Tag: Love

Justice in Churches

My friend, the Rev. Jacob Breeze, has a phrase that describes the absence of a critical element that defines an institution. Jacob says, “it’s the thing without the thing that makes the thing the thing.” An example would be decaffeinated coffee: It’s the thing without the thing (caffeine) that that makes the thing the thing. So you may ask me, “What is the role of the social justice in the church?” The answer is that it is one of the things that makes the thing the thing. Continue reading Justice in Churches

Scriptural Christianity

On June 19, 2016, the 150th Anniversary of the first Juneteenth, Rev. Sean J. Nickleberry stepped into the pulpit of Hope AME in Prairie View, Texas. A century and a half earlier, news that slavery in the United States was over had finally reached the pulpit of another AME Church, Reedy Chapel, in Galveston, Texas. Although the Emancipation Proclamation had taken place two and a half years earlier in 1863, it took time for the news to be proclaimed in Texas.

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Your Church Can Faithfully Battle Xenophobia

This presidential campaign season—as in no other of recent memory—Xenophobic, exclusionary, fear of the Other has been used by politicians in an attempt to garner votes. Xenophobia is more than a matter of preference for people whom we enjoy hanging out with, or those with whom we feel most comfortable. In Xenophobia we separate ourselves from others to better oppress, exploit, expulse, confine, hurt, or deny justice and access to others whom we have judged to be so Other as to be beyond the bounds of having any bond between us or any claim upon us.

In recent debates over whether or not to admit Syrian refugees, questions have been raised like, If we let them in, what’s the cost? Will our nation be less secure? Will property values in my neighborhood be diminished? Will these newcomers help or hinder the economy?

Continue reading Your Church Can Faithfully Battle Xenophobia