Desperate for help, Joseph Hutcheson parked his truck on the curb of the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in Dallas and ran inside. Upon entering, Hutcheson screamed, “Don’t hurt me, I just need some help.” The deputies tackled him. As Hutcheson screamed that he couldn’t breathe, a witness described one deputy restraining Hutcheson with “a knee on his back” and another deputy restraining him “with a knee on his throat.” Hutcheson’s face turned from white to blue. Around 11:30am, Joseph... Read more
Words have consequences. We have all spoken words that we wished we hadn’t. However, our words often reveal what is going on in our hearts. When Sandra Bland made a video on March 31, 2015 describing sexuality as a choice and belittling the oppression that queer people face, she had no way of knowing the evil that would eventually happen to her in Texas. How could she? Regardless, the video makes something very plain…Sandra Bland suffered from homophobia. This doesn’t... Read more
Mornings are hard. I think my medicine gets low. Placing one foot in front of the other, I pushed toward the bathroom and took a pill. Immediately, I start feeling better. I always take the pill before I see my kids. Though I speak on many panels, I was nervous about this one. Often, I find it difficult to talk about suffering from Bipolar Disorder in public. People can be very nasty. Regardless, I pushed ahead. The church is... Read more
* This interaction is derived from a recent conversation that I had with the Rev. Dr. Garth Baker-Fletcher at his home where he is recovering from hip surgery. A retired professor, Baker-Fletcher is the author of Somebodyness: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Theory of Dignity (1993), Xodus: An African-American Male Journey (1996), My Sister, My Brother (with his wife Karen) (1997), Black Religion After the Million Man March (1998), Dirty Hands: Christian Ethics in a Morally Ambiguous World (2000) & Bible Witness in Black Churches (2009). A cherished friend,... Read more
“Why???” The tearful words of James Hutcheson echoed loudly against the jail. Throughout last Friday’s press conference, the events of August 1 kept running through my mind. Desperate for help, Joseph Hutcheson parked his truck on the curb of the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in Dallas and ran inside. Upon entering, Hutcheson screamed, “Don’t hurt me, I just need some help.” The deputies tackled him. As Hutcheson screamed that he couldn’t breathe, a witness described one deputy restraining Hutcheson... Read more
Less than a hundred feet from residences, local authorities discovered the badly decomposed body of a transgender woman of color. The Dallas Police Department put out a detailed description of the body and asked for help. For two weeks, no one seemed to know who this woman was. When the woman was finally identified as 22-year-old Shade Schuler, I realized that she belonged to no one…she was amongst the forgotten. In the twilight, the heat was excruciating. With... Read more
Under the auspices of enforcing the law, they came to the door. Grabbing the unarmed man, they forced him down the hallway. With every step, the man pleaded for his life. Opening the door, they forced him down. After multiple shots, they declared, “We feared for our lives and had to kill him.” The highest form of brutality is to kill a defenseless individual. In the next two days, Texas will do it twice. As our nation burns with... Read more
* Despite my physical absence, I just sent in this statement for tonight’s rally for Christian Taylor in Arlington, Texas. “I don’t struggle to understand where God is when unarmed bodies keep hitting the pavement. I know that God stands with the brutalized. The case of Christian Taylor is a reminder of where God is not. God condemns the brutalizers. We are here to be a voice of judgment. We are here to declare that Christian should not be dead.... Read more
“Can you imagine Jesus sitting on his ass while people are gunned down in the street? Why do we? Cowardice is the highest level of evil and it exists in abundance in the institutional church. By doing nothing as bodies drop, the institutional church might as well be firing the guns. We will either stand with Jesus in the streets or continue to have the blood of the brutalized dripping from our crosses.” Read more
*This is the last intentional conversation of Christian Parks’ summer internship. J: Christian, you have become a spiritual son to me this summer. In the words of Ruth, “Do not ask me to leave you…” I am so very thankful for our three months together. A deep abiding love has bubbled up. What are the last things you want to discuss on our drive to the airport? C: First of all, I feel the same way. Thank... Read more
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