CommentaryWhen a Pastor Shows Up at a Black Lives Matter ProtestI posted a question on Facebook at the beginning of 2018: “What ever happened to Black Lives Matter?” The question wasn’t prompted by animosity, despite the disagreements between clergy and BLM. To …Topics: Black Church, CMCCE, Criminal Justice, Protests and Uprisings, Race and Culture, Religious Leadership, Violence
CommentaryStudying Religion in the “Belly of the Beast” – A Prison in RioIt seemed like a good idea when I made the arrangements. But my heart was beating at double speed and I was filled with doubt, as a staff member handed me a …Topics: Christians and Christianity, Criminal Justice, Latin America, Pentecostals and Pentecostalism, Violence
BookIf I Give My Soul: Faith Behind Bars in Rio de JaneiroIf I Give My Soul: Faith Behind Bars in Rio de Janeiro By Andrew Johnson (Oxford University Press, 2017) The writing of this book was supported by the Pentecostal Charismatic Research Initiative. …Topics: Books, Christians and Christianity, Criminal Justice, Economic Inequality, Latin America, Pentecostals and Pentecostalism, Religious Beliefs and Rituals- VideoDignity and Power Now: The Spirituality of Black Lives Matter
CommentaryL.A. Times: It’s 2016 and the Civil Rights Era Hasn’t EndedThis post originally appeared on the Sunday OpEd page of the L.A. Times. I participated in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. I was pastor of my second church, in Kansas City, Kansas, in …Topics: Black Church, CMCCE, Criminal Justice, Economic Inequality, Political Attitudes and Values, Protests and Uprisings, Race and Culture, Religious Leadership, Southern California
CommentaryBeyond Prayers and Protests: Building Trust Among the Police and Community in Downtown Los AngelesThis is the first in a series of essays about the Trust Talks. The next event is October 3. On a Saturday last April, a group of pastors and other faith leaders …Topics: Community Organizing, Creativity and Innovation, Criminal Justice, Race and Culture, Religious Leadership, Southern California, Violence
CommentaryHow To Make Sense of the Latest Killing on Skid RowLos Angeles police officers killed a man on Skid Row on Sunday night, shooting him outside the building where I work. He died, his body broken, as others’ have been, just a …Topics: Criminal Justice, Economic Inequality, Faith-Based Organizations, Race and Culture, Violence- VideoPentecostal Prayer Gangs: Documenting Religion in a Brazilian Prison
ArticleHow Muslim Civic Activism Helped Pass California’s Prop 47This post originally appeared on Religion Dispatches. California mostly defied the rightward national trend in this week’s midterm elections. The victory of Proposition 47, for example, makes California the first state in the …Topics: Creativity and Innovation, Criminal Justice, Government and Religion, Muslims and Islam, Southern California, Voting and Elections
CommentaryLA Voice: Congregations and Communities Building Electoral PowerFor many years in the United States, churches have been at the center of progressive political and social movements. From abolitionism to child welfare and of course the Civil Rights Movement, religious …Topics: Community Organizing, Creativity and Innovation, Criminal Justice, Economic Inequality, Government and Religion, Southern California, Voting and Elections- VideoLift Up, Wake Up, Grow Up: Religion and Civil Rights in Ferguson
CRCC in the NewsAddressing Issues of Justice and Race after Trayvon Martin CaseRev. 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 …Topics: CMCCE, Criminal Justice, Protests and Uprisings, Race and Culture
CRCC Experts
To schedule an interview with one of our experts, please contact CRCC:
crcc@usc.edu or 213-743-1611
Rev. Frank Jackson, Jr.Contributing FellowRev. Frank Jackson, Jr. couples his experience in business and investment with his passion for community development.
Andrew JohnsonContributing FellowAndrew Johnson is a sociologist who studies religion on the margins of society, with specific interests in religious practice inside of prison, Latin American Pentecostalism and religion in the city.
Jonathan RussellContributing FellowJonnie Russell is a scholar engaging religion, philosophy and politics, and a chaplain working for social justice on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.