Culture contains the seed of resistance that blossoms into the flower of liberation Mural by Miranda Bergman & O’Brien Thiele, Balmy Ally, Mission District, San Francisco

www.ServiciosKoinonia.org (in Spanish / en Español) recursos de teología de la liberación, espiritualidad de la liberación, servicio bíblico latinoamericano, calendario bíblico litúrgico, Martirologio Latinoamericano, Monseñor Romero, Pedro Casaldáliga, Leonardo Boff, Maximino Cerezo, biblioteca, Revista Electrónica Latinoamericana de Teología, Libros digitales gratuitos, Agenda Latinoamericana, Cursos de Teología Popular

The Ignacio Martín-Baró Initiative for Wellbeing and Human Rights was created to foster psychological well-being, social consciousness and active resistance in communities affected by institutional violence, repression and social injustice.

“We believe that the scars of such experiences are deeply seated in both the individual and society. We believe in the power of the community collectively to heal these wounds, to move forward, and to create change. We believe in the importance of developing education and critical awareness about the oppressive policies and practices of the United States and of multinational corporations.”

Sojourners, www.sojo.net, is a Christian ministry and magazine whose mission is to proclaim and practice the biblical call to integrate spiritual renewal and social justice.

Joanna Macy, PhD, is an eco-philosopher and scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. A respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she interweaves her scholarship with four decades of activism and mentoring. One central focus of her work, from the nuclear weapons crises of the 60s through the 80s, to the species extinction crises of today, is the empowerment to be found by embracing one’s anguish and despair.  (For a video library of Joanna Macy’s workshops and lectures, click here.)

Tikkun Magazine and Community   “We are an international community of people of many faiths calling for social justice and political freedom in the context of new structures of work, caring communities, and democratic social and economic arrangements. We seek to influence public discourse in order to inspire compassion, generosity, non-violence and recognition of the spiritual dimensions of life.”

Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, Jerusalem  Sabeel is an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians. Inspired by the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, this liberation theology seeks to deepen the faith of Palestinian Christians, to promote unity among them toward social action.  Sabeel strives to develop a spirituality based on love, justice, peace, nonviolence, liberation and reconciliation for the different national and faith communities.  The word “Sabeel” is Arabic for ‘the way‘ and also a ‘channel‘ or ‘spring‘ of life-giving water.   Sabeel also works to promote a more accurate international awareness regarding the identity, presence and witness of Palestinian Christians as well as their contemporary concerns.  It encourages individuals and groups from around the world to work for a just, comprehensive and enduring peace informed by truth and empowered by prayer and action.

Nonviolent Peaceforce  “is a federation of over 90 Member Organizations from around the world. In partnership with local groups, unarmed Nonviolent Peaceforce Field Team members apply proven strategies to protect human rights, deter violence, and help create space for local peacemakers to carry out their work. The mission of the Nonviolent Peaceforce is to build a trained, international civilian peaceforce committed to third-party nonviolent intervention.”

The Catholic Worker Movement  “founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933, is grounded in a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human person. Today over 185 Catholic Worker communities remain committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry, and foresaken. Catholic Workers continue to protest injustice, war, racism, and violence of all forms.” Television interview presents overview of the history and purpose of Catholic Worker Movement.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) seeks to replace violence, war, racism, and economic injustice with nonviolence, peace, and justice. We are an interfaith organization committed to active nonviolence as a transforming way of life and as a means of radical change. We educate, train, build coalitions, and engage in nonviolent and compassionate actions locally, nationally, and globally.

The Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus was founded by Fr. John Dear, a Catholic priest, pastor, peace activist, organizer, lecturer, retreat leader, and the author/editor of 20 books on peace and justice, including Living Peace, published by Doubleday in 2001, Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings, published by Orbis Books in 2002, Mary of Nazareth, Prophet of Peace published by Ave Maria Press in 2003 and most recently, The Questions of Jesus published by Doubleday in 2004.

The Quixote Center is a faith-based, social justice center working with people who have few resources for their struggles. We strive to make our world, our nation, and our church more just, peaceful and equitable in their policies and practices.

Mary Watkins, PhD: Papers on liberation psychology 

“My beloved mentor at Clark University, Bernie Kaplan, taught me that developmentalists were not reporting objectively on human development, that they were researching through the lens of their values. Why not make this explicit, he argued, and state what you most value, what you would like to see embodied in human development. Then, he said, you can study the conditions that thwart this desired state and those conditions that facilitate it. Liberation psychologists do just this. By using liberation psychology as an umbrella for theory and practice, we aim to create the kinds of psychological theory and practice that transform the social and ecological conditions that create unnecessary suffering. If we begin with the goals of social and economic justice, dynamic peacebuilding, and ecological sustainability, then the tasks for psychologically minded people begin to clarify.:   Watkins, M. (2000). Depth psychology and the liberation of being. In R. Brooke (Ed.), Pathways into the Jungian world (pp. 217-233). London: Routledge.

What’s Your Tree  and Off The Mat Into The World were founded by Julia Butterfly Hill and friends after she lived in the branches of a theatened giant redwood tree for two years, is a contemporary activist movement blending ecology and social justice concerns.

Pax Christi USA  Pax Christi International “Pax Christi strives to create a world that reflects the Peace of Christ by exploring, articulating, and witnessing to the call of Christian nonviolence. This work begins in personal life and extends to communities of reflection and action to transform structures of society. Pax Christi USA rejects war, preparations for war, and every form of violence and domination. It advocates primacy of conscience, economic and social justice, and respect for creation.”

Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition International (TASSC). Sister Diana Ortiz describes her fifteen year campaign against torture, and her personal experience of it, in a The Blindfold’s Eyes: My Journey from Torture to Truth.  From the TASSC web site: “Governments in more than 150 nations practice torture. It is estimated that more than 500,000 torture survivors reside in the US, alone. Treatment centers in the U.S. and abroad are being established in an attempt to respond to the psychological and medical needs of torture survivors. Through the creation of Communities of Healing, TASSC seeks to provide a safe forum for survivors not only to speak out about torture but to begin to rebuild trust in one another, in community, and in the human family as well. These Communities are sites where torture survivors come together to create a healing bond which transcends nationality, ethnicity, gender, class, ideology, sexual orientation, and religion.”

Earth Prayer Library explores reverence and compassion for all life as a spiritual path for the 21st century.  Includes articles and book links to Albert Schweitzer, Rachel Carson, Joanna Macy, Vandana Shiva and Thomas Berry, and many others, who chart paths from the lethal ideology of separateness to the life-giving experience of interwovenness. Free book available in PDF format:  Five Wings of the Heart: A transformational vision of daily meditation / prayer / blessing.

The Citizens’ Coalition to Reaffirm & Extend the Geneva Conventions offers one positive way of beginning to address the global problems of violence and torture. In a world overwhelmed by violence, the Geneva Conventions represent one of the few examples of long term cooperation to limit the violence of war.  With the recent introduction of new weapons technologies such as Depleted Uranium bullets and anti-tank projectiles, and cluster bombs that scatter the countryside with unexploded hand-grenade sized bomblets, the violence of war, conducted by allegedly civilized nations, now includes an unending war on civilians.  You are invited to join the noble Geneva Conventions effort, which began in the 1860s by reaching out to the kings and princes of European countries, and today needs to include all citizens of all countries. The Trouble With Torture… is our recent position paper on torture, including a bibliography on the topic.