Skip to main content

Racial Justice Resources, Chapter 2: For Church Study, Feminist Work, & Theology




Chapter 4: History & Poetry


I will take pity upon readers and open each chapter with the stuff that’s meant to be easy to read. But anyone (and I mean anyone) with access to a dictionary or a library can find a way into the other stuff here. I was reading college textbooks in high school and doing graduate-level statistical analyses as a junior in college. It sucked, but I learned a lot. That’s how I believe you can do some of this reading!

If you have suggested resources I didn't include, please add them in the comments!

For Church Study


For Presbyterian Church Groups

Becoming theBeloved Community: People of Faith Working Together to Eradicate Racism: A Study Guide for Presbyterian Women, produced by Presbyterian Women in DVD format, four 15-minute segments and accompanying study guide

For all Church Groups

Race in a Post-Obama America: The Church Responds, ed by David Maxwell (This is the only book in this list I've read, because I contributed to it.)
The UCC has resources for their Sacred Conversations on Race that can be helpful to everyone. 


Feminist Work (minus the Christian stuff)


killing rage: Ending Racism, by bell hooks (she’s written so much, it’s hard to choose just one)

Theology (This field grows just as fast as the feminist field, so there are many newer works I should have added but didn't. Also, if you noticed this looks incomplete, Womanism is going to get its own category in another chapter.)

Beyond the Pale: Reading Theology from the Margins, edited by Miguel de la Torre & Stacey Floyd-Thomas
A Reader in Latina Feminist Theology, edited by Maria Pilar Aquino, Daisy Machado, & Jeanette Rodriguez
Racism & God-Talk: A Latino/a Perspective, by Ruben Rosario Rodriguez
Deliver Us From Evil: Resisting Racial and Gender Oppression, by James Newton Poling
Off the Menu: Asian & Asian North American Women's Religion and Theology, edited by Jung Ha Kim, Kwok Pui-Lan, Rita Nakashima Brock, & Seung Ai Yang



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Racial Justice Resources, Chapter 4: History & Poetry

You may read previous chapters here. Chapter 1: Disclaimers, Baby Steps, Intersectionality, and Critical Race Theory Chapter 2: For Church Study, Feminist Work, & Theology Chapter 3: News Sources & Organizations, Whiteness & White Supremacy I love reading history. I love that history is not only definitive story, but also threads of narrative told from a variety of perspectives. Here's a brief selected bibliography. History A People’s History of the United States , by Howard Zinn A Larger Memory: A History of Our Diversity , With Voices, by Ronald Takaki Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong , by James W. Loewen Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong , by James W. Loewen An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (Revisioning American History) , by Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History 1513-2008 , by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Martin & Malcolm &...

A Sermon on the Occasion of the Ordination of the Rev. Sarah Perkins

I had the honor of preaching at the ordination of my friend and colleague Sarah today. We were an all-women ordination commission. And it was lovely. Below is the sermon. (Note that since Sarah's mother is a New Testament professor, I opted not to preach on a NT passage - I couldn't bear to mess that one up. LOL.) Isaiah43:16-21 There is a trap waiting out there for ministers in the United States. Do you not perceive it? The trap that ministers fall into is confusing the Good News with Nice News. Sarah and I were at a conference a few years ago where the Rev. Jose Morales preached on this distinction, and it has stayed with me. I’m not all that opposed to nice. When I think of nice, I think of a vacation place I once stayed at with a garden wall covered with tiny pots of succulents and a small bamboo garden. I think of the time I was helpful to a flight attendant trying to handle bags in the overhead compartment on a flight packed full of ...

Sex Happens. Even Among Christians.

It’s hard to figure out how to write a blog post on sexuality, when you work for the church. Here goes. Most humans are sexual beings. And in my experience, the church is mostly terrible at being honest about sex and sexuality. I did an informal social media poll of Christians, asking what messages they received from church growing up. Here are a few examples: “Nothing” “<crickets chirping>” “I was going to hell” (from a gay man) “Not to do it until you’re married” “That it was shameful… all of it” “Sex is bad – save it for the one you love”   “If I had relied on church teachings, instead of the streets/cars/books, I still wouldn’t understand where my children came from” “DIRTY BAD!” “Nothing, except sex waited until marriage!” “Evangelical youth group: No sex, no Disco (b/c it’s all about sex), sex is the DARK side, and: don’t talk abt it” Here’s a great characterization of this stream of responses. Plenty of respondents had other expe...