“The Black church will be the salvation of the world.” I’ll never forget those words, uttered by a colleague of mine as we gathered for a meeting of the local Black Pastors alliance. They struck me as soon as they…
Do you see Jesus as a power broker or a liberator?
A couple of decades ago I had the privilege of serving at a well-known Black church in Brooklyn. One day, some visiting German theologians, who were examining the Black church in America, asked our pastor if the God of the…
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.
Confronting all who would abuse the sacred idea of liberation in a time of crisis
Liberation is a sacred idea. Those who exploit the crisis of a global pandemic for their own political purposes or personal gain are not liberators.
She is here to love this country, not be a burden. She just needs an opportunity for a better life.
Like so many of the families with whom she shared a field, a song, a smile, Aracely Salazar is here to love this country, to work hard, to help her family thrive and to find peace.
What can we learn about poverty from those who work along the Texas-Mexico border?
Where opportunity for education and employment abounds, the fight against poverty remains spiritual, rooted in the heart.
James Cone and becoming black with God
In his lovely, gentle way, he was professionally pissed off, never fully comprehending how anyone could ever imagine a God who was not an advocate for the oppressed.
A white Jesus can’t save a brown child
I was raised in a brown evangelical church in a small, predominantly white town in central Texas. Our “mother” church was one of the many First Baptist Churches in the Texas Bible Belt. Our congregation was composed mainly of poor, uneducated, largely undocumented migrants from rural Mexico. And while we were a brown church, the Jesus we worshiped was white.
The cross: oppression or liberation?
La versión en español está disponible aquí. The cross is one of the most significant and powerful symbols in Christianity. Throughout history it has been perceived and used in different ways. It has been a central piece in theological reflection…