I think in the end, God's justice is redemptive, it's restorative, it's about giving life, not taking life.

When we realize that we are both wretched and beautiful, we are freed up to see others the same way.

When one in three Black men are in prison, those larger systemic injustices become a part of what it means to love our neighbor as ourself. We care about dismantling institutional racism. That begins in relationships when you see injustice happen.

Certainly the institutional church is ill. It's hemorrhaging young people at an astronomical rate.

But as I pursued that dream of upward mobility preparing for college, things just didn't fit together. As I read Scriptures about how the last will be first, I started wondering why I was working so hard to be first.

There is real value in these local congregations. For me, a lot of it is the value of the sacraments we share. In neighborhoods like ours, the churches provide stability.

The true atheist is the one who refuses to see God's image in the face of their neighbour.