The Confederate flag serves as a portal through which non-Southern white people can project their own guilt of racial bias onto the Southerner.
Find exclusive content here not available in the monthly print version of The Banner. New As I Was Saying blogs are posted Fridays and sometimes Tuesdays, and Behind The Banner blogs post on the third Friday of every other month (but sometimes more frequently).
We share the stories that don’t get heard or magnified anywhere else.
No one should be surprised if they feel like their head is spinning at times; the disruption and disorientation is a real thing.
As much as I try to be fair and irenic, there are times when the truth is divisive. Truth divides between true and false, right and wrong. And politics do intersect, at certain points, with ethics.
The Banner has teamed up with the Center for Public Justice to release a series of articles online exploring the divisiveness of our times. This is the first in that six-part series.
By justice, we do not merely mean equal treatment for all but also being intellectually just or fair to different viewpoints.
A list of books and other media for grown ups and children by black authors, musicians, and filmmakers.
It’s like a Jeopardy game show answer: “These are the three reasons oftentimes given as to why someone with a drinking problem cannot get sober.”
A masterpiece is defined as the best work of an artist. So we are the best work of all that God created.
My racism degrades bearers of God’s image, even while it distorts my own humanity. It is abhorrent in God’s eyes. And I am guilty of it.
These 2005 guidelines also note that The Banner needs to “be easily read” yet “be challenging” and be consistently of high quality.
The fight, flight, or freeze reflex may kick in when people of conscience see or hear about the latest incident of Black death.
The Banner is the official magazine of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, but it is neither the CRC’s megaphone nor its independent critic.
Is it possible for two people who hold different views on an issue to sit beside each other in church and be in unity?
My husband and I moved to the U.S. 16 years ago.
I have come to realize that Christians are unwittingly selective, and the outcome is a lopsided Christianity.
When we share our trauma, we connect with people on a deeper level.
The deadliest rampage in Canadian history occurred this past April 18-19 in Nova Scotia. After a 13-hour shooting and arson spree, 22 victims were dead and three injured.
Many courageous soldiers of the Canadian army lay their lives down so that the Dutch could be free again.
Besides being in a constantly highly reactive and responsive mode as governmental directives change by the hour, we are also in constant triage mode.
I now realize the mettle and grit of people like my immigrant parents stemmed organically from their understanding of the nature of life. They knew that suffering isn't an occasional visitor but our home.
Covid-19 has put public health into practical terms for us today. People everywhere are being asked to think of their communities above themselves and stay home and limit contact with others.
What are we to do when our regular structures of corporate worship have been upended and public gatherings are prohibited?
From time to time I will write my own psalms as prayers or reflective praises to God.