Botched Oklahoma Execution Reveals Self-Deception

At 6:23pm yesterday, the state of Oklahoma initiated its effort to kill Clayton D. Lockett. Twenty minutes later, after being declared unconscious by a physician, Lockett cried out, “Oh man,” writhing in pain. Addled by this unexpected display of pain, one of the executioners said, “Something’s wrong.” Soon after, the window to the observation room was covered and media were escorted out of the room.

NC Clergy Send Open Letter to State Government Leaders

As Jews and Christians across North Carolina celebrated Passover and Holy Week, clergy from our Forward Together Moral Movement in North Carolina sent the following letter to our General Assembly leadership. Last summer, over 100,000 people came to the General Assembly to protest extremism and call for a new moral center to our common life. As we prepare for another legislative session this year, we pray for those in authority, that they might have ears to hear.

The Freedom Movement Today

Remembering our history matters little if it doesn’t reshape how we see the present. While communities across America are telling neat and clean stories about the 1960s, most of the mainstream media is ignoring the biggest broad-based organizing effort in the South since that time.

Crying Out for What Our Courts Can’t Give

I’m not sure we’ll ever know who was crying out on the recording when George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin. But I am certain that millions of mothers in this country are crying out for something that our current justice system cannot give: the assurance that their black and brown boys will not be suspect before we bother to learn their name or their story.

An Easy Essay on Community

Beloved community is that fellowship in which we know ourselves as we are known in mutual dependence. It is the membership in which we learn to take responsibility for our future in mutual accountability. It is the circle of trust in which we know our flourishing depends upon mutual welcome. Beloved community is not an ideal we achieve but a gift we receive. It is the medium which is the message of God’s love in our world.