Locs, Heels, and the Bible

One day, the nation woke up to an ultimate heartbreak. After days of frantic searching, nine-year-old Chantel Crump was found lifeless in the bushes of Weatherills. Her abduction had mobilized the entire community, and her death shattered it. Chantel had simply been walking home from school when she accepted a ride from a woman. She trusted, as children should be able to, and for that, her life was stolen, along with a piece of Antigua's innocence. The island wept for Chantel and the others who have either disappeared without a trace, or found murdered and mutilated. You see, Antigua’s soil holds the tears of too many. Just months earlier, teenagers Yenifer Bridge and Achazia James were found murdered. Yenifer, a 16-year-old mother, disappeared one night and her toddler son was found wandering alone. Her body, later recovered, bore signs of brutal violence. Achazia, only 15, was found mutilated on a beach, the wounds so telling, they spoke of a wickedness the island still can...

Good Friday was never apolitical. From the beginning, and certainly from the moment Jesus stood trial before Pilate, the cross became its usual site of death and a symbol of empire - the brutality of state-sanctioned execution, and the lengths to which the powerful will go to preserve themselves. Good Friday is the state at its worst, colluding with religion to silence the disruptive, to crucify the liberator, and to make a spectacle of justice-turned-on-its-head. Luke 23 drips with irony and political theatre. Jesus - nonviolent, prophetic, healing the sick, feeding the hungry - is accused of inciting revolt . The charge is deeply  political . “He stirs up the people,” they say, “teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee to this place”. 'Stirring up the people' can get you lynched under empire. Jesus was lynched by a coalition of political elites and religious leaders because his presence disrupted the order of things. He refused to play nice with Rome, and exposed corrupt...