Pro-democracy activists should have as much if not more confidence in the potential of their movement as authoritarian white supremacists do, Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones said during Fellowship Southwest’s Compassion and Justice Conference. “If we were not powerful, if our…
To create spaces of peace, center on Jesus, California pastor Capshaw urges
In order to find peace amidst polarity, consider two ways of raising cattle, California pastor Scott Capshaw told participants at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s General Assembly in Greensboro, N.C., June 20. Capshaw, pastor of First Baptist Church in Tahoe City,…
Is Trump innocent?
Of all the loud voices of protests from across the country about the unfairness of the legal system toward the former president, I have not heard a single one of them declare he is innocent. Thus, I am led to…
First we had election deniers; now we have justice deniers
This time, the problem is not with America’s justice system; the problem is with conservative evangelicals’ warped view of what justice means. The folks always screaming about “law and order” don’t really care about law and order when it works…
Holy Week and Pentecost at UT Arlington’s Palestinian protest
One of the tasks and joys of my ministry in the last year has been to build relationships with young adults in our community and respond to their needs. Recently, that work brought me out from the walls of the…
The dangers of minority rule
America is a nation being held hostage by fundamentalism. In our recent BNG webinar with Robert P. Jones and Greg Garrett and Timothy Peoples, the single thing that stuck with me most is a comment by Jones, who is among…
Confessions of a white preacher
Two stories. Two young men. One white. One black. It was a number of years ago now. I was a pastor in the suburbs of Washington, in a multiethnic congregation of people from the very poor to the quite wealthy….
The silence of our friends
If you were to survey the most significant decades in human history, the late 1950s to late 1960s undoubtedly would be at the top of the list because of the Civil Rights Movement, better known as the Southern Black Freedom…
In this war, there are no ‘good guys’
Normally, I’m a defender of the so-called “mainstream media,” in part because I am one of that group. However, when it comes to understanding and reporting on Israel and Palestine, almost all media outlets have failed Americans who seek clear…
60 years later, only our action can keep the dream alive
In August 2013, I was serving as a pastor on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. All month long, there was a feeling of excitement in the air. That Aug. 28 marked the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, the…
Being ‘resilient’ isn’t good enough for climate justice, Malcom urges
“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” says a familiar adage. The longtime saying is getting a new, more urgent interpretation from United Methodists, who are acting to create more sustainable futures in the wake of…
Will Christians embrace a ‘Holy Ambition’ for the environment?
I recently attended the General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Atlanta. This came on the heels of the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in New Orleans and initiating a process to kick out Saddleback Church in California, and others…