My daughter, a student-athlete at a Baptist university, called me about a problem with her softball teammate. The head coach made an announcement canceling Monday’s practice due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. A teammate said, “Thank you, Martin…
Walking with King and Heschel past Beth Israel Synagogue
As we have honored Martin Luther King this past weekend, I am remembering his friendship with Rabbi Abraham Heschel and Heschel’s joining with him in the Civil Rights March in Selma March 21, 1965. Heschel was criticized for leaving his…
‘Religious freedom isn’t something that exists on paper’
For a year, ICE and the Trump administration have made it harder for communities to live, gather and worship without fear. It started with the erosion of sensitive locations — which allowed ICE to conduct immigration enforcement activities on church…
Maladjustment and resistance
Jan. 15 marked the 97th birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. The American Baptist Home Mission Society celebrates his legacy as the foremost prophet of the 20th century, who also was an activist for biblical and social justice, liberator, truth…
Cities Church isn’t being persecuted for righteousness
MAGA churches are not being persecuted for righteousness but for not loving their neighbors. They are being persecuted by unexpected judgment like Jesus cleansing the temple. Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., is not being persecuted for faithfulness to the…
America needs grace
Everyone needs grace. Republicans, Democrats and independents need grace. Undocumented immigrants and Christian nationalists need grace. People of color and people of privilege need grace. Young and old, rich and poor, gendered and non-gendered, more or less educated, born in…
¡Silencio! When and when not to keep silence
The principal strength from which the forces of despotism operate comes not from their accomplices in infamy but from the silence of those who turn a blind eye, who have been cowed into silence, saved (they think) by means of…
Druski held up a mirror to the church
For some of us, watching Druski’s recent megachurch parody is hitting a nerve because it’s holding up a mirror. Druski is a comedian and cultural commentator known for using humor to reflect everyday truths about Black life, power and performance,…
Too many Black churches have stopped doing the work
Since its inception, the Black Church has stood for activism. It has been loud when the world demanded silence. Emotive in a culture that prizes stoicism over vulnerability. Communal in the face of capitalism’s insistence on individualism. Faithful amid unrelenting…
Stephen Miller is Plato’s original playground bully
Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s muse and adviser, told Jake Tapper of CNN, “We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the…
The God I do believe in
This article is a follow-up to a previous post, “The God I Don’t Believe In.” I majored in religion at college. One semester I took a class called Christian Doctrine. I still remember the final exam. The professor wrote it on…
A dispatch from the USA to Christians in Italy (and beyond)
The editor of Riforma, an Italian-language newspaper published by and for Baptists, Methodists and Waldensians in Italy, invited me to contribute a front-page article for this week’s edition sharing my perspective on recent events in the United States. This is what…