Truthout
Religion's Role in the Struggle for Justice
What can religious traditions contribute to the collective struggle for justice and liberation?
![Religion's Role in the Struggle for Justice](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/11/2020_1226-religion-1200x675.jpg)
Series Introduction
What can religious traditions contribute to the collective struggle for justice and liberation? How can their analytical tools attune us to the machinations of social, political and economic power? This series features articles from organizers, artists, scholars and members of the clergy to provide important theological resources for imagining new worlds, demanding the impossible and resisting structures of domination. This series is being produced in collaboration with guest editor Roberto Sirvent from the Political Theology Network.
![A mural of George Floyd peers over the heads of people walking on the sidewalk](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/10/2021_1027-george-floyd-400x300.jpg)
Liberal Anti-Racism Is Fixated on Symbolic Gestures. We Need Concrete Action.
Framing slavery as “original sin” has led liberal anti-racism into a dead end of inaction.
![Two months after the Minneapolis upraising visitors continue to pay their respects at George Floyd's makeshift memorial as fleeting rays of sunlight illuminate a haloed cross inscribed with the words "Rest in Power George Floyd" on July 26, 2020, in Minneapolis, MN.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1228047333-400x300.jpg)
Christianity Is Empty If It Doesn’t Address the Racist Carceral State
Religious leaders must confront the evils of policing, which is sustained by the legacy of white supremacist domination.
![Silhouette of Black pregnant woman and handcuffs](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/07/2021_0727-prisoner-handcuffs-400x300.jpg)
Black Women Giving Birth in Prison Face Surveillance Disguised as Medical Care
The midsection shackle, which requires a guard standing over the birthing process, is offered as “hands-on” care.
![There is now a growing movement in Brazil to reclaim sacred objects and collections from museums, such as the São Paulo Cultural Center (CCSP), the triangular building that appears on the left in this photo of São Paulo, Brazil.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-583808808-400x300.jpg)
Police Stole Sacred Objects From Afro-Brazilian People. Now Museums Hoard Them.
There is now a growing movement in Brazil to reclaim sacred objects and collections from museums.
![members of the clergy in purple pray at an outdoor, pre-covid vigil](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2018/05/2021_0405-clergy2-400x300.jpg)
Being “Anti-Racist” Isn’t Enough. The Violence of Whiteness Must Be Exposed.
I want to see a U.S. where white people in congregations scream, “I refuse to live behind the craven mask of whiteness!”
![A Black Lives Matter sign hangs in front of the First Congregational Church of Evanston, UCC on March 23, 2021 in Evanston, Illinois.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/03/GettyImages-1308699650-scaled-e1616950890529-400x300.jpg)
Faith Communities Must Stop Funding Programs That Reinforce Mass Incarceration
Faith communities must make a choice between reinforcing the carceral state or resisting it.
![Illustration of cross burning inside church with silhouettes looking on](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/03/2021_0311-white-supremacy-b-400x300.jpg)
White Supremacist Christianity Drives Trump’s Loyal Mob. We Must Scream It Down.
Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel said true prophets don’t allow for indifference and “scream in the night” against oppression.
![MOVE supporters march to commemorate the victims of the 1985 MOVE fire on May 14, 2005, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2018/05/2021_0225-move-march-400x300.jpg)
Child of Black Activists Bombed by Police: “My Activism Is My Religion”
Philadelphia police killed 11 members of Mike Africa Jr.’s household in their attack on MOVE in 1985.
![People hold Black Lives Matter signs as they gather during a candlelight vigil to honour Andre Hill's memory outside the Brentnell Community Recreation Center in Columbus, Ohio, on December 26, 2020.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/02/2021_0218-blm-love-400x300.jpg)
Black Revolutionary Love Reimagines Democracy
Revolutionary Love comes from a desire for the greater good and is rooted in radical risk-taking for justice.
![A young Muslim woman joins people attending a protest rally on May 31, 2020, in Berlin, Germany.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/01/2021_0128-muslim-protester-400x300.jpg)
Muslims Are Drawing on Tradition to Sow Seeds of Liberation
In these bleak times, Muslims are turning to the traditions within Islam that contribute most to collective liberation.