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New and Noteworthy: Unconditional Love, ‘Shame-Sex Attraction,’ and More
From Hard Truths
Love is Patient
In the film Hard Truths (written and directed by Mike Leigh), the main character yells at strangers — Pansy is angry at the world. But her sister Chantelle sees the sadness behind the rage, offering Pansy the unconditional love we all need: “I don’t understand you,” says Chantelle, “but I love you.” Bleecker Street Media
The Editors: True Confessions
Illustration by Laura Freeman
True confessions: We hoped this issue of Sojourners might be commenting on the first woman U.S. president. It would have felt like progress to see Kamala Harris, a woman of Black and South Asian heritage, in conversation with other female heads of governments, such as those in Mexico, Peru, Italy, Thailand, and Tanzania. We also planned for election results that would take time to finalize. Then, just days before our deadline, Donald J. Trump won the election — and by Electoral College votes it wasn’t even close. We feel weary and defeated. Like many of you, we worked hard to protect voters’ rights to a free and fair election. We trust that’s what we got. But the results have also moved a well-funded authoritarian movement closer to its goals, as journalist Katherine Stewart explains in our interview with her. This anti-democratic movement has hijacked parts of our Christian faith. We say it here plainly: The principles, methods, and policies of white supremacy and authoritarianism are incompatible with the message of Christ. As senior editor Rose Marie Berger writes, “The new authoritarians amassing around Trump see themselves as Nietzsche’s ‘supermen’” — superior to all others and with an immoral drive to dominate, not democratize. We will undermine them with revolutionary love every step of the way.
Prayers Lifted: Here's Where You Can Pray for the 2024 Election
Photo by Paul Brady / Almay via Reuters Connect.
According to recent polling, 7 out of 10 Americans are feeling anxious about the 2024 presidential election. And as Election Day draws near, many churches and faith groups are trying to help alleviate some of that anxiety by opening their doors — and virtual spaces — for prayer.
New and Noteworthy: ‘Unholy Power,’ Black Utopia, and More
Unholy Power
Kristin Kobes Du Mez and Carl Byker’s short documentary, For Our Daughters, displays the evangelical church’s dangerous pattern of protecting abusive men — from the pulpit to the White House — to maintain social and political power, often to the detriment of women. www.forourdaughtersfilm.com
The Editors: Welcome. You Belong.
Ernesto Cardenal (1925-2020) was a Nicaraguan Catholic priest, poet, and revolutionary. / Illustration by Junyu Li
POET MARY OLIVER describes the world calling us “like the wild geese, harsh and exciting.” As we approach Advent, Christians ponder words like annunciation, waiting, and hope. Midwife Julie Dotterweich Gunby plumbs the theological depths of expectation and asks if we are truly “ready for Christmas.” Before we celebrate Christ’s birth, we must wade through the consequences of a U.S. election. (This issue went to print before November.) If we zoom too far out, our vision becomes binary — red/blue, us/them, win/lose. If we look more closely, we see active civic engagement, and a robust obligation to protect the democratic process. We also glimpse ties that bind us around the world. Stephen Schneck chronicles Nicaragua’s fall into autocracy, a cautionary tale. Chris Hedges and Mae Elise Cannon take readers to Palestine and Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, respectively. Liuan Huska travels to Ann Arbor, Mich., to report on a “farm-to-altar” Communion bread project reminding us that we are what we eat. “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,” concludes Oliver, the world is “announcing your place in the family of things.” Welcome. You belong.
The Editors: Celebrating Life & Courage
Shirley Childress Johnson, a professional sign language interpreter, performed with the internationally acclaimed African American all-woman ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock from 1980 until her death in 2017. / Illustration by Marian Femenias Moratinos
CLIMATE ACTIVIST, GRANDFATHER, and professional cellist John Mark Rozendaal blocked the entrance to Citibank headquarters this summer to protest one of the globe’s biggest funders of fossil fuel expansion. Hugging a fire-engine red instrument, he played a few bars of Bach and was promptly arrested. “The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind,” he said to the crowd, “to make it susceptible to Divine influences.” His cello bears the inscription: “This machine loves, serves + protects life.”
Small courageous acts of joy are proliferating. In this issue, Rev. Moya Harris quotes rapper Chuck D to confront troublesome forces in this election season and Chris Crawford, a Catholic at Protect Democracy, urges Christians to become poll workers.
While we mourn the passing of civil rights activist, historian, and song leader Bernice Johnson Reagon, we are grateful for associate editor Josina Guess’ celebration of her life. Reagon’s singular voice demanded that we remember our freedom saints, of whom she is now one. Liz Cooledge Jenkins, reflecting on burnout and social activism, reminds us: “Joy, it turns out, is essential to the work of justice.”
New and Noteworthy: ‘Living Room Theology,’ the Forgotten Apostle, and More
From the Madang podcast
Living Room Theology
Hosted by theologian Grace Ji-Sun Kim, the Madang podcast features erudite conversations with scholars, ministers, activists, and more. Named after the courtyards found in traditional Korean homes, the show provides an inviting, intimate space to envision a more just world. The Christian Century
New and Noteworthy: Conversations With Mystics, ‘Me & My Muslim Friends,’ and More
WUNC
Our Muslim Neighbors
In an era defined by ideological silos, it’s as important as ever to understand our neighbors. The podcast Me & My Muslim Friends invites listeners to do just that, with host Yasmin Bendaas leading thoughtful conversations about the broad spectrum of American Muslim experiences. WUNC
The Editors: A Special Issue About a Deadly Heresy
Peter Manseau is a novelist, historian, and founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Center for the Understanding of Religion in American History. / Illustration by Sam Falconer
THIS SPECIAL ISSUE of Sojourners focuses on Christian nationalism — what it is, why it matters, and how we can address this rising force.
Sojourners’ president Adam Russell Taylor introduces the dangers of Christian nationalism and how some are responding. Amanda Tyler, executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and author of the forthcoming book How To End Christian Nationalism, further defines the threat to democracy and religious liberty, but also offers the assurance that “working to end Christian nationalism does not mean working to end Christian expression in the public square.” It’s about how we bring our faith to civic engagement.
New and Noteworthy: ‘Biblical Time Machine,’ Poetry From Kwame Dawes, and More
W. Norton
Scriptural Time Travel
For the average reader, understanding scripture’s historical context can be overwhelming. Hosted by scholar Helen Bond and journalist Dave Roos, the podcast Biblical Time Machine provides an accessible entry point into biblical scholarship. Episode topics include slavery among early Christians and first-century childhood. BibleOdyssey
Wrestling for Truth in Our Past
Dame Cicely Saunders, a British American nurse, medical social worker, and physician, was a pioneer in palliative care techniques and founder in the 1960s of the modern hospice movement. / Illustration by Leah Kellaway
In Derek Walcott’s poem “Midsummer, Tobago” he recalls a “summer-sleeping house / drowsing through August.” At Sojourners we are savoring family vacations, relaxing, welcoming new babies — and telling stories about our history and our becoming.
Sojourners assistant editor Josina Guess interviewed actor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor about her recent films Origin and Exhibiting Forgiveness. Their deep conversation releases transformative power, an example of what narrative theologian James McClendon Jr. called “biography as theology.” What happens when we wrestle for truth in our personal and social histories, and open that struggle to God? As “Living the Word” writer Raj Nadella warns, “distorted memories of the past may misdirect our future; they may cause us to miss the way God is leading.”
New and Noteworthy: ‘Girls State,’ U.S. Food Policy, and More
Apple TV+
When Girls Govern
The documentary Girls State follows a group of dedicated high school girls as they participate in an immersive mock-government program. At a time when civic norms are being eroded, the film is a fascinating, hopeful, and human portrait of American democracy’s future. Apple TV+
Defending the Dignity of All
Topeka K. Sam is founder of The Ladies of Hope Ministries, which supports and empowers formerly incarcerated women and girls. Sam, a former prisoner, received an honorary doctorate from New York Theological Seminary in 2022. / Illustration by Clarissa Martinez
JAILS ARE NOT nice places. There is little to dampen the sheer terror of being closed in, locked down, and utterly vulnerable. Now imagine getting booked into county jail while pregnant. Journalist Beatrice M. Spadacini writes this month on moms giving birth and raising children while incarcerated or entangled in the carceral system. These stories call to mind Junia, the only woman whom Apostle Paul identifies as “in prison with me” and who was “in Christ before I was” (Romans 16:7). Christians are continually instructed to make alliances across the cell blocks and over the prison walls. Dwayne David Paul’s commentary on convict labor elevates the usefulness of those alliances today for strengthening worker’s rights and defending the dignity of all.
New and Noteworthy: ‘Code Dependent,’ Reclaiming Theology and More
reclaimingmytheology.com
Finding Faith Again
With breadth and depth, the Reclaiming My Theology podcast seeks to “take our theology back from ideas and systems that oppress.” Host Brandi Miller interviews diverse thinkers who are building a freer faith and traversing heavy topics, such as purity culture, with candor and diligent hope. reclaimingmytheology.com
Proclaimers of God’s Divine Economy
Felipe Luciano, an Afro-Puerto Rican activist, poet, and journalist, co-founded New York's Young Lords Party and led their 11-day occupation of East Harlem's First Spanish United Methodist Church in December 1969. / Illustration by Adolfo Valle
Sojourners had a wonderful in-person retreat this spring in Washington, D.C. Our gathering of editorial colleagues from California, Washington, Georgia, New Jersey, and D.C. sparked creativity, deepened commitment and community, and increased our love and respect for one another and our readers. Unfortunately, we also shared COVID — so we delayed the printing of this issue by a week to allow for rest and healing. (Hopefully, you didn’t notice.)
New and Noteworthy: ‘Heart and Soul,’ Queering Contemplation, and More
BBC
Dispatches of Devotion
The BBC weekly podcast Heart and Soul dissects religion’s ubiquitous and misunderstood presence in public life. Imbued with a refreshing human sensitivity, weekly episodes cover a range of faith topics — from Russian Orthodoxy in Kenya to a Sikh music revival. BBC
Transcendent Visions and Deep Healing
Rev. Richard Joyner is pastor of Conetoe Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in North Carolina and founder of the Conetoe Family Life Center, a 25-acre community garden and nonprofit. / Illustration by Hazel P. Mason
ENGLISH MYSTIC JULIAN of Norwich had a busy 24 hours on May 13, 1373, during which she experienced a series of vivid and visceral visions. At a time when the church preached that suffering was God’s punishment on sinful people, Julian interrogated the crucified Christ: “Lord, how can all be well when great harm has come, by sin, to your creatures?” Jesus replies to her, “I am able to make all things well and I shall make all things well.” In this issue, reviewer Ezra Craker and columnist Sarah James draw on Julian’s wisdom for our own time.
Gratitude Amid Another U.S. Election Year
Elvira Arellano, a Mexican-born advocate for undocumented immigrants to the U.S., gained national recognition in 2006 when she took sanctuary in Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago. She requested asylum in 2014. Her case is still pending. / Illustration by Clarissa Martinez
WELCOME TO ANOTHER U.S. election year. The man atop the Republican elephant charges forward. The incumbent astride the Democrat's donkey stubbornly digs in his heels. We at Sojourners seek to follow Jesus in his joyful mission of liberation for all. We see this in Georgia, through the holy imperfect work of racial reparations, as reported by assistant editor Josina Guess. We see it in California, where former Sojourners fellow Laurel Mathewson finds unexpected intimacy with God through prayer and study of Teresa of Ávila.
New and Noteworthy: ‘The Empty Promises of White Supremacy,’ Building Better Healthcare Systems, and More
Broadleaf
Class Over Race
In Trash: A Poor White Journey, chaplain Cedar Monroe explores the complex dynamics of being poor and white in the U.S. Grounded in liberation theology, the author ultimately calls communities to embrace multiracial solidarity and reject “the empty promises of white supremacy.” Broadleaf
New and Noteworthy: A Primer on Activism, ‘Nice Churchy Patriarchy,’ and More
Radiotopia
Bodies of Thought
In the podcast Weight For It, host Ronald Young Jr. explores “the nuanced thoughts of fat folks, and of all folks who think about their weight all the time.” These vulnerable, reflective episodes carefully address how fatness intersects with topics such as gender and health care. Radiotopia