Downtown Birmingham's historic Alabama Theatre.
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Why this matters:
With so much water under the bridge, it’s easy to give in to exhaustion or let ourselves forget the reasons that drove the American people over the edge in the first place – an unending tide of injustice represented by so many deaths and culminating in one image – a knee on a neck. It stirred something within us, not unlike the live footage of 1963 Birmingham’s snarling police dogs and kids swept down the street by fire hoses. Four years ago, amid a pandemic, people took to the streets, enacting democracy in every way they could, including at the voting booth – resulting in the largest voter turnout in history against a man who sent federal troops to oppose them. That same man is not only running again but has expressed no remorse whatsoever for his actions against the people.
Tipping Point reminds us what’s at stake, that the power belongs to us, the American citizenry, and that only by using that power – refusing to be worn down, invalidated or “put back in our place” – can we create a society that works for all of us and, as President Lincoln said, a nation that can endure. Frederick Douglass, Lincoln’s contemporary, sometime critic, and always, friend, said it this way: Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
It was Howard Zinn who reminded us that, “Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.” Now, more than ever, we need these reminders that democracy is worth fighting for and of what, in a democracy, we can accomplish, together. That the only way to form a more perfect union is if we, the people form it. This, perhaps more than anything, is what Tipping Point does.
You can support Tipping Point’s distribution efforts and watch the trailer at https://tippingpointfilm.com. And you can read more about what I believe is currently happening in our country in This Land Is Your Land and in the accompanying "Note from the Author", which can be found here.
With so much water under the bridge, it’s easy to give in to exhaustion or let ourselves forget the reasons that drove the American people over the edge in the first place – an unending tide of injustice represented by so many deaths and culminating in one image – a knee on a neck. It stirred something within us, not unlike the live footage of 1963 Birmingham’s snarling police dogs and kids swept down the street by fire hoses. Four years ago, amid a pandemic, people took to the streets, enacting democracy in every way they could, including at the voting booth – resulting in the largest voter turnout in history against a man who sent federal troops to oppose them. That same man is not only running again but has expressed no remorse whatsoever for his actions against the people.
Tipping Point reminds us what’s at stake, that the power belongs to us, the American citizenry, and that only by using that power – refusing to be worn down, invalidated or “put back in our place” – can we create a society that works for all of us and, as President Lincoln said, a nation that can endure. Frederick Douglass, Lincoln’s contemporary, sometime critic, and always, friend, said it this way: Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
It was Howard Zinn who reminded us that, “Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.” Now, more than ever, we need these reminders that democracy is worth fighting for and of what, in a democracy, we can accomplish, together. That the only way to form a more perfect union is if we, the people form it. This, perhaps more than anything, is what Tipping Point does.
You can support Tipping Point’s distribution efforts and watch the trailer at https://tippingpointfilm.com. And you can read more about what I believe is currently happening in our country in This Land Is Your Land and in the accompanying "Note from the Author", which can be found here.
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Announcing
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Luminescent Luminaries
Pauli and Kiyoshi
America has rarely seen the likes of Pauli Murray. As an African American, she was the granddaughter of a slave and great-granddaughter of a slave owner. As a woman, she was a suffragist, as an activist, she was arrested for not giving up her seat – 15 years before Rosa Parks, and as an attorney, she framed the arguments that both advanced equal rights for women and formed the foundation for Brown v. Board. Thurgood Marshall called her work the “bible of the Civil Rights movement.” She was gender nonconforming, non-straight, an author, poet and Mademoiselle magazine woman of the year. She was Yale Law School’s first African American Doctor of Juridical Science and the first woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. Despite being female, an ethnic minority and LGBTQ+, few people have contributed more to the American story.
Or, take Kiyoshi Kuromiya. A third-generation Japanese American, Kiyoshi was actually born in an internment camp in Wyoming. But that’s not all. He was an anti-Vietnam war protestor and deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement. As a member of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), he participated in sit-ins and marches, was in Selma where he was assaulted along with Dr. Martin Luther King and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and was friends with both , as well as with James Baldwin and a host of other civil rights icons. He was so close to the King family that in the aftermath of Martin’s death, he was on hand to help care for the kids. But that’s still only part of Kiyoshi’s story. Kiyoshi, in April 1968, just three weeks after Martin’s death, instigated the largest antiwar demonstration in Penn's history. As a gay man, he cofounded Gay Liberation Front, the organization that grew out of Stonewall, spoke about LGBT rights at the 1970 Black Panther Party Convention, cofounded ACT UP, and spearheaded the creation of the ACT UP Standard of Care for people living with HIV/AIDS. He was part of the FDA panel that recommended approval of the first protease inhibitors, was part of several cases that went before the Supreme Court, and worked on variegated human rights issues throughout his life.
Both Pauli and Kiyoshi are prime examples of Luminescent Luminaries – heroic individuals who, though LGBTQ+ (and in both their cases, ethnic minorities), their work extended far beyond what we’d perceive to be their “tribe” to humanity at large. They made the world itself better. But far too often, either the entire story of their extraordinary lives is overlooked and downplayed, or the fact that they were LGBTQ+, ignored. The goal of Luminescent is to tell their stories, from James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin to the Queer Eye guys, from Congresswoman Barbara Jordan to playwright and civil rights activist Lorraine Hansberry, so that even when they're gone, they’re never forgotten.
Pauli and Kiyoshi
America has rarely seen the likes of Pauli Murray. As an African American, she was the granddaughter of a slave and great-granddaughter of a slave owner. As a woman, she was a suffragist, as an activist, she was arrested for not giving up her seat – 15 years before Rosa Parks, and as an attorney, she framed the arguments that both advanced equal rights for women and formed the foundation for Brown v. Board. Thurgood Marshall called her work the “bible of the Civil Rights movement.” She was gender nonconforming, non-straight, an author, poet and Mademoiselle magazine woman of the year. She was Yale Law School’s first African American Doctor of Juridical Science and the first woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. Despite being female, an ethnic minority and LGBTQ+, few people have contributed more to the American story.
Or, take Kiyoshi Kuromiya. A third-generation Japanese American, Kiyoshi was actually born in an internment camp in Wyoming. But that’s not all. He was an anti-Vietnam war protestor and deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement. As a member of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), he participated in sit-ins and marches, was in Selma where he was assaulted along with Dr. Martin Luther King and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and was friends with both , as well as with James Baldwin and a host of other civil rights icons. He was so close to the King family that in the aftermath of Martin’s death, he was on hand to help care for the kids. But that’s still only part of Kiyoshi’s story. Kiyoshi, in April 1968, just three weeks after Martin’s death, instigated the largest antiwar demonstration in Penn's history. As a gay man, he cofounded Gay Liberation Front, the organization that grew out of Stonewall, spoke about LGBT rights at the 1970 Black Panther Party Convention, cofounded ACT UP, and spearheaded the creation of the ACT UP Standard of Care for people living with HIV/AIDS. He was part of the FDA panel that recommended approval of the first protease inhibitors, was part of several cases that went before the Supreme Court, and worked on variegated human rights issues throughout his life.
Both Pauli and Kiyoshi are prime examples of Luminescent Luminaries – heroic individuals who, though LGBTQ+ (and in both their cases, ethnic minorities), their work extended far beyond what we’d perceive to be their “tribe” to humanity at large. They made the world itself better. But far too often, either the entire story of their extraordinary lives is overlooked and downplayed, or the fact that they were LGBTQ+, ignored. The goal of Luminescent is to tell their stories, from James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin to the Queer Eye guys, from Congresswoman Barbara Jordan to playwright and civil rights activist Lorraine Hansberry, so that even when they're gone, they’re never forgotten.
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This starts with their definition, describing it as “A political movement that believes America was founded as a “Christian Nation”, privileging Christianity over all other faiths.” It’s not about being a Christian. It’s about one’s belief about the role organized religion, and in this case, Christianity, should play in dictating public life.
Part of what makes it so compelling is its use of footage featuring the movement’s leaders and orchestrators speaking their intentions. The film goes through great pains to point out that Christian Nationalism isn’t a form of Christianity at all, but rather, a form of nationalism. By bringing in the voices of Evangelicals like Russel Moore, Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today and Jim Wallace, founder of Sojourners and Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice, the film shows the stark difference between religious nationalism and the Christian faith, including born-again, pro-life social conservatives.
The distinction between people who hold certain religious views and those who believe that those views should be the law of the land seems subtle, but it isn’t. Understanding it is the difference between whether church and state should be separate or whether the former should supplant the latter; the difference between whether we’re a democracy or not. And that matters because if we aren’t – if one segment’s views become the rule of law – it’s only a matter of time before that power is overthrown and its people vanquished in a never-ending Game of Thrones. We’ve already lived through that. It was called the Middle Ages.
Grasping this leads to two key takeaways. First, turns out that every form of nationalism and authoritarian ideology shares remarkable similarities, whether based on Christian, Muslim, atheist or Communist thought, whether rooted in race ideology (white supremacy/Nazism) or tribalism (genocides across Europe, Africa and the Middle East). Strip away the symbology and terminology and the practices and rhetoric sound the same. The second, equally important point the film makes is that while this all feels new, it isn’t. The movement is one that emerged out of the segregationist takeover of the GOP, followed by the NRA and the SBC, and that went national with the launching of the Moral Majority, all in the late 70s. So, while we think this is about the 2024 presidential election, the real story is about a political machine that’s been dressed up to look like religious ideology, and that’s been nearly 50 years in the making. “When government is in the hands of godly men,” one speaker declared, “It is good. But in the hands of all others, it is evil.” “Fuck democracy,” another speaker says to a crowded room, “I stand with Jesus Christ.”
Bad Faith is available to be viewed on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube & TUBI, and the website includes an extensive list of books used as source materials for the film.
For more information about how it was people of faith, in the past, who stood against nationalism in America, check out
One More Bridge to Cross - 1965, 1978, 2008 & 2025 -- Four Powerful Segments of United States History and the Lessons We Can Learn From Them and
"For God?" (Or, Showdown on the Edmund Pettus Bridge): What Amelia Boynton and Jim Clark Can Teach Us About How the State of Our Hearts Shapes the Arc of Our Lives - both on Letters from a Birmingham Boy.
Part of what makes it so compelling is its use of footage featuring the movement’s leaders and orchestrators speaking their intentions. The film goes through great pains to point out that Christian Nationalism isn’t a form of Christianity at all, but rather, a form of nationalism. By bringing in the voices of Evangelicals like Russel Moore, Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today and Jim Wallace, founder of Sojourners and Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice, the film shows the stark difference between religious nationalism and the Christian faith, including born-again, pro-life social conservatives.
The distinction between people who hold certain religious views and those who believe that those views should be the law of the land seems subtle, but it isn’t. Understanding it is the difference between whether church and state should be separate or whether the former should supplant the latter; the difference between whether we’re a democracy or not. And that matters because if we aren’t – if one segment’s views become the rule of law – it’s only a matter of time before that power is overthrown and its people vanquished in a never-ending Game of Thrones. We’ve already lived through that. It was called the Middle Ages.
Grasping this leads to two key takeaways. First, turns out that every form of nationalism and authoritarian ideology shares remarkable similarities, whether based on Christian, Muslim, atheist or Communist thought, whether rooted in race ideology (white supremacy/Nazism) or tribalism (genocides across Europe, Africa and the Middle East). Strip away the symbology and terminology and the practices and rhetoric sound the same. The second, equally important point the film makes is that while this all feels new, it isn’t. The movement is one that emerged out of the segregationist takeover of the GOP, followed by the NRA and the SBC, and that went national with the launching of the Moral Majority, all in the late 70s. So, while we think this is about the 2024 presidential election, the real story is about a political machine that’s been dressed up to look like religious ideology, and that’s been nearly 50 years in the making. “When government is in the hands of godly men,” one speaker declared, “It is good. But in the hands of all others, it is evil.” “Fuck democracy,” another speaker says to a crowded room, “I stand with Jesus Christ.”
Bad Faith is available to be viewed on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube & TUBI, and the website includes an extensive list of books used as source materials for the film.
For more information about how it was people of faith, in the past, who stood against nationalism in America, check out
One More Bridge to Cross - 1965, 1978, 2008 & 2025 -- Four Powerful Segments of United States History and the Lessons We Can Learn From Them and
"For God?" (Or, Showdown on the Edmund Pettus Bridge): What Amelia Boynton and Jim Clark Can Teach Us About How the State of Our Hearts Shapes the Arc of Our Lives - both on Letters from a Birmingham Boy.
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This Land Is Your Land
How the Greatest Sociological Shift in United States History is Changing Everything. And What that Change Requires of Us. (Or, How Each of Us Shapes the Fate of All of Us.)
RD Moore, MMI Press
Now Available in print format!
In addition to being available for free download in ebook and audiobook formats, This Land Is Your Land can now be purchased via Great British Bookshop.
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Description: By 2045, the United States will be a minority-majority nation. But the society we've built is increasingly incompatible with the people we're becoming. That widening gap, seen in everything from rising poverty to apocalyptic elections, is the sociological fault line that's endangering not just this new generation, but the nation itself. Our generation, those of us who are adults today, can fix it. This Land Is Your Land is about how, together, we go about doing that.
TLIYL Playlist:
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Live your Diversity.
Enact Democracy.
Reform Society.
Elevate Humanity.
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