By Amy Butler I think Michelle Alexander is a theologian. I mean, she’s a reluctant theologian for sure, but a theologian nonetheless. This is a designation to which, if you think about it, we should all aspire — both the…
The race problem: when you’re tired of eating elephant
By Starlette McNeill Someone asked the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” Someone else answered, “One bite at a time.” I don’t know who eats elephant or thinks that they can eat it all. I never have and don’t…
Ebola, race, marriage and Obamacare top stories in 2014
By Bob Allen Following is a summary of some of the year’s major headlines. Baptists and race. Will Baptists remember 2014 as a sea change in race relations? Fifty years after the civil rights movement and nearly 20 years after…
Jumping in, feet first
By Amy Butler I’m wondering this week if we’re having enough difficult conversations. Horrible images on the news, protests in the streets, a growing awareness — if we didn’t know it before — that all is certainly not right with…
Reinhold Niebuhr, Eric Garner and white privilege
By David Gushee follow David on Twitter @dpgushee One of the most bracing books I read for doctoral work was Reinhold Niebuhr’s 1932 classic, Moral Man and Immoral Society. I pulled it off the shelf this week while thinking about…
The race talk
By Starlette McNeill Race. The mere mentioning of the word reveals our unpreparedness, inexperience, awkwardness. Race has been with us for hundreds of years, yet we still don’t know what to say about it — though we are clear on…
We’ve got a lot of race work to do in America
By Marv Knox No matter what we think about a grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, can we acknowledge attitudes about race divide our nation? The grand jury’s Wilson/Brown decision…
Thabiti Anyabwile says Ferguson grand jury gives marching orders for change
By Bob Allen An African-American leader in the “young, restless and reformed” Calvinist movement in the Southern Baptist Convention called on President Obama to exercise strong leadership in light of a Nov. 24 grand jury decision in Ferguson, Mo., to…
After Ferguson, a letter to my children
By Greg Jarrell Dear John Tyson and Zeb, You make my heart sing. The joy in your eyes as you take in the world sometimes takes my breath away, which makes it hard to tell you about the shadow sides…
I can’t just leave
By Helms Jarrell Have you read The Help? I am Mae Mobley. Miss Eva hugged me close as I read to her from my kitty cat book, words she could not read herself. Miss Carolyn cleaned the scrape on my…
Repentance is more than saying, ‘I’m sorry’
By Greg Jarrell The author, who leads an intentional Christian community in Charlotte, N.C., attended the recent annual national conference of the Christian Community Development Association, a network of Christians committed to wholistic restoration for communities spiritually, emotionally, physically, economically and…
How Hurricane Hugo broke a racial barrier
By George Bullard Twenty-five years ago Hurricane Hugo made landfall in the Charleston, S.C., area and brought significant destruction in almost two dozen counties. At that time I was working for Baptists in South Carolina and supervised the department that…