By now, many, if not all, of you will have seen the video making the rounds of social media, a video which features high school students from Hoover High School and Spain Park High School flinging around absolutely abhorrent racist and anti-Semitic language, implying the holocaust was a good thing, and laughing about it. I won't share the video here (or anywhere else) because it's truly awful. I watched it once and it made me ill. These are teenagers, kids around my own child

One of the oldest lessons of morality recorded in scripture is that of Cain and Abel. After Cain offs his brother, Abel, out of crazy jealousy, God asks Cain about Abel’s location. In the first known instance of back-talking God, Cain asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God’s answer is, essentially, “Yes, as a matter of fact you are.” As the record of humanity’s understanding of consciousness unfolds, our understanding of what it means to be our brother’s keeper has expanded. T

Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, on the date that marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I find his words as relevant as they were in his lifetime. In some ways,

Today is International Women’s Day. I must admit that I had to do some research to discover what that actually meant. It seems as though we sometimes carve out pieces of the calendar for many of the groups that have historically been denied equal rights, opportunities and respect (e.g., International Women’s Day, Gay Pride Week, Black History Month), and then stand back and say, “Hey, look, we just honored you! What more do you want?” But recognition of an injustice is on

This morning, instead of sitting down to write my weekly notes from the minister as I normally do, I was honored to participate in a Civil Rights Roundtable at the office of the US Attorney in downtown Birmingham. Begun by the now-outgoing US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Joyce Vance, these roundtable discussions have been a way for the Attorney’s office to reach out into the civil rights community, get to know the local players, and build relationships that