https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to Black Church en https://religiondispatches.org/2025/05/29/phoning-it-underworld-work Welcome to “ Phoning It In ,” a gameshow I made up because I am tired and busy but also like to learn about new books! I’m claiming to have made up this game, but if you’ve ever showed up… Thu, 29 May 2025 07:30:42 EDT Megan Goodwin 977eefdd-433a-47c4-af31-ccdb63ee2bdc https://religiondispatches.org/2018/01/10/christians-color-are-rejecting-colonial-christianity-and-reclaiming-ancestral This is how quickly it happened. One moment we were passing sumptuous kebob platters around the table making polite introductions, and the next we were swapping trauma stories that we—all people of color, many LGBTQ—had experienced in what were essentially… Wed, 10 Jan 2018 05:00:30 EST Deborah Jian Lee b09a0818-4110-4338-9ca1-e948d1de84ef https://religiondispatches.org/2017/05/10/dont-call-me-black-no-more-im-israelite-kendrick-lamar-black-hebrew-religion-and-black Kendrick Lamar’s fourth album, Damn, (stylized “DAMN”) has been number one on the Billboard charts for the past three three weeks. The first track, “HUMBLE,” caused an immediate stir, with verses praising stretch marks and natural beauty. But it’s the… Wed, 10 May 2017 05:22:06 EDT A. E. Brooks-Key 9dd7ff2c-c7b0-441e-abc0-d059417fd07c https://religiondispatches.org/2017/03/07/poets-and-preachers-how-black-literature-blurs-lines-between-sacred-and-secular The first book from Columbia University’s Josef Sorett examines the religious roots of African American literary and cultural movements of the 20th Century. Tue, 07 Mar 2017 09:00:42 EST Josef Sorett cdb3949e-9569-44b8-8fe1-4337d0d15242 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/02/01/reports-black-churchs-death-are-greatly-exaggerated-review-walter-flukers-latest-book In response to the kinds of shifts that have occasioned the post-racial fantasy, Fluker encourages us to think beyond the dominant tropes associated with black Christianity. Wed, 01 Feb 2017 04:00:53 EST Joseph Winters ea3c6d1c-f78c-4d5a-bbf0-ff3d54c8302b https://religiondispatches.org/2016/11/23/black-church-trumps-america-refuge-and-resistance “Resistance will require us to renounce our own tendencies to espouse practices of Islamophobia, patriarchy, and homophobia in our congregations and denominations,” says Rev. Leslie Callahan. Wed, 23 Nov 2016 08:00:35 EST Leslie D. Callahan 7bd3bf57-5fc8-4d45-b869-f6c1eb3b6a74 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/11/15/watching-81-my-white-brothers-and-sisters-vote-trump-has-broken-something-me “Something has been broken for me; a fragile hope that the work of racial and gender justice will be embraced by the larger church.” Tue, 15 Nov 2016 12:43:43 EST Yolanda Pierce e66bb0ff-15c2-4e75-9791-7eafffc0e962 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/09/27/whitechurchquiet-anything-outrage-complicity Why is it always “courageous” to stand with Black people? Tue, 27 Sep 2016 09:04:25 EDT Andre E. Johnson 850e33d9-c366-410e-a799-460b1078004d https://religiondispatches.org/2016/05/03/black-women-and-sacred-lemonade-beyonce-takes-us-church I walked away after seeing Beyoncé’s hour-long visual album, “Lemonade,” with the profound sense that I had “been to church.” And this is no small claim for someone who has devoted her life and work to the academic study of… Tue, 03 May 2016 12:44:38 EDT Yolanda Pierce ace987a1-e798-4302-8799-54243f6c5b3b https://religiondispatches.org/2016/03/09/just-give-em-little-jesus-black-marriage-meets-white-paternalism These days, a standard caveat from some religious black folk is that errant souls just “need Jesus” to straighten them out. From white Christian missionaries to inner-city street corner evangelists, “getting Jesus” and going to church have long been touted… Wed, 09 Mar 2016 10:00:24 EST Sikivu Hutchinson 4ecbb9a0-0ce9-4034-a48d-50a5c22b1b9e https://religiondispatches.org/2016/02/25/we-all-we-got-black-church-oasis-baltimores-food-deserts Nearly a year has passed since Freddie Gray’s murder by Baltimore police officers ignited outcries that roiled my city for weeks. Though the camera crews have moved on and the curfew has been lifted, the protests kicked up a dust… Thu, 25 Feb 2016 10:50:44 EST Kasai Rex 3a6a80d8-a192-40c2-ad83-0bccd3dcbdec https://religiondispatches.org/2016/01/07/refusing-religion-claiming-future-roundtable-discussion-nones-are-alright What does it mean that a quarter of all Americans “describe their religion as ’ nothing in particular’ ”? In her newest book, The Nones Are Alright: A New Generation of Seekers, Believers and Those in Between, Kaya Oakes ventures deep… Thu, 07 Jan 2016 11:00:56 EST Peter Laarman 1fbe2a64-81da-47ae-98ea-225b4a6db6e8 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/12/20/ten-religion-stories-went-mostly-missing-2015 Once again, RD’s editors have asked me to think about stories at the intersection of religion and culture that mainstream journalism passes over or treats inadequately. It takes a sour disposition to do this, and I’m pleased to say that… Sun, 20 Dec 2015 09:31:35 EST Peter Laarman 14ddebc8-5fd4-4d01-ba54-d7ce38e0a47a https://religiondispatches.org/2015/12/18/open-letter-black-clergy-disdain-protest Advent is upon us as we await the coming of the world’s most famous Palestinian—Jesus of Nazareth. In this time that’s dedicated to a poor child born to an unwed mother, my conscience has forced my hand to the page… Fri, 18 Dec 2015 09:16:44 EST Rev. Osagyefo Sekou 0899117c-bf28-4b6a-9fe7-eac6cda20bf8 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/07/06/theology-anger-forgiveness-white-supremacy-derails-action-and-alienates-young-black Just a day after the massacre in the historic Emanuel AME Church of Charleston, the son of one of the victims, Sharonda Coleman Singleton, offered forgiveness to Dylann Roof. As more of the victims’ family members emerged to publicly forgive… Mon, 06 Jul 2015 03:45:29 EDT Joshua L. Lazard b4b891ce-2515-4d0c-87b6-5f3702c9f0bd https://religiondispatches.org/2015/07/01/whoisburningblackchurches-it-freedom-summer-again Black churches burning. Anonymous threats to black female pastors. All this in the few weeks since the shooting of nine members of Emanuel AME in Charleston. Forgive me for thinking that the summer of 2015 holds echoes of the summer… Wed, 01 Jul 2015 07:05:21 EDT Anthea Butler a0484048-9818-4510-9647-6a72ccfcec61 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/06/24/yes-it-was-attack-christianity Mere hours after Dylann Roof’s murderous assault on Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, Fox News pundits reframed the story as a secularist attack on Christianity. They were met with a tsunami of outrage from critics, who — correctly — accused Fox… Wed, 24 Jun 2015 04:41:07 EDT Carlos Wilton e823ee0a-5160-48ce-aafa-7e8463b98795 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/06/21/pray-or-prey-racism-religion-and-violence-charleston “God wept; but that mattered little to an unbelieving age; what mattered most was that the world wept and still is weeping and is blind with tears and blood” –W.E.B. Dubois, from Black Reconstruction in America, 1935 This Sunday morning… Sun, 21 Jun 2015 07:35:18 EDT Willie Dwayne Francois 1c479b37-d476-4afc-9453-8d6776bcf8c0 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/12/09/rev-raphael-warnock-if-churches-arent-trouble-power-theyre-probably-bed-it In a powerful NPR segment (listen below) on whether the Black Church still matters, Michel Martin spoke with Reverend Raphael Warnock senior pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (Martin Luther King’s pulpit), who said: If you are a… Tue, 09 Dec 2014 12:31:36 EST Evan Derkacz eca2559d-9be8-489c-bf96-b8f6f6eb0abb https://religiondispatches.org/2013/12/12/ex-gay-gospel-star-donnie-mcclurkin-and-decline-public-theology Last week there was a flurry of controversy over the public disinviting of gospel star Donnie Mclurkin to a DC celebration of in advance of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. The mayor’s… Thu, 12 Dec 2013 06:10:47 EST Joshua L. Lazard 8ce58f3c-1f91-45cf-a327-cc38cc58c7b3 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/12/12/why-did-so-many-black-women-die-jonestown-35 Why did this ultimately tragic movement, led by a young white man, appeal to so many African-American women? Thu, 12 Dec 2013 02:21:21 EST Sikivu Hutchinson 5993d562-fc6d-41d8-876a-bf1afbe8f83d https://religiondispatches.org/2013/11/21/gay-rights-go-chattanooga The bible was invoked, but not how you’d think. Thu, 21 Nov 2013 02:41:11 EST Michael Schulson 2e90966f-ec52-44f8-989d-2ef69f1e3058 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/08/09/pray-or-protest-bothand-ness-black-christianity I want to argue that we need to have a more expansive understanding of black religious identities, an understanding that Womanist Theologians have already pushed us toward, an understanding that does not compartmentalize black religious thought and responses into shallow categories like “right/conservative/prayerful” and “left/academic/protester”; categories that are too small, too static, and too constricting for us to comprehend the diversity of black religious lives and black political activity. Fri, 09 Aug 2013 01:15:00 EDT Jamall Andrew Calloway 4c31f5f5-8123-4ef1-a98e-561be7e9f832 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/07/17/what-does-it-mean-call-god-white-racist American Christians must take on the difficult work of understanding how whiteness has been woven like a cancer into their Christianity. Wed, 17 Jul 2013 06:03:52 EDT Willie James Jennings 3d108bc1-37fc-46fb-80f0-0655b3d6de37 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/05/02/why-jason-collins-faith-ignored-and-tebows-isnt The faith of Jason Collins, who recently came out as the first gay athlete in a major American sport, doesn’t fit the model of culture war conflicts the media expects and the religious right demands of its spokespeople. Thu, 02 May 2013 07:37:04 EDT T.F. Charlton 0c9d8106-b328-4df9-a907-a80dceb4c15c