White privilege is mostly a non-experience for white people. White people are not criminalized because of their race, which is why a white man can carry an AR-15 in public and only receive a qualified response from police officers, while unarmed African-American men and boys are killed.
Navigating between innovations and traditions in faith
This past month I had a unique opportunity to attend two conferences. One was at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and the other was at Columbia University in New York City. While the topics were very similar, there was…
Incredulous me: The postmodern dilemma
Several weeks ago I was reading through the Doubting Thomas passage from the Gospel of John when I stumbled upon an image from the 17th century. In 1601-1602, the famous Michelangelo Caravaggio painted the scene where Jesus is guiding Thomas’s…
Finding utopia: Does God promote economic equality?
How would God structure an economy? This may be an odd question for a Baptist who believes in the separation of church and state, but it’s a question that I can’t help but ask. State religion does not have a…
Survival mode
Survival mode generally does not bring out the best in people. When nearly all of the luxuries of life have been stripped away and all you have left is the choice to survive, those choices are brutal. I’m not a…
Skin tax
What does it cost in America if your skin isn’t white? In 1996, I was a summer missionary in the Philippines. I had no idea how much that summer would change my life. One night my partner and I stayed…
Theology of fun
To have fun in the face of evil and turmoil and ugliness is almost revolutionary. Is your stole draped over your shoulders or tied around your neck? That’s a pseudo-serious question for all the pastor types in our Baptist world…
What does it mean to be human?
By Jason Coker This time of year in Christian circles all over the world, faithful followers of Jesus are trying to spend some time thinking about what it means for God to become human flesh in the Nativity. That is,…
My brother, where art thou?
By Jason Coker In 2008, our local Presbyterian pastor and I co-lead our clergy association to create an organization in our town that would host a refugee family. Our local synagogue, some of our Muslim citizens, and nearly all our…