This article was first published on the Soujourners Magazine website. Click here for the original and more content! American has a crisis of mass incarceration, and it has little to do with crime rate…
Moving Beyond Graham’s Legacy: Raising the Bar on Evangelical Participation in Civil Rights
“Changed laws do not change hearts” is a persistent sentiment in today’s evangelical culture.…
Why Juneteenth Should Be a National Holiday
America fought it’s bloodiest war mainly over the issue of slavery. It took the deaths of over half a million citizens to abolish the heinous institution. This figure does not account for the untold n…
Christians Defending Immigrant Families is Good, But it Also Requires Consistency
Christians often express selective outrage.…
How Polly Sheppard Taught Me that Existence is Resistance
In February of 2018, during Black History Month, I had the honor of co-leading a pilgrimage to Charleston, South Carolina. That city served as the major point of entry on the East Coast for newly arri…
We Return Fighting: How Memorial Day Can Mean Something Different for African American Soldiers
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance. By setting aside a time to recall soldiers who died fighting for this nation, American citizens rightly honor their sacrifice and that of their family and friends…
James Cone, the Cross, and the Lynching Memorial
Against this backdrop of unremitting suffering, black people looked to religion for answers.…
Honor & Soul at the Opening Ceremony for the Lynching Memorial and Museum
Montgomery, AL– Bryan Stevenson and his team at the Equal Justice Initiative capped off the grand opening of the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice with an evening filled …
A Wilderness Wandering After the “Quiet Exodus”
No Christian truly feels at home in the world.…
5 Reasons You Should Celebrate Black History Month
It pains me to see people overlooking Black History Month because Black history (just like Hispanic, Asian, European, and Native history) belongs to all of us — black and white, men and women, y…
Of Sh*tholes and Section 8: A Response to Rod Dreher
In the current state of public discourse offensive statements have become commonplace. I tend to ignore most of those comments, but occasionally some of them deserve a response. After reading Rod Dreh…
Why So Many White Churches Resisted Martin Luther King Jr.’s call
King’s emphasis on the social dimensions of Christianity, especially regarding race relations, angered many white evangelicals in his day.…
My 10 Favorite History Books of 2017
After reading dozens of U.S. history books for my PhD coursework this year, I find myself circling back to a few works time and again. So I decided to put them in a of list my ten favorite history boo…
White Evangelicals Must Ask, “Why Does Our Theology Lead to Republicanism?”
Much virtual ink has been spilled discussing the merits of the term “evangelical.” But the energetic attempts to declare #notallevangelicals fall short if they fail to ask, “Why does our theology lead…
In Mississippi’s Museum Openings, a Victory for ‘Local People’
NOTE: This article originally appeared in “Opinion” section of the New York Times. JACKSON, Miss. — When President Trump decided at the last minute to attend the grand opening of the Museu…
VIDEO: Am I an Evangelical?- Perspectives from Women and Black Christians
Recent polls indicating strong white evangelical support for morally-questionable political candidates coupled with ongoing racial tensions within evangelical churches and institutions has compelled m…
Pass The Mic- Interview with Bryan Stevenson
Listen Now Bryan Stevenson is an award-winning lawyer, speaker, as well as the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, that is com…
Tolerance for Racism Paved the Way for the Moral Bankruptcy of This Moment
American citizens should not be surprised at the paucity of character we are currently seeing in our politicians.…
Launching “The Witness”: Ask Me Anything with Tyler, Beau and Jemar
Tyler Burns, Beau York, and Jemar Tisby sit down on the launch day for The Witness: A Black Christian Collective. They talk about the background of the name as well as the many announcements coming ou…
I’m a black man who moved to the Deep South. Here’s what it’s teaching me about race.
Note: This article originally appeared on Vox.com I almost swerved off the road the first time I saw cotton in full bloom. I had seen the dull green cotton plants crawling toward the sky through the s…