“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” - John 10:10. We’ve all been celebrating Halle Bailey playing Ariel — a Black Princess! West African spiritual folklore PROVES mermaids have always been Black!

“Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath.” - Romans 12:19. Lynch mobs notoriously took “artifacts” from lynch sites. But there was one artifact they never thought to take. Now it’s been unearthed and is exposing thousands of horrors they never wanted us to know.

“Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power — not because they don’t see it, but because they see it and they don’t want it to exist.“ bell hooks know what she was talking about. Her childhood was rife with dysfunction, but she turned her pain into prose.

“​​Only the oppressed can receive liberating visions in wretched places.” - James Cohen. This couple knows white supremacy is a form of cowardice - and they’re quick to fight it head on! And they have an IMPORTANT reminder for us as we push back against white supremacists in our lives.

“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” - JOHN 14:1-3. Gathering in the dead of night, they dug a hole and placed the body inside. They never spoke about what they did that night to anyone — until now!

Matthew 11:15 says, “He who has ears for the truth, let him hear.” So when this Black genius spoke the truth to the most powerful white man in the country, what happened next?

“When I opened my mouth to say glory, a flame touched my tongue which ran down in me.” - Bishop Charles Harrison Mason. His tongue burned as words poured out of him…but they weren’t words he recognized. God was with him - was speaking THROUGH him! He had never felt more clear about his purpose.

"We will fight the white men. We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields." - Yaa Asantewaa. She bellowed these words, a charge to her people. They wouldn’t bow out from this fight - they couldn’t! The liberation of their very souls depended on it.

“Back then, Black churches were a small piece of peace. Church was a world where …. common humanity was the sustenance needed to make it through the rest of the week in a society that deemed them less than human.” Janelle Gray. There was one small accessory that made such peace possible.

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the first staircase, just take the first step.” – MLK. Having faith is different than having “blind faith.” It’s important we know the difference between the two — “blind faith” has been deadly for our people.

“Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have.” - Ta-Nehisi Coates. You might look at this item and question it’s value, but to this mother it was everything. Why?

Ephesians 6: 5-7 commands, “Slaves, respect and fear your earthly masters. Obey and serve them with the same sincerity of heart as you serve the Anointed One.” But surely this isn’t the whole story, right?

Thomas Dorsey, said of his talent, “I sat down at the piano and my hands began to browse over the keys. I felt as though I could reach out and touch God. I found myself playing a melody, one I’d never heard or played before, and words came into my head.” What can we learn from his experience?

“The two children struggled with each other in her womb…The LORD told her, ‘The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals.” - Genesis 25:22-23. She birthed the original twins - one brought war, and one brought creation. Who would win?

Barack Obama said this about the Black church: “Nothing is more powerful than the black church experience. A good choir and a good sermon in the black church, it's pretty hard not to be moved and be transported.” Here are some of the traditions we love about the Black church experience.

Haile Selassie said, “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.” But what exactly is evil?

Proverbs 18:14 urges us to pay attention to our spirits. “The human spirit can endure a long illness, but who can survive a crushed spirit?” But what happens when our spirits get crushed in church or when we are practicing our faith?

“What does it mean to be black and Catholic? It means that I … bring myself, my black self, all that I am, all that I have, all that I’m worth, all I hope to become.” – Sister Thea Bowman. She wanted to feel as if she belonged. She prayed for a community and God didn’t disappoint.

“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn. The mindfulness movement has been dominated by white faces, gimmicky goods, and high price tags. But here are easy and cost-effective ideas to heal and care for ourselves.

“I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.” – June Jordan. If we can’t set boundaries with loved ones, we are not practicing divine love. Saying “no” makes room for a future “yes!”

High Priest Robi Gilmore shared, “I went to one little … ‘New Orleans Voodoo ceremony’ … What the hell is this? All these white people with sparklers … running around in a circle with shawls on, turnin’ around like Stevie Nicks.”

Rev. Lenny Duncan says, "Jesus is Trayvon Martin, armed only with a bag of Skittles and an iced tea against an entire world that would rather hang him from a tree than love him. Until we see this, we are lost." But what does the Bible actually say about racial injustice?

“Without confession, there is no cleansing.” – Lailah Gifty Akita. It can be hard admitting we’re in a spiritual funk – even harder when the funk is caused by our own home! But cleansing negative energy is possible. You just need to know what to bring into your space, and what to kick to the curb.