Each year around the time of Lent, local men and women across Colón – where slavery was particularly widespread – dramatize the story of self-liberated black slaves known as the Cimarrones. This reenactment is one of a series of celebrations, or “carnivals,” observed around the time of Lent by those who identify with the cultural tradition known colloquially as “Congo.” The term Congo was originally used by the Spanish colonists for anyone of African descent. It is now is used for traditions that can be traced back to the Cimarrones.
Jim Wallis, in conversation with William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, explores the themes of Chapter Three, “The Image Question” from his new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus.
During Obama’s second term, less than 50 percent of active federal judges were white men for the first time in American history, according to the Congressional Research Service. In under two years, President Donald Trump has reversed that trend. He has so far successfully appointed 152 individuals to judgeships in the federal circuit and district courts, of which 60 percent are white males. He has also filled two vacancies on the Supreme Court with conservative white males.
The Bay Area will be without electricity for at least a day and a half in order to prevent power lines from sparking wildfires.
Our greatest prophets took the time to ask that question often, and we can follow in their footsteps.
As people of faith, our blood should boil when we hear people try to say our God is for marriage segregation.
How would our world change if we let trees remind us that there exists a natural landscape that transcends the geopolitical, that their branches and roots will not be stopped by the lines drawn on a map by people with various agendas?
Most everyone I grew up with near Goodman Street in northeast Rochester attended Corpus Christi. A post-Vatican II parish complete with folk group and food pantry to help a neighborhood of mostly single mothers, the church was a rare source of sustenance and light. Still, by the time we hit our twenties, most of us had escaped the urban neighborhood and along with it, left the church. I returned a few years ago — first for Christmas Mass, then to interview a parishioner for a story, and then for no good reason at all. This unmoored me. Even as I sang the Psalm, I surveyed the rows of empty pews.
Amazon Synod, Robert Jeffress’ civil war, Gandhi under scrutiny, and more.
How do we maintain hope when our earth is brutalized daily by the climate disasters brought on by human greed, denial, and consumption?