Josiah R. Daniels (he/him) joined Sojourners in 2021 and is the senior associate opinion editor at sojo.net. He is a native of the southwest suburbs of Chicago, but currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with his family. He is a graduate of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Josiah loves being a journalist because he believes everything must be questioned and investigated. In all his coverage, he prioritizes fairness, accuracy, and journalistic integrity. Along with following Sojourners’ editorial policies and procedures, he also follows the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics.
Josiah is the co-founder of The Reconstruct interview series, which focuses on interviewing people who have faith in a new future and are working toward repairing the present. He also co-leads The Sojourners Journalism Cohort.
His coverage areas are primarily identity, religion, politics, and class. He has written book and movie reviews and reported on a church that became an impromptu shelter for hundreds of refugees seeking asylum in the United States. In 2023, NPR’s Weekend Edition interviewed him about a piece he wrote criticizing an ad campaign for spending millions of dollars to rebrand Jesus via TV spots. He is especially interested in the genre of narrative journalism.
When not working, he is begrudgingly watching a Chicago Bulls game, playing basketball, or listening to John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. He does not have or use social media.
Posts By This Author
Black Like Jazz: Imagining a World Without Police
A man practices inside his car on one of the main street of Harlem in 2010. Photo: wagner stephane / Shutterstock.com
Two important promises I’ve made to myself: I will never again watch a video of a person being lynched by the police and I will not allow my writing to be used in a way that makes Black pain a spectacle.
Take This Injera: What Our Editors Are Reading
Photo by Ana Flasker
If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience an Ethiopian meal, you are missing out. I have Ethiopian family members, so I frequently get to enjoy this cuisine. A regular meal for us could be something like doro wat, gomen, atkilt wat, and mesir wat. No meal is complete without a boona, or coffee, chaser. But as incredible as it is, coffee is not the defining trademark of Ethiopian cuisine. That distinction belongs solely to injera.
How to Juggle: What Our Editors Are Reading
Photo by Alex Emanuel Koch
Lil Nas X, Godzilla, and the (unofficial) patron saint of the internet.
No More Begging For Our Humanity
A demonstrator waves an American flag during a protest against racial inequality in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd in New York City. June 9, 2020. REUTERS/Idris Solomon
Black people don’t always end up dead when encountering police. But we almost always end up wounded.