If United Methodists are to fulfill the church’s current mission to dismantle racism, then its white members must come to terms with the denomination’s racist history, contends author John Elford. Elford’s conviction spurred him to write Our Hearts Were Strangely…
To understand white Christian nationalism, look to Doctrine of Discovery, Jones says
The historic fusing of Christianity and white supremacy is a moral and spiritual cancer eating at the body and soul of the American church, Robert P. Jones says in his latest book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the…
Progression or regression: Racism and women
He was tall, dark and handsome. As his ebony skin glistened in the sunlight, he looked like a Nigerian king. John Lawale was introduced to Jesus by the preaching of Josephine Scaggs, a Southern Baptist missionary from Sapulpa, Okla. She…
If CRT is a LIE, why are some people still illustrating its REALITY?
In 2023, in the land of the free and the home of the unreported perks of Supreme Court justices, the American Culture War seems to find a new front to defend or invade every day or so. At least it…
White reflections on racism: An interview with Frederick Allen
I sometimes tell the story about how back during the pandemic, at the height of the Black Lives Matter marches, my friend Kelly Brown Douglas schooled me on racial reconciliation. That’s the sort of thing she does. Until then, I…
‘Try That in A Sundown Town’
A small radio rested in my grandmother’s kitchen — one of those gadgets stained by time and the touch of hands that saw a day’s labor before sunrise. On it played nothing but Country Gold. As pintos simmered on the…
Duggar in-law preaches that slavery was abolished after Blacks ‘humbled themselves’
A Baptist church in Texas has issued a clarification after the father-in-law of the pastor preached that Black slaves “humbled themselves” and prayed, turning “from their wicked ways,” which led to their freedom through “several white presidents.” Mike Keller, who…
White Christian nationalism is an ‘unholy alliance’ between fundamentalism and politics, Tisby tells BNG crowd
An event that occurred outside Atlanta more than a century ago presaged the violent, racist God-and-country resurgence of white Christian nationalism that pervades America today, historian and author Jemar Tisby said during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s General Assembly in Atlanta…
The call is coming from inside the house: White Christian churches as incubators of anti-democratic sentiment
In 1979, “When a Stranger Calls” became a surprise box-office success. The plot, which drew on a common folk legend, wasn’t original, but the harrowing first 23 minutes of the film created a cult following and the film is still…