PeaceGrooves

imagine. create. peace.

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When Heaven Becomes an Empire

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom illustrates the danger of trying to construct heaven by force. Its leaders condemned genuine evils within nineteenth-century Chinese society and proposed reforms that, at least on paper, could appear remarkably progressive. They opposed slavery, prostitution, opium, foot-binding, concubinage, and the purchase of women in marriage. They proclaimed the spiritual…

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A conversation I overheard at a recent string quartet performance: “What’s your name?” “Viola.”…

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I Yam What I Yam

I yam -not a fan of the Popeye man,though he had a planto beat the manwith green-leafed spinach in a can. And— “I yam what I yam,and dat’s all dat I yam” is a wise wayto understand who I yam, especially when I think I yammore grandthan I yam. Say it. Play it again, Sam.

I Yam What I Yam

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WWJP? What Would Jesus Post?

WWJP? What Would Jesus Post?

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PeaceGrooves Peace News

Issue No. 1: Small Bridges MatterWeek ending July 24, 2026“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”— Martin Luther King Jr.Most headlines this week focused on escalating violence in the Middle East. Yet even amid conflict, diplomats, community leaders, and local organizations continued building the relationships that make future peace…

PeaceGrooves Peace News

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July 4th in Peace and Justice History

The following are a few of the peace and justice related historical events that have occurred on July 4: 836 – Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples, is signed. 1804 – Birth of Author Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote “Chiefly About War-Matters” detailing his opposition to the Civil War. 1827 – Slavery is abolished in NY. 1832 – John Neal delivers the…

July 4th in Peace and Justice History

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The NEW Soylent Green

A Moses-like figure stands before the mic at an NRA convention and thunders, “I will give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.” At the end of the sci-fi film Soylent Green, that same actor implores his detective boss to spread the news, “Soylent Green is people!” In the movie, as the corpses pile up from an overcrowded, miserable earth, they are carted away in garbage trucks,…

The NEW Soylent Green

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It's in the Blood

In 1539, a fugitive former-priest-turned-Anabaptist, in his seminal work “The Foundation,” penned the following words: “Christ is our fortress; patience our weapon of defense; the Word of God our sword. …Iron and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard human blood and swine’s blood of well-nigh equal value.” So said Menno Simons, principal leader of the Protestant sect which…

It's in the Blood

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Virtual Terrorist - A Tale of East and West

https://ia902503.us.archive.org/20/items/VirtualTerrorist/Virtual%20Terrorist.mp3 in the West, the Man-Boy plays with his toy joystick or drone killing me softly alone Xbox Wii PS4 smart bombs virtual war in the East, the Boy-Man hears the siren’s song of martyrdom heaven with a harem pull the trigger pull the pin pay the price for another’s sin in the East and the West we are losing this…

Virtual Terrorist - A Tale of East and West

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Serious Games, G4C and Peace

Video games can function as important educational tools. But can they go a step further and promote social awareness and change? This question has given rise to the Games for Change movement within the Serious Games Initiative. The Serious Games Initiative was founded in 2002 at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington DC. The Serious Games Initiative focuses on the use…

Serious Games, G4C and Peace

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Darfur is Dying and The Sudan Web Campaign

Does a game oversimplify and diminish suffering? This is an ongoing discussion in the Serious Games Initiative about whether games can tackle tragic issues, and it is one that should continue. Some historical tragedies such as the Holocaust have not been addressed for this precise reason. If one does choose to create a game that gets folks to think, will doing so change behavior in the…

Darfur is Dying and The Sudan Web Campaign

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A Peace Paradigm: Creating Nonviolent Media

The Mission of PeaceGrooves: What we are creating is a new paradigm, a new mythology. Or in actuality an ancient paradigm applied to modernity. We subscribe to the belief that conflict is a part of life, but violent resolution to conflict does not have to be. We challenge those who are in the business of creating media to stop producing games, videos and what not that perpetuate the myth that…

A Peace Paradigm: Creating Nonviolent Media

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The NEW Virtual Babysitter

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land. Why do you not criticize or attempt to understand why your sons (especially, your sons) and your daughters are beyond your command? Forget TV, a new babysitter has come to toyland. The GameBoy. It seems lately that I have seen boy after boy with the little box in hand mesmerized by the images on the screen. Even in church where it seems that parents…

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122 Reasons Not to Scroll Past

Craigslist prohibits the sale of weapons and accessories on its site. Ebay prohibits the sale of firearms, though it does allow some firearm parts and accessories under strict guidelines. Facebook does now officially prohibit the purchase, sale, or trade of firearms, ammunition, and explosives between private individuals. On paper, then, the policy has changed. Originally, Facebook’s policy…

122 Reasons Not to Scroll Past

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OMG!

Part of the purpose of this blog is to highlight those things that have entered the societal pantheon without question. Call me prudish. Or maybe a responsible parent. But we try to emphasize to our children to be aware of their words. So this OMG! stuff troubles me. Making an acronym of “Oh my God!” doesn’t change the fact that it is a disrespectful use of God’s name. Awareness is not easy…

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Antietam Creek

O’er these banks bullets flew,canon roared, and bodies fell,filling this stream like cordwood,boys dying for these brown skinones floating on black circles ofair under a setting sun. The thunder of old battlesechoes in my head, I, flat on myback on a river running red.

Antietam Creek

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A Day for the World to Say Sorry

From Australia’s National Sorry Day Toward an International Day of Truth, Repentance, and RepairA PeaceGrooves ReflectionThere are words so overused that they risk becoming weightless. Sorry is one of them. We say it when we bump into someone in a hallway, when we answer an email too late, when we make an insignificant mistake. Yet there are times when sorry is not small at all. There are wounds…

A Day for the World to Say Sorry