chicago
Memoir of a native son’s son
Keenan Norris’s sobering book explores Chicago’s role in forging the identity of the Black man in modern America.
Honoring the mothers of environmental justice
Dollie Burwell and Hazel Johnson have been under-recognized in environmental studies—and relegated to mere footnotes in church history.
Getting organized to help migrants in Chicago
“The buses have stopped coming,” says Katarina Ramos, “but there’s still a need for services for the people who were transported here.”
by Abby Garcia
A busload of migrants were told something was waiting for them in Chicago
It was our job to be that something.
The Night Pastor
I recently came across a record by 1960s Episcopal priest and jazz musician Robert Owen.
A young poet shaped by religious language
“When I was nine or ten, I decided I needed to read the King James Bible.”
Philip C. Maurer interviews Nate Marshall
Our world just might be saved by black women
But is it fair to expect it?
Working-class Christians
According to Heath Carter, working people have been some of Christianity's most important theological innovators.
Why landlords ignore the law on recycling
Weeks ago, the recycling carts disappeared from our alley. We live in a Chicago three-flat, and the City is supposed to provide single-stream blue carts for all residential buildings with four or fewer units. It hasn’t replaced them yet.
Larger buildings are required to provide recycling services themselves, but this doesn’t always happen, either.
A little train town called Chicago
Looks like Vox is off to a pretty good start. Ezra Klein & Co.'s news & politics vertical is poised to do even more than Klein's past work already has to expand serious discussion of public policy, to take it outside the bubble of people who come to the conversation with specialized knowledge.
Though if Matthew Yglesias's first post is any indication, Vox may make a different time-honored mistake of national political journalism: taking for granted that D.C. is the center of the universe, and that this universe exists entirely along the Eastern Seaboard.
A hate crime in the city
When you live in the city, you end up having a lot of conversations about crime. People want to know about your neighborhood, and the conversation inevitably dances carefully around people’s beliefs about the relationship between violent crime and race. The ugly assumption no one ever quite comes out and states plainly (because they totally aren’t racist): We know the perpetrators of violent crime will be people of color. The question is, who will the victims be?
In reality, interracial violence makes up a small share of violent crime—and when it does happen, perpetrators and victims alike are pretty diverse.
Gun control in sight: Faith groups seize political moment
History is littered with the husks of failed faith-based campaigns to change society. Will the current gun control push be different?
Hey, America's still talking about gun control!
Here's some good news: despite our short collective attention span, despite the fiscal-cliff debacle dominating the headlines shortly after the Newtown shooting, the U.S. scourge of gun violence is still part of the national conversation.
Now, every time I hear a public official mention Newtown and Aurora but not Chicago—which experienced a startling spike in gun homicides in 2012, mostly in poor, black neighborhoods—I'm ashamed at the implication that some killings deserve more shock and outrage than others. Still, whatever it takes to motivate people to take on the pro-gun lobby, I'm grateful to see it happening.
Stopping gun violence
In the wake of the Newtown shooting, political will is growing to do something about guns. People are moved to act—and we must act.
All is not calm; all is not bright
Those of us in violence-plagued neighborhoods look forward to winter's reprieve. Our teenagers understand Advent waiting all too well.
Casting my (provisional) ballot
I got up before dawn today. (My farmer wife does this every day; I try, with mixed results, to keep her hours.) We got to the polls just as they were opening.
For the first time in the eight or nine times I’ve voted in Chicago, my name wasn’t on the list. I had my voter registration card with me, so nobody challenged my eligibility. But I did have to cast a provisional ballot, which might or might not eventually be counted.
Inconvenient solidarity: Religion professors support a hotel boycott
Scholars traveling to Chicago for the joint AAR–SBL meeting will have to make hard decisions—beginning with where to lay their heads.
Soup night at the bar: The rules are simple
Staring down the barrel of another Chicago winter at age 40, I was a little freaked. Then I started to serve soup.
by Martha Bayne