{"id":28859,"date":"2016-01-29T18:05:54","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T23:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=28859"},"modified":"2016-02-02T17:14:19","modified_gmt":"2016-02-02T22:14:19","slug":"january-29-2016-americas-original-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/","title":{"rendered":" America&#8217;s Original Sin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly host Bob Abernethy and managing editor Kim Lawton interview Jim Wallis, editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, about his new book, <em>America\u2019s Original Sin:<\/em> <em>Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America<\/em> and his challenge to white churches to become multiracial communities of faith.<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>Read an excerpt from <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.americasoriginalsin.com\/\">America&#8217;s Original Sin<\/a> <\/em>by Jim Wallis (BrazosPress, 2016):<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p><b>New Talks, New Bridges, New America<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Another place for needed interracial talks to occur is in and between religious congregations. Faith communities that are becoming more multiracial are some of the best places to have the difficult, painful, and personal conversations Americans need to have about our racial future. If we understand that we are all children of God together, created in the image of God, that\u2019s a good starting point to patiently explain to one another how different our racial experiences have been right here in our own country\u2014and even in our <b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-28860\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2016\/01\/Americas-original-sin-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"Americas-original-sin-198x300\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" \/><\/b>churches. If we worship together, hear God\u2019s Word together, and confess our sins together, while our children are in Sunday school together, we may be in the best position of any group to have the new talks that Americans need to have for the sake of a more multiracial future.<\/p>\n<p>Even here in the United States, it is the multiracial faith communities that reflect what the church was meant to be from its founding. Creating new relationships, \u201csister churches\u201d between white and black and Latino and Asian-American churches, across our own cities\u2019 racial dividing lines, is often a first and necessary step. Visiting one another\u2019s churches, hearing one another\u2019s preachers, singing with one another\u2019s choirs all can be perspective- and life-changing experiences. Pastors must make racial reconciliation and justice a <i>regular pulpit topic<\/i> in their own churches. But all this is more than just creating \u201cKumbaya\u201d moments of emotional fellowship. It\u2019s also about setting the stage for the new talks we need to have together about the changes of policy and practices we need in our country. Only with deliberate efforts and energy to build cross-racial relationships between churches can we create the \u201csafe spaces\u201d we need for the hard but necessary conversations we must have in order to build a bridge to a new America.<\/p>\n<p>What do you have to offer and how can you offer it? That is an \u201caltar call\u201d for all of us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAmerica\u2019s original sin\u2014it isn\u2019t just slavery,\u201d says author, activist, and Sojourners editor Jim Wallis. \u201cIt\u2019s the kind of racism we created to justify the use of black people as chattel and property to build this nation, to say from the beginning that black lives matter less than white lives, and that sin is still with us.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/\" class=\"more\">More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":28895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6569],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videocast","topics-culture-and-society","topics-ethics","topics-race"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>America\u2019s Original Sin | January 29, 2016 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An activist pastor and preacher says white and black churches must cross the bridge to a new America now.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"America\u2019s Original Sin | January 29, 2016 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An activist pastor and preacher says white and black churches must cross the bridge to a new America now.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBS.ReligionEthics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-29T23:05:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-02T22:14:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2016\/01\/FEAT-Wallis.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"adesanyai\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"adesanyai\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"adesanyai\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/cc812c913917c82ca71eacab84046746\"},\"headline\":\"America&#8217;s Original Sin\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-29T23:05:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-02T22:14:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/\"},\"wordCount\":405,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2016\/01\/FEAT-Wallis.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Videocast\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/\",\"name\":\"America\u2019s Original Sin | January 29, 2016 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2016\/01\/FEAT-Wallis.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-29T23:05:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-02T22:14:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/cc812c913917c82ca71eacab84046746\"},\"description\":\"An activist pastor and preacher says white and black churches must cross the bridge to a new America now.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2016\/01\/FEAT-Wallis.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2016\/01\/FEAT-Wallis.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":450},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/\",\"name\":\"Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly\",\"description\":\"An examination of religion&#039;s role and the ethical dimensions behind top news headlines.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/search-results\/?q={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/cc812c913917c82ca71eacab84046746\",\"name\":\"adesanyai\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/author\/adesanyai\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"America\u2019s Original Sin | January 29, 2016 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS","description":"An activist pastor and preacher says white and black churches must cross the bridge to a new America now.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"America\u2019s Original Sin | January 29, 2016 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS","og_description":"An activist pastor and preacher says white and black churches must cross the bridge to a new America now.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/","og_site_name":"Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBS.ReligionEthics\/","article_published_time":"2016-01-29T23:05:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-02-02T22:14:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2016\/01\/FEAT-Wallis.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"adesanyai","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionEthics","twitter_site":"@ReligionEthics","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"adesanyai","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/"},"author":{"name":"adesanyai","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/cc812c913917c82ca71eacab84046746"},"headline":"America&#8217;s Original Sin","datePublished":"2016-01-29T23:05:54+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-02T22:14:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/"},"wordCount":405,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2016\/01\/FEAT-Wallis.jpg","articleSection":["Videocast"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/","name":"America\u2019s Original Sin | January 29, 2016 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2016\/01\/FEAT-Wallis.jpg","datePublished":"2016-01-29T23:05:54+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-02T22:14:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/cc812c913917c82ca71eacab84046746"},"description":"An activist pastor and preacher says white and black churches must cross the bridge to a new America now.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/01\/29\/january-29-2016-americas-original-sin\/28859\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2016\/01\/FEAT-Wallis.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2016\/01\/FEAT-Wallis.jpg","width":800,"height":450},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/","name":"Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly","description":"An examination of religion&#039;s role and the ethical dimensions behind top news headlines.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/search-results\/?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/cc812c913917c82ca71eacab84046746","name":"adesanyai","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/author\/adesanyai\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28859"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28903,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28859\/revisions\/28903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}