A number of years ago a public-school teacher, who taught in an inner-city school context, was asking for help so she could buy needed supplies for her grade school classroom. As it turned out the kids didn’t have notebooks, pencils, and other necessary items. I was a bit befuddled. I had never heard of such a thing. I attended public school my whole life and we always had plenty of supplies. Education as the means to overcome As… Read more
Psalm 10:17-18 You will incline Your ear: To vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, So that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror. I suspect that many Christians take comfort in reading such statements. God rises up to defend the oppressed! “Yea, God!” I have been writing on race and justice for the past seven posts. One reason for such an extensive expose into the issue is the fact that, in my estimation, many White evangelicals… Read more
Almost exactly one year ago I posted on my Facebook page a critique of Mike Pence’s misuse of the Bible. Pence, you may or may not recall, substituted the American flag for Jesus when he alluded to Heb 11:1-2 and stated, “keeping your eyes on old glory.”[1] Now, Joe Biden has joined the act. Biden recently cited Isa 6:8 “whom shall I send?” and applied it to the US military officers who signed up and “are the heirs of that… Read more
At the beginning of my teaching career, I spent several years teaching in a private Christian school. During that time, I began to ponder the role of Christian education. My struggles had to do with the growing awareness that our private Christian education was primarily a ministry to the wealthy. What I didn’t know then, and have only recently learned, is the fact that Christian education played a significant role in America’s racist past. The rapid growth of Christian… Read more
AP Photo: courtesy of The Conversation At the beginning of my teaching career, I spent several years teaching in a private Christian school. During that time, I began to ponder the role of Christian education. My struggles had to do with the growing awareness that our private Christian education was primarily a ministry to the wealthy. What I didn’t know then, and have only recently learned, is the fact that Christian education played a significant role in America’s racist… Read more
(Phot0 by ejsimpson.com) I hope that the readers of this blog and the current series on race (this is the 6th post in this series: see post #1 here) have begun to realize that racism and our racist past is much worse than many have realized. I hope they have also begun to consider that maybe the system has been set up, and perhaps still is, in such a way that fosters the oppression of people of color. And, as… Read more
The behavior of Christians is often cited as a justification for rejecting Christianity. Whether it is the Church’s involvement in the Crusades, the Inquisitions, or the Salem witch trials, the fact is, such actions betray the very beliefs that Christians allegedly espouse. Christians commonly respond to such accusations by attempting to divorce themselves from such events. After all, “if I were there, I would never have supported the crusades.” “the Inquisitions were done by the Catholics and I am not… Read more
There is no question that throughout American history Christians were instrumental in the propagation of systemic racism. From the slave trade to the Jim Crow laws, pastors were some of the leading proponents of the oppression of people of color. Consequently, even if one denies that systemic racism continues into our day, systemic racism is a sin for which we, as the body of Christ, must repent. Why this information is critical. Let me posit three reasons why this series… Read more
Are all persons created equal? We have established in previous posts that biblically the answer to this question is an unequivocal “yes.” I doubt that among Christian readers today this claim even needs much defense.[1] The question, however, is whether or not “all persons are created equal” has been true in American history? For many readers, I suspect that the answer here is also an unequivocal “yes.” American history, however, suggests that things might not be quite so simple…. Read more
In Acts 6, Luke, the author of the book of Acts, tells us that, In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food (Acts 6:1). Although Luke does not provide much by the way of details, it is reasonable to suppose that this division within the early Christian movement was racially charged—race, of course, here in… Read more
