Bishop William J. Barber brought his Poor People’s Campaign and Moral Mondays to Jackson, Miss., Sept. 26 to protest a notoriously neglected and broken water system that has generated hundreds of boil advisories in the last two years alone and…
Seeing whitewashed history for the pale reality it is
On a recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg and Richmond, Va., I saw things from a different point of view. As I looked into racial minority issues, predominantly those of Africans, I was shocked at how melanin became evil. It is…
India at 75: The world’s largest democracy is dying of toxic nationalism
Think white Christian nationalism is the most dangerous form of identity politics in the democratic world? Meet Hindu nationalism, which is systematically destroying secular democracy — and civil society — in India. I sincerely regret raining on the parade of…
I’ve been unaware of my privilege, and if you are a man, you probably have, too
In this time of increased, and justified, attention to gender inequities, I have been thinking about my own life. It occurs to me that while I have supported women colleagues, female students and girls within my circle of family and…
It’s still ‘Christians only’ at this Tennessee Methodist adoption agency
A Methodist foster care and adoption agency that receives government funding may continue to serve “Christians only” because the Jewish couple who challenged the agency were found by a Tennessee court not to have legal standing. The religious discrimination at…
American attitudes on transgender persons remain conflicted and highly partisan
Widening acceptance of gay and lesbian people in American life is not as easily translating to understanding of transgender persons, a new national survey by Pew Research shows. Despite the rapid change in American attitudes on same-sex attraction, the fundamental…
This Supreme Court’s dangerous vision of ‘history and tradition’
To kick things off today, just a quick reaction to last Wednesday’s Jan. 6 House committee hearings, which featured Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Her testimony contained startling new revelations, even in…
Class action lawsuit on LGBTQ discrimination at faith-based schools continues to gain momentum
A class action lawsuit accusing the U.S. Department of Education of wrongly allowing discrimination against LGBTQ students at faith-based schools has grown in number of participants and in general support over the past 15 months. The Religious Exemption Project filed…
In an unusual church parking lot dispute, federal court sides with the church and tells the city to pay up for its parking violation
Churches battling cities over parking is a tale as old as time. But in the seaside town of St. Pete Beach, Fla., an entirely different version of a parking lot battle has played out, this time with the city ordered…