Anti-Choice Doc Aims to Link Reproductive Rights to ‘Black Genocide’
Anti-abortion activists are screening an expertly-made documentary to black audiences across the country. Maafa 21 creates a highly selective, distorted history of the reproductive rights movement and frames abortion as a tool of eugenics and genocide.
Christopher Hitchens, Religious in Spite of Himself?
In a recent interview with a Unitarian minister, the Vanity Fair columnist seemed to be nibbling at the edges of what can only be described as spirituality, leading our author to wonder whether Christopher Hitchens isn’t the best of the New Atheists for his willingness to reject atheistic dogmas.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Cornel West celebrated the man and warned against the "Santa Clausification" of his life.
Maybe it's time to stop framing European conquest as dinner party between Pilgrims and Indians.
Two Wars and No Peace in Sight: The Role of Faith-Based Pacifism
When it comes to peace activism, holding signs might not always be enough, says sociologist Sharon Nepstad. In this interview she explains why, and talks about the unique historical role of religion in nonviolent protest.
Moses on the Mayflower: Was the Prophet a Founding Father?
Author Bruce Feiler is back from “walking the Bible” and is roaming the country, tracing Moses’ footsteps. But in his eagerness to make the prophet into a unifying symbol, he misses the true complexity of the relationship between religion and the secular in America.
Is the house that King built trying to end it all?
Personalities, Politics and Penises: National Baptist Convention Dodged a Bullet
Although convicted felon Henry J. Lyons lost the election for president of the largest religious body of African Americans in the nation, what does it say about NBC that he was even eligible to run where women are not?
Presidential Pep Talks and the Religion of Fear: How did an Uncontroversial Speech Become a National Controversy?
The conservatives who were frightened by Obama’s speech to schoolchildren weren’t afraid he’d say something radical—quite the contrary—they were afraid that the president would sound moderate and human. The real question, why did they buy the fear? is impossible to answer without considering religion.
How sad and ironic that the revocation of citizen’s rights via Constitutional bans, is not on the SCLC’s radar. Is it a Movement or Museum?
Putting the “Protest” Back in Protestant: Reclaiming the Spirit of Resistance
Why has so much religious leadership come to look like “the bland leading the bland”? On the occasion of Pentecost, we present a romp through the wide range of Protestantisms, and answer the question: Why is that biblical book called “Acts” and not “Lazing About”?
Yes We Can/Si Se Puede: Remembering and Forgetting Cesar Chavez (March 31, 1927—April 23, 1993)
President Obama got his campaign slogan from Cesar Chavez, but on this 16th anniversary of the great labor leader’s death we still have no national holiday to commemorate his legacy.
Rick Warren Gives Pre-Inauguration Sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church
Controversial mega-pastor Rick Warren gave a little-noticed sermon at King’s home church in Atlanta on Monday. In it he seemed to dance around the controversy, invoking King’s unpopularity seemingly in reference to his.
King Dares Us To Imagine a Better World
For King, the challenges of a dawning age required a recognition that globalization had produced what he called a geographical togetherness and that this togetherness very much needed a spiritual grounding.
Unlike the recent document claiming reconciliation between evangelicals and progressives the only way democracy has ever been expanded in the US, according to the Rev. Sekou, is by the defeat of conservative evangelical positions.
Post-Racial? Yes and No.
In the journey toward white comprehension of the legacy of racism, consciousness comes slowly. But now is the time for the hard work, the time for what Dr. King called “creative action.”
We Are All God’s Got
We no longer have the focus of the civil rights movement or of the great leaders of that time, but we are called, nonetheless, to change our world.
For a people who bear the burden of slavery, legalized apartheid and the continued vestiges of both, for a moment the elusive goal of feeling fully part of America’s democratic project was realized.
This is Not a Religion Column: The Audacity of Compromise...
Obama may just be doing what he needs to win but that compromise requires the abandonment of King's dream...
Despite our annual effort to remember it differently, Dr. King was universally criticized for his refusal to be a good “Negro leader”.
King as Inspiration, Not Guide
On the 40th anniversary of his assassination, we honor Martin Luther King by refusing to ask: “What would King think?”
A flock, maybe, but certainly not sheep; nuances of the pulpit-pew relationship.
“All we know is that this guy had a dream, we don’t know what that dream was.”
This week will mark the anniversaries of two very important phenomena: today commemorates the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and tomorrow marks the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.