Jeannie hails from the lush suburbs of San Diego, where it is just as common to see birds of paradise growing along the freeway as it is to see a gleaming red arrow pointing you to hamburger heaven, otherwise known as In-N-Out. By the time she graduated high school, the comforts of home proved to be too, well, comfortable! And so she left to brave the frigid winters of Pittsburgh, where she studied English literature and professional writing at Carnegie Mellon University. After four years, the masochist in her decided she needed to subject herself to more bad weather, and so she moved to Wheaton, Ill., to study American church history at Wheaton College. There she learned that while cold is bad, cold plus wind is even worse. She returned home, hung up her down parka, and finally entered the working world as an editor at Outreach Magazine and youth pastor at Temecula Calvary Korean Church. After many late deadline nights and trips to Pinkberry with her students, God called her to Sojourners in Washington, D.C. She couldn’t be happier.
These days, Jeannie spends most of her time fiddling with syntax, thinking up new web initiatives, and learning from veteran Sojourners editors. Her idea of a perfect afternoon includes black coffee, a good book, and her magnificent sister.
Posts By This Author
'Reverend Billy' Demands Freedom for the Captives
With his blonde pompadour flying in the cold January sky, activist and performance artist “Reverend Billy” Talen preached through a megaphone outside of the Varick Federal Detention Fac
Mutual Responsibility
According to a review of 160 socially responsible mutual funds, 72.6 percent of socially responsible large-cap funds outperformed their S&P 500 competitors in 2009.
Calling for Debt Relief
In the wake of Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, a coalition of faith-based and secular humanitarian organizations called world leaders to grant international debt relief to Haiti.
Child Crown of Thorns
The Nebraska-based Oriental Trading Company knows “how to make the world more fun!” Their child-size crown of thorns is just the ticket to make sure your Sunday school kids know what su
Elizabeth Warren on Faith and Taking On Wall Street
Jim Wallis talks with Sen. Elizabeth Warren at Sojourners' Summit for Change in 2015.
Elizabeth Warren is more than just the head of Congress’s panel reviewing the bank bailout (officially, the Troubled Asset Relief Program). Along with being a Harvard Law professor, she’s also a plain-spoken and passionate advocate for everyday people who is deeply motivated by her Oklahoma Methodist upbringing, as she described in an interview with Sojourners editor-in-chief Jim Wallis and assistant editor Jeannie Choi this February.
Wallis: Particularly for people of faith and conscience, what’s at stake in the battle over financial regulation that we’re in now?
Warren: Our future is at stake, and the future of our children. The story works this way: We had a boom-and-bust economy from 1794 until 1930. Our young nation would lurch from moments of great prosperity to moments of economic panic. Coming out of the 1930s, our leaders crafted a set of basic rules that put fairness into the marketplace: FDIC insurance that made it safe to put money in banks; Glass-Steagall, that said banks that take deposits cannot go out and speculate with your money; some honesty rules for Wall Street through the SEC. Those rules brought us 50 years of economic security and prosperity.
By the 1980s, some of those were outmoded—but instead of trying to think through what kind of rules we need to create a fair marketplace, we just began to throw the rules out. The credit marketplace became a lawless arena.
Five Questions for Rev. Ken Fong
Bio: Senior pastor, Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles.
Web site: www.ebcla.org
The Police Motorcade: A Sign of Change
Over the past few days, I've had the privilege of representing Sojourners magazine at the annual Faith and Politics civil rights pilgrimage led by Congressman John Lewis.
What Does the Civil Rights Movement Have to Do With Me?
The State of Journalism
“The problem facing American journalism is not fundamentally an audience problem or a credibility problem,” according to the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism.
A Reading and Interview from Mary Anne Reese
Listen to this reading and an interview with poet Mary Anne Reese.
Still-Open Wounds
Two days after his inauguration, President Obama signed orders to end the CIA’s use of torture as an interrogation tool and to close the notorious Guantánamo Bay detention center withi
Video: David Bazan's Reasonable Doubt
Since 1994, musician David Bazan (former front man of Pedro the Lion and Headphones) has put sharp questions about faith, justice, and his Pentecostal-evangelical upbringing front and center in his songs...
Video Interview with David Bazan
Since 1994, David Bazan has put sharp questions about faith, justice, and his Pentecostal-evangelical upbringing front and center in his songs.
Meditations on Disbelief
David Bazan on how he became an agnostic -- and lived to sing about it.
Paint Your Faith
A Toronto church wall speaks to the vibrancy of faith, thanks to the work of four aerosol artists.
The School of Second Chances
In an innovative move, Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, recently began a two-year pilot project offering college-level courses to convicted felons serving time at the high-security C
Interpreting the Language of God
Geneticist Francis Collins -- new director of the National Institutes of Health -- talks about faith, science, and the spiritual practices that sustain him.
Hungry Americans
While some U.S. households are cutting out entertainment to make ends meet during the economic recession, others are going hungry. In 2008, the U.S.