If Charles Dickens were reviewing Steve McQueen’s new film, “12 Years a Slave”, he might begin, “It was the best of religion, it was the worst of religion.”

The movie, set to release on October 17th, is based on a true story about Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man who is duped, drugged, and sold into slavery on a Southern plantation. The cinematography is breathtaking, the cycle of despair and hope is gripping, and the depiction of the mistreatment of slaves is so unsparingly brutal that it often forces one to turn away. But the film is as much a commentary on religion as race.

“12 Years a Slave” expends a lot of energy throughout its 133-minute runtime exploring the way white Christians in the American South used scripture and their faith to perpetuate injustice. After Solomon arrives on a sugar cane plantation, his master, William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), gathers all the slaves to read scripture and deliver a sermon in which he quotes from Luke 17:2, “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” Since audiences have just witnessed Ford purchasing and thereby separating a female slave from her children, the hypocrisy is stifling.

When Solomon is sold to Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), the oppressive owner of a cotton plantation, the commentary deepens. Epps quotes Luke 12:47 to his slaves: “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” He then shuts the Bible and says, “That’s scripture.” Epps takes this verse literally and whips the slaves who pick the least amount of cotton each day. When he has a good harvest, Epps attributes it to “righteous living”; when the crops die, he claims it must be a “biblical plague” brought on by his slaves’ unrighteousness.

McQueen seems to be making a point about how people pick and choose the verses they live by and how those verses should be applied. American history demonstrates this is true. Many Christian clergy advocated for slavery and, as historian Larry Tise notes in his book, Proslavery, ministers “wrote almost half of all defenses of slavery published in America” and believed the Bible taught that white people could own black people as work animals.

Sadly, the examples in history don’t end with emancipation. Many American clergy vocally opposed the civil rights movement and supported Jim Crow laws. In the 1950s, The Alabama Baptist newspaper editorialized, “We think it deplorable in the sight of God that there should be any change in the difference and variety in his creation and he certainly would desire to keep our races pure.”

We’re still witnessing the tendency to use scripture to acquire power and oppress people in countries like Malawi and Uganda where same sex relationships are illegal and punishable by law. In Uganda, legislators were considering an “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” that prescribes the death penalty or life imprisonment for gays and lesbians. Christian clergy in Uganda and some evangelical evangelists from America supported the bill.

Christian history, both past and present, is a sobering reminder of our tendency to manipulate the scriptures in pursuit of personal or political goals.

“12 Years a Slave” isn’t a religious jeremiad, however, and McQueen is careful to present the redemptive side of religion as well. On the plantations, slaves in the film often find solace in their faith, expressed in the singing of spirituals and hymns. The same force that causes them to despair ironically brings them hope. And the character of Bass (Brad Pitt) roots his criticism of the institution of slavery in the biblical concepts of justice and righteousness. Bass eventually helps free Solomon.

Michael Fassbender, who was raised Roman Catholic, told me that the film attempts to portray religion as “a double-edged sword.” He said that he experienced religion as a positive force in Ireland where Christians helped build the education system. And yet, he says, he can’t deny how some Christians have twisted religion at times to perpetuate injustices like slavery.

“People have used religion in ways to control groups of people,” Fassbender told me. “Religion is a powerful force. It depends who decides to manipulate that, in whatever form—good or evil.”

This perspective should particularly resonate with Christians because much of the Gospels tell of explosive conflicts between the Pharisees and Jesus. They are more than personal disagreements, but rather clashes between those who insisted on using religion to control and One who rightly saw faith as a freeing force. The difference between Jesus and the Pharisees is, to some extent, the chasm between slave owners and abolitionists. “12 Years a Slave” forces audiences to enter this tension and determine which side of the chasm they are on.

“I think the film is showing what [religion] is, how it was used for good, how it was used for bad, but everyone can recognize the overall power of that,” Chiwetel Ejiofor told me. “But it is for the individual viewer to see where that balance is.”

As it is with audiences who view this film so it is with all the faithful. History is littered with the carcasses of those who’ve been victimized by people who’ve chosen to use religion as a means to a selfish end rather than an end in itself. “12 Years a Slave” reminds us that every generation has a choice between a faith that crushes and oppresses and one that uplifts and liberates. As audiences explore this “Tale of Two Religions”, they are urged to choose and choose carefully.

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Religious conservatives have long decried the collapse of the nuclear family, and it’s difficult to deny the shifts we’ve seen. The number of stay-at-home dads in America has more than doubled over the last decade and a half. Working mothers are now the primary income earners in 15% of married households with children. The most recent census figures show that, for the first time, Americans living in a nuclear family has dipped below 25%.

Contrast these trends with America in the 1950s when society accepted that a model family consisted of a breadwinning father, a submissive housewife, and a couple of respectful, biological children.

What has caused such sharp changes? According to Jonathan Fitzgerald, author of Not Your Mother’s Morals, one of the most influential forces has been television.

“Sometimes pop culture is a reflection of where we are and other times it is a shaping force,” he says. “In the case of television, we often don’t know that our morals and values are being shaped until after it happens.”

In the 1950s, television largely mirrored the prevalent concept of the American family. Popular shows like “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” depicted the family as a heterosexual, patriarchal, churchgoing unit with chaste children. But in the 1960s, family depictions began to change. And so did America’s thinking.

Here are ten television shows that forced America to reimagine what a family could, and perhaps should, look like:

SEE LIST…

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Bishop T.D. Jakes is one of America’s most prominent religious leaders and pastor of The Potter’s House, a 30,000-member congregation located in Dallas, Texas. But Jakes is far more than a preacher.

“I cannot be pigeon-holed,” he told me in our interview this week.

Since 2008, he’s been working as a producer and writer of feature films through a partnership with Sony Pictures. His movies include the box office hit “Jumping the Broom” and the remake of “Sparkle” starring Jordin Sparks and the late Whitney Houston. He’s the bestselling author of numerous books including, most recently, Let It Go: So You Can Be Forgiven. In October, Jakes’ new talk show, “Mind, Body, and Soul”, debuts on BET.

Though his projects are varied, the theme of family connects many of them. Jakes intends to uplift families with his books and films, and he speaks to family issues through his sermons. In two weeks, more than 40,000 will attend his MegaFest conference in Dallas where he hopes to bring a special word to America’s many flailing families. Here, we talk about what he believes is causing the breakdown of American families and what he plans to do about it.

JM: A lot of Christians talk about how the “breakdown of the American family.” As a pastor, you deal with family problems all the time. Do you think the American family is in serious trouble?

TJ: Absolutely. There’s no question about that, and the stats bear it out. It has hit the minority community hardest and first, but first means it won’t be last. It’s spreading to the general populace as well.

JM: You’ve got your MegaFest conference coming up in Dallas. I know you hope to draw families, not just individual attendees. How do you hope to use your platform through that conference to build up and encourage American families?

TJ: I’m so excited about it. First of all, people of all colors are buying tickets and that puts black families and white families in the room where we can attack the problem together. It is our shared problem. Our problem is your problem, and your problem is our problem. We are on the same boat.

One of the things I hope to do is to point out the fact that fatherhood is seldom modeled to men. And it is hard to be what you cannot see. You and I can walk down to any department store and find a figurine of a mother holding a baby, but we’d have to work hard to find a picture of a man holding one. We’re not modeling fatherhood in art or film or in our own homes.

The fact that we are male enough to produce a child does not make us man enough to raise a child, especially when we are asking men to play a role for which they have no script. My solution is to show men that it is not as much about showing the bad job some have done but lifting up men who do a good job, so we can see what we’re trying to be. Until fatherhood is modeled, our men will continue to shrink away from it and the stats will continue to worsen.

The real power of MegaFest is in the car ride to the event. It’s in the hotel after the event is over. It’s dads taking their kids out to get something to eat and spending quality time without work getting in the way. Because family is in little things. Having raised five children, the things they remember are not the things I paid the most for; they were the little silly things. They were the times I cut up their steak or pancakes in a restaurant. So I’m calling families to a big event so they can have little things together.

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The summer that once sizzled with expectation over the possible passage of comprehensive immigration reform will now fizzle into a five-week Congressional recess. Insiders say the chances Congress will pass sweeping reform this year is just north of nil. Fifty-three percent of voters prefer Speaker Boehner’s piecemeal approach, which would attempt to chop it up into a series of smaller bills.

The sticking point for lawmakers continues to be the the conditions under which to offer a “pathway to citizenship” to any or all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently residing in the United States. Republicans have balked despite political pressures.

In addition to the popular refrain that the GOP must pass this bill to remain competitive with Latino voters, Christian leaders via the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT) have added pressure. The EIT has been effective in adding high-powered religious leaders to the pro-reform side of the debate. But, as I stated in an article last week, it has neither tipped the scales among lawmakers in Washington or among the evangelical core in heartland America and the Bible Belt.

Yesterday, many reported on a new CBS poll showing that 75% of evangelical Christians support a pathway to citizenship. Several conveniently left out that they supported it “with conditions.” Many evangelicals believe immigrants should pay steep fines before offering a pathway. Others think the border should be completely secure before a pathway is granted. Digging into the stats reveals an evangelical community that is still deeply divided on this issue.

My own faith and values have led me to support offering undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship. Here are four reasons I think conservative Christians should too:

1. Because it will promote prosperity. Immigrants are natural entrepreneurs, which often leads them to start businesses and create jobs. According to Partnership for a New American Economy, 42% of U.S.-based Fortune 500 companies (that employ more than 10 million people) were started by immigrants or their children. And the impact on American prosperity increases with the second generation. A Pew study shows that children born to immigrants outperform the population as a whole in education and are less likely than the general population to be in poverty.

“In all the ways our country measures how well you’re doing, the second generation is doing very well,” says Paul Taylor, the executive vice president of Pew Research Center.

2. Because it is fiscally responsible. Ever wonder how much it costs for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest, detain, and deport an undocumented worker? The answer is approximately $12,500. Do the math and you’ll discover that deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants would cost taxpayers $137.5 billion. That’s a lot of marbles that Americans simply don’t have.

3. Because it is pro-family. Conservative Christians often talk about their desire to protect the nuclear family, a belief in conflict with many conservatives’ desire for mass deportation. During the Obama administration, 1.7 million undocumented immigrants have been deported and thus separated from their families. A pathway to citizenship will allow these families to remain unified.

4. Because the Bible commands us to “welcome the stranger.” Christians base their faith on the “word of God,” and yet many Christians don’t know how the Bible speaks to this issue. The Old Testament speaks about the “immigrant” or the “stranger” at least 90 times, but few Christians ground themselves in these passages. Instead, they often lead with their politics rather than their theology. But in Exodus, for example, God commands the Israelites not to oppress immigrants. And in Leviticus, God commands the Israelites to treat immigrants no differently than citizens. Though the Bible does not necessitate that Christians support a pathway to citizenship, I think the principles we find throughout the Scriptures lead us to reconcile immigrants with the law in this way.

We must strive to build our country on the rule of law and secure our borders. But we must also address to the millions of undocumented parents, children, brothers, and sisters currently residing in the United States. Future generations will judge us for how we respond to the “strangers” among us.

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As evangelical leaders push for immigration reform, they prove yet again that politics makes strange bedfellows.

The typically conservative group is allying with President Obama and congressional Democrats through a broad coalition called the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT). Supporters of the EIT include Leith Anderson, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, Matthew Staver of Liberty University, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, and more than 100 heads of evangelical denominations, colleges, and organizations. Together, they have endorsed a statement calling for a bipartisan solution that, among other things, respects human dignity, protects the unity of families, secures our national borders, and establishes a pathway toward citizenship for those who desire it.

Many commentators believe this effort may create a tipping point on immigration. Evangelicals are able to speak about the issue in moral terms by using religious language, and as an important part of the conservative base, they can pressure Republican opposition in ways few other groups can.

As William McKenzie of The Dallas Morning News writes, “Evangelicals hold the key to re-creating our immigration system.”

Yet despite the broad support from such an influential faction of American Christians, the road to immigration reform is still a long one.  Though a reform bill passed in the Senate with 68 votes, passage in the House seems less than likely. GOP leaders have publicly criticized the bill, and Speaker Boehner says he won’t pass it without a majority of the Republican caucus. Additionally, he says they will write their own bill rather than accept the Senate’s. In short, it may be a while before an immigration bill becomes law.

So what gives?

As it turns out, the evangelical movement on immigration has been mostly top-down and not bottom-up. It has failed to do the difficult work of convincing and mobilizing (or at least neutralizing) the millions of evangelical churchgoers and voters. As The New York Times reports, while “no prominent pastor has spoken out against the immigration (reform) effort … accord has been less broad among the faithful.”

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If the Zimmerman verdict has taught us anything, it is that racial tensions in America are as fierce as they’ve ever been.

This week, I published an interview with Leroy Barber, an African-American Christian leader, who called for Christians to “listen, learn, and lament” in the wake of the verdict. The article was relatively innocuous—certainly not inflammatory—but the comments were heated, often offensive, and largely indicative of what we’ve seen across the broader culture. In the hours following the jury’s decision, twitter exploded with polarized reactions and news commentators have fanned the flames.

African-American singer Toni Braxton tweeted that she was “embarrassed to be an American,” and a Florida Tea Party member responded, “Yo girl, you can’t take America’s justice system? Go be an African!” Athlete Roddy White tweeted, “All them [sic] jurors should go home tonight and kill themselves for letting a grown man get away with killing a kid.” Conservative rock-n-roller Ted Nugent wrote a blog calling Trayvon Martin, “a 17-year-old dope smoking, racist gangsta wannabe” and that Zimmerman should sue Martin’s parents for emotional suffering.

I guess all that talk about the election of President Barack Obama ushering in a “post-racial” reality was premature.

Personally, I’m conflicted about the verdict. I don’t know if George Zimmerman was a racist. I don’t know if he started the fight or threw the first punch. I don’t know if this was a simple matter of self-defense or if the killer was made out to be the victim in an egregious failure of the justice system. Like everyone else, I only know what Zimmerman claims. The other side of the story is dead.

What I do know is that American’s reactions prove yet again that we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to racial reconciliation.

To be sure, there are agitators and extremists on both sides of debates like this one. Some believe that anytime a person of color is the victim of a crime, race must be a factor. These are usually people who raise money and gain recognition by inserting themselves into such situations and generating media.

On the other side are those who believe that race is almost never at play. They say, as I have often heard that “racism is not really a problem today,” a comment that should probably be followed by the hashtag, #stuffwhitepeoplesay. When a controversy like the Zimmerman trial arises, this group parrots phrases like “race baiting” or “playing the race card” and other talking points given to them by their favorite news commentator or radio talk show host.

I find myself somewhere in between these two poles. I am not a chicken little who immediately assumes racial motivations, but neither am I an ostrich who believes that racism is in our nation’s rearview mirror. Racism is real, and it is still a problem in America.

About 20 miles north of where I live in Forsyth County, Georgia, a sign once warned blacks not to be there after dark. Until the 1980s, people of color wouldn’t even drive into that county. Until 1987, not a single black person had lived there in 75 years. When Oprah Winfrey travelled there to tape a show, community members told her they didn’t want a mixed-race community and they were “afraid of black people.”

A breathtaking level of ignorance, discrimination and venom in America, and a mere 26 years ago.

Blatant racial injustices of this scale have undeniably decreased since the 1980s—more than 20,000 minority residents call Forsyth County “home” today—but they have not been entirely eliminated. As John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute has shown, the problems are still vast and complex:

• The criminal justice system is still stacked against racial minorities. People of color make up 30% of the general population and 60% of the prison population. Blacks that commit federal crimes on average receive sentences that are ten percent longer than their white counterparts. Blacks and Hispanics are much more likely to face interaction with police officers, are three times as likely to be searched during a traffic stop, and four times as likely to be the target of the use of police force.

• The education system has grown more segregated in recent years, often leaving racial minorities to wither away in failing schools. According to a 2012 report by UCLA, “fifteen percent of black students and 14 percent of Latino students attend ‘apartheid schools’ across the nation in which whites make up zero to 1 percent of the enrollment.”

• Racial minorities often lack the equal right to vote. This is due, in part, to the first problem. Due to the American policy of felon disenfranchisement, one-third of African-Americans lack a political voice. More black men were disenfranchised in 2004 than in 1870, when the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified and racial discrimination at the voting booth was barred.

As a Christian, I’m especially troubled by racial injustice and tensions. Our faith calls us to a ministry of reconciliation, and yet Christians have often contributed to these divides instead of working to bridge them. I enumerated many of these in my book, A Faith of Our Own, in which I conclude:

Christians must recognize that for all the progress made on many fronts, the issue of race continues to plague us. We cannot have both liberation and domination, independence and exploitation, redemption and oppression, love and hatred. If ever the Christian community is going to move forward in dealing with their public witness, we must concurrently overcome our failings on race, past and present.

Christians have much at stake because we are a Gospel people. The central event in the Christian story is the execution of Jesus Christ, an event that shattered racial barriers and that empowers us to overcome them today. The Gospel has the power to unite disparate races under a common banner where they speak a common language and worship a common Father by proclaiming a common message. It is why the Apostle John wrote, “You were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every people” and why the Apostle Paul devoted an entire section of one of his epistles to addressing the matter of racism. It’s why we’re told to look forward to the day when “persons from every tribe and language and people and nation” can gather to sing a new song.

As pastor Tim Keller has pointed out, one reason Christians have become so indifferent to racism is the stubbornness of the human heart. “We never want to hear about what is wrong with us,” he says. We need ears to hear and eyes to see the realities of our world and the way in which the Gospel informs our response.

I’m a columnist and not a politician, so I don’t have a 12-point policy plan for repairing racial problems and resolving these tensions. I know we need to listen more and talk less. I know we need to seek to understand before seeking to be understood. I know we need to avoid divisive rhetoric and incendiary language. And I know that Christians specifically have no choice but to devote serious energy to addressing these problems.

Post-racial America is not yet a reality, but I believe it is possible. May we—both Americans in general and Christians specifically—redouble our efforts to work towards justice and reconciliation. While the pundits and politicians will continue to take advantage of this controversy, let’s instead have serious conversations about education, the criminal justice system, racial profiling, voting rights, and civil discourse. Let us press on toward the world we desire but have not yet achieved.

And let us do so together.

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Reactions to the George Zimmerman “not guilty” verdict from American Christians have been as diverse as the community itself.

Some Christian pastors used their pulpits on Sunday to express outrage, including T.D. Jakes who expressed his shock over the verdict. Pastor Greg Surratt concluded, “Our justice system worked,” Charisma Magazine urged Christians to pray, and Anthea Butler of Religion Dispatches lamented, “God ain’t good all the time. In fact, sometimes God is not for us.”

I especially resonated with the approach taken by LifeWay’s Ed Stetzer who posted a series of interviews, including two from minority leaders, on “Privilege, Blame, and Injustice.” This is a time where Christians–particularly conservative white ones–need to listen. We need to listen to our brothers and sisters who have been affected by racial injustice and seek to understand why they have been so deeply impacted by the Zimmerman trial.

That’s why I decided to chat with Leroy Barber, Global Executive Director of Word Made Flesh, an international organization that works among the most vulnerable of the world’s poor. He is the author of several books, including the forthcoming Red, Yellow, Black, and White: Who’s More Precious in His Sight? Leroy is a longtime friend of mine, and someone I lean on to help me understand and navigate matters of race. Here we talk about the Zimmerman verdict and what Christians can learn from it.

JM: Where were you when you heard about the George Zimmerman verdict, and what was your personal reaction to it?

LB: I was sitting in front of the television waiting for the verdict. And, as it was read, I was numb. I could not believe that was the verdict. I just couldn’t. It was shocking. It was numbing. It was just like somebody had just given you such a blow that you can’t respond. You can just lay there.

JM: In your opinion, how have churches responded to the open racial wounds in our country? Do you think it’s different for predominately black churches and predominately white churches?

LB: I think what I’m seeing in the black church is not an apathy, but more or less, “White people are going to be this way and we need to take care of ourselves. We need to have our own churches and have our own businesses.” Inherently, there’s nothing bad with that, but I wonder if a lot of that response hinders us getting to a place where we can tackle these problems.

And then, on the white side, I think of the constant not talking about it, or not really just coming out and saying, “Yes, this was racist.”

That is just an entry point to conversation. I don’t think a lot of white Christians understand that. I am not trying to nail anybody to a fence around race. We’re trying to enter conversation, to get to one simple truth and understanding.

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As a poet, spoken word artist and author, Amena Brown’s words excite, ignite and inspire. She and her husband, Matt, also known as DJ Opdiggy, travel and perform a presentation of poetry, monologue and deejaying. In this interview she talks about her debut book release, Breaking Old Rhythms: Answering the Call of a Creative God, how we can better tune our ears and lives to the rhythm of God, and what it’s like to be an outspoken African-American female personality in a predominately white and male evangelical culture.

JM: How would you explain spoken word as a creative medium to someone unfamiliar? 

AB: Spoken word is typically free verse poetry written, to be performed, not just to be read. Spoken word sometimes also includes the wordplay of hip-hop and the rhythms of jazz. It is an art that thrives on originality and each poet using his or her unique voice and point of view to tell a story. I like to say if hip-hop and jazz had a poetry baby, it would be spoken word.

JM: How does faith intersect with your art – is it intentional or natural?

AB: Whether or not I write something explicitly about God, my journey of faith always makes it to the page, from writing about music, prayer, relationships or being a nerd growing up. Performing spoken word means bringing your soul and your story to stage, and for me, my faith is at the center of that story.

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