by Andre E. Johnson R3 Editor The week of January 11-16, 2015, I taught an immersion class in Ferguson, Missouri. These are some of my reflections of that week. Last semester, I taught African American Religious Thought. The course focused on the religious thinking and interpretation of African Americans—both within and outside of the Black Church or Christian tradition. The particular offering this semester focused on published works of particular African American “theologians,” both of the systematic and public variety.... Read more

More children are “growing up godless” than at any other time in our nation’s history. They are the offspring of an expanding secular population that includes a relatively new and burgeoning category of Americans called the “Nones,” so nicknamed because they identified themselves as believing in “nothing in particular” in a 2012 study by the Pew Research Center. The number of American children raised without religion has grown significantly since the 1950s, when fewer than 4% of Americans reported growing... Read more

I have been attempting to do theology in the public domain, on my Facebook page for two years, and now here for five months. After all that is what being a public theologian is about (and you can now earn advanced degrees in ‘public theology’). From time to time someone comes on and says that we, who proclaim a Loving God, are going to bear the unforgivable burden of knowing that people went to hell because they listened to the... Read more

On April 19, 1961, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a stirring sermon in a most unlikely place. Though not his most famous address, Dr. King’s words to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary or simply Southern Seminary pushed the audience to do more to accomplish racial justice. Delivered to the flagship theological institution of the flagship denomination of Southern Culture, Dr. King would never again give another address like this. The Southern Baptist Convention originated from a desire... Read more

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The proposal to proclaim the adhan or Muslim call to prayer from the top of Duke Chapel’s bell tower today provoked a number of reactions. These ranged from the vitriolic and vengeful to the dismayed and discomforted. From the deluge of emails the university received and the long strings of comments posted after articles covering the issue appeared on websites, these overwhelmingly negative reactions came not just from Christians but also from Jews and those of no faith. One could... Read more

First posted on HuffingtonPost (This Open Letter represents a collective effort by African American Presidents and Deans in Theological Education. A full list of the authors is at the bottom of the letter.) January 15, 2015 An Open Letter to Presidents and Deans of Theological Schools in the United States, At its annual meeting at Shaw University Divinity School in Raleigh, NC, African American Presidents and Deans of theological schools in the United States issued a call for action in... Read more

“You can take the day off. I completely understand.” My boss was the principal and I was seated in his office for some reason that I suddenly couldn’t remember. I had not asked for the day off from our Christian elementary school. All over town, schools would be closed on Monday. Except for us… and the nearby Christian college. This was the Friday before the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, and I increasingly wondered, “Why aren’t we all taking the... Read more

From the United Church of Christ   As America honors the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the ideals of equality, service and beloved community that he lived and died for, the Cleveland-based United Church of Christ has released a Pastoral Letter on Racism, with the hope and expectation that it will be read in our 5,100 churches nationwide on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend or to conclude the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity on Sunday,... Read more

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls was not speaking metaphorically when he said that France is at war with radical Islam. There is, indeed, a full-fledged war underway, and the heinous terrorist attacks in Paris were part of it. Yet, like most wars, this one is about more than religion, fanaticism, and ideology. It is also about geopolitics, and its ultimate solution lies in geopolitics as well. Crimes like those in Paris, New York, London, and Madrid – attacks on countless... Read more