People are sometimes accused of bringing "politics" into church settings when pointing to race issues. Because I regard racism as a deeply sinful affront to a just and holy God, I suppose I'm doing the opposite: bringing my faith into public when I speak, teach, & write about it.

In other words, the religion I practice has much to say about God's care for the marginalized and oppressed. It has much to say about suffering and healing. It calls me to minister to those who are hurting. My faith calls me to be a minister of reconciliation.

So when I speak, teach, & write about racism, I'm living my faith in public. When I wrestle with my tradition's heavy history, I'm living my faith in public. To call that "politics" is to diminish & reduce it. But my faith can't be contained that way. It's too big and too bright.

To think that God's work in the world doesn't (can't?) speak to *our* cultural crises is to reduce & diminish that work. A living tradition like mine, a living church like mine, can and must. Am I a minister if I can't speak God's love to the hurt around me?

What kind of faith can afford to erase or unsee the deep gash in the body of Christ from of racism? No kind of history can misremember that painful past and be useful to the body of Christ. That amnesia only perpetuates pain. So, no, it's not "politics" to me. It's my religion.

I'm wrestling this morning with a recent prophet's call to *lead* out in combating racism. What must that look like? Certainly, it will dispense with the tired, morally bankrupt evasion that talking about race in church is inappropriately "political."

I can't untether racial matters from my faith. Doing so is a fiction suited only to the comfortable. I'm uncomfortable. I'm restless. I've got fire pent up in my bones. I've found a God who is holy fire itself, livid at sin and needless suffering.

That holy God draws me to where tears are being shed, to the hands hanging down, to where the lamentations can be heard. I found God, already there, in those places. At work. That's my religion. It's demanding and relentless. And beautiful.