Incredible scene at the Tennessee State Capitol.
Representative Justin Jones (
@brotherjones_
) greets supporters after being expelled from the TN House of Representatives.
#Morehouse
valedictorian, Deangelo Fletcher, calls for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip” — met with applause from crowd and
@POTUS
behind him.
Justin Pearson (
@Justinjpearson
) was just expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives.
Here he shouts with his family and supporters. Drawing on the Black church tradition of giving “glory in tribulations.”
#TennesseeThree
Reinstated Rep. Justin Jones (
@brotherjones_
) speaks from the floor of the TN House of Representatives, Justin Pearson (
@Justinjpearson
) watches, fist raised, in support.
Justin Jones (
@brotherjones_
) is reinstated to his seat by the Metro Nashville Council. Immediately marches to the TN State Capitol to be sworn in again by Judge I’Ashea Myles
Rest in peace to a brilliant leader and fierce advocate for Black people: Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (
@JacksonLeeTX18
). Gone too soon. My thoughts are with her family.
Underrated marriage benefit: secretly testing out all of my wife’s skin and hair products in the shower, because let me tell you about this rice water cleansing oil 😱
When I lost my dad last September, my faith was shaken to its core. I prayed the prayers, I fasted, I believed and he still passed.
I’m still navigating the complexities of grief, let down and my faith, so here’s a thread of the FAITH-SAVING lessons I’m learning along the way 🧵
The Sabbath is, I believe, the most theologically dense idea in the Bible.
It is equity.
It is justice.
It is inclusion.
It is peace.
It is community.
It is preemptively given.
It is freedom.
And so, through everything — Happy Sabbath.
Perhaps the greatest deception of white supremacy in the post-Civil Rights era is the lie that one has to be consciously racist in order for their racism to count as racism.
Joe Manchin is on Face the Nation calling for an open primary, bypassing VP Harris, “this isn’t about race or gender… [that’s how] you lose democrats like me.”
My dad had polio as a child. My grandparents prayed for him to be healed, and scientists developed a polio vaccine that cured him.
Vaccines are an answer to prayer. Very simple.
Someone please inform my brothers that the call of women to the gospel ministry was settled when women ran with the good news of an empty tomb.
#GCSession
Friday GOODNESS: Very excited to welcome the talented multi-platform star
@garrison_hayes
to the MoJo team for a stint in a cool new role: Creator in Residence.
Read about Garrison's pioneering TikTok journalism here:
I shared with a friend how unjust and strange it feels to leave this year behind— the last year that my dad and I shared.
They reminded me that I am allowed to take him with me.
And so, still heartbroken, we’ll go into this new year and its many new experiences, together.
Not a single Black History Month passes where black students aren’t called niggers/monkeys/harassed on this Adventist campus. This was my reality for 6 yrs.
It’s not an individual problem! Consider, this: The people change every year, yet... the problem.. remains.
#institutional
Ah, yes... the grand scheme where Democrats rig the election for their presidential candidate and then cover their tracks by making it impossible for him to get a single piece of legislation through Congress.
Alternate script for your sermon quip on sexual abuse: “I stand in complete solidarity with those who have been abused. I believe you, and my church is committed to walking thru the entire Title IX investigation process alongside you. Abusers, your days are numbered. Repent.”
A controversial education bill passed in a Florida House vote on Friday.
One Republican lawmaker used the opportunity to wonder why educators don’t talk about how some slaves were paid for their labor.
Watch:
Shooter is still holed up, BUT!
Rita from the Red Cross is taking names of displaced residents, making sure we have what we need.
@AlexandriaVAPD
are bringing residents snacks and sandwiches.
Public servants are handling a really bad situation very well. We love to see it.
A white Ole Miss frat boy dances like a monkey and makes monkey noises near a Black woman who was protesting for Palestine.
Is this heart warming? (Video:
@StaceyJSpiehler
)
Congressman Dean Philips calls for vice president Kamala Harris to “introduce [herself] to the country” through an “open primary” process if Biden steps aside.
So I guess it wasn’t about the anthem... it wasn’t about the kneeling... it wasn’t even about the troops.
It was always about America wanting Black people to shut up and entertain them. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Since my dad passed in September, I often find myself longing for ways to connect with him again — old pictures, precious memories.
More often than not, however, I find him in the mirror. Staring back at me in creeping freckles and familiar smile lines.
Happy birthday, Pop ❤️❤️🩹
NEW: “I feel like North Korea has more democracy than we do in the state of Tennessee, and it's terrifying to me that we're in this march to fascism,”
@VoteGloriaJ
tells our
@garrison_hayes
in this exclusive sit-down on the eve of her possible expulsion from the TN Assembly.
This past weekend, one year ago, my dad was hospitalized with COVID. By Wednesday he was in the ICU and a few weeks later he was dead.
I’m still mourning that loss and it’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that it’s almost been a year without him. Two reminders:
The Black flight attendant gave me the whole can of cranberry juice and whispered “Happy Black History Month” so I’d say things are going well so far this month.
Breaking News: Simone Biles said she withdrew from the women’s gymnastics team final because she wasn’t in a good place mentally to compete after so much pressure to win. It is not clear whether she will compete in her individual events.
I have a few friends on here who may not be familiar with my Christian denomination, the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I’ll be tweeting about our global General Conference meeting over the next few days using the
#GCSession
hashtag. It’ll be quite a time 🤣
Just witness a man open his front-facing camera on Facebook, take a picture of himself, and immediately post it as his new profile picture and I am flabbergasted.
Theory: you’re probably a morning person, but years of procrastination has trained you to think that you get your best work done at night, so you’re always tired in the morning.
just go to bed, beloved.
Quiet part out loud: this is the logical conclusion of fundamentalist headship theology.
He was preaching a relatively traditional (and widely accepted) “wives submit to your husbands” kind of sermon up until tht analogy.
When will we examine the roots that produced this fruit?
The pastor of Grand Concourse Adventist church expressing shock at a wife suing her husband for rape.
Then he says: “Gentlemen, the best person to rape is your wife.”
At the very least, Greater NY Conference needs to issue a statement condemning this grossly abusive message.
Oklahoma’s Supreme Court ruled that the state can sponsor/perpetrate a massacre, then financially benefit from present-day tourism and fundraising around that massacre, without ever having to compensate the living survivors of said massacre.
Egregiously unjust take.
BREAKING: The Oklahoma Supreme Court has dismissed the Tulsa Race Massacre case, in what was likely the final opportunity for survivors to receive justice
My latest video is out for
@MotherJones
about the January 6 Insurrection. Check it out!
In short, history never repeats itself — but it does often rhyme.
Happy 108th Birthday to Viola Fletcher. The oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre who is currently suing the city of Tulsa for, literally, equipping the white terrorists with weapons to destroy her childhood home. 🧵
I’ve been following the
#Reparations
conversation for a few years (peep the clip from 2019 🥶🤣)
What California is trying to do could be huge. Here’s some of my reporting for
@MotherJones
I expected him to be acquitted — but the sinking feeling remains.
For the 245th consecutive year, being a “scared” white person is still an incredibly effective defense strategy in this country.
5. Reimagine doubt as an important part of deepening faith. God is not intimidated or shaken by your questions.
In my life, doubt has created the necessary conditions for God’s most important revelations to me. 🙏🏾❤️🩹
Beekeepers are required to register with the state.
Michael recommends that new beekeepers spend a year with a seasoned one to learn the ropes of bee keeping before building your own colony. A colony worth of bees costs about $1,000, and that doesn't include upkeep.
Two wildly different visions of Christianity are on the ballot in Georgia's Walker-Warnock runoff. In this new video (his first for
@motherjones
!)
@garrison_hayes
shows how Christian Nationalism and a civil rights-based tradition are doing battle for Georgia's soul.
2. Platitudes and Christian aphorisms mean very little in our darkest moments. Develop a deep understanding of *what* you believe and *why* you believe what you believe.
Deepening my Bible study has comforted me on days when “god has a plan” could not.
Spiritual leaders who recklessly spew their anti-vaccine lies and conspiracies are false teachers. They are playing a dangerous game with the lives of people who view them as a trusted source.
You mischaracterized the entire discussion and, again, made it about your pet issue. Two points you should address:
1. Confederate monuments are FUNDEMENTALLY different than items in a museum. I’m really shocked this needs to be explained.
It is not an outside vs inside issue.
Thread
1 Yesterday, I retweeted a tweet from Robert P. George, a legal scholar, political philosopher, and author from Princeton University, which caused a stir. The tweet said that Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a eugenicist and a racist.
1. Understand that faith requires an openness to outcome that most Christians are totally unprepared for.
I struggled to make sense of the point of prayer when it didn’t yield the outcome I wanted. Faith is an invitation to trust in spite of that potential outcome.
The most studied, scrutinized and closely watched vaccine in the history of mankind has a 97% efficacy rate against severe disease.
Believers should recognize an actual modern miracle when they see one.
A pastor confesses his “HATRED” for well over half of the voting population in America and the primary conclusion he comes to is that **they** need to be converted.
Lord. Have. Mercy. 🤦🏾♂️
A lot of folks are (willfully?) ignorant of this history. Lucky for you, I made an entire video breaking it all down with specific examples (including the one
@PeteButtigieg
is referencing here.)
Watch ⬇️
The last year has been so traumatizing that whenever I see someone post a picture of a friend of family member, I immediately get scared that they died.
About half the time it’s just the other person’s birthday, but it’s been a crazy year.