Like my fellow Americans, I will take time this year to enjoy all the festivities associated with the celebration of the Fourth of July. However, I encourage people to remember the backs, the blood, the beatings, and the brutality associated with 246 years of slavery that laid the economic foundation for this country. This is the promise and the problem with our Independence Day!

Letting go and trusting. We all face times when we have to let go and let things be what they are.

Each week in The Christian Citizen, we publish a Religion News Roundup with summaries of religion news stories and links for those who want to read more.

I can tell you from experience that the two biggest needs of someone just walking out of prison are housing and employment, in that order, and providing newly released prisoners with access to both of those things costs much less than reincarceration.

Before any lasting peace can be reached, Palestinian citizens of the state of Israel and elsewhere must have protections and civil rights that promote stability and an end to all violence.