Biblical literalism usually emerges from a faithful impulse – a deeply meaningful faith in God, scripture and, in Christian tradition, Jesus. (Corollaries exist in Judaism and Islam, but I will confine myself to Christianity.) That faith is frequently buttressed by personal experiences with God and the scriptures that shape and reinforce their meaning. For many, to deny the truth of the scripture would be to deny God of the scriptures. The assumptions about that “truth” often go unexamined. We must... Read more

As we take some much needed time off, we here at Rhetoric Race and Religion wish all of you a very blessed holiday season. In the meantime, please enjoy some of the writing from our contributors.  We are looking for new contributors in 2014! We are interested in any topics that examine the intersection of rhetoric race and religion. Interested in contributing? It’s real easy, you just let us know and start submitting.First, there is no necessary number of posts you... Read more

Yesterday, I found myself in a discussion about the anti-abortion people. The reason: It’s just incomprehensible to us that people get so zealous about that issue that they’ll go as far as to murder doctors who perform abortions and bomb abortion clinics.The conversation then took its natural turn to selective, self-serving interpretations of the Bible… finding a few verses that you can use to justify a position that lets you impose your morality on someone, and riding those verses hard... Read more

At the public viewing of, and paying last respects to, the late Hon Sam Kalega Njuba on Monday, the retired assistant bishop of Kampala, Dr Zac Niringiye, was asked to say an opening prayer. But he said more than just a prayer. This was at the headquarters of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). The late Njuba diligently and honestly served FDC as National Chairman. Njuba was undoubtedly one of the most important statesmen of his generation having straddled... Read more

That Time named Pope Francis “Person of the Year” was not a surprise. But for The Advocateto follow suit is a big bag of whut? for this liberal Catholic. Perhaps the venerable LGBT magazine thought this would be an appropriate birthday present for the pontiff, but the gift, as well as the thought behind it, is misplaced.  In case the editors of The Advocate did not notice, the Pope’s statement flying back from Brazil for World Youth Day was not a change in Catholic teaching, but in tone. The... Read more

For most people interested in American history, the term “social gospel” probably denotes an informal American religious movement that began sometime around the publication of Washington Gladden’sWorking People and Their Employers (1876) and faded in importance sometime after Walter Rauschenbusch’s A Theology for the Social Gospel (1917). It involved a decreased focus on individual other-worldly salvation and an increased emphasis on applying Christ’s teachings (especially in regards to fairness and justice) to fix temporal inequalities produced by the new industrial economic and political... Read more

As an African-American Latter-day Saint and the co-editor of Black and Mormon, a book-length anthology published in 2004 exploring black Mormons and their place in the LDS Church since the 1978 priesthood revelation, I applaud the LDS Church’s most recent effort to deal with its troubling racial past as reflected in its 6 December 2013 statement “Race and the Priesthood.” For decades, however, the Church has not forthrightly addressed its racist past despite calls from many of its more progressive black and white members. Not surprisingly,... Read more

Nine in 10 Americans will celebrate Christmas this year, but a new poll shows that increasing numbers see the holiday as more tinsel than gospel truth. This year more than ever, Americans prefer that stores and businesses welcome them with the more generic “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” than “Merry Christmas,” according to a survey released Tuesday (Dec. 17) by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service. And for one in four American adults (26 percent),... Read more

Bishop Joseph Walker and the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International launched a “new kingdom initiative and ministry paradigm” that focused on a “progressive agenda to promote church, social and political reform” via a “five point platform.”  This historic gathering was by “invitation only,” and featured “prominent, new generation pastors and leaders” that came to Miami, Florida to “interact and to integrate their ideas on bold, powerful and world changing topics. However, not lost on many was the omission of women... Read more

Read the series here  I just stood there still processing the fact that someone just slapped me across the head. As I turned to walk away, one of my friends left his phone in the meeting room. As he went back to retrieve his phone, my other friend and I stood by the elevator discussing what just happened. Then a rush came over me—I headed back towards the room. I decided to tell my assailant and others who were in... Read more