Essay: Rejecting symbols of hate is more than symbolic
Sojourners’ founder JIM WALLIS, in an article published on Religion News Service, argues that tearing down symbols – like statues celebrating Confederate leaders – isn’t enough but such moves can send clear messages about personal and national memory – and about future possibilities…
War over words: US Scrabble leader overrules panel to ban slurs
New York City, USThomson Reuters Foundation North American Scrabble competitors will no longer be able to play racist and homophobic slurs from the “N-word” to “bumboy” and “poofs”, the head of the players’ association has said, in an 11th-hour ruling that went against his own advisory board. John Chew, chief executive of the North American […]
With a pen stroke, Mississippi drops Confederate-themed flag
Jackson, Mississippi, USAP With a stroke of the Governor’s pen, Mississippi is retiring the last state flag in the US with the Confederate battle emblem – a symbol that’s widely condemned as racist. Republican Governor Tate Reeves signed the historic bill on Tuesday at the Governor’s Mansion, immediately removing official status for the 126-year-old banner that has been […]
Pope urges US Catholic media to work to overcome racism
Rome, ItalyAP Pope Francis is urging Catholic media in the US to work to overcome the “diseases of racism and injustice” in his latest comments about George Floyd’s death in the US and the anti-racism protests that followed. In a message to a virtual conference of Catholic journalists of North America on Tuesday, Francis said […]
Essay: Northern Ireland’s police transformation may hold lessons for the US
In an article first published on The Conversation, US scholars LAURA A WEINSTEIN and DONALD BEAUDETTE say the transformation of police in Northern Ireland offers valuable lessons for America…
In the US, Mississippi lawmakers vote to remove rebel emblem from flag
Jackson, Mississippi, USAP Mississippi will surrender the Confederate battle emblem from its state flag, more than a century after white supremacist legislators embedded it there a generation after the South lost the Civil War. Mississippi’s House and Senate voted in succession Sunday afternoon to retire the flag, with broad bipartisan support. Republican Governor Tate Reeves […]
US state of Mississippi takes step toward dropping rebel image from flag
Jackson, Mississippi, USAP Spectators at the Mississippi Capitol broke into cheers and applause Saturday as lawmakers took a big step toward erasing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, a symbol that has come under intensifying criticism in recent weeks amid nationwide protests against racial injustice. “The eyes of the state, the nation and […]
Lobbying grows against Mississippi’s rebel-themed flag
Jackson, Mississippi, USAP University coaches and Christian ministers filled the Mississippi Capitol on Thursday, urging legislators to seize the moment and remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag while Americans are reckoning with difficult discussions about race and history. “It doesn’t take courage. It takes conscience,” said Rev Reginald M Buckley, senior pastor […]
Essay: Black religious leaders are up front and central in US protests – as they have been for the last 200 years
In an article first published on The Conversation, LAWRENCE BURNLEY, ordained minister and historian, looks at the role religious leaders have – and are – playing in the struggle for liberation and racial justice for black Americans…
Essay: “A change is gonna come” – Reimagining public safety
JIM WALLIS and ADAM TAYLOR, president and executive director, respectively, of Christian activist group Sojourners, reflect on their hopes for an “awakening and reckoning that makes radical transformation possible” in the US in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the role churches need to play…