Archive
The (Next) Fire Next Time
As I watched nationwide protests flare after the grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson of Ferguson, MO, I couldn’t help thinking that despite the progress Americans think we’ve made …
The Visual History of Christian Civic Activism in China
Accounts of the Hong Kong campaign for political choice and universal suffrage that began in late September have emphasized the prominence of Christian activists in planning and leading that movement. Community organizer …
Chinese Christians Reshaping Their Nation
In 1989, just after college, I moved to Beijing to teach English to Chinese graduate students. I was in Tiananmen Square when the tanks rolled in and fled on my bike in …
A Family Occupation: Samuel Chu on the Occupy Central Movement in Hong Kong
Samuel Chu has been a community organizer in Southern California for the past decade. On September 26, 2014 he left Los Angeles to join his father–a Southern Baptist minister, community activist and …
Lift Up, Wake Up, Grow Up: Religion and Civil Rights in Ferguson
Prompted by recent social unrest in Ferguson, MO, New York City and Southern California, the Rev. Dr. Cecil Murray, Tansey Chair of Christian Ethics at USC and Chairman of the Cecil Murray …
In Mellow L.A. and Suave Rio, Religious Movements are Similar (but Different)
When I walked by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on USC’s campus this week I thought of Rio de Janeiro. The Coliseum stands as a symbol of both the 1932 and 1984 …
Brazil’s Sleeping Giant: The Protestant Church
Driving through Rio de Janeiro last week, I saw the phrase “O Gigante Acordou” or “The Giant Woke Up” scrawled across dozens of concrete walls, highway overpasses and World Cup-related construction sites. …
Addressing Issues of Justice and Race after Trayvon Martin Case
Rev. Mark Whitlock, executive director of the USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement, published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Sentinel on the George Zimmerman trial verdict. “How do people living …
Searching for Islam’s New Narratives in our Own Back Yard
In the past few weeks, two familiar voices have reemerged to explain the violence and rage that erupted in Libya, Egypt, and across the Muslim world earlier this month. Ayaan Hirsi Ali …
Faith Community’s Call to Action: 20 Years After the L.A. Riots
Brie Loskota testified at a public hearing hosted by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission. The event, “L.A. Civil Unrest: A Community Blueprint for the Next 20 …
20th anniversary of LA riots puts Rev. Murray in media spotlight
Rev. Dr. Cecil “Chip” Murray has appeared in national and local news stories regarding the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles civil unrest. Twenty years ago this month, over a thousand fires …
The Los Angeles Riots 20 Years Later: An Interview with the Rev. Dr. Cecil ‘Chip’ Murray
USC Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni interviewed Rev. Dr. Cecil “Chip” Murray for the Huffington Post. During the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles, Murray became a household name as the …
Syria’s Stockholm syndrome and its sectarian war
This post originally appeared in The Financial Times. When I worked in Syria as a journalist from 2004 to 2007 I was surprised to learn how many backed the regime – including …
Occupiers Get Religion
Occupy Wall Street now occupies more than the iconic New York City financial district. In the past month, the movement has spread across the U.S. and the world, to our phones as …
Forging a New Moral and Political Agenda
Executive Summary In the nearly 20 years since the 1992 civil unrest, the Los Angeles faith community has significantly expanded its role in the public sphere. The social response to the Rodney …
Politics of the Spirit: Religion and Multiethnicity in Los Angeles
“Politics of the Spirit” and the Religion and Civic Order Project helped launch the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture. USC professors John Orr and Donald Miller authored the report with …