Facing Race: A National Conference in St. Louis, MO — November 20-22, 2024

Mykal Slack


Presentations from Facing Race 2016

Discovering Your Personal Theology of Resistance/Racial Justice Activism

The history of every movement for human rights has had faith and spirituality at its core. The Civil Rights movement of the 60’s organized in churches and was largely led by clergy. Today, the Black Lives Matter, immigration justice, and many intersectional approaches to liberative movements are meeting in church classrooms and are being led by young ministers and seminary students. In fact, many racial justice activists would describe themselves as religious or spiritual, yet this is not often expressed in our messages. We often shy away from describing our theologies of liberation for fear of sounding too “preachy.” In omitting this angle, we are missing an enormous opportunity to counter the very vocal dominant religious opposition to our work and to build stronger partnerships with religious organizations. Reverends Marisol Caballero and Mykal Slack will lead this workshop in contemplating our individual belief systems with insight from the faith traditions from which we come. Participants will leave with a better ability to articulate the theological grounding that drives their activism (why do we do this work?), will gain confidence in amplifying the religious perspectives of racial justice work (How do we share stories about this work?), as well as have some ideas of how to integrate these theologies into their own personal spiritual practices (How do we keep growing in this work?), with a deeper understanding that our work is rooted in faith. Through group activities and personal reflection, this workshop will accomplish these goals through a truly interfaith lens.

Speakers: Marisol Caballero, Mykal Slack