There are many famous walls from our world history. We are familiar with the Great Wall of China, built 770 to 476 BCE. It was a fortification built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and imperial China…
Peter Makapela: One man’s journey from racial hatred during South Africa’s apartheid years to a voice of racial reconciliation
When he was 14, Peter Makapela and his cousin Xolani joined scores of other schoolchildren in Cape Town, South Africa, to protest miserable conditions in the area’s schools for Black children. It was 1989, the height of public resistance to…
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…
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility celebrates 50 years of faith-based shareholder advocacy
“Sometimes quitting is the courageous act,” said Traci Blackmon. “Sometimes the courage that is needed is to stop doing what is expected in order to start doing what is necessary.” Blackmon, associate general minister of justice and local church ministries…
For Black South Africans, wearing traditional goatskin jewelry can cause bans from white Christian schools
Zandile never forgets the day her overwhelmingly white Christian high school asked her to leave classes. The offense of the 14-year-old from the Zulu tribe was donning the “isiphandla,” a traditional bracelet made out of goatskin and worn by the…
Baptist Scholars International Roundtable finds serendipity in participants’ experiences
When a group of Baptist scholars came together virtually Aug. 9-11 for a roundtable on “Baptists and the Kingdom of God,” they did not know that several in the group had personal experience to speak to one of the presentation…
45 years after the Soweto uprising, religious leaders call for more racial harmony among South Africans
Forty-five years after a group of young Black students in Soweto, South Africa, took to the streets to protest an educational policy of the ruling South African apartheid government, leading to the death of more than 170 of them, the…
Apartheid in Palestine and a Christ who stands on the other side of the wall
Today, the Holy Land burns. The latest round of evictions of Palestinians from their homes in favor of the illegal Israeli settlement of the Occupied Territories predictably has led to violence which has, equally predictably, spiraled into death and destruction…
Baptist layman offers lessons from South Africa on overcoming civil war
Talk of civil war is bandied about by Americans reeling from a pandemic, racial injustice, police brutality and a hate-filled election season. But politically motivated violence is no idle talk to Harold Tessendorf, a conflict management consultant and licensed mediator…