The urban neighborhood where we have chosen to live is not always joyful. My heart has been broken more than a few times. But this place and its people have been my salvation.
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.
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.
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?
Anti-racist discipleship: a solution to the same death-dealing lies of white supremacy James Baldwin wrote about
Baldwin’s “mystical” solution to the lies of white supremacy is immensely practical. Such spirituality looks like organizing our communities to attend to the political and economic wounds our nation inflicts and to bring into practice a community that is at once more grounded and more beautiful than we have dared to imagine.
A Facebook post, a detained citizen and racial profiling right under our noses
White Christians in America must see racism for what it is: sin. Seeing our sin and our complicity is the first step to repentance. We must see this because it’s literally killing our neighbors of color, all created in the image of God.
Responding to gun violence in America: the Church cannot give up
Because we follow the Prince of Peace, the seemingly endless gun violence in our nation affects us in a deep place. Our hearts and spirits feel this violence as a literal assault on our humanity and our faith. So what do we do now?
On July 4, I will not be celebrating. Here’s why
Political leaders’ amorality and immorality about justice has always been tolerated, if not actively enabled, by religious nationalists in congregations in all regions of the country and in every religious sect.
Beyond condemning racist violence, the white church must grapple with ways it is implicated in that violence
Dismantling systems of racism and ending racism’s attendant violence will require white people to engage courageously in political action that is grounded in solidarity with people of color across differences of race, class and religion.
A Lenten reflection about repentance, reparations and resistance
An appeal to my white Baptist sisters and brothers: when it comes to talk about the issue of reparations, I hope you will embrace and maintain a penitent silence during the remaining days of Lent.
Pastor, judge, activist, agitator: As he strives for justice, Wendell Griffen stretches the lexicon of adjectives
Wendell Griffen, 66, is all of these things. But his persona is so large, his reputation so loud, his “rightness” so locked in and eagerly defended, that the man’s depth can be lost in the shallows in which he must wade.