Mara Einstein over at Brands of Faith (in light of this post be sure to pick up her forthcoming book) posts about Bible toys at Wal-Mart. In collaboration with the religious toy company one2believe, next month Wal-Mart begins selling Bible characters -- Jesus, Mary, Paul, Peter, Esther, and David, just to name a few.
Interesting as well are the company's P31 dolls, toys (according to its website) "based on the biblical teaching of Proverbs 31...specifically designed to provide a Bible-based, Christian alternative to other secular toys on the market, and to encourage young girls to pursue biblical womanhood....It is our prayer that the Lord would use these dolls as a means to encourage the girls of today to become Proverbs 31 women of tomorrow!" Included with the toys are Bible lessons, an accessory kit, recipies, and cookie cutters, tools that suggest the company supports domestic teaching and learning for P31 women. Of the four P31 dolls currently available, "Leah" is an African American doll, while the others are clearly white.
From the vantage point of religious goods in the spiritual marketplace, these toys are simply the latest example of trends and products religion scholars Colleen McDannell and Heather Hendershot carefully write about here and here.
From another perspective, these products display another sad example of the association of whiteness with godliness, and the depiction of biblical characters as Euro-Americans. American religion and capitalism work in sinister collusion yet again. No doubt the company sees these toys as evangelistic tools, but I wonder if parents who purchase these products will realize the connections these toys suggest, and the psychological associations their kids will invariably make playing with these figures, in many cases subtly and powerfully reinforcing racial codes of white supremacy?
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
Religion and Politics in 2008
Ed Blum has an interesting and provacative article on what W.E.B. Du Bois has to say to contemporary politicians, and the contribution Du Bois can make to today's discussions about politics. Read it here. (HT: Paul Harvey)
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Devotions with Du Bois, Day 2
Commentary and context:
Prayers for Dark People constitutes the prayers Du Bois penned during 1909-1910, in his early 40s, while teaching at Atlanta University, which at the time held classes for what today we’d call elementary, middle, high school, and college students. This gives the prayers and meditations a didactic quality, though not pedantic, and it is probably not too much to say that the prayers reflect something of a pastoral tone. The messages are certainly moralistic, focused on virtue (sometimes even “holiness”), yet there is a spiritual urgency in his words as well, a firm conviction to sieze the day. Some prayers have a theme attached to them (e.g., “Cleanliness”), while others end with one or two scripture references. The upshot is clearly practical theology, something akin to what some contemporaries called the Social Gospel.
At the time, Du Bois had published his well-known The Souls of Black Folk (1903), and in 1909 published his study of John Brown, who he considered to be something of a spiritual exemplar. In 1095 Du Bois co-organized the Niagra Movement, which later became the the NAACP. Du Bois lost his first son Burghart in 1899, and the following year attened the first Pan-African Congress in London, at which he was elected Secretary. The final point to mention about the larger context surrounding the composition of the prayers, Du Bois left Atlanta Univeristy in 1910 to assume editorship of The Crisis, the key publication of the NAACP, and oversee other editorial tasks for the organization.
At the time, Du Bois had published his well-known The Souls of Black Folk (1903), and in 1909 published his study of John Brown, who he considered to be something of a spiritual exemplar. In 1095 Du Bois co-organized the Niagra Movement, which later became the the NAACP. Du Bois lost his first son Burghart in 1899, and the following year attened the first Pan-African Congress in London, at which he was elected Secretary. The final point to mention about the larger context surrounding the composition of the prayers, Du Bois left Atlanta Univeristy in 1910 to assume editorship of The Crisis, the key publication of the NAACP, and oversee other editorial tasks for the organization.
[Photo from the online archive at UMASS-Amherst.]
Friday, July 13, 2007
Scholars and Starbucks
No, this is not a post about drinking coffee to stay up late to read or write, though that is often what I do in these final days and weeks of dissertation writing. Rather, this is a presentation by historian Bryant Simon discussing the cultural meaning of Starbucks, and the social meanings of coffee, consumption, and commodification. No doubt his forthcoming book will stir up great discussion -- conducted over a cup of coffee of course. (HT: The Brew)
NEW: My good friend and colleague LK (read here) has some interesting thoughts related to what Simon discusses.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Matisyahu in Houston
Tonight with two good friends and my son Matthew, I went to the Matisyahu show in Houston. For those who may not know, Matisyahu is a Hasidic reggae artist. You've probably never heard anything like it. (NEW: Matisyahu interview here.)
It was the first concert I had been to since my freshman year in college, sometime in 1996. In fact, Matisyahu played at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, where I went to my last concert--and if memory serves me correctly I saw Sheryl Crow. (I'm not even a Crow fan, I think I got the tickets for free.)
The set lasted for about an hour, and he was in top form. Matisyahu opened with "Fire of Heaven/Alter of Earth" (the opening track on the Youth CD) , sang "Jerusalem" of course, as well as the prayerful "Close My Eyes" (from Live at Stubbs), among others. He also displayed his customary beatboxing skills, this time linking his vocally percussive expression to a nice piano tune. (For examples, check out this blog.) One hopes to hear more of this on future CDs.
I sat way out on the lawn, and so was away from the energy of the stage. Nevertheless it was a good show.
The biblical scope of Matisyahu's music still resonates deeply; his music possesses the depth of the blues, and the energy and improvisational quality of jazz. Every encounter changes the soul.
Devotions with Du Bois, Day 1
This post announces a summer series, a new venture of sorts. I’ll craft devotionals from W.E.B. Du Bois, Prayers for Dark People, ed. Herbert Aptheker (University of Massachusetts Press, 1980). Perhaps you’ll purchase a copy and read along, offering your own take in the comments section. Think of it as an interactive call and response, with Du Bois in the pulpit. He still speaks today.
The series, what I’m calling “Devotions with Du Bois,” reflects a growing interest in W.E.B. Du Bois, and an explicit investigation into that which constituted his faith--or at least his relationship to Christianity. It also comes from a pedagogical conviction that interactive (literally), organic exchanges constitute learning. I don’t know everything, and conversation is sometimes a wonderful teacher. Third, it is also my conviction that some of the keenest spiritual insight often shows up in the unlikeliest of places. Scholars of religion call this “lived religion,” and theologians call it “practical theology.”
This series also comes as I’m reading through the first book length study of Du Bois’s spirituality, Ed Blum’s W.E.B. Du Bois: American Prophet, recently published with Penn State University Press. (For a summary of posts about Ed's book, read here.)
What do you think? To what extent can Du Bois speak as a spiritual authority, or even a “pastor” today? Can he be called a spiritual leader? Is he a prophet? Why or why not?
The series, what I’m calling “Devotions with Du Bois,” reflects a growing interest in W.E.B. Du Bois, and an explicit investigation into that which constituted his faith--or at least his relationship to Christianity. It also comes from a pedagogical conviction that interactive (literally), organic exchanges constitute learning. I don’t know everything, and conversation is sometimes a wonderful teacher. Third, it is also my conviction that some of the keenest spiritual insight often shows up in the unlikeliest of places. Scholars of religion call this “lived religion,” and theologians call it “practical theology.”
This series also comes as I’m reading through the first book length study of Du Bois’s spirituality, Ed Blum’s W.E.B. Du Bois: American Prophet, recently published with Penn State University Press. (For a summary of posts about Ed's book, read here.)
What do you think? To what extent can Du Bois speak as a spiritual authority, or even a “pastor” today? Can he be called a spiritual leader? Is he a prophet? Why or why not?
[Picture from the online archive at UMASS-Amherst.]
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
A Hot Topic: Spending the Summer with W.E.B. Du Bois
This post announces a series of reflections on Ed Blum’s new book titled W.E.B. Du Bois: American Prophet. A companion series will examine some of Du Bois’s prayers. In addition to commentary on Blum’s book, I’m happy to report Ed will appear in a few weeks in the form of an interview here at bald blogging. (See another interview with Ed here.)
(Interested readers may also want to pick up Phil Zuckerman’s wonderful compilation of Du Bois’s religious writings, Du Bois on Religion. It is a must read.)
Now, on to the opening post….
In Manning Marable’s Living History: How Reimagining the African-American Past Can Remake America’s Racial Future (2006), he writes about “Resurrecting the Radical Du Bois” (ch. 3). Marable’s stellar book prompts readers to resurrect Du Bois’s “revolutionary and radical politics” (111), and in particular Du Bois’s relationship with and to Marxism in the U.S. and Europe. Revolutionary politics, of course, involves a trenchant critique of “structural racism,” (113) across the globe. Marable also suggests anew studies of Du Bois in light of feminist scholarship as well as analyses of the aesthetic sensibilities that appear in his work.
Marable’s choice of the word “resurrection” to call for a study of Du Bois with new eyes ironically overlooks religion altogether. What Marable overlooks, Blum centers, and the result is a fascinatingly stunning look at an American prophet.
Blum’s work uncovers multiple religious selves in Du Bois, and charts the evolution of his relationship to faith, spirituality, and Christianity. Blum canvasses Du Bois’s corpus, and thematically investigates The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois’s sociology of religion, his understanding of Christianity and Communism, the uses of religion in Du Bois’s creative work, and the reception of the spiritual Du Bois.
Blum’s writing is clear and lucid, and his ability to craft poetic statements that summarize and/or explain is something to emulation. Here’s an example: “What emerges from Du Bois’s imagination is a riveting tale where angels masqueraded as teachers, where demons cloaked themselves as moderates, where economic policies had spiritual outcomes, where prophets postured as professors, and where the seemingly irreligious Du Bois [according to previous biographers] was the nation’s holy seer” (8). And another: “It is the spiritual side, the soulfulness of his life and the religious power of his prose and personality that this book seeks to unveil” (10). Readers familiar with Du Bois will notice the interesting use of terms here.
It is also worth mentioning Blum’s personal reflections on Du Bois in the Acknowledgements section of the book. “I wrote this book as an acolyte,” Blum writes, “imagining myself sitting at Du Bois’s feet, reading over his shoulder, and listening to the responses of the many he touch. I wrote this book to learn religion and spirituality from Du Bois….I prayed his prayers to my students and endeavored to feel his moving in their hearts” (273). Such a personal revelation offers helpful perspective, and it is not too much to say that one feels Blum’s deep engagement with Du Bois on nearly every page. The Professor still teaches. And if Blum learned from Du Bois, then we can listen to and learn from him too, and with Blum, understand, embrace, and enact the ways Du Bois prompted people to make the world a more peaceful, just, and equitable place to live.
(Interested readers may also want to pick up Phil Zuckerman’s wonderful compilation of Du Bois’s religious writings, Du Bois on Religion. It is a must read.)
Now, on to the opening post….
In Manning Marable’s Living History: How Reimagining the African-American Past Can Remake America’s Racial Future (2006), he writes about “Resurrecting the Radical Du Bois” (ch. 3). Marable’s stellar book prompts readers to resurrect Du Bois’s “revolutionary and radical politics” (111), and in particular Du Bois’s relationship with and to Marxism in the U.S. and Europe. Revolutionary politics, of course, involves a trenchant critique of “structural racism,” (113) across the globe. Marable also suggests anew studies of Du Bois in light of feminist scholarship as well as analyses of the aesthetic sensibilities that appear in his work.
Marable’s choice of the word “resurrection” to call for a study of Du Bois with new eyes ironically overlooks religion altogether. What Marable overlooks, Blum centers, and the result is a fascinatingly stunning look at an American prophet.
Blum’s work uncovers multiple religious selves in Du Bois, and charts the evolution of his relationship to faith, spirituality, and Christianity. Blum canvasses Du Bois’s corpus, and thematically investigates The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois’s sociology of religion, his understanding of Christianity and Communism, the uses of religion in Du Bois’s creative work, and the reception of the spiritual Du Bois.
Blum’s writing is clear and lucid, and his ability to craft poetic statements that summarize and/or explain is something to emulation. Here’s an example: “What emerges from Du Bois’s imagination is a riveting tale where angels masqueraded as teachers, where demons cloaked themselves as moderates, where economic policies had spiritual outcomes, where prophets postured as professors, and where the seemingly irreligious Du Bois [according to previous biographers] was the nation’s holy seer” (8). And another: “It is the spiritual side, the soulfulness of his life and the religious power of his prose and personality that this book seeks to unveil” (10). Readers familiar with Du Bois will notice the interesting use of terms here.
It is also worth mentioning Blum’s personal reflections on Du Bois in the Acknowledgements section of the book. “I wrote this book as an acolyte,” Blum writes, “imagining myself sitting at Du Bois’s feet, reading over his shoulder, and listening to the responses of the many he touch. I wrote this book to learn religion and spirituality from Du Bois….I prayed his prayers to my students and endeavored to feel his moving in their hearts” (273). Such a personal revelation offers helpful perspective, and it is not too much to say that one feels Blum’s deep engagement with Du Bois on nearly every page. The Professor still teaches. And if Blum learned from Du Bois, then we can listen to and learn from him too, and with Blum, understand, embrace, and enact the ways Du Bois prompted people to make the world a more peaceful, just, and equitable place to live.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Religion, History on the Web
Completing a dissertation continues to keep me from posting more frequently (I'll get back to Reconciliation Blues soon), but I want to draw attention to two item.
Media studies scholar Mara Einstein now has a blog, Brands of Faith, and has a forthcoming book on religion and America's spiritual marketplace. Make sure you pick it up, since it features some of the first serious scholarship on Joel Osteen.
Historian of race and religion in America, Edward J. Blum, was featured this week on History News Network. I've posted a little about him here, and look forward to his book on W.E.B. Du Bois, due out next week. I plan to post about the book later this summer.
Media studies scholar Mara Einstein now has a blog, Brands of Faith, and has a forthcoming book on religion and America's spiritual marketplace. Make sure you pick it up, since it features some of the first serious scholarship on Joel Osteen.
Historian of race and religion in America, Edward J. Blum, was featured this week on History News Network. I've posted a little about him here, and look forward to his book on W.E.B. Du Bois, due out next week. I plan to post about the book later this summer.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Jerry Falwell
Bible Belt Blogger posts a number of Falwell stories here, Get Religion has this story, and Prof. Jonathan Walton offers his own remembrance here. Christianity Today writer Ed Gilbreath links to an interview he did with Falwell in 2000, and Randall Balmer cites the following 1965 Falwell quote in Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America (2006): "Believing the Bible as I do, I would find it impossible to stop preaching the pure saving gospel of Jesus Christ, and begin doing anything else--including fighting Communism, or participating in civil-rights reforms" (p. 17). (For the gist of his book, read this Balmer essay.) While the implications of such a posture are clear-read any history of the Religious Right-interested readers may also want to read Susan Friend Harding's patient, probing, critical, and interesting anthropological reflections in The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics (2000).
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Reconciliation Blues, Part I
This post begins a series that will offer a book review and analysis of Ed Gilbreath's Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical's Inside View of White Christianity. I've commented about Ed's fabulous blog here, and I look forward to fruitful engagement and constructive conversation with his important book.
It is important to point out, as Ed helpfully explains in the Prologue, and chapters 1-3 and 5, that he made a decision to stay within "white Christianity," that is live, work, and worship in largely Anglo evangelical institutions. He describes attending a white church/Sunday school early in life, attending a largely white evangelical college, and working as the first black editor at Christianity today.
"I hope to give you a glimpse of what it means to be black and evangelical," Gilbreath writes in the Prologue, "My hope is that this inside perspective on what I regrettably call 'white Christianity' can help both blacks and whites get a better sense of the condition of our racial reconciliation and the distance we need to travel to make it more authentic and true....[t]hat's why reconciliation blues isnt' just a sob story; it's a call to action. The good news is that, despite our frequent missteps, the church is the one institution that's best equipped to overcome the racial divide" (p. 19-21). [Gilbreath is keen to acknowledge multicultural America, but writes out of the primary range of his experiences, black-white relations.]
Gilbreath's aim is a critical point white readers must neither overlook nor take lightly. White folks rarely realize they are white, and don't see that projecting race onto others makes them "raced" beings as well. What am I saying here? Black folks know white folks better than white folks know themselves. Who is willing to admit this? Who actually believes this and is willing to sit silent and learn? (Read more of what I'm talking about here.)
This is a crucial point to make, and represents, in one sense, the signal gift of this book. Gilbreath privileges white readers with an "inside view of white Christianity." Here I'm reminded, once again, of the words of James Baldwin in No Name in the Street (1972): "Actually, black people have known the truth about white people for a long time, but now there is no longer any way for the truth to be hidden. The whole world knows it. The truth which frees black people will also free white people, but this is a truth which white people find very difficult to swallow."
Again, who is willing to admit this? Who actually believes this? Who will take such a posture of listening?
Up next: chapel at Judson and listening to Tom Skinner.
It is important to point out, as Ed helpfully explains in the Prologue, and chapters 1-3 and 5, that he made a decision to stay within "white Christianity," that is live, work, and worship in largely Anglo evangelical institutions. He describes attending a white church/Sunday school early in life, attending a largely white evangelical college, and working as the first black editor at Christianity today.
"I hope to give you a glimpse of what it means to be black and evangelical," Gilbreath writes in the Prologue, "My hope is that this inside perspective on what I regrettably call 'white Christianity' can help both blacks and whites get a better sense of the condition of our racial reconciliation and the distance we need to travel to make it more authentic and true....[t]hat's why reconciliation blues isnt' just a sob story; it's a call to action. The good news is that, despite our frequent missteps, the church is the one institution that's best equipped to overcome the racial divide" (p. 19-21). [Gilbreath is keen to acknowledge multicultural America, but writes out of the primary range of his experiences, black-white relations.]
Gilbreath's aim is a critical point white readers must neither overlook nor take lightly. White folks rarely realize they are white, and don't see that projecting race onto others makes them "raced" beings as well. What am I saying here? Black folks know white folks better than white folks know themselves. Who is willing to admit this? Who actually believes this and is willing to sit silent and learn? (Read more of what I'm talking about here.)
This is a crucial point to make, and represents, in one sense, the signal gift of this book. Gilbreath privileges white readers with an "inside view of white Christianity." Here I'm reminded, once again, of the words of James Baldwin in No Name in the Street (1972): "Actually, black people have known the truth about white people for a long time, but now there is no longer any way for the truth to be hidden. The whole world knows it. The truth which frees black people will also free white people, but this is a truth which white people find very difficult to swallow."
Again, who is willing to admit this? Who actually believes this? Who will take such a posture of listening?
Up next: chapel at Judson and listening to Tom Skinner.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Milestones and Modalities
Well, I turned 30 yesterday. A milestone, and now a perspective from a new modality. I've entered a new decade. Had a great time with friends and family, and their presence, to me, was the gift. I did get several other gifts, including The Bible Experience. It is interesting to hear familiar voices in a whole new context -- reading the New Testament.
In addition to working on my dissertation, I've been reading some W.E.B. Du Bois, mostly inspired by the work of Edward J. Blum. Blum teaches at San Diego State University and has a very impressive arrary of projects completed, underway, and in the works.
In addition to working on my dissertation, I've been reading some W.E.B. Du Bois, mostly inspired by the work of Edward J. Blum. Blum teaches at San Diego State University and has a very impressive arrary of projects completed, underway, and in the works.
I'm looking forward to his biography of Du Bois, out next month with University of Pennsylvania Press, and his article on Du Bois's relationship to and with Christianity is, I hope, a taste of things to come.
Blum also alerted me to a collection of prayers by Du Bois, published in 1980 (17 years after Du Bois's death) under the title Prayers for Dark People. I've been reading through them, thinking not only about the times and places that inspired these reflections, but about their resonance with and application for contemporary times.
Blum also alerted me to a collection of prayers by Du Bois, published in 1980 (17 years after Du Bois's death) under the title Prayers for Dark People. I've been reading through them, thinking not only about the times and places that inspired these reflections, but about their resonance with and application for contemporary times.
Here's a sample, composed on one Christmas day during Du Bois's lifetime:
"O Thou Incarnate Word of God to man, make us this Christmas night to realize Thy truth: we are not Christians because we profess Thy name and celebrate the ceremonies and idly reiterate the prayers of the church, but only in so far as we really comprehend and follow the Christ spirit -- we must be poor and not rich, meek and not proud, merciful and not oppressors, peaceful and not warlike or quarrelsome. For the sake of the righteousness of our cause we must bow to persecution and reviling, and again and again turn the stricken cheek to the striker, and above all the cause of our neightbor must be to us dearer than our own cause. This is Christianity. God help us all to be Christians. Amen. Luke 2:8-14" (p. 63).
And Amen.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Will You Love Your Neighbor?
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Darfur: New Books
Just a quick word about some forthcoming books on an important issue in an important place in important times:
John Prendergast and Don Cheadle, Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond.
Prendergast will be speaking in Houston on Monday. I'll report on it later. In the meantime, read more about Prendergast here, here, and here.
Journalist Eric Reeves will publish A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide soon. Find out more here and read the Preface by John Prendergast.
Though published, here is another important book on Rwanda and Sudan.
John Prendergast and Don Cheadle, Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond.
Prendergast will be speaking in Houston on Monday. I'll report on it later. In the meantime, read more about Prendergast here, here, and here.
Journalist Eric Reeves will publish A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide soon. Find out more here and read the Preface by John Prendergast.
Though published, here is another important book on Rwanda and Sudan.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
All About Books
Rod Garvin tagged me back in August, and so here are my responses -- finally:
One book that changed your life: Jim Marrs’s Crossfire:The Plot that Killed Kennedy. While some call Marrs’ work “conspiracy theory,” I read this book as a high school senior because I wanted to know more about the Kennedy Assassination. I wasn’t satisfied with the “official” story. Reading this book whet my appetitie for the inquisitive historical investigation to which I’ve devoted my professional life. Looking back eleven years later, it also oriented me to begin to read history from alternative vantage points, what you might call history from below.
One book you've read more than once: Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselevs to Death. The late Neil Postman helped me to better understand the powerful role media shapes and influences both individual and collective thought. I’ve never watched television the same since.
One book you'd want on a desert island, besides the Bible: James Baldwin’s Collected Essays, edited by Toni Morrison. This is what I’d call my “Baldwin Bible.” Reading James Baldwin I’ve discovered he knows me better than I know myself, many times, and his pointed honesty calls me to be more authentic.
One book that made you laugh: Anything related to The Far Side by Gary Larson and Paul Lewis’s Cracking Up: American Humor in a Time of Conflict. I’m chuckling even as I write.
One book that made you cry: Timothy Tyson’s Blood Done Sign My Name. This powerful story of racial violence brought me to tears, while the redemptive end to the book prompted me to sob with hope.
One book you wish had been written: A solid social and cultural history, an ethnographic study of contemporary megachurch ministers – a book I’m working on right now with a fellow scholar. Also, a book that offers a template for race reconciliation that follows the traditional Christian year (Lent, Pentecost, Advent, etc.) – a book a friend and I are working on.
One book you wish had never been written: Hmmm…..I’ll have to think about this one.
One book that you've been meaning to read: Charles Marsh’s The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today. I've browsed some parts of it, but need to read it more closely.
One book that you are currently reading: Richard A. Horsley, Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder.
Alright, Jasie and LK, you are now it!
One book that changed your life: Jim Marrs’s Crossfire:The Plot that Killed Kennedy. While some call Marrs’ work “conspiracy theory,” I read this book as a high school senior because I wanted to know more about the Kennedy Assassination. I wasn’t satisfied with the “official” story. Reading this book whet my appetitie for the inquisitive historical investigation to which I’ve devoted my professional life. Looking back eleven years later, it also oriented me to begin to read history from alternative vantage points, what you might call history from below.
One book you've read more than once: Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselevs to Death. The late Neil Postman helped me to better understand the powerful role media shapes and influences both individual and collective thought. I’ve never watched television the same since.
One book you'd want on a desert island, besides the Bible: James Baldwin’s Collected Essays, edited by Toni Morrison. This is what I’d call my “Baldwin Bible.” Reading James Baldwin I’ve discovered he knows me better than I know myself, many times, and his pointed honesty calls me to be more authentic.
One book that made you laugh: Anything related to The Far Side by Gary Larson and Paul Lewis’s Cracking Up: American Humor in a Time of Conflict. I’m chuckling even as I write.
One book that made you cry: Timothy Tyson’s Blood Done Sign My Name. This powerful story of racial violence brought me to tears, while the redemptive end to the book prompted me to sob with hope.
One book you wish had been written: A solid social and cultural history, an ethnographic study of contemporary megachurch ministers – a book I’m working on right now with a fellow scholar. Also, a book that offers a template for race reconciliation that follows the traditional Christian year (Lent, Pentecost, Advent, etc.) – a book a friend and I are working on.
One book you wish had never been written: Hmmm…..I’ll have to think about this one.
One book that you've been meaning to read: Charles Marsh’s The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today. I've browsed some parts of it, but need to read it more closely.
One book that you are currently reading: Richard A. Horsley, Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder.
Alright, Jasie and LK, you are now it!
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Remembering Emmett Till
In addition to an assignments on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Carter G. Woodson, and several other activities, during Black History Month (and at other times during the academic year) I spend some time talking about Emmett Till. Since I teach high school students, I find that Till's story hits my students in deep and profound ways since they are around the age Till was when he was brutally murdered in August 1955.
The screening of Keith Beauchamp's stunning documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Till coincided with my unit on Till last year, and a number of my students went to the screening and later wrote critical essays on the film for extra credit. (Read about another important documentary here.)
I'll be showing Beauchamp's documentary in my classes this year, and will use Christopher Metress's The Lynching of Emmett Till: A Documentary History to follow the story along through primary documents.
Here's a poem about Till, a great web resource and labor of love devoted to Till, and here Cornel West weighs in.
Till's blood still cries out for justice, and I hope my students will learn to listen. More later.
The screening of Keith Beauchamp's stunning documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Till coincided with my unit on Till last year, and a number of my students went to the screening and later wrote critical essays on the film for extra credit. (Read about another important documentary here.)
I'll be showing Beauchamp's documentary in my classes this year, and will use Christopher Metress's The Lynching of Emmett Till: A Documentary History to follow the story along through primary documents.
Here's a poem about Till, a great web resource and labor of love devoted to Till, and here Cornel West weighs in.
Till's blood still cries out for justice, and I hope my students will learn to listen. More later.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Western White Captivity of the Christian Church
On January 29, Soong-Chan Rah, the Milton B. Engebretson Assistant Professor of Church Growth & Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary, spoke at Wheaton College's chapel service.
The title of his talk was "White Privilege," and out of Acts 15 he diagnosed the critical issue for the (evangelical) church -- western white captivity. Citing the demographic changes afoot in America and in the Christian church as a whole, Rah issued a critical wake-up call to those slumbering in the warm, cozy caves of Euro-American whiteness.
According to Rah, this white western captivity shows up in areas areas of biblical interpretation and understandings of the self and society, and thus, to borrow a phrase from Cornel West, adopt the "normative gaze" of white Euro-American culture.
The essence of the Christian message, Rah argued, is about reconciliation, restoration, and unity; the Cross reconciles division, restores dis-union, a draws all peoples together.
Listen here.
At his Xanga site Rah also mentions this about Urbana 2006:
"Easily, the most impressive talk I heard was by Pastor Oscar Muriu. Amazing. This talk is long, long overdue at a major mission conference. It's way past time to realize that "missions" in the 21st century is more likely to be the Christian South/East (i.e. Asia, Africa and Latin America) evangelizing the "mission field" of Europe and North America."
Rah then offers two quotes from Muriu:
1. "To drink from the cup of Western theology is to drink from a poisoned chalice."
2. "The African church knows that it needs the American church. How does the church in North America need the African church?"
Listen to Oscar Muriu's talk here. He is the pastor of Nairobi Chapel in Kenya.
I wish I heard more messages like this. I'm listening....
The title of his talk was "White Privilege," and out of Acts 15 he diagnosed the critical issue for the (evangelical) church -- western white captivity. Citing the demographic changes afoot in America and in the Christian church as a whole, Rah issued a critical wake-up call to those slumbering in the warm, cozy caves of Euro-American whiteness.
According to Rah, this white western captivity shows up in areas areas of biblical interpretation and understandings of the self and society, and thus, to borrow a phrase from Cornel West, adopt the "normative gaze" of white Euro-American culture.
The essence of the Christian message, Rah argued, is about reconciliation, restoration, and unity; the Cross reconciles division, restores dis-union, a draws all peoples together.
Listen here.
At his Xanga site Rah also mentions this about Urbana 2006:
"Easily, the most impressive talk I heard was by Pastor Oscar Muriu. Amazing. This talk is long, long overdue at a major mission conference. It's way past time to realize that "missions" in the 21st century is more likely to be the Christian South/East (i.e. Asia, Africa and Latin America) evangelizing the "mission field" of Europe and North America."
Rah then offers two quotes from Muriu:
1. "To drink from the cup of Western theology is to drink from a poisoned chalice."
2. "The African church knows that it needs the American church. How does the church in North America need the African church?"
Listen to Oscar Muriu's talk here. He is the pastor of Nairobi Chapel in Kenya.
I wish I heard more messages like this. I'm listening....
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Musings
I waited with anticipaton to read his book and was not disappointed. In fact, I was humbled, challenged, and inspired. And now I can read more of Ed Gilbreath's thoughts on his new blog. Check it out.
Also, Tony Campolo has some fascinating thoughts on wealth, poverty, and faith. Read it, and read it again. (HT: Scot McKnight) In light of Campolo's thoughts, I'd also recommend Fr. Gary Smith's Radical Compassion: Finding Christ in the Heart of the Poor (Loyola Press, 2002). There is also an interesting on-line study guide for the book here.
Also, Tony Campolo has some fascinating thoughts on wealth, poverty, and faith. Read it, and read it again. (HT: Scot McKnight) In light of Campolo's thoughts, I'd also recommend Fr. Gary Smith's Radical Compassion: Finding Christ in the Heart of the Poor (Loyola Press, 2002). There is also an interesting on-line study guide for the book here.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Anthony Smith has started a new series of weekend posts in anticipation of MLK Day. These petitions are creative and thoughtful, and something worthy of deep reflection.
Here's something else: I'm having students read MLK's Nobel Prize speech from 1964 in anticipation of Monday's discussion (yes, we are in school). For a world history class, this speech offers a way to reimagine MLK in the context of global history and therefore retain his voice's prophetic edge. Students will answer questions from this study guide in anticipation of Monday's discussion.
Read and listen to clips of the speech, which still addresses issues of injustice and empire in today's world.
I got the speech from the MLK Research and Education Institute at Stanford under the direction of Clayborne Carson.
Here's something else: I'm having students read MLK's Nobel Prize speech from 1964 in anticipation of Monday's discussion (yes, we are in school). For a world history class, this speech offers a way to reimagine MLK in the context of global history and therefore retain his voice's prophetic edge. Students will answer questions from this study guide in anticipation of Monday's discussion.
Read and listen to clips of the speech, which still addresses issues of injustice and empire in today's world.
I got the speech from the MLK Research and Education Institute at Stanford under the direction of Clayborne Carson.
Friday, December 29, 2006
The "Talking Book" Talks Back
Late last week I read an interesting op-ed by Washington Post journalist E.J. Dionne in my hometown newspaper.
Partly a review of Allen Dwight Callahan's recently published The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible, a carefully researched and (if I may) in places poetically and powerfully written multidisciplinary analysis of how some African Americans have responded to, interpreted, lived out, criticized, and embraced various biblical texts, Dionne argues that via insights drawn from Callahan's book, folks would do well to remember that Jesus' birth signaled a revolutionary moment in history.
Dionne makes some interesting observations. For instance, he opens with: "Great traditions are subversive. They constantly call the imperfections of the present to account in the name of a more exalted standard." From here he suggests to readers that the nativity story annually disrupts "understandings of power and privilege." Dionne also quotes Callahan, such as when Callahan observes that the scripture "privileges those without privilege and honors those without honor," as well as the notion that the Bible "has a penchant for bringing peripheral people to the center of history."
Dionne ends by stating that Jesus spoke to "[t]he poor, the outcastes, [and] the slaves," who have responded to him throughout history. Earlier in the piece Dionne also takes shots at some on the far Left and far Right who each ignore the revolutionary witness Jesus bore.
"The African-American religious tradition is a blessing to all," Dionne's concluding sentence reads, "because it requires us to remember that Jesus of Nazareth really did revolutionize the world."
I applaud Dionne for such an important reminder. Yet, I still feel unsettled. For one, the totalizing statement "The African-American religious tradition" (italics mine) only generalizes and fails to capture the complexity of African American religious experiences across time and space. Perhaps this is just a historian's quibble, but it is important to state nonetheless. In the end, though, Dionne's op-ed reads as a polite liberal nod to what African Americans can teach about the life of Jesus.
Not only do some of the scripture readings Callahan highlights "require us to remember" the radicality of the nativity, but to act, to hope, to long, and to live the Advent revolution. This is where my criticism with Dionne lies. The op-ed's intellectual acuity subverts real solutions to the powers and principalities Jesus' life bore witness against. In other words, to quote bell hooks from her book Killing Rage: Ending Racism (1995, p. 185): "When liberal whites fail to understand how they can and/or do emobdy white supremacist values and beliefs even though they may not embrace racism as prejudice or domination (especially domination that involves coervice control), they cannot recognize the ways their actions support and affirm the very structure of racist domination and oppression that they profess to wish to see eradicated."
(For more on what the Advent revolution is, read this, this, and this. And for a reading of Jesus' life as revolutionary see Obery Hendricks' new book.)
Readers of this blog know what to expect at this point: a word from James Baldwin.
Today's thoughts come from a short piece that appeared Creative America in 1962 titled "The Creative Process." Baldwin describes the artist as one always "at war" with society, bearing witness to justice, peace, and equity, in fact very similar the the Hebrew prophets one reads about in the Old Testament. So, for Baldwin the artist lives in prophetic spaces. And those about whom Callahan writes in The Talking Book are artists, from James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw in the 1770s to Tupac Shakur in the 1990s for example, who offer a better picture.
Yet the best artists -- those to whom Baldwin refers and those about whom Callahan writes -- are often provacative, bearing witness to (and against) realities in the past that shape present conditions, in this case the white supremacy upon which North Atlantic/American slavery rested and which still structures many things today. The artist paints a picture of the past that, if seen, can prophetically and constructively influence the present and shape the future.
Here's Baldwin: "We know, in the case of the person, that whoever cannot tell himself the truth about his past is trapped in it, is immobilized in the prison of his undiscovered self. This is also true of nations. We know how a person, in such a paralysis, is unable to assess either his weaknesses or his strengths, and how frequently indeed he mistakes one for the other. And this, I think, we do. We are the strongest nation in the western world, but this is not for the reasons that we think. It is because we have an opportunity which no other nation has of moving beyond the Old World concepts of race and class and caste, and create, finally, what we must have had in mind when we first began speaking of the New World. But the price for this is a long look backward when we came and an unflinching assessment of the record. For an artist, the record of that journey is most clearly revealed in the personalities of the people the journey produced. Societies never know it, but the war of an artist with his society is a lover's war, and he does, at his best, what lovers do, which is to reveal the beloved to himself, and with that revelation, make freedom real."
If you listen, the book talks back.
Partly a review of Allen Dwight Callahan's recently published The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible, a carefully researched and (if I may) in places poetically and powerfully written multidisciplinary analysis of how some African Americans have responded to, interpreted, lived out, criticized, and embraced various biblical texts, Dionne argues that via insights drawn from Callahan's book, folks would do well to remember that Jesus' birth signaled a revolutionary moment in history.
Dionne makes some interesting observations. For instance, he opens with: "Great traditions are subversive. They constantly call the imperfections of the present to account in the name of a more exalted standard." From here he suggests to readers that the nativity story annually disrupts "understandings of power and privilege." Dionne also quotes Callahan, such as when Callahan observes that the scripture "privileges those without privilege and honors those without honor," as well as the notion that the Bible "has a penchant for bringing peripheral people to the center of history."
Dionne ends by stating that Jesus spoke to "[t]he poor, the outcastes, [and] the slaves," who have responded to him throughout history. Earlier in the piece Dionne also takes shots at some on the far Left and far Right who each ignore the revolutionary witness Jesus bore.
"The African-American religious tradition is a blessing to all," Dionne's concluding sentence reads, "because it requires us to remember that Jesus of Nazareth really did revolutionize the world."
I applaud Dionne for such an important reminder. Yet, I still feel unsettled. For one, the totalizing statement "The African-American religious tradition" (italics mine) only generalizes and fails to capture the complexity of African American religious experiences across time and space. Perhaps this is just a historian's quibble, but it is important to state nonetheless. In the end, though, Dionne's op-ed reads as a polite liberal nod to what African Americans can teach about the life of Jesus.
Not only do some of the scripture readings Callahan highlights "require us to remember" the radicality of the nativity, but to act, to hope, to long, and to live the Advent revolution. This is where my criticism with Dionne lies. The op-ed's intellectual acuity subverts real solutions to the powers and principalities Jesus' life bore witness against. In other words, to quote bell hooks from her book Killing Rage: Ending Racism (1995, p. 185): "When liberal whites fail to understand how they can and/or do emobdy white supremacist values and beliefs even though they may not embrace racism as prejudice or domination (especially domination that involves coervice control), they cannot recognize the ways their actions support and affirm the very structure of racist domination and oppression that they profess to wish to see eradicated."
(For more on what the Advent revolution is, read this, this, and this. And for a reading of Jesus' life as revolutionary see Obery Hendricks' new book.)
Readers of this blog know what to expect at this point: a word from James Baldwin.
Today's thoughts come from a short piece that appeared Creative America in 1962 titled "The Creative Process." Baldwin describes the artist as one always "at war" with society, bearing witness to justice, peace, and equity, in fact very similar the the Hebrew prophets one reads about in the Old Testament. So, for Baldwin the artist lives in prophetic spaces. And those about whom Callahan writes in The Talking Book are artists, from James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw in the 1770s to Tupac Shakur in the 1990s for example, who offer a better picture.
Yet the best artists -- those to whom Baldwin refers and those about whom Callahan writes -- are often provacative, bearing witness to (and against) realities in the past that shape present conditions, in this case the white supremacy upon which North Atlantic/American slavery rested and which still structures many things today. The artist paints a picture of the past that, if seen, can prophetically and constructively influence the present and shape the future.
Here's Baldwin: "We know, in the case of the person, that whoever cannot tell himself the truth about his past is trapped in it, is immobilized in the prison of his undiscovered self. This is also true of nations. We know how a person, in such a paralysis, is unable to assess either his weaknesses or his strengths, and how frequently indeed he mistakes one for the other. And this, I think, we do. We are the strongest nation in the western world, but this is not for the reasons that we think. It is because we have an opportunity which no other nation has of moving beyond the Old World concepts of race and class and caste, and create, finally, what we must have had in mind when we first began speaking of the New World. But the price for this is a long look backward when we came and an unflinching assessment of the record. For an artist, the record of that journey is most clearly revealed in the personalities of the people the journey produced. Societies never know it, but the war of an artist with his society is a lover's war, and he does, at his best, what lovers do, which is to reveal the beloved to himself, and with that revelation, make freedom real."
If you listen, the book talks back.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
What's That I Hear?
Partly inspired by this post, and partly a result of my own interests, (and, I should say, thanks to a nice gift card from a student of mine) I picked up Matisyahu's new CD today titled No Place to Be. It was released on 12./26. There are 7 tracks along with a DVD that features interviews intersperced with footage from a live show in Israel.
I'm not a music critic, can neither sing nor play an instrument, but this music, to my ears and interests, is quite unique and resonates at deep levels. Hasidic. Jewish. Reggae. Hip Hop. Torah. Jerusalem. Shalom. Tikkun Olam.
It's music that comes from the heart, can shape the mind, and inspire and encourage the weary. In a certain way, Matisyahu is a kind of griot for those with ears to hear and eyes to see.
Playing the CD for my two young sons, ages 3 and 5, I remarked to my wife with a wry smile that this is "family friendly hip hop." They recognize some of the Old Testament stories and individuals (e.g., Joseph, Moses) that they've heard before, and they quite enjoy Matisyahu's amazing beatboxing abilities.
Enough said. Listen, enjoy, and offer your own thoughts.
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