In “Are We Still Buying a New World with Old Confederate Bills,” Lillian Smith writes, “The Devil knows that if you want to destroy a man, all you need do is fill him with false hopes and false fears. These will blind him to his new direction and he will inevitably turn away from the future and destroy himself and those close to him.” … Read More The Violence of Fear in Evangelical Christianity
+ christianity, howard thurman, jesus and the disinherited, lillian e smith, punk, religion, strange fruit
I don’t remember the first time I heard Regan Youth’s “Jesus Was A Communist” (also titled “Jesus Was A Pacifist”), but I remember the impact it has had on me. On the song, Dave Rubinstein sings, over and over again for four verses, “Jesus was a communist/Jesus was a pacifist/Jesus was a communist/Jesus didn’t like the rich.” Reagan Youth pointed out the intersections between … Read More Christianity and the Manipulation of Power
+ american literature, georgia literature, lillian e smith, Literature, race, religion, strange fruit
Over the past week, I’ve been reading Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream for my Women in the Civil Rights Memoir course and her debut novel Strange Fruit for a book club at the end of January. If memory serves, this is the third, maybe fourth, time I have read each of these books. However, I have never read them at the same time, moving back and forth between the … Read More Lillian Smith and the “Sex-Race-Religion-Economics” Tangle
Each of the synoptic gospels detail Jesus’ raising of Jairus’ daughter after she passes away while Jesus travels to Jairus’ home. On his way to Jairus’ house, a crowd of people swarmed around Jesus and his disciples, hoping to be close to him. In the crowd, a woman who “had had a flow of blood for twelve years” (Mark 5:25) and who had sought … Read More “Who touched my garments?”: White Supremacy and the Desire of Absolution
Over the past few posts, I have been writing about the Christian fascism at the heart of America’s Providential History, a textbook used in homeschooling and private schools. Today, I want to wrap up my examination of the textbook by looking at the authors’ calls for Christians to become actively involved in politics at the local, state, and national level. Along with calling for … Read More Politics and The American Christian Revolution
Interminable Rambling 