Conflict
"When Christians Fight Christians"
by Tim Stafford from Christianity Today (Oct. 6, 1997)

"Shielding Your Heart from Strife: Five Ways to Limit Conflict's Impact on You"
by Jock E. Ficken (from Leadership)

"Four Types of Manipulators: And How to Deal with Them"
by Thomas Fischer (from Ministry Health)

"North American Guide to Church Dragons: How to Identify and Approach Two Dangerous Species"
by Louis McBurney (from Leadership)

"How to Read Your Critics: What 5 Different Detractors Say and What They Really Need"
by Ken Warren (from Leadership)

"When is a Broken Person Ready to Lead?"
by Daniel Brown with Bob Moeller (from Leadership)
Five questions to determine whether the hurting are ready for responsibility.

"Counting the Cost of Change"
by David Stevens (from The Lutheran, August, 1996)
Making change in a rural church.

Economics (Christian)
"Covenant with the Poor: Toward a New Concept of Economic Justice"
by Kim Yong-Bock (from Christian Century)

"What Religious People Think About the Poor"
by Robert Wuthnow (from Christian Century)
Summary of research on American attitudes about the poor.

"Pious Materialism: How Americans View Faith and Money"
By Robert Wuthnow (from Christian Century)
Summary of Wuthnow's study published as God and Mammon in America

Economism as Idolatry
by John B. Cobb, Jr.
Economism is leading us into catastrophes even worse that the religious wars of the early seventeenth century and the Second World War in our own. Christians emphasize the positive value of human community, the principle of subsidiarity, preferential option for the poor, and the integrity of creation and the human use of the environment should be sustainable. The policies implementing economism, such as the globalization of the economy through free trade, are diametrically opposed to all of these Christian principles.

What Kind of Growth?
by John B. Cobb, Jr.
The author shows that the GNP is inadequate as an index of real growth. Instead, he proposes an Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, and dvocates a new kind of economy, one based on the needs of the community, and suggests several steps to bring it about.

Growth Without Progress?
by John B. Cobb, Jr.
Cobb examines the dynamics of growth and concludes that growth is quite different from sustaining the welfare of all citizens in a society. Instead of breaking down local communities in the interest of capital and labor mobility, the alternative would be to work for the economic health of local communities. The United States should recognize the importance of developing an economic policy designed to improve the economic well-being of its own people rather than to support its transnational corporations in their global competition with those of other great economic blocks.

"The Way We Work, the Way We Live"
by Marilynne Robinson (from the Christian Century)
We sell ourselves cheap, so that work can demand always more of our time, and families can claim always less. The sin most abhorrent to God is the failure of generosity, the neglect of widow and orphan, the oppression of the poor.

Economics (Small Town)
"In Search of a Better Life:
Americans are fleeing suburbia for small towns."
By Eric Pooley (from TIME magazine)
Small towns across the country are filling up with emigres from metro areas, who are using the latest in technologies, like the Internet, to keep themselves close to the action.

"Cumberland, Indiana"
By Tom Scheck (from National Public Radio)
Cumberland, Indiana, near Indianapolis, was one of the first towns to develop in central Indiana. But the state is considering adding lanes to US 40, which runs through the town. The construction project would destroy historic sidewalks, old trees and maybe even some buildings. The entire town has been designated one of the state's ten most endangered landmarks. Tom Scheck has the story. (4:00, audio)

"Counting the Cost of Change"
by David Stevens (from The Lutheran, August, 1996)
Making change in a rural church.

Environmental Concerns and Eco-Justice
"Ecological Degradation as the Judgment of God"
by William C. French (from the Christian Century)
French approaches the ecological issues facing the world from the theological position that the ecological destruction occurring is evidence of God's judgment on our misuse of creation. Citing books by Al Gore and Bill McKibben to support his critique of our consumer-oriented culture, French emphasizes the crucial role churches can and should play in sensitizing us to the need for sacrifice if we are to reverse the destruction.

Eco-minded: Faith and Action
by Charles Pinches (from the Christian Century)
Pinches reviews Larry Rasmussen's Earth Community, Earth Ethics wherein Rasmussen proposes "sustainability" as the correct goal for human interaction with the earth. But he also notes that this description is prone to abuse, for it has been too easily twined with expansionism.