Angela Denker 8-03-2015

July is the cruelest month, with apologies to T.S. Eliot. ... 

A movement has arisen in the past year to protest police brutality and the unjust killing of African Americans — an uncomfortable realization that the dream of civil rights has gone unrealized in a still-racist America. It's called Black Lives Matter, but in the summer of 2015, life seems cheap.

8-03-2015

Explosions about a half hour apart shattered the serenity of morning services at two Las Cruces churches Sunday, but caused no injuries and only minor damage, police said.

Las Cruces police spokesman Dan Trujillo said they are still investigating explosions that happened near Calvary Baptist Church shortly after 8 a.m. and Holy Cross Catholic Church about a half hour later.

the Web Editors 8-03-2015
R. Gino Santa Maria / Shutterstock.com

The case of Missouri man Henry Davis against the Ferguson Police Department was reinstated by a federal appeals court on July 28.

Davis filed a lawsuit against the department in 2010, arguing he was wrongly mistaken for a criminal and physically assaulted by three white Ferguson police officers. With the lawsuit Davis included a photo that shows him bleeding from his head. This injury had resulted in Davis being charged with destruction of property for bleeding on the officers’ uniforms.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Nannette Baker halted his case in 2014 after saying his injuries weren’t severe enough to merit prosecution.

But on July 28 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that Baker should not have dismissed Davis’ claims.

JP Keenan 8-03-2015

At least five black women have died in jail in the month of July alone, ThinkProgress reports. What is going on?

the Web Editors 7-31-2015
SojoMagCover.jpg

Sister Maxine and Sister Julie, co-hosts of In Good Faith, a monthly podcast on religion and spirituality, hosted Sojourners editor Jim Rice earlier this month to chat Sojourners and the importance of justice work for every Christian.

Jim Rice came to Sojourners in 1982, where he serves as editor of the magazine.

"We started off with the goal of trying to arcitulate the biblical call to social justice. The gospel isn't a historical relic left up on a dusty shelf — it's relevant for our time," he said.

"Social justice is not optional for Christians."

the Web Editors 7-31-2015

1. Death of a Young Black Journalist

“The most basic instinct of a local reporter is to take the importance of her neighbors as a given. In a community like Anacostia—where more than ninety per cent of residents are African-American, one in two kids lives below the poverty line, and incarceration and unemployment rates are among the nation’s highest—this is another way of saying that black lives matter.”

2. Dear NBC, BBC, CNN, and Others: Mugshots Are for Criminals, Not for Their Victims

“Using a mugshot that has no relevance to the circumstances in which Sam DuBose was killed—up against a fully-uniformed photo of his accused killer—suggests that DuBose did something criminal to instigate the cop in his shooting. As yesterday’s grand jury decision confirms, this is blatantly not true. It warps the real story: a cop who allegedly killed an innocent man for no good reason.”

3. We Need to Talk About Feminism and Vocal Fry

“The clash here is not between anti-feminists and feminists. At its heart, the conflict over vocal fry is a clashing of feminist ideologies. … Wolf suggests that young women’s voices aren’t authoritative enough, and implies that they’re somehow squandering all the hard feminist work that came before them. But what’s really happening is a generational shift, both in feminism and in the workplace.”

Tripp Hudgins 7-31-2015
Wild Goose Festival participants

This summer I had the distinct privilege of being asked to serve as the Liturgical Coordinator for the Wild Goose Festival held in Hot Springs, N.C. The festival is a time and place of celebrating the “intersection of Spirit, Justice, Music, and the Arts” that began a few years ago. As such, liturgies abound. Some of them were rather traditional. The Episcopal tent, for example, held Compline services every night. They also broke out of the mold and hosted a songwriter circle and an agape feast. The Goose is like that. Ask the Methodists about the beer tent. Oh, and the Baptists had a coffee shop.

People break from the mold a little. There was a Eucharistic liturgy where a blacksmith literally hammered a rifle into a farm implement. It was an unusual Eucharist, to be sure, but beautiful.

Christy Collins / RNS

Why stay when a woman can’t be ordained as a priest? When Jewish men in their daily prayers thank God they were not born a woman? When a woman with uncovered hair is considered a bad Muslim?

Many in this diverse group of essayists — including Mormons, immigrants, rabbis, ministers, lawyers, and nurses — confess to having seriously considered chucking faith, or at least their own religious tradition. Some of them actually did leave, only to return.

Abby Olcese 7-31-2015

When a movie examines a group of people whose stories are only starting to gain mainstream attention — and does it with honesty and compassion — it’s important to pay attention. Director Sean Baker’s wickedly funny and stylish film Tangerine dives deep into the transgender community in Los Angeles in a way that explores the strengths, vulnerabilities, and deep needs of its characters. In other words, it portrays them as real people, not as caricatures — or Oscar-friendly approximations played by a cisgendered actor in drag.

7-31-2015
REUTERS / Brian Snyder / RNS

Four Confederate flags were placed outside of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church here July 30. Authorities said they are looking for two white men who were caught on surveillance video.

Authorities have images of the men placing the flags outside Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, said Atlanta Police Chief George Turner.

Local authorities are working with federal authorities and have not determined what charges might be levied, he said. They have not ruled out a hate crime, Turner said. An officer from the Atlanta FBI’s joint terrorism task force was on the scene “to better determine if any specific threats were received” and to provide support to Atlanta police, FBI Special Agent Steve Emmett said in an email.