https://sojo.net/feeds/articles Sojourners Online Articles en https://sojo.net/articles/news/dolores-huerta-labor-and-civil-rights-leader-dies-96 Dolores Huerta, who cofounded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez and fought legislators and powerful growers in the US to improve the lives of a previously powerless constituency, died on Wednesday at the age of 96, her family said in a statement.Huerta was one of the foremost women in U.S. labor history, serving the UFW as chief negotiator, strike organizer, lobbyist ,and reformer during its heyday in the 1960s and ‘70s in California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.Thanks to the contracts the UFW negotiated, farmworkers won job security, healthcare, retirement plans, a credit union and job-specific benefits such as guaranteed rest periods, toilets in the fields, clean drinking water and protection from pesticides. Wed, 28 Oct 2026 21:18:01 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/news/dolores-huerta-labor-and-civil-rights-leader-dies-96 https://sojo.net/articles/culture/jesus-said-fear-not-he-didnt-say-dont-watch-scary-movies As a queer person raised in Catholic purity culture, I’ve found horror films to be a vital way to confront and heal from my religious trauma. Wed, 28 Oct 2026 13:18:20 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/jesus-said-fear-not-he-didnt-say-dont-watch-scary-movies https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/tough-midterms-choices-facing-mainline-protestants It’s tough to know what to do as a mainline Protestant pastor these days. Most of the news about churches has not been good. A recent article in The Hill by Rev. Jennifer Butler, Presbyterian minister and CEO of the nonprofit Faith in Democracy, made the case that mainline Protestants are the swing voters of the 2026 elections. It’s safe to say that mainline Protestants are at a crossroads, and how they handle this election will have ramifications for years to come. Tue, 27 Oct 2026 10:21:14 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/tough-midterms-choices-facing-mainline-protestants https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/islamophobia-threat-all-faiths-el-sayed-shows-how-rebuke-it Last week at a town hall event in Caro, Mich., a heckler lobbed Islamophobic accusations at Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. That’s unfortunately unsurprising this cycle, as Republicans, panicked by a growing Democratic wave, have doubled and tripled down on bigotry. But what made this incident go viral is the way in which El-Sayed calmly turned the accusations around and demonstrated the extent to which Republican hatred of Muslims is rooted in an exclusionary Christian nationalism. Mon, 26 Oct 2026 10:20:50 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/islamophobia-threat-all-faiths-el-sayed-shows-how-rebuke-it https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/i-vote-because-im-christian This past weekend thousands of people marched to the polls in nearly 3,000 events for the No Kings: Vote Early mobilization. This was a historic surge in getting people and communities mobilized for early voting in neighborhoods across the country. Whenever possible, voting early and ensuring an overwhelming voter turnout is arguably one of the most powerful tools and best defenses we have against the abuse of power and authoritarian consolidation.But early voting, let alone voting on election day, still requires persuading and, in many cases, empowering people to actually vote. Given the challenging reality that an estimated 87 million eligible voters didn’t exercise their vote in the 2024 election, I’ve been thinking a great deal about what role our Christian faith can and should play in dramatically increasing voter turnout. Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:20:34 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/i-vote-because-im-christian https://sojo.net/articles/culture/you-can-see-everything-can-you-know-truth In Acts 5, the gospel writer Luke recounts the story of Ananias and Sapphira: a husband and wife who made a show of graciously donating the entire sum of a sale to the early church and the poor among them, all while secretly conspiring to keep a portion for themselves. The apostle Peter, prophetically seeing through the couple’s deception with total clarity, tells them, “You have not lied just to human beings, but to God.” In mere moments, both suddenly fall dead. Thu, 22 Oct 2026 09:26:11 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/you-can-see-everything-can-you-know-truth https://sojo.net/articles/culture-opinion/what-moody-didnt-teach-us-about-marx American evangelicals have long made a bogeyman out of Marx and his many inheritors. In 1952, Billy Graham made “Americanism”—his counter to communism—a central message of his crusades. Of course, this opposition finds its context in both the Cold War and evangelicals’ existing alliance with free-market capitalism.The latest installment of this criticism comes from former Moody Church pastor Erwin W. Lutzer and former Moody Bible Institute professor Gregg Quiggle: Marx and Moody, published by Moody Publishers in September. Marx and Moody is broken into two clear sections. The first is written by Lutzer, and it primarily deals with Marx. The second is written by Quiggle, and it engages the life and social activism of Moody.From the outset, the authors make clear their position: This is not a neutral, objective, or academic comparative study of two figures who helped shape their respective disciplines. It is a plea for readers to choose light over darkness, good over evil, Moody over Marx. Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:46:41 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture-opinion/what-moody-didnt-teach-us-about-marx https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/reading-augustine-age-ices-shock-gloves In August, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded a $16.7 million no-bid contract for 6,000 pairs of electric-shock gloves. The Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, abbreviated as G.L.O.V.E., can be activated by an officer against bare skin, delivering pulses of up to 380 volts—more than three times the voltage of a standard U.S. wall outlet. ICE says the gloves give officers another way to control people in close settings while supposedly avoiding more serious or lethal force. They’re manufactured by a company called Compliant Technologies, because subtlety is dead in our current political environment.The gloves arrive at a strange moment in the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown. ICE arrests surged to nearly 51,000 in August. From June to August, ICE set arrest records. But deportations haven’t followed that trend. They’ve plateaued around 1,200 per day, roughly the same pace as May 2026, when ICE made about 32,000 arrests. There are many reasons for this gap: asylum claims, court proceedings, diplomatic issues with receiving countries. But the gap also makes the continued buildup of ICE’s arrest-and-detention machinery more revealing. If they are not getting better at the deportation part of their mass deportation campaign, what exactly is all this additional force accomplishing? Fri, 16 Oct 2026 17:12:31 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/reading-augustine-age-ices-shock-gloves https://sojo.net/articles/interview/iconic-civil-rights-church-looks-educate-next-generation Sixty-three years after Black students propelled 16th Street Baptist Church to the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, the historic church is launching a center dedicated to educating the public on the fight for justice.Directly adjacent to the church building, the new 16th Street Education and Visitor Center aims “to honor those who sacrificed, to teach the truths that shaped the fight for justice, and to inspire every visitor to carry that work forward.”In 1963, more than a thousand Black students skipping school and wearing their Sunday-best poured out of the front doors of 16th Street Baptist Church and marched along the streets of downtown Birmingham, Ala. The “Children’s Crusade” was part of Martin Luther King Jr.’s and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s aggressive desegregation campaign in Birmingham. The images of children running and shielding one another from fire hoses and police dogs in Kelly Ingram Park, across from the church, horrified the nation and captivated activists.Then, a few months later, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the basement of the church. The blast shook the entire building, blowing out most of its stained-glass windows and damaging structures along the street. Four of the five young girls closest to the blast were killed. Their deaths became national news, with people across the globe donating to help rebuild the church. Fri, 16 Oct 2026 15:28:36 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/interview/iconic-civil-rights-church-looks-educate-next-generation https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/ms-rachel-simply-prophetic For two years, in the rectory where I live, my spouse and I hosted two parents seeking asylum along with their Canadian-born child. When she was a baby, not walking or talking, I used to sing lullabies to radicalize her—songs like the “Canticle of the Turning” (based on the Magnificat) and “Here I Am, Lord.” I would rock her to the beat of these justice-inspired songs, hoping that she would come to know that God is a God of justice.But eventually, as anyone with a child in their life knows, you get bored of the traditional kid content, and so you begin searching for something unique. YouTube had just the thing I was looking for. The video I showed my 2-year-old housemate was from Rachel Griffin Accurso, who goes by the name Ms. Rachel. In this particular video, Ms. Rachel looks right into the camera and asks the toddler, “Can you say mama?” As I held this child, so innocent, so vulnerable, beside me as she engrossed herself in language and learning, I found myself thinking about the state of the world. How did we get to a point where—for years—we idly stood by and watched a genocide in Palestine livestreamed on our devices? How did we get to a point where anti-Black racism is making an unapologetic comeback? Why are we so hyper-focused on limiting the freedom of trans folks and immigrants when the actual source of our troubles is the Epstein class? Wed, 14 Oct 2026 16:15:23 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/ms-rachel-simply-prophetic https://sojo.net/articles/interview/defender-evangelicalism-answers-our-questions Earlier this week, the Evangelical Press Association voted to change its name, dropping “evangelical” to become the “Christian Communicators Network.” The move follows a 2020 name change from Evangelicals for Social Action, founded by Ron Sider, to Christians for Social Action.Both groups cited the current American political climate as baggage that had attached to the term in ways that made “evangelical” no longer useful. And public polling finds that evangelicals are the religious group viewed most unfavorably by Americans. It can seem like no one wants evangelicals to be “evangelicals.” Bonnie Kristian, author of In Defense of Evangelicalism: A Response to Its Cultured Despisers, hopes to intercede. Kristian, having written for and served as an editor at Christianity Today, has had a close look at evangelicals and their critics.In her book, Kristian reads and responds to the work of several journalists and scholars whose work can be critical of evangelicals—Tim Alberta, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jemar Tisby, Anthea Butler, Samuel L. Perry, and others. A tightly argued book, she contends that evangelicalism is not worthy of the ire it receives from culture nor is it as harmful (to individuals, communities, or democracy) as scholars say.Kristian believes these scholars mistake the margins of evangelicalism for the center. At the center, she says, are regular Christians who seek to love God and neighbor and want to live their convictions alongside those neighbors. Wed, 14 Oct 2026 15:22:34 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/interview/defender-evangelicalism-answers-our-questions https://sojo.net/articles/news/pope-leo-diagnosed-cancer-has-lobe-lung-removed Pope Leo XIV was diagnosed with a common form of lung cancer after doctors removed a lower lobe of his right lung in surgery on Tuesday, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin.The 71-year-old pontiff has lung adenocarcinoma, with tissue tests conducted during the operation confirming what doctors had suspected from preparatory examinations, the bulletin said.The pope was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Tuesday for surgery to remove a growth on his lung that doctors found in a recent health checkup. Tue, 13 Oct 2026 16:52:58 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/news/pope-leo-diagnosed-cancer-has-lobe-lung-removed https://sojo.net/articles/culture/everything-we-learned-about-greta-gerwigs-narnia-adaptation Narnia fans can rest easy. That was my thought upon leaving a sneak peek at Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Narnia adaptation. Tue, 13 Oct 2026 15:53:51 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/everything-we-learned-about-greta-gerwigs-narnia-adaptation https://sojo.net/articles/news/archbishop-armed-forces-obliges-catholics-not-participate-execution Catholics serving in the U.S. Army should not participate in the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan that the Pentagon is planning to livestream in December, a prominent U.S. archbishop said on Monday.In an unusually strongly worded statement, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees the spiritual care of Catholic members of the U.S. armed forces, raised a series of objections to the unprecedented plan to broadcast the execution of Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in a 2009 shooting spree.Broglio said he presided at the funeral of one of Hasan’s victims and lamented the shooting. But the Ohio-born archbishop asked whether the U.S. wanted to “imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries.” Mon, 12 Oct 2026 16:46:23 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/news/archbishop-armed-forces-obliges-catholics-not-participate-execution https://sojo.net/articles/culture/can-christians-give-gerwigs-narnia-chance The daily wisdom our algorithms invite Christians to practice on the Internet: Always judge a book by its cover. Be the first to cast stones. Condemn things we haven’t seen and know little about. Mon, 12 Oct 2026 16:11:26 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/can-christians-give-gerwigs-narnia-chance https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/what-antifascist-spirituality-looks At the beginning of the second Trump administration, a homemade yard sign appeared in my neighborhood. It quoted the German Protestant pastor Martin Niemöller’s “First They Came” poem. Promoting both empathy and political action, Niemöller’s poem has become rightly omnipresent as Trumpism and its Christofascist base are arguably the most successful fascist movement since Nazi Germany. Lesser known than the poem is Niemöller’s journey into the antifascist spirit that inspired it.Niemöller’s gradual turn against Hitler began only after the church’s autonomy was threatened in the Nazis’ attempt to establish the Reich Church. Before 1934, he voted for the Nazis numerous times, led a Freikorps unit during the Weimar Republic, joyfully greeted Hitler’s rise, and even sent his autobiography to Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels with a personal note that it was written in the “spirit of the Third Reich.” In his role in the Confessing Church, he was againstHitler, but kept the ultranationalism and antisemitism that led him to support the Nazis in the first place. His imprisonment wasn’t enough to shake off his fascist proclivities—he still volunteered for the war effort from Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It took the defeat of Germany and a direct confrontation with his own complicity after the war, for him to reject fascism. Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:08:01 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/what-antifascist-spirituality-looks https://sojo.net/articles/culture/attending-rosal-concert-teresa-avila When I published a spiritual memoir based on the teachings of a 16th-century saint named Teresa of Avila, my 13-year-old daughter suggested my next writing project should be something “more people would want to read.” Fri, 09 Oct 2026 16:33:21 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/attending-rosal-concert-teresa-avila https://sojo.net/magazine/november-2026/living-shadow-data-center I moved to Lowell, Mass., in 2010 as a young adult. The community hosted movie nights at the baseball field and organized events at the park, which have sadly stopped. I live by myself, so neighbors were the number one thing I looked to. Then Markley [Group] purchased an abandoned spaghetti factory. Fri, 09 Oct 2026 09:37:34 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/magazine/november-2026/living-shadow-data-center https://sojo.net/magazine/november-2026/quaker-isnt-afraid-get-your-face IN THE LATE 1940s, a 12-year-old George Lakey preached a sermon at his church declaring racial equality to be the will of God. He was never invited to preach at that Evangelical Congregational Church again. But that incident explains the life that followed.While in college, Lakey became a Quaker. He graduated from the historically Black Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. He thought about being a musician. He considered teaching high school social studies. He pursued a Ph.D. in sociology, but instead of retaking his oral exams, Lakey used his schooling “to become an evidence-based social activist with skills to do homework for the movement,” as he writes in his autobiography Dancing With History. He spent more than six decades as an activist committed to practicing and training others in nonviolent direct action. (Music never left him, and he spent many years teaching peace studies classes to college
 students.)In 1965, George and his then-wife Berit Lakey (who are both white) adopted Christina, a Black girl only a few months old. The Lakeys soon afterward purchased a house in West Philadelphia, where they also raised Peter, who was also Black and adopted, and their youngest daughter, Ingrid. George lives in that same house 
today.And yet, rooted as he has been, a lot changed in his life over the years. In the early 1970s, he came out as bisexual at an annual Quaker gathering, in front of a thousand people. In 1985, after 26 years of marriage, he and his wife split up. Not long after, his son Peter died, “of poisoning,” at the age of 20. Thu, 08 Oct 2026 12:26:29 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/magazine/november-2026/quaker-isnt-afraid-get-your-face https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/how-christians-can-protect-midterms-trumps-interference I need to level with you: The 2026 midterms are not a normal election.Faith groups like Sojourners have long talked about the importance of elections. I have written about elections extensively in the past. But this year is different.Specifically, there is a great risk that the Trump administration and its allies will attempt to disrupt or deny the election results; these attempts could very well succeed if we don’t act—or if they create enough chaos and fear to deter people from voting. It’s critical that Christians commit to pushing back on these attempts with faith-inspired activism—not just up to Election Day, but all the way through the seating of a new Congress on Jan. 3. Wed, 07 Oct 2026 13:28:35 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/how-christians-can-protect-midterms-trumps-interference https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/three-years-after-oct-7-are-there-any-words-left I’m at the point where I’m a bit at a loss for what to say about Palestine. It has been three years since the on Israel on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted another 251 people.That date also marks the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, which continues despite the ceasefire. More than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed by the state of Israel. Palestinians are losing faith in nonviolent resistance, and I honestly can’t blame them. Settlers and their allies in government are determined to annex the entire West Bank, and Israeli politicians are openly imagining a world where Palestinians are no longer in Palestine. The word “bleak” does not even begin to describe the situation in Israel/Palestine—a situation that is only made worse by the U.S. continuing to provide military aid to Israel. Perhaps “catastrophe” is a better word. Wed, 07 Oct 2026 13:16:32 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/three-years-after-oct-7-are-there-any-words-left https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/tennessees-botched-executions-offer-no-justice-no-execution-does The recent botched attempted executions of Christa Pike and Tony Carruthers in Tennessee have laid bare what it is we are doing in my state in the name of justice—and people of faith are horrified by it. Mon, 05 Oct 2026 16:42:07 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/tennessees-botched-executions-offer-no-justice-no-execution-does https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/my-coming-out-felt-more-inviting I was 20 years old before I told anyone else in my life that I had gender dysphoria. Or, as I said back then, “all these gender feelings.”It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell anyone. Throughout many different seasons of my childhood and teen years, I’d tried to write letters and speeches to tell my parents and friends what I’d been experiencing. From what I’d absorbed in media, though, “coming out” was a dramatic proclamation. My understanding was that it meant you were confidently displaying your “true self” to the world—being “brave,” letting your flag fly, making a grand statement that said, “I’m here, this is me, and you’ve gotta deal with it.” To be sure, many people do not think about coming out this way—and in the years since that time, I’ve been moved by countless examples of coming out that occurred in gentler, more intimate ways. But that was what I had internalized then. Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:03:55 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/my-coming-out-felt-more-inviting https://sojo.net/articles/culture/new-documentary-shows-why-ccm-was-never-safe-whole-family We’ve seen it before: the tale of a Christian disillusioned with evangelicalism and its culture of exclusion. What we are still learning, however, is the assuredness with which Christian communities will shun one of their own—even one of their most skilled artists.Jason Ikeler’s new documentary Safe for the Whole Family: How to Make a Christian Superstar, which premiered Sept. 27 at the Nashville Film Festival, offers history and commentary on Contemporary Christian Music from authors and scholars including Leah Payne, Jane Hong, and Kristin Kobes du Mez. The film focuses on artists Jennifer Knapp, Nikki Leonti, and Michael Passons as they revisit their rise in the Christian music industry—and the blows dealt to them on their way out of evangelical spaces. Fri, 02 Oct 2026 19:07:51 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/new-documentary-shows-why-ccm-was-never-safe-whole-family https://sojo.net/articles/culture/train-green-lantern-way-he-should-go Toward the end of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he notes that his young protégé Timothy will be visiting soon and goes out of his way to tell the church to be nice to him. “When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord” (16:10). Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:05:36 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/train-green-lantern-way-he-should-go https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/your-churchs-liturgy-can-honor-trans-lives “You need to wait for people to catch up,” the pastor said.It was 2015, and I was visiting the church offices to talk with this pastor about changing parts of the liturgy to make it more inclusive for genderqueer parishioners in this open and affirming congregation. The well-meaning pastor’s response hung heavy in the church office. Over the first few years of my coming out as transgender in a Christian church, pastoral staff and close friends tried to be the community I needed them to be. But I needed more than this cisgender community was able to offer. Months later, the same pastor and I cried together as we concluded that I would find the all-encompassing, life-giving support I needed elsewhere. Wed, 30 Sep 2026 16:01:36 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/your-churchs-liturgy-can-honor-trans-lives https://sojo.net/articles/news/wed-rather-be-prepared-faith-leaders-organize-ahead-tense-midterms Faith-based organizers across the U.S. are mobilizing with increasing fervor to protect the integrity of the 2026 midterm elections. Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:32:53 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/news/wed-rather-be-prepared-faith-leaders-organize-ahead-tense-midterms https://sojo.net/articles/culture/primetime-and-christian-politics-protecting-kids “What would have happened if I wasn’t here?” The question oozes out of Robert Pattinson’s Chris Hansen as a rhetorical killshot. Primetime, Lance Oppenheim’s movie about the rise and fall of Dateline NBC’s 2000s ratings juggernaut To Catch a Predator, depicts Hansen as savoring every syllable. Their “predator”—a creep lured onto a TV set disguised as a suburban home by a grownup posing as a teen in online chatrooms—is stunned by Hansen’s sudden appearance, shrinking under his righteous inquisition, and finally left to ponder his inhumanity as law enforcement swarms. This was the conceit of To Catch a Predator, the short-lived but enormously popular NBC show that partnered with an anti-child exploitation group called Perverted Justice to ensnare would-be pedophiles into online chatting, sexting, and, ultimately, visiting adults posing as underage teens. Once inside, the faux-teen “decoy” excuses themself before Hansen appears, armed with withering putdowns and transcripts of the lurid text exchanges. “I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC,” he announces. “You see how this looks, right?” Tue, 29 Sep 2026 11:43:22 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/primetime-and-christian-politics-protecting-kids https://sojo.net/articles/culture-interview/american-doctor-takes-you-inside-interfaith-fight-save-palestinian-lives Director Poh Si Teng’s damning and incisive documentary, American Doctor, follows three American physicians and the medical work they do for those suffering in Gaza. Mon, 28 Sep 2026 14:40:43 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture-interview/american-doctor-takes-you-inside-interfaith-fight-save-palestinian-lives https://sojo.net/articles/culture/joy-oladokun-hope-heavy-thing Living in an age where rage is a currency, where anything and everything is a financial stressor, and where our political machine’s main function is to sow division, clinging to positive platitudes like “Things will get better!” or “Just hold out hope!” can feel like an expression of wilful ignorance, or at best, stupid naivety. It’s hard, nearly impossible, to remain hopeful in such uncertain times; a feeling encapsulated in the fifth album from Joy Oladokun (they/she), fittingly titled Hope is a Heavy Thing. The Arizona-born singer-songwriter’s career has burgeoned from her pensive lyricism, a marriage of the personal and political: their Nigerian-Christian upbringing as a queer person in their 2019 single “Sunday”; the unique pain of the African-American experience in the piano-led pandemic anthem “Who Do I Turn To?”; or her dependence on self-medication in “Drugs.” Fri, 25 Sep 2026 05:50:18 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/joy-oladokun-hope-heavy-thing https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/pro-labor-gospel-back-ballot In the months leading up to the U.S. midterm elections and in the shadow of today’s headline-dominating Christian Right, a lost gospel is getting a new hearing. In red states across the country, devout Christians running for office on the Democratic ticket are making the case, as Jesus himself once put it, that “The laborer deserves to be paid” (Luke 10:7). Thu, 24 Sep 2026 09:11:17 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/pro-labor-gospel-back-ballot https://sojo.net/articles/news/interfaith-coalition-brings-20000-names-children-killed-gaza-uns-doorstep Earlier this month, a coalition of advocacy groups unveiled the Gaza Children’s Shroud, a linen assemblage bearing the names of 20,000 children killed in Gaza between October 2023 and August 2025—a staggering physical testament that when laid end-to-end, is 328 feet long. The names were handwritten by nearly 50 congregations and organizations across the U.S. and nine in Ireland, including churches, mosques, Buddhist centers, interfaith, and secular groups. Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:21 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/news/interfaith-coalition-brings-20000-names-children-killed-gaza-uns-doorstep https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/partisan-priests-and-gospel-resentment “You know what happens if you don’t vote?” President Donald Trump asked the crowd gathered at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. “You go to hell!” Mon, 21 Sep 2026 16:40:19 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/partisan-priests-and-gospel-resentment https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/western-civilization-has-always-been-harmful-christian-lie The Emperor Constantine, who in the fourth century made Christianity an instrument of Roman imperial cohesion, valued Christianity for its capacity to unite an empire under his authority. For many oppressed Christians, this use of Christianity to build empires still exists today, yet in a different form. Today, empire-building is deployed through the language of protecting what many call “Western civilization.” And it is an empire-building strategy that has brought many Christians together across the religious lines that once divided them—Roman Catholic, Protestant, and even “cultural Christians”—as a new ecumenical movement. Scholars like Leonard A. Schuette call this political ideology “Western Civilizationism.” In this ideology, the primary unit of belonging is not the nation, the state, or the country, but a broader Western civilization: “the West is defined by a specific geographic territory, a shared ancestry, and Christianity.” For adherents of Western Civilizationism, Christianity is a crucial component for organizing a civilization’s culture and values. Any threat to their version of Christianity must be considered a threat to the West itself. Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:44:37 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/western-civilization-has-always-been-harmful-christian-lie https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/pilgrimage-annie-dillard Annie Dillard, one of the greatest American writers, considered her own first book on writing a failure. At least, she called it “dull” and told an interviewer that she “never should have published it.” Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:07:30 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/pilgrimage-annie-dillard https://sojo.net/articles/culture/live-laugh-love-untangles-politics-white-christian-women The walls are covered in shiplap paneling. Over by the spare toilet paper, an essential oil diffuser hums quietly as it emits Young Living’s “Purification” into the air. Two wide-eyed Precious Moments figurines watch you from the windowsill. A framed Bible verse declares, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” but you already knew you were in the bathroom of a white Christian woman; the signs and wonders were all around you. In Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made, Kristin Kobes Du Mez dissects those signs—and their political implications. Du Mez, a professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University, landed on The New York Times’ bestseller list for Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, her scorching dissection of white evangelical masculinity. With Live Laugh Love, Du Mez turns her eye to white Christian femininity. Because, “demographically speaking, women are the center of American Christianity,” writes Du Mez, “we should look beyond denominational seminaries and theological treatises and read Christian romance novels instead.” Tue, 15 Sep 2026 16:22:23 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/live-laugh-love-untangles-politics-white-christian-women https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/how-write-opinion-piece-sojourners Thinking about writing an opinion piece for Sojourners? Great! We're always looking for new voices. Tue, 15 Sep 2026 10:09:54 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/how-write-opinion-piece-sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/no-james-talarico-not-christian-nationalist In a 2023 sermon, Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico called Christian nationalism “a cancer on our religion” and denounced Republicans for trying to transform America into a “Christian theocracy.” Yet, at the same time, Talarico—a Presbyterian seminary student—has made his Christian faith a core message of his campaign. He mentions biblical teachings like “love thy neighbor” when discussing partisan division. He talks about the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary as a model for consent and a justification for abortion rights. To some, these positions may seem to be in tension. If you oppose Christian theocracy, how can you use Christian theology to justify your political positions in the public sphere? When Christian beliefs are presented as the moral arbiter of politics, isn’t that the definition of Christian nationalism? Mon, 14 Sep 2026 18:15:24 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/no-james-talarico-not-christian-nationalist https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/after-25-years-we-must-let-love-cast-out-fear Most people remember exactly where they were on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. I was in Nairobi, Kenya, a full day removed from the moment everyone else calls “that morning.” Fri, 11 Sep 2026 12:54:28 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/after-25-years-we-must-let-love-cast-out-fear https://sojo.net/articles/news/vatican-planning-117-million-pivot-renewable-energy The Vatican will build a roughly $117 million renewable energy plant that could power the Holy See within two years via a system combining solar power and agriculture, sources involved in discussions on the project said. The agrivoltaic plant is expected to have a capacity of 80 to 90 megawatts, making it one of Italy’s largest such installations, the sources added. In such plants, solar panels are mounted several meters above the ground so crops can grow beneath them, with the shade helping to reduce evaporation and shielding plants from extreme weather. A joint Italian-Vatican commission met earlier this month to launch the project at the Vatican-owned Santa Maria di Galeria estate on Rome’s northwestern outskirts, after Italy ratified a 2025 bilateral agreement for development of the site this year. Thu, 10 Sep 2026 14:36:52 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/news/vatican-planning-117-million-pivot-renewable-energy https://sojo.net/articles/culture/what-evolution-means-being-made-gods-image Janet Kellogg Ray is on a mission as an evolution evangelist. Her two prior books, Baby Dinosaurs on the Ark? and The God of Monkey Science, show how she can run with any biblical narrative (Noah’s flood) or historical event (the COVID-19 pandemic), and use these as launch points for crash courses on fossilization, germ theory, and scientific methodology. In her new book, Fish with Feet, she not only places humans center stage in the story of evolution, but also sets out to explore how this impacts a core Christian doctrine enshrining the status and purpose of humans: the image of God. For many Christians, evolution threatens the concept of the imago Dei because it suggests we weren’t perfectly designed and set apart from animals by God. This is partly why apologetic enterprises like Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research exist to preserve our divine origins. Otherwise, these groups say we may as well toss out the Bible and act like animals. Fish with Feet challenges creationists directly but is primarily intended for those who grew up under their influence: Christians (deconstructed, deconverted, and otherwise) who grew up with little to no education related to evolution or an old Earth. This certainly works for folks like me, since I was homeschooled on creationism and intelligent design by Abeka Academy. Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:27:56 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/what-evolution-means-being-made-gods-image https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/never-forget-easy-remembering-well-hard This September is filled with calls to collectively remember. It was one year ago, on Sept. 10, that conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk was killed at Utah Valley University. September 11, of course, marks 25 years since the attack on the World Trade Center towers in New York City. Amid these invitations to remember, I have wondered what it means, in this place and moment, to remember rightly. There is no doubt we remember these events. Yet, our memories differ. As the Catholic theologian Jean-Luc Marion writes, “Once things have happened, there remain only words.” Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:36:58 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/never-forget-easy-remembering-well-hard https://sojo.net/articles/culture/andrew-garfield-spiritual-power-and-peril-rage A humble ploughman walks across the countryside with a radical preacher and a former nun, with thousands of livid farmers and laborers following behind them. Together, the three travelers ponder the reason for the recent pandemic that swept across the land and killed half of the people they’ve ever known. “The sickness was [God’s] punishment for the crimes of the rich,” remarks the preacher, John Ball, rather matter-of-factly. “So why do we suffer also?” asks the ploughman. Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:44:24 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/andrew-garfield-spiritual-power-and-peril-rage https://sojo.net/articles/news/idaho-pastor-found-guilty-trespassing-protest-anti-trans-bills Months after protestors wouldn’t leave the lobby of the Idaho governor’s office in an attempt to meet with him over anti-transgender bills, a jury on Tuesday found a local minister guilty on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. The jury found the Rev. Sara LaWall—who wore a clerical collar under a rainbow speckled blazer as she sat in court—guilty of trespassing after prosecutors said she remained in the governor’s office after being warned it was closed for the night during a protest of anti-trans bills this spring. After the jury delivered the verdict, LaWall, the minister for the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, told reporters that the possible prison sentence she could face would be less time than judges can dole out for violations of Idaho’s new criminal transgender bathroom ban. “That just feels wholly unfair and outsized and ridiculous,” LaWall told reporters after her trial. “… The jury found me guilty of staying in the governor’s office after being told to leave. I didn’t dispute those facts. But someone going to the bathroom now has a higher sentence, and that just feels so disproportionate and so wrong.” Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:05:23 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/news/idaho-pastor-found-guilty-trespassing-protest-anti-trans-bills https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/wendell-berry-comforted-me-through-my-gender-transition The late, great Wendell Berry found me at a unique time in my life: I was in the early stages of transitioning between genders. Up until that point, part of me had always assumed that I wouldn’t connect with Berry’s writing because the people who recommended it to me were usually vaguely conservative men who wanted to live self-sufficient agrarian lifestyles. These people certainly had softer sensibilities than the more overtly militaristic conservatives I knew, but nonetheless, it sometimes felt that their idyllic worldviews and theologies didn’t have much room for people like me. Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:53:01 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/wendell-berry-comforted-me-through-my-gender-transition https://sojo.net/articles/news/wendell-berry-voice-land-and-neighbor-dies-92 Wendell Berry, farmer, author, and activist died earlier this week. He was 92 years old. Berry’s death was first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by a statement sent to Sojourners by The Berry Center where his daughter, Mary Berry, serves as executive director. “The Berry Center and Berry family are heartbroken to announce the death of Wendell Erdman Berry, writer and farmer of Port Royal, Henry County, Kentucky. He passed suddenly and peacefully at home yesterday afternoon, August 31st,” the statement read. “His work continues, here and in every place where people aim to live according to nature’s measure, on and with and of their beloved home place.” Tue, 01 Sep 2026 17:18:24 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/news/wendell-berry-voice-land-and-neighbor-dies-92 https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/most-welcoming-church-will-let-you-leave Churches are obsessed with doors. Churches bless these doors, paint them red, hold them open, photograph them, and put welcome signs on them. We tell the frightened person, the estranged child, the gay man, the addict, the doubter, the refugee, the person who has been made to feel impossible: Come in; there is a place for you here. I believe in that sentence. But to the end of that greeting we should add: “and you can leave whenever you want.” Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:40:51 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/most-welcoming-church-will-let-you-leave https://sojo.net/articles/culture/our-most-anticipated-movies-fall-and-winter Try as my mother did to instill the chronology of the liturgical calendar in me, I’ve instead opted to track the passage of time by the movie release calendar. Right now, we’re in anything but Ordinary Time. What thrills me about the fall and winter movie season is that, for the most part, the movies released in this window are the ones that will be in the conversation for the rest of the year (and even into the new year), whether it’s because they’re nominated for awards or just remain people’s personal favorites. It was around this time last year when I saw visions like Frankenstein, No Other Choice, Train Dreams, and Wake Up Dead Man. That’s not to say the movies of the summer and early months aren’t without substance or provocation (I still find myself thinking about scenes from 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Leviticus, Disclosure Day, and, of course, The Odyssey). Maybe it’s something about the liturgical motions of the season itself, the way we move from bright days to crisp nights to winter chills, that makes the films that come out during this time weightier and cozier, a cinematic hearth that burns on the fuel of new releases. Fri, 28 Aug 2026 13:59:19 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/our-most-anticipated-movies-fall-and-winter https://sojo.net/articles/news/israel-denies-entry-delegation-palestinian-liberation-theology-center For the first time, a delegation with the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center was denied entry to Israel earlier this month. Sabeel, a registered nonprofit based in East Jerusalem, has nearly 40 years of history in the region. In the past three years, the group has welcomed more than 450 people in delegations and pilgrimages to the Holy Land. These trips are “learning experiences” for everyone involved, said Omar Haramy, director of Sabeel. They are inspired by the Bible’s repeated instructions to “come and see,” and “go and tell,” he said. The delegation of 13 travelers, all American citizens, was coordinated by Rev. Ed Phillips and Rev. Sara Webb Phillips, married United Methodist ministers from Atlanta, Ga. On Aug. 13, the group was entering Israel—nine delegates had been admitted into the country when border agents suddenly ordered them to re-enter the processing area, then detained the whole group in a holding room in the terminal at Sheikh Hussein Bridge. Thu, 27 Aug 2026 11:41:40 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/news/israel-denies-entry-delegation-palestinian-liberation-theology-center https://sojo.net/articles/culture/dolly-parton-gave-me-courage-outgrow-my-faith-community At 28, I resigned from my dream job, packed up my life and made the 24-hour drive from Gilbert, Ariz., to Nashville, Tenn. I had wanted to work for a big Catholic ministry since high school when I went to a youth conference and saw speakers giving passionate sermons about how God changed their lives and could change mine too. Wed, 26 Aug 2026 15:14:18 EDT Sojourners https://sojo.net/articles/culture/dolly-parton-gave-me-courage-outgrow-my-faith-community