Mark Pattison, Author at Crux

Las Vegas: Trauma real even when not acknowledged, psychologists say

Cynthia Eriksson, who is part of the psychology program at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, said drawing on Christianity to make sense of the senseless can help in situations of crisis and trauma such as what happened in Las Vegas last week.

Martin Luther King’s words on nonviolence need to be lived today, speakers say

Faith leaders gathered Monday near the Martin Luther King, Jr. monument in Washington, D.C. to commemorate King’s 1957 essay about “Nonviolence and Racial Justice.” Bishop George V. Murry of Youngstown, Ohio, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism said, “As a society, we need to stop making excuses and commit to nonviolence.”

Once abandoned himself, Kenyan man now shelters thousands of kids

After eking out an existence for 10 years after being abandoned by his family at age 6, Kenyan Charles Mully said, “I was completely hopeless. I felt I was rejected by society. I needed something better. But I felt wanting to commit suicide, wanting to take my life away.” But “through a man who invited me to his church, I heard the word of God and through the spirit of God and through the Lord Jesus Christ, it changed completely my life.”

Catholics tangled with KKK during Klan’s 1920s resurgence
- Catholic News Service, Church in the US
- September 6, 2017
The intersection of the KKK with Catholics came to an ugly head in the 1920s, when the second version of the Klan was making inroads not just in the South but throughout the nation. In the 1920s, the Klan mushroomed in membership. Estimates put its number at between 3 million and 5 million — staggering numbers when the total U.S. population in 1920 was 106,021,537.
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Bishops’ annual Labor Day statement scores ‘excessive inequality’
- Catholic News Service, Church in the US
- August 31, 2017
In a Labor Day message, Bishop Frank J. Dewane said unions must retain and recover their prophetic voice, when they speak on behalf of the poor, the immigrant, and the person returning from prison. The bishop, who is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, also said unions should “resist the temptation of becoming too similar to the institutions and powers that it should instead criticize.”
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War without end, amen: U.S. to increase troop presence in Afghanistan
- Catholic News Service, Church in the US
- August 26, 2017
President Donald Trump changed course from what he said during the campaign about leaving Afghanistan this week. Now he will be sending a large troop increase to the country. However, he offered no plans for ending the war, even though polls show most Americans don’t think it’s possible to win and want the soldiers to come home.
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