When Will We Admit that American Christianity is the Same Thing as White Supremacy?

Last updated on: June 25, 2015 at 6:05 am By Andy Gill

[Photo Credit: Jeff Hood] Watching the news and hearing about the repeated acts of violence against the black-american life reminds me of my “enlightenment/introduction” to modern day white supremacy while attending Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS). This enlightenment, it was not the straw that broke the camels back, for me, it was an experience that shattered my perception of the [ontologically] white American Church. It wasn’t their baseless fallacies, conclusions with little reasoning, or the lack of regard for empirical evidence backing their... Read more

Making Sense of Rachel Dolezal’s Backlash And Why She Faked Being Black

Last updated on: June 15, 2015 at 5:52 pm By Andy Gill

By now you’ve probably heard of Rachel Dolezal, this morning she announced her resignation as the president of the Spokane, Washington NAACP, in the “best interest of the NAACP.” Rachel sparked a national debate regarding racial identity after being confronted on her own racial identification and questioned about her seemingly deceitful presentation. If I’m not mistaken, she’s also being accused of forging hate crimes against herself, lying about her adopted brother being her biological son, and misidentifying a black-male as her actual... Read more

Reframing the Narrative By Asserting your Humanity

Last updated on: February 28, 2016 at 3:39 pm By Andy Gill

In the past few days I’ve been repeatedly asked the same two questions: Where is the hope? And what is the solution? For the oppressed person my answer is this: The continuous assertion of your humanity. To do this is to acknowledge and reject the limits that have been set against you, for the sole purpose of silencing and controlling you. It’s to reject a falsified morality and reconstruct a new theology because, in my opinion, having no God is far better than embracing the Eurocentric version of “God.”... Read more

I Want To Be An Activist

Last updated on: February 20, 2016 at 12:02 pm By Andy Gill

“I want to be an activist.” These were the words of Henry, a six year old, after hearing an abridged version of Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech at a Middle Project Freedom School event. This was the first time Henry had ever heard these words. We were in a room with people of all ages and had just finished creating an art gallery, illustrating lines from King’s speech. And with this “dream” on the walls around... Read more

Martin Luther King Jr. on His Biggest Mistake

Last updated on: November 6, 2017 at 12:55 am By Andy Gill

“Alex Haley’s 1965 Playboy Interview with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. | In 1964, after he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sat down for a series of interviews with the author Alex Haley that were edited into one interview that ran in Playboy in 1965—the longest interview King ever gave any publication.” Haley: “Can you recall any mistakes you’ve made in leading the movement?” King: “Well, the most pervasive mistake I have made was in believing... Read more

Billy Graham’s Ted Talk: Technology, faith and human shortcomings

Last updated on: November 23, 2015 at 8:42 pm By Andy Gill

Creflo Dollar and Every Other Mega-Church

Last updated on: November 23, 2015 at 9:26 pm By Andy Gill

Here’s my question: “How is Creflo Dollar’s request for a $65 million jet any different than what the average mega-church [in the first world] is already doing?” Is it just me, or is this response from Creflo Dollar kind of disgusting… The most agitating aspect of Creflo Dollar is that he is just an extreme example of what a majority of accepted mega churches are already doing; using the emotions of congregants to manipulate his way into their pockets. As I’ve highlighted... Read more

Searching for Church

Last updated on: February 23, 2016 at 10:07 am By Guest Contributor

I never thought that I would be one of “those” people, writing one of “those” articles, but here I am, having come to the conclusion that I really don’t like going to church. Now, that isn’t to say that I don’t go to church ever. I do, but I don’t particularly enjoy it and I can easily go two or three weeks in between before I even realize that I haven’t been to church. And I don’t miss it at... Read more

My “Affair” with a Youth Pastor

Last updated on: February 20, 2016 at 12:04 pm By Guest Contributor

“It took me years to realize that my relationship with my pastor was not romantic — it was sexual abuse.” I was fifteen years old, lying next to my youth pastor during an overnight leadership team retreat. He was the only adult chaperone, and the rest of my peers slept soundly around me. We were talking in hushed tones about my body image issues, and he asked what part of my body I was most self-conscious about. I told him:... Read more

Dear Young Men of Color: Overcoming Oppression

Last updated on: March 30, 2015 at 7:47 am By Andy Gill

[Image is a screenshot from Fong Tran’s spoken word titled, “Dear Young Men of Color,” which inspired the title of this post] When you recognize your subjection to a racist reality, that shit will break you. It’s traumatic, literally. It shatters your overall sense of basic trust, or what’s left of it from past subjection to an oppressive society. You don’t know which way is up or which way is down. Not to mention the fact that you are re-confronting past racism that... Read more