S(h)ibboleth is a magazine.

We want it to be a space where people of faith who care about justice and reject unhealthy barriers to belonging can feel at home. We are trying to make it more representative of what actual Christians and followers of Jesus think and care about — because so much Christian media has constrained that field too tightly. And we are committed to opening readers up to a more liberated and liberating spectrum of politics and theology than traditional religious media tends to. 

But it's just a magazine. 

We want to add another node to the constellation of pioneering, prophetic institutions and spaces already modelling what a generous, justice-focused faith space could be. And hopefully help to create community, culture and and connection between the festivals, podcasts, activist groups, churches and communities who have been doing God's work, in networks or in isolation, for decades. We think a tipping-point is coming, a change is possible — one that has the potential to make faith a help rather than a hinderance in the struggle for justice, equity and a better world.  

We think a magazine could play a part in that. Optimistic as this may sound. 

Too many of us have had authentic spiritual experiences, made meaningful human connections and found beauty and value in the content of Christianity, only to be spiritually or ethically unhoused by the culture, theology and politics we have been expected to accept in these spaces.

Part of the problem has been one of representation — yes, a lack of representation of women, queer people, the working class and those excluded automatically by white supremacy — but also an absence of representation of Christianity as broad, diverse and including liberating voices. A magazine can't fix that culture. But it can show people they are not as alone as they thought they might be. It can demonstrate that ideas vilified and people excluded by conservatives (well-meaning and otherwise) can be as legitimate as any other element of the community of faith. That there are many valid ways to be part of the Body — if being part of it is important to you. 

We believe the way a magazine can help is by trying to be interesting, be accessible, and be appealing — an enjoyable read, not just a worthy slog to the top of enlightenment mountain. We want it to be funny, smart, helpful and informative. Challenging, even. We're going to try to avoid stupid purity tests —lots of the stuff in S(h)ibboleth is not particularly 'Christian', and it is relevant, we believe, to humans generally. We are going to try to avoid shitting on everything that has gone before and be careful of saluting every new shibboleth that gets run up the flagpole. We are going to try to 'do better' from the start, and we are going to fuck that up. Almost certainly. 

But we have hope (faith, even) that we can at least create something for Christians, ex-Christians, deconstructors, reconstructors, the Christian-adjacent and spiritual nomads to read on the bus or the toilet without becoming too consistently enraged. 

S(h)ibboleth is a print magazine in the age of digital, a left-leaning publication in a scene where liberalism is demonised, and independent in an industry notorious for killing even billionaire-backed behemoths. We're sure it will do well. 

Why S(h)ibboleth?

In the book of Judges, chapter 12, there's an awful story. Men of Gilead, are slaughtering Ephraimites, people culturally or racially indistinguishable from each other. Shibboleth, the word, is used by Gilead to identify who is 'one of us'. Those who can't pronounce the 'H' part, who can only say 'sibboleth', are killed. 

A shibboleth is a test of belonging: a word we in the in-group use, a customary practice, a seemingly unimportant or archaic belief that separates 'us' from 'them'. In many contexts, shibboleths are just helpful group identifiers (this article is amusing and instructive on the subject), but in the Church they have regularly been destructive. Disputable matters at best, expressions of supremacy, prejudice and abhorrent culture and theology at worst. 

We know he can't be a Christian because he says 'fuck'. We know she isn't part of the Body because her own bodily autonomy is central to her politics. They can't be one of us because they use plural pronouns (and the insane, stupid irony that sentence contains) and that suggests a political outlook Christians can't have. Except, of course, they can. 

S(h)ibboleth highlights and sequesters the 'h' because we are not trying to create a new system of exclusions (though we will exclude destructive ideologies), but we are wanting to signal that this is a space where stupid, arbitrary litmus tests are not our focus. The design of the logo is intentional in this. 

Come across the river. We don't care if you ssss or sshh. Just get your ass/ash over here and start making connections, challenging your thinking and building a better world. Or, like, reading a cool magazine with a smart-ash name.