Oppression and injustice happen when a person or a group of people is deprived, usually by law or by force, of basic and equal rights that are allotted to others. Often oppression and injustice use categories of people to afflict their damages. For example, our country was founded and built on laws that allowed for the brutal killing and enslavement of blacks and Native Americans, with many laws explicitly benefiting white people by name. This is oppression and injustice. Refugees are oppressed by something going on in their home country that they are fleeing from in order to save their lives. This is often religious or ethnic persecution and is often related to wars or guerrilla warfare dangers. The oppressed are the ones under the boot of those with power. We get less comfortable talking about oppression and injustice when we start looking at the vast inequities in the United States between whites and people of color. It’s a lot easier to talk about oppression of biblical times and the distant past, but much more uneasy when it’s right under our nose and we may or may not even be aware of it or acknowledge it.
An attempt at a fair look at the abortion debate
In an age of all out social war over issues like abortion, this is an attempt at a fair look at the debate. It’s an attempt to not shoot missiles at the other side, hoping the same can be done in return. The debate about abortion hinges around several key disagreements: When is a fetus […]
12 Things I Have in Common with Terry Crews
What first drew me to actor Terry Crews was when he made headlines for boldly speaking out against pornography. He shared his own struggles with it to his fans (see video below) and it made national news. The more I looked into his life, the more substance I found. What I discovered was a courageous […]
Waking Up to Women’s Oppression Via the #metoo Movement
Posts like this are hard to write. Hard because they are humbling. I started reading through the #metoo posts on Twitter, at the request of some women in my church. It’s hard to organize my thoughts so I’m just going to put them out there: I was wrong. I do a lot of work around […]
What does Jesus say about our segregated churches?
If the Old Testament prophets told you that churches in America shouldn’t be segregated along racial lines, would you listen? If Jesus told you churches in America shouldn’t be segregated along racial lines, would you listen? For most of my life, this stuff wasn’t even close to being on my radar and I realize for […]