This week I was one among the millions who watched A&E’s powerful and devastating “re-imagination” of the epic miniseries Roots, brought to the small screen for a new audience against the not-so-new backdrop of this, the latest iteration of the…
As racial healing seems elusive, New Baptist Covenant plans next summit
Former President Jimmy Carter, who has long put religion and racial reconciliation at the center of his life, is on a mission to heal a racial divide among Baptists and help the country soothe rifts that he believes are getting…
Why #BlackLivesMatter vandalism matters
In the last couple of months, the Black Lives Matter sign that hangs from a post on the front lawn of our church has been vandalized several times. Sometimes the metal sign has been severely bent. Other times, someone has…
When Christians won’t say #BlackLivesMatter
Saying #BlackLivesMatter does not diminish the value of other lives. It acknowledges the ways in which this country has devalued the life of a black person in comparison to the life of another, typically white, person.
It’s time to abandon reason
By Greg Jarrell On Monday, Dec. 28, Timothy McGinty, district attorney of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, announced what everyone suspected, and many hoped would not be true — that there will be no charges in the slaying of 12-year old Tamir…
‘Straight Outta Compton’ reveals plight of African-American men in U.S.
All musical bio-movies seem to follow the same script. A group or an individual rises from poverty to the heights of fame. Along the way they get taken advantage of by a manager and end up casting said manager aside….
Centennial of the lynching of Leo Frank . . . and the struggle over the meaning of freedom
In August 1913 the body of 14-year-old laborer Mary Phagan was found in the basement of the National Pencil Company in Atlanta. The company’s Jewish-American superintendent, Leo Frank, was eventually convicted of the crime and sentenced to death by hanging….
Between the World and Me: A reflection
Over the weekend, I ventured out to Barnes & Noble in Atlanta to pick up a couple books. I bought March, a graphic novel that is a first-hand account of Congressman John Lewis’ life and struggle for civil rights. I…
Fear, racism, and new knives
Two weeks ago, Samuel DuBose, a black man stopped for not having a front license plate, was shot and killed two minutes later by Raymond Tensing, a 25-year-old University of Cincinnati campus police officer. The event, recorded by the officer’s…
Naming the Mother Emmanuel massacre
The nine individuals murdered last night in Mother Emmanuel Church are martyrs. Their lives bear faithful witness not just to a particular faith, but also to a segment of citizenry within both our country and the peaceable kingdom of Jesus…
Peace on Facebook or Ferguson or Long Island or Cleveland
There’s a certain hollow and rather pernicious powerless-ness that wells up within me as I’ve quietly taken in the scenes, voices and verdicts (or, rather, lack thereof) unfolding before us all over the last couple of weeks. So much so,…