Recently I posted about re-encountering my white privilege on Facebook. I told a story about a meeting with a fellow dad from my daughter’s school and about my recognition that our lives were similar yet markedly different because of the…
Tearing down statues doesn’t erase history
Three years ago, I wrestled with the news that my great-grandmother’s statue memorializing “Uncle Jeff” had been removed by the City of New Orleans from the site where it had stood on Canal Street since 1911. I know it really…
“Well …” Hardy died: Remembering a friendship
It was the word I heard him say more than any other single word in over four decades of deep friendship. He said it the same way every time, but, inexplicably, it fit every possible situation. I told him a…
Profane comments about Texas governor deserve scrutiny; comments on his disability do not
Helen Jerman is a professional writer and editor in Dallas, who is paralyzed from the knee down due to spina bifida and is a wheelchair user as a result. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and now works in…
When I’m honest, I know racism is real
This week I took the unusual step of posting a direct appeal to Facebook. This message has been welling up inside of me for several weeks, and as a preacher, I was compelled to tell it. I asked my congregation…
We must learn from our suffering and help others with what we’ve learned
To understand suffering, we need to understand something more of the Creator. Through dogma and doctrine, we have developed a definition of a sovereign ruler of the universe that is not big enough to be its creator. Far too often,…
In Louisville, learning as a white witness in Black space
Last Saturday, June 27, a paramilitary outfit of white nationalists threatened on social media to “take back” our city from the racial justice protesters occupying Injustice Park in downtown Louisville. They predicted that the encampment of largely peaceful protesters would be cleared by nightfall.
‘Thy kingdom come; thy will be done’: Independence Day and the Lord’s Prayer
Do we really want God’s kingdom to come? Do we want God’s will to be done – here in America in the year 2020? Are we willing to change? Do we want the world to turn upside down?
Defund the police? How about ‘defunding America’ through radical, thorough-going, far-reaching change?
The American experiment has failed because it has been inequitable, unfair, unjust and discriminatory from the start, sanctioned by segments of a religion which propagated it while benefitting enormously from it.
What will we see less of and more of in America’s churches in the 2020s?
Even with all the uncertainties around and within us, there appear to be some broad truths and trends emerging that are going to define our work in the Church for the foreseeable future.
The ‘heritage, not hate’ argument doesn’t fly, be it monument or flag
Some say it’s “heritage, not hate.” But what is the heritage? Dissenting against the values of the Constitution? Rejecting a vision of breathtaking freedom, “unalienable rights,” “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”? That’s something to celebrate?
I’ve got some suggestions for reusing discarded Confederate monuments
The prophetic movement in the streets has begun a good work. There is no stopping until every vestige of white supremacist ideology is erased, not only from public squares, but from laws, institutions, churches, theologies and families.