Methodist Theological School in Ohio has appointed Valerie Bridgeman associate professor of homiletics and Hebrew Bible, effective July 1, 2015. Bridgeman began serving as visiting associate professor at MTSO in early 2014. An ordained minister, Bridgeman is in high demand across the country as a preacher and speaker. Prior to coming to MTSO, she was a tenured associate professor at Lancaster Theological Seminary. She also is the founding president and CEO of WomanPreach! Inc., a nonprofit organization that brings preachers... Read more

African-descended communities across the globe are suffering effects of political, economic and social inequities whose consequences include alarming levels of disease, unemployment, incarceration, and systemic violence. What institutional, cultural, public policy, and faith-centered responses can be mobilized in response to this state of affairs? The 2015 Transatlantic Roundtable on religion and race aims to focus on the role of faith based organisations, leaders, community activists and others in confronting key issues impacting groups where racial disparities and/ or racial/religious conflict... Read more

The 2014 midterm elections are drawing near, and it appears that the Democrats may well lose the Senate, since they’re fighting on unfriendly territory – a large number of seats in red states are up for grabs. But if you look deeper than the national picture, there’s a more interesting story. In southern states like Georgia and Kentucky – which in the past would have been easy Republican holds – the races are unexpectedly tight. In fact, the only reason... Read more

Like the authors of Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude, I find in many of my encounters with U.S. Christian communities the assumption that Christianity is clean, comforting, friendly, moderately well-off, and capable of making the world a better place by giving some aid to people in need. Like the authors, I find the vitality of faith in communities where the gospel has led people into a more costly, less certain, more joyous form of life together. I sympathize with the... Read more

Katherine Whitfield moved to Memphis, Tenn., in 2000 to attend Rhodes College. She graduated in 2004 with a degree in English and a minor in Religious Studies. Immediately after college, Katherine worked for four years coordinating PR and marketing efforts for an independent bookstore. Since 2008, she has served on the marketing and communications team at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, facilitating on-campus communications, collaborating on culture-shaping initiatives and partnering with Le Bonheur families to ensure the best possible care experience.... Read more

By Katherine Whitfield R3 Contributor “Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me... Read more

In 1900, W. E. B. Du Bois declared that “the problem of the 20th century” would be “the problem of the color line.” His prediction turns out to be just as true for our 21st century. Black men and women in contemporary America are judged not by the content of their character, but by the color of their skin. And for black Americans, such judgment is not merely hurtful or offensive. It is often fatal. It has become a literal... Read more

The shooting in Ottawa on 22 October 2014 has uncovered the remarkable way that the Canadian state remains theologically constituted. In some ways, this is a relatively uncontroversial argument. The White House press conference immediately following the attacks made a link between the Canadian support for military action against the Islamic State and the deaths of both Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent on October 20 in Quebec and Cpl. Nathan Cirllo of the Argyll and Sutherland Higlanders on the October 22.... Read more

We are living through a moment of tremendous change at the intersection of race, religion, and sexuality, which has significant implications both for those who study and practice religion alike. “Are the Gods Afraid of Black Sexuality?” will bring scholars, activists and religious leaders together to explore a range of historical and contemporary phenomena associated with religion, race and sexuality, as they coalesce and converge. The task before us is not to address a single problem, but rather to unearth... Read more

In 1964, after he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sat down for a series of interviews with the author Alex Haley that were edited into one interview that ran in Playboy in 1965—the longest interview King ever gave any publication. In January 1965, Playboy published Alex Haley’s interview with the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., shortly after King received the Nobel Peace Prize. In those days, the magazine still wasn’t identifying the interviewer by... Read more