“Stranger danger!” This was a popular thing kids were taught to say in the ’90s. I think that my parents’ motivations for teaching me this phrase were primarily for my protection, but looking back, I think the phrase also portended some of the paranoia that we, as a Western society, have uncritically embraced.
As Christians across the globe remember Jesus’ journey through Holy Week, Israel is taking the unprecedented steps of restricting access to holy sites in Jerusalem.
Israel is blocking access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as the Western Wall, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex indefinitely after the outset of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, impacting typical observance of the Christian Holy Week, Ramadan, and Passover and restricting travel into East Jerusalem.
For Palestinian Christians, it would mark the first time that access to the church—which is known as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection—is blocked over Easter. Historically, thousands of Christians around Jerusalem have traveled to the city and church as part of their Easter celebration.
There are congregations that would brand her a sinner. But here at St. Cecilia’s Roman Catholic Church in Boston, Rachel Burckardt gives voice to the angels.
She’s 71, transgender, a civil engineer by day, and a composer of spiritual music by nights and weekends.
While religion has been used for decades to ostracize many transgender people, Burckardt has found that faith drives acceptance in her community. It has been the bedrock on which she has formed her closest friendships, found moral clarity in challenging times and built radically inclusive communities in greater Boston.
The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Tuesday that a Colorado ban on conversion therapy for youth violates the free speech rights of a Christian counselor, clearing the way for a practice that goes against the recommendations of every major medical association in the country.
As we journey through Holy Week, I’m meditating less on Jesus on the cross—I see that every day—and am instead meditating on Jesus razing hell.
Israel’s displacement and killing of Palestinians continues; the U.S. continues to escalate the war with Iran; and immigrants are still being hunted down by cowards in masks. Every day we see Christ crucified. What does the hope offered by Jesus, that these forces of evil can be stopped, look like? What are the lessons for us on the road from the crucifixion to the resurrection?
Anyra Cano learned a little bit about César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, and the United Farm Workers movement growing up in the 1990s in El Paso, Texas, but the state curriculum didn’t go deep. It wasn’t until she became a pastor that she began to dig into the work of the legendary civil rights leaders. She knew she wanted to dedicate her ministry to social justice for the most vulnerable.
On March 28, one day before celebrating Jesus’ procession into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, millions of Christians processed through the streets to declare “No Kings!”
Protesting the Trump administration’s authoritarianism, Christian nationalism, violence at home and war abroad, people of faith joined their neighbors to stand for democracy. More than 3,000 events took place across the globe, mostly in the U.S., with Minnesota—where there has been strong, communal resistance to immigration agents’ violence—serving as the flagship event.
Sojourners asked our readers to send us their photos and reflections from their own participation in No Kings protests. Below are your contributions.
I want to talk about a Christian response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s campaign, and to do that, we need to start with Batman.
As a pastor, I don’t use the word “hell” lightly, but I think it’s time. The war against Iran has oil and gas facilities across the Middle East burning. Three million Iranians and a million Lebanese citizens are displaced. Black rain laden with toxic chemicals is falling in Tehran, Iran, likely ensuring a legacy of cancer and birth defects that will rival or surpass the health legacy of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.
Pope Leo said on Sunday that God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars and have “hands full of blood”, in unusually forceful remarks as the U.S.-Israel war with Iran entered its second month.
Addressing tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, the celebration that opens the holy week leading up to Easter for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, the pontiff called the conflict “atrocious” and said Jesus cannot be used to justify any wars.
“This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Leo, the first U.S. pope, told crowds in brilliant sunshine.