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What the Fight over Allah says about the Future of Evangelical Christianity

By Richard Flory

…referred and dominant voice at evangelical schools—but she is also, as Wil Gafney has noted here in RD, an African American woman making a theological claim in a predominantly white and male religious system. Her statements threaten the theological and cultural status quo: she embodies “the other,” both ethnically and now, religiously, despite her eloquent arguments to the contrary. In sum, the threats that evangelical schools perceive have shifte…

#BlackLivesMatterStill: We Cannot Let Anyone Else Define Our Movement

By Wil Gafney

Words are insufficient. Words—like horror, atrocity and domestic terrorism—are inadequate. Words—like sin, evil and blasphemy—are wholly lacking. “Violence is woven into the fabric of our country. Violence has been deployed against black folk from the moment we arrived on this continent — and for some even before that, the journey itself an act of violence.” Gun violence in America took an even more despicable turn last night. Five police officer…

If We Did Use the Bible to Run the Country…

By Wil Gafney

The Bible is a collection of texts that in varying arrangements are sacred to Jews and Christians. These texts are scripture, not a constitution. The biblical texts have differing authors, editors, and originating contexts. They speak through multiple genres. They employ a variety of literary forms. Like any work of art, act of communication, or experience they cannot be engaged, read, or heard without interpretation. They are no substitution for…

You’re Using It Wrong: Rachel Held Evans Returns to the Bible

By Eric C. Miller

…rs. When I wrote about Hagar, I was influenced by Delores Williams and Wil Gafney, black women who read the story of Hagar in a way that I would never think to read it. Also some feminist theology, some liberation theology—I did my research for this book and I stand by it. You advocate a midrash approach to Biblical interpretation. What is that, and why is it preferable to literalist or inerrancy approaches? Midrash is a Jewish rabbinical interpre…

White Evangelical Leaders Still Too Preoccupied With ‘Order’ to Listen to Black Truth

By Chrissy Stroop

…ldren from their parents at the border, an interpretation that scholar Wil Gafney characterized, here on RD, as “white, patriarchal, confederate Christianity.” In a video speech posted on Facebook, evangelical superstar Pastor Rick Warren similarly condemned both racism and rioting, invoking the authority of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to do so while bragging that he’s the first white pastor ever to have been invited to speak in Dr. King’s pul…

In a Powerful Statement Black Presidents and Deans Say: No More Stolen Black Lives!

By Pamela R. Lightsey

…versity, the Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences The Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Brite Divinity School Rev. Theresa S. Thames, DMin, Associate Dean of Religious Life and of the Chapel, Princeton University Rev. Monica A. Coleman, PhD, Professor of Africana Studies, University of Delaware Rev. Kamilah Hall Sharp, MDiv, J.D., Contingent Faculty Rev. Dr. Irie Lynne Session, DMin, Contingent Faculty Kameron Carter, Ph…