In this week’s SojoMail, editor in chief Betsy Shirley writes about her hopes for Sojourners and the mission that keeps driving us forward: Who is included when you say “we”? When I first arrived at this magazine as an editorial assistant, I learned this was the kind of pesky question editors were prone to add in the margins of a draft, nudging the author to be more precise. Fourteen years later, it’s a question I ask as the new editor in chief of Sojourners. All magazines have an assumed sense of “we” and “us,” a shared purpose that unites the writers, editors, artists, and readers. Who am I, who are all of you, and what do we have in common as we stare at these words on glossy pages or screens? This is true in my own story. I grew up attending a Midwestern megachurch in the suburbs; if you need a visual, picture a full-length denim skirt, my rainbow-colored braces, and a zippered Bible case with highlighters and a gospel tract tucked inside (admittedly, I didn’t know any people who weren’t Christian but wanted to be prepared). Aside from the annual Mother’s Day message from the pastor’s wife, I never heard a woman deliver a Sunday sermon. I knew what 1 Timothy 2 said, but I couldn’t shake the sense it was odd that God would forbid half the church from preaching the gospel in certain contexts. I didn’t (yet) have the language to make a biblical argument for women’s leadership, but something told me to press into those questions. Fast forward: I eventually ditched the denim skirt and the tract but held on to the Bible and learned new ways to read it. I did an internship with Sojourners; I lived on a farm and worked with refugees; I went to divinity school. The inclusiveness of my theology grew and the size of the churches I attended shrunk. I realized — more slowly than I care to admit — how the same twists of scripture that marginalized women were also used to exclude LGBTQ+ folks, blame poor people for their problems, baptize American military violence, and generally uphold systems where white people always wound up with more power and money. In short: I changed, with God’s help. But here’s the thing: Even Christian spaces that wave pride flags or show up at Black Lives Matter rallies can suffer from an anemic understanding of who “we” are as the church. | 
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