Whenever America experiences a moral crisis, someone eventually asks where the Black Church is. The question recurs with remarkable consistency. It surfaced during the Civil Rights Movement, resurfaced during periods of racial unrest and continues to arise whenever democratic tensions…
Black Churches Beef Up Hurricane Relief Aid
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Michael Mathes navigated fallen trees and flooding as he drove his four-wheeler up a residential mountainside near his church in rural North Carolina. His ride was chock-full of food to deliver to people who…
Raising Dementia Awareness, One Black Church at a Time
On a Thursday in April, a few hundred people, many of them older Black women, sat in the main hall at Impact Church, located in a converted warehouse near the airport in Atlanta. The windowless sanctuary was dark, but theater…
The Black Church cannot remain America’s emergency moral infrastructure
On Sunday mornings across America, many Black pastors stand behind pulpits carrying far more than sermon notes. Some are preaching only days after burying another teenager lost to gun violence. Some are trying to comfort congregations anxious about layoffs, housing…
Black clergy strategize, preach and urge election turnout after Voting Rights Act gutting
On the first Sunday (May 3) after the Supreme Court decided to hollow out the Voting Rights Act, the Rev. Richelle Lewis-Castine offered some clear advice to her congregation in Patterson, Louisiana.
Black Churches Urge Congregants to Mobilize After Supreme Court Ruling
In the hours after the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana congressional map and weakened protections given to minority voters under the Voting Rights Act, a bishop overseeing historically Black African Methodist Episcopal (AME) churches in Louisiana wrote a message…
Black church leaders revive civil rights playbook to mobilize voters for midterms
Ahead of the midterm elections this fall, Pastor Mike McBride, a longtime Black voter mobilization strategist, is spearheading an initiative for church and community leaders to sit down together for Sunday dinners to learn from each other.
The Black Church teaches us not to rush past Good Friday
On Good Friday, many of the white churches move quickly. They acknowledge the Cross, they sometimes name the injustice, and — almost instinctively — begin inching toward Easter, toward hope, toward resurrection, toward resolution. They quickly leave Friday and rush…
Black History Month is about moral memory
Black History Month often is framed as a time of celebration — a time to honor leaders, milestones and achievements that reshaped the American story. But at its deepest level, Black History Month is about moral memory. It is about…
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…
Texas Senate primary pits white Social Gospel against Black Church tradition
The stage is set for a Democratic Senate primary in Texas with one candidate who is trying to convince fellow Texans to love all their neighbors and one who refuses to turn the other cheek. James Talarico is easygoing and…