Emily is a reporter in the Fall 2024 Sojourners Journalism Cohort. Learn more about the program.
Emily Baez is a native of Tampa, Fla., but currently lives in Wisconsin. Her love of geographic change has led her to live in five different U.S. states since graduating from the University of South Florida.
When she’s not writing or thinking about theology, Emily loves eating good food with close friends and family, snapping photos of her tiny Maltese, being in nature, writing short stories, and reading everything from Russian literature to niche memoirs. Someday, she would like to call herself an avid tennis player.
Posts By This Author
Christians Must Resist Conspiracy Theories After Hurricanes
A FEMA worker attends a claim by a local resident after being affected by floods following the passing of Hurricane Helene, in Marion, N.C., U.S., Oct. 5, 2024. Credit: Reuters/Eduardo Munoz.
On Nov. 19, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell sat before legislators on Capitol Hill and defended the agency from accusations that it responded slowly to hurricanes in the southeastern United States and skipped homes with President-elect Donald Trump signs on their property.
Earlier in November, Criswell said in a statement that a FEMA employee who had told relief workers in Florida to skip houses with signs supporting Trump had been fired. (Other employees later returned to those homes to offer the opportunity to apply for aid, Criswell testified.) This revelation came at a time when conspiracy theories about hurricanes were rampant.
Florida Nuns Taught Me To Embrace Immigrants and Reject the Logic of Babylon
A person holds a sign reading "We are the sun of Florida, stop the law SB 1718" during a Solidarity Rally to condemn Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' attacks on immigrants through legislation such as SB 1718, outside City Hall in Los Angeles, Calif., June 28, 2023. Reuters/Mike Blake.
During the presidential debate in September, then-Republican candidate and now President-elect Donald J. Trump propagated a Facebook rumor that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were stealing neighbors’ pets and eating them. While the rumor has since been debunked, anti-immigrant rhetoric like this makes it easier for lawmakers to drum up support for laws such as Florida’s SB 1718, a law that is meant to address illegal immigration.
When Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, signed SB 1718 last year, he declared it “the strongest legislation against illegal immigration anywhere in the country.” When the bill was first proposed, it included some particularly cruel policies that would discourage immigrants from seeking access to basic services such as rides to church or medical care.
My Generation is Tired of Situationships. Christian Sex Ethics Can Help
Credit: Unsplash/Jayson Hinrichsen
When my friend introduced me to pop artist Chappell Roan this past April, I had no idea who she was. Now, nearly six months later, I hear about Chappell Roan (the stage name for Kayleigh Rose Amstutz) daily. From drawing massive crowds at Lollapalooza to having one of the most streamed albums of the summer, Roan’s quick rise to fame has been impressive.
My friend described Roan as the “situationship singer.” A “situationship” a term coined by Generation Z, is a noncommittal or undefined romantic or sexual relationship. “Casual,” the fifth track on Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, grieves a situationship. In it, Roan describes a relationship that fails to evolve into something beyond a pattern of casual, sexual encounters. There’s a confession in Roan’s bridge that’s so honest and unexpected, that it took me by surprise upon first listen. She says, “I try to be the chill girl that / Holds her tongue and gives you space / I try to be the chill girl but / Honestly, I’m not.”
For those who grew up in the conservative Christian world as Roan did, lamenting casual sex is familiar territory. But Roan and other Gen Zers aren’t lamenting casual sex, hookup culture, or situationships because they believe their “sexual purity” is tied to their salvation. Rather, they seem to be lamenting a sex-positive culture that doesn’t live up to the hype.