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Individualism twists our understanding of injustice
Hi friends, Ally Henny was an (online) classmate of mine in seminary, and I’ve appreciated her voice on social media ever since. But I hadn’t really read much of her (non-social-media) writing until now. I just read her recently released book, I Won’t Shut Up: Finding Your Voice When the World Tries to Silence You.…
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Super chill book review part 2: Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
Hi friends, I’m back with a few more thoughts and quotes from The Nap Bishop Tricia Hersey’s book Rest is Resistance. (Check out part 1 if you missed it.) I continue to reflect on all these things. If you’re thinking about them too, let’s connect—drop a comment or email if you like. Starting where we…
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Race-based affirmative action: what’s in it for white folks?
Hi friends, I want to say a little more about affirmative action. I feel like this is one of those things that, for some of us—that is, for those of us who don’t feel like we’re directly impacted—that is, for those of us who are white (and/or perhaps Asian American?)—it might be easy to move…
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Can I get a witness? …Or, perhaps, a community of solidarity?
Hi friends, I don’t know that white folks’ voices should be front and center in the affirmative action conversation, but I will just say briefly that the SCOTUS decision harms us all. Black and brown kids deserve to be able to go to college. And colleges are better learning environments when they have a diverse…
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“You are a Samaritan and you have a demon” – reflections on other-ing, compassion, and discernment
The [religious leaders] answered and said to [Jesus], “Do we not speak well that you are a Samaritan and you have a demon?” -John 8:48 (my translation) Sometimes when I’m translating New Testament passages from Greek, a phrase jumps out at me like I’ve never really seen it before, even though I’m sure I’ve read…
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Super chill book review: God is a Black Woman (Christena Cleveland)
God is a Black Woman by Christena Cleveland (HarperOne, 2022)—what a book. It’s basically a mix of spot-on critiques of what Cleveland calls whitemalegod (you may know the one) and compelling explorations of what it can look like to ditch whitemalegod and seek the Sacred Black Feminine instead. I was a fan of Cleveland’s work…
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New post at Feminism & Religion
Just got done with a Zoom book discussion of Kyla Schuller’s The Trouble with White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism. What a book. Definitely “super chill book review” material, so keep on the lookout for that sometime soon-ish. (And spoiler alert: as a white woman, I didn’t feel nearly as offended as the title might…
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Super chill book review part 2: All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep (Andre Henry)
As promised—and eagerly awaited, I’m sure!—this is the second part of a super chill book review of Andre Henry’s All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep. (The first part is chillin over here if you didn’t catch it before.) Here are a few more quotes and thoughts. 4) On the language of “can’t”: “That was…
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Super chill book review part 1: All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep (Andre Henry)
I was fortunate to cross paths with Andre Henry while studying at Fuller, and I have a great deal of respect for him as a musician, writer, and human. So my expectations for his first book, All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep: Hope–and Hard Pills to Swallow–About Fighting for Black Lives (Convergent 2022), were…
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Super chill book review: Red Lip Theology (Candice Marie Benbow)
Candice Marie Benbow’s new book Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who’ve Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Isn’t Enough (Convergent 2022) strikes me as a combination of memoir, Black feminist manifesto, ode to Benbow’s mother, and work of theological deconstruction and reconstruction. Or something like that. I’m here for it.…