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writing the journey

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  • Events
  • Comment Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Me
  • Books and Other Works

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  • kreyòl ayisyen,  language

    M sispann!

    October 6, 2022 /

    I so much want to be able to speak and understand this language, but if I can't do this outside the classroom, then I just don't know the language.

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    stephen matlock 0 Comments

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    Photo by Justin Heap on Unsplash

    Looking back 300 days

    December 16, 2022
    An inflated semi-circle arching over a racetrack. It is labeled FINISH

    It’s Been a Minute…

    February 23, 2023

    Connections

    June 28, 2022
  • man in yellow and black plaid shirt sits on bed looking at camera
    American Exceptionalism,  history,  racism

    History as Cassandra

    August 30, 2022 /

    Let me bring in a little history for you today. Let’s talk about Haïti . . . Haïti was once called the “Pearl of the Caribbean” because of its beauty and its profit for the colonizers. Of course, that profit came at the cost of human misery, torture, sexual abuse, and death. But that doesn’t matter when profit is the highest good. The original inhabitants were turned into creatures of labor (“slaves”) by the colonial slave-masters and rapidly died off because hey abuse and beating and torture and all the rest ends up killing the people you’re trying to make a profit from. So the slave-masters started importing Black Africans—teachers,…

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    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 12: Icebergs

    March 2, 2019
    a blurred city neighborhood behind a black chain link fence.

    Black and White; Truth and Lies

    June 13, 2025
    Man staring out window

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 32: Getting Over Myself

    October 14, 2019
  • Celebrate Recovery,  education,  faith,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills

    Do This in Remembrance of Me

    August 25, 2022 /

    There were some who could eat right at the altar of sacrifice and restoration with hearts so hard that they would deny food to their own brothers and sisters in community because “well, if they wanted to eat, they should have brought their own.”

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    I’m Just Here to Dance

    February 16, 2019
    A stramd of barbed wire running horizontally

    When Our Bibles Get It Wrong

    February 27, 2022
    A man works to repair a church window.

    On Deconstruction

    March 17, 2022
  • kreyòl ayisyen,  language

    Connections

    June 28, 2022 /

    Learning a new language can be difficult, but get the right tools, such as lessons, coaching, and live conversations, and it's easier. #Duolingo #italki #Lingbe

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    stephen matlock 0 Comments

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    M toujou ap aprann – I’m still learning

    January 20, 2025
    A book cover. A young boy holding his bicycle is kissed by a young girl.

    Mwen damou pou Vava – a story

    March 17, 2023
    An inflated semi-circle arching over a racetrack. It is labeled FINISH

    It’s Been a Minute…

    February 23, 2023
  • Two orange butterflies alight several thistle blossoms
    American Exceptionalism,  Celebrate Recovery,  faith,  history,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills,  Seattle

    Bullhorns and Butterflies

    June 19, 2022 /

    If you want to build your faith up so that you honor Jesus and you draw people to Jesus in your lives, might I suggest you do it the way that Jesus did?

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    I Am MLK Jr

    October 21, 2019
    A montage of human faces overlaid by various color filters.

    What makes someone a human?

    March 2, 2023
    Community and Acceptance

    What Is the Home That Shuts Its Doors to You?

    September 23, 2019
  • kreyòl ayisyen,  language

    At long last, language

    June 1, 2022 /

    91 days from now you could be exactly where you are, or you could be deep into the study of a new language, ready to connect with people!

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    stephen matlock 0 Comments

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    Binary confidence (Binè konfyans)

    January 11, 2023
    A Haitian man wearing a plaid tan shirt stands on a hillside looking over the valleys and hills below him.

    Ayiti se yon lide—Haiti is an idea

    January 3, 2023

    Duolingo fini!

    November 27, 2022
  • American Exceptionalism,  Black Lives Matter,  faith,  history,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills,  racism,  violence

    When They See Us—Buffalo Edition

    May 16, 2022 /

    Perhaps white people's thoughts and prayers and good intentions aren't enough when their Black friends are asking for love and dignity.

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    Believe

    February 1, 2019
    A stramd of barbed wire running horizontally

    When Our Bibles Get It Wrong

    February 27, 2022
    Man sitting on subway

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 30: Feelings and the Culture of Niceness

    September 10, 2019
  • American Exceptionalism,  faith,  history,  racism

    Wherefore art thou, Evangelicals?

    May 11, 2022 /

    As America evolved as an independent nation freeing itself from certain connections with Britain such as political and economic control, so did the church, centering itself in the power and people of America who ran the nation, and inescapably represented their cultural values through religious language and theology.

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    A man works to repair a church window.

    On Deconstruction

    March 17, 2022

    The Purpose-Driven Lie

    October 23, 2019

    Entertainment Matters

    February 23, 2019
  • musings

    SPEAKASY: An interview with Elyse Douglas

    May 4, 2022 /

    I had the opportunity to interview Elyse Douglas about her latest book, SPEAKEASY, published by Broadback. I appreciate that she gave so generously of her time when she could be working on the sequel!

    read more
    stephen matlock 3 Comments

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    Community and Acceptance

    What Is the Home That Shuts Its Doors to You?

    September 23, 2019
    A Black woman and a white woman look down at an unseen fire. One is holding a stick with a marshmallow on it.

    REVIEW: The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person

    May 20, 2021

    My Dear White People

    November 10, 2019
  • reviews

    SPEAKEASY, by Elyse Douglass

    May 4, 2022 /

    Roxie Raines is a girl out of time in 1925s New York City. So how did someone from 2019 end up in a speakeasy, anyway?

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    stephen matlock 6 Comments

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    Potter making a clay dish

    Pride and Prejudice, Staged

    October 26, 2019

    REVIEW: Subversive Witness: Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege

    December 12, 2021
    book cover. Brian Broome as a child, overlaid with the title of the book PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS

    REVIEW: Punch Me Up to the Gods

    September 15, 2021
  • American Exceptionalism,  Black Lives Matter,  Celebrate Recovery,  history,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills,  racism

    Not Your Place, Not Your Time

    April 15, 2022 /

    White people, do not go into Black spaces to help change the conversation or add your very important opinion. It is just not the time and place for that.

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    stephen matlock 0 Comments

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    A suburb showing about 100 houses on winding streets.

    From Levittown to Black Lives Matter

    June 26, 2020
    People standing and walking down the corridor of a brightly lighted shiny conference hallway

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 36: The Dominant White Culture

    November 21, 2019

    New Year, New Labels

    January 1, 2019
  • American Exceptionalism,  Celebrate Recovery,  faith,  history,  Life Recovery Skills,  racism

    Making Good in Trouble

    March 29, 2022 /

    “Making good trouble” means stirring things up so that we do not become complacent about our situation and resigned to injustice

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    The Purpose-Driven Lie

    October 23, 2019
    bronze bust of Julius Caesar seen from the side

    Jesus as Emperor

    March 22, 2022
    Two men having a conversation

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 31: Courageous Conversations

    October 6, 2019
  • American Exceptionalism,  Celebrate Recovery,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills,  violence

    Wyte Innocence

    March 28, 2022 /

    Wyte people can’t be accused of bias or wrong unless there is exceedingly overwhelming “proof,” and even then we will go down fighting and insisting that we were not wrong

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    American flag, backlighted so that a white cross appears on the blue canton with white stars

    The Devil Is a Christian Nationalist

    May 23, 2021
    Sihouette of man walking toward light

    Shadows on the Wall

    July 15, 2021

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 20: My Robin Hood Syndrome

    April 9, 2019
  • bronze bust of Julius Caesar seen from the side
    American Exceptionalism,  Black Lives Matter,  Celebrate Recovery,  faith,  history,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills,  racism

    Jesus as Emperor

    March 22, 2022 /

    The vision of Jesus for empire Christianity in our Sunday Schools and sermons and theologies is really an irrelevant Jesus who does not match the Jesus of the texts.

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    Three people sit facing a large mural. The mural has about a hundred faces.

    We Must See People in Color

    January 22, 2021

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 4: Optimism

    February 2, 2019

    The Voices Are Coming from Inside the House

    July 12, 2019
  • A man works to repair a church window.
    American Exceptionalism,  Black Lives Matter,  Celebrate Recovery,  faith,  family,  history,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills,  racism,  remodeling

    On Deconstruction

    March 17, 2022 /

    For the vast, vast majority of people, “deconstruction” is a good thing. Deconstruction can result in something far different and, in my opinion, far better than, white Evangelical Christianity.

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    bronze bust of Julius Caesar seen from the side

    Jesus as Emperor

    March 22, 2022

    Sliding Away from Relevancy

    September 24, 2019
    Red pipe going up and over an obstacle

    When We Don’t Want to Know

    September 28, 2019
  • A stramd of barbed wire running horizontally
    American Exceptionalism,  Celebrate Recovery,  history,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills

    When Our Bibles Get It Wrong

    February 27, 2022 /

    The history of the church is our confidence in rightly understanding until we realize how terribly wrong we’ve misunderstood everything.

    read more
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    The Charlottesville Declaration

    April 27, 2019

    When the Past Tries to Reclaim the Present

    March 13, 2019

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 9: White Superiority

    February 19, 2019
  • Black Lives Matter,  Fifth Avenue Theatre,  musicals,  racism,  reviews,  reviews,  Village Theatre

    To Be Human Again

    January 25, 2022 /

    Sometimes the arts can entertain us. Disney has surely figured out that formula. But sometimes . . . the arts can open something up to us that we didn’t ever think we needed to see and learn.

    read more
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    Man sitting on bench by church

    A Place We Cannot Enter

    October 14, 2019
    A blue police light shining in a dark background.

    Safety monitors

    January 28, 2023

    When it is too much to bear but must be borne

    April 18, 2023
  • Books,  faith,  justice,  racism,  reviews

    REVIEW: Anxious to Talk About It

    January 17, 2022 /

    You will not find this to be the “answer book.” It’s not designed for that. This is a book that invites us to join in the community, in the discussion, in the journey.

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    REVIEW: How to Fight Racism

    December 28, 2020
    A book cover. A young boy holding his bicycle is kissed by a young girl.

    Mwen damou pou Vava – a story

    March 17, 2023
    A white man in a hat smiles at a white woman who smiles back.

    REVIEW: Good White Racist?2

    May 24, 2021
  • A footbridge in the fog. The bridge is held up by a concrete hand.
    American Exceptionalism,  Black Lives Matter,  history,  justice,  racism

    Be Like Betty White

    January 2, 2022 /

    Betty White, a white woman in an industry that empowered only white men, stood up for what's right. It cost her the job that she loved. But she did it, not “anyway,” but “because.” She did it because of her own moral integrity.

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    Man sitting on subway

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 30: Feelings and the Culture of Niceness

    September 10, 2019

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 20: My Robin Hood Syndrome

    April 9, 2019

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 11: Headwinds and Tailwinds

    February 26, 2019
  • Black Lives Matter,  Books,  history,  justice,  racism,  reviews

    REVIEW: Subversive Witness: Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege

    December 12, 2021 /

    The book’s subtitle hints at what’s to come: we are all granted some level of privilege in life that others do have; those who have the most privilege are called to use that privilege

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    Sihouette of man walking toward light

    Shadows on the Wall

    July 15, 2021
    a blurred city neighborhood behind a black chain link fence.

    Black and White; Truth and Lies

    June 13, 2025
    protest march with a sign that says "No Justice No Peace."

    When we resist, we resist completely

    April 8, 2023
  • faith,  history,  racism,  violence

    When the Good News Isn’t So Good

    December 10, 2021 /

    We have to face the fact that Christians often pick up odious behavior traits and exhibit them while singing songs of love and praise to Jesus of Nazareth.

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    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 15: The Whole Story

    March 14, 2019

    When Home Is Gone

    February 27, 2019

    Seeing with a New Tongue

    August 27, 2023
  • faith,  justice,  racism,  violence

    The Cross and the Gun

    December 3, 2021 /

    A lot of what passes for discipleship and church membership in America is lacking in this demand to lay down our lives before Jesus and to cast aside the devil and all his works.

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    REVIEW: How to Fight Racism

    December 28, 2020

    The Fear of Transparency

    June 5, 2021
    Community and Acceptance

    What Is the Home That Shuts Its Doors to You?

    September 23, 2019
  • Black Lives Matter,  faith,  history,  justice,  racism

    REVIEW: Shoutin’ in the Fire

    November 10, 2021 /

    I had to read this slowly, thoughtfully, with many pauses and breaks. There have been books I’ve read through in one sitting, sometimes because they are so fast paced that they demand my continued attention until I am done. Sometimes it’s over a few days. But this book . . . this book was something I’d pick up, read some pages, and then become so full of feelings that I had to put it down. To think a little. Process what was going on. Try to understand what was happening as the part of me I recognize as “me” was encountering this most remarkable book. Danté has written a book…

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    stephen matlock 0 Comments

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    REVIEW: The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

    October 12, 2021
    Man sitting on bench by church

    A Place We Cannot Enter

    October 14, 2019
    Street view of the F. W. Woolworth building in Greensboro, North Carolina. There are a dozen people standing on the sidewalk in front of the building.

    When We Hide the Past in Plain Sight

    July 14, 2025
  • American Exceptionalism,  faith,  history,  justice,  racism

    When You See Their Truth

    November 1, 2021 /

    Whatever your beliefs are about redemption and salvation and even universalism—Jesus was always with those who are most despised and feared by Evangelicals. They’re the people he had meals with. Their homes were his resting place. They were whom he wept for.

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    stephen matlock 0 Comments

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    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 8: Racial Categories

    February 14, 2019
    Mural of man expressing anger. Blue hair and shirt.

    With Malice Aforethought

    May 9, 2020

    The Charlottesville Declaration

    April 27, 2019
  • Black Lives Matter,  justice

    REVIEW: The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

    October 12, 2021 /

    These are the stories of Black women living lives as Black women with no one else as their betters, let alone their equals.

    read more
    stephen matlock 0 Comments

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    Not Your Place, Not Your Time

    April 15, 2022
    AI generated image of a black tea kettle and several black pots

    When the Pot Gets It Wrong About the Kettle

    September 23, 2023

    REVIEW: Subversive Witness: Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege

    December 12, 2021
  • A woman yells through a megaphone
    faith,  housekeeping,  justice

    Which Way?

    October 9, 2021 /

    Your faith is about your personal relationship with your values, and it should not matter in the slightest whether anyone knows why you behave as you do when you behave better because of your faith.

    read more
    stephen matlock 0 Comments

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    Man staring out window

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 32: Getting Over Myself

    October 14, 2019

    Little Things with Great Love

    February 10, 2019
    Runners' track waiting for the race

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 39: Equality Starts with Equity

    January 18, 2020
  • A Black man, centered, is being pushed by the hands of an off-screen person
    Black Lives Matter,  justice,  racism

    The White Voice in Black Conversations

    September 19, 2021 /

    There seems always to be that moment when the white participant says something that is simply too much to handle.

    read more
    stephen matlock 0 Comments

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    book cover. Brian Broome as a child, overlaid with the title of the book PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS

    REVIEW: Punch Me Up to the Gods

    September 15, 2021
    Man sitting on bench by church

    A Place We Cannot Enter

    October 14, 2019
    Brass key sitting on fallen leaves

    Hard Questions, Hard Answers

    June 20, 2021
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