Opinion

Jody Rabhan 3-24-2022
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on her nomination as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court March 23, 2021 Ron Sachs / CNP/Sipa USA

Earlier this week, I attended the confirmation hearing of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Outside, spring in the nation’s capital was in full bloom, with cherry blossoms beginning to dot the landscape — signs of hope, growth, and new beginnings echoed in the liberative invitation of many faith traditions’ spring holidays, including Passover, Easter, and Holi. Inside at the hearing, the mood was equally hopeful: Jackson's nomination offers a new beginning — a new direction for the court and our country, and a hope for the future.

Katie Smart 3-23-2022

A person points to the cover of Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus. Credit: Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH. Image via Retuers.

In Maus, Jews are drawn as anthropomorphic mice, while Nazis are portrayed as cats. The book chronicles the Spiegelman family’s attempts to hide from the Nazis, showing the harshness of life in the ghetto, the desperation of parents attempting to protect their children, and the cruelty of Jews in concentration camps. It even addresses the lingering impacts of the generational trauma of the Holocaust on the Spiegelman family in a way that can only be expressed by someone who experienced it firsthand. The story it tells is dark and disturbing, but the story of Spiegelman’s father and the story of the Holocaust requires such a telling.

Indhira Udofia 3-23-2022

Using theologically diverse Christian figures ranging from Billy Graham to Mister Rogers, Mayfield offers examples of what insecure attachment to God can look or feel like, including feelings of doubt, shame, or distancing. Leaning heavily on attachment theory — a theory that examines relationships and the nature of the bonds between people, especially between caregivers and children, romantic partners, and close platonic relationships — Mayfield provides a relatable guide to assist folks with identifying the deeper questions and beliefs behind some of our spiritual frameworks.

Jenna Barnett 3-18-2022

Photo by Maksym Kaharlytskyi on Unsplash

As a journalist in the religion and social justice realm, two stories dominated my newsfeed this week: Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and sexual harassment at Christianity Today. Both reinforced to me the power of documentation.

Activists perform an artistic intervention against a fast fashion retailer to raise awareness and make visible about the damage generated by the textile industry. Photo: Alejo Manuel Avila / SOPA Images/Sipa USA

Activists perform an artistic intervention against a fast fashion retailer to raise awareness and make visible about the damage generated by the textile industry. Photo: Alejo Manuel Avila / SOPA Images/Sipa USA

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about clothes — their power both to oppress people but also advance justice. If this sounds far-fetched, I invite you to reach deep into the pockets of the clothes you are currently wearing. Go ahead, try it.

Mitchell Atencio 3-15-2022

Photo by Biegun Wschodni on Unsplash

This spring, I’m thinking about the season as a blooming period for the complexities of truth. That’s not to say that truth itself is complicated, but that the application, acknowledgment, or apprehension of truth can be a sticky mess. Truth will set you free, but then we get to wrestle with freedom and the responsibility that comes with it: Realizing that racism is ingrained in the church is important, for instance, but acting to rid the church of that sin is paramount.

Jenna Barnett 3-15-2022

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Lent is the angstiest season of the liturgical calendar: Jesus in the desert with the devil; us sitting with our sin and mortality. So below you’ll find six songs to accompany you this brooding, contemplative season. Soon, Easter will roll around and bring with it upbeat resurrection bops, but for now, the tunes are appropriately emo — at least lyrically.

Jerome Blanco 3-11-2022

"Theology is lived. It doesn’t take place just in the mind but in the body as we engage with and learn alongside others. I learned about God while in the garden with my abuela picking avocados from the tree for our afternoon snack. My understanding of God is shaped not only from my experiences but from the community around me—those who formed me in both the past and present. I think this is key to abuelita theology."

A person hangs on to a string as they are surrounded by jumbled thread. Author: Robert Goebel. Image via Reuters. 

Although deconstruction has been a disorienting process, I feel myself breaking free from the oppressive ideologies that locked me in static racial and gender hierarchies. It has allowed me to find value in our unique narratives as well as our partnership with God and the community of creation.

Amar D. Peterman 3-08-2022

Image of Jesus stretching out his hand to heal a person. Photo credit: sea turtle.

Time after time, these Christians would lay hands on me while I waited in line at Starbucks or the food court at the local mall. They’d try and cast out evil demons, pray that my faith would be strengthened, or command in Jesus’ name that I get up and walk (even though I could already walk). Each time, they would stand back as if they’d just recited the magic words. Each time, with progressively less optimism and greater anger, I’d step forward only to find out I wasn’t healed. Some would accuse me of not having enough faith, but most just apologized and went on with their day. I was left alone. Still limping, still furious.

Zaina Qureshi 3-08-2022

Kids in Asheville, N.C., participate in demonstration in Park Square on September 20, 2019. Photo Credit: Judith Bicking/Alamy via Reuters.

Pew Research conducted a study in 2020 examining teens’ relationship to religion compared to their parents: data from that report showed that while 43 percent of parents claimed religion was “very important to them,” only 24 percent of teens answered similarly. In 2021, Springtide Research Institute, where I am a student ambassador, found that 52 percent of young people believe that religious communities are “rigid” and too “restrictive.”

Olivia Bardo 3-08-2022

Courtesy photos. Graphic design by Tiarra Lucas / Sojourners.

For the past six years, Sojourners has celebrated Women’s History Month by sharing a list of Christian women who are bringing us hope and inspiring us to action. This year’s group includes pastors and poets, abolitionists and mothers, liturgists and storytellers; women who question authority, disrupt unjust systems, set boundaries, reimagine what’s possible, and pray.

Mitchell Atencio 3-04-2022

Brad Stine performs. By Hope4ASU via Flickr.

When I was a kid, Christian comic Brad Stine yelled at me about wearing a helmet while riding my bike. He also yelled about seatbelt and car-seat laws, smoking laws, and gay marriage through his stand-up routine that I sat in the front row for.

A Nigerian fisherman in the Lagos town of Makoko, an informal settlement on low-lying ground that is particularly vulnerable to climate change-linked sea-level rises and weather extremes, according to the latest report from the United Nations climate science panel. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja

The latest IPCC report states that 3.3 to 3.6 billion people (nearly half of the world’s population) are “highly vulnerable” to climate risks like wildfires, heat waves, and rising sea levels. The report aims to prepare us for what’s likely and to give leaders a clear-eyed sense of urgency to implement solutions. But some may glance past its findings due to more immediate concerns. Others may be tempted to take a lifeboat mentality.

JR. Forasteros 3-03-2022

 Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman and Robert Pattinson as Batman in The Batman (2022).

This is a tale of two orphans, Bruce and Jephthah. A tale of two cities, Gotham and Gilead. A story of curses and vengeance and redemption.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew hands over a vessel of myrrh to the Head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epiphanius during a religious service near St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine on Aug. 22, 2021

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew hands over a vessel of myrrh to the Head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epiphanius during a religious service near St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine on Aug. 22, 2021. Photo by Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto

Put is committed to see the glories and geography of “Mother Russia” restored. Religiously, he claims this is preserving “Christian civilization” against the secular decadence of the West. And for that, his transactional alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church is essential. Like the czars, he wants to see Moscow as the center of political and military power over an empire that is sanctified by the blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church. And he wants an Orthodox Church he can control to reign in Ukraine.

Jim Rice 3-01-2022
Peace activists rally in suburban Detroit, demanding that the United States sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaspons, on Jan. 22, 2021.

Peace activists rally in suburban Detroit, demanding that the United States sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaspons, on Jan. 22, 2021. Jim West/Alamy Live News

President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Sunday that he had ordered Russian nuclear forces to high alert (he called it a “special mode of combat duty”) brought to mind some of the most dangerous days of Cold War brinkmanship. For four decades, bellicose Soviet and American rhetoric and actions — from the Cuban missile crisis to Reagan administration talk of a “winnable” nuclear war — kept the world at very real risk of annhilation. (The Biden administration, to its credit, responded this week to Putin’s provocations by asserting, correctly, that “A nuclear war cannot be won, and must never be fought,” as a White House offical put it to Reuters, and declined to escalate the U.S. nuclear alert status.)

Mallory McDuff 3-01-2022

Graves in a natural burial ground. Graham Hardy / Alamy

My father saw Lent as a chance to build a more sustainable life, much like training for a championship game. As a mother and teacher of environmental education in the mountains of North Carolina, I couldn’t have imagined how the Lenten practice of my childhood would help me face both life and death amid a global climate crisis decades later.

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?

Brandon Grafius 3-01-2022

Photo by Norbert Buduczki on Unsplash

Horror has always leaned on religion to provide the backbone for its explorations of evil, even before the first time Dracula cowered in fear at the sight of a cross. But religion doesn’t just inspire the horror genre, it utilizes it, too. The Bible is full of horror.