Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd will convene A National Conversation on Racial Unity at the group’s annual meeting next month in St. Louis, the pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas announced in a blog May 2. Floyd said…
When Christians won’t say #BlackLivesMatter
Saying #BlackLivesMatter does not diminish the value of other lives. It acknowledges the ways in which this country has devalued the life of a black person in comparison to the life of another, typically white, person.
That’s not your seat: Regulating the seating arrangements at God’s dinner party
“That’s not your seat” is a phrase used by Morgan DePerno, a student in my church history class, as the title for her recent review of Martin Luther King Jr’s Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. For Morgan, “that’s not…
Pastor wants SBC to repudiate Confederate flag
An African-American pastor is asking the Southern Baptist Convention to adopt a resolution calling for elimination of public display of the Confederate flag. Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, recently submitted a resolution for possible consideration…
What color is a crayon called ‘flesh’?
Several decades ago I was in a learning experience with a diverse group of people in terms of race. We were divided into small groups and given cards of various colors. We were asked to respond to questions by suggesting…
White Americans, this is what it feels like to be a minority
In this political season, a fear, masked by a sometimes openly raging anger directed toward an array of minorities, is the fear of a white majority that is thoroughly panicked by the awareness that it is on a slow but…
To such as these
It was the last place I wanted to be that night. It had been a long day, and now I was crammed into a hot and crowded school auditorium for my son’s school music program. I gave him a thumbs…
As U.S. holds world record for imprisonment, churches increase prison ministries
The United States locks up more people in prison — in raw numbers and in percentage of the population — than any other nation in the world. More than 2 million people are incarcerated in federal, state and county jails,…
Why I will protest a school I love
I am a pastor who loves Jesus. Yet I’m also realizing I’m a pastor who loves comfort, ease, a good reputation, and money almost just as much. These idols cause me to fear writing the words you’re now reading.
No Oscar nominations for non-whites: Time to change the membership
By Michael Parnell The 2016 Academy Awards nominees were announced on Jan. 14 and for the second year in a row there were no actors of color nominated. That is 20 nominations and not one for an actor or actress…
Dr. King didn’t do everything
We miss the significance of the Civil Rights Movement if we attribute everything to Dr. King. In fact, if one studies the record carefully, it is amazing to note that most of the major Civil Rights Movement campaigns were actually…
Unprofessional Christianity, part 2: Dying
The stories of Zaevion Dobson, Freddie Grey, Tamir Rice, and the birth of Jesus decenter everything we think we know about the meaning of life and Christmas. This season has nothing to do with where you go after you die,…