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

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American Exceptionalism, Black Lives Matter, history, justice, racism, violence

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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…

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January 28, 2023
Books, faith, history, justice, Life Recovery Skills, racism

The Color of Compromise—A Review

This is perhaps one of the most accessible, clear, and gentle book you might read about the history of, and acceptance of, white supremacy and black abasement of the American…

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December 7, 2018
American Exceptionalism, Celebrate Recovery, justice, Life Recovery Skills, violence

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

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March 28, 2022
kreyòl ayisyen, language

The Enchantment of Creole

I spent two hours transcribing what I heard, trying so very hard to get the meaning. It was good practice, and I think I got about 30% of the meaning.…

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December 12, 2022
#WakingUpWhite, American Exceptionalism, challenges, faith, history, justice, Life Recovery Skills, work

#WakingUpWhite Chapter 25: Belonging

This chapter is about the tendency of white folks to feel like they belong everywhere. Ms. Irving focuses on the school environment, because she was a volunteer or participant at…

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May 14, 2019
  • 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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    Feats of Clay

    December 31, 2018

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 17: My Good People

    March 20, 2019
    A white man in a hat smiles at a white woman who smiles back.

    REVIEW: Good White Racist?

    May 24, 2021
  • 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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    nine glass windows, from black to white

    White Jesus, Bible Jesus: Pick One

    November 14, 2019

    Walking in and out of Justice

    October 20, 2019

    I’m Just Here to Dance

    February 16, 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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    Man wearing hard hat and orange safety vest is tying iron construction rods together.

    Chèmèt chèmètrès

    August 11, 2024
    Mixed Scrabble tiles

    Language and Memory

    February 10, 2025
    AI generated image of a black tea kettle and several black pots

    When the Pot Gets It Wrong About the Kettle

    September 23, 2023
  • 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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    One thing more

    November 20, 2022
    a blurred city neighborhood behind a black chain link fence.

    Black and White; Truth and Lies

    June 13, 2025
    Close-up of two old doors painted white. The paint is peeling off.

    Beyond the Sight Lines of Racism

    January 1, 2021
  • 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.

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    When They See Us—Buffalo Edition

    May 16, 2022

    REVIEW: Shoutin’ in the Fire

    November 10, 2021

    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.

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    The Barley Soup Recipe

    January 2, 2019
    banknotes

    Juneteenth, Reparations, and What Do I Do About It?

    June 19, 2019
    A man is checking a map to see where he goes next

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 38: The Rugged Individual

    December 20, 2019
  • 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.

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    stephen matlock 0 Comments

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    Man wearing hard hat and orange safety vest is tying iron construction rods together.

    Chèmèt chèmètrès

    August 11, 2024
    A white man in a hat smiles at a white woman who smiles back.

    REVIEW: Good White Racist?2

    May 24, 2021

    REVIEW: Shoutin’ in the Fire

    November 10, 2021
  • book cover. Brian Broome as a child, overlaid with the title of the book PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS
    Black Lives Matter,  racism,  reviews

    REVIEW: Punch Me Up to the Gods

    September 15, 2021 /

    We learn, slowly, how to gather the people around us who will care for us and who will give us some space in their own lives.

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    When it is too much to bear but must be borne

    April 18, 2023
    A man works to repair a church window.

    On Deconstruction

    March 17, 2022

    REVIEW: Shoutin’ in the Fire

    November 10, 2021
  • American Exceptionalism,  faith,  justice,  questions,  writing

    Beliefs and Behaviors

    August 19, 2021 /

    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.

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    The Voices Are Coming from Inside the House

    July 12, 2019

    Sliding Away from Relevancy

    September 24, 2019

    The Barley Soup Recipe

    January 2, 2019
  • Sihouette of man walking toward light
    American Exceptionalism,  Black Lives Matter,  justice,  racism

    Shadows on the Wall

    July 15, 2021 /

    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.

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    StephenJ Matlock 0 Comments

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    When the Past Tries to Reclaim the Present

    March 13, 2019

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 11: Headwinds and Tailwinds

    February 26, 2019
    church building in an empty field. The sky is gloomy. A fence runs down the right side of the picture.

    Can This Racial Division Be Healed?

    February 11, 2021
  • Black Lives Matter,  humor,  justice,  racism,  reviews

    REVIEW: Sure, I’ll Be Your Black Friend

    June 25, 2021 /

    I’ve read many books this year, some of them similar to his in that they are life stories. This is the first one that I finished where I wanted to have more.

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    a blurred city neighborhood behind a black chain link fence.

    Black and White; Truth and Lies

    June 13, 2025
    A Black man, centered, is being pushed by the hands of an off-screen person

    The White Voice in Black Conversations

    September 19, 2021

    Real but Imaginary Threats

    June 19, 2021
  • Brass key sitting on fallen leaves
    American Exceptionalism,  Black Lives Matter,  faith,  justice,  racism

    Hard Questions, Hard Answers

    June 20, 2021 /

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

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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

    It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way

    February 6, 2019
  • American Exceptionalism,  Black Lives Matter,  faith,  history,  justice,  racism

    Real but Imaginary Threats

    June 19, 2021 /

    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

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    StephenJ Matlock 0 Comments

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    A man is checking a map to see where he goes next

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 38: The Rugged Individual

    December 20, 2019
    Two men having a conversation

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 31: Courageous Conversations

    October 6, 2019
    Sihouette of man walking toward light

    Shadows on the Wall

    July 15, 2021
  • American Exceptionalism,  faith,  history,  justice,  racism,  writing

    The Fear of Transparency

    June 5, 2021 /

    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.”

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    StephenJ Matlock 0 Comments

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    The Voices Are Coming from Inside the House

    July 12, 2019

    Sliding Away from Relevancy

    September 24, 2019

    What Would You Do If You Could Bring Conciliation?

    January 17, 2019
  • A white man in a hat smiles at a white woman who smiles back.
    American Exceptionalism,  Black Lives Matter,  Books,  faith,  history,  justice,  racism

    REVIEW: Good White Racist?

    May 24, 2021 /

    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.

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    StephenJ Matlock 0 Comments

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    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 11: Headwinds and Tailwinds

    February 26, 2019
    A blue police light shining in a dark background.

    Safety monitors

    January 28, 2023
    Sihouette of man walking toward light

    Shadows on the Wall

    July 15, 2021
  • A white man in a hat smiles at a white woman who smiles back.
    American Exceptionalism,  Black Lives Matter,  Books,  faith,  history,  justice,  racism,  reviews

    REVIEW: Good White Racist?2

    May 24, 2021 /

    It’s not necessarily an easy book to read, although it is written with a clear, bracing, compassionate style. It will be hard to read because it is like having someone sit you down and say, “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.”

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    StephenJ Matlock 0 Comments

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    Leaf floating on water

    When You Fall

    September 21, 2019
    Mural of man expressing anger. Blue hair and shirt.

    With Malice Aforethought

    May 9, 2020

    New Year, New Labels

    January 1, 2019
  • American flag, backlighted so that a white cross appears on the blue canton with white stars
    American Exceptionalism,  faith,  history,  justice,  racism

    The Devil Is a Christian Nationalist

    May 23, 2021 /

    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.”

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    Moral Switzerlands

    July 15, 2019

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 7: The GI Bill

    February 11, 2019
    church building in an empty field. The sky is gloomy. A fence runs down the right side of the picture.

    Can This Racial Division Be Healed?

    February 11, 2021
  • A Black woman and a white woman look down at an unseen fire. One is holding a stick with a marshmallow on it.
    musings

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

    May 20, 2021 /

    Absolutely great. Frank, honest, funny, touching, real. Frederick Joseph here is at once wonderfully endearing and approachable and also blunt and direct, someone who is self-possessed and self-aware, and someone who is going to be a great friend for whomever will let him be exactly that. I found myself laughing on quite a few pages, but almost in the next line wincing or even blurting out “oh my god.” There is so much truth here, and great observations, and the definite proclamation of “I am a man,” much in the spirit of the resisters of the 1960s. I appreciated so much the willingness to go into the paint, as it…

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    StephenJ Matlock 0 Comments

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    My Dear White People

    November 10, 2019

    It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way

    February 6, 2019
    White cat stretching on a brown wooden plank

    Two Things

    June 29, 2024
  • Gruff bearded white cowboy wearing a white hat
    American Exceptionalism,  faith,  history,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills

    REVIEW: Jesus and John Wayne

    May 19, 2021 /

    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.

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    Carefully Taught, Thoroughly Educated

    October 21, 2019

    Entertainment Matters

    February 23, 2019

    I Am MLK Jr

    October 21, 2019
  • American Exceptionalism,  justice,  racism

    Maybe the Tree Is Bad

    April 16, 2021 /

    If policing is such a difficult skill that it results in the killing of Black civilians again and again then perhaps the problem is not the civilians.

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    Words and Deeds

    March 3, 2019
    Two orange butterflies alight several thistle blossoms

    Bullhorns and Butterflies

    June 19, 2022
    Four toddlers forming a circle of friendship

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 44: Listening

    March 28, 2020
  • Books,  education,  faith,  reviews

    REVIEW: Urban Apologetics

    April 6, 2021 /

    This is a solid book and a solid resource for any Christian, but it is focused on the needs of the Black Christian in today’s America.

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    Review: When They Call You a Terrorist

    February 9, 2019
    A white man in a hat smiles at a white woman who smiles back.

    REVIEW: Good White Racist?

    May 24, 2021
    A book cover. A young boy holding his bicycle is kissed by a young girl.

    Mwen damou pou Vava – a story

    March 17, 2023
  • faith,  family,  justice,  musings,  racism

    This Do

    April 1, 2021 /

    There is nothing that white American Christians have or want as human beings that our Black brothers and sisters do not want.

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    Man sitting on subway

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 30: Feelings and the Culture of Niceness

    September 10, 2019
    Man sitting on bench by church

    A Place We Cannot Enter

    October 14, 2019
    Close-up of two old doors painted white. The paint is peeling off.

    Beyond the Sight Lines of Racism

    January 1, 2021
  • faith,  history,  justice,  racism

    On the Public Death of a Suspect

    March 30, 2021 /

    I am watching the trial of Derek Chauvin, taking place right now, to determine his culpability and guilt in the public death of George Floyd some ten months ago.

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    church building in an empty field. The sky is gloomy. A fence runs down the right side of the picture.

    Can This Racial Division Be Healed?

    February 11, 2021

    A Non-Traditional Blessing

    August 20, 2019

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 4: Optimism

    February 2, 2019
  • church building in an empty field. The sky is gloomy. A fence runs down the right side of the picture.
    American Exceptionalism,  faith,  history,  justice,  racism

    Can This Racial Division Be Healed?

    February 11, 2021 /

    It’s fascinating and saddening to realize that the people who are outside the faith have a better understanding of Jesus and Christianity and the Gospel than many Evangelicals have.

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    StephenJ Matlock 0 Comments

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    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 14: ZAP!

    March 10, 2019

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 16: Logos and Stereotypes

    March 19, 2019

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 8: Racial Categories

    February 14, 2019
  • Three people sit facing a large mural. The mural has about a hundred faces.
    American Exceptionalism,  history,  justice,  photos,  racism

    We Must See People in Color

    January 22, 2021 /

    It is the reality of America that white people do recognize color, and use it for judgment about a person’s character.

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    StephenJ Matlock 2 Comments

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    Two women, one white, one Black, are having a conversation with each other. They're seated facing each other at a table next to a large window overlooking an urban setting.

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 45: Normalizing Race Talk

    May 9, 2020

    The Fear of Transparency

    June 5, 2021
    Community and Acceptance

    What Is the Home That Shuts Its Doors to You?

    September 23, 2019
  • Close-up of two old doors painted white. The paint is peeling off.
    American Exceptionalism,  faith,  history,  justice,  racism

    Beyond the Sight Lines of Racism

    January 1, 2021 /

    Small acts lead to great effects, and nothing that we do is wasted when we are committed to doing well.

    read more
    StephenJ Matlock 0 Comments

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    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 12: Icebergs

    March 2, 2019

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 27: Living into Expectations

    June 18, 2019
    A white man in a hat smiles at a white woman who smiles back.

    REVIEW: Good White Racist?2

    May 24, 2021
  • Books,  faith,  justice,  racism

    REVIEW: How to Fight Racism

    December 28, 2020 /

    Working to bring our fellow human beings up to their full dignity as people who are endowed with full human, civil rights is a good thing for all of us,

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    StephenJ Matlock 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see

    January 26, 2019

    REVIEW: Urban Apologetics

    April 6, 2021

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

    December 12, 2021
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