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Thank you for opening yet another edition of Truth and Action Roundup. You may not always see me in the newsletter headlines, but if you follow us on social media, there’s a good chance you’ve seen my work. My name is Kassy, and I serve as the digital content and community specialist at SojoAction. I help shape the posts, emails, and digital spaces where our advocacy continues throughout the week. Which, now that I mention it, are you following us? You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, BlueSky, YouTube, and LinkedIn @sojoaction. Social media can often feel noisy or overwhelming, but we see it as another place to practice faithful presence, a space where justice, faith, and action intersect in real time. My role is to help ensure our message not only informs but also invites. Behind every graphic, caption, and action alert is a hope that someone will feel empowered to engage rather than discouraged to disengage. Long before I worked in advocacy, I was shaped by life on the U.S.-Mexico border. I am a Mexican American who grew up moving between cultures, languages, and communities in a way that felt completely ordinary at the time. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized how much that experience formed my understanding of belonging, identity, and access. What felt natural to me, living connected to two places at once, is not a reality afforded to everyone. As an adult, I began to understand how policy decisions affect real families and how systems can either create opportunity or deepen hardship. Later, when I became a Christian, my faith deepened that awareness. I encountered a Jesus who crossed boundaries, centered the marginalized, and revealed that justice is not separate from discipleship. That realization continues to shape why I care so deeply about the work we do here. Each week, as I join the team in crafting and sending this newsletter, I’m reminded that advocacy is ultimately about people. It’s about neighbors, families, and communities who deserve dignity and a voice. The headlines we cover are important, but so is the spirit in which we engage with them. We believe informed action is one way we live out our faith in public. The Truth and Action Round Up (TARU) is more than an update; it’s an invitation to participate. Whether you are calling a representative, signing a petition, praying intentionally or sharing a post, your engagement matters. I’m grateful to be part of a community that refuses to separate faith from justice or hope from action. Thank you for showing up here, and I hope you’ll continue showing up with us, in your inbox, in your communities, and yes, maybe even on Instagram. –– Kassy Tapia, Sojourners
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Here’s a look at what happened this week: 1 President Trump delivered his annual State of the Union address Tuesday night, filled with partisan spin (as usual) and outright falsehoods. The address came amid his continued focus on implementing his deportation regime. Trump’s speech was the longest State of the Union address in modern American history, breaking the record he set last year. Several Democrats protested during the speech, and Rep. Al Green was escorted from the House chamber for the second year in a row—this time after displaying a sign that read “Black people aren’t apes!,” referencing the racist video depicting the Obamas as apes that Trump posted and later deleted. Trump used the speech to scapegoat migrant people and defend his cruel deportation regime, highlighting individual crimes committed by undocumented people but failing to mention the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, or the three dozen people who have died in ICE custody since he took office. He also boasted that he has brought about “the strongest border in American history by far.” Meanwhile, his approval ratings on immigration have fallen amid his administration’s draconian actions, with one survey putting his approval rating at just 38 percent.
2. International news was once again dominated this week by the prospect of war with Iran, though developments in Gaza and with the so-called Board of Peace are also worth noting. Trump addressed the looming possibility of military conflict with Iran in his State of the Union speech, saying that Iran’s nuclear program was “totally obliterated” last summer and that the U.S. may still have to use force to stop Iran’s “sinister nuclear ambitions.” Iran pushed back Wednesday against Trump’s pressure tactics ahead of talks between the two nations in Geneva. Iran both accused Trump of “big lies” and held out the possibility that “honorable diplomacy” could lead to an agreement between the nations. Trump’s Board of Peace met last week for the first time to discuss rebuilding Gaza. Critics have pointed to its creation by U.S. executive order rather than by international treaty as a major reason to doubt its prospects, with one expert saying that it “seems more like a private club than an international organization.” Flooding in southeastern Brazil claimed at least 46 lives this week, with more than 3,000 residents forced to leave their homes. The mayor of Juiz de Fora, one of the cities most affected by the flooding, said that at least 20 landslides had been reported since the torrential rain began. Cuba said its forces fatally shot four heavily armed people as they attempted to “infiltrate” its territory on a Florida-registered speedboat on Wednesday. The deadly incident took place amid high tensions between the U.S. and Cuba in the wake of last month’s U.S. military strike on Venezuela and Trump administration rhetoric about regime change and an oil blockade leveled at the Cuban government.
3. International fallout for public figures at the highest levels of wealth and power continued this week, stemming from the release of the Epstein files. The U.S. Department of Justice has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, a new NPR investigation has found. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump. Former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified Thursday to a U.S. House of Representatives panel that is investigating Epstein’s crimes. She and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have both agreed to testify to the House Oversight Committee this week about their ties to Epstein.
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Here’s a call to Christians nationwide in our crisis of faith and democracy On March 10, we’ll be continuing our Engage and Adapt webinar series.
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Sometimes I sit and look at the headlines, asking whose world is this? There is such obvious polarization—the haves and the have-nots—that it has become normalized. The rich are getting richer, while those whose backs are against the wall no longer even have a wall to lean on. Whose world is this? If you asked folks in the Nation’s Capital or in the mainstream media, they might tell you the world belongs to corporations, banks, billionaires, and other potentates. They act as if it is theirs and no one else counts. So they give speeches full of lies and dog whistles, puff their chests out, rename buildings, and undo traditions with their Sharpies—while children cry, locked up in detention centers. Whose world is this? A place where cash rules everything around us. Where influence alone earns high positions in government, with no experience required. A world where diversity is declared illegal and any language besides English is treated as irrelevant. I’m sorry, but there is something oligarchs seem not to understand: The world is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. The Creator of heaven and earth still holds the wind and the rain. Whose world is this? The world is still the Lord’s—no matter what some may say or do. It might not look like God is in control, with evil ever present. Some may doubt that God is making all things new. God is still moving, quietly, steadily, relentlessly beneath the noise of empire and the clamor of greed. While headlines shout of decay, God is planting seeds. In neighborhoods written off as hopeless, new leaders are rising. In communities pressed down, mutual aid is blooming. In sanctuaries and on sidewalks, people are choosing courage over fear, truth over propaganda and love over cruelty. The Spirit is still breathing on dry bones, still stirring holy imagination, still unsettling what is unjust and strengthening what is good. What looks like endings are often the trembling beginnings of something being born. God is making crooked places straight and bringing mountains low. The work is not always loud, but it is alive. It is not finished. And neither are we. ––Rev. Moya Harris, Sojourners
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The Truth and Action Roundup is compiled by Sojourners staff: President: Rev. Adam Russell Taylor
Senior Research Associate: J.K. Granberg-Michaelson
Digital Content and Community Specialist: Kassandra Tapia
Chief Program and Impact Officer: Bryan Epps
Political Director: Chad V. Stanton
Senior Program Director: Rev. Moya Harris
Digital Education and Outreach Specialist: Cortnie Brooks
Policy and Action Assistant: Trinity Williams
Senior Director of Marketing: Sandra Sims
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