“We were pushed hard to be cognizant of what we did and did not notice. And most importantly, why?” This … More
Category: writing
Hope
“Hope always breaks my heart. And yet hope always restores my soul.” One of the difficulties of any endeavor is … More
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 12: Icebergs
“One of the breakthroughs I had … was understanding the degree to which I tend to align what I see … More
Guest link – #SeminaryWhileBlack
This is a link to a blog I follow—The Won Percent—and I want to note, upfront, that I am not … More
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 11: Headwinds and Tailwinds
“Skin color itself is not the barrier; it’s the beliefs attached to it. And beliefs, compared to birth dates or … More
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 10: The Melting Pot
“The United States has reaffirmed its commitment to being a melting-pot society adhering to Anglo-Saxon standards, as opposed to a … More
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 9: White Superiority
[Edited 2/23/2019 A point of clarification on this post: the indented portions are quotes from the book by Debby Irving, … More
Prayer to Persephone
Today’s post is just poetry, this time from the sublime Edna St. Vincent Millay: Prayer to Persephone by Edna St. … More
I’m Just Here to Dance
I had an interesting question the other day: are Christians good? The subject came up because there is a defense … More
Trying Every Doorknob
What do I do about the things that I see that I think aren’t right? What do I do about the situations where injustice occurs, where oppression is maintained, where there is no room for the human and the person and the needs to be understood, much less addressed? So much is a giant system that is rolling on unchecked, and all I have are these small tools and weak commitments that are easily broken by adamant obstacles…
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 8: Racial Categories
“The biggest problem with America’s idea of racial categories is that they’re not just categories: they’ve been used to imply … More
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 7: The GI Bill
“I couldn’t shake the duped feeling—duped and infuriated to have inherited a legacy that contaminated me with injustice.” This chapter … More
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 6: From Confusion to Shock
“Racism wasn’t about this person or that, this upset or that, this community or that; racism is, and always has … More
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
You know, as we get older our sleep cycles shift. Used to be that I could sleep straight through, night … More
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 5: Within the Walls
“For me, part of the waking-up-white process is acknowledging that I’m a recovering lemming*…I never considered that the space I … More
Waking Up White, Introduction
Debby Irving mentions her childhood in a privileged New England family. An interesting article was posted Thursday by the New … More
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 4: Optimism
“By pretending the world was virtually problem-free, my family culture left me grossly underprepared to solve problems.” The 50s and … More
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 3: Race Versus Class
“Which one is the real issue?” The temptation when confronting a difficult issue is to find a subsidiary issue, make … More
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 2: Family Values
“One of the things my white mother could not teach me was to honor feelings of outrage.” This chapter is … More
#WakingUpWhite Chapter 1: What Wasn’t Said
This chapter* opens with a provocative quote by the author: “‘WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ALL THE INDIANS?’ I asked my mother … More
If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see
James Baldwin* said this, I’m told: “If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you … More
What Would You Do If You Could Bring Conciliation?
This is a review of the book “The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism” … More
Feats of Clay
Our heroes are flawed. Our villains have moments of redemptive grace. We live in a complex world, where we cannot … More
For I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel—Except the Hard Parts
I saw this on the NPR website this morning, and it sparked a reaction in me. https://www.npr.org/2018/12/09/674995075/slave-bible-from-the-1800s-omitted-key-passages-that-could-incite-rebellion On display now … More
Why It Matters: For you I was born, for you I live, and for you I give my last breath
I am involved in two streams right now that are greatly affecting me on how I see myself and what … More
I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living
The prophet Amos cried out (in 5:24) the desire of God for righteousness to be the ocean we swim in, … More
Unwanted Subject: When You Have No Space in America
This came across my newsfeed this morning, and it involves a somewhat-local yogurt shop calling the police on a black … More