White Lies, Ep. 2 looks at the trials of Viola Liuzzo and James Reeb's murderers. We hear Dr. King's eulogy for James Reeb, LBJ’s famous speech, and learn how Alabama Attorney General Flowers fought segregation and bias in the Liuzzo jury selection. We also learn the depth and entrenchment of white supremacy in Alabama

The Fourth of July means something different to me than celebrating our freedom from British colonial rule and the wars we’ve fought in the name of that freedom. To me, the 4th should be Interdependence Day dedicated to abolishing ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) and ending money bail.

Recently the team at the UUA Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries discussed how February being “Black History Month,” March being “Women’s History Month,” and June being “LGBTQ History Month” is positive because it raises up awareness of the history and contributions of these marginalized communities. But we also realized it relegates the history - and current imperfect condition of oppressed or marginalized groups in American society - to time-boxed public awareness. We think this is wrong because we have much to learn in the present moment by lifting up the stories of people who fight or suffer oppression all of the time. On this day in 1954 the United States Supreme Court delivered a landmark decision on school segregation, unanimously ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that segregation in public education is illegal. The court decision famously states that in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. In this post we lift up Linda Brown, of Brown v Board of Education of Topeka: student and life-long activist for equal access to public education.

We pray for our minds and hearts to be open to the messages of younger generations. We pray that we may find it within ourselves to offer practical, financial and emotional support to all youth who fight for their lives. We pray for physical safety which is never guaranteed, whether you exercise your voice because #EnoughIsEnough or because #BlackLivesMatter. We pray for your endurance, your resilience. We pray for the transformation of those in power and the transformation of the structures that keep them in power. We pray with you, for you, for ourselves and for the generations to come.

While it is easy to write clearly in a blog post about how challenge, comfort, processing and practice are different, life is more complex. Sometimes one person thinks a space is for their processing, but here comes somebody else with a challenge. Sometimes we’re trying to get comfort and the...

So you read the intro and you understand challenge, comfort and processing, right? Ok, then onto practice. There are so many ways to put our new insights into practice! We can practice personally, interpersonally, communally and systemically. Personal The personal work involves interrupting the...

Have you already read the introduction to this post? Oh you have? Great, let’s go! Note: As I write about challenge, comfort, and processing needs, I use examples from my growth as a white person trying to unlearn white supremacy and my growth as a young woman trying to unlearn patriarchy....

I sat looking around the table at the exhausted religious educators sitting in my white identity caucus small group and wondered what to say. As we moved from processing our experiences as white folks at the fall conference for the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA...

I was reading an article the other day about a school that is like “Christian Hogwarts” and the church that runs it also has a program called Young Saints. I started thinking and wondering, if these young folks are “Young Saints”, then are Unitarian Universalist youth and young adults “Young Heretics”? Is that a good thing? Or a bad thing?

“No one is outside the circle of love,” declares UUA president Susan Frederick-Gray. It is a call to draw the circle ever wider, to look beyond that which we know and ensure all are seen and validated. And so we sing “we are gay and straight together.” We recite “If you are straight and I...