WHEN THE PRECURSOR to Sojourners magazine, The Post-American, was founded in 1971, it was in large part as a Christian response to the Vietnam War. While Sojourners was also a countercultural community equally opposed to the evils of racism, sexism, and materialism, a commitment to peace and nonviolence has always been at the center of our work.
Very few people have embodied that mission more than Jim Rice, who recently retired from our staff after more than four decades of faithful and courageous service. Readers may know Jim best as a long-serving member of the editorial staff of Sojourners, including 16 years as the editor, a tenure marked by many best-in-class awards for the magazine. Yet Jim’s time at Sojourners was also defined by a commitment to peacemaking, both before and after he joined the magazine staff.
As Jim explained in a 2022 interview, he first connected with Sojourners in 1981 through peace work he did while serving in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps at Georgetown University. That work was on the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign — in fact, Georgetown played host to the first national conference of the Freeze movement. Jim joined the staff of Sojourners and continued this vital mission, becoming head of our peace ministry as the Freeze Campaign rose to national prominence and redefined the terms of the debate around nuclear weapons at the height of the Cold War. He also helped create the New Abolitionist Covenant that same year, which brought together several prominent Christian organizations to commit not just to a freeze but to work toward the total abolition of nuclear weapons as a matter of Christian faith. To do all this, Jim had to keep abreast of geopolitics, sensitively help diverse religious leaders and activists find common cause, and be an expert in meeting practical challenges, such as how to safely shepherd thousands of people marching through the streets of D.C. from a prayer service to a civil disobedience action.
Another aspect of Jim Rice’s legacy as one of Sojourners’ foremost champions of peace is his insightful, often courageous, writing about war, peacemaking, and the necessity of nonviolence all over the world. Since 1984, hundreds of articles, columns, and interviews with Jim’s byline have reached readers in the U.S. and beyond with Christ’s message that war is not the answer — not in El Salvador, not in Somalia, not in Iraq, not in the Gaza strip, nor anywhere else where wars have inflicted such suffering and horrific loss of life. He has fearlessly called to account U.S. administrations of both parties and foreign governments — both adversaries and friends of the U.S. — for their shortsighted and fatally flawed logic of violence. He has powerfully articulated to our readers the call to nonviolence for those who follow the Prince of Peace.
As Jim settles into a new season in his life, we know that his example as a Christian activist, writer, and editor for peace will be difficult to live up to. Yet we’re also comforted that he is just one of many Sojourners — past, present, and future — who have taken up this sacred commitment to build a better world. We hope and pray that Jim’s words and activism will continue to be seeds sprouting in fertile soil to produce the good and abundant fruit of a peaceful and just world.
Rev. Adam Russell Taylor is president of Sojourners and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community. Follow him on Bluesky @revadamtaylor.
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