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.
Transforming a multi-issue culture requires us to be multi-issue people
Intersectionality helps us see that the problem is systemic. We live in a social system with institutions – including the church – built to ensure the maintenance of white supremacy and patriarchy. Our solutions, then, also have to be systemic.
There is no ‘new-normal.’ The question is what we will choose to normalize in this moment.
Will we choose the pathway of least resistance, passivity and acquiescence? Or the active pathway of thoughtful, intentional and deliberate discernment about those things we will shed and leave behind and those things we will normalize going forward?
I should have said, ‘Tengo un problema’ (I have a problem)
For far, far too long, white people in the United States have pretended to understand more than we understand, pretended that the problem is not as bad as it is, and pretended that it is not about us. Now we are lost and do not even know the language to get home.
‘Southern pride’ or racism? White Christians are compelled to discern the difference. And confess.
As commonly used, the term “Southern pride” is shorthand for a stubborn refusal to admit that the South, as a concept, is hopelessly enmeshed in the canons of white supremacy.
‘A shelter for conscience’ in a sea of racism: Black Churches Matter, too
We white Christians still have a lot to learn and a reprehensible past to lament. After 400 years, we’d better pray that black churches are still willing to teach us. And that we’ve got conscience enough to act on what we learn.
How do we effectively present Jesus to the world? Two contrasting approaches.
For one Baptist mission organization in the U.S., evangelism is the goal and method considered superior to all other mission strategies. For another, the primary way of presenting Jesus to the world is through a benevolent response to human need.
Beyond the divisions: 5 guiding principles for Christian citizenship in a polarized nation
For all the complexities and sharp disagreements among Christians on matters that shape our citizenship, a certain foundation of shared faith can guide all of us who believe we have a constructive, even transformative, role to play in society.