KTF Weekly Newsletter: Sidney Poitier, Brainwashing, Ableism at the CDC

Hi everyone, 

We hope those of you in the US had a good, long weekend remembering the prophetic ministry of Dr. King, even as many seek to ban most of his ideas from American schools. The irony is heavy, but we hope we can continue to be a source of clarity for you all as we navigate the muddy waters of having faith in a world that does not yet exist. So, let’s get into this week’s highlights as we seek to leave colonized faith for the kingdom of God. 

Jonathan’s recommendations: 

• The Daily podcast from the New York Times featured a powerful exploration of the late Sidney Poitier's life last week.  What struck me was that he spent the first 15 years of his life in the Bahamas. In that island nation he was raised, loved, and led by Black people, so as he put it, he did not spend his most formative years “cringing in the presence of white people.” When he immigrated to Florida, he found Jim Crow and segregation, and resolved to resist them in every way possible. His primary medium for protest became performance.  It can be easy to reduce icons to our most comfortable versions of them, but followers of Jesus must press into the complexity genuinely. There is much to learn from Poitier about how to resist white supremacy through vocation, generosity, and radical commitment to authenticity.