Tag: Racism

  • The fluke

    The title grabbed me. “Is Jemar Tisby’s best selling book about racism a fluke?” Jemar Tisby’s first book is called The Color of Compromise and it is hard hitting. He gives an unvarnished look at the American church and its complicity all through history when it has come to slavery and racism. When George Floyd’s murder happened, his book flew…

  • A step back from the brink?

    This week was a whirlwind of activity with the SBC annual meeting in Nashville and a narrow “win” for the leadership of SBC going to the least offensive candidate. (He is actually a good man and I am familiar with his work in racial justice in the Mobile area.) It was a tense week watching conspiracy theories and bad information…

  • Could hardness of heart be on full display this week?

    Over the past few years I have taught on and laid out some thoughts on the subject I call “Living in Babylon.” Over the past few years there has been a testing of what I have called “culturalized Christianity.” If this is something that is new to you, I suggest looking at my podcast page and listening to some episodes…

  • For those in the back who still don’t understand systemic racism

    In the past five years, and I fully understand what that represents in time and certain people that will go nameless, we’ve seen an unleashing of spiritual destruction. Decay is not strong enough as a description. The utter rottenness of white conservative Christianity has been exposed over and over. Instead of repenting, there has been a constant doubling down of…

  • To repent, To change…

    While the violence in Tulsa was stunning, American history is littered with examples of street battles, racist uprisings, and mass killings. The history of the 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina, massacre and coup, in which a racist mob overthrew the city government, is its own category of chilling. So is the Rosewood Massacre. The list goes on.  It is not “hating…

  • I will not cease to call for repentance

    A year ago there was hope. The shock of Ahmaud Arbery’s mugging, then Breonna Taylor, and then George Floyd provided a time when there was hope that white evangelical America was actually listening. I loaned out books. I bought books for others. I invited folks into conversation. Then… well, we got tired. White fatigue set back in.

  • The toxicity of white space

    How hard have we made it, as white evangelicals, for people of color to be in our supposed multi-ethnic spaces? How hard have we made it for black brothers and sisters to voice their concern, their pain, and even their joy in our spaces? Some examples:

  • The trauma we place on Black America

    Esau McCaulley gets to the core again as he unpacks the trial of Derek Chauvin, convicted yesterday in the murder of George Floyd. The United States demands too much wisdom from Black parents. We must walk that fine line between telling the truth about how cruel America can be toward Black bodies and souls and the hope that our children…

  • The resistance is US

    I’ve heard white people say, “All the media does is hype up police shootings” or “hype up racism.” What we’re really saying is this: “I’m tired of being confronted in my comfort. I did the ‘race thing’ last summer. I read a book… or two. Why do THEY have to keep hyping this?”