SojoMail - Spread God's love, not measles

View this email in your browser This week: “Make America Healthy Again,” the relationship between Stephen Colbert’s faith and comedy, and rebuilding our social infrastructure. Spread God’s Love, Not Measles Adam Russell Taylor writes that rejecting vaccines and dismantling our public health systems won’t make America healthier: I don’t believe that government regulation and intervention is the answer to every problem. I also have no problem acknowledging — and condemning — instances where our government has created policies that prioritize corporate profits over the health of the American people. For example, thanks to the efforts of agricultural lobbyists, the government continues to subsidize corn and wheat, thereby incentivizing their use in cheap, ultra-processed foods that are linked to worse health outcomes. The opioid crisis is another complex and particularly tragic example of government prioritizing powerful corporate interests over Americans’ health. Some of these same themes recently appeared in “Make America Healthy Again,” a new report led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services. But while I share a healthy skepticism about corporate influence on federal health care policy, I am alarmed to see vaccine skepticism and outright anti-vaccine attitudes enshrined at the highest levels of government, especially within entities responsible for overseeing public health. And I’m especially grieved to see how bad Christian theology and warped notions of religious freedom have been used to fuel that skepticism and its deadly consequences. Read the full article Advertisement Our Latest Stories Stephen Colbert Was Too Human for Late Night (by Tyler Huckabee) “If there’s some relationship between my faith and my comedy, it’s that no matter what happens, you are never defeated,” he said in 2022. Read more The Reconstruct: The Hillbilly Music Offering a Spiritual Call to ‘Yallidarity’ (by Tyler Huckabee) Nathan Evans Fox is creating a Southern sound of community, solidarity, and action: “The job of the artist is to provide a framework for people to empathize with.” Read more What the IRS’s New Rules Mean for Churches Speaking Out (Hannah Bowman) The moral crises of our current systems are too grave for churches to avoid partisan politics. Read more From the Magazine: Lessons From a Local Political Campaign (by Liuan Huska) Rebuilding our social infrastructure will take bringing out some old-fashioned tools. Read more Advertisements Lead with purpose: CFO opportunity at Everence now open Everence is a faith-based financial services organization seeking a CFO to lead with vision and stewardship. This role supports a long-standing mission of empowering individuals, churches, and organizations to live out their values through faithful financial decision-making. Protect Funding for National Public Radio Public broadcasting belongs to all of us. It’s how millions stay connected to the truth, especially in areas where commercial media won’t go. Tell Congress: Protect funding for NPR and PBS now. Keep democracy and accurate news on the airwaves. Donate Subscribe Unsubscribe or update email preferences Copyright © 2025 Sojourners. All rights reserved. Email: sojourners@sojo.net | Tel.: 202.328.8842