Stephen R. Haynes: Memphis ‘kneel-ins’ tested churches

The 1960s campaign to integrate churches needs to be remembered and re-examined says the author of “The Last Segregated Hour: The Memphis Kneel-Ins and the Campaign for Southern Church Desegregation.”  Stephen R. Haynes shares with readers another facet of the civil rights movement on Duke Divinity School’s  Faith & Leadership blog.

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On this National Day of Prayer

On this National Day of Prayer, I am thinking about the hands that I may never hold, not because I am not reaching out but because the person that I am reaching for does not like its social coloring.  We pray to the same God but we may never pray together.  As siblings, we ask […]

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Race Fact #17: What are stereotypes?

What are stereotypes? “Stereotypes, however inaccurate, are one form of representation.  Like fictions, they are created to serve as substitutions, standing in for what is real.  They are there not to tell it like it is but to invite and encourage pretense.  They are a fantasy, a projection onto the Other that makes them less […]

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Afraid of who we will become

“For in him, we live, move and have our being.” ~ The Acts of the Apostles 17.28 Why is race so successful?  Why is it so convincing, so engrained, so entrenched in who we are?  Why is it so difficult to dig it up and to root it out of us?  Why do we have such a […]

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How do we know?

“Oh, I know him!”  We believe that we know a person because we can remember his name or because he knows ours.  But, how much time have we spent with him?  How many experiences are shared before we make this judgment?  What do we mean when we say that we know someone and how does […]

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