A Baptist pastor affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has teamed with a Nation of Islam leader to demand justice for an African American man allegedly beaten by police in Flint, Mich., earlier this month. Devontae Powell, lead pastor at…
Someone I know was killed by the police
Someone I know was killed by the police. When a friend from college texted asking if I saw that a former football player at our alma mater had been killed, my stomach dropped. Could it be someone I knew? I…
In this election season, I am partisan to the gospel first and last
It’s always about power, don’t you know? If that hasn’t become obvious to you in the past week, then you suffer from hardening of the categories caused by hyper-partisanship. I was on three calls just Wednesday asking me about how…
How you view police killings, racism and monuments influenced by faith and party
Religious beliefs combined with racial identity continue to fuel dramatic differences in the way Americans view police killings of unarmed Black men, the prevalence of “reverse racism” and thinking of the Confederate flag and monuments to Confederate leaders as about…
Let’s stop covering up the enablers of racism in America
Back during the heated battle for control of the Southern Baptist Convention, Ed Young once chided the denominational press for seeking information about a fundamentalist leader who had done something untoward. I can’t remember who had committed the sin or…
Assessing the ‘responsibility pie’ of George Floyd’s murder
I’m a chaplain, but I work with mental health professionals and have for the last 10 years. Along the way, I picked up the simple therapeutic tool of the “responsibility pie,” which might offer a new way of looking at…
If you would have marched with Dr. King, where are you now?
Editor’s note: In October 2017, Freddy Haynes of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas wrote an open letter to Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas, asking his cooperation in fighting racism in America. Haynes is a nationally known figure…
In Louisville, learning as a white witness in Black space
Last Saturday, June 27, a paramilitary outfit of white nationalists threatened on social media to “take back” our city from the racial justice protesters occupying Injustice Park in downtown Louisville. They predicted that the encampment of largely peaceful protesters would be cleared by nightfall.
Dallas CBF pastor stands with black clergy protesting police shooting of African-American man
A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship pastor in Dallas criticized white churches for not speaking up alongside blacks demanding justice in the killing of an African-American man in his own apartment by a white police officer. On Sunday George Mason, senior pastor…