Historic, an apt descriptor for the 75th Commemorative Remembrance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Introducing the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Accord broadcast hosted by the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the Charter for Compassion, Religions for Peace, and United Religions Initiative (URI) on August 6, 2020.
read moreI’m done being represented by a needy, belligerent, barely literate mobster.
I’m done with unrepentant racists and anti-science religious zealots.
I’m done with confederate flags and Fox News and MAGA cultism.
I walk to a wall made of 216 interconnected, 8 x 10 photos of “black lives taken by racial violence.” Memories of standing before a pile of shoes at Auschwitz come to mind. I try to imagine the full, robust life of each person whose life—whose infinite, valuable, beautiful life—was snuffed out because of racial violence.
read moreThough I am gone, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.
read moreDr. Wiggins goes into detail about growing up and figuring out what he wanted to do with his life, as well as how all that led to his position at the NAACP.
read moreWe really are not in the same boat but we surely are in the same storm. The pandemic is very inconvenient for the people who get to keep their jobs, income, health insurance, and home. But those who are now unemployed, uninsured, evicted or facing foreclosure are in another kind of boat and it is in danger of sinking.
read moreViolence against people of color. Violence against women. Authoritarian and confused reaction to a pandemic. A fundamentalist distortion of Christianity. And controlling influence by the rich and powerful.
read moreIn Remembrance: Growing up the son of an Alabama sharecropper, John Lewis practiced preaching to the chickens; from whence he clearly developed his oratorical style. He matured and went on to devote a lifetime of service as the “conscience” of the Congress; often preaching, as it were, to a flock of chickens of another sort. But this time with a calmer, constant, steady and unwavering voice.
read moreSCRIPTURE Zechariah 8.1–8
read moreIn the third episode of the Born Black Faith & Reason Series, Debo and Catherine Young talk with Dr. Alice Graham, the executive director of Back Bay Mission in Biloxi. Dr. Graham recounts her own experience …
read moreI’ve been feeling somewhat discouraged lately, as I guess we all have. Every day, it seems, more bad climate news slaps us in the face. Add to that the covid pandemic, unrecognized by Trump and disregarded by his followers, and racial injustice, not unrecognized but rather played upon by Trump and his sycophants.
read moreFar too often, patriotism is expressed as enthusiasm for wars as if the battlefield was the only way to become a hero or to find virtue when, in almost every case, the opposite is true.
read moreAs a nation, we are experiencing our own awakening right now. We are in the midst of an uprising for Black lives the world has never seen. Millions of us are flooding the streets, risking our lives, to call for justice since George Floyd’s public lynching. Millions more are rising up in solidarity. Revolutionary love is when you are brave enough to see no stranger.
read moreThis Fourth of July, Americans are being forced to see the nation’s celebration for independence differently. The combination of the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately affected Black Americans, and the ongoing protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd have brought attention to this nation’s centuries-old history of anti-Black violence.
read moreWe’re delighted to announce that the recordings from our June 17th and June 18th Anti-Racism Workshop are now available for purchase. To honor what you all paid to attend in person, and to encourage folks to join future classes in real time, we’ve priced both classes together for $25, and made each individual class available for $15.
read moreAlong comes the dispute over the monuments of famous historical figures now considered worthy by some of being knocked off their high horses. It is a reminder for us all to reconsider just who, or what, each of us believes is of such monumental importance and value that we would elevate it to a place of prominence. For those who would follow claim to be followers of a Jesus figure of our own understanding, one might do well to reflect on whatever “divine” attribute one might accord such a revered figure.
read moreCovid-19 will also have a casualty count among congregations. Which churches will survive into the 21st century and, frankly, which ones really shouldn’t? If loneliness is the number one form of suffering in the western world, surely the connections made in a faith community should be a major solution to that isolation.
read moreOn the 4th of July 2020, how can we recognize true American patriots? No matter how many flags are waved or used to decorate clothing, the legitimate patriots will be wearing a mask across the nose and mouth.
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