This Month's Cover
Magazine

Sojourners Magazine: September/October 2009

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Whether it’s in the classroom or in the school of life, our learning as Christians never stops. We invite you to dive into this issue, take notes, and start talking. Below are this issue's web extras.

Social justice seminaries you should know about.

North Korean refugee Joseph Kim shares his story in this exclusive audio interview.

Poet John Gosslee reads his poem and discusses his inspiration for writing.

Cover Story

What I wish I learned in church about sex.
Somewhere between demonization of sex and the "sexual revolution," there is a middle way - a higher way.

Feature

Because there are so many different facets of social justice, there’s no one formula for picking a school that values it.
Churches Supporting Churches gets congregations into partnership -- and policy.
A program that educates Iraqi students in the U.S. is helping to rebuild Iraq, one student at a time.
Retooling seminaries for the world of today -- and tomorrow.

Commentary

What the protest movement is -- and isn't -- about.
Why 'voting with your fork' doesn't cut it -- Big Food will not slink away just because you shop at the farmers market.
Students mobilize against the humanitarian crisis.

Columns

This month’s cover story is about sex, and there is nothing I can add to the topic that would not violate the rules of my parole, except to mention that a Nevada senator—who single-hand
On a personal, national, and global level, the physical well-being of all God’s children is close to God’s heart and should be close to ours as well.
In July, Pope Benedict wrote you a love letter. Like all love letters, it’s worth savoring.
“No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater than central air.” — The demon Azrael in Kevin Smith’s film Dogma
Never let a problem to be solved become more important than the person to be loved. —Barbara Johnson
I am writing these words on the train from Zurich to Geneva, looking up from my keyboard to see snowcapped mountains hanging over the lake.

Culture Watch

WE’RE IN A national emergency, and it’s not swine flu.
The Bridge at the End of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability, by James Gustave Speth. Yale University Press.
Vacation Bible Schools isn't nearly as bad as, say, the Inquisition.
The Stoning of Soraya M., written and directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh. Mpower Pictures.
Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices, by Julie Clawson; The Fray, by The Fray; Learning to Sing in a Strange Land, by Wesley Stevens; and Grace Notes: Daily Readings with a Fellow Pilgrim, by Philip Yancey.
A theological variety show mixes humor, music, and cultural analysis.

Departments

Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary for September and October.
Thank you for Rose Marie Berger’s excellent column, “Stammering Through Dreams” (The Hungry Spirit, July 2009).
The ram’s horn bellowed. Fused with snapped spears and hatchet heads nicked shields covered the field,
LABOR UNIONS, CATHOLIC health-care providers, and the U.S.
THE PRICE OF cocaine in the U.S.
I read the entire July 2009 issue of Sojourners in one sitting.
At the Christian Amahoro gathering in South Africa in June, former apartheid-era Minister of Law and Order Adriaan Vlok publicly washed the feet of Sean Callaghan, a young white South African man w
I applaud the commentary “When Governments Kill” (by Richard Viguerie, July 2009), as an American who used to support the death penalty.
THE IDEA CAME in a dream. One night Kaytea Petro, co-founder of Neighbor-hood Fruit, dreamt she was searching on a Web site for public fruit trees throughout San Francisco.

Web Extra

John Gosslee reads his poem, "Keeping Promises." John Gosslee attends Liberty University, where he is the poetry reader for The LAMP.
Jeannie Choi: Well first Joseph I wanted to ask you about your life and your memories of growing up in North Korea, because many of us don't know what it's like, obviously.
During a Korean-American leadership conference at Yale University, several students realized that reports of famine, inhumane work camps, torture, and ideological enslavement in North Korea no long