People always stand at particular points in history, sometimes fully aware of where they stand, but sometimes giving little or no notice. Today we stand at a juncture worth noting — Black History Month behind us, and in the first…
Letter to white American evangelicals
What follows is a creative imagining of what Martin Luther King Jr. might say to white American evangelicals today. It was written by Joel A. Bowman Sr. in the spirit of King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Dear white American evangelicals:…
Are you sleeping through the revolution?
In the last chapter of the last book he wrote titled, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, Martin Luther King recalled the Washington Irving story of Rip Van Winkle who fell asleep for 20 years on a…
Once more, a knock at midnight
A Knock at Midnight is the title of a sermon Martin Luther King Jr. preached in 1967 on Jesus’ parable of a man who knocks on his neighbor’s door at midnight asking for bread to serve guests in their home…
On the anniversary of 9/11: Reclaiming ‘unanticipated courage’
On Tuesday, Sept.18, 2001, poet/prophet/writer Maya Angelou, professor of humanities at Wake Forest University, spoke to students and faculty at the Wake Forest School of Divinity. We had scheduled her visit months before, never knowing that it would occur exactly…
The church and a future worth fighting for
Martin Luther King Jr. famously remarked that 11 a.m. on Sunday was the “most segregated hour in America,” This has been an enduring truth, and the reasons for it are both noble and ignoble. Sunday morning became the most segregated…
The untold story of Black women leaders in the Civil Rights Movement
It seems that African American men who worked tirelessly to reverse the status of “the invisible man” (a term coined by Ralph Ellison) have found ways to keep women as invisible as possible in the leadership ranks of the church….
The pillow that keeps me up at night
No one should suffer because of a pain in the neck. Six years ago, I woke up every morning with a stiff neck. I tried exercises and heating pads. I took a few Aleves. I bought a new pillow and…
A letter to the white church in America
On April 12, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Birmingham, Ala., for leading a nonviolent demonstration for human rights. While he was being detained, he was given a newspaper that contained a statement written by eight white preachers….