The Republican Party in the nation’s most populous state controlled by that party has a new platform that invokes the name of God 17 times, calls for special privilege for Christians and demands that Christian prayers, Bible reading and the…
In Charlottesville, an effort to reuse bronze from Lee statue for new public art
A plan to melt down and ultimately reuse the bronze from the Robert E. Lee statue that white supremacists violently rallied to save in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 is an inherently spiritual undertaking that should appeal to many people of…
Of statues and stories: Reckoning with the Lost Cause
A few years back, as I wandered across a broad hill overlooking Washington, D.C., I discovered a monument, the statue of a woman atop a 32-foot decorated pedestal rising above the untold thousands of gravestones in Arlington National Cemetery. I…
It’s the culture, stupid
In the politico world, all eyes were on Virginia last week. Despite obsessing over every pattern in the tea leaves left from the expended campaign strategies and discernible in the exit polls, one striking finding was almost entirely missed by the…
How you view police killings, racism and monuments influenced by faith and party
Religious beliefs combined with racial identity continue to fuel dramatic differences in the way Americans view police killings of unarmed Black men, the prevalence of “reverse racism” and thinking of the Confederate flag and monuments to Confederate leaders as about…
At the intersection of Monument(s) and Avenue(s), a new vision rises
Statues are a funny thing. They say so much about people — their beliefs, their politics, their worldview. I grew up around all kinds of statues. In the home of my birth (and the city I lived in until I…
I’ve got some suggestions for reusing discarded Confederate monuments
The prophetic movement in the streets has begun a good work. There is no stopping until every vestige of white supremacist ideology is erased, not only from public squares, but from laws, institutions, churches, theologies and families.
N.C. Baptist convention denounces racism, but not the Confederate flag
The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina denounced racism in a resolution adopted at its annual meeting, but stopped short of endorsing the Southern Baptist Convention’s call to refrain from public displays of the Confederate flag or statements by SBC leaders supporting the removal of Civil War monuments.
Baptist historian at SBC seminary says Civil War monuments should be taken down
A Southern Baptist seminary professor says it is time for Civil War monuments erected decades after Gettysburg and Appomattox for the purpose of intimidating Southern blacks to come down. “I would advocate for the vast majority of Confederate monuments to…