As we finish off leftovers from Thanksgiving, we usher in another season of advent. And if you are like me, you too have also been wondering what this season means in light of the current political moment. Getting wrapped up in the typical holiday festivities and cheer is tempting - I want my children to …
Continue reading This Advent: Christ Is Here – May He Be Found In Us
*A version of this post has been posted at RaceRhetoricandReligion. On Wednesday, I awoke to the news that Bethel University's St. Paul, Minnesota campus - the school I attended for Seminary - experienced a racist incident. The Kresge rock that had been recently painted in solidarity with Black Lives Matter was now painted over in …
Continue reading White Church So Silent, White Church So Complicit
"Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him. For the help of his presence." - Psalm 42.5 After another agonizing week of around the clock coverage of the war against black bodies, we find ourselves here again. Once …
Continue reading Where Do We Go From Here? Maintaining Faith in the Midst of Suffering
I see you. I see your facebook posts and tweets calling for racial reconciliation in light of last week’s compounding tragedies. I see your vision for unity and peace, for America to bridge the racial divide that keeps us at odds. I hear it in your preaching and in your worship. And in the articles …
Continue reading Your Vision of Racial Reconciliation is Inadequate
It has been exactly a year since the horrific mass shooting took place in Charleston, North Carolina. As soon as I heard about this extreme act of terrorism against black bodies, I was quick to rush to the internet (Twitter) to denounce it. Tears flooded my face with every tweet I sent - I felt …
Continue reading 3 Things I’m Thinking About in Light of Orlando
Can we all just get along? If you were around in the early 1990s, you would remember this challenge posed by Rodney King, a black man who was beaten by police officers in Los Angeles. To quell the riots, perhaps, after the officers were acquitted for their level of inhumanity, King exhorted people to learn …
Continue reading Do We Really Want Reconciliation? Or Are We Just Conflict Averse?
Ebony Johanna 