This Month's Cover
Magazine

Sojourners Magazine: December 2022

Subscribe to Sojourners for as little as $3.95 per month!

Activist Vanessa Nakate on Jesus, erasure, and the climate crisis in the Horn of Africa.

Features

A headshot of Vanessa Nakate looking into the distance with leaves behind her.

The image that first brought Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate to many people's attention is one that cropped her out. Now, she spreads her message without apology or fear of erasure.

by
Christina Colón
Magazine
Features
An illustrated headshot of Clarence Jordan with another illustration of him posing with his wife. A protest banner is being lifted up by a group of people next to a sign that says, "Koinonia Farm."

Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia community fought Jim Crow with a “cow library” and a radical faith. There's still work to do today.

by
Mitchell Atencio
A cropped image of an illustration of fish swimming upward to a hole in a frozen lake that rests below a starry night.

“I struggle with my encounters with Indigenous Christians because it feels like the ultimate betrayal.” 

by
Chris La Tray

Voices

Voices
Mobilizing Hope
An illustration of a fan with ribbons waving about in the shape of an American flag, with some of the red lines blowing off.

Why this could be the year we start saving the planet (and what Christians can do to help). 

Voices
From The Editors
An illustration of teenage Pakistani climate activist Manal Shad, a female with dark hair speaking to an unseen crowd with a fire posed above her right hand. The background reads, "Do not wait for revolution to come; do what you must and light the spark."

Clarence Jordan lived out the gospel through radical activism in the South during the civil rights movement. His life is a testament to practicing what you preach.

by The Editors
Voices
Commentary
An American flag with blue and red lines in the shape of arms, tangled together with hands holding voter ballots.

How a North Carolina case could institute nationwide voter suppression.

by
Lauren W. Reliford
An illustration of silhouetted hands with scissors and tweezers cutting and picking out strands of DNA.

CRISPR technology might cure cancer — or unleash a new era of eugenics.

by
Andrea Vicini
Voices
Columns
A wall of graffiti made by Sergii Radkevych called "Fragments of Hope" that depicting two hands grasped the blade of a sword and breaking it in two.

In the face of Russia's “special military operation,” citizens are leaning into over 100 years of nonviolent history.

by
Rose Marie Berger
A break in a canopy of green trees shows the clear blue skies, outlined in the shape of a human head looking upward.

Entering into the holiday season with an Indigenous approach to gratitude.

by
José Humphreys III
Voices
Eyewitness

Praying for perseverance in the aftermath of the eastern Kentucky floods.

by
Sally Monroe

Vision

Vision
Culture
An ancient illustration of Mary giving birth to Jesus with the help of midwives as they are surrounded by animals.

As we anticipate the birth of Jesus Christ, we must remember that God appeared in these tender places — in human flesh, in the womb of a refugee, at the site of vulnerability and oppression.

by
Sarah James
The cover of Aretha Franklin's album "Young, Gifted and Black," featuring her in multiple poses with a stained-glass window in the background.

Half a century later, "Amazing Grace" — the best-selling gospel album of all time — still speaks to the Black experience and touches the souls of all.

by
Sergio Lopez
Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick in 'The Good Wife.' She has shoulder-length brown hair, wears a gray blazer, and is sitting in a chair slightly offscreen, with a lamp off to her left.

The CBS drama establishes a powerful narrative about how much of ourselves to give to anyone — or anything.

by
Da’Shawn Mosley
Vision
Books
Faye Yager holds a child in her arms as she looks off into the distance.

Three culture recommendations from our editors.

by
The Editors
The book 'Woman of Light' is tilted at a 15-degree angle on a dark green background. The cover depicts a woman standing on the plains with mountains and a sunset behind her

Woman of Light highlights the triumphs and struggles of a people surviving under white colonial violence.

by
Elinam Agbo
The cover of 'Lapvona' featuring a tied-up lamb by Otessa Moshfegh.

In Ottessa Moshfegh's Lapvona, life becomes increasingly awful, with no end in sight.

by
Yvonne Su
Vision
Poetry

A poem

by
Jeanette W. Stickel
Vision
Living The Word

December reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle A

by
T. Denise Anderson
Vision
H'rumphs

Alms for the swear jar?

by
Beth Cooper-Chrismon