Commentary
Award-winning author and preacher, Diana Butler Bass speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about her latest book Freeing Jesus.
I believe the church is a critical and indispensable — though not exclusive — vehicle for sharing the good news and advancing God’s beloved community here on Earth. But last week, Gallup caused a stir when it released new research on the trends in Americans’ membership in houses of worship, which fell below 50 percent for the first time in the 80 years.
Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, senior pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and author of Witness to Grace: A Testimony of Favor, speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about how to reject injustice and racial inequity.
Photo by Grant Whitty on Unsplash
Today begins the Paschal Triduum, the three days leading up to the celebration of Easter and Jesus’ triumphant resurrection. This year in particular, Holy Week is a reminder that we often have to linger in some suffering and struggle in order to fully appreciate the joy of Easter Sunday’s deliverance and liberation.
Jami Webb places flowers outside Young's Asian Massage following the deadly shootings in Acworth, Ga., March 19, 2021. Webb is the daughter of Xiaojie Tan, the owner of the spa who was killed in the shootings. REUTERS/Bita Honarvar
In the wake of the atrocities of March 16, Asians in the U.S. are beginning to mobilize en masse against the hatred directed at our community.
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) speaks about how being a Black woman of faith sustains her work keeps her pursuing social and economical justice.
Photo by Danielle Cerullo on Unsplash
The deeply rooted white American need to be comfortable is keeping many organizations (nonprofit, faith-based, and other well-meaning organizations) from engaging in the messy, necessary work of addressing white supremacy.
Protesters gather outside of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta to protest a bill that placed tougher restrictions on voting in the state. March 1, 2021. REUTERS/Dustin Chambers
There’s a preacher in the house — or at least, in the Senate. “A vote is a kind of prayer — to God.” That’s what Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Georgia's first Black senator, said in his first floor speech in the Senate chamber. As many know, Warnock is also senior pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once served. As Warnock made clear, voting rights is not just a political issue. It is also a faith issue — a spiritual test of whether we see in others the image of God, and thus extend the respect and dignity of a fair and free vote.
This sermon was edited from a message delivered Aug. 25, 2019 at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis.
Last week was extraordinarily difficult for many Asian Americans. The trauma of the violence perpetrated against Asian women in Atlanta was the culmination of a yearlong spike in violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. An already fearful and silenced community was re-traumatized as police and media discounted the identity of the victims and centered the narrative on the challenges of the shooter.
People leave flowers outside Young's Asian Massage following the deadly shootings on March 17, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
After his arrest, the man who confessed to shooting eight people told investigators that he suffered from sexual addiction and saw the massage parlors as “a temptation... that he wanted to eliminate.”
A demonstrator holds a sign calling for an equal rights amendment (ERA) in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 19, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
It is well past time for the Equal Rights Amendment — now ratified by 38 states and supported by a supermajority of the populace — to be fully enshrined as the 28th Amendment.
This sermon was edited from a message delivered Aug. 26, 2018 at Metropolitan AME Church.
Travis Cains, who grew up in Cuney Homes with George Floyd, speaks on the phone next to a mural of Floyd in the Third Ward ahead of the trial of the former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin in Houston, March 3, 2021. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare
Last week, jury selection began in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who was arrested for the killing of George Floyd after kneeling on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds — a horrific killing that sparked a movement of racial reckoning. In part, this trial is about justice for the Floyd family, about whether a jury will find Chauvin guilty in the murder of George Floyd. However, this trial, this moment, is about far more. It is about us and the future we want to build.
Author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, Heather McGhee speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis on the impacts racism has on our economy. Changing the narrative, she says, goes hand in hand with comprehensive policy.
Today marks one year since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic. As we enter year two of this pandemic in the middle of Women's History Month, we must reckon with the fact that women have disproportionately felt the negative impacts; the fallout of this inequity will be felt for years to come.
Anne (Olivia Coleman) and Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) in The Father. Image courtesy of The Father on Facebook.
The film immerses us in the mind of 80-year-old Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) as he navigates the onset of dementia and his increasing dependence on his daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman). In a recent interview with Zeller, he told me the play was based on his own experience of caring for his grandmother as she battled dementia, when he was just a teenager.
The U.S. Capitol Building is reflected against an ambulance in Washington, July 16, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo
The American Recovery Plan, which lays out a bold and significant investment in the fight against COVID-19 and which has been passed by the House and is now in the Senate, is all three. It addresses the deep inequities of suffering from the pandemic including the racial and wealth disparities, meets immediate and urgent needs of the moment, and is supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans.
Collectively, this group envisions and works toward a wide and bold church community that cares for creation, centers those who the church has historically marginalized, and holds both political and faith leaders accountable.
This approach might serve as a model of what a community-based, compassionate, justice-seeking America — simultaneously “global” and “neighborly” — would look like. The point would be to emphasize neighborhood co-ops. The possibility of energizing folks who live down the farm road instead of a suspect federal bureaucrat who appears out of nowhere could make a great difference. The same dynamic with different faces could make a similar difference in poverty-stricken urban areas.