Divine Rebels
American Christian Activists for Social Justice
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $13.99
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Independent journalist Deena Guzder has reported from the front lines of international human rights crises in Pakistan, Iran, and India. Now, her first book chronicles the U.S. Christian human rights movements from 1960 to the present. While many commentators focus on the religious right as a social force, Guzder's accessible and engaging account highlights Americans whose politics are progressive precisely "because they are religious." The biographies of 10 nonviolent activists open a window on American Christianity's tradition as a catalyst for progressive social change. Profiles include Quaker Jim Corbett, an Arizona rancher who sparked the 1980s Sanctuary movement by providing haven for Central American war refugees; Pentecostal preacher and environmental activist Charlotte Keys, founder of Jesus People Against Pollution, who is fighting chemical dumping near her rural Mississippi home; and the more famous Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest who burned Selective Service draft files in 1968 as an antiwar protest. Guzder's first-person reporting animates her prose without obscuring her subject. By steering her fact-based writing away from the polemical, this Zoroastrian-raised writer provides a fine introduction to those who call themselves "social justice Christians."
