Who are the people, of whatever faith or no faith, who will stand up to Trump’s despotism and to white Christian nationalism – and to the political opportunists and free market capitalists who support both?
President Trump is being investigated, not lynched
The president’s racist Twitter message employing the language of lynching was a diabolical suggestion that the current impeachment inquiry is the existential, moral and legal equivalent of murder.
A ‘monument’ to black people massacred 100 years ago in Arkansas reeks of the hypocrisy Jesus condemned
Jesus called out the hypocrites of his day with angry words. When white leaders misuse power to profit from past wrongs of racism and heap additional injuries on oppressed people, what words need to be heard?
I’m a pastor who refuses to offer ‘thoughts and prayers’ for these people
I’m praying that God will comfort suffering victims and afflict their political and religious victimizers. That’s not a “God bless the USA” prayer. It’s a “Thy will be done” prayer.
Why claims of many ‘evangelical Christians’ to be followers of Jesus ring hollow
Following Jesus is incompatible with being a bully. Following Jesus involves using power to do justice, love mercy and live humbly in oneness with God and others. All Christians should condemn and denounce white supremacy and religious nationalism in the name of Jesus, not validate them.
On July 4, I will not be celebrating. Here’s why
Political leaders’ amorality and immorality about justice has always been tolerated, if not actively enabled, by religious nationalists in congregations in all regions of the country and in every religious sect.
Like it or not, we are like sheep – including our vulnerability to ‘thieves and wolves’
Today, political, commercial and religious ‘thieves and wolves’ are threatening humanity and the creation. But the Good Shepherd has not left us defenseless. We are vulnerable, but not abandoned; weak, but not without protection. We go astray, but God is always determined to find and restore us.
Today I am thinking about May 17, 1954, and white Baptists then and now
May 17 is a special day for me. On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court unanimously issued the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that declared racial segregation in public education unconstitutional. On May 17, 2019, I have reasons to hope, but also cause to mourn.
A Lenten reflection about repentance, reparations and resistance
An appeal to my white Baptist sisters and brothers: when it comes to talk about the issue of reparations, I hope you will embrace and maintain a penitent silence during the remaining days of Lent.