“You’re the cause of my suffering” (Gen 16:5) — Sarah, after exploiting Hagar. Oppressors cry “violence” when their injustice backfires. Instead of repenting, they double down.

“He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.” - Cyprian of Carthage Believers need healthy churches. Even if we must look beyond our own culture or traditions. There’s a group of Christians somewhere that will love you and point you to Jesus.

“I am a real American…fight for the rights of EVERY man.” -Hulk Hogan’s walk out song, 1985 In a world where we are pressed to choose who has value and whose dignity is worth protecting, we must insist that every person has value.

In these difficult days, I still find the time and the opportunity to laugh….deeply and often. I laugh…not in denial, but in defiance.

June 19, 1865 — Gen. Gordon Granger & Union troops arrived in Galveston, TX to announce the freedom promised by the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier. A glimmer of gospel hope: Though it tarries, freedom comes. Every chain will be broken ⛓️‍💥⛓️‍💥

Please pray for the safety of these precious people stuck two miles deep in a mine shaft and for more just and safe working conditions. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 abcnews.go.com/Internationa...

“There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea…And even the smallest act of resistance pushes our lines forward.” - Karis Nemik (Star Wars)

The trailer for ‘IRONHEART’ starring Dominique Thorne has been released. Premiering on Disney+ June 24.

I have seen ZERO promo for Ironheart.

“Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous.… When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever screams at us the loudest.” -Sen Mon Mothma (Star Wars)

‘It Destroys the Web’ — ICE Raids Rattle Nashville’s Latino Community  nashvillebanner.com/2025/05/07/i...

www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/... US strikes on Yemen kill dozens [of innocent people] as migrant detention centre [holding non-violent & peaceful African migrants who crossed the border to find work] hit | Houthis News | Al Jazeera

I’m thrilled to announce Koinonia’s brand new podcast. I hope it blesses you. Please don’t forget to subscribe, like, rate, and review. 🙌🏾🙌🏾 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/k...

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy led tributes to Pope Francis from political leaders around the world on Monday, praising him as "a great man and a great pastor." Most paid homage to the pope’s commitment to speaking out on behalf of the poor.

Ain't No Mountain High Enough (1967) Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

In Matthew 25, Jesus describes true converts as being marked by a peculiar empathy toward the poor, marginalized, and incarcerated. But he describes false coverts as being outwardly religious but marked by a peculiar callousness toward the poor, marginalized, & incarcerated.

“Love is what gets people through suffering and through life whole and undefeated”- James Cone

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When King Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, He launched a revolution of peace: 1 Trusting God—not armies, economies, or spin 2 Lifting the poor—not propping up the powerful 3 Building bridges—not barriers His kingdom still turns the world upside down.

The gospel is a political announcement: a new reign where the last become first, the meek inherit the earth, folks who have been deprived of justice are satisfied, the hungry are filled but the powerful are sent away empty. Change is coming…

People worth standing 25 hrs and 5 min for: Widows: Seniors relying on Social Security to survive. Orphans: Kids depending on school meals to eat. Sojourners: Migrant families seeking safety. Poor: Those who need aid for food and medicine. Keep standing for them.

The story of Ruth is driven by God’s care for vulnerable people. What if God’s people decided to drive Ruth back to her own land? What if Boaz was insensitive to the plight of sojourners & vulnerable women in his field? What if the town withheld care for the poor, the sojourner, and the elderly?

In Scripture, Jesus never warns against having too much compassion or empathy. He consistently warns against having too little.

"Infirmitas consilii" is the false idea that women are too emotional to make sound judgments. In Greco-Roman society, this belief justified restricting their financial rights and barring them from testifying in court. Scripture challenges this notion.

One way to ensure that past injustices shape the future indefinitely is to ignore or dismiss them. A truly "colorblind" society isn’t one that pretends race doesn’t matter—it’s one that first dismantles the injustices that made it matter.

Christ died beneath the scourge of political cruelty in order to expose and defeat it. Run from leaders and spaces that justify political cruelty in the name of Christianity.

No country can deport its way to true economic prosperity. No people group can oppress their way to true freedom.

"‘Don’t cheat your neighbor by moving the ancient boundary markers’ (Prov 23:10). God warns against greedy land grabs and disrespecting rightful boundaries—especially at the expense of the defenseless.

No nation can flourish through land grabs and economic bullying. This is the way to destruction, not the way to life.

We often look to politics to save us from spiritual wickedness, only to be frustrated when legislators prove helpless. But when hardened hearts bend the system toward cruelty, no party’s power can rescue us—we need something greater.

Many ignored our Christian siblings in Gaza. Many ignored our Christian siblings at the border. Will we now ignore our Christian siblings in Ukraine? What good are siblings who never hear our cry?

"You have filled the world with women, slaves, and beggars." -Julian the Apostate (4th Century AD) The Roman emperor scorned early Christianity’s appeal to the socially marginalized (women, minorities, and the poor). Our faith should be widely known for its concern for these groups.

“He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.” -Job 5:12

God can do more than we imagine with less than we imagine.

After US halted aid, 5 hospitals in camps housing 106,000 refugees along the Thai-Myanmar border were ordered to shut down immediately on Wednesday. Their water and electricity supplies were cut off, leaving patients in limbo. www.nationthailand.com/blogs/news/a...

Some labels used to uncritically dismiss racial justice work Social Gospel 2014 Cultural Marxism 2014-18 Wokeism 2016-21 Ethnic Gnosticism 2017-19 Social Justice Warrior 2018-20 Critical Race Theory 2020-23 Diversity Equity Inclusion 2024-25 Different labels, same strategy

God gives us the gift of people to be loved and known. But we often reduce people into things to be used and discarded. Then we wonder why we’re so lonely and empty.

Staying healthy amidst overwhelming national news: 1. Pray with honest lament and gospel hope 2. Limit news intake 3. Avoid doom scrolling 4. Focus on local change 5. Enjoy non-political hobbies

People who choose a 'strong man' leader always get more than they bargained for: 'He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves…&you will cry out because of your king' (1 Sam 8:17). Beware the political ditch you dig for others—you might fall into it yourself.

The story of Joseph being thrown in a pit warns us that religious folks have the capacity to ignore the cries of desperate siblings and sell them into bondage.

"He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff." -Isaiah 40:23-24

On this first day of Black History Month, i’m lifting up a traditional Black church idiom especially relevant in this season. “God can make a way out of no way” Keep believing God can take the raw material of our “no ways” and turn them into what nobody imagined possible.

Even more than your freedom, evil wants to steal your hope. It wants you to stop imagining that a brighter day is possible.

The Christian church is called and equipped to lead the way in compassion….not drag behind. If we look closely, there will always be some true saints on the leading edge of compassion and some pretenders who are dragging behind.

"You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you" -Deut 23:16 •Protect desperate and oppressed people fleeing to you •Prioritize human dignity and freedom over financial profit •Popularize compassion in a cruel world

“If I fall, I'll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I'm not backing off.” -Fannie Lou Hamer

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,” Even when America refuses to become its best self, the church must remain ready to receive the huddled masses.

People are not talking much about the fact that the shooter that murdered a precious Latina teenager at Antioch High School yesterday was obsessed with right wing anti-immigration extremism. 😭💔🙏🏾

Toxic men are discipling an entire generation of isolated and vulnerable young men searching for identity and purpose. They are listening to the incels and theobros because nobody else is speaking directly to them or to their anxieties and fears. The harvest is plentiful.