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Ronald C. Potter is a writer and theologian in Jackson, Mississippi.

In January, Ronald C. Potter was one of a number of leading African-American scholars who wrote an open letter to African-American leaders regarding AIDS and the sexual holocaust in Africa .Earlier this year, Christianity Today reprinted a 1990 essay by Philip Yancey entitled "Confessions of a Racist ." In 1998, a CT opinion piece from Gordon Marino questioned whether whites should apologize for slavery.Christian History, our sister publication, has dealt with the issue of slavery in a number of recent issues. Issue 53 focuses on the efforts of William Wilberforce and other Christian politicians to end the African slave trade. Issue 56 looks at the great challenge that faced Christian missionaries like David Livingstone when they tried to eradicate African slavery. Issue 62 discusses African-American Christianity in the United States before the Civil War. It includes a history of black abolitionism , fugitive slave narratives , and links to many related resources.Books & Culture , another sister publication, shows how Christians in the Southern United States tried to reconcile slavery with Scripture, as well as how the white abolitionist movement evolved over time. In another issue, they highlight a series of books that examine the African-American experience and examine the theological dimension of the American civil rights movement. They also review Amistadand reflect on the racial views of American political conservatives.Religious Tolerance offers a history of Christian views toward slavery. An article from Yale's Gilda Lehrman Center shows how Christians gradually came to see the incompatibility between slavery and Christian teachings. An extensive discussion and chronology of slavery and racism in the United States is available online at the Web site for the PBS series Africans in America . The University of Adelaide in Australia has an extensive bibliography of the abolition of slavery in the West. A very extensive history of the slave trade is available at Spartacus Educational.

• A Little Wine for the Soul?
• Should We All Speak in Tongues?
• Did Jesus Really Descend to Hell?
• Take, Eat—But How Often?
• Is Christmas Pagan?
• Are Christians Required to Tithe?
• Is Revelation Prophecy or History?
• You're Divorced—Can You Remarry?
• If Grace Is Irresistible, Why Evangelize?
• If I'm an Evangelical, What Am I?
• A Cracked Code
• Committing the Unforgivable Sin
• What Bible Version Did Jesus Read?
• Did God Die on the Cross?
• You Must Be Born Again—But at What Age?
• Was the Revolutionary War Justified?
• Can the Dead Be Converted?
• Cloaked in Mystery
• Is Hell Forever?
• Denominations: Divided We Stand
• Did Paul Baptize for the Dead?
• Do Demons Have Zip Codes?
• Doubting Thomas's Gospel

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May 22 2000, Vol. 44, No. 6