News

Christina Colón 12-03-2018
Editorial credit: Rachael Warriner / Shutterstock.com.

Washington DC/USA- November 13, 2018:Student activists with the Sunrise Movement occupy Nancy Pelosi's office to demand that she and the Democrats act on climate change. Editorial credit: Rachael Warriner / Shutterstock.com.

A recent U.S. climate assessment made headlines last week for its conclusion that the victims of climate change are no longer some future generation, but us — and we’re feeling the effects now.

Pilar Timpane 12-03-2018

A group of Samuel Oliver-Bruno's supporters. Photo by Pilar Timpane. 

The space of Samuel Oliver-Bruno’s “home” while in sanctuary is filled with signs he thought he’d return from a biometrics appointment at U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Morrisville, N.C., scheduled at the immigration control office’s request. His work on construction projects around the basement at the CityWell church in Durham, N.C., seems stalled in time. Painting supplies, clothes, other personal items stilled exactly as he left them, where he was working diligently just days before his life was altered irrevocably. A prayer room he helped to build is silent.

the Web Editors 11-30-2018

People gather at a United Nations aid distribution center in Hodeidah, Yemen. Nov. 13, 2018. REUTERS/Abduljabbar Zeyad

The United Religions Initiative, The Charter of Compassion, and The Parliament of the World’s Religions released a joint statement yesterday calling for “an immediate cease-fire in the civil war between the Yemen government and the Houthis rebels.”

The letter states that aid workers from religious and humanitarian organizations have been restricted from administering food, water, shelter, and healthcare to 14 million people enduring a deadly famine.

Bekah McNeel 11-28-2018

FILE PHOTO: Border police look on as a group of Central Americans and Cubans hoping to apply for asylum wait at the border on an international bridge between Mexico and the U.S., in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Oct. 25, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo

While Tijuana and California received most of the remaining asylum seekers in the heavily publicized “caravan,” cities all along the U.S.-Mexico border have seen smaller eruptions in the ongoing immigration disaster. Advocates working in those cities do not, however, say that they are seeing waves of immigrants, floods of asylum seekers, or any other crisis-invoking metaphor. The U.S. is not, they say, being overrun.

Asylum seeker Maria Meza sits with her daughters in her tent in a temporary shelter in Tijuana. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

"The first thing I did was grab my children," said Meza. A photo of her clutching the hands of twin 5-year-old daughters Saira and Cheili, as her 13-year-old daughter Jamie runs alongside, has gone viral and sparked angry reactions from some lawmakers and charities.

Megan Janetsky 11-21-2018

Crowds gather by Moravia's cultural center for FestiAfro 2016. The majority of displaced people in Moravia come from AfroColombian communities that have been victims of violence. Photo courtesy Archivo del Centro de Desarrollo Cultural de Moravia.

“Everywhere in Colombia, the whole process of peace and displacement is not in the jungle; it's not on some tables where politicians sit together; it's really in the cities where these communities have to come back together,” said Albert Kreisel, a German architect working on public development initiatives in Moravia.

Dean Dettloff 11-19-2018

 

Chile Solidarity event at Holy Trinity Church, sponsored by Detroit’s Latin America Task Force with Anita Surma, Detroit-area dancer, and Ismael Duran, local Chilean guitarist and singer. 1979. Image courtesy of Kathleen Schultz. 

“Socialism” is increasingly losing its status as a dirty word in the United States, especially among young people. A Gallup poll from this year reports an increase in positive attitudes toward socialism and a decline in positive attitudes toward capitalism from Americans aged 18-29, consistent with other polling trends from previous years. Though there is no shortage of Christians wringing their hands over the changing political landscape, Christians have also shown up at strikes, campaigned for candidates endorsed by socialists, and joined socialist organizations.

There are many faithful Christians who have worked for radical change in the belly of the world’s wealthiest nation long before the 2016 primaries. Their experience brings lessons and context for today’s budding movements. One of these Christians is Sister Kathleen Schultz, a Roman Catholic sister who served as the National Executive Secretary of Christians for Socialism (CFS) in the U.S. for almost a decade. At 76 years old, she remains a thorn in the side of the powerful.

Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House. June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration plans to set up a side-event promoting fossil fuels at the annual U.N. climate talks next month, repeating a strategy that infuriated global-warming activists during last year's talks, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

As with the 2017 gathering in Bonn, Germany, the administration plans to highlight the benefits of technologies that more efficiently burn fuels including coal, the sources said.

People fill out their ballots at Philomont Fire Station, in Purcellville, Va., Nov. 6, 2018. REUTERS/Al Drago

Donald Trump faced greater restraints on his presidency after Democrats won control of the House of Representatives and pledged to hold the Republicans accountable after a tumultuous two years in the White House.

Layton E. Williams 11-06-2018

Photo courtesy Sam Shields

"My faith informs my agency in the world and we are called to use whatever resources are at our disposable," Shields told Sojourners. "Luke 11: 5-13 is a story of persistence. And when I se injustice in our system or at the least, morally gray positions held by people in power, that is a call to act in the world. As a Christian, Christ calls us to the ministry of reconciliation, and that include the process of voting."

Image via REUTERS/Carlos Barria 

The 30-second ad, which was sponsored by Trump's 2020 re-election campaign and which debuted online last week, featured courtroom video of an illegal immigrant from Mexico convicted in the 2014 killings of two police officers, juxtaposed with scenes of migrants headed through Mexico. 

Christina Colón 11-06-2018
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

In two stunning interactive visualizations, individuals are able to examine workplace diversity state by state - controlling for factors such as race, sex, and occupation. One visualization ranks states according to representation, with red and green bars showing what percent under and overrepresented certain populations are in relationship to their presence in the labor force. The other visualization allows users to compare states - giving a clear breakdown of representation at  each occupation level.

Christina Colón 10-31-2018
Photo by Sebastian Grochowicz on Unsplash

Photo by Sebastian Grochowicz on Unsplash

More than 100 faith groups sent a letter to President Trump on Tuesday denouncing the administration's rollbacks of environmental regulations.

“At the outset of this current administration, faith communities outlined to the Administration our shared principles of stewardship, sustainability, justice, and dialogue, as well as environmental policy recommendations that adhered to these principles,” the letter read. “Unfortunately, these principles and policy recommendations have not been heeded.”

 

SWAT police officers respond after a gunman opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Penn.,  Oct. 27, 2018. REUTERS/John Altdorfer

A gunman yelling, “All Jews must die,” stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue during Saturday services, killing at least eight worshippers and wounding six others, including four police officers, before he was arrested.

REUTERS/ Jorge Cabrera/File Photo

Thousands of Hondurans fleeing poverty and violence move in a caravan toward the United States, in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras October 14, 2018. REUTERS/ Jorge Cabrera/File Photo

As they try to hang on to control of Congress, Republican candidates are following the lead of President Donald Trump and turning to rhetoric about immigrants as a tactic to motivate voters. The scope of that strategy emerges in a nationwide Reuters examination of ad buys, candidates’ social media posts and polling, as well as dozens of interviews with candidates, voters and campaign strategists.

Kathryn Post 10-25-2018
Photo by Breno Assis on Unsplash

Photo by Breno Assis on Unsplash

Airbnb — the company that ushered home-sharing into the mainstream — is facing backlash for exacerbating the affordable housing crisis in cities across the U.S. By booking weekend getaways through Airbnb and other home-sharing sites, travelers may be unknowingly and inadvertently worsening the crisis and supporting an industry that deprives locals of much needed long-term housing options.

REUTERS/Gretchen Ertl/Kamil Krzaczynski/Luke MacGregor/Siphiwe Sibeko/Files

Police intercepted suspected bombs mailed to former U.S. President Barack Obama, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and other high-profile Democrats in what New York officials described on Wednesday as an act of terrorism.

Central American migrants a border connecting Guatemala and Mexico. Oct. 23, 2018. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino.

A group of over a thousand Central Americans in Guatemala headed toward the Mexican border on Tuesday, as a larger caravan of migrants that has angered U.S. President Donald Trump paused in southern Mexico on its planned journey toward the U.S. border.

Trump has vowed to begin cutting millions of dollars in aid to Central America and called the caravan in Mexico a national emergency as he seeks to boost his Republican Party's chances in the Nov. 6 congressional elections.

Rishika Pardikar 10-24-2018

"Not Him" demonstrations against presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia, Brazil Sept. 29, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

Brazil’s 2018 presidential elections are scheduled to go into a second round Oct. 28, with Jair Bolsonaro squaring off against Fernando Haddad after they secured the most number of votes but failed to meet the 50 percent threshold in the Oct. 7 election.

the Web Editors 10-22-2018
Photo by Cathleen Falsani/Sojourners.

Photo by Cathleen Falsani/Sojourners.

Eugene Peterson, acclaimed author and pastor, died today at age 85.