“Dividing voters based on race is wrong and unconstitutional.” Those are the words of Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, according to a statement he issued concerning his effort to terminate a federal judicial redistricting agreement established more than 35 years…
Griffen elected county judge in Little Rock
A Baptist pastor and former columnist for BNG was elected county judge for Pulaski County, Ark., Tuesday. Wendell Griffen, pastor of New Millennium Baptist Church in Little Rock, ran as a Democrat and outpaced Republican Michael Rushin, 65.53% to 34.47%….
Black Baptist pastor in Arkansas suspended from Facebook
A Black Baptist pastor in Arkansas was suspended from Facebook May 30 without explanation. Wendell Griffen, however, believes he was removed from the social media platform because of proposing a 12-month moratorium on permitting data centers, AI campuses and cryptocurrency…
This is what we should be doing, now
If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to read Heather Cox Richardson’s Aug. 25 Substack. If you don’t already know it, what Richardson wrote about is that the United States has been taken over by a white supremacist…
Demand the United States end genocide in Gaza
More than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli assaults in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. “The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that many people reportedly continue to be killed and injured, including people seeking food along…
Read the Bible as subversive speech against empire, Boesak and Griffen say
The Bible, like the parables of Jesus, is subversive speech that should inspire Christians to action today, according to Allan Boesak and Wendell Griffen. The two are authors of Parables, Politics and Prophetic Faith, a new book that interprets and…
Donald Trump’s January 6 insurrection is now a coup
On Feb. 2, private actors reportedly employed by Elon Musk took over U.S. Treasury computer systems that control the nation’s payments for government benefits. That action followed a Trump-ordered takeover of the USAID independent federal agency responsible for distributing foreign…
Jimmy Carter was the most decent and respectable president of my lifetime
Heather Cox Richardson’s assessment about the life and career of President Jimmy Carter is commendable, yet incomplete. Richardson failed to mention that it was President Carter who led the transfer of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama….
Truth, consequences and a suggested response
The January 1969 issue of Playboy magazine included an essay from a prominent American theologian that contained the following haunting words. Why is the issue of equality still so far from solution in America, a nation that professes itself to be democratic,…
This is how to defeat Trump’s fascist movement
It is only a matter of time before Donald Trump’s hateful fascist rhetoric incites some of his followers to engage in violence against immigrants, women, people of color, LGBTQ people, members of the news media, election officials and others who…
Sentencing Donald Trump
A New York state court jury found Donald Trump guilty of committing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal checks signed by Trump to repay his former attorney, Michael Cohen, in 2017 for suppressing unfavorable information about Trump’s…
A death wish granted
On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. called on the United States to lead the world in what he termed “a radical revolution of values” during a speech at Riverside Church in New York City. He urged the United…