Beyoncé invites church girls to celebrate their freedom
“Lord, place me … I want to be centered in thy will.” Mixed with the sounds of the iconic pioneer of New Orleans bounce music, DJ Jimi, these words, w...
Love Thy Neighbor – Start with Hello
The invitation awaits us, but first we must choose. Will we believe the loudest voices, which warn us to choose sides quickly, dig in our heels, and rely on our own independence? Or will we trace the steps of Jesus himself, who invited us into abundance through his living testimony as a neighbor, awake and available to God’s goodness in his own city streets?
Christian Nationalism is Dangerous to Christians
More Christians must step up. We must do more than just watch the January 6th hearings aghast. We cannot allow our faith to continue to be hijacked by white supremacists covered in religious language. For the sake of our faith and our democracy, we must denounce Christian nationalism and reclaim a faith that values and affirms the human dignity of all people. Including our own.
Anti-LGBTQ+ Rhetoric Is On The Rise: How Should We Respond?
In a strange way, I am glad Pastor Awes preached what he did so clearly, because he is revealing the truth that most other evangelicals don’t want to acknowledge- their theology related to the LGBTQ+ community is a theology of death.
In the Kentucky Derby of Religions: Do we have a winner?
Over this last century, things have often gone, not as Rev. Fosdick hoped, but as he feared.
Were he here today, I think he would challenge all non-fundamentalists — Christian and otherwise — with a very practical path forward. He would challenge us to wake up every day realizing that five fundamental threats are breathing down our necks. He would challenge us to out-think, out-organize, out-give, out-strive, out-love, and out-last our fundamentalist counterparts in the 21st Century. He would challenge us to start acting like we’re losing, because we are.
How Christian nationalism paved the way for Jan. 6
Christian nationalism — in the broadest sense, a belief that Christianity is integral to America as a nation and should remain as such — provided a theological framework for the effort to deny Democrats the White House.
Whiteness is Rooted in Inadequacy (An Excerpt from Straight White Male)
We are worthy only because God has made it so. The irony is, nothing puts just how unlove-able we can be in starker relief than when we soothe our own insecurities by doing physical, economic, emotional and spiritual violence to our siblings of color.
June 17th, 2015 ( Excerpt from For such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness after the Charleston Massacre”)
"You cant heal in isolation, Trust your gut instinct and cling to your faith, Be prepared to get rejected. You’ve got to persevere. Don’t give up on humanity. Everybody has a purpose, You have to put in the work to achieve your dreams."
Slow To Speak and Quick To Listen (An Excerpt From The Race-Wise Family)
"When we hold the Bible in one hand and the news in the other, our posture as a race-wise family will be to listen often and well, and to be slow to speak. We will challenge ourselves to hear all the voices in a news story and then respond in ways that are honoring and loving toward those who have been victimized or who are struggling."
Why #IStandWithJemar & Hope You Will Too
"...having spent time on Christian college campuses, my heart aches for the young people who thought they were learning to follow Jesus and the faculty and staff who show up every day assuming that their mission is to pursue God’s kingdom, not the success of the Republican Party. The Board of Trustees hasn’t only singled out Dr. Tisby in an unfair and un-Christian way. They have also let down a community whose primary obstacle to faith in recent years is the hypocrisy of its leaders. "