Marvin Blickenstaff was my piano professor at Goshen when I began as a first-year student in the fall of 1979. Seeing him, and listening to his teaching and performance, transported me back to my 17-year-old self – a strange and vivid experience that was both disorienting and orienting.
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‘Even in darkness, ever-rising joy’
Sep 15 2025
On September 15th, 2001, Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh American father, was killed while planting flowers in front of his gas station in Arizona by a man who called himself a patriot. He became the first person killed in hate violence after 9/11. Original artwork by Sunroop Kaur, @loquacious_lines
We have experienced another hard week of gun violence in America. For me, it has been a week of intense emotions – heavy emotions as well as joy and hope.
Just a few days ago, in the wake of the tragic and public assassination of Charlie Kirk, New York Times columnist and PBS commentator David Brooks spoke about the doom loop of the dark passions, which he named as anger, hatred, resentment and the urge to dominate. He said:
“To get out of the dark passion doom loop, there has to be a moment of interruption – where you say, no, I’m stopping this. I’m not partaking. I will respond to hatred with love.”
How do we escape the doom loop? How do we stop partaking when it is dished up to us from all sides of the media and culture that we swim in?
We humans have an appetite for domination. It is extremely tempting to partake in dehumanization by (pseudo)-righteously dehumanizing the dehumanizers. So many have called our attention to this, including Paulo Freire, Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders of liberation through nonviolence.
Are we centered deeply enough in Christ to say: “No! I’m stopping this doom cycle.”
Valarie Kaur
I am feeling hope and joy this week as I anticipate hosting Valarie Kaur, a renowned interfaith civil rights leader, lawyer and filmmaker, at Goshen College. Kaur will deliver the annual Beechy Peace, Justice and Reconciliation Lecture on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Umble Center. Kaur’s journey toward Revolutionary Love began 20 years ago today, when her uncle Balbir Singh Sodhi died in the first hate crime following 9/11. He was shot in the back while tending the gas station that was his livelihood.
In the wake of this violence, Kaur chose to say: “No, I’m not partaking in this doom loop. I will respond to hatred with love.” Through her speaking, writing and activism, she is creating moments of interruption and inviting us to join her. She will be accompanied by an Afghani musician, Qais Essar. You are warmly welcomed to this timely event,
This morning, I received an email from Valarie (to whose social media I subscribe) calling attention to the anniversary of her uncle’s death. She signed off with the phrase Chardi Kala, a Punjabi phrase from the Sikh faith tradition, meaning “even in darkness, ever-rising joy.”
I pray for ever-rising joy this week, in my heart and yours.
— Rebecca Stoltzfus
My 17-year-old self
‘Freedom for everyone’
Every day is a good day to learn a little more about history. Today, Juneteenth, is an especially good day to listen to a story that has shaped our present day through a long and painful struggle for freedom. In the words of Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth, the freedom we celebrate through the telling of this story is freedom not only for enslaved people, or Black people, or Texans, but for everyone.
The contemporary, creative work of the Gospel
When Kevin and I set out on a learning tour about Anabaptists in Switzerland and Germany, we were prepared to hear stories of persecution and cruel executions. What has surprised me are the stories of ecumenical reconciliation and active love that continue to spring forth from the Anabaptist movement 500 years later.