Sojourners Magazine: June 2019
As Will Young reports in “Who Built Your Pew?” prison industries are complicated. While the programs can help reduce recidivism, the use of prison labor is rooted in the system of “convict leasing” developed after chattel slavery was abolished. Today, inmates working in state-operated prison industries earn an average of 87 cents an hour, which raises the question: How do we measure the worth of a human life?
Features
In some Iowa churches, the Sunday offering supports the prison industrial complex.
By forcing migrants into the barren wilderness, U.S. Border Patrol lets heatstroke and dehydration do the deadly dirty work.
Voices
What the sport can teach us about the greatest gift of Christianity.
Donald Trump does not have the wellbeing of the Venezuelan people in mind.
Why do we act as if a building “over there” is more sacred than our own black, immigrant, and refugee churches?
Progress needs concrete movement, not grand ideological gestures.
Vision
Nine works of literature by black authors reveal the character of white Christian racism.
From ‘From Red Earth: A Rwandan Story of Healing and Forgiveness,’ by Denise Uwimana.
We've allowed Big Tech to create a world that enriches a very few, very wealthy investors.
A review of ‘Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do,’ by Jennifer L. Eberhardt.
A review of ‘The End of Animal Farming: How Scientists, Entrepreneurs, and Activists Are Building an Animal-Free Food System,’ by Jacy Reese.
A poem.
Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C
Funny business by Ed Spivey Jr.
Understanding the Myth of Capital Punishment
The moral imperative behind the California moratorium on the death penalty.