Being Black and gay is living life on the margins. My Christian identity is centered on my love for my community. While having proximity to whiteness (interracial marriage with a loving husband) has informed my vocational mission, I know it…
20 Black Leaders Who Inspired the Church
The Black church and Black Christians have played an indispensable role in shaping American and church history. For hundreds of years, African American congregations have operated as hubs of spiritual formation, community, and activism, fighting for the social change necessary…
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…
Black History Month is not about you, but it is for you
I want to speak directly to my white friends, white Christians and especially white clergy colleagues during Black History Month. I’m writing to you not as an adversary or a critic, but as someone who has prayed with you, eaten…
Let holy curiosity guide you this Black History Month
Last January, I had the opportunity to spend a week in Richmond, Va., exploring the complicated role of religious freedom in our country. Specifically, the group I was with pressed on the wounds of race, power and inequality. We explored…
The necessity of anointing and hard work
I don’t listen to contemporary gospel or Contemporary Christian Music like I once did. Although talented and faithful remnants remain, and God continues using them, much of the genre today, at least what tops the charts, can feel mediocre or…
7 times Trump admin. has been accused of erasing black history
Black History Month, an annual nationwide observance that focuses on the history and heritage of African Americans, traces its origins to 1926 with “Negro History Week,” which fell on the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12) and Frederick Douglass (Feb. 14).
Enslaved To Ordained: ‘Father Gus’ Belongs At The Center Of Black History Month
The first publicly recognized Black priest in the United States, Augustus Tolton, may not be a household name. Yet I believe his story – from being born enslaved to becoming a college valedictorian — deserves to be a staple of…
Happy 50th birthday, Black History Month
Happy Birthday to Black History Month — 50 years federally recognized and 100 years strong in purpose, beginning as “Negro History Week” in 1926. While the United States formally recognized Black History Month in 1976, the acknowledgment of Black history…
Disciples of White Jesus
That the United States is in a time of great cultural upheaval is no secret. Corporations are weakening their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Colleges and universities are doing the same, often due to government pressure. And the Trump…
‘I dreamed the future,’ Tuskegee Airman said
“I dreamed the future for myself,” one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen said in a recent interview with BNG before his death at age 100. Lt. Col. Harry Stewart died Feb. 2, at the beginning of Black History Month,…
Black History Month in Trump’s America
In 1976, the bicentennial year celebrating the birth of our nation with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Republican President Gerald Ford became the first president to recognize February as Black History Month. In a short presidential message, Ford recognized the…