Religion Dispatches
…In his telling, the modern Republican Party is the party more favorable to African-Americans because Republicans led the fight against slavery and for civil rights: from the formation of the Republican Party as the “anti-slavery party” and the “election of Abraham Lincoln as the first Republican President,” to the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, the passage of civil rights laws during Reconstruction, and the el…
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…sources. American Jews have a unique obligation to support reparations for African Americans because we, as a collective, know the meaning of vicious identity-based oppression. And because, as a collective, we have been freed from the yoke of much of our historical suffering. This is not to imply that anti-semitism has disappeared—it hasn’t—but we must appreciate the implications of elected leaders from all over Europe, the epicenter of our histor…
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…que that was once the Nation’s Temple No. 1 in Detroit. Walid notes that, “African American Muslims with no relation to the Nation of Islam are very quick to distance themselves from the Nation.” “At the same time, many African Americans feel a connection with the Nation,” added Walid, who is also the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter. “Maybe they were former members, or they have family members who…
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…ies, the blaming of black individuals is actually based on judgments about African Americans at the collective level. Politicians, pundits, and pastors, white and black alike, consistently argue that the criminal behavior of black individuals is in part attributable to deficiencies in “black culture.” Crime would not be so high in black communities, they suggest, if African Americans properly valued marriage, family, and work. By contrast, the fin…
Read More…’re very different, especially about gays. You can’t speak about this with Africans and people of Muslim countries. It’s not possible. It’s a taboo. He then went on to have this exchange with reporter Edward Pentin: But are African participants listened to in this regard? No, the majority of them [who hold these views won’t speak about them]. They’re not listened to? In Africa of course [their views are listened to], where it’s a taboo. What has c…
Read More…or killed. The chief actually did very good work but homosexuality was not promoted. People would whisper and ignore, the issue now is promotion as if it’s good, that we can’t accept.” Museveni echoed this claim in his letter but added that Uganda should stop those who “lure” young people into homosexual acts: “We should legislate harshly against these people with money, from within and without, who take advantage of the desperation of our youth t…
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…anted to include a chapter on literature, music, and visual art created by African-American women. Their creative engagement with biblical texts is a part of the history of African-American biblical interpretation, but given my space limitations, there was just no way to include this chapter. I had to leave it out. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic? Due to the popularity of the term “womanist” and how it paralleled with…
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…ion to become ordained to Sojourner Truth’s resistance to slavery. What an African-American woman says about ordination and slavery is none of my business. And I have no problem with white women’s ordination activists stating, as some do in Pink Smoke, that their courage to stand up to the Vatican and the bishops is inspired, in part at least, by the example of civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. But putting one African American woman…
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…white audience that white evangelicals needed to do more than reach out to African Americans on wedge issues; that if they wanted success in the long-term, they would have to do more to confront issues facing the African American community, like poverty and educational opportunities. He said he was worried about racial violence in Florida when George Zimmerman is released, and about the potential for violence if Obama is not re-elected. “I’m conce…
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…their families, and communities. Such laws undermine the very lynchpins of freedom and democracy, the right to free expression, and particularly the right to diverse faith expressions. Christian traditions that affirm everyone as a child of God, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, would become illegal under the proposed bill. Ministers and bishops within those traditions would be at risk for arrest and imprisonment. We may have so…
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