The release of the CIA torture report uncovered and detailed the many brutal tactics employed by U.S. interrogators. But what about the role of religion? We take a look at how it was misused in an attempt to break detainees’ own religious faith. Panelists included: Rev. Ron Stief @NRCATtweets (Washington, DC) Executive Director, National Religious Campaign Against Torture  Ibrahim Hooper @CAIRNational (Washington, DC) Communications Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)  Rev. Paul Raushenbush @raushenbush (New York, NY) HuffPost Executive Religion... Read more

At this point, there are so many sex scandals among conservative religious organizations, we’re no longer surprised by any of them. The latest revelation—that for decades, the evangelical Bob Jones University blamed victims of sexual assault and discouraged the prosecution of predators—should be shocking, but probably isn’t. Yet, the recent report on BJU’s misconduct is different. Unusually for such a document, it makes a theological case against sexual abuse—but in so doing, it points to the deep roots of rape... Read more

by Katherine Whitfield R3 Contributor “For manifestly, you have long been aware of what you mean when you use the expression ‘being.’ We, however, who used to think we understood it, have now become perplexed.”– Martin Heidegger, Being and Time “The black experience is existence in a system of white racism.”– James Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation   Within a matter of hours, a grand jury convened to deliberate on the police shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown earlier... Read more

Students in the Fall 2014 African American Religious Thought class at Memphis Theological Seminary created a statement regarding the #FergusonFiasco. Below is the statement.  Ferguson is not solely a black and white issue; it is an issue of equal rights for all human beings. The failure to resolve the issue of recurring injustice against black people perpetuates and reinforces a divide between the races. We believe the solution to societal ills come from the bottom up rather than the top down.... Read more

The events of the last few weeks have left many people in our country weary. When the grandjury in Ferguson decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for killing Mike Brown, the shoulders of many black people fell. Our hearts, already broken and bruised as a result of living in an oppressive society, broke even more. Once again, a nation that never intended for us to make it, that never intended for us to do well, failed us. Though to... Read more

by Andrew Wilkes Special to R3 This first appeared on HuffingtonPost To be black in America is to listen to death daily. To hear mothers wailing at unnecessary funerals, to see fathers mourning lost sons, to offer graveside prayers that puncture the heart of God – this is the sorrow song of a people, and a nation, haunted by racism. Over our heads however, I hear the sweet, dark sounds of freedom in the air, calling for the dry bones... Read more

by Kimberly Macharia Special to R3   When labels are placed onto human beings, something scary happens. They lose their identity. Before they have a chance to defend themselves, judgments have already been made. Labels are demeaning. They make it inherently difficult to be viewed as an individual. Once a person has been gifted with a label, they begin an uphill battle. Sadly, it is not a fair one. It was never meant to be fair. The author of the biblical book... Read more

Nothing about religion in the public sphere is uncomplicated. And those attendant complications permeate the juggernaut of so-called “bipartisan prison/criminal justice reform.” Many liberal/progressive communities of faith, advocacy organizations, pundits, and politicians have been reluctant, if not reflexively averse, to engaging these issues in any but the most simplistic or reactive ways. The result is that the evangelical Christian Right, in concert with “unfettered free market/everything’s a commodity” corporate interests, now dominates the terrain of sentencing and corrections reform. The... Read more

[This article has been adapted from a paper delivered at the 2014 American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 24th Nov. 2014] Following Bush’s consecutive victories in 2000 and 2004 the Christian right have been labeled the ‘backbone’ and ‘base’ behind the Republican Party’s electoral successes.[1] Evangelical born-again Christians constitute around 26% of the US electorate according the latest Pew Research poll, of whom three-quarters consistently vote Republican.[2] For forty years the considerable convening power of these faithful conservatives have made... Read more