Progressive faith leader Jim Wallis decried Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s recent campaign rhetoric and affirmed his belief that “racism is in the air we breathe” during a recent appearance on The Church Boys podcast.
White Privilege
1-27-2016
Let us not endeavor to pursue justice on the cheap.
1-27-2016
A broken church: quick to condemn, fear, and divide, and slow to love, seek justice, and unify.
1-20-2016
Washington, DC - Speaking this morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, Reverend Jim Wallis addressed the current crisis in Flint, MI by saying “Race is in the air we breathe and in the water we drink in Flint … I don’t think if it was 8000 white kids this would’ve happened."
Rev. Wallis was in New York to discuss his latest book, released this week, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America (Brazos Press).
“If white Christians acted more Christian than white, black parents would have less to fear for their children,” says Rev. Wallis in the book.
Rev. Wallis, an evangelical, also addressed the GOP primary this week, saying on CNN’s “Newsroom” (segment begins 9:28:43) that “When he is deliberately fueling racial fear and hatred, Donald Trump is poisoning and polluting the American political landscape."
CNN polled Iowa GOP caucus-goers after the 2012 election and found that 60% identified as evangelical
1-19-2016
Forget about being a "post-racial" society. But we must learn to embrace the country's ever-greater diversity
1-19-2016
Reverend Jim Wallis joins us to discuss his new book "America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America".
WATCH: Black Lives Matter Activist DeRay Mckesson Helps Stephen Colbert Confront His White Privilege
the Web Editors 1-19-2016
“Baby steps.”
That’s the amount of progress leading Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson agreed Stephen Colbert made toward overturning his white privilege when the two sat down on Martin Luther King Day to discuss racism.
The interview got personal when Colbert switched seats with DeRay, letting the activist ask the questions. Colbert’s responses are clearly well-meaning, but also genuinely awkward. White privilege is tough for white people, even (perhaps especially) for renowned television hosts.
Rev. Romal J. Tune 1-19-2016
Image via chbaum/Shutterstock.com
A few days ago I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a day with Richard Rohr. Our conversation from the moment he picked me up from the airport, was energizing and thought provoking. Rohr's demeanor is very calming and without the fear of shaming or blaming, it's pretty easy to talk to about anything. We discussed the institutional church, poverty, self-care, the contemplative life, and many other issues. But one topic came up that I didn't anticipate, the issue of white privilege.
Jim Wallis 12-17-2015
Bryan Stevenson, the nation’s premier lawyer on mass incarceration and the death penalty, says slavery never ended. It just evolved.
I just spent two days with 50 other faith leaders at Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., where Bryan emphasized four basic essentials for criminal justice reform in America: 1) Proximity to those most impacted, 2) Changing the narrative, 3) Hope replacing hopelessness, and 4) Committing ourselves to uncomfortable things, because injustice is never overcome by just doing comfortable things.
Adam Ericksen 10-23-2015
Screenshot via 'Star Wars'/YouTube
I’ve noticed that when many white liberals are confronted with these numbers, and the racism that undergirds our privilege, we start feeling guilty. We generally have two choices in how we respond to our feelings of guilt: First, we can choose to become defensive. We start concealing our own racism by projecting it onto the overt racists who start Twitter campaigns that boycott Star Wars. In other words, we’d much rather take the easy way out of scapegoating. We’d rather blame the racists out there than do the difficult work of examining the racism that infects in each one of us.
But the more vehemently white liberals deny that we are racists, the more evidence we provide that that’s exactly what we are.
The second choice is to move beyond white fragility, by doing the difficult work of examining the racism within ourselves and our society. We can acknowledge that the racist structures that infect our country also infects us. We can choose to openly acknowledge the benefits we gain from racist societal structures. We can choose to work for political, economic, and educational reform that will lead toward greater racial justice.
Patrick Walls 10-14-2015
Image via Brazos Press.
“When Trayvon Martin was shot and killed, I felt - you might call it the lament of a white father. I knew and the whole country knew that my son Luke — six-foot-tall baseball athlete, going to college next year — had been walking and doing the same thing, same time that Trayvon was doing in Sanford, Fla., everyone knows he would've come back. But Trayvon didn't come back, and so it was a parable. Jesus talked about parables. They teach us things. Michael Brown — Ferguson — was a parable. Charleston was a parable. The parable about where we are as a nation — we have to see our original sin and how it still lingers in our criminal justice system.”
Joe Kay 8-07-2015
Image via after6pm/Shutterstock
There are two sides to privilege. One involves getting special treatment — that part’s pretty obvious. The other part involves avoiding the many obstacles that others face in order to have the same chance as us.
To use an analogy: If you get to start the race way ahead of the other runners, then you are privileged. But by the same measure, if you start at the same place but others have hurdles in their lane while yours is clear, then you are privileged as well.
Jason Whitehead 7-23-2015
Image via Globe Turner/Shutterstock
For the past thirty years my family has vacationed in Charleston, S.C. I spent eight years living, going to school, and working in Charleston; I met my wife there, got married there, and it is still a place we count as home when people ask.
The shootings at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston let loose a flood of memories long shoved into the recesses of my mind. One of these was when I was the youth director for a large white affluent congregation, and the youth groups at Mother Emanuel and my church performed a joint Youth Sunday service in the late 90s.
Driving from Asheville, N.C, to Charleston shortly after the shootings, my heart grew heavy as I wondered what to do when we arrived. Nothing I envisioned captured the heaviness I felt; the need to be useful. I decided to sleep on it.