Brandt Jean’s embrace of his brother’s killer triggered a national conversation about forgiveness. But another conversation needs to be had in America and its churches.
Want to truly memorialize a 100-year-old race massacre? Let the people see the truth
We will not be afraid or lose hope or stop working for racial justice – meaning restitution and reparations – no matter how white supremacists and their quieter sympathizers sanitize bigotry, hypocrisy and addiction to greed with their hollow gestures.
Brandt Jean’s forgiveness of his brother’s killer was a Christ-like act; so is the call for justice
I acknowledge the bravery and faith that it must have required to say before the entire world, “I forgive.” But “I forgive you” is not the only cry we must hear.
Why a monument marking the 100-year anniversary of a race massacre injures rather than heals
A monument recognizing the 100th anniversary of the Elaine Race Massacre will soon be “dedicated,” not in Elaine, Arkansas, but in Helena, across from the courthouse where justice was not served, on ground that also hosts a tribute to seven Confederate generals.
Nationalism and the tribal god it creates
Instead of worshipping a Cosmic Christ, many have settled for a tribal deity who suits our tribal behavior. The result? A nationalism which places country above God and uses religion to justify any means.
Judge calls for hate-crime probe in monument defacement
An Arkansas judge and Baptist minister is asking that the chopping down of a tree planted in honor of victims of a 1919 race massacre be investigated as a hate crime.
A ‘monument’ to black people massacred 100 years ago in Arkansas reeks of the hypocrisy Jesus condemned
Jesus called out the hypocrites of his day with angry words. When white leaders misuse power to profit from past wrongs of racism and heap additional injuries on oppressed people, what words need to be heard?
Angela Project ceremony aims to repair, not repeat, America’s history of racism
Repairing America’s racial divide will require more than feeling remorse for sins in the past, the president of a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky, told an audience of mixed races from various faith traditions gathered to reflect on the 400th anniversary of slavery in the United States.
The president is correct: there IS an insanity gripping our nation
Trump is correct that we are experiencing a frightening dis-ease in America. Insanity – moral disorder – imperils our people, our nation, our earth. What he doesn’t seem to recognize is that he is the source of much of the chaos, the claims of many evangelical leaders notwithstanding.