election2020
A crowd at a rally in Times Square joined NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio in declaring: "Today I am a Muslim" on Feb. 19, 2020. Photo: a katz / Shutterstock.com
For Muslim religious and political leaders, President Joe Biden’s inauguration ends the “nightmare” of the Trump administration; nevertheless, Muslim leaders remained cautious in expressing optimism about the Biden administration’s promises.
Shortly before Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, Rev. Leo O’Donovan, SJ, a longtime friend and mentor of President Biden's, delivered this prayer.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, and her husband Doug Emhoff stand in front of the Washington Monument ahead of Biden's remarks on Jan. 19, 2021. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
As the U.S. crossed the threshold of 400,000 deaths from COVID-19, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris spoke at the country’s first national memorial service for coronavirus victims.
Some of the leaders Joe Biden has selected for his incoming Cabinet. Upper row, left to right: Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Janet Yellen, Isabel Guzman, Pete Buttigieg, Lloyd Austin. Lower row, left to right: Xavier Becerra, Marcia Fudge, Neera Tanden, Deb Haaland, and Michael Regan. Photos via Wikimedia Commons and courtesy images. Graphic by Jayne Marie Smith / Sojourners.
President-elect Joe Biden has promised to have the “most diverse Cabinet” in U.S. history, but is the Cabinet religiously diverse? The answer, experts explain, must go beyond tracking the identities of various appointees; a diverse administration must have the power to impact policy for the communities they represent.
A woman holds a sign at the ‘Get Off Our Necks’ Commitment March on Washington in August 2020 in Washington, D.C. Jelani Photography / Shutterstock.com
As the Inauguration Day nears, one thing is clear: The U.S. needs as many prayers as possible. Here are places where you can pray virtually, both before and after new elected officials take office.
Law enforcement officials prepare to detain protesters gathered in D.C. in 2018. Rachael Warriner / Shutterstock.com
Less than a week into the new year, the country watched in shock as hundreds of rioters used metal pipes and tear gas against police to gain entry into the U.S. Capitol, ransacking congressional offices for several hours while the nation’s elected leaders, who had convened to certify electoral votes, huddled for cover. But faith-based communities and other justice advocates saw something like this coming.
The sky turns shades of red as the sun rises behind the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 19, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The FBI has warned of possible armed protests being planned for Washington, D.C., and at all 50 U.S. state capitals in the run-up to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20, a federal law enforcement source said on Monday.
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester addresses constituents following the attack on the U.S. Capitol in a video statement. Image via Facebook screengrab.
On Wednesday, symbols of Christian nationalism were on full display among many of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol. However, both before and after Wednesday's attacks, some legislators invoked the language of faith in a different way: to reject President Donald Trump's repeated attempts to to discredit the election and the insurrection it sparked.
President Donald Trump boards the Marine One helicopter to depart for holiday travel to Florida on Dec. 23, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
“Every Republican politician and every far-right preacher who spread baseless lies about the election results” should be held accountable for the violence at the Capitol this week, said Nathan Empsall of Faithful America . “That process of accountability starts at the top, with Donald Trump.”
Supporters of President Donald Trump at a Capitol Hill rally on Jan. 6, 2021. Julia Benbrook / Medill News Service
As pro-Trump rioters broke into the Capitol on Wednesday to stop members of Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election, some evangelical leaders denounced the violence — including elected representatives who continued to support President Donald Trump’s debunked claim that the election was “stolen.”
Graphic via isthisacoup.com
In the months prior to the November 2020 election, progressive activists Jethro Heiko and Nick Jehlen partnered with Choose Democracy to create the Coup-o-meter in order to provide clear communication about how close the U.S. was to an anti-democratic usurping of power. By Wednesday afternoon, they had shifted the meter.
Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., in 2014. Jaime Lee / Public Broadcasting Atlanta / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
With five ministers elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives in the newly sworn-in 117th Congress, the pathway from serving in a house of worship to public office hasn’t been uncharted. But it is unique.
Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio addresses supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump and other members of the far-right Proud Boys in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 11, 2020. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart/File Photo
The complaint, filed on behalf of Metropolitian AME church, alleges the attacks were part of “coordinated acts of violence.”
U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) questions Major Adam DeMarco of the District of Columbia National Guard as he testifies about the June 1 confrontation with protesters at Lafayette Square near the White House during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 28, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis/Pool
President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Rep. Deb Haaland to serve as his interior secretary, according to a person familiar with the matter. Haaland, a Democratic congresswoman from New Mexico since 2019, would be the first Native American Cabinet secretary and the first to oversee the department, whose jurisdiction includes tribal lands.
A girl and her father on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Ryan Rodrick Beiler / Shutterstock.com
As the sun sets on each Election Day, people turn to exit polls to understand what happened and why. After the 2020 presidential election, exit polls suggested that outgoing President Donald Trump performed better among Hispanic/Latinx voters, earning reactions from pundits and former presidents alike. Some have suggested this is due to splits among Hispanic Catholics and Hispanic Protestants, but polls alone may not tell the full story.
Belongings on the lawn of an evicted house in Detroit. Peek Creative Collective / Shutterstock.com
“There are a lot more people who are poor, but living above the poverty line,” said Anne Price, president of the Insight Center, an economic justice advocacy group based in Oakland, Calif. “The measure that we use is so antiquated, not just in how it calculates a household budget and what's left out, but also because it doesn't reflect real, contemporary lived experience, different household types, or regional differences.”
Georgia state Sen.-elect Kim Jackson. Photo courtesy Kim Jackson.
In November, Rev. Kim Jackson, an Episcopal priest, won a seat representing Georgia’s District 41 in the state Senate. Her election is celebrated as the first out LGBTQ person elected to Georgia’s state Senate — one of several that caught national attention for LGBTQ inclusion in politics. None of this, Jackson said, would have been possible without role models who taught her what she could become.
Joe Biden walks past solar panels while touring the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative in Plymouth, New Hampshire on June 4, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
“We have to end fracking. Biden knows it,” Rev. Fletcher Harper said.
Children celebrate after media announced that Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election, at Atlanta, Nov. 7, 2020. REUTERS/Brandon Bell/File Photo
During the 2016 presidential election, 22 percent of eligible Georgia voters were unregistered. Four years later that number has dropped to just two percent.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock speaks during an event in Atlanta on November 3, 2020. Jessica McGowan/Pool via REUTERS
Rev. Dr. Willie Jennings, professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale Divinity School and author of After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, said that the critiques against U.S. Senate candidate Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock are an attempt to “take from Black religious figures” what is granted “to white religious figures.”