Raising a clarion call in challenging times: Prophetic risk and role

Abstract

This article examines theoethical complexities of teaching, preaching, and ministering in a volatile public landscape that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement. Centered in the movement are tensions related to complex factors that still foment sociocultural divisions. One factor is that religion and theology are often weaponized to propagate partisan ideological stances. In some cases, a polarizing conservative or far-right homiletical rhetoric foments division. In other cases, extremist groups raise the Bible and the cross to proclaim America was founded as a Christian nation, excluding other religions while ignoring ethnic minority groups. The result is a supremacist privileging of white Christian nationalism. How do we build bridges to cross these divides in this era I call Black Lives Matter times? The article’s first section examines the ethos of the present era. In the second section, I use an interdisciplinary lens to examine theoethical perspectives that find historical disunity in this country still rooted in racialized inequality issues. In the final section, I consider faith implications for theology and praxis. Raising a clarion call in challenging times requires a unifying commitment to public witness with a theoethical charge to embody love as restorative justice. My hope is girded by messaging that presents a clarion call to believe God’s eschatological love and redeeming justice will prevail.