CSA History Archives

We Got Us: Jamal Bakr’s Journey From Incarceration to Community Transformation

(A Storytellers Collective Feature)

In neighborhoods across the United States, cycles of violence, incarceration, and disinvestment have shaped generations. Yet within these same communities, there are also stories of resilience — stories that challenge us to imagine what becomes possible when people refuse to be defined by their worst act, and when communities commit themselves to the long work of repair and flourishing.

We Got Us: Jamal Bakr’s Journey From Incarceration to Community Transformation

(A Storytellers Collective Feature)

Clearing the Fog of Empire: A Christian Response to the U.S. Strike in Venezuela

By David Swanson

I grabbed my phone and texted, “What do you think about the news from Venezuela?” It was Sunday morning, just hours after the U.S. launched a military strike in Caracas, the country’s capital and location of President Nicolás Maduro’s compound.

Why Private Virtue Isn’t Enough: Faith, Community, and Moral Imagination

By Ben Norquist

We are told to reach for personal resets in January. We resolve to exercise more often, cultivate better habits, pray more faithfully, and so on. This annual ritual is predicated on the idea that we have the power to become better versions of ourselves through personal effort.

The Lamb Who Takes Away the Sin of the World: Advent, Empire, and Expansive Hope

By Rohadi Nagassar

John the Baptist spots his cousin off in the desert distance and beckons with excitement:

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

John’s words are worthy of our attention, because he articulates the future vocation of Jesus in a single sentence — a vocation that has been lost to many contemporary Christians, particularly those who reduce salvation to merely “personal” experience.

Hope in the Wilderness: Learning to Trust the God of Hope

By Amy Knorr

I can still feel my eyebrows arch when I think about the words my mother spoke to me during a rough patch as a (very) young adult.

“Amy, I don’t want you to suffer, but that is actually not my prayer for you.”

I’m pretty sure my response was something like, “Thanks a lot, Mom.” (Insert all the sarcasm of a late teenager.)
But she followed that declaration with words that have anchored me in every hard season since:

“I know you will walk through hard things.

A Prophetic Plea to Agents Wielding Power in Little Village

By Daniel Yang

As Senior Director of Global Mission and Church Movements at World Relief, I work to equip churches and Christian organizations to embody the biblical mandate to welcome vulnerable immigrants and refugees. For years, I’ve seen congregations across the U.S.

Resisting the Single Story: What Advent Teaches About Power

By Laurie Nichols

Every powerful system has a way of telling its own story.
It tells us who matters, who gets to speak, and who should stay quiet. It rewards certainty and punishes nuance.

A Whisper in Herod’s Winter: Christmas as Clandestine Hope

By Mark Glanville

Christmas Day is a celebration that Herod must not hear of — it is a whispered celebration. What would it feel like to celebrate Christmas with a whisper?
The dead of winter seems to welcome whispers.

Liturgies for Resisting Empire: A Conversation with Kat Armas

Interviewed By CSA Staff

In a world shaped by invisible systems of control and conformity, the call to worship often looks like productivity, power, and performance. But what happens when we reclaim liturgy—not just as ritual, but as resistance?

Ethical Holiday Spending: A Christian Response to Consumerism

By Christine Sine

I am currently in Australia visiting my family.
I love coming at this time of year — not only because it gives me a break from Seattle’s cold, rainy autumn, but also because November usually sits just before the Christmas rush.

Prophetic Preaching in a Political Age: How Pastors Can Speak Truth to Power

By Liz Cooledge Jenkins

On January 21, 2025, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde preached at the presidential inauguration prayer service, and her words reverberated far beyond the walls of the National Cathedral.
Bishop Budde called our new leaders to build “the foundations we need for unity”: foundations that include “honesty,” “humility,” and “honoring the inherent dignity of every human being.” She called for mercy toward all people—and, particularly, mercy toward “the people in our country who are scared.” Toward queer and transgender people.

Becoming Reparative Communities

By Terence Lester, PhD

(Editor’s note: This is the final piece of our 4-part series on economic injustice. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here. In this final piece, Dr.

Project Confrontation: How a Band of Black Churches Desegregated America’s Most Racist City

By CSA Staff

A new resource from CSA’s Racial Justice Institute and authors Andre Henry and Lauren Grubaugh Thomas
What does love look like in the face of injustice?
For many Christians, that question feels urgent and unresolved.

Building Futures from the Ground Up: How Zion’s Closet Is Transforming Title I Schools

By Terence Lester, PhD

(Editor’s note: This is Part 3 of a 4-part series on economic injustice. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. In this post, Dr. Terence Lester shows how compassion can grow into systemic change.)

____
In 2016, with the support of my family and board of directors, I launched a campaign called MAP16 (March Against Poverty) to walk from Atlanta, GA, to the White House to raise awareness about homelessness in the U.S.

Ending the Gaza Atrocities in Pursuit of Justice and Peace

By Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon

(Editor’s note: We’re honored to welcome Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon as a regular contributor to Christians for Social Action moving forward. Dr. Cannon is an author, scholar, and activist who has spent decades working at the intersection of faith, justice, and peacemaking in the Middle East.

What Charity Can’t Fix: Moving the Church from Compassion to Justice

By Terence Lester, PhD

(Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of a 4-part series on economic injustice. In his first post, Terence Lester exposes the spiritual and systemic crisis of “educational redlining” and calls the church to defend the futures of marginalized students.

Online Articles