Sojourners in the News

“We thought it was important to tie into a season where many Christians go deeper into their faith,” said Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, a Christian social justice organization. “Part of what we’re critiquing is the way in which many White evangelical Christians succumb to an unconditional support of the administration, despite the fact that its actions are completely antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.”

Sojourners' board member Rev. Cynthia Hale: "People look at it as just a democratic crisis, but it's not. It's a crisis of faith."

A group of nearly 400 prominent Christian leaders called President Donald Trump’s administration “cruel and oppressive” and accused the government of being corrupted by an aberrant form of Christianity, in an Ash Wednesday (Feb. 18) statement. 
The signers also include several longtime faith-based activists, such as Bishop Dwayne Royster of Faith in Action, Pastor Shane Claiborne of Red Letter Christians, the Rev. Adam Russell Taylor of Sojourners and the Rev. Jim Wallis of Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice.

A press conference followed the prayer service, moderated by Adam Taylor, president of Sojourners, where speakers from several faith traditions and denominations pledged their support for advocacy work that would protect vulnerable populations and seek to reform the activities of ICE to provide transparency and legal oversight to the extrajudicial actions of its agents.

Adam Russell Taylor, a Baptist minister and president of Sojourners, made the "Moral Budget Vigil" participants a promise: "We are going to make some holy noise today, OK?" Taylor was followed by dozens of speakers — some with a prophetic word; others offering pertinent verses of Scripture — occasionally punctuated by hymns.

But the person behind many of the federal government cuts, Elon Musk, head of the so-called "department of government efficiency", called USAID a "criminal organization" and said that it was "time for it to die". 

Adam Russell Taylor, the president of Sojourners, a Christian social justice group, said such remarks remind him of "the prophet Isaiah, who forewarned us that woe to you that call evil, good, and good, evil".

The resounding vigil chant directed toward Congress each week is simple: “What time is it?” asks Sojourners’ the Rev. Adam Taylor. “Time for moral courage,” we all chant back.

“USAID was chosen as a first agency to target because there was a belief that most Americans don’t know what USAID does or support these development and humanitarian programs,” Taylor said during a March 12 “moral courage” vigil convened by numerous interfaith advocacy organizations.

The next day, religious demonstrators organized by Sojourners and other groups will host a separate event on the Hill focused on foreign aid as part of a weekly faith-based demonstration.

The Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, the national social justice advocacy organization, is partnering with interfaith leaders from more than 20 denominations and religious groups to pray in the shadow of the Capitol on Wednesdays from Ash Wednesday through the end of March. Besides praying for an end to attempts to freeze federal grants, dismantle agencies and threaten birthright citizenship, the gatherings will be “calling on Congress to protect its powers and to advance the common good,” said Taylor.