“Help us to do deep interrogation of the things we have believed that led to this moment,” prayed Lisa Sharon Harper, chief church engagement officer of Sojourners. “And so, God, I pray that you will give us strength, strength to resist.”
Source: Religion News Service | Adelle M. Banks
Source: The Huffington Post | Jim Wallis
How did we get here? People are still asking how a man like Donald Trump can become president of the United States
Source: OC Today | Greg Ellison
The group’s inaugural effort is a series of monthly meetings discussing Rev. Jim Wallis’ 2016 book, “America’s Original Sin: Race, Privilege and a New Bridge for America.”
Source: Radio National | Andrew West
If you paid even the slightest attention to the US election in 2016, you could not have missed the powerful phrase “Black lives matter”. The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and other young black Americans at the hands of police triggered this new civil rights movement.
Source: The Denver Post | Francis Wilkinson
The religious left is the Sasquatch of American politics. It leaves footprints in the snow but recent sightings of the creature itself are rare, and not always credible
Source: The Huffington Post | Jim Wallis
A conservative evangelical national leader called me during the election campaign. He reminded me how much he cared about abortion, religious liberty, and the Supreme Court. Then said, “But in Christian conscience, I cannot help put a man in the White House who is intellectually incompetent, has lived an amoral personal and public life, is dangerously immature, and is a racial bigot.
Source: The Times-Herald | Jim Ketchum
If the leaders of America’s white evangelicals need ideas for New Year’s resolutions, I have a suggestion: Hold the guy you helped win the presidency to your espoused high moral standards.
Source: The Huffington Post | Carol Kuruvilla
It’s been a tough year for America’s progressive faith community.
The religious left in this country is a racially and theologically diverse contingent of people who see social justice and progressive social values as an important part of their faith practice. The movement traces its legacy back to the Civil Rights Era and to the development of liberation theology ― the idea that people of faith must always stand up for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized of society.
Source: Relevant | Jesse Carey
New Years is just around the corner, and one of the most rewarding resolutions you can make is to read more.
Good books aren’t just entertaining—they provide us with a new perspective on the world we live in and show how we can help be agents of change.
Here’s a look at six books about poverty, injustice, faith, the criminal justice system and human rights that will change the way you see major issues, and provide insight in how to effect them.
Source: The News & Observer | Henry Gargan
On the day of 2015’s racially motivated attack on nine black worshipers in Charleston, S.C., Pastor Kyle Meier of Peak United Methodist Church picked up the phone to call Rev. James Taylor at nearby St. Mary AME Church.
Source: Religion Dispatches | Elizabeth Eisenstadt-Evans
Pastors and lay leaders who represent minority and multiethnic communities and are appalled by the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency have a blunt message for the white evangelical majority that helped elect him: we’re disappointed in you, but not surprised
Source: Relevant
A lot happened this year in the world of pop culture. From breakout artists like Francis and the Lights to prestige podcasts like Revisionist History to new music from Radiohead. In fact, the volume of quality music, movies, books and podcasts can be a little overwhelming.
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38. The Very Good Gospel (book)
Source: The Washington Post | Jack Jenkins
On Election Day, much was made of exit polls that showed 80 percent of white evangelicals backing Republican Donald Trump, a sometimes vulgar, twice-divorced candidate who could not name his favorite Bible verse and once bragged about sexual assault. The result seemed inexplicable, and political analysts are now questioning the theological credibility of right-wing Christian leaders who embraced Trump, with some high-profile religious conservatives decrying such support as hypocritical at best, heretical at worst.
Source: ABC7 WJLA | Mike Carter-Conneen/ABC7
WASHINGTON (ABC7) — Progressive groups say they are counting on Congress as they count down 37 more days until the Inauguration.
Source: Relevant
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: 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.”
