Lisa Sharon Harper If Bernice King had been born on time, her daddy's letter might never have been written. ...

The sin of racism does not represent the meaning of Pentecost. Charles Ramsey, a black man, said, “I am a Christian.” His compassionate response to a white woman, a stranger’s cry for help is a transforming r ...

The new bills are more vague and mention only foreign laws, with no references to Shariah or Islam. They also make specific exceptions for international trade. All of that makes them harder to challenge as a v ...

In May 1963, thousands of Birmingham school children faced police dogs, fire hoses, and possible arrest to demonstrate against segregation. Now, 50 years later, those who were part of what became known as the ...

The Theology and Peace Conference this year offers not just the space for such a dialogue … framed through the extraordinary arguments of René Girard, scholars, theologians, ministers, and laypeople from aroun ...

One out of three African-American men will serve some sort of time under present law enforcement practices and the current criminal justice system. In Washington, D.C., that number jumps to an estimated three ...

Fifty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged white church leaders to confront racism, an ecumenical network has responded to his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” F ...

Forty-five years ago yesterday, Dr. King arrived in Memphis, Tenn., to support a sanitation workers’ strike seeking to unionize. He was assassinated the next day — the anniversary we today remember — and in a ...

Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his battle against apartheid, has won the 2013 Templeton Prize, which is billed as the most significant ...

Christian Churches Together Church leaders respond, 50 years later, to King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." ...

It’s been 50 years since several significant events of the civil rights movement of the 1960s occurred, yet our society is still plagued with systemic racism. It’s been almost 150 years since we abolished slav ...

March 7, 2013 Sojo in the News Rev. Marc Fallon ...

I especially remember grandpa’s stories about his childhood on the family dairy farm in Greenville, S.C. in the 1920s. I liked to hear stories about the black folks who came and worked with him and his family ...

Indeed, as Frederick Douglass wrote, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” I was on the airplane, looking forward to reading Taylor Branch’s n ...

I am much more likely to live in an impoverished neighborhood, receive an inferior education in a neighborhood school, and not graduate from high school than white students my age. Those are inconvenient truth ...

There are countless factors one could cite for the current levels of race-based inequality in the U.S., and many opinions exist surrounding potential solutions, yet there are three points of emphasis that need ...

November 22, 2012 Sojo in the News Mark Braverman ...

Nearly 150 years since the bloodshed in Gettysburg, we are still fighting on the front lines of social issue after social issue, classifying votes by race, and displaying hatred toward our fellow citizens. ...

The United States is the only democratic country in the world where a candidate can be elected as president without earning the highest number of votes. The United States is ...

Almost 50 years after Kennedy was assassinated, we’re still giving legal benefits to some couples but denying them to others, not to mention that we fill our prisons with brown-skinned people, too many women a ...

When the Supreme Court announced recently that one of the cases it would take up in this session was a challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the hairs rose on the back of my neck. ...

Please don’t dress up in a blackface, yellowface, brownface, or any other costumers that stereotype, denigrate, or mock another culture. Don’t caricature another real culture. Why? Because we’re a culture and ...

The event is a great reminder that we need imagination as we confront evil, so that we do not mirror the hatred we seek to end. And, even as we fight serious injustices, we need humor — as old Emma Goldman onc ...

African-American clergy are joining forces with civil rights groups to push for increased voter registration ahead of the November election, spurred on by new voter laws they say restrict opportunities for min ...

In the Christian context, it points, I think to the miles we have yet to journey toward “Thy Kingdom Come.” The Wild Goose Festival was awesome as expected this weekend in ...

My sons, ages 13 and 10, spend two evenings each week on a golf course because I parent out of my own personal brokenness, which includes an acute awareness of life experiences and skills I was not exposed to ...

Today, two Christian leaders in Arizona delivered a petition signed by thousands of Christians to Gov. Jan Brewer calling on her to retract her controversial executive order denying driver’s licenses and other ...

Is there a more universal symbol for public schools than a big, yellow school bus? Every morning at 7:15, the doors of our school open wide to a line of bus riders ready to come i ...

While dehumanization is seen throughout our history books, it is not merely an epidemic of the past, for it takes place each day, here in the present, sometimes profound, and oftentimes quite subtle. ...

Their efforts to rid Alabama of ethnic diversity has backfired on them, bringing forth a multicultural, bilingual movement that would not have emerged in Alabama for another 50 years were it not for HB 56 and ...

E-mails from former Sen. Russell Pearce purportedly reveal the motivations behind SB 1070, claims the ACLU. E-mails from former Sen. Russell Pearce purportedly reveal the motivati ...

Two years ago, Chris Simpson led a white pride march. Six months ago, he abandoned the white supremacy movement. On April 15, he was baptized. RIVES TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Two years ag ...

The system is not broken, it is meant to break people. Even at 10 p.m., the dry heat caused the collapse of multiple people of faith gathered in a candlelight vigil outside Sherif ...

Clearly, reconciliation has yet to really happen in Jasper, which means there’s work for the Holy Spirit to do there. Undoubtedly many of Jasper’s community leaders are also involved in local faith communities ...

Before we lay the cross of our nation’s racism upon Darius' shoulders, we should remember just how small they are. Before we look at the abundance of #WeAreDarius and 6 p.m. news sound bites, we should re ...

Land, the influential head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the denomination’s top policy spokesman, was rebuked for racial insensitivity and for not attr ...

Watching TV is bad for kids' self-esteem, except if they're white boys.   Watching TV is bad for kids' self-esteem, except if they're white boys. (Seems li ...

Harsh crackdowns on immigrant communities by law enforcement instill fear and breed distrust, preventing members of those communities from seeking help in moments of crisis and reporting legitimate offenses or ...

North Carolina's Racial Justice Act was just a piece of legislation until this morning, when Judge Gregory Weeks set aside a death penalty sentence that had been meted out to Marcus Robinson in 1994. ...

The rates of incarceration in the U.S are the highest in the industrialized world. Our criminal justice system is moving further away from the principles of due process, fair and equal justice, and access to c ...

Racial profiling not only threatens the psychological and emotional well-being of targeted communities. The practice can lead to death. Editor’s note: The following written test ...

To become black goes beyond a checkbox in a census data column. To become black is to enter into the experience of black pain – to enter a social, historical, yet living experience of a people group who were u ...

Non-Muslim women are posting photos of themselves wearing a headscarf on Facebook Page “One Million Hijabs for Shaima Alawadi,” in support of the slain mother of five. Jean Younis ...

Jesus radically broke with the prevailing culture and paradigms of his day. He reached across social, cultural, religious and ethnic boundaries. He built bridges, spanned the gap, and reconciled us to each oth ...

Think Progress reports that Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) was today removed from the floor of the House during an impassioned speech against the murder of Trayvon Martin. Think Progr ...

It's ripped from the headlines: A young person is killed, but the police seem to be casting aspersions on the victim. It outrages us when it happens in Florida, and it should outrage us just as much when ...

My greatest fear for my children is the cautious regret I see on the many faces that can’t help but leave open the possibility there may be some justification for the Trayvon Martin tragedy. ...

“Forgive us," the unnamed gentleman pleaded. "George Zimmerman was Latino. The horrible atrocity that has rocked our nation was committed by a Latino man. I am Latino. I ask for your forgiveness on ...

A new poll shows that 52 percent of Canadians feel Muslims can be trusted "a little" or "not trusted at all." The poll showed that 48 percent of respondents said Muslims can be trusted &quo ...

This is largely addressed to my white brothers and sisters, particularly those in the church. I’m a white woman, was raised in an almost all-white town and have spent most of my life in predominately white faith communities. White people don’t like to ...