Uncategorized Racism as Institutional Injustice In March 2012 an African American defense attorney named Bryan Stevenson gave a TED Talk called “We Need to Talk about an Injustice.” While not yet the household name he…
Daniel Bowman Jr. I didn’t know why it was so hard for me when it was so easy for others. I survived my childhood. I got through elementary school even though I did no homework, never studied for quizzes or tests, and almost never spoke with a teacher. These things…
Uncategorized A Letter to Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church via Wes Granberg-Michaelson https://www.facebook.com/1627309526/posts/10224139836836803/?d=n
Heather McGhee The old zero-sum paradigm is not just counterproductive; it’s a lie. The logical extension of the zero-sum story is that a future without racism is something white people should fear, because there will be nothing good for them in it. They…
Uncategorized Why white evangelical Christians are Putin’s biggest American fan base by Anthea Butler https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/russia-ukraine-crisis-complicates-american-white-evangelicals-love-putin-n1290442
John Pavlovitz Surety is a nice idea, but it’s highly overrated. There’s a dangerous hubris involved in claiming any kind of moral authority or precise theological clarity, other than “Here’s the best guess I can make based on the available information…
Lisa Sharon Harper Any attempt to repair what race broke in our nation must contend with what race broke in our faith. The varying perceptions of the Christian story divided our nation in antebellum times into two main camps: those who reconciled slavery and those who opposed slavery, both based on biblical…
Uncategorized Record numbers of Americans identify as LGBTQ. What does that mean for Christianity? LGBTQ Americans are opting out of organized religion altogether partly because evangelical Christian denominations and the Roman Catholic Church oppose LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage. https://religionnews.com/2022/02/23/record-numbers-of-americans-identify-as-lgbtq-what-does-that-mean-for-christianity/
Uncategorized Children were raised, not parented In generations past, children were raised, not parented. Raising children mainly amounted to keeping them healthy, clothed, and fed as best you could while gradually integrating them into the economic…
John Pavlovitz I’m not sure whether to be angered or insecure about how certain they are As I write this, I’m sitting in a small indie coffee shop adjacent to a nearby Southern Baptist seminary, (which honestly, usually makes me feel like a Rebel Soldier tiptoeing…
Uncategorized What does it mean to become an AFFIRMING CHURCH? by Stacey Chomiak https://staceychomiak.com/2022/01/29/what-does-it-mean-to-become-an-affirming-church/
Uncategorized Somebody That I Used to Know: deconstructing American faith by Kaitlin Curtice https://kaitlincurtice.substack.com/p/somebody-that-i-used-to-know-03e
Uncategorized Racism as Relational Division In 1994, Spencer Perkins and Chris Rice published a book that became something of a sensation in the American church. The book, More Than Equals: Racial Healing for the Sake…
Daniel Bowman Jr. I may have risked my career by coming forward Although I’d like to think this is not true, I may have risked my career by coming forward. Tenure-track professorships are high stakes affairs - many would like them but…
Uncategorized Prolonged Complex Compassion Fatigue: An Outcome of Caring Deeply by Kay F. Klinkenborg I have a new phrase, “Prolonged Complex Compassion Fatigue”1 to describe our accumulated experiences as we enter the third year of a world pandemic. No one…
Uncategorized Do you care about voting rights? If so, we suggest you check out Faiths United to Save Democracy, an initiative of Sojourners, Skinner Leadership Institute, the National African American Clergy Network, Georgetown University, and the Center…
Uncategorized Our spiritual leaders need to step up to heal our political divisions By Sister Simone Campbell https://religionnews.com/2022/02/16/how-faith-leaders-can-heal-the-peoples-divisions-and-restore-hope/
Heather McGhee Everyone would have been safer Black writers before me, from James Baldwin to Toni Morrison, have made the point that racism is a poison first consumed by its concocters. What’s clearer now in our time…
John Pavlovitz When we lead with gentleness When we lead with gentleness, it decreases the chances that we will bulldoze someone with self-righteousness because we honestly believe that we’re no better than they are and no greater…
Justin Phillips How does it feel to be a problem? I am a problem. This acknowledgment is not about self-hatred or performative white guilt, but rather a reckoning with my history, that I have either benefited from someone else’s hardship or gotten benefits of…
