Brian Bantum
My spouse is also my pastor
During the pandemic, I’ve realized how much I rely on her as a proxy for my faith.
A psalm of waiting as the pandemic continues
All plans feel like grass withering in the sun these days.
Is there no other prophet to consult?
Amid our dying empires and institutions, we might recall the story of King Ahab.
Tending love in a time of trauma
My mother grew up in a violent home. But violence was not the totality of her life.
The struggle to live in unity when everything’s divided
We know how to wield a sword, but nobody taught us how to cultivate a field.
Walking with Moses from slavery to liberation
When Moses says “keep still,” he’s not recommending inactivity.
Tomorrow will come (Maundy Thursday)
Anyone who has occupied spaces where death looms knows that the experience of time is anything but certain.
April 10, Good Friday (Psalm 22; John 18:1–19:42)
Things Pilate cannot touch: creative life, confounding power
April 9, Maundy Thursday (Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19; John 13:1–17, 31b–35)
Jesus is saying, Love should feel like this.
What makes A Wrinkle in Time Christian?
Some white Christians have complained that Ava DuVernay’s film is not faithful to Madeleine L’Engle’s book. A lot of people of color, however, have been feeling this movie deeply.
A lineage of black female scholars
Black women's contributions continue to be rendered invisible. Brittney Cooper offers a critical intervention.
Who decides what my body means?
The next Reformation is about interpretation, but not of a book.
Need to confess
The whole church needs to encounter the courage and truthfulness of the fact that God created us good, to love and be loved.
Full humanity: Black Lives Matter symposium
In the civil rights movement, language of political participation was central. BLM activists are making a more profound demand.
The Souls of Black Folk, by W. E. B. Du Bois
"What does it feel like to be a problem?” For the first time in college, a line from a book rang in my head for days. W. E. B....
Prophetic creativity
In the wake of Michael Brown's shooting by Darren Wilson and the subsequent protests in Ferguson, Lauryn Hill posted a song called "Black Rage."
Sunday, February 1, 2015: Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Idolatry seems like such an easy thing to avoid.