I first came across the phrase “slaveholder religion” when I read the book by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove titled Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion. The premise of the book is that America’s original sin of chattel slavery persists as…
A message to white Christian America: Remember the church at Sardis
I recently finished reading White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, by Robert P. Jones, the CEO of Public Religion Research Institute. In that book, Jones comments about recent (2018 and 2019) public opinion survey responses from white…
What I learned about voter suppression while sitting in the Quiet Chair as a child
Summer visits to my grandmother’s farm included accompanying her to work decades before the Take Your Daughter to Work Day evolved. Her 25-plus-year career as the registrar of voters in a Louisiana parish populated by struggling farmers spanned the Jim…
Oregon is burning while most white Christians deny climate science
The smoke permeates everything. Even with every door and window closed tight. The whole house smells like smoke. This week, Oregon has erupted in wildfires. Nearly a million acres are burning, and unusual winds from the east have blown the…
Baptist Calvinists defend slavery of Southern Seminary founders
As some Black Southern Baptists urge their denomination’s flagship seminary to remove honors to enslavers, prominent white Calvinists associated with the school are defending not only the founders but even slavery.
I’m standing with the kneelers. Will you join me?
From the beginning, I’ve stood with the kneelers. It’s time for you to join me. The unnecessary furor began in August 2016 when the quarterback for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers was joined by one teammate to take a knee…
Films on race can help us have hard conversations
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests around the country and across the globe, HBO Max announced earlier this summer that it was pulling the historical epic Gone with the Wind (1939) from the streaming lineup. Then it…
Lessons from a late summer pilgrimage
Walk the Walk was a walking pilgrimage of racial reckoning, resolve and love organized and supported by Red Letter Christians, Faith and Action, Vote Common Good, Greater Things, and the Truth and Conciliation Commission. Covering the 120 miles between Charlottesville,…
Panel of care providers sees a way to help stop racism
Mental health professionals and ministers working together can help change the social narratives that justify racism and oppression in the United States, an online panel of therapists and clergy said Aug. 28. But they also must possess that awareness and…
Life lessons from speaking with a foreign accent
What we know today to be the traditional “Asian accent” tells the story of Asian American assimilation in essence. The generation of Asian immigrants before us possessed the accent that white Americans saw as the most foreign in comparison to…
Reflections on the 19th Amendment and the pace of change
What commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment this year has shown me is that profound change can take an inordinate amount of time, but it doesn’t have to. The 19th Amendment was first introduced in 1878, but it…
How you view police killings, racism and monuments influenced by faith and party
Religious beliefs combined with racial identity continue to fuel dramatic differences in the way Americans view police killings of unarmed Black men, the prevalence of “reverse racism” and thinking of the Confederate flag and monuments to Confederate leaders as about…