Religious Studies Professor Dr. Luther Ivory is the recipient of Rhodes College’s highest faculty honor for outstanding teaching presented April 27 at the college’s annual Awards Convocation. Dr. Shadrack Nasong’o of the International Studies Department was announced the winner of the Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Research and/or Creative Activity. He currently is out of the country and will be honored in the fall. The awards, first given in 1981, were established by businessman and Rhodes alumnus Clarence Day and... Read more

How unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian. And yet, here it is: Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney, an African-American and a white Mormon, representatives of two groups and that have endured oppression to carve out a place in the United States. How much progress has America made against bigotry? By November, we should have some idea. Perhaps mindful of the lingering power... Read more

by GINIA BELLAFANTE On Tuesday afternoon, on the steps of Federal Hall, in Lower Manhattan, where Occupy Wall Street protesters have been contained in recent weeks, Loren Hart, a conservatively dressed man of 33, sat reading a newspaper as he held a sign that gave quiet expression to pervasive grievances: “The economy is failing us. Our climate is worsening every day. Perhaps we should make some serious changes.” Mr. Hart arrived in New York from North Carolina in October to... Read more

By Andre E. JohnsonEditor: Rhetoric Race and ReligionI am blessed to be a part of the “Faith in Memphis” clergy panel. Each week the editor David Waters sends out a question that he would like for us to address. One such question was, “Is imposition of the death penalty a political/partisan matter or a religious/moral matter? Why is the death penalty largely being carried out in the South? Should Tennessee abolish the death penalty?”My response is belowI will address the... Read more

by Gee Joyner and Earle FisherRhetoric Race and Religion Contributors*The authors first presented a version of this paper on March 10, 2012 at the 36th Annual National Council of Black Studies in Atlanta, Georgia After evidence of police brutality against African-Americans was recorded by a video camera in Los Angeles, California, the entire nation, and the world, was privied to what African Americans had been knowledgeable of for years—the inhumane and discriminatory treatment of Black males, and often times Black... Read more

by Jameelah X. Medina Since 9/11, many Muslim women in the USA are in a similar predicament as what African American and Chicana women found themselves in decades ago during the Black Power and Chicano Power Movements. African American and Chicana women stood along side African American and Chicano men to fight against oppression and injustices against them by the power structure and the people in positions of power. In both movements, women’s issues were relegated to the sidelines; they... Read more

The unification of the water resources of Africa is one of the primary bases for African unity, with a system of canals linking rivers and lakes in the kind of infrastructure planning that ensures that all will have water. What is hidden from the Wise and Prudent will be revealed to babes and sucklings. In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from... Read more

The conflict of intertwined forces of nationalism and religion with similar opposing forces has been the cause of many horrendous wars during the last millennium. These unfortunate conflicts keep repeating themselves in varying degrees and last week we witnessed the flaring of one such incident at Dambulla which the government commendably doused out soon.The conflicts of different nationalisms—quite often intertwined with religion— are of global occurrence and right now the Middle East is a powder keg with devastating potential.Marxists –... Read more

by Mugambi JouetHuffington Post Two major objects of attention during this election season reflect a key dimension of American exceptionalism: religion. First, America may soon have a president of Mormon faith, Mitt Romney, who served as a Mormon missionary and bishop before becoming a politician. Second, Rick Santorum, the runner-up in the G.O.P. primaries, led a campaign focused on religious moralizing. Santorum notably declared that “Satan” is threatening America, and decried the evils of secularism, pre-marital sex, contraception, abortion, and... Read more

What we today call African Americans are people who came from many parts of West Africa (folks who came from many African tribes). These people were rudely separated from their tribal moorings and left hanging in the air, rootless. Generally, human beings seek roots in a place and in a people and its ways of life (norms, mores, rules, culture). African-Americans were abruptly yanked away from their African cultures. In the Americas to prevent them from forming a sense of... Read more