“We are living in terrifying times, but we are people of faith,” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told members of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta last Sunday. The New York Democrat made a surprise appearance May 10 at the historic church,…
Black clergy strategize, preach and urge election turnout after Voting Rights Act gutting
On the first Sunday (May 3) after the Supreme Court decided to hollow out the Voting Rights Act, the Rev. Richelle Lewis-Castine offered some clear advice to her congregation in Patterson, Louisiana.
Voting rights and the ancestral voices of the African diaspora
Let me tell you what just happened: The U.S. Supreme Court effectively dismantled the Voting Rights Act. The very legislation for which John Lewis bled on that bridge, for which Fannie Lou Hamer was beaten in a Mississippi jail, for…
The Supreme Court is betting on America’s amnesia
The U.S. Supreme Court’s latest voting rights ruling is dangerous not only for what it does legally, but for what it reveals nationally. It reveals how much historical amnesia now exists in the American bloodstream. A nation that still viscerally…
Supreme Court further dilutes Voting Rights Act
The U.S. Supreme issued a 6-3 ruling April 29 severely limiting a key element of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that protects minorities from voting discrimination. In a decision split along ideological lines, the court made it more difficult…
What does freedom mean to you? Black Baptist women and the fight to vote
What does freedom mean to you? On July 26, former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told Christians at The Believers’ Summit, an event hosted by Christian nationalist advocacy group Turning Point USA: “Get out and vote. Just this…
What if you’re wrong?
I feel compelled to reason with my white evangelical sisters and brothers about their political choices, particularly those of late. We agree on the ultimate issues of Christ, salvation, the Bible and such. But, with all the humility and respect…
Two key developments in voting rights rulings in Arkansas
Arkansas now finds itself at the center of the nation’s debate over what’s “election integrity” and what’s “voter suppression.” And a Baptist judge is one of the key players. Arkansas Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen (who also is a BNG columnist)…
Marching to the voting booth
The book of Ecclesiastes tells us there is nothing new under the sun. Well, I say Ecclesiastes was wrong. Recently, I heard about a notion that is not only new under our sun, but frankly, new under any star or…
President Johnson’s scintillating Selma speech
Fifty years ago this month, the small city of Selma, Alabama, was much in the news. And now Selma is in the news again, partly because it is the 50 th anniversary of what happened in 1965 but also because…
They are your brothers
The news of late has been enough to depress just about anyone who longs for and fights for justice, fairness, and equality. We have seen states trying to limit a woman’s access to healthcare and limit her right to make her own…