J.K. Granberg-Michaelson is senior research associate at Sojourners.
Posts By This Author
Moving Beyond ‘Whaddya Gonna Do’
retrorocket / iStock
I WAS STANDING at a bus stop in northern Virginia this spring with another dad putting his kids on the bus. He is a federal employee coping with the sudden precarity of the career he pursued to support his family. President Donald Trump’s executive order in February that directed federal agencies to submit plans for “large-scale reductions in force” may leave this dad out of work.
President Trump’s deployment of billionaire Elon Musk to dismantle the federal government fulfills a long-held dream for some. Since the mid-1980s, certain far-right Republicans have wanted to enact political strategist Grover Norquist’s mantra: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
Well, “government” is “people.” Real people. There are 2.4 million federal employees, not including the military or the postal service. Under the Trump administration, they wake up each day not knowing whether the world’s richest man and the world’s most powerful man will decide that they no longer have a job.
Federal workers are only one sector in Trump’s bull’s eye. This administration is attempting to erase the existence of transgender and other gender-diverse people: A day one executive order proclaims that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable.” Trump has banned trans people from women’s sports and the military and now is attempting to eliminate gender-affirming medical care for people under 19. Immigrants are also facing a terrifying crackdown. Immigration enforcement officials arrested more people in the first 22 days of February this year than in any month for the past seven years, according to The Guardian. Green-card holders have been deported for their political activities. Immigrants accused of gang membership were flown to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in open defiance of court orders.
Holy Week Shows the Power of Public Outcry
In observance of Holy Week, people walk along the Brooklyn Bridge as they attend an annual Good Friday procession emulating Christ's walk to Calvary on March 29, 2024. (Photo by Anthony Behar/Sipa USA)
Reading these passages today, Jesus’ trial is a striking example of the interplay between the political power brokers who condemn Jesus to death and the crowds who cried out to Jesus days earlier for deliverance. While Pilate is responsible, he uses the crowd’s actions as cover, absolving himself of responsibility for deciding Jesus’ fate. Reading this story amid the deeply concerning judicial drama playing out in real time between the Trump administration and courts, I’m reminded of the role we all can play when we collectively act — or fail to act — in support of justice.
‘The Lord of the Rings’ Inspires Both JD Vance and Social Justice. How?
Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jenkins' 2001 film, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Image: FlixPix/Almay via Reuters Connect
The works of J.R.R. Tolkien — The Lord of the Rings chief among them — have been a passion of mine since elementary school. The story of how four lowly hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, come to change the entire course of their world’s history through their decency, courage, and stubborn perseverance still resonates as powerfully for me today as it did then. There’s a “root for the underdog” theme in Tolkien that resonates with my love of working for social justice, and explains why I’ve always been drawn to biblical figures like Moses and Mary, mother of Jesus, who came from humble beginnings and accepted God’s call to play a key role in transforming the world.
Christian Fatherhood Isn’t About Hierarchy and Control
Promotional poster from docuseries ‘Shiny Happy People.’ / Amazon Studios
Families like the Duggars go to great lengths to ensure their kids never learn to give anyone the middle finger — and I can only imagine the Duggar children would have been strictly punished if they had. But as a Christian and a father, I believe it’s neither possible nor desirable to exert total control over my children’s education and experience of the world around them.
Christian Charity Alone Won’t End Hunger
People stand at a food pantry at a church in New York City on July 17. Levine-Roberts/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Far too many Christians cling to a stubborn belief that individual acts of charity are sufficient to fulfill their obligation to help all those experiencing hunger and poverty. While acts of charity like donating to a regional food bank or volunteering at a local soup kitchen are commendable and indeed necessary, they are not sufficient. Christians not only have a duty to do good works through individual charity, but also to urge their political representatives to do what is in their power to end hunger in the U.S. and around the world.
Grief and Cheap Grace in ‘WandaVision’
WandaVision poster. Disney+/Marvel Studios
Grief is a powerful, disorienting thing, as so many can attest this second Lenten season of a global pandemic that has claimed more than 2.5 million lives. “I’m so tired,” says Wanda Maximoff in the penultimate episode of Disney+ and Marvel Studios’ hit show WandaVision. “It’s just like this wave washing over me again and again. It knocks me down, and when I try to stand up, it just comes for me again. And I … it’s just gonna drown me.” Wanda is referring to the loss of her twin brother, Pietro, but the picture of grief is familiar.
'Avengers: Endgame' Is a Love Letter to Human Imperfection
Image via Avengers on Facebook
The first line of Avengers: Endgame is “Do you know where you’re going?” And the story that follows, the final chapter of a saga 11 years in the making, is an attempt by the deeply flawed, deeply human protagonists at wrestling with that question — what is our path, do we know it, and can we change it?
Replaying the News: What 'The People v. O.J. Simpson' Is Teaching Me the Second Time Around
I’m spellbound by the FX miniseries The People vs. O.J. Simpson. It’s exceptionally well cast and well made so far, and watching it has brought all my memories of that time flooding back. But the series is also doing something else for me — given the increased attention on police killings of people of color and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, The People is forcing me to interrogate my memories and opinions from 22 years ago and look at them through a new lens. What do I remember about that time? As a white boy, what opinions and perspectives about the case did I have then?