This Month's Cover
Magazine

Sojourners Magazine: September/October 2023

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Healing from religious harm: Why compassionate community is part of the journey.

Features

An illustration of a blue woman hovering in the air with an abstract drawing of her nervous system glowing a translucent yellow-green through her skin. She is superimposed over an abstract drawing of a stain glass window with black thorns surrounding her.

A spiritual trauma therapist on why compassionate community is part of the journey.

by
Matthias Roberts
Magazine
Features
An old black-and-white photo of students and teachers sitting and standing on the steps of the Thomas Indian School building in the 1890s.

The Seneca Nation works to heal the wounds inflicted by a Presbyterian-run residential school.

by
Gabriel Pietrorazio
A photo of Heather McTeer Toney: a black woman with short hair, golden circular earrings, and a shirt with a pattern of leaves in vibrant blues, oranges, and yellows. She is looking at the viewer and smiling with a forest and evening sky behind her.

Author and activist Heather McTeer Toney on why we shouldn’t be surprised by that.

by
Christina Colón

Voices

Voices
Mobilizing Hope
An illustration of a woman with red hair in a blue and white-striped shirt, kneeling down to plant a small tree. Its shadow spreads out into a large, fully-grown tree. Looming power plant silos and oil rig towers cast their shadows behind the girl.

The church should play a leading role in supporting eco-friendly investing.

Voices
From The Editors
An illustration of Vietnamese climate activist Hoang Thi Minh Hong. She has blue and purple-dyed hair. In the background, a small earth and grassy field at sunrise is to the left, a forest river and waterfall above her, and fish in the sea to the right.

Religious communities have a role to play — and a responsibility — in the journey of healing.

by The Editors
Voices
Commentary
A children's crayon drawing showing a truck and tractor parked on hills as people load up carts of apples. On the horizon, there are autumn trees and hay bales amid multi-colored towers and a transmission tower.

Rural America needs child care. A new bill might help.

by
Bryn Bird
A picture of El Salvador's blue and white national flag, flying from a flag pole against a yellow backdrop.

Oppression is always more palatable when it is wrapped in the language of faith.

by
Juan Martínez Ovalle
Voices
Columns
An illustration with a horizontally split background, the upper half in yellow and lower half in black. A yellow pistol is layered over the latter, and a black outline of a school is layered over the former, resting on top of the gun.

The violence-tinged reality of sending children to school in America.

by
Liuan Huska
A painting of a white person's hands carefully molding cyclical contours into tan-colored clay.

Next week, I’ll sit again at the wheel. Perhaps this is already centering me.

by
Rose Marie Berger
Voices
Eyewitness
A man in a yellow hazmat suit simulates checking radiation levels on a Ukrainian boy by holding a black device out in front of him. Red-and-white striped tape keeps them separated from an onlooking crowd in the background.

"It’s one of the most amazing stories in nonviolence history.”

by
John Reuwer

Vision

Vision
Culture
A photo of Rich Mullins in a white t-shirt and white pants. He's sitting on a white chair with a white sheet draped in the backdrop. He's leaning forward on his knees with a grin on his face. A dog with tan-colored fur sits to his right on the same chair.

The witness of the writer of “Awesome God” still challenges white evangelicals.

by
Mitchell Atencio
Philomena (played by Dame Judi Dench) and Sixsmith (played by Steve Coogan) sit next to each other in a waiting room. Philomena is wearing a black jacket with a flower-patterned scarf. Sixsmith is wearing a dark brown jacket and blue jeans.

A meditation on what it means to stand up to institutional abuse without allowing the violence of the church to poison our own spirits.

by
JR. Forasteros
A picture of Judy Chicago's art exhibit called "The Dinner Party." There are unique plates, glasses, silverware, and tapestries depicted for esteemed women across time (mythological and historical) around a triangular banquet table.

In the famed feminist art installation, Sophia stands as a cross-cultural symbol of a female God.

by
Sarah James
Vision
Books
A painting in the style of a saint depicting former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz with an aura of light behind his head. He's crossing the fingers of his raised right hand and wearing a black leather jacket and gold necklace.

Three culture recommendations from our editors.

by
The Editors
The book 'Pregnant While Black' features a black pregnant woman dressed in a red dress while holding her stomach. The cover's backdrop has waves of cyan, yellow, orange, and red. The book hovers at an angle, casting a shadow against a pink-red backdrop.

Pregnant While Black considers how and why Black mothers in the U.S. are dying.

by
Melanie Springer Mock
A picture of the book cover for "You Could Make This Place Beautiful" by Maggie Smith over a pink backdrop. The book cover features the title neatly cut into paper with the flaps opening to expose flowers and leaves poking through the letters.

The author of “Good Bones” teaches us to change direction, create a new path, and let the light in. 

by
Olivia Bardo
Vision
Poetry

A poem

by
Leslie Williams
Vision
Living The Word

September reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle A

by
Natalie Wigg-Stevenson

October reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle A

by
Natalie Wigg-Stevenson
Vision
H'rumphs

What better way to open more spaces than by telling half of humanity they’re not appreciated?

by
Ed Spivey Jr.