Black Wombs, Beirut is Burning, Five Civilized Tribes
KTF Weekly Newsletter
Hi everyone,
We continue to mourn the death and celebrate the remarkable life and ministry of Dr. Ron Sider. Dr. Sider was the first influential Christian leader to encourage and endorse us when we launched our anthology and founded KTF Press. As author of the seminal book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and the founder of Christians for Social Action, he remained a tireless and fearless advocate for justice to the end of his days. We hope and pray that as individuals and a company we can follow in his footsteps, standing in solidarity with the poor and the oppressed in the name of Christ.
Now, let’s get to it.
Jonathan’s recommendations:
The ethnic justice and reconciliation that Jesus calls for can’t be reduced to a Black/White binary. God calls for justice in the face of all injustice and for shalom for all people. That includes reconciliation between the descendants of enslaved Africans that were held against their will by Native people in this country. Philip Deloria chronicles this complex and often forgotten history in “When Tribal Nations Expel Their Black Members” in The New Yorker. The Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek/Muscogee, Chickasaw, and Seminole were known as the Five Civilized Tribes because they were willing to enslave Africans and adopted Christianity and other colonial practices. This article unpacks that history. Native suffering through genocide and forced displacement, African enslavement, and the complex dynamics between minority populations of this country are worthy of our prayer and thoughtful engagement.
The hearings on Trump’s involvement on January 6 reveal for some what was already evident to others. President Trump was willing to do anything to stay in power. Jonathan Swan from Axios dropped a series of articles on former President Trump’s “Schedule F” executive order that reveals his radical plan to ensure he remains in power should he be re-elected. If implemented, thousands of people that fill mid-level staff and operations positions throughout the federal government would be replaced with Trump devotees. Jesus said He is the Truth and the 10 Commandments rebuke the bearing of false witness. Lies undergird and sustain Trump’s push for power and Christians must not baptize these lies in 2024 as some did in 2016.
Similar to how our episode of Shake the Dust with Mako Nagasawa opened the door for a more nuanced and compassionate conversation on abortion, this episode from Vox’s Today, Explained opens the door for an interfaith dialogue on reproductive justice in which many imams and rabbis are in alignment. Because of the political marriage of white conservative evangelicals with the Republican Party, religious hegemony is assumed in the United States. However, as you will learn, religious opposition to abortion is not uniformly the case across the Abrahamic faiths. Leaving colonized faith in our context requires us to decenter the dominant narrative and to lift up marginalized perspectives. Vox does that with this great interview.
Suzie’s recommendations:
Scholar and Christian anti-racist activist Jemar Tisby is releasing a new teaching series that exposes some of the strategic fear-mongering around critical race theory. As a historian of the racial history of American evangelicalism, Tisby draws a direct line from the backlash experienced in the post-Reconstruction and Civil Rights eras to conservative pushback against racial justice today. He covers What is Critical Race Theory, Understanding the Anti-CRT Industrial Complex, White Christian Nationalism in Higher Ed, and more. Subscribe to Tisby’s YouTube page and SubStack blog, Footnotes, for more information. The series is set to drop next week in 30–35-minute video segments.
Today marks the two-year anniversary of the Beirut blast. The explosion traumatized citizens of Lebanon yet again this week as a low-level fire simmered in what remains of the bombed-out port silos. This caused a portion of the structure to collapse on Sunday. More clouds of toxic debris billowed out into surrounding communities that do not have enough daily electricity for fans to keep the dust and heat at bay. Many believe the fire was set or willfully ignored by Lebanese officials in an attempt to destroy what remains of a ghastly monument to their criminal negligence. The future of the port silos is hotly debated with citizens calling for their preservation as a reminder of the tragedy, while state leaders are eager to tear them down. As followers of Christ, we are called to be people of remembrance. My prayer is that the Ebenezer raised by the Lebanese people may be one of God’s continued faithfulness in the face of oppression and monumental injustice.
Earlier this year, I wrote an article that touched on the horrific Black maternal mortality rate in the United States. Last month, Hulu began streaming a powerful documentary on this topic entitled, Aftershock. The film chronicles the tragic loss of two young mothers – Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac – to preventable pregnancy-related issues and the community that rose up in the wake of their deaths to advocate for change. It also exposes the racist origins of modern-day gynecology, and how horrific trends such as belittling Black pain and using Black women as medical Guinea Pigs persist to this day. It is personal, informative, and so important. As author, activist, and mother to one of the victims of this epidemic, Shawnee Benton-Gibson, declares, “Black Lives Matter because Black Wombs Matter.”
Thanks for reading! And just a quick reminder that we love hearing from you! Feel free to leave a review of Shake the Dust where you listen or write to us at shakethedust@ktfpress.com. Grateful for your time and attention and see you next week!
The KTF team