Colleyville, Texas, is consistently ranked as one of the “safest cities” in Texas — that is, unless you are the first Black principal of the predominantly white suburban Fort Worth high school. Colleyville Heritage High School Principal James Whitfield is…
How the oldest American lie sustains our racial malaise
I have spent 50 years teaching college students from coast to coast and points in between, and while much has changed over the course of those 50 years, one thing has remained unchanged: the students’ abysmal ignorance of the negative…
87 steps toward becoming an ideal team player on the quest for social justice
One of the most insightful books on business management and human resources that I’ve read in the last five years is Patrick Lencioni’s The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues. Lencioni makes compelling arguments…
COVID wars: Lament over a broken, divided nation
I was talking with a senior Mercer University colleague yesterday about the divisions engulfing our nation over COVID vaccines and masks. Carl has served as a pastor, professor and politician. He’s a very wise man. I said: “Carl, two years…
‘The meanness of this moment’ in America (and its churches)
Recently, a friend asked, “Has American culture gone completely mad?” Today, I’d add to that troubling question this troubled response: “It’s not just that American culture has gone mad, it’s also gone mean. Meanness, to quote a Bette Midler song,…
Let’s demonize racism, not Critical Race Theory
Since the former president unwillingly departed the office, his Republican minions have leaned into the ardent racist dog whistles and racial mythologies he employed in trying unsuccessfully to remain in power. Big among these Republican racial tropes is the idea…
The big news from the 2020 Census is multiculturalism, which threatens some people and still eludes most churches
Demographers have been predicting for three decades that the United States was headed toward a non-majority status for any single racial group in the population. Results of the 2020 Census released last week confirm that ongoing trend, but the real…
Americans are deeply divided over the need for racial healing and how to talk about the nation’s past
Americans remain intensely split over the pace and need for racial healing more than a year after the police killing of George Floyd unleashed massive social and political upheaval, new research shows. The Pew Research Center also has found deep…
America’s racial sins are sins against God
Too many American Christians act as if our nation has somehow earned God’s approval through our inherent virtue. Instead, I believe the largest way America has reflected Christianity is in how we have been completely dependent upon the grace (unmerited…