A couple of decades ago I had the privilege of serving at a well-known Black church in Brooklyn. One day, some visiting German theologians, who were examining the Black church in America, asked our pastor if the God of the…
On Epiphany, tend the light of Christ with truth and love
On Epiphany, which the worldwide church celebrates today, we should ask ourselves how we, the church, will rise and shine in these dark days of discouragement so that we will be a light to the world. The answer has to…
An invitation to the SBC seminary presidents — and all white Christians — to enter the moral struggle as articulated by Howard Thurman
At the dawn of 1955, civil rights leader and Black theologian Howard Thurman preached on the Apostle Paul’s moral struggle in the Letter to the Romans. Mid-letter, Paul confesses he desires to do right, but there is a war within…
As Georgia goes to the polls: Win or lose, we’ll keep preaching the truth
I’ll never forget that moment. It was the late spring of 2008, and I was sitting in the pulpit of Covenant United Church of Christ in South Holland, Ill., where I had the privilege of serving for nearly eight years…
Southern Baptists need a vaccine for racism
As we have recently celebrated the birth of Christ, we would hope that our nation would rededicate itself to the true Christian ideals of the season: peace, love, goodwill toward all. Yet, after four years of the Trump presidency, and…
SBC will come to regret the seminary presidents’ statement on race
Disappointment. This is the only word that stuck with me as I read and re-read the recent statement from the six Southern Baptist seminary presidents rejecting Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. On the one hand, I guess I shouldn’t have…
Could you win a quiz show by defining ‘Critical Race Theory’?
Imagine you’re on a television game show vying for a $50,000 grand prize. All you have to do to win the money is give a proper definition of one term: Critical Race Theory. Could you do it? If your answer…
Dear Oscar Johnson, I’m sorry I betrayed you
Oscar, you might not remember me. It’s been many years — 1964 to 1965, to be exact. But I cannot forget you or the time I betrayed you, not meaning to in any way. Yet I did exactly that, and…
Will Southern Baptists ever list racism among the odious evils they must stand against, like abortion?
In October 1973, I was a first-semester religion major at Bishop College in Dallas, a Black college founded in 1881 by Baptists. Having turned 17 the prior month, I was in awe of the many teenage preachers on the campus….
SBC leaders cautiously wading into the conflict created by seminary presidents on race
Nearly three weeks after presidents of the six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries issued a controversial statement on systemic racism, other elected leaders within the SBC began to respond to the criticisms — although not with the same clarity with which…
Please listen to my friend Ralph West about racism and the SBC
Ralph D. West Sr. does more for race relationships by walking into a diverse room than many of us will do in a lifetime trying to help. My friend Ralph has merely to be present in a group of Blacks…
Another prominent Black Baptist pastor publicly quits the SBC
For the second time in two days, a prominent Black pastor has publicly quit the Southern Baptist Convention over its seminary presidents’ campaign against Critical Race Theory. “I keep hearing the words of Harriet Tubman: ‘We out,’” said Charlie Dates,…