LATEST POSTS
Trauma-Informed Forgiveness: Liberating the Oppressed, Reclaiming Agency, & Breaking the Cycle of Harm
Few words in the Christian vocabulary have been more distorted, weaponized, or misunderstood than “forgiveness.” In many church and societal contexts, forgiveness is asked from those who have been harmed—often quickly, publicly, and in ways that protect the comfort of the powerful and keep the oppressed in place. We need a liberative, trauma-informed, and biblical reimagining of forgiveness—one that centers survivors, breaks cycles of harm, and refuses to be co-opted by oppressive systems. Here’s what we think that looks like.
Reimagining Peace: From Peacebuilding to the Common Good
The following is a reflection by Bryan Carey, building on a conversation with Bishop Zac Niringiye. Bishop Zac is a Ugandan theologian and retired Anglican bishop whose decades of ministry, theological leadership, and public advocacy have made him a respected global voice on faith, justice, and the church’s public witness. His work challenges the church to embody the gospel through justice, humility, and solidarity rather than power and control.
Justice at the Heart of God's Reign
God’s reign has a direction: it moves toward the poor, the captive, the oppressed. It moves toward a world where the widow isn’t preyed upon, the orphan has an advocate, the stranger is welcomed rather than exploited. This is what the prophets meant by God’s justice.
A Shalom-Centered Worldview “Belief Tree”
Our worldview influences our beliefs, values, decisions, and behaviors. So by visualizing these connections, we can better understand the relationship between what we believe at the deepest level and the “fruit” that our lives produce. Here’s what a truly shalom-oriented worldview looks like.
Faithful Peacebuilding: Why Peacebuilding Work Is the Gospel in Action
At first glance, the work of Peace Catalyst International can seem puzzling. We build friendships across divides, step into difficult conflicts, critique the church’s entanglements with power, and insist that following Jesus means engaging in the messy, public, political work of peacebuilding. Some Christians look at this and wonder, “Why so much self-criticism? Doesn’t that just tear down the church?”, “Isn’t this getting too political? Shouldn’t the church focus on spiritual things?”, “And most importantly: how does this kind of peacebuilding relate to evangelism and the gospel?” In what follows, I want to walk through these questions—not to dismiss them, but to show why they are exactly the kinds of questions the gospel compels us to wrestle with.
Shalom Undone: Sin, Death, and the Cycles of Harm that Enslave Us
For many, sin is an uncomfortable topic, one that evokes guilt, shame, or even avoidance. Within much of the Christian tradition, sin is often framed as a list of personal moral failings—lying, greed, lust, or anger—reducing it to a running tally of personal mistakes. Salvation, then, is commonly understood as God’s forgiveness for these moral failings and a guarantee of one’s place in heaven after death. It reduces faith to a transactional system of guilt and pardon and leaves in its wake unaddressed questions about why, if sin is about the personal misdeeds of individuals, the world is still so very broken.
Advent 2025 - The Christ Candle: God’s Peacebuilding Revolution
On Christmas Eve we light the Christ candle, the center of our Advent wreath. By recovering Advent’s light, we return to Jesus himself—the one whose birth, life, and cross revealed what God’s reign truly looks like. In Christ, divine power entered the world through vulnerability; divine justice arrived through mercy. His coming was—and remains—God’s peacebuilding revolution: nonviolent, enemy-loving, and world-renewing.
Advent 2025 - Love: Incarnational Solidarity in the Face of Fear
In much of modern Christianity, love has become a sentimental feeling of warmth toward family, affection toward God, or admiration toward others. But biblical love is not an emotion; it is a revolution of relationship. It names God’s self-giving solidarity with a wounded world. It is the choice to draw near when fear pushes us toward distance.
Advent 2025 - Joy: Defiant Celebration in the Face of Empire
Every Advent, the third candle burns for joy. Yet this word, like “hope” and “peace,” has been emptied of its full power. In much of modern faith, joy has become a synonym for positivity—the demand to keep spirits high, to smile through discomfort, to make worship cheerful even when the world is not. But the joy of scripture arises from trust that God’s future is breaking into the present.