#AARSBL17: Skin in the Game–Racing the Stakes of Student-Scholarship - This weekend, Dr. Richard Newton will be at the annual meetings of the North American Association for the Study of Religion, the American Academy of Religion, and the Society of Biblical Literature to share some of his work on pedagogy. Whether you’re there physically or keeping up from afar, we’ll bring you updates from the field here at Sowing the…
Reading “The African American Bible” on Paper and in Class - The Journal of Biblical Literature recently published a series on ways that biblical scholars have engaged with #BlackLivesMatter in their work.
Christian Support for the Black Lives Matter Campaign - Hannah Ciocco examines Black Lives Matter’s recent overtures among Christian communities, drawing parallels to the role of religion in the Civil Rights Movement. Ciocco draws upon the work of Broadcast Seeding guest, Drew G.I. Hart for insight on the role of religion in social activism and engagement.   “Every 28 hours, a black person is murdered…
Words We Mean By - A year ago I led an undergraduate viewing of the 2015 film, The Central Park Five. The movie chronicles how the New York City law and order establishment wrongfully imprisoned a quintet of black youth for the sexual assault of a white woman in 1989.
Christianity Before and After Charleston - ...one of the most vivid accounts of baptism in the Black Church tradition while contextualizing the role of race and Christianity in American life.
Watching The Central Park Five @Etowncollege - In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers were arrested and charged with brutally attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park. News media swarmed the case, calling them a “wolfpack.”  The five would spend years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit before the truth about what really happened became clear. With THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, this story…
#EtownEngage: #FergusonSyllabus Teach-In - LancasterOnline’s Tim Stuhldreher spoke to my colleagues and I about what the #FergusonSyllabus looks like at Elizabethtown College. Check out his article, “College events look at Post-Ferguson, Race, Justice Questions.”
“Are We Really Just One Human Race?”– #EtownEngage - In REL 370: Ethnicity, Gender, and Religion, I gave a talk called “Are We Really Just One Human Race?” I began the talk by asking the class whether there’s a difference between saying #AllLivesMatter and #BlackLivesMatter. For our purposes, the issue was why this is such a contested debate.
“The Gospel According to America: Black Demons and the Original Sin of Slavery”– #EtownEngage - In (WCH) REL 226: The New Testament, I gave a talk called “The Gospel According to America- Black Demons and The Original Sin of Slavery?” Our conversation began with a twist on the debate, “Is America a Christian Nation?” Instead, students paired up and named reasons why people argue “yes” and “no.”
Beatdowns and Downbeats: America as a Hip Hop Nation–#EtownEngage - In REL 170: Signifying Religion: An African American Worldview, I gave a talk called “Beatdowns and Downbeats: America as a Hip Hop Nation.” We began with a free association exercise about what could be signified by call America a “Hip Hop nation.”