-
Just Mercy
Reproductive justice. Climate justice. Food justice. Social justice. Append the word “justice” to any other word and you’ve got a ready-made brand platform for niche activism. As cultural forces shape the meaning of words over time, they risk losing their specificity and sharpness. The word “justice” risks dissipating into a partisan nebula. Depending which side…
-
Sapphire
“We’re all the children of God,” a black sophisticate remarks to her boyfriend, after he has interacted with the police. “Forget it.” The exchange is brief — the actor isn’t even credited — but her sharp delivery slices right through a thick curtain of denial that’s always hanging around; the hypocrisy of a United Kingdom…
-
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
As the title states, there are 3 billboards outside the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri. They work in concert with each other, the blood red background and white lettering impossible to miss amongst the greens and grays of the hilly terrain. Each has its own distinct message, but only one stokes the ire of the…
-
First They Killed My Father
Most people living today have only a vague memory of the Vietnam War, or none at all. As a teenager growing up in a very conservative area my memories were taken from Walter Cronkite’s TV reports, my local paper, and a few radio broadcasts. We were told America was sending soldiers to Southeast Asia to…
-
Detroit
2010 was the year of Kathryn Bigelow. She became the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director and her breakout indie The Hurt Locker scored a surprise win for Best Picture. The film, about a bomb defusing team in Iraq, is a master-class in tension and a gripping character study to boot. Bigelow…
-
I, Daniel Blake
-
Is the Theology of ‘The Shack’ Heretical?
Heresy. Is there any word more feared among Christians? No one who takes their faith seriously wants to be accused of teaching false doctrine and leading others astray. Scripture takes false teaching seriously. Second Timothy 4:3 says, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their…
-
Get Out
-
Hidden Figures
When I was a child the science museum in my hometown hosted a traveling exhibit featuring all kinds of information about the moon, the U.S. space program, and even some samples of lunar rock (which is less interesting to look at when you’re ten-years-old than it sounds). To prepare for our field trip to the…
-
13th
Social justice advocate and attorney Bryan Stevenson has stated that Americans need to greatly challenge the present narrative on race that has historically informed the way our criminal justice system functions primarily with regard to the imbalanced and disproportionate imprisonment of people of color (particularly males). Stevenson, author of the bestselling nonfiction work A Just…
