My role as contributing editor and curriculum writer for Nurturing Faith gives me opportunities to blog on a variety of subjects, from devotional thoughts to curiosities to archaeology. Lately I’ve focused more on archaeology. Rarely do I venture into politics and social issues, as our editor and our partners at EthicsDaily cover those areas, and do so beautifully. Both Nurturing Faith Journal and Bible Studies and EthicsDaily have been strong and outspoken advocates of racial and social justice from the beginning.
Nevertheless, I cannot not say something before going on to add another archaeology blog. We are living in difficult days, and they are of our own making. Many of us are becoming more and more aware of how deeply rooted systemic racism is in our country, and how complicit so many of us have been in perpetuating it. We’ve needed to see some serious change for a long, long time.
Almost half of our students at Campbell University Divinity are African American. I’ve contacted all of them, and heard from most of them. They’re hurting from fresh wounds over old scars. They have stories to tell, and I’m listening.
White people in general would profit from less talking and more listening. We would all profit from supporting political candidates who have a real understanding of the racial, social, and economic injustices that plague our nation. My favorite quote from recent weeks was from Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington, D.C. After ordering “BLACK LIVES MATTER” painted in large letters on a street near the White House, she said “Today we say ‘no.’ In November we say ‘next.'”
A new administration won’t solve all our problems, but it is one of many fronts on which we need to make serious progress in understanding just how much black lives matter.
Professor of Old Testament at Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, North Carolina, and the Contributing Editor and Curriculum Writer at Good Faith Media.
