You don’t normally see a lot of white people in this part of town. So of course my curiosity was piqued. The first thing I observed as I approached was that they were all wearing bright, loud, matching yellow T-shirts. They clearly didn’t want to be missed. White people were here! Drew G.I. Hart, Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing… Read More
To break the cycle of ignorance to racism and faulty intuition, members of the dominant groups must learn to not trust their own gut, as they have been socialized outside of the life experiences of marginalized groups. Instead, they must follow our Lord, Jesus Christ, who in his own day stood in solidarity with Samaritan outcasts, vulnerable women, the… Read More
“By the rivers of Babyon—there we sat down and we wept when we remembered Zion.” This lament of the exiled Israelites is haunting. In fact, all the texts this week are haunted by lament, at least to my ears. I guess we come by the mourning of our past naturally. People of faith have been… Read More
After we discard the white, elite, Western Jesus, a human construct used for sociopolitical domination, we open ourselves up to the divine revelation of the poor, oppressed, Jewish, and ultimately crucified Messiah. And in a life of disciple ship, we will find the way that can dismantle and dis-align the racial hierarchy and order upon… Read More
“Each little cut, on its own, was insubstantial. But by the end of my time in college, I found myself with a thousand paper cuts that hurt like hell.” Drew G.I. Hart, Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism, p. 41. In chapter 2, Drew Hart takes the reader to school. We… Read More
This week we begin a discussion of Drew G.I. Hart’s book, Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism (Herald Press, 2016). We will be taking the book one chapter at a time over the next nine Wednesdays, so don’t despair if you are just learning about this conversation. You are welcome to… Read More
We are deeply grieved by the shooting deaths of the past week. The killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile reveal the urgent need to dismantle white supremacy in the United States. The deaths of the Dallas police officers and of Micah Xavier Johnson point toward that same urgent task, exposing the moral and physical… Read More
I’ve been visiting the blog ring in search of posts connected to the events of the past week, posts other than the many sermons shared on the Facebook page. And here are what I’ve found: We all need places in which we can grab hold of something tangible and growing during these times of turmoil.… Read More
(A sidebar at the outset: Reflecting on whiteness for today’s Lectionary Leanings is directly related to my U.S. context where the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the grief of too many hashtagged deaths demand that scripture not go untouched or unscathed by racialized violence. For our RevGals & Pals around the globe, current U.S. events may not… Read More
Okay, white family. Let me talk to you right quick… For those of you who ask “How long?” or “How many times must this happen?” I’ll tell you precisely when it will stop. It will stop when people en masse are aware of the ways in which whiteness/white supremacy have shaped the way people of… Read More
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