Category: Race
The Tribe of Ishmael: Whiteness and Christian Identity
In 1889, an Indianapolis pastor named Oscar McCulloch gave a speech that empowered the development of eugenics in America. McCulloch had studied the Ishmaelites, a poor, white, extended family, and named his speech, “The Tribe of Ishmael: A Study in...
Suffering Our Forefathers’ Sins: A Latino’s Reflection on White Supremacy
Two Saturdays ago mi esposa and I mourned for those devastated by the El Paso shooting. For us, this hit home. We had lived in the Lone Star State for seven years, our daughter was born there, and we have...
Post-Liberalism and American Racism
Recently Adam Serwer published a piece in The Atlantic characterizing the current conversation about liberalism amongst American conservatives as essentially being a sustained, intellectualized temper tantrum thrown over their loss of power. Ross Douthat has done the main work in critiquing...
A Review of Walter Strickland’s “Liberation and Black Theological Method”
By Matthew Emerson Walter R. Strickland II. “Liberation and Black Theological Method: A Historical Analysis.” Ph.D. Diss: University of Aberdeen, 2017. Summary Despite common historical pressures that gave rise to its distinctive tasks and goals, Black Theology is not a...
Does the Bible Teach About Race?
By Nathan Cartagena Many Christian denominations and para-church organizations are championing the need for racial reconciliation within the Church. The Presbyterian Church of America, for example, is promoting several initiatives to this end, including a detailed committee-report on race and...
An Evangelical Response to the ‘Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel’
By Malcolm Foley and Justin Hawkins (originally published on Justin’s blog) We dream neither of a faith devoid of good works nor of a justification that stands without them…Do you wish, then, to attain righteousness in Christ? You must first...
Evangelical Indifference to the Immigrant in Historical Perspective
By Miles Smith Last week, reputable reports appeared that the United States government had begun forcibly separating children from their parents at the border and even at installations within the United States. An op-ed at the Los Angeles Times by...
American History, Structural Racism, NFL Protests, and the Kingdom of God
I’m pleased to publish this piece from Michael Graham. It’s a bit meandering, but what it does well is define terms, place the debate within a broader context, and walk through the steps of the argument needed to understand the...
W. E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk–Chapter 5
Chapter five is, so far, the most contemporary essay in Du Bois’s book. In it, he considers the city of Atlanta and what it says about the future of both African Americans and the South more broadly considered. He begins...
W. E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk–Chapter 4
In chapter four Du Bois reflects on his time teaching at a black one-room schoolhouse in rural Tennessee. As such, most of the chapter is simply taken up with recounting what life looked like for an itinerant black school teacher...