“If I Can Help Somebody”: The Rhetorical Influence of #MLK

October 20, 2017 By Andre E. Johnson

In the Spring of 2017, I taught a graduate seminar that focused on the rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr. during the last year of his life. More specifically, we examined King within the African American prophetic tradition and placed special emphasis on his prophetic pessimism. In this second panel, students presented versions of their final papers in the class for the Graduate Association of African American History Conference held at the University of Memphis. The title of this panel was... Read more

The Prophetic Pessimism of #MLK

October 20, 2017 By Andre E. Johnson

In the Spring of 2017, I taught a graduate seminar that focused on the rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr. during the last year of his life. More specifically, we examined King within the African American prophetic tradition and placed special emphasis on his prophetic pessimism. In this first panel, students presented versions of their final papers in the class for the Graduate Association of African American History Conference held at the University of Memphis. The title of this panel... Read more

Thoughts and Prayers is Our National Gun Policy

October 19, 2017 By blog admin

The founder and managing editor of the R3 blog, Dr. Andre E. Johnson was a guest on the Profane Faith podcast. Hosted by Dr. Daniel White Hodge, Dr. Johnson discussed the terrorist attack in Las Vegas where Stephen Paddock shot and killed 58 people and wounding over 500. By examining the intersection of race, gender, class, and faith, Dr. Johnson also helped us to understand how the media framed this story and why “thoughts and prayers” have become our national gun policy.... Read more

Theology Live: Theology and Race with Andre E. Johnson

October 18, 2017 By blog admin

The founder and managing editor of R3, Rev. Dr. Andre Johnson, was a guest on the podcast Theology Live. Hosted by Meredith Day, Dr. Johnson discussed the intersection of theology and race, focusing on the recent white supremacist rally in #Charlottesville and the work he and others are doing here in Memphis with #TakeEmDown901. He also discussed the hashtag he created, #WhiteChurchQuiet and the one created by Christopher Stroop, #EmptythePews. He argued that in order to understand race and all... Read more

Henry McNeal Turner: Public Theologian

October 15, 2017 By Andre E. Johnson

This article was first published in Christian History. Tradition holds that Henry McNeal Turner’s grandfather David Greer, was an African prince. While his royal blood did not save him from human traders who kidnapped him from his nation and brought him to South Carolina in the late 1700s, his lineage ultimately kept him and his family from slavery. South Carolina was a British colony when the prince arrived, and it was against British law to enslave royal blood. Free—but unable... Read more

Are We Just Dancing for the King?

October 2, 2017 By Guest Contributor

by Alphonso Saville As America trods the path towards another showdown in the saga for racial justice, communities of faith must be prepared to provide spiritual and pragmatic resources for sustained resistance. Renowned scholar and theologian Josiah Young explains black spirituality is an antidote to anti-black racism and its aesthetics forms can be detected in the acts and perspectives that counter methods and systems of racial injustice. The internal fortitude produced by this artistic tradition is a testament to a... Read more

Sports: America’s True Religion

September 27, 2017 By Guest Contributor

by Alphonso F. Saville Did you see where NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the expansion of the league was “inevitable” and mentioned Mexico City as a possibility? With the Toronto Raptors already playing in Canada, the league would then have a foothold on the entire continent of North America. Did you also see the NBA Africa vs NBA International game in Johannesburg? It featured NBA players from Africa vs. an international team of NBA players from the rest of the... Read more

White Policing of Black Protest

September 27, 2017 By Guest Contributor

by Jervette R. Ward In the last ten days, I’ve been individually contacted by two older “white Christian friends” who wanted to inform me that they agreed with what I was saying about racism, discrimination, and inequality in our nation and our personal lives; however, one informed me that I was being too aggressive and making white people in our circles uncomfortable, and the other informed me that I wasn’t doing enough to address racial issues and that I should... Read more

When #TakeAKnee Takes the Streets

September 26, 2017 By Guest Contributor

by Alphonso Saville America has a long and contentious history when it comes to black people praying in public. In the brush harbor churches during the early days of the Black Church, black worshipers had to be wary of owners and overseers breaking up their meetings. When North America’s first ordained black minister, the Rev. John Marrant, led a group of enslaved black people from the Jenkins’ Plantation in Combahee, South Carolina out to the woods to pray, Mrs. Jenkins,... Read more

How Theology Helped Me Connect the Dots

September 26, 2017 By Guest Contributor

by Scott Prather I think it’s been seventeen years since I stood for a national anthem or mumbled a pledge of allegiance. That was around the time I started reading theology and discovered that America was an empire whose “original sin” was but one chapter in a long story of violence toward nonwhite peoples that continues being written, through actual war and through the softer war for the American people’s lived acceptance of The Lie at the heart of the... Read more