Category Archives: Blog
What You and Your Child Should Know About Bullying (and Cyberbullying) to Keep Them Safe
Hazing. Name-calling. Tormenting. Rumor-spreading. Harassment. Although bullying is identified by many names and comes in many forms, its intent and effects are all the same – to hurt, harm, and cause pain to the intended target. Just a couple of …
Meditation on a Theme
Constance Merritt’s brilliantly crafted villanelle has great resonance at this moment we are living in. It invites reflection that will empower us for the work of resistance and renewal. Her poem teaches us that we must create a world …
Becoming Love Medicine
I stood there in the Norman Manley Airport of Kingston, Jamaica. My small 11-year-old palm connected to my lanky brown hand held tightly on to my mother’s full warm palm center. What do you do when your home and …
For Freedom’s Sake: Ending Child Sexual Abuse in Black Churches
I am a freedom fighter, writer, minister, scholar, and survivor of child sexual abuse. I am also the founder of Children of Combahee, a newfound project through the Just Beginnings Collaborative that mobilizes against child sexual abuse in Black church …
“But Those Were Just Words”: Things We Should Stop Saying After This Election
By Jameelah Jones, M.A. This commentary originally appeared on Jameelah Jones’ Medium blog. I won’t type the presidential election results because you already know them. For 24 hours, I didn’t know what so say. For many of us who do …
Back To School For LGBTQ Justice
By Rev. Cedric A. Harmon By now, students in our nations’ K-12 schools, colleges, and universities have settled into classes for the Fall. We’re also just completing LGBTQ History Month, and as a person who has dedicated my life …
Treading Water: The United Methodist Church’s Latest Plea
As I watched the business of the 2016 General Conference of the United Methodist Church, my mind flashed back to my childhood. I remembered being a lifeguard. I used to teach people how to tread water. This was …
Wave of restroom laws hearken back to Jim Crow
Remember when our people were highly restricted in the use of public restaurants, restrooms, and water fountains? We had to plan ahead. We carried our own food and beverages, arranged to stop at someone’s house to use the bathroom, …
Queer flesh and worship respectability
Following the memorial service for Daryl Coley, I stood in awe at the numerous social media posts, re-posts and comments — both of B. Slade’s virtuosic performance of Donald Lawrence’s “When Sunday Comes” and the video clips of …
Why I can’t forget my blackness
The discomfort of being THE black guy in the room is something that I have to negotiate over and over again. Often—especially in progressive and/or queer political spaces— I am one of very few people of color. In practice, the …