On November 2, 2013, Theodore Wafer shot and killed Renisha McBride as she sought assistance after being in a car accident. The shooting of an unarmed black teenager has similarities to the Trayvon Martin murder by George Zimmerman. Here at R3, we collected some of the editorials and opinion pieces that examined the shooting of McBride. We now follow that up with pieces published during the Wafer trial that is set to start July 21, 2014. If you have a... Read more

by Earle Fisher R3 Contributor I’ve spent the last several months trying to drive home to point of importance with our congregation that the embodiment of God in Jesus of Nazareth matters… especially to people of color. Therefore, when we see Jesus’ actions in its historical context it disrupts the ways in which we have interpreted the activities and attitudes of people of color (who are also people of faith, irrespective of how unconventional) and causes us to take a... Read more

The shooting of Michael Brown, the subsequent protests, and the police response in Ferguson, Missouri has made public once again the festering disease that is race in America. The profiling of African American men and women, police brutality and proportion of African Americans killed by police has persisted in the United States. In many ways, the events that led to the protests in Ferguson were nothing new. But perhaps what was new was not the anger of the African American... Read more

Racial politics in the U.S. is beholden to the space of black death. On Monday, Michael Brown’s family, friends and loved ones gathered to lay his body to rest, even though his unjust and untimely death leaves his community of Ferguson, Missouri, in a state of unrest. Michael’s funeral, held in a local black Baptist Church, was reminiscent of so many familiar rituals of black cultural home-goings: raucous preaching, the call and response of the audience emboldening those in the... Read more

It was too much to resist: the media lure of prominent clergy members like the Revs Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson visiting Ferguson, Missouri,a moment about to become a movement. But real change to the conditions they went there to highlight and decry – real movement – can only come from local organizers, like the St Louis Clergy Coalition. That coalition has been instrumental, though less talked about on the news, by walking the streets of Ferguson two weeks of protests,... Read more

By the Reverend Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II Director, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness is the voice of Presbyterian public policy and advocates for the social justice policies approved by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “In each time and place, there are particular problems and crisis through which God calls the church to act. The church, guided by the Spirit, humbled by its own complicity and instructed by all... Read more

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Every once and a while Jesus shows up in strange places. The first time I saw Jesus appear in a peculiar place was as an adolescent at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) thanks to my friend Birghapati, a Hare Krishna. Upon discovering I was a Christian, Birghapati opened up the book The Hidden Glory of India to share with me how Jesus, after surviving his crucifixion, traveled to India, learned under a guru, and taught there for several years. The... Read more

The best way into our subject is through a look at ancient mythology. Consider, for example, the familiar story of Sisyphus, whom the gods condemned to move a rock to the top of a hill, whereupon it would roll back down, this appalling sequence to be repeated over and over through eternity. Thinkers for generations have sensed in this myth a meaning, possibly a profound truth only dimly seen. Perhaps it is the image of an indominatable will. Or of... Read more

In 1894, black racial justice activist Ida B. Wells sounded the alarm on racial injustice, imploring white Christians to put a stop to the lynching of black people. She spoke out saying, “Our American Christians are too busy saving the souls of white Christians from burning in hell-fire to save the lives of black ones from present burning in fires kindled by white Christians.”[i] Alas, white Christians continued their preoccupation with fire-and-brimstone sermons and their disregard for black lives. Their “whites... Read more