In the wake of recent travels, I’ve been thinking about the novelty of the experience against the backdrop of the pandemic. What was routine now seems exotic; what was comfortable seems unsettling. I’ve seen a lot of discussion about the loss…
White liberation: Toward a theology of recognition and repentance
Over the past month, I’ve had the great gift and responsibility of traveling the country talking to primarily white Christians about racism in the church and in America. At Trinity Church, Wall Street, America’s wealthiest congregation, I shared some of…
Was Adam and Eve’s ‘worldview’ the original sin?
Snowed in with my family over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, I stole a few moments away to read and reflect on racism in American society, how it persists even as its forms change, and ways to…
White hysteria, Critical Race Theory, and eyes that dare not see
The hysteria over Critical Race Theory right now means many things. Most immediately, it means that the relationship between skilled right-wing demagogues and their audience in the U.S. these days is positively Pavlovian. Stimulus-response, stimulus-response, rinse and repeat. If Tucker…
How American exceptionalism is killing America
Many ironies define the United States, but none is more harmful than this: We routinely silence the life-giving voices that can save us and amplify the death-dealing voices that can kill us. The voices that can save us are those…
‘God bless white America’: Why we need to overturn white racial mythologies
On June 17, 2015, a young white stranger walked into a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. (sometimes known as “Mother Emanuel” because of its role as one of America’s most historic Black churches). That…
‘We are all one race, and we are image-bearers of God’
Deep within the darkness of a womb, a little one is being carefully, lovingly knit together by our Father’s hands. The child is a gift created in his likeness, intended to bring him glory and bless his world and its…
Baldwin’s ‘The Fire Next Time’ has arrived, and it burns inexorably toward liberation
As people rise up to declare that they will not endure or be complicit in racist, white supremacist oppression, let’s call their actions what they are: protest, freedom struggle and revolution, not rioting, looting or “disobedience” to the authorities.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Really? Have you not been watching the news?
I preached on the poor in spirit, because when I listened carefully it sounded like God saying we have to do better – as the church, as communities and as a nation.