As many of you know, I have been reading Sojourners magazine since its very first issue. The current issue is No. 05 of Vol. 55, so that means I have been reading it for 55 years now. That first tabloid-type magazine came out in the fall of 1971 as The Post-American (the original name), when I was in the U.S. on our first missionary “furlough” from Japan.
“America Isn’t Exceptional” is the theme of
the June 2026 issue of Sojourners, and Betsy Shirley, the
current Editor in Chief, begins her introduction to this new issue with this
powerful paragraph.**
My four-word summary of the book of Amos: God hates bad parties.
Aiming serious prophetic fire at powerful people who host showy religious
festivals instead of attending to the needs of the poor, telling truth, or
acting with integrity, God doesn’t mince words: “I hate, I despise your
festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies” (5:21).
In that introduction, Shirley noted how the
very first issue in 1971 showed Jesus wrapped in an American flag (which is
shown in the sidebar) and how founding editor Jim Wallis “didn’t mince words” when
he wrote,
Institutional Christianity in America has allowed itself to become a
conservative defender of the status quo, a church largely co-opted and
conformed to the American system in direct disobedience to Biblical teaching
(Romans 12:2).
Little did Jim know then how bad things would
get after 2015 with a faux Christian becoming President and a mass of MAGA
Christians, members of a “cultic system” (such as I wrote about in my June 9 blog post),
wanting to establish a theocracy in the U.S., or at least full-scale Christian
nationalism.
“‘Liberty and Justice for All’ is Still an
Ideal Worth Celebrating.” These are words emphasized by Adam Russell
Taylor, who is the current president of Sojourners. He begins his lead
article by posing this question: “How do we commemorate the 250th
birthday of the United States while resisting the extremes of either hubris and
triumphalism or apathy and self-loathing.”
We certainly see the 250th
anniversary of the nation’s founding cloaked in hubris and triumphalism by the
current POTUS, who will likely boast that the U.S. is the greatest nation in
the history of the world led by the greatest president in history. His
narcissism seems unbounded, but more and more of his own supporters are now finally
realizing that the “the emperor has no clothes.”
Still, according to
ChatGPT, Trump has promised to give a “Trump Rally” speech on July 4, which
will likely emphasize American exceptionalism and patriotism; the 250th
anniversary as a historic milestone; his administration’s accomplishments; themes
of national strength, military power, and economic success; and criticism of
political opponents.
And ChatGPT adds, “Whether he directly claims
to be the greatest president is uncertain, but a speech that presents his
presidency as uniquely successful would be consistent with his past style.”
On June 18, Robert Reich (about whom I wrote
in my previous blog article), posted
Knave or Fool?
Traitorous or Demented? on his Substack account. He declared,
Trump is a master conman. But he’s also off his rocker—and part of the
response to him and his bonkers claims must also be to emphasize that he’s out
of his mind as well as responsible for the havoc America now finds itself in—the
failed foreign adventures and the affordability crisis—and therefore must not
be trusted.
Still, as Taylor concludes, “One of the best
250th birthday presents we can give is to counter bombastic,
nationalistic celebrations by practicing civic renewal. We can help our nation
pursue ‘liberty and justice for all,’ an ideal still worth celebrating.”
The last page of each Sojourners issue is an
article of (sarcastic) humor. Ed Spivey Jr. writes there that “if the
Founding Fathers came back today, they’d be pleased to see that wealthy white
guys still run our nation. (That’s the way it should be,’ Ben Franklin might
say.) Spivey concludes,
It’s doubtful England would take us back after all this time (we’d have to
replace that tea). If they did, our government could run under the watchful eye
of a wise and benevolent king. It looks like we have the king already (just ask
him), but we might have to wait a generation for the wise and benevolent part.
So,
how does “All hail Donald Jr.” sound?
_____
** Editor Shirley graduated from Yale Divinity
School in 2015 and has been a full-time staff member at Sojourners ever
since. She became the editor of Sojo.net in 2022 and has been the
editor-in-chief of the magazine since September 2024.
I've been thinking lately about Edward Everett Hale's 1863 short story "The Man Without A Country," which I haven't read since high school, but which I intend to reread. The story is about a man charged with treason and sentenced because of his words of condemnation of the United States to spend his life on navy ships out at sea and never hear his country mentioned again. I've been thinking about it because currently I feel very much like a man without a country. The USA––with its current level of corruption, tyranny, hatred, cruelty, intolerance, blatant white racism, and more––has become unrecognizable as the country I've known all my life. How can I celebrate with any vigor and joy a 250th birthday, given what this country has become under the administration of d.trump and cultural hegemony of MAGA?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anton, for mentioning Hale's short story, which I don't remember having heard of but which sounds quite interesting. Your final sentence was very much in line with the theme of the "Sojourners" June issue that I wrote about in today's blog post. But along with the "ain't it awful" content are voices of hope for the future.
DeleteFor example, Jemar Tisby (b. 1980), the noted Black author, wrote a powerful article titled "When Christians Sanctify This Nation's Self-Delusions," but he emphasizes that "it is not too late to reclaim a courageous, prophetic voice." He also writes, "If we tell the truth about our past, we do more than honor history. We secure the future."
And then there is a perceptive article by Kenji Kuramitsu (a fully Japanese name), an Episcopal priest who was born in Hawai'i and is now a clinical social worker living in Chicago. His piece is titled "You Aren't Special: God's Liberating Message for U.S. Christians." He asserts that loud celebrations (such as we will most likely hear on July 3-4) "often paper over festering wounds."
So, I think there is every reason NOT to celebrate the 250th birthday of the name the way Trump and his MAGA supporters will. But as I have stressed before, I think there will be a dramatic shift after the November elections, and a meaningful movement to make America great,--not great again (meaning going back to the way it was in the 1950s, great for White, cis, Christian, males) but great as a nation that truly seeks liberty and justice for all.
Our founding fathers thought we would have a non-partisan government, and so made no provision for managing parties in the Constitution. Of course, as with all major societies, parties emerged reflecting the fault lines of the nation. America waged genocide against native peoples to get going. Donald Trump's reported favorite former President is Andrew Jackson, who was responsible for the Trail of Tears, which brought disaster upon tribes in southeastern US, even among those who had adopted the American lifestyle and settled down to be farmers. Other countries, such as England, simply abolished slavery when the times called for it, but America fought a civil war over it, and the aftermath of that war still reverberates through our society today. One could argue that the South is currently winning that war, and that we have left the constitutional world of USA, however flawed it was, and entered last year into the second republic of CSA. Even the Supreme Court is helping, by obliterating as fast as they feel they safely can, what is left of the US Constitution.
ReplyDeleteSo Sojourners is part of the movement that tried to eliminate slavery and Jim Crow and the imperial militarism that keeps flaring up in America. Donald Trump is a symptom of the problem in America, but not the cause. He is just one more moment in the long shadow perhaps most visible in the Lost Cause mythology that "redeemed" America from reconstruction, and stands perhaps most embodied today in Pete Hegseth.
I came of age in the 1960s, and I remain amazed and horrified at how relevant the protest songs from decades ago remain today. For example, check out Bob Dylan's Masters of War and see if you find even one word that does not apply in 2026: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEmI_FT4YHU
OK, maybe Jesus would forgive them, like he did the soldiers who crucified him. However, he as harder on the "masters" who ran things as they pleased, as when he cleared the moneychangers out of the temple or told rich man parables. I suspect most of us are thinking what Dylan sings out loud, which is appropriate considering how often Trump "says the quiet part out loud."
After making this post about the June issue of "Sojourners," the mailman (who may have been a woman) left the July issue in our mailbox before noon. The theme of this new issue is "Retired, Not Done: Christian Baby Boomers Join a 'Gray Tsunami" for Social Justice." It is by Jim Rice (who is now about 70), a former editor of of "Sojourners" who served in various roles at Sojourners from 1981 until his retirement in 2024.
ReplyDeleteVery sobering information and comments!
ReplyDeleteI expected more of you Thinking Friends to comment on this blog post yesterday, but to this point I have heard only from one other, a local Thinking friend, who wrote,
ReplyDelete"Thanks for directing us toward "Sojourners," and Adam Russell Taylor's article. A grim and accurate account of the 250th birthday of the United States. A grim and an accurate account indeed. Especially, these days, with the Supreme Court."