Recently through Facebook, I saw a video posted of a panel of reformed theologians answering a question about the validity of Christian Rap as a ministry tool. I thought it both interesting and strange that an all Anglo male group of theologians would even take on this topic. As I listened to their answers it was obvious that they should stay away from the topic from here forward. I would make one exception.  I would love to have a healthy... Read more

by Andre E. JohnsonR3 Editor Read the series hereThe first thing that ran through my mind was, “Did I just get slapped upside the head? Who would do something like that?” The slap startled me; yes, I did feel it, and yes, it caught me completely off guard. Rubbing my head to just confirm I was hit upside my head, I immediately turned around to see who would do something like this and I saw my assailant smiling and laughing... Read more

When I saw the “Mipsterz” video, “Somewhere In America,” I thought to myself, “This is me.” I may not wear hijab. I may not go to the mosque every Friday. But I am an American Muslim, and this video illustrates just one of the many ways that it’s possible to be one. However, other Muslims are often the very individuals that make it most difficult for members of the community to authentically express themselves, as the Twitter storm over “#mipsterz”... Read more

For many feminists, experience is crucial.  Experience has long been associated with feminist epistemological theories which suggest that reflection on and analysis of one’s experiences offer crucial insight into society.  In the history of the women’s movement, this insight and analysis has many times translated into direct action to change the way our society functions. Experience too has been problematized by various postmodern and postcolonial feminist theorists.  They rightly point to the situated-ness of all experiences along class, race, gender,... Read more

by Joseph BostonR3 Contributor *First published at the Joseph Boston Blog When Kanye West was ten years he old he spent a year in China due to his mother’s participation in an exchange program that enabled her to teach at Nanjing University. For a young person of colour from the inner city of Chicago one cannot being to fathom the effect that this trip had on the mind of a young Kanye West and how that exposure opened up his mind... Read more

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Miami. Baton Rouge. Jacksonville. Columbia, South Carolina: These are not the places that immediately come to mind when considering America’s HIV epidemic. But in the ranking of US cities with the highest HIV rates, they are numbers one, two, three, and six, respectively. On Thursday the New York Times ran an important story by Donald McNeil Jr. about the “new face” of HIV— young, poor black and Hispanic men who have sex with men. One thing not mentioned in the article—which focuses on New... Read more

by Earle Fisher R3 Contributor The season of Advent is indeed very telling.  It is a time where many people of faith join in a collective expectancy, awaiting the arrival of (or celebrating the birth of) the messiah, savior, Christ.  When social conditions are abhorrent and dilapidated, environments and attitudes of mistrust and despair are inevitable.  The result of social, economic and political oppression is both expectancy and apathy.  Ironically, we long for something or someone to deliver us from... Read more

Private businesses are trying to block Obamacare on religious grounds? What do companies worship besides, perhaps, the almighty dollar? That’s the question at the heart of two conflicting rulings from lower courts that the Supreme Court has decided to take up in its second constitutional showdown over President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.Since the law also known as Obamacare was passed, dozens of Christian employers have challenged its birth-control mandate that requires employers to provide health insurance coverage for FDA-approved contraception. Abortion... Read more

by Andre E. JohnsonR3 Editor*Dr. Johnson presented a portion of this paper at the National Communication Association meeting in Washington, DC on November 21, 2013 On Palm Sunday, March 31, 1968, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. during Sunday worship service not as a civil rights leader, not as an anti-war protester, not as a philosopher, or any other label that people had thrust upon him at that time. King on that day... Read more