When Senator John Lewis died on July 17, 2020, the New York Times published his letter “Together You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation” which he had written three days before his death as his last address to the nation. In this letter, he talked about his hopes for the beloved community, which he … Continue reading Episode 263: Christianity and CRT – “CRT & The Beloved Community.”

When you enter a space what percentage of people in that space need to look like you in order for you to feel comfortable? Sometimes for me that number is one, but only if I’m with the right people. As a white man married to a Chinese woman, I remember some of the first times … Continue reading Episode 262: Christianity and CRT – “Institutional Colorblindness.”

In 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving were arrested in Virginia for being an interracial couple. They fought back against their arrest, and their case, Loving vs. Virginia eventually reached the Supreme Court. They won their case on June 12th, 1967 – nine years after their arrest. This case overturned decades of laws against interracial marriage … Continue reading Episode 261: Christianity and CRT – “Responding to Demographic Change.”

What is overt and covert about racism? I remember when I first started learning about racism as a young white man. I grew up in a rural community, had recently joined a multiethnic church, and was doing a lot of reading and making friends with people of color. I was learning a lot about the … Continue reading Episode 260: Christianity and CRT – “Overt and Covert Racism Plus a Little Bit of Hope.”

What does it mean that racism is ordinary? Jim Wallace wrote a book a number of years ago called “America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America” whose title aptly described racism as the sin condition which most profoundly shaped America from the colonial period forward. From this vantage point, … Continue reading Episode 259: Christianity and CRT – “Sin, Racism and the Avoidance of Guilt.”

In today’s session Jane and Michelle pause from the discussion of the book Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou to reflect on what they have read. Both Michelle and Jane identify key takeaways from the introduction and first chapter. They also make connections … Continue reading Episode 258: Christianity and CRT – “The Impact of CRT Talk.”

So I’m a white guy, and I used to never think about my whiteness when I went anywhere, and for sure for sure I never sat around with other white people and talked about our whiteness. I’ve never sat around with other white people and asked, “When was the last time you thought about your … Continue reading Episode 257: Christianity and CRT – “Who Gets to Be Legally White?”

In the book of Revelations, John is presented with a vision of the end of time when people from around the world are worshiping God in Heaven. The glory and honor of their cultures is present and nothing impure is there … but what exactly is the good stuff about our cultures, and what’s the … Continue reading Episode 256: Christianity and CRT – “Glory and Honor of Nations.”

As a therapist, I see people who often come to my office who self-identify as “broken.” They may come in making poor eye contact, telling me a story of how they were victimized, or perhaps made some choices they regret. Sometimes they have experienced a long string of disappointing or tragic events that now has … Continue reading Episode 255: Christianity and CRT – “Community and Cultural Wealth.”

I have a lot of fond childhood memories listening to my uncles and grandpa tell fishing stories. Almost always, the stories seemed to be larger-than-life adventures full of excitement and laughter as they reenacted the scenes of reeling in gamefish from the Michigan lakes where they spent weekends together. It seemed, however, that the hero … Continue reading Episode 254: Christianity and CRT – “Who Gets to Tell the Story?”