Karen's latest blog post looks at Christ's approach to women living under the first century Roman Empire in light of children's rights, and the recent radical Islamic violence against fourteen-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai.
I'm so proud of my wife, and I'm
pleased to encourage you to follow her on her new page for blog posts
about theology, identity, dignity, women's consciousness, the unique value of redeemed women of color, and the global pursuit
of human rights. - CE
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Behold, The Man
By now, we’ve all seen this infamous tri-panel icon, an Ecce Homo that is Elías García Martínez’ fresco representation of the suffering Christ, crowned with thorns.
The three panels escort our eye from left to right; from the fresco in its younger days, to its time-weathered degeneration, ending finally with the well-intentioned yet botched
efforts of an amateur restoration that holds only a shadow of the original. This century-old Ecce Homo, housed in Spain’s Santuario
de la Misericordia, was first created as an instrument to inspire worship.
After its unfortunate “restoration,” the community says it’s now valuable only in a
far less lofty function – promoting tourism and stimulating pop-culture. As t-shirts and other marketing items exploit its odd tale, experts now consider it ruined for its original purpose.
All is not lost; the incident brings out at least two valuable lessons that stand out in bold bas-relief.
Monday, August 27, 2012
But God ... Reflections on Sleepless Nights
Battles are best waged
under cover of darkness.
By day, a siege is easier to fend.
Obstacles lie exposed,
reinforcements stand ready,
troops take action - quickly rallied.
But in the night ...
Lord, have mercy, in the night ...
Sunday, August 26, 2012
What's Your Basis for Justice?
Question: What do you get when you cross one theological nerd who spends hours tweaking his keynote lecture presentations with another theological nerd who spent 8 years as a d.j., creating radio commercials?
Give up?
Answer: You get The Visual Reasoning Series, Episode 1 - Perspectives on Justice.
That's how nerds roll. Have a look.
- The Ellises
Monday, July 30, 2012
Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Mire
That the other diners' beliefs were unknown to us is important to note, as we found later that we kept surprising company with the
likes of New York City Mayor Bloomberg, the ACLU, the talk show The View, and more than a
few news outlets who also cried ‘foul’ over responses to public
denials of Cathy’s fundamental right to free speech and entrepreneurship in our country.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
A Decent Proposal – An American Health Alternative
The mistaken notion that healthcare is a right comes from the so-called “Economic Bill of Rights,” articulated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 11, 1944.
“ObamaCare” as it is currently constituted, depends on altruism to control costs. Its major shortcoming is the lack of a mechanism to keep costs down. Healthcare must be tackled not only from the payer side, but also in its management and cost effectiveness to reflect global rates. In order to do this, we must trim the associated bureaucratic bloat. “ObamaCare” does not factor in the flaws in human nature, which certainly extend to the individuals who manage and run our healthcare corporations. If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that we are not naturally altruistic. It is much more realistic to harness free market forces where appropriate and to encourage people – and corporations – to do right based on incentives.
Monday, June 11, 2012
“Baby Mama” Drama to “Nanny State” Trauma
Thursday, June 7, 2012
“Daddy Did My Hair” – Weaving the Nature of Fatherhood
My father always seemed larger than life. A booming baritone who made the first Great Migration north with his family after the Stock Market Crash of '29, he worked throughout his schooling to help support his mother and numerous siblings. My father finished Hampton University, and served his country during World War II as one of the first African American army captains leading an all-White company in the Pacific theater. This was a man who integrated the public school system along with a group of brave high school teachers, who with my mother at his side was instrumental in exposing unfair housing practices and the need for the Housing Discrimination Act of 1968. As an Industrial Arts teacher, he was so proficient at carpentry that he could design and build just about anything with his seemingly unlimited imagination and skill.
One morning, my father faced a daunting, never-before-performed task ... doing his daughters’ hair.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
‘How We Be’ – An Offbeat Look at Ebonics
There are many rich things
about being African American that give me a warm smile. Among these are our
innovative, ‘good for the soul’ foods (taken in moderation, of course), our
pioneering spirit that has created an entire series of history-making ‘firsts,’
and our multitude of globally imitated genres of music and dance. These and many other things are reflective of
our unique style that continues to grow out of our incredible resilience and
adaptability as a people.
Our ever-evolving linguistics
is no exception.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Illogical Ontology - How We Misunderstand Ourselves
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
What Drives Poverty – Fire in the 'Whole'?
As a seven year old boy, I sat at the kitchen table
anticipating the taste of my grandmother’s fried chicken. Suddenly, I was
traumatized by the eruption of a grease fire. As my grandfather tried to
douse the flames with water the fire flared up, nearly
igniting the cabinets above before it could be smothered. If this had been a wood fire, water would
have killed the flames instantly; however, a grease fire poses a danger of a
completely different nature.
Poverty can be compared to this – sometimes a fire
of wood, at other times, one of grease. The
traditional means of dousing a wood fire will only exacerbate a grease
fire. This might be helpful in explaining
the perplexing explosion of poverty despite government’s massive attempts to
quell it.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Freedom From a One-Dimensional Identity
I see myself
as a walking paradox. There are many manifestations of the human
condition that I find repugnant, yet that I also find present in me. Some
would say that this makes me conflicted at best, hypocritical and self-loathing
at worst. Yet and still, I know I’m not alone, as many similarly struggle
with this paradox. While society is uncomfortable with the tension, the Bible tells us it is common.
As a
follower of Jesus, knowing that I am being conformed to the image of Someone
greater than myself empowers me to have peace with this tension. This
external conformation is what differentiates my struggle from other attempts,
such as Confucianism’s ‘yin yang,’ to reconcile this dichotomy.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Who You Callin' Oreo? The Devouring of Black Folk
In my last post, I spoke out against America's trend toward political polarization. Today, I want to refocus onto matters cultural. It appears that African American culture itself is also being swept up into a socio/political vortex - a great tragedy in light of the current African American cultural crisis.
It seems the cultural ground has shifted under our feet. Memories of the Civil Rights and Black Consciousness Movements remain, but they have morphed into something alien to these movements’ pioneers. The Civil Rights Movement has degenerated into a civil rights industry, and Black consciousness has degenerated into non-achiever consciousness. Our sense of momentum has eroded, our moral clarity has evaporated, and moral confusion is the order of the day.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Children of ‘Mama Nem’ and the Pharaoh Who Knew Them Not
When the children of Israel arrived in Egypt, they
rode in on Joseph’s political coattails.
His God-given skills of dream interpretation (oneiromancy) had saved
Egypt from a global disaster and increased Pharaoh’s power and prestige; as far
as Pharaoh was concerned, any friend of Joseph’s was a friend of his. Politically well-connected with their own “man
inside,” the children of Israel soon made a fundamental blunder: they put all
their eggs into the basket of the existing Pharaonic administration.
Once the campaigning was over, with convention confetti littering the floors amidst deflated hopes and balloons, “a new Pharaoh came to the throne who knew not Joseph,” and a bitter lesson was learned.
Once the campaigning was over, with convention confetti littering the floors amidst deflated hopes and balloons, “a new Pharaoh came to the throne who knew not Joseph,” and a bitter lesson was learned.
It seems that we, the children of ‘Mama nem’ (African
Americans), have not learned this lesson. In the last few decades, African Americans have overwhelmingly supported
Democratic candidates to such an extent that our vote has become a foregone
conclusion. We are dangerously close to
being taken for granted by Democrats and being written off by Republicans; this
is a recipe for marginalization.
Monday, May 14, 2012
“Marriage Equality” - An Irony
A casual observer
of today’s Western culture would be hard-pressed to miss the prevailing trends
toward marriage devaluation. As increasing
numbers of heterosexual couples are opting to do ‘married people things’ absent
the marriage commitment (e.g., cohabitate, have and raise children, etc.), marriage
itself is viewed with considerably less favor than a generation ago.
In the midst
of all this comes the push for “marriage equality” in same-sex unions. Why is this community swimming against the
prevailing marriage devaluation stream? They
seem to appreciate what we no longer value – a legal, long term commitment to
one person. Do they know something that
our society has forgotten? Are they
wiser than those who see marriage and the nuclear family as “obsolete
institutions?” If so, this is a just indictment
against our civilization. While I cannot
biblically justify same-sex unions, "marriage equality" advocates are to be commended
for valuing a form of this gift toward which our society has become cavalier.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Social Justice: A Foot Race Paradigm
There was no way I could anticipate the appalling reaction I received from the college students when I returned their assignments. Some of the papers were cogent and informative, while others were illogical and full of grammatical errors. The well-written papers received an “A”, while the poorly written ones received a “C.” The “C” students erupted in outrage and demanded an “A” “for the sake of justice”, yet it was obvious to me that they did not understand the nature of “A” work.
As I contemplated the incident, I realized that these students grew up in a generation where everyone received a trophy just for showing up to the soccer game. I also realized why the term “social justice” has become controversial today.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Checkmate: Same-Sex Marriage Advocates Now in the Game
Many are debating the moral and social obligations of the Black church in the wake of President Obama’s recent endorsement of same-sex marriage. The details of what should be the appropriate reaction of the media-crafted monolithic “Black-church vote” are being hotly debated, and well they should be; this is good political discourse. However the limited focus of these debates seems to ignore a much larger picture.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Neither and Both: Conservative vs. Liberal
As I address current social
issues in a variety of venues, I'm often intrigued by the responses
to my analyses. They are
remarkably similar, regardless of whether they come from folks who self-identify as
“liberal” or “conservative.”
On the other hand, I find it
difficult to label my own social ideology.
While I have agreements with both liberals and conservatives on several
fronts, the intersections with my own philosophy aren’t significant enough to
allow me to identify with either.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
The Difference Between "Broke", "Poor" and "Po' "
I was recently asked to write this article to briefly explore poverty, the history of achieverism and non-achieverism, and the nihilism that pervades the 'hood today.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Discipling Urban Men
In October 2011, I was honored to deliver this lecture on Discipling Urban Men at Epiphany Fellowship's Thriving Conference, with Dr. Eric Mason hosting. The basic thought in this lecture is that God makes converts, and we make disciples - that's the Great Commission. Too often, we try to make the converts and expect God to make the disciples. With this reversal, we're left not with the Great Commission, but rather a great debacle.
Key point: True discipleship happens both before and after conversion.
Dr. Carl Ellis, Jr. is a theological
anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Redeemer
Seminary in Dallas, TX. Follow Dr. Ellis
on Twitter: @CarlEllisJr
The Spiritual Dimension of Fatherhood
With my son’s twenty-ninth birthday looming and Father’s Day following close on its heels, I can’t help but reflect of the spiritual dimension of fatherhood.
While doing a Prison Fellowship seminar in LaGrange Kentucky, I heard news that would forever change my life. I was going to be a father. Speechless, I stayed on the phone, but lost track of the details. The news was exciting but frightening. I was visibly shaken by the gravity of the situation. Others who had heard this news seemed so casual about it. Did they know something I didn’t know?
While doing a Prison Fellowship seminar in LaGrange Kentucky, I heard news that would forever change my life. I was going to be a father. Speechless, I stayed on the phone, but lost track of the details. The news was exciting but frightening. I was visibly shaken by the gravity of the situation. Others who had heard this news seemed so casual about it. Did they know something I didn’t know?
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