Recently, both President Bush and an oil company spokesperson, speaking to the rising gas prices, pushed for building more refineries and upping the production of oil here in the States. No mention of exorbitant oil company profits. No mention of our need to drastically reduce use of cars and gasoline, to change lifestyles. No mention of the working poor who are stuck without public transportation to jobs remote from their inner-city or inner-ring suburban homes.

Reducing dependence on the automobile will mean a lot more than raising fuel efficiency standards for cars and buying more efficient automobiles. It will need a change of lifestyle, removing frivolous car trips, using public transportation, and changing the priorities of government transportation funding. Only about 25% of the transportation dollars in most places now support public transportation, and it is hard to find public transportation to many jobs in the suburbs. The highway and automobile lobby have been effective on the national and state level. We've got to change that with loud and strong voices for public transportation.

One has to allow more time to get places using public transportation--perhaps a good thing to slow down our rushing lifestyles and get more exercise getting to and from. My elevated train route is a microcosm of society: suited suburban riders with neighborhood service workers, elderly and young, white and black, Hispanic and Asian. The trains are refreshing "bumping into" places where different people mix and find common ground in talking about the most recent delay, laughing at the antics of a child, and rolling our eyes at some loud cell phone talker.

Would that more sermons, writings, and our voices push elected officials for more and more available public transportation, for the sake of equity, for community, for our health. We would all be the better for it.

A lot has happened this past week, starting with the international day of prayer for Zimbabwe on Sunday, April 27. Churches all over the world stood in solidarity with the plight of Zimbabweans and condemned the widespread violence and intimidation of citizens by the government.

Not surprisingly, there were counterclaims by government and some politicians in the region that the violence is exaggerated and not "serious." This got me thinking about what constitutes "serious violence." Is it mass massacres where thousands upon thousands of lives are lost? By defining crisis in relation to statistics, politicians continue to devalue the lives of Africans.

This "life-devaluing" rhetoric presents a challenge to faith communities to enter the political discourse with a different language that links the struggle for justice with the dignity and value of life. While it is important to point out and expose the acts of terror being perpetuated, we need to be weary of being dragged down into the same frame of reference. It would be a sad day indeed if we found ourselves sharing the same vocabulary and vilifying the other.

For me, the day of prayer for Zimbabwe was an important reminder that as people of faith we enter into the struggle for justice with a different language, ethos, and an intentional commitment to the welfare of all -- particularly the poor. Therefore, we pray for a different army for Zimbabwe, an army of visionary leaders who are competent experts in every area of governance, such as education, health, politics, justice, economics, trade, agriculture, housing, and business (for example, mining, manufacturing, trade, and commerce). This is the real liberation army!

We pray also for the present, for wisdom to be given (at the Solomon and Daniel level!) to strategic persons who have the power to change the situation so that the political crisis will be resolved expediently and justly. More importantly, that prophetic wisdom be given to church leaders so that they may continue to play an important role in this process. The role of the church has been remarkable!

Nontando Hadebe, a former Sojourners intern, is originally from Zimbabwe and is now pursuing graduate studies in theology in South Africa.

I met John Marks, author of Reasons to Believe during a screening of Purple State of Mind. Given that we're both transplanted Southerners, I was interested in exploring why he chose to leave the faith of his childhood. Following is a short interview of what I hope will be an ongoing conversation.

Briefly describe your childhood.

I grew up in a nominally Christian home. My folks were Presbyterians, and we went to church on Sundays and said prayer before meals. Religion wasn't a big deal in our home, except as a mostly unspoken tradition.

Why do you say that had you been pastored by Bob Russell, you might not have left the faith?

Pastors are surrogate fathers and mean a great deal to a lot of young Christians I've met. In my experience as a teenager, I never had a strong adult mentor who represented the faith in any mature way. Most of my "pastors" were Young Life leaders or youth group leaders who were decent people but didn't have much intellectual or theological wattage. The pastor of my parents' church was a distant figure who seemed to have little or no relation to my life.

How did your encounter with Craig Detweiler, your college roommate at Davidson College, inform your faith?

At first it gave my faith a new sense of community, because I could share it with a close friend who also loved movies and music, but the experience turned out to be off-putting when Craig's evolution in the faith couldn't make room for my development as an artist.

What happened when you were covering the Balkans for U.S. News & World Report that made you stop believing in God?

I met a Muslim refugee whose village had been destroyed. He told me that his last hope resided in his sons, who had been taken prisoner by Serbs and would be released at war's end. My interpreter whispered in my ear that his sons were dead. I knew this, and he didn't, but I couldn't be the one to tell him. The perversity of that moment shattered for good my capacity to believe in some sovereign order in the universe.

As a former reporter, what reflections do you have on the role of religion in the public square -- especially as we head into the 2008 election?

Faith is now a diffused force across the full political spectrum. Four years ago, it was a much more targeted and quantifiable factor, mostly on the side of the Republican Party. No one will have an easy time this year trying to decide which political choice is biblical.

What do you want for Christians to take away from this book? That there is a conversation to be had with non-Christians that doesn't involve rancor and mockery?

The conversation is necessary, but it doesn't have to be anodyne. No one has to compromise, but everyone has to listen and show a modicum of respect. It's simple and hugely difficult at the same time.

How was this book the genesis for the documentary Purple State of Mind?

When I sold it to HarperCollins, I immediately called Craig Detweiler, my sophomore college roommate, because he had known me best when I believed. I wanted to go back in time and rehash the past. He wanted to turn on the cameras.

Any thoughts on how we can continue the dialogue that Craig and you have begun?

The best bet is to be determined in spirit, modest in ambition, at least at first. Find the one or two people whose company you enjoy and yet with whom you disagree and start to listen. If they listen, too, then there is hope. Alcohol and caffeine can be immensely helpful in the right doses.

Becky Garrison's books include The New Atheist Crusaders and Their Unholy Grail.

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Because the church is not an elite body separated from a doomed world, but a community placed in the midst of the cosmic community of creation, its task is not merely to win souls but to bear the burdens of creation to which it not only belongs, but to which it must also bear witness.

- J. Christian Beker
Paul, the Apostle

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God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.

- 1 Corinthians 1:28-29

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Catholic and Protestant church groups in Zimbabwe have voiced deep alarm about the Mugabe government's organized violence against those perceived to have voted against it, and its refusal to release the results of the March 29 elections. Despite the economic and social disaster Mugabe's government has brought on Zimbabwe in recent years, the government has, as one news article put it recently, maintained "support among neighboring countries where many still hold him in awe as an African liberation hero" of Zimbabwe's 1980 overturning of white-minority rule.

As Zimbabwean theologian Dr. David Kaulemu described at last month's Ecumenical Advocacy Days, many African countries are struggling not just with the ghosts of colonialism, but also with the ghosts of the liberation movement-- the fact that the concepts and leadership style that helped win independence can hinder the development of democracy. We spoke with Kaulemu after his presentation.

Sojourners: It seems, especially in the situation in Zimbabwe, that the ghost of the liberation movement is a very real and very current issue.

Kaulemu: That's a real challenge—appreciating the values, the vision of the liberation struggle, but also appreciating the limitations. Our liberation movements, the way in which they developed their skills, their personnel, their visions, and also their institutions, failed to turn them into institutions for governance and for real freedom for everyone in the country.

And so the challenge here is in reconstructing, both in terms of our vision and also in terms of our institutions, and also our personnel, our skills—reconstructing in such a way that we speak a different language where we are really concerned about the poverty in the country, we're really concerned about the dignity of human beings—each and every human being—it doesn't matter which tribe, which ethnic group, which race. And so to really begin to talk about new citizenship in a free Zimbabwe.

Do you see ways in which the faith community is helping to take the next step toward that reconstruction you're describing?

The faith communities are making a contribution. They have begun to raise certain issues, certain questions, which will help to move us forward.

These same institutions have challenges .… For a lot of church leaders, they in a sense forgot about their gospel and took the gospel of the liberation struggle. And for those whose imagination continues to be determined by the liberation struggle, you can see them using the church for the purposes of those political goals.

But we are beginning to see leaders who are now saying, we have our own values as Christians or as faith communities, which made us support the liberation struggle. Not that the liberation struggle molded our values, but that we agreed with some of the basic tenets of the liberation struggle—but from the point of view of faith communities. And that disjunction, that distinction, is beginning to be clarified more and more.

Dr. David Kaulemu is the regional coordinator for Eastern and Southern Africa at the African Forum on Catholic Social Teachings in Harare, Zimbabwe. He is also a visiting fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center. He spoke with Sojourners assistant editor Elizabeth Palmberg at last month's Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Washington, D.C.

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Ask the loveliness of the earth, ask the loveliness of the sea, ask the loveliness of the wide airy spaces, ask the loveliness of the sky, ask the order of the stars, ask the sun, making daylight with its beams, ask the moon tempering the darkness of the night that follows, ask the living things which move in the waters, which tarry on the land, which fly in the air; ask the souls that are hidden, the bodies that are perceptive; the visible things which most be governed, the invisible things that govern—ask these things, and they will all answer you, Yes, see we are lovely. Their loveliness is their confession. And all these lovely but mutable things, who has made them, but Beauty immutable?

- Augustine
Sermons 214.2

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When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.

- Romans 2:14-16

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Over the last several days, I watched Rev. Jeremiah Wright in discussions of faith, theology, history, and culture on television. The three-plus hours I devoted to PBS and CNN amounted to some of the most sophisticated and thoughtful programming on American culture and racial issues that any news station has offered in recent years. And, for those who really listened to Rev. Wright, he moved from being a political liability in the current presidential campaign to demonstrating why he is one of the nation's most compelling spokespersons of the African-American community and of progressive Christianity.

On Friday, Bill Moyers interviewed Wright in an hour-long conversation. (Watch it here.) On Sunday, Wright preached at an NAACP fundraiser in Detroit that attracted 10,000 people. (Watch parts 1 [intro], 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.) Finally, on Monday morning, Wright addressed a packed National Press Club in Washington, D.C. However different the venues, a surprisingly common thread wound through all three speeches -- that a realistic understanding of history forms the spiritual basis of hope and healing.

In the Moyers interview, Wright admitted that one of the major influences on his ministry was the august historian Martin E. Marty of the University of Chicago (a white Lutheran and a true gentleman scholar), who challenged his students to relate the "faith preached in our churches" to the "world in which our church members leave at the benediction." He then quoted African-American historian Carter G. Woodson, saying that black Americans had been—and one can argue, by inference, Anglo-Americans as well—"miseducated."

I suspect that both Woodson and Marty share the perception that Americans suffer from "miseducation" regarding history. This "miseducation" means looking to the glorious parts of history and not to its despair, of having an incomplete picture—only a "piece of the story"—regarding the past. Bad history leaves out the bits that make us cringe, doubt ourselves, or question our morality. Leaving out the uncomfortable parts may reinforce cherished views, but it lacks the power of internal critique or self-correction.

Realistic history includes the good and the amoral, the profound and the profane. It gives us the ability to understand the fullness of human experience and learn from mistakes and sin. A robust vision of the past, Wright stated, enables Christians "not to leave that world and pretend that we are now in some sort of fantasy land, as Martin Marty called it, but to serve a God who comes into history on the side of the oppressed."

The God of history is also, as Wright reminded his audience on Sunday, "a God of diversity." In his NAACP address, he recited a history of "difference," and how we denigrated those who are different. But God, he insisted, wants us to change—indeed, God is changing us—to live in such a way that "different does not mean deficient." Wright exhorted us to celebrate God-given diversity of race, color, language, music, and culture that makes humanity beautiful.

In his final address, Wright essentially delivered a church history lecture in which he traced the prophetic tradition of African-American history as a tradition of "liberation, transformation, and reconciliation." Several times, he clearly stated that a realistic view of history opens the possibility of healing the social order.

In recent events, some Americans dismissed Wright as deficient because he is not white and did not adhere to the norms of polite discourse. They used fear of difference as a political tool to divide people. This weekend, Wright rejected divisiveness as he explained his African-American heritage while recognizing the good in Anglo-European religion. He invited everyone—with all of our differences—into a shared mission of Jesus' liberating love. With humor and wit, along with courage and authenticity, Wright stood up for good history and the God of history.

At my house, the home of a white family who worships in a decorous Episcopal church, we found ourselves moved by Wright's trinity of talks on Christian history. We might not agree with everything he has said. But we do not have to. We are different. We will not see things in the same way. We do not have the same experience or the same history. We have things in our past that make us proud. Our ancestors have done things of which we are ashamed. We can learn from history. We can be friends with people who are different than us.

Most important, however, we who are different are loved by the same God. History reminds us that we can make a better world together. Change is going to come.

Diana Butler Bass (www.dianabutlerbass.com) holds a Ph.D. in church history from Duke University and the author of six books, including Christianity for the Rest of Us (HarperOne, 2006).

It is so important not to let ourselves off the hook or to become apathetic or cynical by telling ourselves that nothing works or makes a difference. Every day, light your small candle.... The inaction and actions of many human beings over a long time contributed to the crises our children face, and it is the action and struggle of many human beings over time that will solve them—with God's help. So every day, light your small candle.

- Marian Wright Edelman
Guide My Feet

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Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
The Lord has heard my supplication;
the Lord accepts my prayer.

- Psalm 6:8-9

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Last evening, I spoke at the Belmont Heights Baptist Church, just off the campus of Belmont University in Nashville. It was a good event, with the always-inspiring music of Ashley Cleveland, Kenny Greenberg, and Marcus Hammond. As is usually the case, there were a large number of young people in attendance. This morning I saw a blog post by someone who was there that I thought I'd share. He wrote:

I was skeptical, but after hearing Jim Wallis speak tonight … I'm very much on board with what he and Sojourners (his social justice organization) are doing.

And in the news this morning, an AP story titled "Some young religious voters focus on social justice":

They are trying to expand the focus of faith-based politics beyond the religious right's hot-button issues of abortion and gay marriage. And they are placing social justice issues, like poverty and war, at the intersection of their moral and political decision making.

Just some more signs of how the religious and political winds are changing.

This morning's newspaper headlines are about the comment on Zimbabwe made by Jendayi Frazer, U.S. assistant secretary for African Affairs. Her statements reflect the reality of the situation in Zimbabwe that is evident to most people, including African leaders -- namely, that the current post-election crisis is happening because Mugabe lost the elections and his current presidency and government is constitutionally illegal. The silence from African leaders reminds me of the story of the emperor who was naked but none of his peers or officials had the courage to point this out to him -- except the little boy who pointed out the obvious. Only two African leaders have been vocal about their opposition to the crisis in Zimbabwe - these leaders are from Zambia and Botswana. However, I must add that, to their credit, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa refused to allow a ship carrying weapons destined for Zimbabwe to dock in their ports. In the case of South Africa, it was the actions of dockworkers and drivers who refused to unload the cargo from the ship, and the court action co-sponsored by the Anglican church that prevented the arms from being transported to Zimbabwe. This is an amazing example of the power of citizens who follow their conscience and refuse to participate in actions that will harm fellow human beings -- even in defiance of their government. These actions inspire hope and courage.

It is expected that the statements by Frazer will be resisted by some African leaders in an effort to keep the Zimbabwean issue an "African issue." Unfortunately, their silence and inaction mutes their voices. The lives of Zimbabweans are not expendible and must not be sacrificed in the name of political expediency.

Nontando Hadebe, a former Sojourners intern, is originally from Zimbabwe and is now pursuing graduate studies in theology in South Africa.

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Why do the nations conspire,
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and his anointed, saying,
Let us burst their bonds asunder,
and cast their cords from us."

- Psalm 2:1-3

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So many people feel so overwhelmed and disempowered by the stresses of modern life that they convince themselves they can't make a difference. So they don't even try. They bury their talents in the ground and let their spirits wither on the vine of life. I hope they will bestir themselves at least to say every day as an anonymous old man did: "I don't have the answers, life is not easy, but my heart is in the right place."

- Marian Wright Edelman
Guide My Feet

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In The Great Awakening, I wrote,

Imagine something called Justice Revivals, in the powerful tradition of revivals past but focusing on the great moral issues of our time.

Imagine linking the tradition of Billy Graham with the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.

Imagine a new generation of young people catching fire and offering their gifts, talents, and lives in a new spiritual movement for social justice.

Imagine disillusioned believers coming back to faith after many years of alienation, while other seekers discover the power of faith for the first time.

Imagine politics being unable to co-opt such a spiritual revival but being held accountable to its moral imperatives.

Imagine social movements rising out of spiritual revival and actually changing the wind of both our culture and our politics.

Last week in Columbus, Ohio, that vision came to life. The first night, as I stood on the stage looking out over a church filled with 3,500 people inspired by Matt Redman's opening worship music, I felt a sense of amazing grace. Over the next three evenings, more than 10,000 people attended. There would have been more if they could have gotten into the Vineyard Church -- this largest church in Columbus seats 3,500 people, but it turned out to be too small for the crowd. Pastor Rich Nathan of Vineyard and Bishop Timothy Clarke of the First Church of God, the co-chairs of the revival, led the services. My three sermons focused on the call to conversion, the call to community, and the call to justice.

Hundreds of people came forward to commit their lives to Christ for the first time, and thousands came down the aisle to commit themselves to the social justice that is core to the kingdom of God, to the "least of these" whom Jesus calls us to care for. The Columbus Dispatch headlined a story, "The Justice Revival: Faithful aim to aid poor, as Jesus did", and wrote:

The revival … is a call to walk the walk and dig into issues about which Jesus preached, such as helping the poor.

Our call to the churches was to make the city of Columbus their "parish" – that the churches of the city together take responsibility for what happens in their city. The whole spectrum of the churches, from the most conservative to the most liberal, supported the revival. On Thursday evening, 50 pastors from those churches joined on the stage for an altar call to make Columbus the parish of the churches in the city.

Friday evening, an inspiring challenge by Dr. Gene Harris, superintendent of Columbus Public Schools, for mentors who would develop relationships with the city's children led to hundreds of responses. On Saturday following the revival, the Dispatch wrote that the "Revival's faithful take good will onto streets":

About 2,000 people -- many of them teenagers, college students, and young adults -- took to the streets of Columbus yesterday for community-service projects that put their Christian faith into action.

Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio came to our "City Leaders Lunch," as did Mayor Michael Coleman of Columbus, city council members, many nonprofit organizations, and many more pastors. They spoke together about communication and collaboration, and the partnerships among them that could change the city.

Billboards announcing the Justice Revival were all over town and simply said, "Love God? End Poverty." By the end of the week, the stories of how people wanted to follow Jesus into relationship with the poor of Columbus were changing the image of Christianity in the city. And that change will continue, as one local pastor said in the press:

Bethany Christian Church's co-pastor, Elaine Fennell, reminded the volunteers that their mission didn't end yesterday. "We cannot sleep, not until poverty is no more and no child is hungry and they all have shelter and clothing," Fennell said. "You are the beginning of a revived movement. We are going back up the mountain, and we cannot rest."

It was an extraordinary week, even more than I had hoped. As we discern how to move forward, many other cities now want Justice Revivals in their communities. Just imagine!

Several weeks ago, a pair of doves built a nest on a front windowsill at my house. My family watched as the mother bird laid two eggs, as they hatched, and as the young chicks feathered. We grew attached to the winged family who made their home with ours.

Two mornings ago, I was checking on the baby birds when a grackle (a large blackbird that a friend calls the "Darth Vader" of the bird world) swooped down and attacked the terrified mother. She flew off. Then, to my horror, the grackle plucked one of the babies out of the nest. Still in my pajamas, I ran outside with a broom yelling at the blackbird, hoping to frighten it and rescue the chick. But the grackle escaped with his prey. For a couple of hours, it circled around trying to collect the other chick. I stayed by the nest, however, waving the broom to save the remaining baby bird until its parents returned. Eventually, the much-calmer mother dove came back to one tiny offspring. When I called wildlife rescue, the volunteer told me that, "the days before a bird learns to fly are the most dangerous in their lives." Standing guard with the broom saved the other young bird's life.

This episode reminded me how fragile new life is—and that it needs to be protected by someone willing to wave around a broom to scare off predators who wish to destroy it before it can even fly.

New movements have the same need. Right now, as my friend Jim Wallis points out, a new religious movement for justice has emerged among evangelicals. Not only is this true, but parallel movements have birthed in other religious communities, too—among mainline and liberal Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, and Muslims. Some are not even faith voices, as new political, social, and broadly spiritual movements coalesce across racial, class, and religious divisions as many people are speaking out on behalf of God, the human future, and transformation. The movements for change are varied—and include politicians, artists, philosophers, scientists, activists, pastors, teachers, business leaders, students, and writers—and people are forming new communities, networks, and organizations to create paths toward global flourishing.

Because my work as a speaker takes me around North America, I am well aware of the voices for change, their longings and passions, and their increasing self-awareness of being part of something larger that is coming into being, of a cultural yearning for a new day. Like Jim, I am also convinced a new awakening has birthed in our time—a movement for justice and change that probably surpasses any that history has known, and whose inclusive scope can only be surmised.

But all this is new, very young, and still fragile—it does not yet know how to fly. For many people, the idea of a new movement will be exciting. For others, however, it will be threatening, and they will resist change with all their power.

During such days, leadership calls for many capacities: inspiration, imagination, risk, marshalling new resources, and reorganizing communities. But leaders must also be willing to wave the broom—to ward off dangers while the chicks are learning to fly.

Diana Butler Bass (www.dianabutlerbass.com) is the author of Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith (HarperOne).

There is a popular saying that the most dangerous animal is one that has been fatally wounded. This idiom provides a framework for understanding the post-election crisis and escalating violence in Zimbabwe. Prior to the elections the government was confident of winning the elections and had no plan B - the idea of losing simply did not cross their minds; it was inconceivable! They lost and their behavior attests to this. No winner would behave the way they are doing. Their target is defenseless and unarmed Zimbabweans whom they are attacking with impunity. They are unleashing a low-intensity war against their own people in order to hold on to power.

A report by the churches in Zimbabwe documents the wave of repression, violence, and intimidation that is being systematically carried out across the country.

• Organized violence perpetrated against individuals, families, and communities who are accused of campaigning or voting for the "wrong" political party in the March 29 elections has been unleashed throughout the country, particularly in the countryside and in some high-density urban areas. People are being abducted, tortured, and humiliated by being asked to repeat slogans of the political party they are alleged not to support, ordered to attend mass meetings where they are told they voted for the "wrong" candidate and should never repeat it in the run-off election for president, and, in some cases, people are murdered.

• The deterioration in the humanitarian situation is plummeting at a frightful pace. The cost of living has gone beyond the reach of the majority of our people. There is widespread famine in most parts of the countryside on account of poor harvests and delays in the process of importing maize from neighboring countries. The shops are empty and basic foodstuffs are unavailable. Victims of organized torture who are ferried to hospital find little solace as the hospitals have no drugs or medicines to treat them.

As the shepherds of the people, we appeal:

• To the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the United Nations (U.N.) to work toward arresting the deteriorating political and security situation in Zimbabwe. We warn the world that if nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing genocide similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and other hot spots in Africa and elsewhere.

• For the immediate end to political intimidation and retribution arising from how people are perceived to have voted in the March 29, 2008, elections and arising from the desire to influence how people will vote in the anticipated run-off in the presidential poll. Youth militia and war veteran/military base camps that have been set up in different parts of the country should be closed as a step toward restoring the peace and freedom of people's movement that was witnessed before and during the elections.

• To ZEC to release the true results of the presidential poll of March 29 without further delay. The unprecedented delay in the publication of these results has caused anxiety, frustration, depression, suspicion, and, in some cases, illness among people of Zimbabwe both at home and abroad. A pall of despondency hangs over the nation, which finds itself in a crisis of expectations and governance. The nation is in a crisis, in limbo, and no real business is taking place anywhere as the nation waits.

• To, finally, the people of Zimbabwe themselves. You played your part when you turned out to vote. We, again, commend you for exercising your democratic right peacefully. At this difficult time in our nation, we urge you to maintain and protect your dignity and your vote. We urge you to refuse to be used for a political party or other people's selfish ends, especially where it concerns violence against other people, including those who hold different views from your own. It was the Lord Jesus who said, "Whatever you do to one of these little ones, you do it unto me (Matthew 25:45).

We call on all Zimbabweans and on all friends of Zimbabwe to continue to pray for our beautiful nation. As the shepherds of God's flock, we shall continue to speak on behalf of Zimbabwe's suffering masses and we pray that God's will be done.

This is a crime against humanity that needs to be confronted by the international community. The call for an international day of prayer on April 27 by Zimbabwean churches indicates the commitment to justice and peace by Zimbabweans that is rooted and informed by spiritual values and faith. We ask all persons of faith and goodwill to join us in prayer as we actively struggle for justice in Zimbabwe. Thank you and God bless.

Nontando Hadebe, a former Sojourners intern, is originally from Zimbabwe and is now pursuing graduate studies in theology