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.
My sister died – alone – from COVID-19. Her story, like others, calls for reform in our system of senior care.
Would reforms to address flaws in senior care facilities, proven amid a pandemic to be fatal for far too many older persons, have prevented the death of my sister? Perhaps not. Would they have made her last weeks less painful and traumatic? Of that I have no doubt.
Father’s Day reflection: Dad’s wallet was a pocket portfolio of a life lived honorably and dutifully
A Father’s Day reflection: Going through Dad’s wallet a couple years after his death was sure to carry me back. How far, I had no idea until I dove in.
Juneteenth should remind us of all the things we don’t know
The more we learn about someone else’s story, the more understanding we gain about their perspectives.
Beyond ‘contact without fellowship’: How can white people move toward black people?
While white people in America will never fully imagine what black people endure, this does not excuse the sin of racial ignorance or the empathy deficit that black pastor and theologian Howard Thurman called “contact without fellowship.”
Baldwin’s ‘The Fire Next Time’ has arrived, and it burns inexorably toward liberation
As people rise up to declare that they will not endure or be complicit in racist, white supremacist oppression, let’s call their actions what they are: protest, freedom struggle and revolution, not rioting, looting or “disobedience” to the authorities.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Really? Have you not been watching the news?
I preached on the poor in spirit, because when I listened carefully it sounded like God saying we have to do better – as the church, as communities and as a nation.
As the white mother of a black son, calls for racial justice evoke something deep within me
My son is now raising black sons of his own. He fears for them, as I feared for him when he was a child and now fear for my grandchildren.
I’m a conservative Christian. I’ve got a problem with the flag.
June 14 is Flag Day. I’ll proudly fly my new flag from our house. But when a church hoists the American flag and the Christian flag, that church immediately puts itself in an unwinnable situation.
Trump’s latest obscenity, a contrived and vacuous photo op, has left a lasting impression
Just as Trump has not risen to the stature of the presidency, religious leaders who have blindly supported and defended him have not risen to the stature of their prophetic calling. A country cannot afford to have both king (president, in America’s case) and prophets fail all at once.