Each spring, the sacred calendars of Judaism, Christianity and Islam draw us into stories of liberation, sacrifice and divine mercy. Passover, Easter and the rhythms of revelation in the Quran all echo a central truth: God is present with the…
Caged and aged
Here in Mississippi, we cage and age people. The United States imprisons 311 out of every 100,000 residents, according to a 2023 report from the Department of Justice. Mississippi imprisons more than twice that number at 661 people per 100,000. Compounded by…
Ask Lazarus: Not all resurrection stories have pleasant endings
I don’t mean to sound morbid, but I’m sure I’m not the first person to notice how eerily similar funeral services are to the ritual of sentencing a person to prison. With the ritual of a funeral ceremony, many people…
‘Theological revolution’ needed to bring liberation to jails and prisons, PNBC panel says
Viewing jail and prison inmates as more than souls to be saved requires the church to apply a social-justice lens to its theological understanding of incarceration and the incarcerated, insisted Jacqueline Thompson, second vice president of the Progressive National Baptist…
‘If incarceration is supposed to make us safe, we should be the safest place on earth’
Racial disparities continue to plague Black Americans in part because of the persistent perception that they are, by nature, threats to law and order, said Jamila Hodge, CEO of Equal Justice USA. “We have won many legal battles — the…
Pastor, judge, activist, agitator: As he strives for justice, Wendell Griffen stretches the lexicon of adjectives
Wendell Griffen, 66, is all of these things. But his persona is so large, his reputation so loud, his “rightness” so locked in and eagerly defended, that the man’s depth can be lost in the shallows in which he must wade.
Racially diverse church occupies campus where Baptist pastor once proclaimed racist views
In one of life’s delicious little ironies, New Millennium Church now meets on the campus associated with one of Little Rock’s most ardent racists of the 1950s.
Photo Gallery: Wendell Griffen
View the photo gallery of Wendell Griffen.
Damaging fundamentalist theologies aside, in Advent we proclaim Christ’s return and re-creation
Now that we have passed the midpoint in the journey of Advent, it’s helpful to remember that Advent is an unfamiliar word for many in our world and in our evolving American culture. It’s a “churchy” word, like Lent or…
‘God don’t make junk’: Transformed vision prompted transformed community in S.C. neighborhood
Metanoia, a grassroots, asset-based community development ministry founded in 2002, is changing lives and perceptions in a North Charleston, S.C., neighborhood.
Photo Gallery: Metanoia in photos
All photos taken in this photo gallery of Metanoia are by Stephen B. Morton. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”14″ gal_title=”Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield”] In this series, we learn what happens when a community rejects traditional concepts of charity but instead taps the existing…
Churches struggle to serve those behind bars, study finds
Christ’s disciples are called to serve the least of these. But that may not include the least of those in prison and jails, a new study finds. LifeWay Research surveyed 1,000 Protestant senior pastors and found that most of them…