One of the things South Africa kept pressing on me is that there is no such thing as reading Scripture from nowhere. We all stand somewhere when we read. Our social location, our history, our race, our experience of power or powerlessness, and the people sitting beside us all affect what we hear and what we fail to hear.

The theology of a nonviolent, self-giving God who refuses retaliation and challenges state-sanctioned oppression is very inconvenient for a country that claims that the same God gave them divine permission to steal, kill, and pillage their way across the continent they now call home.

by. Jason Burkett (US Army veteran and M.A. in Peace & Justice student) I joined the Army twice. The first time (1989-1996), I was a junior in high school, the summer before my senior year. My dad was a truck driver, my mom was a teacher, and we didn’t have much money. I knew my parents couldn’t afford to send both my sister and me to college, and back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, it was all anyone talked about: college, college, college. My dad had served in Vietnam. My