Where I’m Actually Coming From As A Progressive Evangelical | Patheos For people who grew up in the height of the culture wars in the eighties like me, we heard evangelicals make a lot of hyperbolic, paranoid claims about rock music, homosexuals, and non-believers in the world which were then contradicted by our direct encounters with such people. We were told that Democrats were evil satanic baby-killers, but then we met Democrats who weren’t. We saw evangelical leaders who had the Bible . . .

Dear World: Let’s Stop Giving Our Crap To The Poor | We Are THAT Family The poor may not have wealth, but they have dignity. I’ve met people without electricity or running water who swept their dirt floors daily, pressed their clothes neatly, walked miles to work on muddy roads, dodging sewage and never had a speck of dirt on them. They value their own worth, we should too. Our Ignorance Of Africa Is More Dangerous Than Ebola | The Grio The narrative about Africa has always been a simple, . . .

Black Is The New Black: White Privilege And White Fragility | SpokaneFAVS Just as sexual violence is a male problem, so too is racism a white problem. White Americans are complicit in — and the primary beneficiaries of — a system that dehumanizes and erases black lives. If Howard Zinn is correct that “our problem is civil obedience,” we white Americans ought to reflect on how we might protest in order to change a system that perpetuates misery for so many. Such protest is imperative for . . .

Justice Then Reconciliation | Austin Channing Brown Reconciliation requires more than a rainbow of skin-tones at the 11:00 o’clock service. Diversity without justice is assimilation. And assimilation makes clear whose culture is the favored one, the good one, the right one, the holy one. If your culture is the standard for rightness, you have found the Imago Dei in others to be insufficient. It is the definition of racism- the assumed superiority of your race, your culture, your way of being. . . .

The Racial Parenting Divide: What Adrian Peterson Reveals About Black Vs. White Child-Rearing | Salon.Com White children in general are raised to be Columbus, to “discover” the world anew and then to manipulate and order the universe to their own liking. If we take away the colonizing impulse in living this way, I think it would be amazing to have the luxury of raising black children who also view the world as a space of their own making, a space to be explored, a space to build anew. A space . . .

173 Beats A Minute: On One Surprising Little Baby And The Possibility Of Tiny Miracles | Sarah Bessey On the morning of the final ultrasound check, I went to the coffee shop and I wrote an entire blog post telling the world about how we had lost another baby and how the sorrow was swallowing me whole this time. I scheduled it to post the next morning. Then I drove to the doctor’s office to meet my husband. What My Bike Has Taught Me About White Privilege | A Little More Sauce And if this were . . .

Why Does Kale Taste Like Dreams Deferred? | Awesomely Luvvie I am not here for Kale apologists and I don’t believe in your ministry. You know the people who just insist that you haven’t found someone to cook it right. Is this leaf a magic kettle that you gotta rub perfect so the genie (and good taste) can pop out? That’s too much work! Do I gotta sing kale a heartfelt love song so it can soften up and be delicious? Why must I bribe kale with property and good music before it gets behavior? It’s . . .

First They Came For The Black People, And I Did Not Speak Out | Matt Stauffer It’s because this is what we expect. It fits our narrative of the world. Black people in urban settings fighting the police? Look at the kid they shot. His pants were sagging. He was walking in the middle of the street. Look at the interview with that guy who’s protesting–he was speaking in Ebonics. Probably didn’t even finish high school. Look! They’re looting. This is why they can’t have nice things. So when the . . .

The Pornographication Of Fitness Needs To Stop | Tosca Reno Being fit in a functional rather than sexual way means you are entirely capable of being powerful no matter what your height, bust size, shoe size or hair color. You are empowered from the depths of your DNA because you did the work, you earned your place and you walk confidently because of it. A functionally fit You welcomes all sizes, shapes and colors, your boobs and butt are incidental. What we really need to build in the gym is a . . .