Five Decades of “Creative Maladjustment”

A TREE'S LONGEVITY and fruitfulness are tied to the health and strength of its roots. I’m deeply grateful for the deep roots of Sojourners. For the past 50 years, Sojourners has provided a countercultural Christian witness for peace and justice. We have been rooted in a commitment to relentlessly making the case that faithful discipleship involves a transforming and redemptive relationship with Christ, which then empowers and enlists us to serve as change agents in the world to advance God’s reign of peace, justice, and radical love.

As I look ahead with hopeful anticipation to the next 50 years, Maya Angelou’s timeless wisdom comes to mind that “you can’t really know where you are going unless you know where you have been.” To understand where we have been and where we are going, we must tap into the full meaning behind our name. To sojourn is to constantly be on a spiritual journey fixated on a kingdom-building purpose. At our best, sojourners are so filled with how things ought to be that the brokenness of what is gets replaced by the pregnant possibility of what’s to come.

Martin Luther King Jr. captures the ethos and charism of Sojourners in his sanctified remix of Romans 12, in which he proclaims that the “saving of our world from pending doom will come not through the complacent adjustment of a conforming majority but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.” Sojourners’ 50-year history is full of examples of creative maladjustment and transformed nonconformism—from our founders’ early opposition to the Vietnam War, which led to them being pushed out of divinity school and starting The Post-American (the precursor to Sojourners magazine), to our prophetic actions to end the nuclear arms race and seek peace in Central America, our work in the anti-apartheid struggle, our efforts against the war in Iraq, our current battles against voter suppression, and so many more.

As we look ahead to the next 50 years, Sojourners will find even bolder ways to speak truth to power while also creating the space for transformational dialogue so we can learn how to disagree and find common ground. We will keep incorporating new wineskins as technology continues to transform our work and our activism. We will develop even stronger relationships and solidarity with the global church as we embrace our interdependence. We will emphasize the existential threat of climate change that will require shared sacrifice and greater urgency and activism to break our addiction to carbon. We will continue to be a counter voice against the dangerous tide of white Christian nationalism and white supremacy that threatens both the integrity of the church and our democracy. We will continue the work of convincing and equipping the church to see that advancing peace and justice is not an extracurricular activity but is integral to Christian discipleship. In fact, this may be the most powerful force in revitalizing the church’s mission and rehabilitating the reputation of the church, particularly among younger generations and those who have been bruised by the church. We will increasingly seek to strengthen the multigenerational and multiracial movement committed to building Beloved Community.