The current sociopolitical climate, where untruths are allowed to go unchecked, unchallenged, and unsubstantiated, creates an environment that not only threatens people’s physical safety but also does violence to their sense of identity. Without a narrative that affirms all people as made in the image of God, some individuals in society will learn to live […]
We must awaken this reality in society Read More »
This book puts forward a simple proposition: it is time – indeed, well beyond time – for white Christians in the United States to reckon with the racism of our past and the willful amnesia of our present. Underneath the glossy, self-congratulatory histories that white Christian churches have written about themselves is a thinly veiled,
It is well beyond time… Read More »
Let’s take the binary of white/nonwhite – you know, as a totally random example. Whether you’re ready to admit it yet or not, there’s a hierarchy built in there. Everything about whiteness is perceived as better than nonwhiteness according to our hot little socialized norms. White is equal to “good guys,” to “purity,” to “closer
The binary of white/nonwhite Read More »
from Religion News Service https://religionnews.com/2021/07/14/ucc-united-church-of-christ-declares-racism-a-public-health-crisis/
United Church of Christ declares racism a public health crisis Read More »
This book is laid out upon a few assumptions. FIrst is that in order to be a Christian, one must read, know, and follow the words and commandments of Jesus Christ. I am making the case that calling oneself Christian does not make it so. Celebrating Christmas and Easter does not qualify one for Christian
Some Assumptions In This Book Read More »
by Jeff Burns https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jeffburns/2021/06/how-my-momma-save-me-from-racism/
How My Momma Saved Me From Racism Read More »
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/06/30/critical-race-theory-lightning-rod-opinion-497046
Centuries of racial discrimination and injustice are the foundation upon which current social and economic institutions stand. Education, for example, is touted as a way for persons to participate fully in the American dream of opportunity and resourceful living. Schools, however, report major disparities in the educational achievement of Black and Hispanic students when compared
Embedded in how American institutions and systems function Read More »
Yet as I wallowed in grief, I realized I was not alone. This is how most of the world has lived for most of history. Rarely are leaders on the side of the people. Quite often, there are radically different views and experiences within societies and even within individual families. In the United States, people
The only way through all of this Read More »
The United States was founded on the principle that all people are created equal. Yet the nation began with the attempted genocide of Indigenous people and the theft of their land. American wealth was built on the labor of kidnapped and enslaved Africans and their descendents. Women were denied the right to vote until 1920,
As an African American woman, I’m acutely aware that many of us bear the weight of reconciliation in our bodies. This is not some social experiment for us. The call to reconciliation takes a toll on us. It takes something out of us to keep being the weather vane or the canary in the coal
The burden we have carried and continue to carry Read More »
It would not be until I was well into a PhD program at Emory University in my thirties that I was confronted with the brutal violence that white Christians deployed to resist black enfranchisement following the Civil War. The theologically backed assertion of the superiority of both “the white race” and Protestant Christianity undergirded a
The link between political leaders and prominent white churches was not just incidental Read More »
Paradox is that strange place where two things are true at the same time. Often, the two things seem diametrically opposed. This idea that two things can be true at the same time is foundational to understanding good white racism. Statements like “You are a good person, and you are also a racist” are, essentially,
by Dr. Jeff Burns https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jeffburns/2021/06/growing-up-white-in-the-segregated-south-forbidden-friendship/
Growing Up White In The Segregated South: Forbidden Friendship Read More »
If it was puzzling to me how, in spite of the presence of God and the Bible there could be such racism, I was comforted to learn that I was not the only one. The history of this hypocrisy. Throughout history, the pro-slavery and anti-slavery proponents argued their case for their points of view. The
Diametrically Opposed Belief Systems Read More »
To understand my evolution as a reconciliation leader, you must first understand that I began my journey sincerely believing that if I could convince evangelical Christians that reconciliation was not some politically motivated agenda but a biblical calling rooted in Scripture, they would pursue racial justice. For years I tried to be biblical enough, nonthreatening
What are you going to do about it? Read More »
I want at once to break down the association of “bad = dark” and “good = light” because of the way our stupid human brains will equate this to people and their skin. Like so many things about issues of race, the language we need does not yet exist; there is a paradigm void that
The language we need does not yet exist Read More »
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/08/politics/black-voter-suppression/index.html
A short history of the long conservative assault on Black voting power Read More »
Now more than ever, those who care about the reconciliation command of the cross must speak up and out about injustice and must go about the work of dismantling the structures of this injustice and combating the harmful, even deadly result of this country’s unchecked legacy of systemic inequality and discrimination. The church must talk
The church must talk about justice Read More »
Because I know the R-word freaks everybody out, let’s go about defining it too, because I mean something very specific when I use it. Racism refers to a system of hierarchy based on the belief that one race is superior to all others. Most often, and as is definitely the case in the United
