Articles

Christine Raymond is currently Executive Editor and General Manager of www. spirituality.

Here in Australia, where the school year starts in February, rather than in September as it does in many other countries, kids want to learn in a safe and caring environment. Parents want to feel confident that their children won't be in danger while at school.

It had been a pretty unsettling couple of weeks, to say the least. It was obvious to me that I had symptoms associated with breast cancer.

A while back, I read a Los Angeles Times article that wrestled with the nature of evil. One observation seemed to me to have particular significance in the wake of last September's terrorist attacks in the United States: "To scholars who engage in theodicy—defending the justice of God in the light of evil—the theological problem of massive moral evils has become the most challenging.

When human disaster brings us to our knees in prayer, God answers this prayer by resurrecting more love in our hearts. After the horrible events of September 11, which undoubtedly caused many people to pray as they never had before, there seemed to be a heightened degree of tenderness and care for family, friends—even total strangers.

Late last summer I was preparing to give a talk. One subject I researched was misogyny, or the hatred of women—its theological and cultural roots—and I wanted to take my prayers deeper.

As a hard-rock singer back in the late '60s, I didn't want to live what I considered a dead end, "conventional" kind of life. I played at the Fillmore, Avalon, Circle Star Theater, with many of the greats—Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and The Holding Company were our stage companions.

Change. It sweeps away people we love, gardens we've worked on for years, homes where we've been comfortable and wanted to stay.

Inter-Global cooperation happens on many levels—political, economic, religious—and takes different forms. The United Nations, with its worldwide activities and networks, helps to bring people and nations together.

In South Africa's Sunday Independent of January 13,2002, journalist John Battersby summarized South Africa's clear message to the Palestinians: "You have to develop a negotiating strategy. You have to know when to talk and when to shoot.