secularism, offering a much-needed investigation into the public work done by religious institutions with the blessing of the state. But in the creation of a Christian-inflected Hmong American animism we see the resilience of tradition—how it deepens under transformative conditions.