From the fight for equal pay to “locker room talk,” there was a deliberate affront to women in 2016, which means the Church needs the prophetic voices of women leaders now more than ever. Here are seven you need to know (and follow) this year.
Source: Relevant
Source: Religion News Service | Emily McFarlan Miller
The day after the election, Lisa Sharon Harper nearly gave up the name “evangelical.”
Source: NPR Morning Edition | Tom Gjelten
After a campaign unprecedented in its divisiveness and partisanship, faith leaders face great challenges in any effort to promote reconciliation and healing.
Source: BuzzFeed News | Caroline Kee
These anti-bigotry, pro-women, pro-immigrant, pro-LGBTQ, and pro-Earth organizations need your help.
Source: The Huffington Post | Carol Kuruvilla
President-elect Donald Trump zealously courted American evangelicals during his campaign ― setting up private meetings, putting together an advisory committee composed of top leaders, and repeatedly playing into evangelicals’ fear that Christianity in America is growing weaker.
Source: Publisher's Weekly | Emma Koonse
Jim Wallis, author of America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America (Brazos, Jan.) and founding editor of Sojourners magazine, considers the presidential election a “moral test” for white evangelicals. “Racism goes against the very heart of the gospel,” he told PW. “And Donald Trump has very clearly and deliberately stoked and used racial bigotry for his own political advancement.”
Source: USA Today | Jim Wallis
Most of us aren't conservative white Trump supporters. We need to reclaim our stolen identity.
Source: Religion News Service | Adelle M. Banks
(RNS) Dozens of conservative evangelicals and Catholics have signed an open letter urging their progressive counterparts to “repent of their work that often advances a destructive liberal political agenda.”
The letter, posted online six weeks before Election Day by an alliance called the American Association of Evangelicals, includes criticism of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Source: Chimes Calvin College | Julia McKee
On Monday, Sept. 12, Rev. Dr. Jim Wallis opened Calvin’s Center for Faith & Writing fall 2016 series with a speech about his new book, “America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America.” The bestselling author, activist, preacher and theologian drew a large crowd to the CFAC. All seats were full, and some visitors had to park in overflow lots near the Seminary and science building.
Source: WDET 101.9 fm | Stephen Henderson
“White privilege is an ideology. It’s an idol.”
Source: Relevant Podcast
This week, we talk to culture critic and author Chuck Klosterman about his new book on the nature of truth. It’s a fascinating conversation, especially for Christians. Also, activist and author Lisa Sharon Harper joins us to talk about gaining a new understanding of biblical justice. And of course, Pokemon Go makes an appearance.
Source: Religion News Service | David Gushee
Harper’s account of the Gospel in her new book is shalom-based. Drawing deeply from a theme that runs through the Bible but is especially strong in the Hebrew prophets, Harper tells a story of a God who acts in Jesus Christ to bring shalom, or holistic peace and justice, in every part of creation.
Source: The Huffington Post | Jim Wallis
There are fundamental ethical, moral, and even religious choices that will have to be made by all of us now — Republicans, Democrats, and Independents; conservatives, liberals, and those who feel politically homeless (like many of us); Christians, Jews, Muslims, those of other faiths and none at all. And those choices are much deeper than partisan politics
Source: The Washington Post | Courtland Milloy
At Washington National Cathedral on Sunday, an interracial group of clergy gathered to discuss the role of the white church in perpetuating racism. And what the church might do to heal the wounds. A tough subject, but dealt with unflinchingly
Source: The Huffington Post | Jim Wallis
Every black parent in America has to have “the talk” with his or her sons and daughters — about how to act and not act in the presence of white police officers with guns. It’s a painful family ritual that is slowly being discovered by America’s white parents as more and more police killings of young African Americans occur and are nationally discussed.
Source: Relevant | Jesse Carey
An interview with author Lisa Sharon Harper.
Source: The Huffington Post | Jim Wallis
Should Donald Trump’s racist comments, since the inception of his campaign, be morally disqualifying for him to become the president of the United States?
Source: National Catholic Reporter | Tom Roberts, Patrick O'Neill
Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan was regularly challenged during his life by skeptics and newcomers to the cause of peacemaking to show the results of the thankless work he had undertaken. He regularly responded that God calls us to faithfulness, not success.
Source: Religion Dispatches | Eric C. Miller
Journalist Deborah Jian Lee is a few months into a book tour for Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women & Queer Christians Are Reclaiming Evangelicalism. So far, Lee has been approached by non-Christians, newly eager to learn more about the progressive evangelical movement, by young readers like the queer Christian who found a path to acceptance by reading the book with his mother, and by other women of color, who have thanked her for addressing the intersecting oppressions those with marginalized ident