Olena Zelenska, educated as an architect, is a screenwriter and the first lady of Ukraine. In a recent Vogue interview, she highlighted Ukrainian women’s tenacity and skill in caring for loved ones, going to work and resisting Russian military aggression in their…
Are Black people cursed?
She was a sweet white Christian woman in her sixties who was a seasoned saint. She even brought a Black friend with her to this particular author event on race. That is why her question baffled me. “Are Black people…
Memory and mandate: A meditation on Maundy Thursday
Under the sway of Easter bunnies, chocolate binges and spring fashion sales, Holy Week and Resurrection Morning observances have shed almost all connections to the volatile political events in Jerusalem leading up to Jesus’ “triumphal entry” into the city. The…
Ketanji Brown Jackson’s experience at the Senate felt a lot like being a Baptist woman in ministry
“She has a vast practical experience, something that I think is a real plus. … I will vote no.” “I can say definitively that I like her. I think she’s a good person, but I cannot support her.” “She seems…
Hello, I’m a recovering racist
Hi, my name is Idelette, and I am a recovering racist. I am in recovery from the racist ideas that shaped my consciousness from the very moment I was conceived, amid one of the most racist social and political stories…
COVID, Holy Week and God’s consolations
I lost a friend I highly respected to COVID. Our church family has prayed through the illnesses of members, friends and family, observed deaths and then, of course, there were the illnesses and losses due to complications of COVID never…
Easter is for those who have been to the cemetery
Next Sunday, people in the United States will wish Easter felt like it did three years ago. They will put on new shoes and wonder if they should have gotten a half size larger. They will consider going out for…
It’s time to do something about the beast of corporate money in politics
In the spring of 1994, I enrolled in a course on deviance in the sociology department at the University of Texas at Austin. The course was taught by renowned sociologist Gideon Sjoberg, author of The Preindustrial City. The course wasn’t…
No, we will not take down an article you don’t like
Among the many ways Americans have anointed ourselves as armchair quarterbacks, some have determined they should be editor in chief of Baptist News Global. Not for the first time, but with renewed vigor this week. Some folks — mainly those…
Subterranean hope in Ukraine
The stories, morning after morning, of the horrific war in Ukraine overwhelm us. For self-defense, I look away at something else in the news. Yet in the back of my mind the images still play, pictures of destruction, death. We…
Untamed: The meaning of Jesus in these odd times finale
“We don’t live in Ukraine, but we do,” said our minister, Glenn Pettiford, as he began a pastoral prayer on a recent Lenten Sunday morning. His words have stayed in my head on the way to Gethsemane and Golgotha 2022,…
We need more but different churches
The number of church closures continues to rise. According to a study published by Lifeway Research last May, about 4,500 churches closed their doors in 2019 while only 3,000 churches were started. This is a shift from 2014 when Lifeway…