Race

Kaeley McEvoy 5-08-2015

Mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner. Via CNN

Men and boys of color are 21 times more likely to be fatally shot by the police than their white counterparts. Of the 1,217 deadly police shootings that occurred from 2010-2012, men of color between the ages of 15 to 19 were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, while the rate for white males the same age was only 1.47 per million.

This pattern is not new. It is old and repetitive. And it is sickening.

Ryan Stewart 5-07-2015
Image via PRRI, Religion & Politics Tracking Survey, May 2015

Image via PRRI, Religion & Politics Tracking Survey, May 2015

The percentage of white Americans (46 percent) who believe blacks and other minorities receive equal treatment to whites in the criminal justice system is exactly the same as it was in 1992 — the year of the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. In contrast, only 17 percent of black Americans and 39 percent of Hispanic Americans agree. 

Jim Wallis 5-04-2015
Protestors in DC march in solidarity with Baltimore. Image via JP Keenan/Sojourn

Protestors in DC march in solidarity with Baltimore. Image via JP Keenan/Sojourners.

Baltimore, like Ferguson, is a parable — a story that can teach us important lessons. It's one in which we should see that we are, for the most part, still missing the most important lessons.

Decades of bad behavior on the part of Baltimore's police force in relation to the black community were brought to light, as in other circumstances of young black men dying at the hands of police. But the parable of Baltimore needs to go deeper.

 
5-04-2015
Baltimore is a parable, a story that can teach us important lessons, and one in which we are still missing the most important lessons.
5-04-2015
It will take more than smiles and hugs to make Sandtown-Winchester a neighborhood that inspires hope, rather than despair.
Photo via REUTERS / Jim Bourg / RNS

Community members hold hands in front of police officers in Baltimore on April 28, 2015. Photo via REUTERS / Jim Bourg / RNS

Douglas, author of the new book Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God, writes about the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, the acquittal of George Zimmerman in his killing, and the deaths of other unarmed black people that followed.

Douglas talked about violence faced by African-Americans and the black church’s response. The interview was edited for length and clarity.

Adam Ericksen 5-01-2015

Screenshot from Wolf Blitzer's interview on CNN.

I love Martin Luther King. I wrote my master’s thesis on his approach to nonviolence. King is the greatest prophet in the history of the United States. And white people should know him better.

Blitzer, like so many white people, doesn’t know Martin Luther King. He misses King’s point. If white people want to reference King, we need to stop using him to condemn black violence. We need to stop pitting a black man against black people. It’s patronizing. It’s demeaning. And it misses the point.

4-29-2015
The rioting that erupted in Baltimore on Monday marked an escalation of the racial turmoil that has flared across the US in recent months following the killings of unarmed black men by white police officers.
4-29-2015

If it is simply a matter of forgiving, perhaps better stated as reconciliation, that still leaves the question of the kind of “just world” people are trying to develop—or ought to develop.

4-10-2015
Religious leaders have proven to be powerful voices within a larger conversation about “Black Lives Matter,” a conversation that opened up once again this week after the death of a man in North Carolina.
Photo via Joe Alblas / LightWorkers Media / NBC / RNS

John, Mother Mary, and Mary Magdalene in “A.D. The Bible Continues.” Photo via Joe Alblas / LightWorkers Media / NBC / RNS

When The Bible miniseries premiered two years ago, controversy swirled around its depiction of a dark-skinned Satan who some said resembled President Obama, as well as its portrayal of white main characters in the Moroccan landscape.

Fast-forward to the premiere of the sequel, A.D. The Bible Continues, on Easter Sunday (April 5), and you’ll see a decidedly more multicultural cast, the result of “honest” conversations between black church leaders and the filmmakers, Hollywood power couple Mark Burnett and Roma Downey.

“For too long religious programming has neither reflected the look of biblical times or the diversity of the church today,” tweeted the Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, a Maryland-based black activist, writer and scholar.

“We made this point to Mark and Roma after #BibleSeries, and quite frankly they listened. I’m glad for that.”

Now, in a partnership with the 12-part NBC miniseries, an African-American Christian publishing house will host online resources to help viewers connect the holy book to Africa.

3-30-2015
We recognize that there are times when disobedience and resistance to unjust authority is right, just, and biblical.
3-30-2015
The Belhar Confession calls on people of faith to stop demonizing the poor and to stand with them in unity instead.
3-24-2015
Franklin Graham is facing criticism after he wrote a Facebook that went viral in which he told “blacks, whites, Latinos, and everybody else” that “most police shootings can be avoided” with “respect for authority.”
3-24-2015
Some faith leaders are pushing back against famed evangelist Franklin Graham after he wrote a Facebook post addressed to “blacks, whites, Latinos, and everybody else,”
3-24-2015
Graham's Facebook comment has created a division within the evangelical Christian community.
3-23-2015
Obeying the police doesn’t heal the long history of distrust and broken relationships between police and minority groups, especially in urban neighborhoods, Smith said.
3-23-2015
A group of church leaders, led by Jim Wallis, Lisa Sharon Harper, have written an open letter to Franklin Graham, criticizing his Facebook comments last week about the killing of young black men by police as Graham called for respecting authority.
3-23-2015
A group of church leaders have written an open letter to Franklin Graham, criticising his Facebook comments last week about the killing of young black men by police, and are gathering signatories.