Instagram story viewer> @readtoresist> Posts

Reading is Resitance 📚⚖️

@readtoresist

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

Earth Day 2026
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
~Robin Kimmerer

To celebrate Creation, learn earthly sacred wisdom from this professor, founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, writer, scientist, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and so much more!

Dr. Kimmerer is also a prophet and elder who shares her scientific knowledge that is “every bit as mystic as it is scientific”.

#readtoresist
#braidingsweetgrass
#robinkimmerer
#indigenouswisdom
#earthday2026
#readingisresistance
#creation by @readtoresist

6

2

6 months ago

“History really does matter in our journey into unity.”

We need “to see the vital role history plays in human connection…we each come with a story, and there is no way we can have a substantive relationship with one another unless we see the essential pieces of each other’s narrative.”

“It’s important we unearth the story of black history and the possibility it holds for weighty intimacy across the divide.”

I have appreciated diving into Grace to Overcome by Bryan Loritts to learn our collective history along with Scripture to have an “experience at the crossroads of the presence and power of God and the history journey of people of color.” (Bishop Ulmer)

A perfect book to learn through this Black History Month!

Grace to Overcome: 31 Devotions on God’s Work Through Black History
Bryan C. Loritts @loritts by @readtoresist

5

2

8 months ago

Happy MLK Day!

“Both African Americans and European Americans need to be reminded of their histories and of how their ancestors related to one another. We keep in mind the maxim that if we do not remember our history, we shall be doomed to repeat it…so God leads us to share our memories, in order that we may be in a position to be mediators and reconcilers.”

How should whyte people respond to the teachings and theology of MLK?

For all the European Americans, here is an example of a white West Virginian pastor who “studied and thought deeply about race and religion and about racial discrimination in America” with a “long ministerial career that always emphasized equality and justice issues no matter where his call took him.”

Here are his words:

“The overwhelming themes that flow through the Hebrew Scriptures are the concepts of righteousness, which means living in obedience to God’s will, and justice, which means treating all people fairly and with respect. And there is no doubt but that the primary in the words of Jesus in the New Testament is love.

If we aspire to a strong foundation for our convictions, we can do no better than to adhere to the proposition that relationships in our society need to be based on…

RIGHTEOUSNESS, JUSTICE, AND LOVE.”

Reading is Resistance.

Learn forward by studying and thinking deeply about race, religion, and racial discrimination in America as Brother Robert led the way. by @readtoresist

3

0

9 months ago

“What would happen if a white church reimagined evangelism as a discipleship practice? For starters, I believe white people would be reached with a gospel that reconciles them with their Creator as well as across lines of cultural and racial division. What a powerful testimony to our racialized society that would be! But also, the members of that congregation would find themselves being led to greater harmony with their Christian siblings of color. Through the abundance of the kingdom of God, by intentionally discipling white people into the kingdom, white Christians will find themselves growing beyond their segregation to the reconciliation of the body of Christ.”

This book, read years ago, remains as relevant today as it was then for the concept of white people being discipled into the kingdom of God.

I agree, this is a discipleship issue!!

White normative churches (when the dominant culture leads the church) need to speak up and not “comfort white people over the well-being of people of color.”

Let’s not be colorblind but reimagine our “discipleship practices to address the characteristics of white Christianity that typically inhibit attempts at racial reconciliation.”

Still sitting in the truth that cheap diversity is not true solidarity. by @readtoresist

8

0

a year ago

“It may seem strange who have already attained a position of power through violence invest so much time in justifying their plunder with their words. But even plunderers are human beings whose violent ambitions must contend with the guilt that gnaws at them when they meet the eyes of their victims. AND SO A STORY MUST BE TOLD (emphasis mine), one that raises a wall between themselves and those they seek to throttle and rob.”
The Message
~Ta-Nehisi Coates

Theologians and authors, Dr. Soong-Chan Rah & Walter Brueggemann, teach that embedded narratives are
powerful enough to shape our “actions, responses, and reflexive thoughts”, becoming our lived
theology since “our story tells us what to do.”

Stories are powerful. What stories are we listening to? What stories counter the dysfunctional narratives that we are being told daily? We must be intentional!

The Message is Coates’s lived experiences in Senegal, South Carolina, and Palestine, where he learns and informs that stories of the oppressed must be “woven by their own hands” for them to be seen and thus validated and valued on their terms. We travel with him through the stories of his travels and learn about places and people through his perspective.

This book is for such a time as this. Learn forward with the wisdom on every page of this book! by @readtoresist

7

0

a year ago

“If we think waging war against other human beings, we should first admit that they are own distant brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, children, and grandchildren. If we continue wantonly extracting the earth’s resources, we should admit that she is our mother and all the other species on which we share the planet are our relatives. Finally, we people who are “walking earth” should face the fact that we cannot continue on these destructive paths without hurting ourselves and our future generations. We are truly related.”
Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision
~Dr. Randy S. Woodley

All of Dr. Woodley’s books help us to resist empire and lead us to shalom.

We have much to learn from our Indigenous brothers and sisters in our relationships with Creator, one another (both personal and structural), and creation!

Expand your vision and ultimately your empathy by leaning in to listen and learn from others.

Pick up one of Dr. Woodley’s books and read his Substack, which is his current work to learn forward!

#readtoresist
#readingisresistance
#shalom
#nativeamericantheology by @readtoresist

7

0

a year ago

“How do we shut our eyes to the deception of the natural and liberate our minds and hearts to the reality of the Spirit (and) by the power of the Spirit, we can decide to trust not only God’s will concerning justice but also in his way to accomplish it.”
Bread for the Resistance
~Donna Barber

We need to fill up on truth and goodness for the long road for justice and equality for all of our neighbors.

This devotional book shares why and how to have the spiritual disciplines to “feed your soul.”

This book will “keep you on the path, in the game, going about the work of the high calling of God that is in Jesus Christ.”

#readtoresist
#readingisresistance
#justice
#justicework by @readtoresist

8

2

a year ago

We must embrace our history. To “do justly,” we must tell our story and express the pain of our history. You will hear about our bright hopes and our painful deaths. Weep with and sing with us. The pain will be so great its only consolation is in our Creator. The great sin against our dignity is answered by a love that brings arrogant violence to its knees. This is the message of the blood of Jesus that speaks better than that of Abel.”
Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys
~Richard Twiss

Truth telling about our country’s history will give us the compassion and empathy to follow Jesus and truly love our neighbor, the “others” all around us. The truth will set us free.

Sit with these hard and sacred stories to get a glimpse of the Spirit at work in all cultures and gain faith from those who follow our Creator through unimaginable hardships. It will increase your faith and perseverance, leading to hope!

Learn forward! Reading is resistance! 📚♥️

#readtoresist
#readingisresistance
#truehistory
#nativeamerican
#richardtwiss
#nativeamericanhistory
#indigenoushistory
#indigenoushistoryisamericanhistory by @readtoresist

7

0

a year ago

“Fascists despised the small truths of daily existence, loved slogans that resonated like a new religion, and preferred creative myths to history or journalism (!!!!). They used new media, which at the time was radio, to create a drumbeat of propaganda that aroused feelings before people had time to ascertain the facts. And now, as then, many people confused faith in a hugely flawed leader with the truth about the world we all share.
Post-truth is Pre-Fascism”

“Authoritarian regimes usually include a special riot police force whose task was to disperse citizens who seek to protest, and a secret state police force...”

Sounds like the daily news.

Wake up. “Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. READ BOOKS.”

Find and read this short 126-page book to learn the lessons from the “Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism.”

Reading is Resistance. by @readtoresist

10

2

a year ago

“‘Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community. Where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.’ The United States of America has a white majority that remembers a history of discovery, opportunity, expansion, and exceptionalism. Meanwhile communities of color have the lived experience of stolen lands, broken treaties, Jim Crow laws, Indian removal, ethnic cleansing, lynchings, boarding schools, segregation, internment camps, mass incarceration, and families separated at our borders. Our country does not have a common memory.”
Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery
Mark Charles & Soong-Chan Rah
@wirelesshogan @profrah

In 1452 & 1454, Pope Nicholas V authored two papal bulls that would “compose the Doctrine of Discovery”. These papal bulls created a lawful system of slavery and slaughter for centuries in the name of Christ.

This is a truthful conversation on the power of a story, dysfunctional theology, settler colonialism, empire, genocide, and white messiahship of the American story. To be set free, we must know the truth and not continue to embrace the myths of “American Christian exceptionalism”.

Our collective history is painful, triggering, and traumatizing to wade through, but it will lead to a shared history, shared lament, and shared empathy for all those made in God’s image.

We can start today. Reading is resistance. by @readtoresist

8

0

a year ago

“These writers walk honestly into the failures of the church that has TOO LONG, TOO OFTEN, colluded with exclusionary practices.”
~Walter Brueggeman
Forgive Us
•Mary Elise Cannon
•Lisa Sharon Harper
•Troy Jackson
•Soong-Chan Rah

A lament. If only the church would embrace and repent, to sit and lament with our brothers and sisters.

Here is the list of confessions that are shared with our collective history.

Sins against God’s Creation
Sins against Indigenous People
Sins against African Americans and People of Color
Sins against Women
Sins against the LGBTQ Community
Sins against Immigrants
Sins against Jews and Muslims

The truth will set us free to repent, lament, and have hope for all that are made in the image of God. by @readtoresist

8

2

a year ago

“A lifestyle of justice is the essential mark of holiness.”

“Justice doesn’t happen by accident.”

“Jesus defined his own historical mission in terms of bringing justice to the poor and oppressed. His message represented a threat to the existing powers, which is why they opposed him.”

“The biblical narrative of God’s creative, sustaining, and redemptive activity is the primary place Christians can learn about the meaning of justice. Justice is a central theme in the Bible.”

To resist empire, read the bible because “True knowledge of God entails understanding God’s own devotion to justice and striving to emulate God’s justice in one’s own manner of living in the world.”

The ministry of reconciliation is our relationship with God, ourselves, and others!

#readingisresistance
#readtoresist
#biblicaljustice by @readtoresist

4

0

a year ago