How could it have been otherwise? Frida Berrigan—the daughter of Philip Berrigan and Elizabeth McAlister and the niece of the peace activist Daniel J. Berrigan, S.J.—grew up in a community devoted to peacemaking and nonviolence. She, now 30-something, has followed in the family footsteps.......

As Frida grew up, she said she was “happy at some demonstrations simply to be part of something—not in stopping the war, but standing among people who felt they had a role and were not a number only.” Eventually she realized, “This is where I want my life to be”—in opposing war and working for peace at all levels. As a young adult, she became increasingly active in planning the demonstrations. “You realize you’ll never organize the one demonstration that will change the world, but it’s important to be part of a movement that will raise the issues involved and provide a space for outrage at the destructiveness of war.”

“‘Make me an instrument of your peace’ is cycling through my head constantly,” said Frida, referring to the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, “especially when I feel scattered or nervous.”

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — As governor, Robert Bentley would quote the Bible before the Alabama Legislature and say that God had elevated him to the State Capitol. In his dermatology practice, in the city where he was a Baptist deacon, he sometimes witnessed to patients. And when he was a first-time candidate for statewide office, his campaign headquarters were often filled with volunteers from local churches.
This is a state that knows well how mixing faith and politics can lead to disappointment. When Mr. Bentley on Monday resigned from office and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in the wake of the sex scandal that ended his 50-year marriage, his downfall reflected both enduring and contemporary challenges for evangelical voters.......

“The idea that moral hypocrisy hurts you among evangelical voters is not true, if you’re sound on all of the fundamentals,” said Wayne Flynt, an ordained Baptist minister and one of Alabama’s pre-eminent historians. “Being sound on the fundamentals depends on what the evangelical community has decided the fundamentals have become. At this time, what is fundamental is hating liberals, hating Obama, hating abortion and hating same-sex marriage.”

About Democrats For Life of America

Democrats: We believe in the core values and principles of the Democratic Party. We are committed to freedom and justice, security and prosperity, equality and community, and hope and progress. We are proud to be members of the party that created the New Deal, Fair Deal, and New Frontier. We share the party's commitment to the Four Freedoms: freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from fear and want. We look to continue and perfect the party's commitment to the most vulnerable members of our society.
Pro-life Democrats: We believe in the legal protection of unborn life and a comprehensive, bipartisan approach to reducing the number of abortions in America and around the world. We believe in supporting women and children, strengthening families and communities, and protecting the environment. We favor eliminating unfair discrimination, improving education, and preserving the American dream for all Americans. We believe in the elimination of the death penalty, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research.

MUMBAI, India (RNS) Atheist activist H Farook was killed in the South Indian city of Coimbatore last month, the latest in a string of killings of people who reject formal religion.
The 31-year-old Farook abandoned Islam, the religion of his birth, and ran an atheism WhatsApp group with 400 members. Fifteen days before he was slain, he posted a picture of his child on Facebook holding a placard that read, “No God, no God, No God.”
A banned radical group may be behind the killing, according to police.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput might have the last word when it comes to Catholicism in Philly, but there’s a good chance Sister Mary Scullion has impacted far more people than he or any other Catholic in the city.
She belongs to the Sisters of Mercy, which, with roughly 270 members headquartered in Merion, is Philly’s third-largest congregation of nuns. Spend any amount of time with her and you’ll quickly learn why she’s known as the Mother Teresa of Philadelphia.
During a freezing winter in 1988, she led a group of homeless people into the basement of the city’s Municipal Services Building, demanding it be used as a shelter. She’s been arrested — four times — for refusing to back down when helping the poor. While other nuns regularly go on weeklong retreats to reflect and pray, Sister Mary has been known to sleep on the streets to better understand the people she cares about.
She’s the co-founder of Project HOME, the influential nonprofit that, on top of helping people experiencing homelessness, works to break the cycle of homelessness itself. The organization, which has attracted international visitors and attention from the likes of Jon Bon Jovi and Bill Clinton, provides housing for the homeless, youth and teen programs, veteran assistance, and wellness and health-care services.

Most of the legal needs of the poor go unmet. The result is a crisis of justice....

The battle over the budget proposed by the Trump administration is just beginning, with hot debates over cuts to programs like the Public Broadcasting System. Unfortunately, one of the casualties getting less attention is the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), which provides free legal representation and access to the law for those who can’t afford it. The Trump budget would completely defund it.

In 1995, Sojourners founded Call to Renewal, with many other partners and organizations, to specifically focus on poverty by uniting churches and faith-based organizations across the theological and political spectrum to lift up those whom Jesus called "the least of these." For more than a decade, Call to Renewal convened the broadest Christian table on poverty in America. In 2006, Sojourners and Call to Renewal re-united organizationally under the name Sojourners/Call to Renewal. In October 2007, the organizational name returned to Sojourners, while the special focus on uniting churches on poverty continued to be a priority in the advocacy work of Sojourners.