A few weeks ago, I was invited to speak to the graduates of Wayland Baptist Theological Seminary during their 212th Commencement and to my surprise, was given an honorary doctorate in sacred theology for my work as a public theologian. The short story is: I cried. Because I don’t do this work to be recognized but with the hope that we will see each other eye to eye.

Speaking of which, lift your head up. We deserve to be seen. It’s what we’re here for. To be made invisible, to be moved to the margins takes work. It is not a natural way of being or the natural order of things. There are no honorary human beings and no requirements for the sacred act of breathing.

The raceless gospel is a message to remind us of our innate sense of belonging to ourselves primarily and then to each other, in relationships that affirm our belovedness, our kinship, our connectedness. It is an honor to bear witness and to carry this message. I love the way that it keeps unfolding, revealing more of the depth and breadth and lengths to which this daring sense of somebodiness is going.

Let’s keep going.

Up Next!

The Raceless Gospel is going to the Wild Goose Festival! I have been afforded several opportunities to speak to attendees for which I am incredibly grateful, including these:

On the Tip of Your Tongue: A Pedagogy for the Self- Emancipated

Synopsis: The way of freedom is stuck in between our teeth. From tongue lashing to tongue loosing, we are words away from self- emancipation from systems that threaten and call into question our somatic sovereignty. First step and first word are linked. We must begin by speaking our new way of being into existence. Talk to ourselves and then talk back to the world’s systems of dehumanization, marginalization and oppression, interrupting this soul- crushing machinery.

It will require resilience as the climb is steep, long and winding. But if we will ever be free of “relationships of ruling,” then we must work to reach those words that affirm our dignity and our destiny to be free. And you are closer than you think. Liberation is just past your lips and on the very tip of your tongue.

Take Your Rest: The Raceless Gospel For Souls Weary of White Supremacy

Synopsis: I was tired of being racialized, of being color- coded for America’s caste system: blacks on the bottom, whites on the top, the rest somewhere in the middle. I could never get comfortable as a racialized identity is such a tight squeeze.

So, I had to go and prepare a place for me—free from white supremacy. It is a place where I can rest from laboring to prove my worth as a human being. I liked it so much that I changed my address and now invite others to meet me here through the proclamation of the raceless gospel. To awaken to your sense of somebodiness, you must first take your rest.

And right after that, there’s season five of The Raceless Gospel podcast. It’s “A Love Offering.”

An audio audit of the North American church’s messages about giving, this season will leave listeners in our Amen corner asking, “What’s in my hand?”

Lastly, a church announcement:

It’s June 30, 2024 and the North American church is still segregated.