Opinion
Rev. Mariama White-Hammond , founding pastor of New Roots AME Church in Dorchester, Mass., offers a sermon on the Genesis creation story and our role in that story.
Michael-Ray Mathews' sermon is a reflection on Ephesians 6:10-19, his transformation in Ferguson, the work of racial justice, and the 2020 election.
Churches have been barred from directly supporting or opposing candidates since the passage of the Johnson Amendment in 1954. But pastors can still work on the election in meaningful ways without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status, so long as they are mindful of the rules.
Voters on presidential election day in 2016 in Arlington, Va. Photo by Rob Crandal / Shutterstock.com.
Immigration is never out of sight for those whose lives depend on it, even while it may have not been a topic of choice for presidential and vice-presidential debates this year. Candidates and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have used the stories and experiences of immigrant people for political gain. But for many immigrant people, engaging in the larger immigration discourse and advocacy work is primarily about our families and our communities: their present reality and their future opportunities. It is not about touting a “welcoming” nature or defending a seemingly attacked territory or national identity as politicians and others have often approached it.
How do we, as a nation, miss Jesus in our national priorities? Is Jesus disappearing from the scene?
Jenny Yang, vice president of policy and advocacy on refugee resettlement at World Relief, offers a sermon on the refugee crisis ahead of the 2020 election.
Workers wearing protective suits bury a coffin at the Muslim burial area provided by the government for victims COVID-19 at Pondok Ranggon cemetery complex in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 16, 2020. REUTERS/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana
Pope Francis has a penchant for impeccable, maybe even providential timing. His encyclical Laudato Si’ came out just months before the 2015 Paris climate summit and played a key role in influencing public opinion and galvanizing political will behind bolder climate action to protect “our common home.” Now, less than a month before the most consequential U.S. election in generations, the pope’s new encyclical provides a powerful rebuke to a politics of division, fear, and hate while also casting a vision for the human family that is deeply relevant to applying our faith to U.S. leadership in the world.
Protesters gather at the White House on July 24, 2020. Photo: Allison C Bailey / Shutterstock.com
This executive order is dangerous. Instead of acknowledging that diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings can help work towards the country’s ideals of “liberty and justice for all,” it labels them as reverse racism and sexism.
As churches create plans for re-opening their buildings and look toward a future where people have been vaccinated against COVID-19, there is an opportunity now to re-imagine church. Likely, it will never be the same. And maybe that’s for the better. Singing, hugging, and sharing food have become risky activities. I still grieve this, and yet the possibilities and imagination spurred by these limits excite me.
President Donald Trump briefly rides by supporters in the presidential motorcade in front of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he is being treated for COVID-19 in Bethesda, Md., Oct. 4, 2020. REUTERS/Cheriss May
When news broke last week that the president was diagnosed with COVID-19, I tweeted that the psalm of the morning ought to be Psalm 109, which includes startling lines like "may his days be few" and "may his children be orphans." It was not in jest. While people had varying reactions to the news, the imprecatory psalms give Christians guidance on how to pray.
Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, Co-Convener of the National African American Clergy Network, shares an inspirational message and prayer for Christians to continue fighting for a free, fair, and safe election for all Americans.
Racism is and must be a central issues for people of faith in this election. Racism denies the image of God in every person and is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.
Our racial tragedy breaks God’s heart. Christ’s church must embrace and embody the work of justice and reconciliation to turn the tragic hostility of racism into a pursuit of hospitality.
Makeshift sheets displaying messages of protest contesting the ability to pay for rent hang in the window of an apartment building in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in Washington, D.C., May 18, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Despite our immense wealth as a country, poverty has always been a problem in the United States. It remains as an insidious legacy of slavery and systemic racism as well as an ever-present barrier in largely white rural communities and increasingly among Americans living in suburban communities.
Photo by Michael Heuss on Unsplash
We shouldn't be surprised that an election that has come to be about race and culture is also the first in which the sitting president refuses to agree to a peaceful transfer of power. Both of us — a white Christian and a Black Christian, both evangelicals — have both been noticing how differently white people and Black people, even those on the same side of the political aisle, are talking about what we are up against.
The album is titled The Ascension but, I’ve got to be honest, Sufjan Stevens’ latest masterwork has me feeling the lowest I’ve felt about this country since the start of quarantine.
Tributes to the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg outside the U.S. Supreme Court. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
It was hard to remain hopeful this week — this year, really. We’re living in an age of dissent.
Rev. Jim Wallis speaks with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church about God making a way for healing and love from the painful divisions of the coronavirus and white supremacy in our country.
Photo by Qihao Wang on Unsplash
There is no guarantee of divine reward for our goodness, nor threat of eternal punishment for our misdeeds. And yet, we are instructed each year, to stop the busyness of our lives, contemplate our own mortality, and make concrete changes based on our conclusions. One might wonder, why bother?
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
I think one of the biggest impacts of Ginsburg’s life is that her arguments didn’t just change legal frameworks, they also helped change cultural frameworks. In my life, I’ve moved through multiple cultural frameworks where there were remnants of the idea that men were the strong providers and protectors of women, and women were the dependents and nurturing centers of home and family life. The saddest part for me is that some those frameworks resided in my faith communities. The Bible was used to support the idea that men and women were locked into God-ordained, sex-based roles. Those “roles” made me feel I could not, or should not, make use of some of the opportunities I had.