I met Bree Newsome at the Wild Goose festival this summer. That festival changed me. Not only did it challenge me to do the work, it showed me how. This is just a small part of the things I learned that weekend. 

When I was little, my daddy was friends with a street minister. If you were homesick, Brother Richard would pray healing over you in a phone call, and you almost always went to school the next day. My daddy used to say that he could see the Holy Spirit shining on Brother Richard, that when he was outside he would notice the gleam on his forehead and assume it was from the sun, but when Brother Richard would step inside he would keep on shining. Like Moses coming down from that mountain, the close encounters with God were literally radiating from Brother Richard. You could see the anointing.

I don’t know that I ever really believed in the shine of the Spirit, until I met Bree Newsome. The woman literally shines. Last month I was at a Christian festival with an emphasis on arts and justice, and somehow, someway, they got Bree Newsome and her accomplice James Tyson to come speak to us about taking down the Confederate flag in Charleston, South Carolina. She told us about the reconnaissance missions and the team of people behind her. She told us about the moment she knew this was hers to do.

But mostly, she told us why.

I LOVE writing for SheLoves and I am particularly proud of this one. Read the rest here.