Abortion access is holy and life-honoring. Forcing people to give birth reveals such little respect for life and the wellbeing of everyone involved.

Yes, Jesus fed Judas. But he also publicly named the betrayal.

We are called to love our enemies, but love doesn’t mean dismissing or minimizing harm. It doesn’t mean fetishizing a false unity in the midst of ongoing violence.

True community demands the full truth. This country loves to force forgiveness, often *while harm is still being committed.*

Telling someone “You need to come together,” with people actively conspiring against their rights and humanity is spiritual violence. It prioritizes some folks’ calm over other folks’ safety.

Lots of transphobic hate today for saying we should love our children as they are.

Thanks, I’ll be louder. Here’s the facts:

50% of trans youth have considered suicide, 20% have attempted. Gender affirming care decreases depression & suicide.

I want kids to live and flourish. It’s not just reducing harm (though that should be more than enough). I’ve watched trans siblings and youth in my church come alive as they embrace who God created them to be.

While he debated @ReverendWarnock, Herschel Walker said something I’ve thought about ever since. Discussing debt relief, he objected:

“I didn’t co-sign for anyone’s loans.”

What a concise distillation of the selfishness that’s poisoning our politics. 🧵 Here’s the thing: We are all co-signers for our neighbors. When predatory lending traps people in debt, we all suffer.

Flourishing is mutual; our destinies cannot be separated. When we liberate others, we free ourselves.

While pushing to arm teachers, @DanPatrick told Fox News, “We’re the Christians called by God’s name and it’s up to us to take back our country,” and damn if that isn’t Christian nationalism in a nutshell.

Treating avoidable catastrophe as justification for holy war. That theological perversion is how we reached this point—a country founded in bloodshed which has always preferred to escalate violence than disarm.

The Jesus they claim to follow promised, “those who live by the sword will die by it.” They are choosing death.

What diminishes worship—and us as people—is dismissing the ways God is building church that’s more inclusive, offering new thread to knit community.

So let me share some of what I’ve seen @middlechurch… /1

https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1487926259611054080

On Sunday, I watch the chats light up with hundreds of people from around the world offering love and tenderness. We learn together. Pray together. Rejoice together.

Folks can join our choir whether they live in the East Village or East Asia. /2

https://twitter.com/middlechurch/status/1249382113150930946

We’re canceling the gorgeous in-person Christmas Eve celebration we planned @middlechurch, and I hate COVID so much.

But I’ve been thinking about what love calls us to risk. And this is what it looks like to love each other right now. /1 Mary says “Yes,” to God knowing it brings *incredible* risk: She invites scandal. Others will shame her. She might shatter her relationship with Joseph.

But she accepts that risk because the love she bears inside her will liberate others. /2

Hi nice white people: The true test of your commitment to confront racism is how you act in white spaces.

When you go home for Thanksgiving, and Uncle Bob is talking about how Kyle Rittenhouse was defending the community from thugs and looters, how will you respond? Start thinking about how you’ll intervene now—it only gets harder in the moment.

A recommendation—use “I” statements:

“It hurts me when you say that.”

“When I go to protests, it’s often police who initiate violence.”

“I’m scared about how this verdict emboldens vigilantes.”

Yesterday, I posted about the need to teach white kids about race. A few folks asked about resources/strategy, so sharing some thoughts on age-appropriate antiracist education! 🧵

(Focusing on white kids because other parents already teach our kids about race—because we must.)

https://twitter.com/jlengrand/status/1457035063267364874

Age 0 - 3:

I'm tired of people saying "my child is too young." Nonsense. As soon as kids start absorbing information about the world, you have a responsibility for how you story race with them.

Fierce Love drops Tuesday!! From a concert @JoesPub, chats with @WajahatAli, @JohnFugelsang & @BrianLehrer, spots on @TODAYshow & @ABCGMA3, worship with @Instatituss at @RiversideNYC—join the celebration.

I can't wait for my words to nestle in your heart. I wrote them for you ❤️ Fierce love can't be separated from music—it's what fuels this work. So we're going to push this book into the world with the voices of folks like @GenesisBe, @BridgetBarkan, @DivaDoesDiviniT, & @divankenge.

Get a ticket and bring your dancing shoes: bit.ly/fierce-launch

Juneteenth is a reminder: Freedom isn’t something handed to us.

The narrative of white abolition is a myth—both discarding the ways Black people won our own liberty and obscuring how whiteness enslaved after emancipation; how it continues to shackle folks now. This weekend, we’re telling the full story of freedom. Tonight, we’ll celebrate prophetic Black joy and fierce love that has always been the true proclamation of American liberty.

Then, tomorrow, @agordonreed & I will talk about Juneteenth history and the freedom yet to be won.

Democrats need to stop kindly requesting freedom from people in the business of making shackles Since this is resonating, if you want to learn more about how we get free—and bask in Black excellence—please join our Juneteenth celebration!

I'll be talking with @agordonreed, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of "On Juneteenth" & we have a glorious concert the night before.

Queer liberation isn’t just freedom for LGBTQIA+ people. It frees me, too. Breaking down harmful gender binaries also helps dismantle patriarchy that has weaponized those same binaries to oppress women.

Too much foreign policy criticism blames Jewish groups for US support of the apartheid in Palestine, when Christian Zionists are truly responsible. That's its own kind of antisemitism.
 
So let's talk about Christian Zionism. /1 There is widespread belief among white evangelicals that exclusive Jewish control of Israel will bring about Christ’s second coming. 
 
And they're willing to endanger both Jews and Palestinians to pursue these selfish theological ends. /2
independent.co.uk/news/world/ame…

The quiet part of "our systems are not racist" is "those people deserved to die." Either policing is a racist institution or people of color disproportionately deserve to be killed.

Acquitted like a Jim Crow jury They could have had hi-res video of Trump committing crimes and it wouldn’t have mattered, because they did and it didn’t.

I've been thinking a lot about a "personal relationship with Jesus" and here's what concerns me most:

What if cultural focus on a "personal relationship" confuses worshipping whiteness with worshipping God? /1 All relationships with Jesus Christ—personal and public—require communal acts of love and justice, and collective care.

And what really disturbs me is how personal salvation is offered as a placebo to make people content with worldly suffering. /2

We can’t move on—not until there is accountability. Accountability means telling the truth; it means confession and repentance. And it means consequences for brutality and death!

It means the removal of Trump from office. Now. Either he resigns, or is impeached, or we invoke the 25th. Take your pick.

But if nothing is done—if there are no consequences to violence and insurrection—we are doomed to repeat it.

They’re attacking @ReverendWarnock by twisting Rev. Dr. James Cone’s prophetic words because he promises to reshape government like Dr. Cone reclaimed Christianity:

Dethroning whiteness and power to tend the wounds of suffering people. /1
James Cone took Jesus back from racists who stole Christ to sanctify whiteness and wealth, and provide moral justification for 400 years of ongoing genocide.

He put it plain: “Any message that is not related to the liberation of the poor in society is not Christ's message.” /2

I'm so grateful to @ChildDefender for their consistent defense of children's rights.

Too often, kids aren't treated as full and complete humans—with their own particular needs, and unique agency. Abuse of children is covered by euphemism, or explained away as just "part of parenting."

And government abuse of kids is hidden in data; not treated as an absolute emergency.

1 in 3 families with kids can't afford to feed them. Right now. Today. In the US.

That's a crisis!

1. On Feb. 23, Wanda Cooper lost her baby. But she didn’t have a miscarriage. Her 25 year old son, born on Mother’s Day 1994, was killed in cold blood. An athlete with a gentle soul and humble spirit, Ahmaud never left her without saying, “I love you.”
nytimes.com/2020/05/05/us/… 2. If you ever did anything for him, his mom says, he would say, “Thank you.”

Ahmad ran every day, unless it was pouring rain. But on that sunny Sunday in February, he went running and—as though he were prey to be slaughtered—he was hunted down.