Looking Forward with Patience
“Don’t start me on stories!” - Dr. Vincent Harding.
In light of both the Government and Coalition’s failure to let their yes be yes to the global poor, I want to share two stories. One is from Martin Luther...
The Church and the New Civil Rights Movement
Richard “Dick” Brogan was a personal friend, and he was one of my heroes.
Dick was a white Mississippi Baptist minister who worked tirelessly to build relationships between whites and blacks during segregatio...
What Would MLK Do? Christians and Climate Change
Early in the civil rights movement, Bayard Rustin said to King, "I have a feeling that the Lord had laid his hand upon you. And that is a dangerous, dangerous thing." Similarly, the FBI once described Marti...
This Train: Songs of the Civil Rights Movement
“I’m not black,
but there’s a whole lot of times
I wish I could say I’m not white.”
-Frank Zappa
The history and progress of civil rights in America has never been easy, and many times it has been downright ...
Steve Jobs, God’s Vision & Here I Stand: #OccupyWallStreet NOT Afghanistan
This week marks ten years since the occupation of Afghanistan started. I’ve just sat down to throw some thoughts on paper in between speaking engagements in New Zealand. The news here is all Rugby World Cup and...
End the Silence of the Good People – What White People Can Do About Racism
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” – MLK Jr
Over the last few ...
With Morbid Silence: Christian Denial in an Age of Economic Disparity
Whether it is in our passionate recitation from the one line of the one Martin Luther King speech we’ve actually read or the long clap that followed our now President’s suggestion that “There’s not a black Amer...
Resurrection City: For a Living Wage
When Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, the world stopped for a moment. Shaken, confused but searching for a way to continue the fight, civil rights leaders decided to continue Ki...
What Would Martin Luther King Jr. Do? Christians and Climate Change
The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr and the reality of climate change are both victims of western culture's remarkable capacity to accommodate and neutralize that which is most critical of it.
Early in the civ...
We All Love Him Now: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I remember the 1950s and 60s well. For me the Civil Rights era took place when I was in college and slightly after I graduated. In my small apartment I would frequently turn the radio on to hear stories of pr...