A church may have a racist past even if its archives reveal no evidence of support of slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, segregation or other racist structures, author and historian Andrew Gardner said during a recent webinar hosted by the Alliance…
Alliance of Baptists steps into anti-racism work
The coming year will be filled with the challenge of intense anti-slavery work for the Alliance of Baptists if its 2022 fall gathering was any indication. The session was held Nov. 10-12 in Montgomery, Ala., where about 150 participants attended…
When hate speech meets the First Amendment, what should Christians do?
Hate speech, like an erratic stock market, rises and falls. The primary instigators of the last two jumps in hate speech have been Donald Trump (beginning in 2015) and Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter. In Trump’s case, there…
How Santa figures into the not-so-merry Supreme Court case about LGBTQ discrimination
One of the key sticking points in the hotly contested debate over LGBTQ discrimination is whether that issue is in any way equivalent to racial discrimination. Now, Santa has gotten involved. White Santa, that is. During oral arguments before the…
This is what happens when race is ‘nothing’
There’s a refrain that dominates conservative rhetoric: “It’s not about race.” From white parents who insist they send their children to private, mostly segregated academies because “I’m only interested in a good education,” to politicians who insist there is only…
Words matter, even when talking about those you hope to empower
Movements for racial and social equity cannot succeed as long as their members and supporters use stigmatizing language about the challenges they face, social entrepreneur Trabian Shorters said recently on the “Interfaith America with Eboo Patel” podcast. Even when the…
The dangerous worldview of Republican election deniers
Around elections, we often hear variations of the claim that “democracy itself is on the ballot.” Because this declaration is, in some sense, a truism, it’s easy to nod and dismiss its concrete claims. But in the current context, this…
United Methodists elect married gay clergyman among 13 new bishops who represent many other firsts
A married gay clergyman from California was among 13 new bishops elected by United Methodist delegates to five regional U.S. conferences Nov. 2-5. And that was only one of several first-ever results of this year’s elections. The election of Cedrick…
Once again, white evangelicals are outliers on beliefs about race and American history
White evangelicals are much more likely than other U.S. adults to believe white Americans face as much discrimination as Blacks and other people of color, Public Religion Research Institute found in its recently released 2022 American Values Survey. A smaller…
PRRI’s new national survey shows chasm between Americans growing wider
Few would be surprised to learn that the latest American Values Survey shows Americans moving increasingly apart on issues such as race, sexuality, politics, immigration, democracy and the overall state and direction of the nation. Even so, Robert P. Jones,…
White supremacy in blackface: The curious case of Herschel Walker
Blackface is one of the disgraceful aspects of American history. Popularized in the United States after the Civil War, blackface involved white performers playing characters that demeaned and dehumanized African Americans. These offensive and blatantly racist performances were done in…
The truth about assimilation
Many people believe our racial problems would all go away if we all would simply focus on being “unhyphenated Americans.” This assimilation argument is wrong. In America, assimilation into the default ethnic culture means becoming white. The birth of a…