The Friend

There is so much more to our Christian responsibility than our views on same-sex marriage and a child’s right to life. If I can be honest both of those areas are legitimate concerns but lazy excuses for wholeheartedly supporting a political party (or person) on either side of this democracy. For far too long we have allowed the conversation of political Christian ethics to be driven by the limiting (and debilitating for Christians of color) perception of single-issue voting. President Donald J. Trump has, by any stretch of the imagination, been a flawed representation of the American political process (at the very least) and who he is as a man has superseded his responsibility as the leader of the ‘free world’. I think it is also limiting (and politically lazy) to make his character and his presidency two mutually exclusive topics when we are voting for the person just as much as we are voting for a set of policies. What must be challenged, in the middle of this #impeachment, is not

Reparations is a conversation about a ‘debt that is owed.’ Reparations is NOT a handout NOR welfare. Reparations is an OWED payment to an entire people group who literally and figuratively built the United States with its own hands. Reparations is biblical, just and it is necessary. Reparations is as it is implied: A repairing of an unjust action against African peoples that lasted for 244 years, 100 plus years of Jim Crow, domestic terrorism, police brutality and an unjust criminal system. Reparations is a restorative process that enacts a repayment process to men who were lashed, sold, beaten, castrated, mutilated and subjected to slave labor until the day their heart gave out. There was no escape from slavery. Reparations is a restorative process that enacts a repayment to women to were taken, shackled, used as human bed-warmers for house guest, raped, taken from their families and forced to produce children who were fathered by their oppressors who wanted nothing to do with

To the White Church Yes, I believe the gospel is the only solution to the malice that invades the human heart. I believe that the blood of Jesus is strong enough to drench even the most racist of human hearts. I believe that Jesus’ broken body on Calvary covers a multitude of sins. All of humanity, in one fells swoop, was given the opportunity and repent, believe and be saved. Yet, whiteness (as an ideology) must be dismantled. White supremacy must be dismantled. The privilege that exists between you and me must be dismantled. The supremacy of Eurocentric/German theology in academia must be dismantled. The supremacy and racial bias in the white church must be dismantled. Whiteness (the leading disease of racial prejudice) must be named, cast down and replaced with the true ethic of Imago Deì. Each of us represents the glory of God EQUALLY and without discrimination. Therefore anything that reeks of white supremacy (implicitly and explicitly) must be dismantled and the t

Controversial Monday Morning Topic: Racism and Comedy Here’s the thing. I have listened to A LOT of people and read A LOT of articles, post and tweets about Dave Chappelle and the reaction of people who consider themselves ‘progressive’ and folks who consider themselves ‘conservative’. I have never dedicated a post to exegete the public’s response to a comedy special but I think it’s important that we have a proper conversation that highlights the dissenting opinions surrounding his Netflix special. Dave Chappelle is a black comedian. That in itself signifies a uniquely influenced approach to comedy. An approach that uses comedy as a way to engage the tragedies of racism and persecution in America by using comedic relief to unify and communicate the plight of black suffering. Hip-Hop and Rap music were born from the same roots but black suffering is communicated differently between the two entities. By and large I’ve seen many people who would qualify themselves as “white liberal