by Earle FisherR3 Contributor Follow Earle on Twitter @pastor_earleThis post first appeared at Rainbows and Lilacs I watched it. Then I watched it again. Not necessarily because it was so captivating, but more so because when I watched it the first time I missed the introduction (it felt like trying to read the bible by starting in the book of Matthew or John; at some point you’ll have to begin at Genesis to get a better context). I watched it a third... Read more

by Kimberly Peeler-Ringer R3 Contributor Follow Kimberly on Twitter @kpringer About a year ago I wrote an essay entitled “The Persistent Devaluation of Black Bodies.” And since then, I have had way too many opportunities to revisit that piece due to the unceasing assault upon Black and Brown bodies by those whose charge is to protect and to serve. Those whose salaries are supplemented with taxes we pay. This is a systemic problem that is repeating itself across the nation. It is... Read more

I had been hearing rumblings for a couple weeks, but Thursday morning I awoke to a full-throttle meltdown among some members of the community with which I most closely identify, that is, Black Christians. Thursday night the new series by Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder premiered on AdultSwim, the Cartoon Network evening lineup of adult-themed cartoon comedy. It’s called Black Jesus, and in the trailer the title character is depicted as a neighborhood brother dressed in church-play biblical garb with no... Read more

By Elizabeth F. Desnoyers-Colas Ph.D Follow Elizabeth on Twitter @MoveProfPhD Like many in the nation, I waited anxiously for the decision of a Detroit jury who was deliberating the judicial fate of Theodore Wafer, the man who shot and killed 19 year old Renisha McBride while she stood on his porch seeking assistance, possibly refuge.  Over the past few months while waiting for this decision, I found myself acutely suffering from a continual nerve wracking case of the “Zimmerman Effect.” The... Read more

Omar Akersim prays regularly and observes the dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast. He is also openly gay. Akersim, 26, is part of a small but growing number of American Muslims challenging the long-standing interpretations of Islam that defined their parents’ world. They believe that one can be gay and Muslim; that the sexes can pray shoulder-to-shoulder; that females can preach and that Muslim women can marry outside the faith — and they point to Quran passages to back them up. The shift... Read more

By Andre E. Key, PhD Follow on Twitter @AKeyPhD What happens when you combine James Cone’s black liberation theology and Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks”? You end up with Aaron McGruder’s irreverent new show Black Jesus on Adult Swim. From the creator of The Boondocks, McGruder takes the cliché question of “What Would Jesus Do?” and places it in the heart of South Central Los Angeles. The show’s premiere was welcomed with both anticipation and criticism as it has already inspired... Read more

This week I read an article from Samantha Pugsley in which she bravely recounted her upbringing in the church and how it nearly ruined her sexually. No, she was not molested by a minister or trusted adult (at least I hope not). She, like nearly all youth in the church, was taught that sex was reserved for marriage and that she should save herself for her husband. She was one of many young girls who took the “true love waits”... Read more

The last several months have seen many thoughtful responses to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “A Case for Reparations,” published in The Atlantic in late May. Of special interest to readers of RiAH may be a recent roundtable discussion posted at the Society of US Intellectual History blog, as several of the contributions use the famous “Black Manifesto” as a starting point for considering various aspects of the modern reparations debate. I, too, thought of the Black Manifesto as I read and reflected... Read more

An article on WORLD magazine’s website bemoans a Grammy-nominated Christian band’s “drift from biblical orthodoxy.” The substance of this move toward heresy? the band leader no longer believes in an historic Adam, Eve, or Noah the band’s newest album expresses doubt (for the record: so does the biblical book of Job) AND, most importantly and heretically: a new musical track experiments with feminine metaphors for God! Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, tweeted the WORLD article, saying “this is really sad.”... Read more

Between Thursday evening and Sunday on July 4 weekend, 82 people were shot in the city of Chicago. Of those, 14 died. Those numbers—from one American city over the course of a single weekend—represent more gun violence than some developed countries experience in an entire year. A new report from the CDC showed that guns killed 32,351 people in America in 2011 alone. That’s 88 deaths every single day. Every 16 minutes for an entire year, someone was killed by... Read more