Racial Reconciliation

The intense national debate over the removal of Confederate monuments often boils down to questions of intent and affect. What was the original intent of those who erected these monuments? What effect did their...

The two nations on the North American continent that celebrate independence from Great Britain do so three days apart each year.  Here in Toronto, this year’s Canada Day celebrations on July 1 were muted, despite...

May 31, 2020 Last night Some of my city burned This morning after surveying The remains I decided to finish painting My dining room table: blue And the chairs Confederate gray Irony not lost The whole world is exploding In black and white and fire On...

Texts: 1 John 3: 16-24 and John 10:11-18 Like many millions of people not only in the United States but around the world, I exhaled on Tuesday. At long last an officer of the...

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Howard Thurman (April 10), an early twentieth century African-American theologian, poet, pastor, and activist whose work I am still getting to know.  His most...

The Cross and the Lynching Tree, James H. Cone (2011) The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism, Jemar Tisby (2019) White Too Long:  The Legacy of White Supremacy in American...

Film is a powerful medium for bringing issues to light and inspiring change. As part of "Locked in Solidarity," the Christian Community Development Association's awareness and action week on mass incarceration, the organization has...

The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong can be Made Right by Lisa Sharon Harper (2016), Be The Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation by Latasha Morrison (2019), and Becoming Brave: Finding the...

The New Jim Crow:  Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (10th Anniversary Ed.), by Michelle Alexander, and Just Mercy:  A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson I committed to writing periodic posts...

Grafitti June 2020. Richmond, Virginia. My friend studies graffiti From Roman ruins I once heard her speak on the things We learn from words arrested by time When ash rained down and paused life Before it could be curated into Narrative sanitized...