They won’t hunger or thirst; the burning heat and sun won’t strike them, because one who has compassion for them will lead them and will guide them by springs of water. Isaiah 49:10 Everyone should be able to clean their children with water after playtime with friends. Everyone should be able to savor a refreshing […]
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Truth’s Table: Black Women’s Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation. Preorder your copy today! From the chapter, “DECOLONIZED DISCIPLESHIP” by Ekemini Uwan The irony of all ironies is that I originally wrote this essay, “Decolonized Discipleship,” years ago because an “urban” white evangelical organization reached out and […]
We are embroiled in one of the most tumultuous periods of our recent collective memory. This is largely due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, which has taken the lives of nearly a million people in the United States. To many, this has simultaneously been a time of national reckoning with another deadly “virus”: systemic racism. The American Medical Association (AMA) has rightly deemed racism “a public health […]
On October 29, Netflix released Colin in Black & White. The series centers around Colin Kaepernick’s high school years and tackles a variety of issues involving race, history, and his life as a teenager trying to find his way in the world. One of the prevailing themes is Colin trying to find his true calling. […]
I am not here to debate abortion. In fact, I’m not even going to share my own complex views on this issue because what I think really doesn’t matter. Instead, I’m here to talk about the weaponization of Black women’s bodies in the abortion discussion. The morning after the 2016 election, I sat in my […]
In junior high and high school whenever the teacher would assign a group project, typically only a couple of people in the group really did the work. The rest of the group found ways to extricate themselves from actually contributing to the project and simply celebrated when a good grade came back. Now that Juneteenth […]
History records (read: lies) that Emmet Till catcalled Carolyn Bryant one fateful summer day in 1955. That damning lie affirmed one of the oldest racist ideas ever formulated and justified fourteen-year-old Till’s murder. The lie was grounds for Bryant’s husband and brother-in-law’s acquittal by the “justice” system. The lie was accepted as fact for decades. […]
This summer, I protested the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor starting and ending at the same place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated – the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. I had my mask on while we walked around downtown, sometimes kneeling and praying for the lives lost and that […]
The morning of January 7, 2021, was a relief. I know that relief isn’t what many people felt after witnessing the terrorizing display of white supremacy twenty-four hours earlier, but I was relieved. I was relieved because I knew that it would make it through the day confident that my faith community would see me, […]
Black Christians often enter predominantly white or multiethnic churches hoping to participate in a spiritual community where the fullness of their identity in Christ is seen and nurtured. All too often, however, we end up contending with ignorance and insensitivity. We expend immeasurable amounts of emotional labor trying to educate our white siblings about how […]
In her national bestseller Salvation: Black People and Love, author bell hooks says, “We can not effectively resist domination if our efforts to create meaningful, lasting personal and social change are not grounded in a love ethic.” Effectively resist domination… not grounded in a love ethic. When I read these words, I stumbled, seeing the […]
Black women and Black girls are not valued in American society. Our voices are marginalized. We are often invisible. Even as we make strides in the political arena and fight for democracy, our contributions threaten to go unseen. When injustice threatens the Black community as a whole, the injustice committed against Black women is often […]
The division caused by racism in American Christianity reminds me of the plot of the novel Lord of the Flies. The story goes like this (spoiler alert – seriously, you’ve had 67 years): Marooned on an island without adult guidance, a group of prim and proper British boys turns nearly-feral. They create a tribalistic civilization […]
One day, I came home from elementary school excited to tell my parents what I had learned during Black History Month. I proudly recounted the narrative that I had learned: Harriet Tubman freed the slaves, then Rosa Parks sat down on the bus because she was tired, and Martin Luther King Jr. ended racism. My […]
Black History Month is a too often missed opportunity for religious formation. There is an abundant history of marginalized people in the Bible and the history of faith. We capitulate to white norms when we simply pick handfuls of masters to place on a pedestal instead of preparing for God’s communal work of liberation. February’s […]
Dear Black Christian in a predominantly white or “multiethnic” church, I want to start by saying that I value you. I don’t look down on you because I grew up in the Black Church and currently attend a Black church. I’m not trying to be one of those “woker-than-thou” types who refuse to consider any […]
“Do you trust me enough to let me vindicate you?” Did you vindicate my people when they died fighting for their freedom from the most brutalized form of slavery? Did you vindicate them when the French kidnapped and killed their leader? When white Americans sided with their oppressors and imposed fines on them that lead […]
Over the past four years, many of us saw the worst side of those we thought we knew well. Relationships went awry, and long-standing friendships were irreparably damaged as America’s political climate revealed old ideologies under a new face: Donald Trump. What we saw throughout the Trump administration shouldn’t be solely attributed to him. Still, […]
This post originally appeared on Joel’s personal blog and appears here with a few minor edits. You can read the original post here. I know that free speech is patently misunderstood, as illustrated by much of the recent popular discourse on this theme. This piece isn’t a reflection on its legal or constitutional definition, nor […]
If your inbox looked anything like mine in 2020, almost every email you got—save maybe the ones from Target—greeted you with, “I hope this email finds you well in these unprecedented times.” If your church was anything like mine in 2020, many of the prayers your pastor prayed started with something like: “Lord, your people […]
