Since my first theology class as a college student, I was fascinated with God’s title as the Ultimate Reality. Reality will never be clearer than when we meet God face to face; you see, there is no higher court to take our case to. (But there is no more loving a Judge!)…

I was born and raised in a working-class suburb of a major city – a totally white suburb. I knew not one person of color throughout grade school and high school. I once was on a bus at an amusement park that was full of black people…

Few white folks would recognize the poem above or connect it to the lyrics from a song sung famously by black blues singer Billie Holiday. In fact, it was her theme song, and she was often barred from singing it except in her more exclusive appearances in New York Café Society. I myself was not aware of it until I read The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone…