Top #BTSF Posts of 2014

As December draws to a close, we reflect on the tumultuous year that was 2014. So much of it was hard, but in the dark of winter, there is yet hope. I continue to be grateful to the #BTSF readers who have sparked brilliant dialogue and joined in tremendous efforts toward racial justice.

Let us push forward in 2015 toward a just and reconciled Kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven.

Check out the top ten #BTSF posts of 2014:

• #10: Fred Korematsu Day

• #9: Representation at the Oscars

• #8: Frederick Douglass on the 4th of July

• #7: The Problem With Overt Racism: #BringBackOurGirls

• #6: Timeline of Racism

• #5: Logical Fallacies: Black-on-Black Crime 

• #4: Racial Equity in Christian Publishing: #IVPFall14 and Beyond

• #3: #Marissa418: To Set the Oppressed Free

• #2: Lenten Disciplines for Racial Justice

• And #1 on our hearts & minds this year: Michael Brown. Ferguson.

Thanks again for your diligence in the journey
and your hearts for the Gospel. 
Much love to all!

Friday Fruit (12/26/14)

Photo: @DanielJCamacho

On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you to read other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...

Weekly Round Up:

• "This Is What Theology Looks Like": Disrupting a Crucifying System

• #JamesConeWasRight: An #AnaBlacktivist Chat

• White Christmas, Black Christmas

• How to Actually Fight for Racial Reconciliation

• Assimilation Aesthetic

• U.S. Schools Teach Children That Native Americans Are History

• The Glorification of White Crime

• In One Year, the % of Americans Who See the Criminal Justice as Racist Rose 9 Points

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

The 'Exotic' Three Wisemen

Previously on this blog, we’ve discussed the predominance of white Santa and white baby Jesus. But in a white default world, when do characters of color make an appearance in the Christmas story we tell?

On the occasion that nativity scenes do contain some amount of diversity, it is usually in the characters of the three wise men. These kings traveled from a far off land, and it seems are the only ones that have been ‘otherized' enough to be people of color at the foot of the manger. The message here is that they are ‘exotic’—they are not one of us.

So common is this type-casting that children make lasting associations based on Christmas iconography:

“Its Christmas time in Detroit, 1961. I was 3 years old and in the bank line with my Mom. There were 3 black men in front of us in line, talking and laughing amongst themselves. I had never seen, nor let alone been exposed, to people who didn’t look like me. All I had known is what was in picture books at home, and we had pictures of the dark skinned men who visited Jesus in the manger. Being an inquisitive little chatterbox and fairly smart, I asked these 3 fellows if this was who they were… What did I know? My Mom wanted to dive under a desk in embarrassment. Luckily for us, they laughed in what I hope now is amusement at the innocent question of a 3 year old toddler.”

-The Race Card Project

There are some traditional reasons for the magi’s representation. In Europe, the three wise men often represent each of the continents: Africa, Europe, and Asia (being a primitive culture, Europe was unaware of the other four continents during the time of the tradition’s origins). Thus, in paintings and in live nativity scenes, at least one of the Magi is usually black--most often through the use of blackface.

But the biblical account describes the Magi as traveling from the east, not from the continent to the south and west of Bethlehem. And despite repeated requests to stop the use of blackface, the tradition continues. Indeed, in Germany some have observed that “this use of blackface is a missed opportunity to be truly inclusive of Afro-Germans in German-speaking communities and contributes to the equation of 'blackness' with 'foreignness' and 'otherness' in German culture.”

God sent God's Son into the world as poor, brown, member of an oppressed society. This is who we should identify with and celebrate. Rather than perpetuating exclusion and ‘otherization’ in our manger scenes, we could be celebrating the truly inclusive Body of Christ.

Do you have a nativity scene in your home? Who is represented in it? Who is missing? 

Friday Fruit (12/19/14)

On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you to read other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...

Weekly Round Up:

• Liberating the Incarnation

• Please Stop Asking 'But What About...?'

• Dear White Protesters

• I Don't Know What to Do With Good White People

• Leigh Anne Tuohy, Racism, and the White Saviour Complex

• White Women, Please Don't Expect Me to Wipe Away Your Tears

• I Once Was Colorblind, but Now I See

• Ferguson protesters win injunction to stop cops using tear gas

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

Are You Willing to Die-In?

Die-in at Ohio State University
Photo credit: Allison Wilder

Jesus told his disciples “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24).

To be followers of Christ, we know we must let go of our own pursuits in this world. We must sacrifice ourselves and give up those things we hold dearest (Luke 14:26-27). Our walk with Christ is a constant process of setting aside our own priorities and committing to the life God would have us lead. We're called to lay down our own lives for the sake of the Kingdom.

After weeks of protests, of news coverage, and of social media campaigns, many white friends have become outraged in our hearts for the injustices we see. You've read countless articles, commented on friends' Facebook posts, maybe even attended a local rally. But now what? What are we willing to do to affect lasting change?

Are you willing to sustain the hard work of overhauling a system? Will you labor to usher fundamental change to a national mindset? Are you willing to die to yourself when you attend your next die-in?

Via Lisa Sharon Harper

For our cries for justice to ring with any truth, white co-laborers must disrupt our own hearts, even as we disrupt the institutional status-quo around us. It's too easy hold up a sign and then go about our normal daily business. It's too easy to point at others as the source of the strife. It's too easy to perpetuate the very thing we protest. We must not lie down only to get up again into our old ways.

To be followers of Christ, we know we must die-in to ourselves. Jesus tells us “if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).

White folk must die-in to our own perspectives, we must die-in to our self-preservation, we must die-in to our sense of exceptionalism. We must die-in to our desire to be at the center, we must die-in to our need to get ahead. Indeed, we must surrender ourselves to the example of Christ's ultimate die-in on the cross, because we know that "greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13).

This means a fundamental shift for white folk. It means uprooting who we are and how we live our daily lives. Indeed, we must "count [our]selves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11), repenting of our participation in injust systems and turning to a new way of living that divests ourselves of its benefits. It means chipping away at injustice from all sides, with each moment we are given on this earth.


So yes, we protest, we write letters, we vote, we show up. Then we yield our resources and our own ways of doing things. We invest daily in communities and in individuals, raising up local leaders of color and stepping aside so they can soar. It means giving up your time, giving up your money, giving up your influence, giving up your goals and your plans.

Because this is what it will take.
This is what is necessary to ensure that lasting progress is made.
It takes dying-in to ourselves.

If we sit alone in our consternation, then like the grain of wheat, we languish in our own self-preservation. But if are willing to fall to the ground in solidarity, then together we will bear great fields of life-giving, Kingdom fruit.

Friday Fruit (12/12/14)

On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you to read other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...

Weekly Round Up:

• Churches ask congregants to wear black on #blacklivesmatter Sunday

• Break the Silence

• Talking Points: You bought the lie

• Why Do We Never Get to be Innocent Victims?

• We aren’t playing the race card; we are analyzing the racialized deck.

• When I Can’t Breathe, I Will Listen

• Advent as Protest

• Idle No More: Two Years Later

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

#StayWokeAdvent: The Gift of the Angels

Last Sunday at UM Church for All People, Rev. Karen Cook opened an Advent sermon series on God's gifts. But Micheal Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Davis, John Crawford & others weighed heavily on our minds that morning.

In her sermon, Rev. Cook eloquently brought all of these themes together. She weaves in elements from Micky ScottBey Jones's 'It’s Advent. #StayWoke' and speaks to the power of God's gifts to us in these times:

For Christians, Advent is the season when we’re preoccupied with anticipation.  It’s a time when we celebrate God’s ability to give “beyond all we can ask or imagine.”  In Christ, God gave us the most unexpected gift: Himself.  We can see God, know God, and experience the benefits of God’s presence.  In Christ, God demonstrated His great love for us and brought to earth blessings that even those who have “everything” long for—peace, contentment, grace, forgiveness, hope, purpose and joy!

Advent invites us to stand together as people with our brothers and sisters in Ferguson as we all struggle to and wrestle with the decision to move forward with so many unanswered questions, in Chicago as we weep with decisions made and so many unanswered questions, in Cleveland as we weep with decisions made with so many unanswered questions, as we wait anew for hope:

"Have you ever been stuck in a dark place with only a sliver of light or no light at all? You know those times waiting for news that could bring just as much struggle as it brings resolution? Remember the times of waiting and waiting, not knowing when the answers will come? Times of anticipation, of unknowing, of darkness before more light, are not always joyful, peaceful, or even largely hopeful. These are times of struggle, times of wrestling, doubting, mourning, crying, yearning, times of staying alert to the signs that light may be coming, that things are changing.

This is the time, the time of Advent, to stay alert…to “stay woke”…to your senses, your mind, your body, your feelings, your spirit to where to Spirit is stirring and leaning. Stay woke….to the impact your life has on others…Stay woke…to the injustice that we either contribute to or diminish…Stay woke….to the groanings of the world…Stay woke…to the humble, radical, empire-upsetting ways of Jesus…Stay woke…to the darkness…Stay woke…to the light…and to the sacred and profane in both."

-'It’s Advent. #StayWoke'

We have to stay awake because this message of Advent regardless of what is going on around us is Good News, it is news that is worth waiting for, it is news that is worth sharing. And this same news became gift to the shepherds:


The angels belong to another world, but the shepherds belong to the lowest social class in this world. The angels are bright and glorious with heavenly light, but the shepherds are dirty and carry the stench of sheep. The angels knew what it was like to exist in the presence of God, but the shepherds were excluded from the very temple they provided sheep for sacrifice. The angels explode onto the scene with loud, dynamic shouts of praise and worship, but the poor shepherds are stunned and frightened into silence.

The angel of the Lord stood before the outcasts of society.  And gave this amazing gift to these shepherds, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people…

...Today a Savior has been born to you.”

Beloved, the shepherds needed this gift, but we need this gift too, just to deal with the anxieties of life.

Let me ask you, are you worried? Are you anxious? It seems that our lives are so hectic, especially this time of year, and there are so many different worries bearing down on us from every angle. All these worries can weigh us down and depress us.

But it’s not just the worries of life that can get us down, it’s also the realities of life. Realities which are painful vivid reminders that we live in a fallen world. There are many in our community who are alone, there many in our community who are grieving, there are many in our community who are looking for safe affordable housing, there are many in our community who struggle daily with additions.

The world can be such a depressing place and that‘s from just this season alone. But the gift of the angel said, “I bring you good news of great joy for all people; to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior.” Into this dark depressing world was born He who is the light of the world. What good news! What great joy!

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!

It is a threefold message wrapped up in one gift:

First, "Glory to God in the highest heaven"
God had kept His promise to destroy the works of the enemy through the person and work of Jesus Christ. I love the scripture in Psalm 24:8 it sounds like a battle cry:

"Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle" 

This is the God whom the angels glorified: God who won the victory for us over the powers of darkness through the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the first great gift of the angels.

"And On Earth, Peace"
We must understand the nature of this peace. This is not a peace treaty between nations that will soon be broken. This is not the empty peace that men seek in false religions, or in material possessions, or in worldly philosophies, or in psychology, or in many other things of this earth.

Jesus said in John 14:27, "My peace I give unto you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Beloved, This is a peace that comes by way of the Holy Spirit who has been sent by the Father and the Son into the heart of every everyone of us. That’s the second great gift of the angels

"Among those whom he favors!"
Those who are favored of God know that God is with them.  They have His ear as they walk through dark valleys and they know that their struggle to remain true to God will not go unrewarded.  God’s favor can be felt in the spirit. When we have the favor of the Lord, we rest in quiet confidence that we are forgiven and that God is not finished with us yet.

Romans 5:1 tells us that "therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

And so, not only during this season of Advent but on every day of our life on earth, we can share the angels gift of joy with everyone we encounter: "Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people; to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the messiah the Lord"


This gift should be able to get you through what every you are going through
This gift should help you kick whatever habit is holding you back
This gift can hold you in the midnight hour,
This gift can dry your weeping eyes
This gift…

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!

"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." (Jude 1:24-25)

Friday Fruit (12/5/14)

Hands Up Walk Out Die-In at the DOJ
Photo by Elvert Barnes

On Fridays, BTSF offers links to other discussions about race & Christianity. It's an opportunity for you to read other perspectives, and for me to give props to the shoulders on which I stand...

Weekly Round Up:

• To my white brothers and sisters in Christ…where are you?

• Black-on-black violence: Pastor Voddie Baucham’s assault on black people

• What I Wish I Didn't Have To Tell You

• Demonstrating Christ

• On Ferguson, Riots and Human Limits

• Honest Speech and Transformative Potential: An Interview with Walter Brueggemann

• How Silence Destroys Cross Cultural Trust

• Ending Implicit Bias

These are some of BTSF's links of interest this week. What are yours?

Feel free to contribute your own links in the comments section, or submit items you feel should be included during the week. Self-promotion is encouraged.

#StayWokeAdvent: Waiting for Justice

"Come, Lord Jesus. Come." 

It is the cry of our hearts when we have no other answers. When the darkness seems too deep, the winter seems too long. When the world is silent, and the night is lonely.

Where is the victorious King that we have been promised? Where is our God's mighty reign?  We cry out to God in our pain and our brokenness.
And in reply, we are told to wait.

To wait? How can this be? Is this not the constant platitude of the self-righteous? Of the scholars of the Law who tell us to let the process to run its course, to wait for the system to do its work? Dr. King replied to such as these "for years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'"

But we do not serve a God of the 'never.' And even as our hearts break, our God of the 'not yet' hears our cries: “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage.” We hear the promise that "those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not be faint."


For our waiting is not one of earthly aspiration. We do not wait for laws or officials to fulfill that which they should never have promised.  We do not wait for systems to be dismantlement and rebuilt as slightly different versions of themselves.  We do not wait for more idle talk and wringing of hands.
We do not wait for empty solutions like these.

We wait on the Lord.

And ours is not a passive, feeble waiting. One that lies listless and anemic in the face of present trials. Ours is the alert anticipation of a poised runner at the starting line. Ours is the energy of a coiled spring, bent but not broken, strengthened by the tension, and prepared to be released in the moment of God's anointing.

We are ready. Christ is coming.

We wait with a hunger that compels us to live out our hope for justice in this world, and brings us strength even as we stumble. Like the shepherds, we stay awake to what God is doing, ready to act upon the proclamation of Good News. Like the Magi, we leave our comfort and familiarity, giving of our resources in response to scripture's promise.

God commands: "prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed." We are to live "lives of holiness and Godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God." We do the work here, knowing that we participate in the ultimate fulfillment of God's justice in the New Kingdom. We do the work now, assured that the justice we begin today will one day be completed.

In this time, "we neither ignore the brokenness in us and around us, nor do we ignore the transformative power of Christ." We hold to the promises of God with all of the preparedness and expectation of a Church that truly believes in His coming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

During Advent, we remember an exiled Israel, longing for restoration. An Israel that for centuries waited, hoped, and prayed knowing that the same God that delivered them from Egypt would bring forth a Messiah for their ultimate Salvation. Today, Advent calls us to remember that first coming of the Christ, even as we anticipate the His second. So too, in our work today is grounded in our history, our pain, our journey even as we labor with longing toward our future.

The sober purples and blues remind us of our yearning, our need to repent, We lament a world without resolution. We hope, yes, but we also look deep into our broken reality and long for the way our souls sense it should be, hope it can be, know it will be.

The waiting in this way is uncomfortable. It’s messy. We long to rush to resolution. We feel the need to rationalize our pain, our confusion. We are lost, and so we cling to any direction we can find. We simplify and we minimize. We reduce the complexities of a fallen world into catch phrases and 'teachable moments.'

But even as we anticipate Christ's coming, we know that God is already here, whispering to us in this Advent season: "Fear not, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand."

"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."
-Romans 8:18-25