Itinerant Church

Encouraging the church to move out, move on, and move over

Northern Illinois resources on mass incarceration

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The United States incarcerates 25% of the world’s incarcerated people yet is only 5% of the world’s population. Mass incarceration in the U.S. is clearly driven by systemic racism, as documented by Michelle Alexander in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness:

  • “The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid” (6).
  • “In some states, black men have been admitted to prison on drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times greater than those of white men” (6).
  • “One in three young African American men will serve time in prison if current trends continue, and in some cities more than half of all young adult black men are currently under correctional control—in prison or jail, on probation or parole” (8).

Turning the tide on mass incarnation is starting to happen, as evidenced by the collaboration of progressives and conservatives in the Coalition for Public Safety (www.coalitionforpublicsafety.org; partners include the ACLU, Center for American Progress, FreedomWorks, and Koch Industries). [Read more…]

Poetic Reflection on “Sing We Now of Christmas”

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The following is a poem I wrote as the message for the third Sunday in Advent. The Chancel Choir sang the parts in bold, and I recited the poetry in between.

SingWeNowChristmasSing we now of Christmas … Noel, sing we here!
Hear our grateful praises … to the babe so dear.

How often do we praise him?
Between our busiest days?
Well prepared for our shopping
Counting our annual raise.

The gifts under the bright tree
We do wrap and multiply.
For our children’s happiness
Is what we want to supply. [Read more…]

Religious Freedom Restoration Acts … of the Apostles?

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Recently advocates of LGBT rights, like lovable and fierce advocate of justice George Takei, focused their ire on the state of Indiana and Governor Mike Pence for passing and signing into law Senate Bill 101, Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Allegedly, RFRAs will enable religious folks to discriminate against others, namely people who are LGBT, which will preserve the former’s First Amendment rights to practice freely their religion. John McCormack of the conservative The Weekly Standard wrote, “Meanwhile, activists are calling for a boycott. The CEO of SalesForce, a company that does business in China, is pulling out of Indiana. The NCAA has expressed concern about holding events there in the future. And the city of San Francisco is banning taxpayer-funded travel to the state.” McCormack ended his piece with these words: “The point of RFRA is not to discriminate against gay Americans. It is supposed to prevent the government from discriminating against religious Americans.” In the time it took me to research and write this post, the internet news stories grew exponentially with statements from corporations about how they welcome and serve “all” people and that many of them are pulling out of Indiana. [Read more…]