tag:www.praisenet.org,2012:/blogs2/cogic//3 2010-02-14T05:32:43Z Movable Type 3.35 tag:www.praisenet.org,2010:/blogs2/cogic//3.573 2010-02-14T05:32:28Z 2010-02-14T05:32:43Z

I woke up this morning and it was raining. And I said to myself, “Well, it’s about time.” Forecasters had been predicting this storm for most of the week, but no storm appeared. Instead there was sunshine and clear skies....

priest http://praisenet.org I woke up this morning and it was raining. And I said to myself, “Well, it’s about time.” Forecasters had been predicting this storm for most of the week, but no storm appeared. Instead there was sunshine and clear skies. And I quietly cursed under my breath because, for me, a storm has a special significance. You see, in sunshine and clear skies, people tend to wander out. Tend to drop by and interrupt your day. Tend to expect you to show up here and let’s go there and let’s do this or that. In sunshine and clear skies, people expect things of you and want things from you. But, in a storm, when the weather is bad outside, the newspeople tell you to stay home. People are much less likely to come ringing your bell or to expect you to show up or go here or do that. A storm provides the perfect excuse to do what you wanted to do all along—go back to bed. Huddle indoors. Be still, be quiet. As someone who works from home, I can tell you, a storm allows me to get things done. Sunshine and clear skies distract me, remind me of errands I need to run or people I need to see. But a storm closes the world around me for awhile, quiets my neighbor’s incessantly-barking dog and shrouds my home with darkness. And it is during those times that I can hear God. That I can feel His presence. That I can get things done. Sunshine and clear skies present their own inspiration, as I wander out into the hiking trails and the hills and see God’s glory painted across the sky. Storms, on the other hand, bring God’s glory to me, as I can see both His righteousness and His fearsome power, my house shaking, pelted with hail and wind. Sunshine and clear skies remind me of God’s love. Storms remind me of His righteousness. Sunshine presents opportunity. A storm, on the other hand, gives us time. Nobody expects us to be on time during a storm. No one blames us for not rushing across town during a storm. The clock stops ticking, and I suddenly find myself available to myself and to God because a storm is passing over. I can relax. The clock slows its ticking. All the noise and business of the day suddenly stops as everything seeks shelter. Lastly, storms remind me that trouble, like thunder, is the product of objects in motion. Thunder is only for a while, and then it moves on. Storms build my faith in the simple belief of trouble moving on. And that I should not become so fixated on the trouble that I miss the opportunity trouble brings. So, thank You, Father of mercy, for my storm, For the peace that storm brings me. Now, if You don’t mind, I’m going back to bed. tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.500 2009-09-20T14:38:36Z 2009-09-20T14:39:12Z

This ain't the sixties. White folk can't march around hollering "nigger" while we cower. It amazes me how the right wing doesn't get that. Sooner or later, somebody is going to get hurt. When the first shots are fired, they...

priest http://praisenet.org This ain't the sixties. White folk can't march around hollering "nigger" while we cower. It amazes me how the right wing doesn't get that. Sooner or later, somebody is going to get hurt. When the first shots are fired, they won’t be aimed at the president. They'll be aimed at some kid. Some black kid, some Latino kid, wandering through a park where these nutwing Tea Baggers are standing around hollering. The first acts of violence won’t have anything to do with politics or healthcare reform or taxes. It’ll be some black kid giving these racists the finger. Some homeless guy asking for a handout. The shot will ring out. And that will be the war. RNC Chairman Michael Steele, the Republican Party's most prominent African American official, has issued a press release criticizing former President Jimmy Carter for arguing that much of the opposition that President Obama is facing is due to race. "President Carter is flat out wrong. This isn't about race. It is about policy. This is a pathetic distraction by Democrats to shift attention away from the president's wildly unpopular government-run health care plan that the American people simply oppose. Injecting race into the debate over critical issues facing American families doesn't create jobs, reform our health care system or reduce the growing deficit. It only divides Americans rather than uniting us to find solutions to challenges facing our nation... As I wrote several months ago, being a black man willing to criticize President Obama is a real growth industry. Steele, who has been under fire from his own party for being, essentially, impotent and incompetent, has a vested interest in pleasing the wingnut crowd. But his unnecessarily bellicose and rabid new release only further undermines his standing, as he insults a president who himself has coolly played down the race issue. All of this posturing, on both the president and Mr. Steel's part, is for the benefit of white folk, as no black man, woman or child in America believes even a single word of Steele's statement, and recognizes the president's initiative as more political than substantive. Mr. Steele is a man headed for political oblivion and he knows it. The minute Barack Obama is no longer in the Oval Office, the GOP, who regularly eat their young anyway, will show him the door faster than he could ever imagine. I'm not quite sure what career track Mr.. Steele believes he is on, but he's being used--and knowingly so--by racists. At the end of that usefulness, he will have no friends and no future. I can't imagine what his play is, here. tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.498 2009-09-14T00:34:32Z 2010-10-21T17:59:43Z

priest http://praisenet.org This man is a children's entertainer. No clowns, no balloons, no party hat. But, as sure as you're breathing, this man, the gangsta rapper who calls himself "The Game," is a children's entertainer. He knows it. his record label knows it. In fact, everybody seems to know it except you—the parent who stupidly puts money in this man's pocket, paying him to ruin the lives of your children. The record labels' public posture is this "gangsta" stuff is all adult entertainment. The industry has labeled its wares with big warning stickers to that effect, and stores aren't supposed to sell their product to minors. But there is no legally enforceable statute to prevent retailers from selling this stuff to whomever they want, and the primary consumers of this type of entertainment are teens and children. Fatherless children, I would imagine, are the most vulnerable to this mess because those kids are the most in need of role models. Risk is exciting. Breaking rules, and by extension laws, implies risk. Gangstas and bad boys are exciting. Half-dressed bad girls are titillating and appear to be popular in those videos. This prurient content promotes an attractive lifestyle to impressionable youth. White youth, perhaps living vicariously through black culture, are the primary consumers of this material, but the collateral damage is within minority communities. Blacks and Latinos may not, in fact, spend as much money on this stuff, but they absorb and emulate the culture, burning pirated copies and passing them along. It is life imitating art without much grounding in either, and with no real lessons in the consequences of negative behavior. Every time you pay that cable bill—whether you allow this stuff to be viewed in your house or not—you put money in this man's pocket. Cable and satellite companies may allow you to block certain content, but you are still paying for—and therefore financing—all of it. Even with a block on BET or MTV, those companies still receive royalty payments from the cable and satellite carriers, and that money flows on to finance the phony culture that is ultimately destroying the black family.

What you allow into your home reveals who you are.]]> tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.496 2009-09-07T16:24:30Z 2009-09-07T16:25:20Z

Reaching new heights of unprecedented displays of disrespect for the office of the president, conservative bloggers and cable news personalities are urging parents to keep their children home from school in order to prevent their children from watching President Barack...

priest http://praisenet.org Reaching new heights of unprecedented displays of disrespect for the office of the president, conservative bloggers and cable news personalities are urging parents to keep their children home from school in order to prevent their children from watching President Barack Obama's planned speech to school children Tuesday at noon (EDT). It shocks and degusts me how baldly racist, and that's what it is, racist, the political right has become and how dangerous they are making the world by openly fomenting sedition by refusing to recognize Barack Obama as the democratically elected president of the United States. Even at the height of the GOP's loathing for Bill Clinton, there was still a grudging respect for both Mr. Clinton and the office of the president. George Bush, whose presidency was inarguably a gross failure and whose policies bankrupted the nation and plunged us into war, was still respected, by liberals and even the African American community, as the president of the United States. The conservative right's malicious and unprecedented hate campaign--a campaign of personal hatred against the man with indifference to the office--continues to heat up and go unchallenged by, well, anyone. It treads a very thin line between political protest and open sedition against the U.S. government, which can be charged as the crime of treason. The conservative right--often in lock-step with the religious right--continues to develop and deploy propaganda designed to engage this country's sad history of institutionalized racism to achieve a political goal: the removal of Barack Obama from office. These actions undermine the very principles this country was founded upon and risks unpredictable blowback as, once our political leaders make it acceptable for us to simply not recognize our duly elected chief executive (for not much other obvious reason than that he is black), it makes it that much easier for dissent to set in and harden, as we become selective in terms of which authority figures we choose to recognize in the future. By undermining the office of the president, and the entire electoral system, these people are literally undermining the future of our nation, which makes their tactics not only wrongheaded and ignorant, but an act of sedition against the United States of America. I only wish someone had the political will to charge them with that crime. tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.483 2009-07-09T17:04:51Z 2009-07-09T17:05:38Z

In a relatively timely and remarkably respectful and mature two hours, the life of Michael Jackson was celebrated at Los Angeles' Staples Center among thousands of Jackson's fans, while being watched or downloaded around the globe by billions. The memorial,...

priest http://praisenet.org In a relatively timely and remarkably respectful and mature two hours, the life of Michael Jackson was celebrated at Los Angeles' Staples Center among thousands of Jackson's fans, while being watched or downloaded around the globe by billions. The memorial, yanked off most major news servers the day after, is likely to arrive on DVD in short order as the rush to cash in n Jackson's death begins. While I found the memorial's emphasis on Jackson's artistic and social achievements to be appropriate, I winced at Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)'s way-over-the-top canonizing of Jackson and the Congressional Black Caucus' introduction of a proclamation in his honor. I agree Jackson is most certainly innocent until proven guilty, but Jackson was also black only selectively and when it seemed to suit his purpose or the moment. I guess it's appropriate to celebrate his genetic disposition, but the model of Jackson's life was a man trying to escape the very family who celebrated him last week, if not the African American race as a whole (based on the emerging evidence of genetic hoodwinking and more lying on Jackson's part about the paternity of his children). I absolutely celebrate this man who has so inspired me over the years, but I prefer to do so with my eyes open. The louder flat note of the ceremony: notorious attention-seeker and comical black sheep LaToya's insistence on wearing a hat nearly as big as the Staples Center itself. tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.480 2009-07-04T14:15:17Z 2009-07-04T14:16:00Z

The New York Post reported in March the Jackson clan had amassed and lost a fortune over the span of Michael Jackson's career, Michael being the main engine driving the Jackson family success. A string of failed ventures left the...

priest http://praisenet.org The New York Post reported in March the Jackson clan had amassed and lost a fortune over the span of Michael Jackson's career, Michael being the main engine driving the Jackson family success. A string of failed ventures left the family bankrupt to the tune of $45 million, with Jermaine personally having more than $5 million in liens filed against him. Nearly al of the Jackson brothers live at least part-time at the family mansion in Encino, California, a property which teeters on the brink of foreclosure. Only Michael, who was beset by his own financial problems, Janet and, believe it or not, LaToya, are alleged to be financially solvent. The Post further alleges Michael wanted nothing to do with the family, perhaps resenting the family's 40+ years of exploiting Michael's talent to enrich themselves and lacking compassion for the family's rampant mismanagement of millions of dollars Michael generated for their well-being. The Post reports most of the Jackson brothers are unemployed or working menial labor jobs, with father Joe trying to promote singers in Las Vegas. The family is allegedly dependent on youngest sibling Janet to pay the bills at Hayvenhurst, their Encino compound, and alleges Janet has purchased a home for her parents in Las Vegas in anticipation of the family losing Hayvenhurst. If the report is accurate, Michael Jackson's sudden death may provide yet another opportunity for the family to exploit him, as an aging Katherine is a major beneficiary named in Jackson's will, and the brothers doubtlessly planning ways to cash in on their estranged brother yet again. Joseph Jackson, Michael's father, is already pimping his new record label, likely financed by promises of a big cash payout from Michael's estate, telling most every TV camera he can find, in sadly broken, illiterate English, that he plans on releasing many tracks from Jackson's archives--a suspicious promise as the distribution rights to Jackson's music belong to Sony Music, to which Michael owed tens of millions of dollars at the time of his death. The Jackson clan, most auspiciously the father and brothers, have always been an embarrassment to Michael, who survived a torturous childhood at Joe's hands and whose amazing gift was exploited by everyone in the family, a practice that now continues past his demise..Apparently, he can't even rest in peace. tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.477 2009-06-29T18:25:07Z 2009-06-29T18:25:26Z

Whatever else happened in Holmby, it is not beyond reason to suspect Michael—either purposefully or passively—was ultimately responsible for his own exit. Jackson was reported to have been upbeat and in high spirits mere hours before his untimely passing, but...

priest http://praisenet.org Whatever else happened in Holmby, it is not beyond reason to suspect Michael—either purposefully or passively—was ultimately responsible for his own exit. Jackson was reported to have been upbeat and in high spirits mere hours before his untimely passing, but the truth of addicts is most especially true of Michael himself: addicts lie. And Jackson had been lying to almost everyone he’d ever met for a very, very long time. A troubled, lost, lonely individual, in both physical and emotional pain, drowning in debt, exhausted, paranoid and training hard to keep up with dancers half his age. Jackson was huffing and puffing through CBS’ 40th Anniversary tribute which, sadly for Jackson, aired the day before 911. How much moreso had eight additional years of inactivity and drug abuse impacted his frail body? The sold-out 50-date comeback tour he was preparing himself for was, possibly, his only hope. And it’s just as possible he knew he wasn’t ready, he couldn’t go 50 rounds and he couldn’t perch himself onstage in a chair like a bloated Elvis. Most of the songs in 2001’s Invincible were pitched well below Michael’s former glorious alto, and Usher mopped the floor with him at his own tribute concert. Jackson was rumored to have had a fractured vertebrae in his back, which would certainly make performing pure agony for him. Michael was a wheezing, aging prizefighter who’d stayed too long in the ring—and that was nearly eight years ago. Among the many, many theories being floated out there was the inherent possibility that Michael knew, likely from the beginning, that he’d never finish that tour. That he’d been doing what he’s always done—lying. Perhaps first and foremost to himself. That the end of Neverland—not the ranch but the vision in Jackson’s head—loomed large was certainly true. In the final analysis, it was likely reality, not pain, that Jackson was medicating himself from. And that, quite possibly, it wasn’t drugs so much as truth that killed him. In the end, of course, the question should be, “Did Michael Jackson know Jesus?” From all available evidence, one might conclude that he did not, but only God knows what occurred between Jackson and Himself in those final moments. We can only pray that, as the circus now begins, that, somewhere among Jackson’s twisted legacy, some kernel of truth might emerge, some lesson learned. tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.466 2009-05-23T19:35:15Z 2010-09-08T20:17:21Z

President Barack Obama delivered a major National security speech addressing what I feel are irrational and politically-motivated phony "concerns" over the president's ordered closing of the prisoner detainee center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The main thrust of the baldly political...

priest http://praisenet.org President Barack Obama delivered a major National security speech addressing what I feel are irrational and politically-motivated phony "concerns" over the president's ordered closing of the prisoner detainee center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The main thrust of the baldly political objections to the base's closing seem to be a lack of confidence in the U.S. judicial system, as most of the objectors--most of whom are Senate Republicans--fear detainees tried in U.S. Courts will be summarily turned loose. Conservative Republicans, led by a conveniently verbose former Vice President Dick Cheney (a man who was notoriously tight-lipped for most of his career), have settled on the Guantanamo closing as their latest attempt to find an issue with which to effectively wound the president. Obama dismissed their attempts to, as usual, scare people as a means of manipulating the public by simply restating their ridiculous claims in a sober light: do they *really* believe closing Guantanamo will mean we'll have terrorists wandering the streets of our neighborhoods? Is our judicial system so weak that we can't risk trying anybody there? No prisoner has ever escaped SuperMax, the nation's top-security lockup and home to any number of terrorists. And the conservatives' phony fear-and-smear campaign continues to leave out the likelihood that some percentage of the Gitmo detainees are, in fact, innocent men being held without trial and likely tortured. Clarity and sobriety seem to be this president's most effective weapon, as the childish ridiculousness of the GOP's fear campaign become completely evident in the light of calm. More worrisome, however, is how eager some segments of the American public are to believe this nonsense and to accept the tarnishing of American values as reasonable in the face of war and uncertainty. In that light, our enemy isn't bin Laden or Ahmadinejad. It's us. It's our own ignorance and intellectual laziness. It is our willingness to believe foolish propaganda and to be motivated by our fear more than our hope and values. Forget Iraq and Afghanistan, ignorance is the real war we should be fighting. tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.465 2009-05-17T02:30:54Z 2010-08-23T17:06:37Z

A day after Chrysler LLC said it was cutting 800 dealerships, General Motors Corp. on Friday told about 1,100 of its U.S. dealers their franchises will be terminated late next year. Like everyone else, I find this news deeply troubling....

priest http://praisenet.org A day after Chrysler LLC said it was cutting 800 dealerships, General Motors Corp. on Friday told about 1,100 of its U.S. dealers their franchises will be terminated late next year. Like everyone else, I find this news deeply troubling. In spite of the rumors we've been hearing about this recession hitting bottom, the fact is we have a very long way to go before we'll see much improvement in the economy. And, even when we do, the U.S. economy will likely not look much like it did before this downturn. Changes in America's buying patterns are likely to be permanent, and our manufacturing base will likely never look the same after this seismic economic event. The America which will emerge from this crisis will be a much different world, perhaps one in which automobiles may go the way of televisions--75% of which are made in Asia. The fact is, the party has been over for a long time, but the Bush administration--yes, the Bush administration--did a fairly good job of covering it up in a vain hope of a Republican victory in the 2008 presidential election. As gasoline prices now inch back toward $3 if not $4, we're seeing all the dust under the Bush presidential rug--the economic disaster the administration surely knew was possible if not probable. The Republicans are desperately trying to find a formula that will effectively blame Barack Obama for this, but, much like Chevrolets and Chryslers, America simply isn't buying. We are now getting the fuller picture of how badly we've been lied to and what those lies have cost us. Which isn't to say the recession will never end, but that the recession's end is likely only the beginning of what will most certainly be a very different America. tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.462 2009-05-09T23:37:11Z 2009-05-09T23:37:45Z

It’s not biblical. It’s not religious. It’s barely doctrinal—the Fifth Commandment: Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. [Exodus 20:12]. What it is, however, is...

priest http://praisenet.org It’s not biblical. It’s not religious. It’s barely doctrinal—the Fifth Commandment: Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. [Exodus 20:12]. What it is, however, is big business. Emotional blackmail, making us all feel bad if we don’t give into this annual shakedown and cough up bucks for mom, is big business. It exploits sentimentality and, frankly, unsophistication as many moms, my own included, have this and most other holidays deeply ingrained into their emotional DNA. So much so that many of our mothers become emotionally wounded when we do not perform as expected. In the Roman religion the festival was in honor of the mother goddess Cybele and it took place during mid-March. As the Roman Empire and Europe converted to Christianity, Mothering Sunday celebrations became part of the liturgical calendar as Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent to honor the Virgin Mary and the “mother church.” [Wikipedia] Holidays, for the most part, are pagan rituals. They echo back to rituals which included both orgies and human sacrifice to pagan gods. Most of those ancient activities blaspheme the God we serve, but still most of us blithely go about the business of erecting Christmas trees and hiding Easter eggs, buying candy hearts and dressing in costume to go door-to-door on All Hallow’s Eve. I am, constantly, the odd man out when it comes to this foolish ignorance, and ignorance is, in fact, what it is. Far too many of simply go about doing things without ever wondering why. We do them because it is our tradition. We do them because we’ve always done them. But most if not all of this holiday—holy observance—is sin. Let’s not be ambiguous about it. I’ve heard pastors waste their breath trying to snow me about how we are now taking the devil’s tools and using them to glorify God. While I believe I might build a church in a whorehouse, I wouldn’t emulate the behavior of whores. I might convert a bar into a church but I wouldn’t continue to serve drunks there. Being sent to the mall every six weeks to spend more money we don’t have to buy more useless junk we don’t need in order to recognize some arbitrary date on the calendar is simply insane. Running up debt is sin. And, while, having an annual date to celebrate mothers isn’t necessarily a bad or sinful idea, the emotional blackmail that is routinely practiced—on mother and on us—is not from God. God does not oppress us. God does not blackmail us. We should, frankly, celebrate our mothers every day, so she won’t be so emotionally needy that she must enforce some terrible emotional penalty on us for not jumping through hoops every May. I know this disappoints many moms in my life, but I do not recognize or celebrate such nonsense. This is simply bondage, and Christ died to set us free. tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.459 2009-05-02T20:56:12Z 2009-11-20T14:04:32Z

The flack over the president's upcoming speech seems, much like this pig flu business, to be largely blown out of proportion. According to Notre Dame's website, Barack Obama will be the ninth U.S. president to be awarded an honorary degree...

priest http://praisenet.org The flack over the president's upcoming speech seems, much like this pig flu business, to be largely blown out of proportion. According to Notre Dame's website, Barack Obama will be the ninth U.S. president to be awarded an honorary degree by the University of Notre Dame and the sixth to be the Commencement speaker. Past speakers included the pro-choice Jimmy Carter, but the list is heavy with GOP presidents Reagan, Bush 41 and 43. The abortion issue continues to provide safe ground for conservatives whose actual reasons for so virulently disliking the president have much sadder and more ignorant origins. These same groups disliked President Bill Clinton and perhaps just as intensely, but the meanness of the edge, here, suggests people who despise the president and who are in search of a reason why. I've not seen such virulence leveled at Clinton or Carter or, for that matter, Edward Kennedy or John Kerry. President George W. Bush, whom these folks embraced wholeheartedly, did virtually nothing to change the legal status of abortion. With the exception of a reversing of Bush's more futile arm flailing (bans on stem cell research and foreign aid gag rules), President Obama's policies do not differ measurably from President Bush's. Yet, Bush 41 and 43 were both greeted with open arms, while the conservative right wing is gearing up to disrupt a commencement ceremony with brazenly obvious political racism cloaked in phony outrage. Would any of this be happening if Bill Clinton were speaking? tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.456 2009-04-29T12:28:00Z 2010-08-20T20:03:57Z

With more than 20 charting releases on stalwart Gospel music labels such as Malaco and Savoy, I can't help but wonder why the Grammy-nominated founding pastor would have to tour so much or why his family would need to make...

priest http://praisenet.org With more than 20 charting releases on stalwart Gospel music labels such as Malaco and Savoy, I can't help but wonder why the Grammy-nominated founding pastor would have to tour so much or why his family would need to make public appeals to raise money for basic needs like a motorized wheelchair. Why the record labels Wright's music has enriched for three decades couldn't or wouldn't stand behind him in his time of need or, failing that, why they would not at least get out in front of what would be a major public relations disaster if Church Folk actually held these companies accountable to uphold principles of Christian charity and, at least, conscience is simply beyond me. It does, however, underscore and reinforce my overall skepticism and disdain for the Gospel music industry as a whole in that it is not materially different from the secular industry in how it exploits God's gifts and God's people. It is entirely possible that Wright was simply a poor steward of his finances, but the more likely scenario is that is music, being sung and performed royalty-free in churches all across America and, literally the world, never brought him nearly as much financial support as it should have. I find it tremendously sad that we, as a body of believers, continue to empty out our purses to record companies who pay artists like Wright a fraction of their worth. This was a famous man who became famous by writing and performing some of our most cherished music. A founding pastor of a successful ministry. But neither his automobile insurance nor his health insurance, apparently, was adequate to see to his basic needs in a time of tragedy. All of which makes Wright's passing terribly sad on a number of levels, not the least of which is that it should cause us, as a people, to at least pause to think about this business of Gospel music and to reevaluate our support of it. tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.448 2009-04-18T21:42:58Z 2010-07-23T18:52:46Z

For reasons I don’t fully understand, the black church here doesn’t seem very involved with the annual National Day of Prayer events around the country. This is a fairly big deal among evangelicals and conservatives, who typically use the NDP...

priest http://praisenet.org For reasons I don’t fully understand, the black church here doesn’t seem very involved with the annual National Day of Prayer events around the country. This is a fairly big deal among evangelicals and conservatives, who typically use the NDP platform to press their usual concerns about abortion and gays, many praying selectively for our “good conservative” leaders and praying that God would, I suppose, awaken from His coma and do something about all this liberalism gone wild—as though God were not still sovereign regardless of which political party is running the nation. Which could be the reason we’re not involved in it. A quick glance at the NDP website shows no images of black people or, frankly, non-white people, just smiling white folk and a drawing of what appears to be some colonial-era leader seeking God’s guidance. I tend to believe, had our colonial forefathers actually sought God’s guidance, they wouldn’t have owned my great-great-grampa or raped his wife, but that’s beside the point. It’s possible we’re not involved with the NDP because, frankly, we weren’t invited. The chair of this city’s African American Ministerial Alliance, the pastor of the city’s largest African American church, was invited to a total of zero NDP events. He was not even a blip on the radar as Ourtown, the Mecca of conservative evangelism, blithely went about the business of planning several citywide events, flying in bigwigs from hither and yon while completely—completely—ignoring the black church. Of course, we can and may sponsor our own NDP events, but the National Day of Prayer is intended to be a day of ecumenism—unity among otherwise divided Christian denominations. It is, in practice, a promotional and networking event where, each year, pastors jockey for a kind of Nielsen rating on who and how important they are. And, year after year after year, these NDP events go on without so much as a how-ya-do to the black church. Then again, I don’t see a lot of black churches inviting white evangelicals to our annual Watch Night extravaganzas, either. We are hardly innocent in these matters. My point is—we, all of us, white and black, are simply far too divided. And this political thing—this male gender organ political jockeying—has no place at all in the work of the Lord. Our having a “black” NDP event while the evangelicals have their :white” NDP events is as wrongheaded and shameful as churches sponsoring Easter egg hunts. It is soulless religion—our topic for this week. It is Church Folk—white and black—practicing religion while missing the entire point of Who Jesus is and what He desires of us. “Let’s fly in the big names! Spare no expense!” Look at what you’re doing: putting on a great show of unity without having any actual unity. The National day of Prayer is a good idea and an important opportunity to share Christ with others; to show the world the love of Jesus Christ and demonstrate the power of the cross. But far too many of us miss the point of the day, using it instead to promote our individual churches and one-up one another. It is The Idiotic Thing We Church Folk Do, and I’m saddened to realize it ain’t just black folk doing it. tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.409 2009-02-21T15:01:53Z 2010-07-28T20:16:26Z

I’m not worried about the monkey. I seriously doubt the cartoonists were making a racial slur, although I can and do fault their lack of sensitivity to the history of the whole monkey = black people racial stereotype. I...

priest http://praisenet.org I’m not worried about the monkey. I seriously doubt the cartoonists were making a racial slur, although I can and do fault their lack of sensitivity to the history of the whole monkey = black people racial stereotype. I was seeing a Brazilian woman once who invited me to a party where I was the only American there. Not understanding much Portuguese, I wandered the room smiling like an idiot and giving everyone a kind of thumbs up gesture, as in, “I hear ya.” Well, in Sao Palo, the all-American thumbs up is considered an obscene gesture, similar to our middle finger. I’d spent most of the evening insulting her guests and making a fool of myself. I doubt the New York Post could be considered that naïve, and I’m quite sure somebody brought the whole monkey = black folk argument to the attention of the editors before they ran the cartoon. Having worked in publishing over thirty years, I can tell you, with certainty, before a publisher goes to press, he or she has scrutinized their content closely. Somebody knew this monkey thing was loaded with dynamite, and chose to go to press anyway. This uproar over this phony, non-issue, is just what they wanted: attention. To the issue? No, to the New York Post which, like most newspapers in this country, is struggling to remain relevant in an era of instant Internet news. If I’m going to wag my finger at them, it will be over exploiting deep wounds in this country for cynically commercial reasons. But, trust me, they knew exactly what the cartoon meant. They knew exactly what they were doing. Having said that, the cartoon really isn’t very funny—on a general level, so far as political cartoons go, it was quite ho-hum. And, let’s be fair, we’ve been calling George W. a monkey for years. ]]> tag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/cogic//3.406 2009-02-17T11:33:41Z 2010-08-07T23:18:59Z

Benjamin Todd Jealous, the new president and CEO of the NAACP, says his greatest obstacle is "the lack of outrage about the ways that young people and working people are routinely mistreated." He cites figures such as a 70 percent...

priest http://praisenet.org Benjamin Todd Jealous, the new president and CEO of the NAACP, says his greatest obstacle is "the lack of outrage about the ways that young people and working people are routinely mistreated." He cites figures such as a 70 percent unsolved murder rate in some black communities, blacks graduating from high school at a far lower rate than whites, and studies showing that whites with criminal records get jobs easier than blacks with clean histories. "There are issues of basic fairness, obstacles to opportunity, that still exist," Jealous says. "The NAACP is needed now as urgently as it has ever been." No one group did more to pave the way for Obama's ascension than the NAACP, historians say, pointing to its primary role in three towering civil rights victories — the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education school desegregation ruling, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. But now that the black son of a poor single mother has moved into the White House, a new era has clearly begun. "We've got to rise to the occasion today," says former NAACP board chairman Myrlie Evers-Williams, who was married to the slain civil rights icon Medgar Evers. We cannot continue to sing 'We Shall Overcome,'" she says. "It's a dear, valued, valuable song that expresses a time that should live with us. But I want a new song." (AP©) Here in Ourtown, I've never been sure who the NAACP is or what they do, beyond their annual Freedom Fund gala where they collect a lot of money. There are ongoing membership drives to convince us to become NAACP members, but the organization has done a poor job of telling us why we should. None of which is to suggest the NAACP does nothing, but that one of the things it does poorly is educate the public as to its own relevance.