Christians

Zachary Lee 11-02-2023

'Killers of the Flower Moon' / Apple Studios

The real mystery of Killers of the Flower Moon is not who murdered so many Osage people, it’s how these murders can go on for so long — how the loss of life can be dismissed with such apathy.

Lexi Schnaser 10-18-2023

Liliana Kennedy reads a book titled “Banned Books” during a Hamilton East Public Library board meeting on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023, in Noblesville Ind. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters.

Book-banning has always been about censoring the stories, histories, and information that push us to question the status quo.

Demonstrators attend a rally for queer and transgender youth rally near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Demonstrators attend a rally for queer and transgender youth rally near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on March 31, 2023, calling for autonomy following recent legislation and threats of violence directed towards transgender people. (Photo by Bryan Olin Dozier/NurPhoto)

I know some Christians do not fully share my theological convictions about gender and sexuality, but on issues of human dignity and civil rights, the church should be firmly united: Transgender and nonbinary siblings are God’s children made in God’s very image and likeness. Prohibiting lifesaving medical care, tolerating discrimination, or denying someone the ability to use their name is wrong; you cannot deny people those rights because you disagree with their beliefs about gender or sexuality. Christians should be standing in the breach in defense of the full humanity, dignity, and rights of their trans siblings.

Grant Schwab 11-03-2022

A woman wears a jacket with a QAnon logo while hundreds of vehicles including 18-wheeler trucks, RVs, and other cars are parked as part of a rally at Hagerstown Speedway after some of them arrived as part of a convoy that traveled across the country headed to Washington, D.C., to protest coronavirus disease (COVID-19) related mandates and other issues in Hagerstown, Md., March 5, 2022. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

About one in five Americans mostly agree with ideas consistent with the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute. That’s an increase from one in seven since last year.

Bekah McNeel 10-13-2022

Ivan Kmit / Alamy

Societally we focus a lot on spanking, I think, because it seems to draw such a line between barbarism and civility, or, seen from the other perspective, between parents who are serious about discipline and those who are wishy-washy. But spanking isn’t the issue behind the issue. The issue behind the issue is authority — the right to exercise power.

Lauren W. Reliford 9-15-2022

Photo illustration of a person calling 988, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. Mitchell Atencio/Sojourners

If you or a loved one have been impacted by suicide or self-harm, there is nothing to be ashamed of. Scripture teaches us that when one person suffers, we all suffer. Yet if you are in a place of active suicidal ideation, or having self-harming thoughts, it can feel like you have been completely swallowed by the dark; it’s a lonely and terrifying place. But here is the truth: You are wanted on this earth.

Hannah Bowman 3-01-2022

Peter speaking to two men while in prison. Image part of the Cooper Hewitt collection, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Jesus’ “mission statement” when he begins his public ministry in Galilee includes a promise of liberation and release for those who are incarcerated. While the New Testament context of “captivity” wasn’t entirely the same as modern imprisonment, Jesus’ promise aligns liberation of prisoners with healing and good news for the poor and oppressed. Taking Jesus’ words in this text seriously forces us to ask: If God’s reign is characterized by freedom for prisoners, why are we supporting incarceration now?

Olivia Bardo 2-22-2022

Photo by Markus Krisetya on Unsplash

Today is a day for magical thinking. The date — 2/22/22 — is a palindrome: Whether you read it forward or backward, the date is identical. Because the day also falls on a Tuesday, particularly enthusiastic followers of palindrome dates have been calling today “Twosday.”

Betsy Shirley 2-14-2022

Katey Zeh. Courtesy photo. Graphic by Tiarra Lucas / Sojourners.

As Baptist minister and CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Zeh has participated in plenty of “circular conversations regarding the moral absolutes of abortion.” But as she writes in her new book, A Complicated Choice: Making Space for Grief and Healing in the Pro-Choice Movement, these debates often overlook how abortion always “happens within a person’s real, full, and complex life.”

Protesters in Manila, Philippines hold signs that read "U.S. Troops Out Now" and "Down With U.S. Imperialism" outside the U.S. embassy in 2018. Romeo Ranoco / Reuters.

Protesters in Manila, Philippines hold signs that read "U.S. Troops Out Now" and "Down With U.S. Imperialism" outside the U.S. embassy in 2018. Romeo Ranoco / Reuters.

Due to climate change, people — entire tribes and cultures — are losing their homes and are being displaced from their lands. Indeed, the United States military needs to be held accountable for polluting the planet. For example, if preventive measures and legislation like the Green New Deal are not enacted to curb U.S. imperialism, more Indigenous peoples will perish due to climate disasters.

Sean Sanni, Reuters 12-01-2021

Rev. Paul Obayi sits amid several artifacts that he recovered from various shrines and stored in his museum in Nsukka, Enugu Nigeria. Sept. 29, 2021. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja

A Roman Catholic priest is collecting and saving hundreds of traditional pre-Christian religious artifacts in southeast Nigeria that new converts to Christianity had planned to burn.

The collection includes carvings of pagan deities and masks, some of them more than a century old and considered central to the pre-Christian religion of the Igbo people, who traditionally believed them to be sacred and to have supernatural powers.

Lexi McMenamin 5-26-2021

People protest in solidarity with Palestinians on May 16, 2021 in Seattle. Shutterstock/ Inna Zakharchenko

“As Black American activists are being increasingly heard and amplified, so is this message about linking national contexts and the importance of recognizing the global scope of anti-racism activism beyond national boundaries,” Roger Baumann said.

Hannah Bowman 5-03-2021

The U.S. prison system is an afront to human dignity and in sharp contrast with God's vision for justice on earth. Christians' commitment to love, hope, and justice should inspire us to work toward abolishing the prison system.

Lexi McMenamin 1-25-2021

The Parler app on the screen of smartphone. Ascannio / Shutterstock.com

Parler was removed by app stores and its web server, Amazon. But getting rid of Parler is like cutting one head off a hydra: Since Parler’s suspension, MeWe and Rumble have seen massive gains.

Lexi McMenamin 10-28-2020

Chris has attended the same local church for five years. When services went remote due to the coronavirus pandemic, Chris and his partner noticed paid staff of the church sharing misinformation about hydroxychloroquine on social media. Chris hoped that the church leadership, including the pastor, would push back.

Gina Ciliberto 10-19-2020

Ashley Nealy waits in line to cast her ballot in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 12, 2020. REUTERS/Chris Aluka Berr

According to new survey data released by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), 57 percent of Americans ranked fairness of presidential elections as the top critical issue in the country when asked to choose from 14 issues ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to racial inequality.

Rose Marie Berger 4-30-2019

President Donald Trump holds up an executive order as he announces that the United States will drop out of aninternational arms treaty. April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis

Gun violence and small arms deaths disproportionately impact communities of color, women, and other marginalized groups. As the biggest arms exporter, the U.S. signature to the ATT demonstrated its support for the establishment of common international standards for all states in the global arms trade.

Melody Zhang 4-25-2019

Image via Sean Hawkey 

Christian Climate Action played a key role in securing the protest site at Marble Arch as they arrived by a truck which was used to block traffic and was later transformed into a solar-powered stage. Rev. Sue Parfitt, 77, along with two other Christians, ensured that the truck was not removed by police by locking themselves to the underside with metal chains. Richard Barnard, a member of the U.K. Catholic Worker Movement, then climbed on top of the truck and unfurled a banner reading “tell the truth.”

Anna Sutterer 1-03-2019

“The assumption should be that Christian Americans, along with Americans of all faiths and backgrounds, would of course welcome new members of Congress regardless of their religious affiliations.”

This is not a time for the marketplace of ideas. There are people who believe that immigrant children are criminals. There are people who act as though queer folks are an abomination. There are people who consider every black and brown person to be a threat. These ideas are not worth debating. Logical conversations will not dissuade oppressors. Civility has never transformed the reality of the marginalized and it never will.