An ocean shore in the tropics. A line of palms stretches from the lower left to the middle right.

When you think you want to help

If you see Haiti and you have the urge to “help,” I would suggest that Haitians don’t really need you to come help them. Haitians, like all humans, have great intelligence, drive, creativity, and their own sense of self-worth. If you want to help, find and support Haitians who are doing that work. It doesn’t give you a place to be centered and it won’t provide photo opportunities of you “helping” Haitians.

But it will help Haitians by letting them do for themselves.

When it is too much to bear but must be borne

How do I make my faith work anymore (and maybe it never did) when such a very Christian nation seems incapable of seeing the violence we are initiating, celebrating, and dismissing, often while claiming the name of Jesus?

protest march with a sign that says "No Justice No Peace."

When we resist, we resist completely

You want to terrify politicians? Take away their signs of power which are “respect” and obedience and decorum and complacency. Trip them up, make a point to oppose them at every turn, continuously point out their failures, and continuously refuse to accord them the power to silence you.

A montage of human faces overlaid by various color filters.

What makes someone a human?

Rather than seek to deny the humanity of gay people and trans people, what about using your religion to help you decide to know more about them so that you can love them better?

A blue police light shining in a dark background.

Safety monitors

That Good Samaritan did a good thing to someone in distress, and if the story stops there, then we have learned a good lesson, right?

But what the story doesn’t tell us in the background, and doesn’t tell us “the rest of the story.”

One thing more

There is a glass bubble around white people in America and elsewhere, a bubble that lets us see through to the lives of others, but that protects us from questioning the wisdom laid down in our schoolrooms and homes and churches about what events “really mean.”

man in yellow and black plaid shirt sits on bed looking at camera

History as Cassandra

Let me bring in a little history for you today. Let’s talk about Haïti . . . Haïti was once … More

Two orange butterflies alight several thistle blossoms

Bullhorns and Butterflies

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?

When They See Us—Buffalo Edition

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

Wherefore art thou, Evangelicals?

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.

Not Your Place, Not Your Time

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.

Making Good in Trouble

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

Wyte Innocence

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

bronze bust of Julius Caesar seen from the side

Jesus as Emperor

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.

A man works to repair a church window.

On Deconstruction

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.

A stramd of barbed wire running horizontally

When Our Bibles Get It Wrong

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

A footbridge in the fog. The bridge is held up by a concrete hand.

Be Like Betty White

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.

When You See Their Truth

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.

Beliefs and Behaviors

The Jesus of the texts doesn’t encourage harm for others—and the opponents of health protocols aren’t demonstrating the person of the texts.

Sihouette of man walking toward light

Shadows on the Wall

CRT is about systems, not individuals. Systems are developed as shortcuts for lengthy processes so that we don’t spend all our time trying to figure out how to hand multiple situations and not have disparate outcomes.

Brass key sitting on fallen leaves

Hard Questions, Hard Answers

Jesus gets to the heart of the matter, which is simply you can’t follow Jesus if you have more important things than Jesus.

Real but Imaginary Threats

Much ink will be spilled in the next few months or even years about the topic of Critical Race Theory (CRT), both by those who think they support it and those who think they oppose it

The Fear of Transparency

The myth of white success also develops the myth of white innocence. All the successes were due to white efforts that others seemed unable to copy; all the events of terror and destruction were minimalized and forgotten. And white innocence was preserved & confirmed for a people who could gladly declare their devotion to America as the land of “liberty and justice for all.”

A white man in a hat smiles at a white woman who smiles back.

REVIEW: Good White Racist?

As your friend, I need to tell you
something about myself that I also see in you, and it’s something that’s
bringing harm to people.

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

The Devil Is a Christian Nationalist

There is no divine right for Christians to control the government. There is no place in the Constitution for Christians to be given charge of the government to rule as “Christians.”

Gruff bearded white cowboy wearing a white hat

REVIEW: Jesus and John Wayne

Du Mez answers the question “What happened to white Evangelicals between Clinton and Trump?” with provocative, well-researched data to show the inevitability of the election results in 2016—and 2020.