Among the goals of the DSA Religion and Socialism Working Group are the following: to help members of the religious community who may be suspicious of socialism to understand what democratic socialism is and its relationship to various faith traditions and to help leftists who may be suspicious of the religious community to appreciate what religious socialists have to contribute to the movement. To that end, I hope some of us in the working group will share our own spiritual journeys that led us to socialism. As a Christian pastor and theologian, I am happy to share mine. 

Two Christianities 

First, let me be clear that there are actually two religions called “Christianity” that operate in the United States. There is the Christianity of the enslavers and there is the Christianity of the enslaved. They are not the same. Our nation began with the genocide of the First Nations and the enslavement of African people as a source of unpaid labor. This  was done by people who called themselves Christian. In order to justify their actions they developed a theology of white supremacy.  They constructed theories of race that claimed  Africans were inherently inferior to those of European descent. 

They developed “biblical” interpretations such as the myth of Ham. In their preaching to enslaved people they emphasized obedience above all, never liberation. In an attempt to prevent enslaved people from discovering the real contents of the Bible they published what were known as “slave bibles” that removed the liberating content such as Exodus, the prophets, the teachings of Jesus, and more. Contrary to the actual teachings of Jesus, they emphasized the salvation of individual souls for the afterlife, never bodies in this life. They saw sin as the result of individual choices, not social systems.  

Similarly this Christianity interpreted wealth through a quasi-Calvinist lens as a sign of divine election. (In his Institutes, Calvin claimed that the blessings of material wealth may be a sign of divine election or pre-ordained salvation but he also said that we cannot ever be sure of that. Sadly his Puritan followers rarely noted that nuance.) Wealth and poverty were ordained by God. To further support this theology, they wedded slaver Christianity to capitalism.  Private ownership was part of the divine order and included the right to own human beings. The heirs of this theology are still with us in the more blatantly white supremacist forms of white evangelicalism and  the MAGA movement. But even much of liberal or progressive theology still suffers from its influence. 

Yet even from the beginning, there was another form of Christianity in the United States, the Christianity of the enslaved. Beginning with what was known as the “Invisible Institution,”  this was the Christianity of liberation. Long after the enslavers had gone to sleep at night the enslaved would engage in a whole different form of worship. Meeting secretly, they would tell each other the stories of the Exodus, of God’s people breaking free from slavery, about the words of the prophets promising liberation, and of slavery itself as an evil God condemned. (For more information about these two wildly different Christianities, see Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South.) The heirs of this theology are also with us today in some black churches and in Black Liberation Theology.  

My Journey from Liberal to Liberation Theologian

My own U.S. Christian journey began as a white woman born in the 1950s into a segregated white middle-class home. My grandparents were fundamentalists whereas my parents were what was then known as modernists and now would be called liberals or progressives.  The theological debates that I was exposed to were part of a conflict within white Christianity that began earlier in the century known as the “fundamentalist- modernist controversy.” Conversations around our dinner table centered around questions of faith versus reason. Was the Bible the literal word of God to be read as an inerrant text or was it a human production? Are miracles such as virgin birth, bodily resurrection, etc. to be understood literally or as metaphors? Was the world literally created in seven days as Genesis has it or was Darwin right about evolution? Can religion and science be reconciled? 

All of these issues are still alive in our country today, but none of these debates address what I would call our foundational sins of genocide and slavery. The white liberalism that I was raised with was designed to address concerns about reason and progress not questions of race or economic class.

When I moved to New York City where I eventually attended Union Theological Seminary, my thinking changed. I had the enormous privilege of being able to earn my Ph.D. in theology with the late Dr. James H. Cone, widely known as the father of Black Liberation Theology, as my academic mentor. I learned that, for him and for the much larger community he represented, what mattered was not the problem of faith versus reason but the problem of the non-person in society. For him that meant black people. He conceived of blackness as both literal and ontological. It was literal because, worldwide, oppressed people were more likely than not to have darker skin than others. But it was also ontological in that it was a state of being oppressed. In this way the principles of Black Liberation Theology could also be applied to other oppressed groups such as indigenous people, Asians, women, LGBTQIA+ people, and more. In other words, all of what we now call intersectionality is rooted in white supremacy and God is a God of the oppressed not a justifier of the oppressor. (For more about blackness as the state of being oppressed, see James H. Cone, God of the Oppressed.)

That is why my faith practice centers on anti-racism. For me, spiritual growth means learning how life as a white woman in the United states has led to an internalized whiteness, how that whiteness has created malformations in my spirit, and how I might begin to grow past it, even while knowing that the work will never be complete in my lifetime.

My work as a liberation theologian involves teaching and learning in the global South (currently in Liberia and Burma) as well as in the city of New York. Having witnessed what  oppression does to God’s children I cannot grow closer to my God without doing my part to try to end that oppression. For me spiritual practice involves not only prayer and meditation but social activism, doing what I can to work toward a better world where oppression ends and all people can thrive. 

From Liberation Theologian to Democratic Socialist 

That yearning for a better world brought me to democratic socialism. In my conversations with Cone about socialism he made it clear that he was not a Marxist. He had two reasons for that. First, he was suspicious of all white Eurocentric sources and second, he found that Marxist historical materialism did not account for the role of black culture and experience in empowering black people for liberation. (In this respect it should be noted that he differed from Latin American theologians such as Gustavo Gutierrez for whom Marx was a major philosophical source.)

Although he in fact refused an invitation to join one of DSA’s predecessor organizations, I believe that at heart Cone was a socialist. He had no use for an economic system designed to oppress his people and acknowledged that a just society would have to involve “some form of socialism.” He never specified what form of socialism that would be.  I, however, choose to support democratic socialism with the major caveat that we need to do a much better job with race.

Unlike some of my comrades in the (let’s be honest, still majority white) DSA I will always put race ahead of class in my power analysis. That is because our two foundational sins as a nation, the genocide of the First Nations and the enslavement of the African people, were both racial.

White supremacy and racialized capitalism deprive us all, oppressed and oppressor alike, of our humanity. Internalized whiteness has damaged my soul. Therefore, my own salvation is tied up with learning how to better connect with my fellow human beings and with the earth. That means deconstructing white supremacy and all of its intersections including racialized capitalism. This means moving from the  individualist perspective that all too easily justifies oppression to more of a collectivist point of view, no longer seeing human beings merely in terms of their production value but in terms of their intrinsic worth, no longer seeing myself as one who needs to dominate others in order to have a sense of self but as one whose worth comes from my common humanity with others and as a part of something much greater than all of us, a loving universe created by a loving God in which all souls can thrive. 

This is my story. I hope that my telling it will help others to understand why a person of faith would choose to be a socialist. I hope other religious socialists from other faith traditions will share their journeys as well.

The post A Christian Journey Towards Socialism appeared first on DSA Religious Socialism.

Atlanta DSA condemns the murder of Renee Good, the violence ICE has brought to Minneapolis and other communities, and the racist, authoritarian immigration enforcement regime that made this killing possible.

On January 7th, 2026, ICE agent Jonathan Ross murdered Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis while she was exercising her right to protest. This comes just days after an ICE agent murdered Keith Porter, a black man, in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve. ICE, created within the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11, has long used raids, detention, and deportation to terrorize black, brown, and immigrant communities, facilitating systematic human rights abuses and deaths. ICE does not keep people safe; it cages and kills them. Today, ICE functions as the secret police force of an increasingly authoritarian state, granting masked armed agents sweeping powers to strongarm local governments and surveil, harass, and arbitrarily arrest working-class people.

The murder of Renee Good — an unarmed activist peacefully observing ICE operations — shows an agency that treats public scrutiny as a threat to be eliminated. ICE’s immigration enforcement operations must be halted immediately. ICE must be stripped of funding, its detention network dismantled, its political power broken, and the agency itself abolished. In its place, this country must build a system rooted in unconditional respect for migrants’ human rights, family unity, and free movement—not militarized borders and mass incarceration.

We are reminded of the similar killing of Tortuguita by the Georgia State Patrol three years ago during an extended campaign to protect vital forest and public space. The red thread of violence weaved between local, state, and federal law enforcement on our bodies, especially queer and black and brown bodies, strangles us from Minnesota to Georgia. Our collective resistance inflames these tools of capital because it reminds us that our liberation comes when we are all free.

Atlanta DSA stands in solidarity with Renee Good’s family, with immigrant communities in Minneapolis, Atlanta, and across the country, and with all those resisting ICE violence. Twin Cities DSA is joining a broad coalition of unions and community groups to call for a day of action on January 23rd to shut down the city and demand that ICE get OUT of Minnesota! We encourage our communities to donate to the grassroots organizations on the front lines organizing resistance against ICE, including Tending the Soil in Minnesota and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. On Tuesday, January 20th, the DSA National Labor Commission is hosting a national call and phone bank in support of the January 23rd day of action.

We call on our members, our labor and community allies, and elected officials to join us in the struggle to defund, disarm, and abolish ICE, and for ICE to leave immigrant communities in Minneapolis and nationwide immediately, because the only people qualified to protect these communities are the citizens, the workers, the parents, and the families who live in them.

Hello there!

Come check out our interview with WAER on the DSA, Mamdani, Ehrenreich and public policy. You can find audio of the interview half way down the page.
https://www.waer.org/news/2026-01-14/syracuse-democratic-socialists-say-election-wins-by-mamdani-ehrenreich-can-improve-public-policy

Comrades of UW-Madison YDSA and Madison-Area DSA,

As we approach one of the biggest decisions in the history of Madison-Area DSA and UW-Madison YDSA, we want to share our thoughts on the question of endorsing Francesca Hong.

This question comes at a time of crisis. Wealth continues to accumulate in the hands of those who already have it, as life gets worse for those destitute and barely getting by. No longer able to satisfy our bloodlust purely overseas, Nazi admirers have been armed by the state and sent to walk our streets; “a force of the unemployable terrorizing the employed”, to paraphrase Will Menaker. Liberal institutions, the entire system of liberal democracy, seems to only continue to be swept away by the rising fascist tide. Actions like NSPM-7, which designates “anti-capitalist” groups as domestic terror organizations, are already putting socialists in the crosshair, and it’s only a matter of time until they act on their ambitions and use their Gestapo to come after us too. 

We did not choose the troubling circumstances we find ourselves in. While the fascists are organized in their cruelty, staying passive is recklessness bordering on negligence. For these reasons, although we hold some reservations about Fran’s campaign, we strongly encourage MADSA to vote to endorse her for Governor of Wisconsin.

To fight this regime, we need to organize working people from the Mississippi River to the Monongahela Valley. In Fran’s campaign, we have been presented an opportunity to do just that in Wisconsin. Just as Bernie Sander’s 2016 campaign grew DSA from 8.5k on election day to 21k in 2017, or how Zohran’s upstart Mayoral bid doubled NYC DSA’s membership rolls, Fran’s statewide campaign will not just grow MADSA’s organizing in Madison — it will empower rural working communities to join our fight too.  

As co-chairs of YDSA’s Electoral Working Group at UW-Madison, we can seamlessly integrate Fran’s campaign into our campus organizing alongside our campaign for Common Council District 8. This will demonstrate our maturity and seriousness to students desperate for a legitimate way to fight fascism. In this country, many see elections and police-approved protests as their only way to participate in politics.  A statewide socialist campaign would mobilize this mass of politically unorganized young and working folks, and would draw together a coalition hungry for change into an actionable, growing, and revolutionary movement statewide.

By harnessing the potential of Francesca Hong’s gubernatorial campaign, we could create a statewide socialist movement that transcends the rural-urban divide by connecting DSA chapters across the entire state. We envision a future of constant cooperation between Madison and Milwaukee DSA, YDSA Chapters at Superior, Oshkosh, Parkside, Stout, and even high schools around the state. Though we were pleased to see 150 people in the room for Fran’s Candidate Forum during the most recent General Meeting, 150 people in Madison will not win this fight, and will not satisfy us.  We hope to see 150 DSA members in a room in Platteville, as a working class movement does not win back Southwestern Wisconsin for the Democrats, but wins it for DSA. With the Fran already amassing over 1,500 volunteers for her campaign, she presents a clear first step in this vision.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently said that our only way to fight this fascist tide is “in the courts and at the ballot box.” As Democratic Socialists (emphasis on the D), we know the ballot box not to be the only expression of working class democracy, and the courts not to be an ally of the working class at all. Organizing doesn’t stop at the ballot box, and the momentum we bring to this campaign doesn’t either. DSA must not be just an organization, but be the organization behind this campaign, defining its policy, its strategy, and providing a healthy source of manpower and enthusiasm. 

Just as our campaign won’t die on April 7th, we must make sure that Fran’s does not meet its end on August 11th or November 3rd. We will rally for Fran when she produces tangible wins for working people, and ensure these wins are seen as products of the socialist movement. If Fran delivers on universal childcare, guaranteed paid leave, free school means, legalizing cannabis, and criminal justice reform, they will be seen as victories of socialism, not the Democratic Party. And when she fails to deliver, we will stick to our principles as a chapter and hold her accountable. 

As Eugene Debs once said: “I can see the dawn of the better day for humanity. The people are awakening. In due time they will and must come to their own.” The tradition of socialism in Wisconsin has remained dormant for too long. We must fight to re-awaken the masses.

A new era for Wisconsin socialists is here.

In solidarity, 

Bobby Gronert and Wesley Hoy

Co-Chairs of the UW-Madison YDSA Electoral Working Group

Carter Burg contributed to this piece.

We stand in solidarity with comrades in the Twin Cities and around the country who demand that ICE be abolished and cruel immigration policies be reformed. We continue to demand that our local and state government bodies cut all ties and coordination with federal “law enforcement” gangs that seek to enforce white supremacy and terrorize the working class. It should not take murders in broad daylight for us to stand up and say: ICE MUST BE ABOLISHED.

Innocent people continue to die in ICE custody. Families in our country – which claims to be a beacon of justice – are targeted every day by racist stormtroopers breaking into schools, hospitals, and other spaces that should be safe for all. Those who are injured, abducted, and killed in these illegal and unnecessary confrontations are afforded no justice. The ripple effects of this violence shatter families and shake entire communities. This is all by design.

Armed thugs wearing masks do not keep us safe; they keep people scared. Fascists encourage violence and fear because they are scared themselves. They are scared of what we can accomplish when we stand together. They are terrified of losing their grip on power. They want us to lay down and give up our resistance to their racist agendas, but we refuse to cower in fear in the face of authoritarianism. ICE represents a horror that a caring society will not allow, and we in Madison join our comrades in Minneapolis and around the country in standing up and fighting back.

We call upon everyone to stand together in this moment against fascism. We must fight all further funding of ICE and similar carceral spending. Democratic politicians are running scared, worried about the optics of “abolishing ICE” or “defunding”, but we know that the vast majority of humans want our resources invested in actually helping people, not on building cages and propping up an engine of cruelty. 

Defund ICE, build real housing! 

Defund ICE, invest in education! 

Defund ICE, fund the resources that allow us all to thrive! 

We refuse to let the fascist Trump regime and their gestapo rip us apart, and we refuse to be silenced. A better world is possible: a world without ICE.