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.
As the white mother of a black son, calls for racial justice evoke something deep within me
My son is now raising black sons of his own. He fears for them, as I feared for him when he was a child and now fear for my grandchildren.
Trump’s latest obscenity, a contrived and vacuous photo op, has left a lasting impression
Just as Trump has not risen to the stature of the presidency, religious leaders who have blindly supported and defended him have not risen to the stature of their prophetic calling. A country cannot afford to have both king (president, in America’s case) and prophets fail all at once.
I’m so weary of hearing ‘I’m sorry’ from white people. Just stop it!
White people can be exhausting partly because there is so much that they are ignorant of or unequivocally wrong about on crucial, literally life-and-death issues. And that gets old.
I can’t imagine the longsuffering patience of black people. I hope to understand their impatience.
The protests and demonstrations this time are different. They may be a sign that something really is changing, even with the longsuffering patience of the black community. At least I pray that is so.
Tower of Babel or Pentecost? The Church must not turn a deaf ear to cries for justice.
Buried beneath the binary, overly simplistic talking points and rebuttals that ignite social media content wars is the collective cry of black people who have experienced these acts of violence for hundreds of years.
Could the righteous, riotous fire of Pentecost be burning in the protests for racial justice?
The riotous fire of a burning police precinct might not be the Pentecostal flame many of us expected, and that itself is a failure of white Christians to listen to the suffering around us.
Justice for George Floyd: what went wrong and how to make it right
From my vantage point as a lawyer, judge and Baptist minister, I have reviewed carefully the matter of George Floyd’s death while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers and the stream of events in the wake of his death. The list of what went wrong is long and damning.
Destroying our own neighborhoods
The recent uprising in Baltimore has occupied our screens and dominated our conversations for more than a week now. Protestors there pricked the consciences of the nation in their cries for justice for Freddie Gray. At some point, a small…