Justice – Page 3 – Apprentice 2 Jesus

Reset toward justice

Isaiah 58 will be my grounding text for Lent. I can get caught up in fasting “correctly” and making sure I do some readings. What I am challenged in this season is the walk I have in this world.

We need to move past defending needless monuments erected in eras that sent specific messages to formerly enslaved people. We need to understand our history more, not less. That means we deal with the power of Thomas Jefferson’s words as well as his slaveholding mentality and brutality. We need a more full education as weContinue reading “The education we need”

Tell the stories

Four books I have worked through in the past few weeks give me the same theme: tell the stories. Don’t just work on the stats. Hear the stories. Walk the places where they happened.

Real history right where I live

Monuments and the “Lost Cause”

“The myth of the Lost Cause does not begin or end with the Confederate monuments. The myth seeps into many other facets of state-sanctioned life. In eleven states there are a total of twenty-three Confederate holidays and observances. As of 2020, in both Alabama and Mississippi there is a Robert E. Lee Day, Confederate MemorialContinue reading “Monuments and the “Lost Cause””

The 13th Amendment

How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith tells the story of how we have handled race, slavery, and racism in America through several locations in our nation. Those places tell us how we’ve done and how we’re doing… and why too many white Americans think Black Americans should “get over it” when it comesContinue reading “The 13th Amendment”

Our problem isn’t erasing history

Our problem isn’t “erasing history.” Our problem is not knowing history. Clint Smith reflected on his visit to the Whitney Plantation in his book, How the Word is Passed:

The difference between history and nostalgia

I am now reading through Clint Smith’s book, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. Smith’s goal is to examine places in America and how they tell the story of slavery and racism in American history.

Learning from the gift of rage

We don’t mind “white rage.” It gets us, as whites, back in control. We can then call it “proper political discourse” or something nice like that. Black rage? We, as whites, consider that dangerous.

The slow education of Dan Thompson

It is a hard read. We, as white people, have nothing on the line. George Floyd, in “our book,” is over. We read a couple of books by actual black authors a couple of years ago. So… why read another “hard book?”