VERSE AND VOICE FROM SOJOURNERS 14AUG26

 

Forward this email to someone you know who would like it! Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday. Verse of the day Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your earnings for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. - Isaiah 55:2 Voice of the day Some got their miracle. Not being cured or fixed but finding the sustaining power to wake up every day and do what we're here to do. In spite of the pain. Daily bread. - Fr. Jud Duplenticy in “Wake Up Dead Man” (2025) Prayer of the day God of the ordinary, may the endurances we bear in day-to-day life be a source of proof that we can prosper and enact your desire for wholeness. Advertisement Our Latest Stories How Christians Learned the Wrong Story About Leprosy (by Cassidy Klein) Oliver Basciano’s ‘Outcast’ takes a historical look at ‘the disease iconic of Christian charity,’ shifting the lens to the patients themselves. Read more White Sox Get 38,000 People to Dress Like the Pope, Lose Anyway (by Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer) Pope Leo XIV’s favorite team suffered a late game collapse and a loss to a “Pagán.” Read more Netflix’s ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Is More Than an Adaptation (by Georgia Coley) The new series reimagines Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved pioneer story as a reckoning with faith, colonialism and the myths of American self-reliance. Read more Will Idaho’s Law Criminalizing Transgender Bathroom Use Affect Churches? (by Emma Maple) Progressive faith leaders are challenging a law forcing trans people to use bathrooms according to their sex assigned at birth. Read more Catholic Nuns Don’t Have to Comply with Medical Aid in Dying (by Emily Barnes, USA Today) “NY state’s decision not to enforce this law against us means that we can continue our loving service to Christ's poor.” Read more ICE Says Detainees Have Religious Freedom. Faith Leaders Don’t See It (by Sam Hsiaomei Lee) At Delaney Hall, a multifaith coalition is rallying to ensure those in detainment can worship with freedom. Read more Advertisements Leadership and Life Coach Training for Women in Faith-Based Ministry As a global society we need to cultivate relationship skills to help people develop strong communities of support and belonging. The Leadership and Life Coach program (which is international and accredited by the International Coaching Federation) is available for women in faith-based ministry. Sojourners' Immigration and Refugees Reading List Check out Sojourners' reading selections for putting our faith into action for immigrant and refugee rights. Our Bookshop page features a variety of curated reading lists. When you buy through our Bookshop link, part of the proceeds support Sojourners and independent bookstores throughout the country. Donate Subscribe

Copyright © 2026 Sojourners. All rights reserved. 611 Pennsylvania Ave SE #342, Washington, DC 20003 Email: sojourners@sojo.net | Tel.: 202.328.8842

VERSE AND VOICE FROM SOJOURNERS 13MAI26

 

Forward this email to someone you know who would like it! Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday. Verse of the day My brothers and sisters, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. - Galatians 6:1 Voice of the day Do not become the ones who hurt you. Stay tender with your power. Never fight to injure, fight to uplift. Fight because you know that in this life, you deserve safety, joy, and freedom. - Chanel Miller, Know My Name (2019) Prayer of the day May our methods of mending and mitigating harm be rooted in your tenderheartedness. Advertisement Our Latest Stories Decolonizing Faith From Palestine to the Philippines (by Yanan Rahim Navarez Melo) When faced with colonization, the proper Christian response is to translate our theology of liberation into radical political action and international solidarity. Read more The DOJ’s Report on Anti-Christian Bias Mistakes Policy for Persecution, Advocates Say (by Ken Chitwood) The government alleges a crisis for Christians' religious freedom. But critics say it “only exists when it is enjoyed by everyone.” Read more Christians Are Meant for Tables. Instead, We Build Walls (by Amar D. Peterman) Throughout the gospels, Jesus is often found at or around the table, subverting the social order of his day by dining with those who were considered outcasts or impure. Read more The 24-Hour Workday Is Crucifying New York’s Home Care Workers (by Hannah Keziah Agustin) A city as rich as New York has no excuse for letting immigrant women work 24-hour shifts. The "No More 24 Act" can help change this. Read more Advertisements Action Alert: No War With Iran! Contact Congress now to demand peace and an end to the war with Iran. As Christians, we know that each and every life is precious and every step must be taken to avoid bloodshed. Instead of recklessly pursuing a policy of escalation, we demand an end to violence and vigorous oversight from Congress in pursuit of peace. Seeking Simplicity, Connection, and Repair in a Broken World Feeling burnt out? Light for the Way brings together 50 years of wisdom on how contemplation, rest, and community fuel justice work. With voices like Wendell Berry, Kathleen Norris, Joan Chittister, and Daniel Berrigan, this is your guide to reclaiming spiritual practices during difficult times. Donate Subscribe Copyright © 2026 Sojourners. All rights reserved. Email: sojourners@sojo.net | Tel.: 202.328.8842

They Came for the Books First SOJOURNERS MAGAZINE MAI 2025

 

FROM nazi book burnings in the 1930's to bookshop raids in East Jerusalem and ice raids in America in 2025 the ugly specter of fascist authoritarianism is still a threat to human rights, civil liberties, freedom, democracy and peace. We can not do nothing and wait to see if this phase passes because it will not, not as long as NOT MY pres drumpf / trump, NOT MY pres musk, NOT MY vp vance, their administration and the gop / greed over people-republican party controlling congress and too many state and local governments are still in power. This from Sojourners.....

They Came for the Books First

Historical patterns of intolerance from Germany to Israel to the U.S.

By Greta Lapp Klassen

IN MAY 1933, Nazi-influenced student groups publicly burned more than 25,000 books by Jewish authors and those deemed liberal or leftist in 34 university towns across Germany. Newspapers supported it as “action against the un-German spirit,” and Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda, said to a crowd of 40,000 that “the era of extreme Jewish intellectualism is now at an end. ... The future German man will not just be a man of books, but a man of character.”

This anti-semitic act of censorship and intolerance is memorialized at the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem, where a display about book burnings sets the tone for the rest of the museum. Before you enter the display on the rise of Nazism, you must first consider the gravity of book burnings. A prophetic quote from 19th century German poet Heinrich Heine concludes the display: “Where books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too.”

Across the city, in East Jerusalem, is the Palestinian-run Educational Bookshop. It consists of an English store, which doubles as a coffee shop, workspace, and community hub, and an Arabic store across the road. This family-owned business, which opened in 1984, sells all sorts of titles related to Palestine. There are Palestinian books on cooking, art, and history; there are novels, textbooks, and children’s books. The Educational Bookshop carries titles that are hard to find within Israel, and on a Sunday afternoon in February, this popular bookstore was raided by undercover Israeli police for the first time.

“They came into the shop with a search warrant,” Ahmad Muna, assistant manager of the shop, told me. “They demanded a search that happened over the course of two hours. The officers were aggressive, brutal, were not polite.” According to Muna, the officers didn’t speak Arabic or English; at first they used Google Translate to figure out book titles.

“At some point they had enough of Google Translate,” Muna said, “It was getting too tedious. So, they started to judge the books by their covers, by the design, by the picture on the cover, any book that had the flag of Palestine, any book that had a picture of a prisoner, of a boy being arrested, a picture of the wall, a picture of a Palestinian flag, it was confiscated.”

Police took away about 300 books in trash bags. Muna and his uncle were arrested and detained for two nights. After release, both were put under house arrest for five days and banned from entering their shop for more than two weeks.

A month after the initial raid, the bookstore was raided again. This time the police did not have a search warrant. They detained Muna’s father, confiscated the keys to the store, and took 50 more books, although most were later returned. The store reopened shortly after the second raid and has received an outpouring of support from Israelis as well as diplomats from eight countries who attended the hearing of Ahmad and his uncle, Mahmoud, in February.

These raids point toward increased intolerance for Palestinian perspectives within Israel, where 21% of the population is Palestinian Israeli (a larger percentage of the population than that of any minority group in the United States). And as such intolerance grows in Israel, it also grows in the U.S., Israel’s biggest political and economic ally.

On March 8 in New York City, Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the U.S. who is married to an American citizen, was detained in his apartment building lobby by immigration agents who arrived in unmarked cars. Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University until December, was a lead organizer and negotiator for the pro-Palestine campus demonstrations last year. He was transferred to an ICE detention center in Louisiana to await deportation, despite having no criminal record. A judge has stayed the deportation and ordered Khalil returned to New Jersey for a hearing. According to an Associated Press report, Khalil’s attorney spoke to one of the ICE agents during the arrest, who said “they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa.” Once the ICE agents were informed that Khalil had a green card and not a student visa, they said that they were revoking the green card instead.

The raids on the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem and Khalil’s detainment are both attacks on free speech, a foundation of healthy democracy. The free exchange of ideas is fundamental to a culturally pluralistic society, and banning books and arresting protesters are attempts to limit exposure to ideas unpopular with a current administration, not the so-called “anti-terrorism” measures that governments claim.

I asked Ahmad Muna why people of faith should particularly care about the raids on the Educational Bookshop. He said, “Raiding bookshops, getting into what people read, attacking places where knowledge is spread, where knowledge is written, where people come so they can get introduced to new ideas, to new struggles, to new challenges, a place where people can or should feel safe — everybody should stand to condemn such actions, regardless of what religion they follow.”

In the U.S., defending free speech is part of defending religious freedom too. When one part of the First Amendment is attacked, the others are endangered. Suzanne Nossel, former CEO of PEN America, an organization defending free expression, explains it this way: “As set out in the First Amendment, free speech is a series of interlocking rights that collectively ensure that citizens have the ability to perpetuate and perfect their system of governance.” These protections — of freedom of belief, speech, the press, and assembly, and the right to petition the government for the redress of grievances — are both private and public. “Those freedoms are the essence of democratic citizenship,” writes Nossel.

A bookstore raid in Jerusalem and a green-card holder detained in New York may feel far away for some people — but people of faith, and people of privilege, must stand against these attacks. In his famous poem, German Protestant pastor Martin Niemöller (who initially supported Hitler, then spent his life repenting that support) reminds us why “First they came for the Communists / and I did not speak out / Because I was not a Communist ... Then they came for me / And there was no one left / to speak out for me.” As Christians, we are called to speak up for the silenced until they can speak for themselves, to speak up for the bookseller and the activist. This is how God’s justice is loosed in the world. How are you speaking up?

Greta Lapp Klassen

Greta Lapp Klassen is a former editorial assistant at Sojourners.

Mourning a Pope We Often Ignored

Eulogies are easy. Living his call for justice is not.

by Dean Dettloff

Cardinals Elect First American Pope: Leo XIV

 U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected in a surprise choice to be the new leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday, taking the name Leo XIV, becoming the first American pontiff.

by Joshua McElwee, Reuters, Crispian Balmer, Reuters

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

 

El desprecio de Donald Trump para la constitución y de la derecha Round-Up 13OKT16

EL campaña drumpf / trompeta-peniques es una amenaza para la República Americana. Drumpf / Trump tiene una boca grande y alienta a violaciónes de sus oponentes libertades civiles y los derechos civiles, pero los peniques de Mike es una amenaza mayor porque es un político profesional que sabe cómo para empaquetar la revocación de las libertades civiles y los derechos civiles en una campaña de propaganda que puede engañar a muchos a apoyar la eventual imposición deautoritarismo en sí mismos. Esto desde  + The Huffington Post  y de PFAW ala derecha del reloj .....

El desprecio de Donald Trump para la constitución

Brian Tashman Analista Senior de Investigación, gente para la manera americana

En un debate dominado por los insultos, despotricando y frotis de Donald Trump, uno de sus muchos momentos perturbadores recibieron decididamente menos atención que otros.  

Afirmación de Trump que lo haría la cárcel, Hillary Clinton, si es elegido presidente fue impactante, y con razón. Pero dejó en gran medida inadvertido fue su ataque a la Sexta Enmienda, o el derecho de los acusados a un juicio justo con "la seguridad de los abogados."  

Durante el foro ayuntamiento presidenciales del domingo, Trump criticó a Clinton por haber  representado  un acusado de violación, mientras que la práctica de la ley en Arkansas en 1975, incluso llevando la mujer, que era menor de edad en el momento en que fue violada, al debate y una rueda de prensa como prueba de que Clinton, y no Trump, es el verdadero enemigo de las mujeres.  

el hecho de que Clinton representado un hombre acusado de violación es ningún secreto. Clinton escribió sobre ella misma en su libro "Historia viva". Pero muchos conservadores han aprovechado en ese caso para argumentar que Clinton es el verdadero agresor de la mujer, la más reciente en su intento de ejecutar la interferencia de Trump después del lanzamiento de una grabación de 2005 él presumiendo de agredir sexualmente a las mujeres. 

Clinton representó el violador acusado de mala gana después de  recibir una petición del juez . El caso se resolvió en última instancia, cuando el acusado se declaró culpable de un cargo reducido sustancialmente.  

Los que asaltan a Clinton por lo que representa un criminal acusado parecen estar bajo la impresión de que toda persona acusada de ningún delito debe ser encontrado de forma automática culpable, la supresión de esa necesidad molestos para un ensayo en el que el acusado se presume inocente y tiene derecho a un abogado. 

Sí, incluso las personas acusadas de crímenes tan vil como violación deben tener su día en corte y una defensa celosa, no importa lo culpable que aparecen. 

Clinton no es el único que se ha enfrentado la crítica política por hacer su trabajo como un abogado que representa a un cliente desagradable.  

el Comité Nacional republicano recientemente salió con un anuncio atacar candidato a la vicepresidencia demócrata Tim Kaine para  la defensa de las personas en espera de ejecución . Dos años antes, la Asociación de Gobernadores Republicanos lanzó anuncios similares en contra de un candidato a gobernador demócrata en Carolina del Sur, acusando a  él de proteger "los criminales, no nosotros." A principios de este año, un grupo conservador se recuperó frente a un juez federal que había un potencial candidato a la Corte Suprema por  citar su trabajo como defensor público.  

este tipo de ataques debilitan nuestro sistema legal y la Constitución.  

Sólo podemos imaginar los anuncios negativos que estos grupos se han creado para atacar a John Adams, que defendió con éxito a varios soldados británicos implicados en la masacre de Boston, o Abraham Lincoln, quien representó con éxito contra asesinos.  

Pero al igual que en otros casos, esta hostilidad patente a un principio constitucional lecho de roca proviene principalmente de una de las partes, la parte que ha designado a un hombre que hizo campaña sobre la restricción de las libertades religiosas  y la  libertad de la prensa ; un hombre que a día de hoy sigue  manchar el Parque Cinco central; un hombre que es compatible con  los tratados de ruptura ,  crímenes de guerra  y el uso de la tortura " , incluso si no funciona "; y un hombre que  se lamentaba  de que el sospechoso en el caso reciente atentado de Nueva York recibiría tratamiento médico y asesor legal después de ser arrestado. Y es el mismo partido que está manteniendo un asiento vacante del Tribunal Supremo con la esperanza de que este hombre va a llenar la vacante. 

Mientras que los ataques de Trump sobre los valores fundamentales de Estados Unidos son una vergüenza, que por desgracia no está solo en ellos.

 13 de de octubre de, el año 2016 17:34

• Brian Tashman @ The Huffington Post : Desprecio de Donald Trump para la constitución.
• Alan Colmes : Jeffress: Una demanda contra Trump 'no quiere decir que es la realidad'.
• Tom Gara @ Buzzfeed : Aquí está la respuesta de Donald Trump a ser llamado un "depredador sexual" en 2006.
• Zack Ford @ Piense Progreso : Jerry Falwell Jr. votará a favor de Donald Trump aunque agredido sexualmente a las mujeres.
• Michael Fitzgerald @ Towleroad : Ben Carson: matrimonio homosexual provocarán "asesinatos en masa" y "caos total".
• Travis Gettys @ Raw Story : Desde hace mucho tiempo Trump ejecutivo explica por qué su 'vengativa y deshonesto "ex-jefe nunca debería ser presidente.
•  1r Enmienda , 2016 elecciones Pres , 6th enmienda , las libertades civiles , Donald drumpf / triunfo , libertad de prensa , Hillary Clinton , defensores públicos , la libertad religiosa , la tortura , la Constitución de Estados Unidos , los crímenes de guerra