Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84Plough Quarterly • Winter 2017 75 American Prophets Albert J. Raboteau (Princeton University Press) What good does religion do in politics? Here’s an answer. This excellent introduction to the lives of seven truly prophetic voices of the last century shows how their boldness, love for humanity, and willingness to suffer stemmed from a deep personal relationship with the living God, which burned “like fire in the bones” (Jer. 20:9). One can’t do justice to any of these figures in a chapter, but religious scholar Raboteau gets quickly to the heart of their witness, outlining the stories and spiritual insight of Abraham Joshua Heschel, Thomas Merton, Howard Thurman, Dorothy Day, A. J. Muste, Martin Luther King Jr., and Fannie Lou Hamer. Raboteau traces the close connections between these men and women, who learned much from each other. They raised their voices together at a kairos moment; the time was ripe for the prophetic vision of a few to move millions to self-sacrificial action out of love to others. Surely we’re due for another such moment. Rather than bemoan the dearth of prophetic voices today, we can follow the same call. As Heschel insists: “This world, this society can be redeemed. God has a stake in our moral predica- ment. I cannot believe that God will be defeated.” Hacksaw Ridge Film directed by Mel Gibson We wondered how Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector to win a Congressional Medal of Honor, would survive the Hollywood treatment. The protagonist of Mel Gibson’s new film refuses to carry a gun and goes R e v i e w s Editors’ Picks on to save seventy-five men as a medic during the battle of Okinawa. A Chicago Tribune review calling the film “the most bloodthirsty movie about a pacifist ever made” is on point; war really is hell, but we don’t need Mel Gibson to teach us that. The most thought-provoking parts of the film occur off the battlefield: Doss’s relationship with his girlfriend (and later wife), his repeated clashes with military brass and fellow soldiers, and the formative influ- ence of his father, a deeply damaged World War I veteran who presented young Doss with an illus- trated copy of the Ten Commandments depicting Cain killing his brother Abel. Doss later said, “I wondered, How in the world could a brother do such a thing? It put a horror in my heart of just killing, and as a result I took it personally: ‘Desmond, if you love me, you won’t kill.’” Doss’s religious conviction was perceived as unmanly cowardice, a sign of feeble character. But what defines courage? It’s not all hard-bitten muscle and smoking firepower. What about moral bravery, the strength to stand alone for what you believe is right? It won’t make you popular and is harder to attain, but will almost certainly have more enduring consequences. Through his actions Doss disproved his nay­ sayers, even as he saved their lives.  The Editors I nsigh t J O H N F. K E N N E DY War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.  Source: Letter to a Navy friend, quoted in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (Houghton Mifflin, 1965), 88.