Our people

Methodist, Texan, and gay rights activist. Worked with Harvey Milk until Milk's assassination in 1978 and served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors until 1993

John Cort

One of the founders of Religious Socialism, whose Catholicism inspired a life dedicated to social justice activism

Jairav Desai

A Buddhist socialist resisting the illusion of separateness and the emptiness of consumption

Dr. Gary Dorrien

Ethicist, theologian, and the author of 25 books. Dr. Dorrien is a professor at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University.

Rabbi Michael Feinberg

A rabbi who has embraced the principles of the Bundist Jewish socialist tradition in his decades of multi-faith advocacy

Dr. David Green

Dr. Green is a Jewish socialist and a neurologist who brings the concept of tikkun olam to his healthcare practice

Rev. Chaz Howard

University Chaplain and Vice President for Social Equity & Community at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Black Theology as Mass Movement

Hebah Kassem

Activist from Dearborn, Michigan, who advocates for Medicare for All as an enactment of the socialist values that she finds in Islam

Kai Ngu

Cofounder of Church Clarity and host of the Religious Socialism podcast, who writes and speaks on religion, LGBTQ histories, class, and race

Dr. Joerg Rieger

Professor of Christian theology and ordained minister of the United Methodist Church whose work emphasizes economic justice and political movements

Rosemary Radford Ruether

DSA member and Catholic feminist theologian who wrote about how Western religious and cultural traditions are causing the environmental crisis

Colleen Shaddox

A Catholic reporter who "lives out her faith in an uncompromising way" through her socialism

Dorothee Sölle

Lutheran liberation theologian who coined the term "Christofascism" and taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York City

Michael Walzer

Political theorist, public intellectual, and professor. He is editor emeritus of Dissent and sits on the editorial board of the Jewish Review of Books

Cornel West

Philosopher, theologian, activist and social critic who ran for president of the United States in 2024

Rev. Andrew Wilkes

A socialist preacher who calls people to socialism just as he calls people to Jesus

Public Figures

Many important figures in today's world and the recent past are religious socialists!

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

Minister, activist, professor, former president of the North Carolina NAACP, Rev. Barber is the founder of the national anti-poverty campaign called Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival.

Daniel Berrigan

Jesuit priest, anti-war activist, Christian pacifist, playwright, poet, and author who protested the Vietnam War

Wendell Berry

Novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, farmer, and advocate of Christian pacifism, who grew up in rural Kentucky

James H. Cone

A Methodist minister and theologian, best known for his advocacy of black liberation theology

Rev. Angela Cowser

Professor, activist, minister, and co-founder of the Institute for Christian Socialism.

Rev. Dr. Samuel Cruz

A Brooklyn pastor and theologian who puts a Marxist lens on his faith by writing and teaching in the tradition of liberation theology

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Peruvian philosopher, Catholic theologian, and Dominican priest who was one of the founders of liberation theology in Latin America

Rabbi Michael Lerner

Anti-war activist, professor, and rabbi who founded of Tikkun magazine to challenge the Left in its assumption that religion is not central to the struggle for a better world

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Politician and activist from the Bronx, whose Catholicism inspires her public service

Archbishop Oscar Romero

Priest who was assassinated in the 1980s by US Department of Defense-trained operatives after speaking out against social injustice and violence during the Salvadoran Civil War

Bernie Sanders

United States senator and presidential candidate in 2016 and 2020. Although "not actively involved in organized religion," Jewishness is an integral part of Bernie Sanders' identity and politics

Rev. Osagyefo Sekou

Acclaimed activist, theologian, author, documentary filmmaker, and musician who has helped train over five thousand activists in militant nonviolent civil disobedience

Historical Figures

Many of history's biggest changemakers were religious socialists!

Hermann Cohen

19th-century German-Jewish intellectual and anti-Zionist who envisioned the messianic era as one in which knowledge of God engenders economic and social equality

Dorothy Day

Journalist, social activist and anarchist who converted to Catholicism and co-founded the Catholic Worker newspaper

Eugene V. Debs

Socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World, and five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States

Clarence Jordan

Farmer and Baptist theologian who founded Koinonia Farm, an anti-racist religious community in southwest Georgia, in 1942

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968

Pauli Murray

Activist, advocate, legal scholar, author and Episcopal priest whose work influenced the civil rights movement and the fight for gender equality

Bayard Rustin

Quaker, political activist and leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Principal organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

Vida Dutton Scudder

The principal female leader of the Episcopal Church during the early 20th century. Supporter of striking textile workers and an activist for women’s suffrage

Malcolm X