The Cost of Attention I go to Twitter before I watch the news. There, I catch a glimpse of what is on the minds of my fellow human beings–what has succeeded in grabbing our collective attention (at least until the next trend). Attention is powerful. It is a valuable and much sought-after commodity. Many of […]
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 […]
Here it goes again. I opened my email to read the results of my lease-to-purchase application. I have settled for a lease option at this time because there is an urgent need to move. I share a bedroom with my two daughters, aged six and twelve. Let me tell you: the twelve-year-old drives me crazy […]
My good friend Jemar Tisby recently wrote an excellent article for The Witness BCC about the latest controversy to surround Transformation Church in Tulsa, OK and Pastor Mike Todd. In his article, Jemar offers a poignant response to “Spittlegate” and casts vision for the church as it should be. I hope that you will take […]
Editor’s Note: This article contains a full and graphic description of the indecent at hand. Reader discretion is advised. A spitty situation As much as some churchgoers may like to attend a congregation with a well-known preacher, they probably don’t want him to end up in a story on TMZ. For members of Transformation Church […]
By now, you’ve probably encountered the infamous video of Pastor Mike Todd of Transformation Church in Tulsa, OK. No, not that one, the other one. No, no, no, even more recent than that. There you go, THAT one. I could sit here and break down bar for bar what made Pastor Todd’s sermon illustration so […]
The Black church is at the center of emancipatory events like Juneteenth. In her book On Juneteenth, Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed wrote, “Black Texans were determined, despite the early intimidating anger of Whites, to celebrate what was initially called Emancipation Day. Most of the first celebrations were in churches.” These first celebrations reveal […]
Let me keep it buck: church hurt sucks. And when you #LeaveLOUD, church hurt often comes with a side of racial trauma. A lot of us who have left toxic white churches have attempted to put on a brave front. We have mustered what was left of our dignity and worked to distance ourselves from […]
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 […]
Have you ever attended a Black Baptist church in rural Alabama for Resurrection Sunday (Easter) before? Since I was a little boy, my mother and I would travel from the Birmingham suburbia and go “back home,” where my grandparents live, joining relatives at a little country church for Resurrection Sunday. Home sits along Alabama’s Black […]
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…” Isaiah 53:4 For the second straight year, my Holy Week began with driving by church to pick up our palms for Palm Sunday and receiving communion that was pre-packaged and pre-blessed. We will, Lord willing, get to worship in our church building on Easter (socially […]
You learn a lot by feeding a child. They are creatures of habit with sensitive yet non-discriminatory palates. Yesterday’s breakfast is easily today’s breakfast . . . and lunch . . . and dinner—if the temperature is right. A young child has little control over what they are fed. Even more true is that a […]
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 […]
Imagine beating a brown-skinned man beyond recognition, hanging the mutilated body from a tree on a Saturday, and then going to church on Sunday to worship Jesus Christ–a man who the Bible says had skin like bronze, was beaten beyond recognition, and then hung from a tree. Lynchings in America were often (and still) conducted […]
God of Sorrows, We cry holy for a God who is moved to tears when met with the conditions of this world. We are grateful that You are not a God who drags us out of our pain before we are ready— one who is not threatened by our tears but beholds them as holy. […]
God of the Desert, We are grateful that You are a God who does not lead us into a wilderness that you yourself have not met. That we belong to a God who knows what it means to be without is not lost on us. We confess that our patterns of consumption are marked by […]
Our nation has been in an extended period of mourning. Even in times of celebration and triumph, we are not far from the losses that our communities have undertaken. Lent is usually about voluntary self-denial, but the past year has denied us and deprived us without our consent. It almost seems superfluous to observe Lent when we are still wearing the ashes of mourning from last year. Yet I still hope…
God of the Dust, We praise you for being a Maker who is capable of dreaming up glory from dirt. As we journey through this Lenten season, help us to remember our origin story and find ourselves deeply grounded in bodies made from the lowest part of creation, yet alive with gloried breath from the […]
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 […]
