Oddny Gumaer

What should we do with enemies?Jesus challenges us to love our enemies. In today’s swirl of hatemongering, political polarization, and online nastiness, even Christians have skirted this command or given it up as impossible or foolish. What does it really mean to love our enemies? And how might our lives and our world change if we did? In this issue we apply these tough questions to real situations, and hear from people who have put this command into practice in some of the toughest circumstances.On this theme: - Can we afford to love our enemies in a cancel culture?- What sort of enemies did Jesus expect us to love? - The problem with "love the sinner, hate the sin"- Channeling outrage while working with children displaced by war- What Coptic Christians know about praying for their persecutors- Two incarcerated friends defy a racist prison culture.- What about mental illness, when your mind becomes your enemy? - Students find ways to debate tough issues constructively.- A Russian Christian speaks out against the war in Ukraine.Also in the issue:- Maria Novella De Luca photographs Algerian women demining the Sahara.- Dana Wiser remembers civil rights activist Staughton Lynd.- Zena Hitz asks what we’d do with our time if we weren’t so busy.- Kathleen A. Mulhern gives advice for keeping the faith afterhours.- Susannah Black Roberts celebrates the life and example of Tim Keller.- Nathan Beacom call for reestablishing Lyceums in working-class towns.- Maureen swinger recounts the exploits of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty.Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

What if Martin Luther King Jr., this name-branded, oft-sanitized preacher from Atlanta, is a prophet whose message America has yet to fully reckon with? Ten days before Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “Where in America today do we hear a voice like the voice of the prophets of Israel? Martin Luther King is a sign that God has not forsaken the United States of America. God has sent him to us.” What if Heschel’s words about King are true? What if this name-branded, oft-sanitized, Super-Bowl-ad-commercialized, National-Mall-memorialized preacher from Atlanta . . . is a prophet whose message America has yet to fully reckon with? This issue of Plough Quarterly looks at King’s unfinished struggle against the three evils of racism, materialism, and militarism. Perspectives from Edwidge Danticat, Gary Dorrien, Brandon M. Terry, D. L. Mayfield, Eugene Rivers, and Susannah Heschel explore the ways King’s message of nonviolence, justice, and love of neighbor still matters today: to refugees and immigrants, soldiers and veterans, preachers and prisoners, black lives matter activists and the white working class. Also in this issue: original poetry by Naomi Shihab Nye; reviews of new books by James Forman Jr., Steve Krivák, Jim Forest, and Christopher de Hamel; and art by Yvan Lamothe, Roberson Joseph, Barry Moser, Benny Andrews, Zoe Cromwell, Julian Peters, Asuka Hishiki, Mark Smith, Mary Kang, Marc Chagall, John Partipilo, Yuri Kozyrev, Vinicius Barajas, Iain Stewart, Giovanni Bellini. Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put Jesus’ message into practice and find common cause with others.