Posts By This Author
New and Noteworthy: Conversations With Mystics, ‘Me & My Muslim Friends,’ and More
WUNC
Our Muslim Neighbors
In an era defined by ideological silos, it’s as important as ever to understand our neighbors. The podcast Me & My Muslim Friends invites listeners to do just that, with host Yasmin Bendaas leading thoughtful conversations about the broad spectrum of American Muslim experiences. WUNC
The Editors: A Special Issue About a Deadly Heresy
Peter Manseau is a novelist, historian, and founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Center for the Understanding of Religion in American History. / Illustration by Sam Falconer
THIS SPECIAL ISSUE of Sojourners focuses on Christian nationalism — what it is, why it matters, and how we can address this rising force.
Sojourners’ president Adam Russell Taylor introduces the dangers of Christian nationalism and how some are responding. Amanda Tyler, executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and author of the forthcoming book How To End Christian Nationalism, further defines the threat to democracy and religious liberty, but also offers the assurance that “working to end Christian nationalism does not mean working to end Christian expression in the public square.” It’s about how we bring our faith to civic engagement.
New and Noteworthy: ‘Biblical Time Machine,’ Poetry From Kwame Dawes, and More
W. Norton
Scriptural Time Travel
For the average reader, understanding scripture’s historical context can be overwhelming. Hosted by scholar Helen Bond and journalist Dave Roos, the podcast Biblical Time Machine provides an accessible entry point into biblical scholarship. Episode topics include slavery among early Christians and first-century childhood. BibleOdyssey
Wrestling for Truth in Our Past
Dame Cicely Saunders, a British American nurse, medical social worker, and physician, was a pioneer in palliative care techniques and founder in the 1960s of the modern hospice movement. / Illustration by Leah Kellaway
In Derek Walcott’s poem “Midsummer, Tobago” he recalls a “summer-sleeping house / drowsing through August.” At Sojourners we are savoring family vacations, relaxing, welcoming new babies — and telling stories about our history and our becoming.
Sojourners assistant editor Josina Guess interviewed actor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor about her recent films Origin and Exhibiting Forgiveness. Their deep conversation releases transformative power, an example of what narrative theologian James McClendon Jr. called “biography as theology.” What happens when we wrestle for truth in our personal and social histories, and open that struggle to God? As “Living the Word” writer Raj Nadella warns, “distorted memories of the past may misdirect our future; they may cause us to miss the way God is leading.”
New and Noteworthy: ‘Girls State,’ U.S. Food Policy, and More
Apple TV+
When Girls Govern
The documentary Girls State follows a group of dedicated high school girls as they participate in an immersive mock-government program. At a time when civic norms are being eroded, the film is a fascinating, hopeful, and human portrait of American democracy’s future. Apple TV+
Defending the Dignity of All
Topeka K. Sam is founder of The Ladies of Hope Ministries, which supports and empowers formerly incarcerated women and girls. Sam, a former prisoner, received an honorary doctorate from New York Theological Seminary in 2022. / Illustration by Clarissa Martinez
JAILS ARE NOT nice places. There is little to dampen the sheer terror of being closed in, locked down, and utterly vulnerable. Now imagine getting booked into county jail while pregnant. Journalist Beatrice M. Spadacini writes this month on moms giving birth and raising children while incarcerated or entangled in the carceral system. These stories call to mind Junia, the only woman whom Apostle Paul identifies as “in prison with me” and who was “in Christ before I was” (Romans 16:7). Christians are continually instructed to make alliances across the cell blocks and over the prison walls. Dwayne David Paul’s commentary on convict labor elevates the usefulness of those alliances today for strengthening worker’s rights and defending the dignity of all.
New and Noteworthy: ‘Code Dependent,’ Reclaiming Theology and More
reclaimingmytheology.com
Finding Faith Again
With breadth and depth, the Reclaiming My Theology podcast seeks to “take our theology back from ideas and systems that oppress.” Host Brandi Miller interviews diverse thinkers who are building a freer faith and traversing heavy topics, such as purity culture, with candor and diligent hope. reclaimingmytheology.com
Proclaimers of God’s Divine Economy
Felipe Luciano, an Afro-Puerto Rican activist, poet, and journalist, co-founded New York's Young Lords Party and led their 11-day occupation of East Harlem's First Spanish United Methodist Church in December 1969. / Illustration by Adolfo Valle
Sojourners had a wonderful in-person retreat this spring in Washington, D.C. Our gathering of editorial colleagues from California, Washington, Georgia, New Jersey, and D.C. sparked creativity, deepened commitment and community, and increased our love and respect for one another and our readers. Unfortunately, we also shared COVID — so we delayed the printing of this issue by a week to allow for rest and healing. (Hopefully, you didn’t notice.)
New and Noteworthy: ‘Heart and Soul,’ Queering Contemplation, and More
BBC
Dispatches of Devotion
The BBC weekly podcast Heart and Soul dissects religion’s ubiquitous and misunderstood presence in public life. Imbued with a refreshing human sensitivity, weekly episodes cover a range of faith topics — from Russian Orthodoxy in Kenya to a Sikh music revival. BBC
Transcendent Visions and Deep Healing
Rev. Richard Joyner is pastor of Conetoe Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in North Carolina and founder of the Conetoe Family Life Center, a 25-acre community garden and nonprofit. / Illustration by Hazel P. Mason
ENGLISH MYSTIC JULIAN of Norwich had a busy 24 hours on May 13, 1373, during which she experienced a series of vivid and visceral visions. At a time when the church preached that suffering was God’s punishment on sinful people, Julian interrogated the crucified Christ: “Lord, how can all be well when great harm has come, by sin, to your creatures?” Jesus replies to her, “I am able to make all things well and I shall make all things well.” In this issue, reviewer Ezra Craker and columnist Sarah James draw on Julian’s wisdom for our own time.
New and Noteworthy: ‘The Empty Promises of White Supremacy,’ Building Better Healthcare Systems, and More
Broadleaf
Class Over Race
In Trash: A Poor White Journey, chaplain Cedar Monroe explores the complex dynamics of being poor and white in the U.S. Grounded in liberation theology, the author ultimately calls communities to embrace multiracial solidarity and reject “the empty promises of white supremacy.” Broadleaf
Gratitude Amid Another U.S. Election Year
Elvira Arellano, a Mexican-born advocate for undocumented immigrants to the U.S., gained national recognition in 2006 when she took sanctuary in Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago. She requested asylum in 2014. Her case is still pending. / Illustration by Clarissa Martinez
WELCOME TO ANOTHER U.S. election year. The man atop the Republican elephant charges forward. The incumbent astride the Democrat's donkey stubbornly digs in his heels. We at Sojourners seek to follow Jesus in his joyful mission of liberation for all. We see this in Georgia, through the holy imperfect work of racial reparations, as reported by assistant editor Josina Guess. We see it in California, where former Sojourners fellow Laurel Mathewson finds unexpected intimacy with God through prayer and study of Teresa of Ávila.
New and Noteworthy: A Primer on Activism, ‘Nice Churchy Patriarchy,’ and More
Radiotopia
Bodies of Thought
In the podcast Weight For It, host Ronald Young Jr. explores “the nuanced thoughts of fat folks, and of all folks who think about their weight all the time.” These vulnerable, reflective episodes carefully address how fatness intersects with topics such as gender and health care. Radiotopia
What Lent, Valentine's Day, and Activists in Sports Have in Common
Layshia Clarendon is a 10-year WNBA veteran, a Christian advocate for social justice, and the league's first trans and nonbinary player. / Illustration by Keith Vlahakis
AT FIRST GLANCE, the congruence of Valentine’s Day and the beginning of Lent seems, well, incongruent. The first is culturally associated with hearts and chocolates, the latter with fasting and spiritual examination. But it turns out that the two have some deep overlays. The Feast of St. Valentine honors a third-century bishop who defied the Roman emperor and married young couples in secret, for which he was imprisoned and later executed, and for which he is remembered as the patron saint of love.
New and Noteworthy: Black Feminism, ‘That Tooth Nibbling at Your Soul,’ and Jamila Woods’ New Album
Jagjaguwar
Poured Out
Singer-songwriter Jamila Woods draws on themes of spirituality and racial justice to create music at once urgent and transcendent. In her new album, Water Made Us, she sings, “Here comes the flood, I’ll save a place for you. / And when it’s all said and done / I hope you send a dove.” Jagjaguwar
Nonviolence Amid the Carnage of War
Sharon Lavigne, founder of the Louisiana environmental justice group Rise St. James, is a 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize winner and recipient of the 2022 Laeare Medal for service to the U.S. Catholic Church and society. / Illustration by Raz Latif
WE BEGIN PLANNING each issue of the magazine months in advance, and this edition was no exception. Our conversations about Christian nonviolence last summer were rooted in our long history of wrestling with questions of how to put our biblical faith into practice in the face of challenging, real-world problems. Our goal, as always, is to offer a word that is both “timeless and timely,” and the combination of John Dear’s biblical reflection on Mary’s role as a “teacher of nonviolence” and our interview with Palestinian peacemaker Ali Abu Awwad seemed exactly that.
New & Noteworthy: Artificial Wombs, ‘Authentic Unity,’ and More
Scope Pictures
Futuristic Dilemmas
In the film The Pod Generation, parents-to-be pay top dollar to gestate a fetus in an artificial womb outside the body, a commodification that more equally distributes the responsibility of pregnancy between males and females. But every technological advancement brings new moral quandaries. Scope Pictures
The Power of Rest in a Time of Violence
Peter Maurin was co-founder with Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker movement. / Illustration by Bailey Watro
As we go to press, violence again erupts in the Holy Land. In the season of Advent, we prepare for the birth of the Prince of Peace in a rough shelter in a Palestinian village and hear again God’s ancient promises first given to the Hebrew people. But all is not calm in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Gaza, or Ashkelon. The agitations of injustice and fear have turned a season of dreams into one of nightmares.
New & Noteworthy: Horror in the Bible, ‘They Cloned Tyrone,’ and More
From Netflix
A Sci-Fi Dark Comedy
They Cloned Tyrone is both hilarious and harrowing in its depiction of a drug dealer, sex worker, and pimp who suspect the U.S. government is experimenting on their community. The film shows how, too often, Black people must choose between assimilation or annihilation. Netflix
Echoing God's Economy of Generosity
Sinéad O'Conner (1966-2023), an Irish songwriter, singer, and activist, was ordained as a priest and later converted to Islam. The quote is from her rendition of "Oró sé Do Bheatha 'Bhaile" on the album Global Sounds 3. Illustration by Hazel P. Mason
For a decade or so, beginning in the 1970s, members of the intentional Christian community that founded Sojourners magazine practiced a form of economic sharing we called the “common pot” — all our income was pooled for the good of the whole community. In doing so, we sought to model ourselves after the practices of the early Christian church, the first followers of Jesus, as described in Acts 2 and 4 — “All who believed were together and had all things in common” (Acts 2:44); “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common” (Acts 4:32).