PraiseNettag:www.praisenet.org,2010:/blogs2/praisenet//12010-03-07T02:26:34ZMovable Type 3.35Casting Crownstag:www.praisenet.org,2010:/blogs2/praisenet//1.5852010-03-06T23:49:24Z2010-03-07T02:26:34ZThere was once this barbaric tradition, here, of Church Folk gathering at a crowded little buffet place after church. This restaurant, Furs, was crowded not because the food was so great (at times it reminded me a high school cafeteria)...priesthttp://praisenet.org
There was once this barbaric tradition, here, of Church Folk gathering at a crowded little buffet place after church. This restaurant, Furs, was crowded not because the food was so great (at times it reminded me a high school cafeteria) but because its process were so low. Low enough that the chain vanished from Ourtown a few years back. But, during its heyday, most Church Folk could be found congregating there after Sunday service, services they often groused about going too long, only to then spend hour upon hour gossiping at Fur’s.
In this mix, you could always tell who the pastors were. They were the guys, most often the pot-bellied guys, wearing their hats. These men would get out of their fancy cars, just a s often ungracious, stereotypical Cadillacs and so forth, who would then don top coats and hats for the twenty-foot walk to the restaurant door. Being a guy who’d die naked if they’d let me, I could never understand why these pastors insisted on bringing these heavy coats and gregarious clown-pimp hats into a restaurant only a few feet from their car. It’s not as if these men had to march across the frozen tundra to get there. The wives would, just as often, put on mink and ridiculous gold lame “crown” hats, a quizzical display of prosperous bling considering going to Fur’s on a Sunday usually told the world what a cheapskate you were.
Inside, many of the pastors would remove the heavy coat—which they wore just to show it off—and go through convolutions of finding an empty chair or such they could park their folded armor into before seating themselves—with their gregarious hats on—to eat dinner. Many, to my direct observation, did not even remove their hats when they prayed over the table. It was like a convention of Insecurity Anonymous, these people behaving like ten-year olds in desperate need of external validation. And, I’m not talking ball caps. I’m talking large, gregarious fedoras, some with bands and feathers and such. Pimp hats. Some of these men having removed their top coat and even their suit jacket, rolled up their sleeves, and dug into fried chicken and mashed potatoes while still wearing a large eyesore of a felt Fedora. Those were the pastors.
I suppose its tribal. And maybe somebody can drop me an email in defense of this nuttiness. But, form my chair, gazing across the expanse of the cafeteria, I could get a probable sense of people who knew God and people who didn’t. To know God is to be in touch with something so pure and so fulfilling that there’s really no need to embarrass yourself like that. Here, in Ourtown, the major effort of church resources is for pageantry. Anniversaries and Annual Days. This is what we budget for: the show-off. And I indeed question the spiritual walk of men and women so desperate to be noticed and/or validated that they dress like circus clowns.
I, on the other hand, have a giant head, and thus do not wear hats because hats make my giant head look even gianter. As a matter of preference, I prefer the simple clergy shirt to the loud, fancy suits many pastors seem to gravitate toward. Only, here, in this mirror universe, the clergy shirt is often seen as a sign of vanity. It’s one of those reverse psychology things, the folks so used to the dog food that they accept the loud suits and pimp hats as the norm, and my plain, drab clergy shirt is often viewed as pretentious. I love wearing it. I love what it means. I love what it represents. I love what it reminds me of. In white culture, a man wearing a clerical collar is respected and admired. In our wretched, backward, ignorant fashion, a man wearing a clerical collar is often snickered at and ridiculed, “Who does HE think he is?”
What I like about the collar is not that it make me look important, but that it is simple. It is plain. It is humble. It gets right to the point. It is a simple smock that diverts attention from how fancy your suit and tie are. A pastor friend of mine said he only wears the shirt for special occasions and treats it with a worshipful deference, to which I politely disagree. The clerical shirt is a work shirt. It is designed for everyday use, not to be held in abeyance for special occasions. It is supposed to get dirty, to be used and reused and discarded.
What I like about the shirt is it tells people Whose you are. When I am wearing it, nobody has to guess what I am about. I cannot hide or melt into the crowd the way these pastors in the loud suits can. Nobody mistakes me for a pimp, and I can get away with absolutely nothing because, once someone has seen me wearing the clerical shirt, I have become a marked man. They know I am a minister of the Gospel, and my life, my everyday walk, must now reliably support the simple cloth shirt I wear on Sunday. As the Church Folk snicker at me.
Maybe if I wore a hat.
I've never cared much for academic snobs. Like graduates of 12-step programs, Jehovah's Witnesses and work-out freaks, academic snobs tend to look down their nose on anybody who doesn't have an advanced degree. Well, fact is, most ministers I've encountered who hold advanced degrees can also be dumb as a bag of hammers. No vision, intellectually lazy, ignorant. Invested in their title, hitting people over the head with their doctorate, with their ThM. But no work. None. These men display absolutely none of the qualities of God, the fruit of the spirit. They are petty, jealous, haters. The scornful of Psalms 1. I'm thinking of one pastor in Appalachian territory who ministers to thousands and yet whose vision statement reads like a child's nursery rhyme, completely nonsensical and completely vacant of even reasonable doctrinal foundation. So, far be it from me to lord it over the Hat Police here in Ourtown, as barnyard country-ism is part of the black church's DNA and hardly exclusive to this city. But the disconnect between what these men claim to be, this nonsense with titles, and how these men conduct themselves is so vast and so wide that it makes me stop and wonder if these men truly know Christ, or if they've settled for simply being part of the fraternity of the ignorant. I mean, in every situation, I try and imagine Christ behaving this or that way, sitting there gossiping in shirt sleeves and a gregarious felt hat. Look, if you actually know Christ, some of His love would show through you. if you don't actually know Him, at least read a book—say, the bible—and learn how to fake it better. And, on the off-chance your drill sergeant or your mama never taught you (and I'd find that hard to believe): gentlemen, take off your hat when you're indoors. You want to stand out among your peers, try doing the actual work of a pastor. That seems to be increasingly rare these days.
The Trouble With Baracktag:www.praisenet.org,2010:/blogs2/praisenet//1.5842010-03-06T23:47:02Z2010-03-06T23:49:05Z“Barack Obama has grandly failed to lead the nation emotionally as well as rationally,” Newsweek's Jon Meacham wrote. “What works in a classroom or a think tank does not work on Capitol Hill or in the White House. Obama sometimes...priesthttp://praisenet.org
“Barack Obama has grandly failed to lead the nation emotionally as well as rationally,” Newsweek's Jon Meacham wrote. “What works in a classroom or a think tank does not work on Capitol Hill or in the White House. Obama sometimes seems to be running the Brookings Institution, not the country. Like all of us, Obama has the vices of his virtues. He is cool and steady, but can seem cold and remote. He is thoughtful and thorough, but can appear eggheady and out of it. He appeals to the intellect, but often fails to make the visceral case for something.” Meacham’s engaging essay, The Trouble With Barack, is well worth the read. It is, despite my choice of quote, here, quite positive of the president, making the case that the conservative right’s scare tactics present a distorted view of Obama, presenting him as an extreme liberal when a sober review of the president’s record fins him just slightly right of center (including the president's health care reform ambitions, which Meacham describes as "just to the right of those of Richard Nixon").
But I agree with Meacham’s assessment of the president’s biggest failure thus far: to lead, to inspire. He’s been, for the most part, the Negotiator-In-Chief, wasting enormous amounts of time working within a Pollyannaish view of Congress—specifically the Senate—and, from what I can tell, wrongly assuming these men and women are, in fact grownups. The sheer vitriol going on in Congress, on both sides of the aisle, paints a picture of a deeply insecure gang of children. The sheer level of childishness—from petty agendas to dirty tricks—going on in the face of the worst economic crisis this country has ever faced defies description. These folks seem concerned exclusively with their own reelection chances. Their focus on the coming midterm elections inhibits every choice, every decision, as conservatives bank hard right and liberals move to the center, nervous about being blamed if things go wrong.
Well, guess what, Sherlock: things HAVE gone wrong. And we DO blame you—all of you petulant, snotty-nosed children running the country. Democrats: you absolutely will get voted out of you fail to act, to do what we voted you nitwits in to do. Democrats spent eight years tip toeing around conservatives. Now we’ve thrown the bums out, but the Dems, idiots that they are, are still tip-toeing.
Meanwhile the president seems to be living in some alternate universe. He seems oblivious to the preposterous level of sophomoric behavior up on the hill. Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan—these guys would have strong-armed, threatened, insulted people’s mothers. Would have gone on TV and embarrassed them. These men set the tone. Instead, President Obama seems to be insisting on an admirable path of hands-off legislating. But all it’s done is drag his numbers down, push moderates and independents to the right, and bog down the president’s hopeful agenda in a mud wrestle of name-calling.
I was heartened to see the president finally talk tough last week. Rumors abound that the president’s chief of staff, Rohm Emanuel, is the likely author of Obama’s thus-far professorial tip-toeing, and that the president is fed up with the foolishness in Congress and had finally gotten the message: Step Up, Mr. President. All of which could be clever White House maneuvering, or it could be table setting for Emanuel’s long-planned departure, with, hopefully, a more determined president emerging in Emanuel’s wake.
Much like Mr. Clinton, President Obama has done a great deal of simply amazing work under impossible stress and in difficult times. And, like Mr. Clinton, he has thus far done a terrible job of telling his own story. Modesty has absolutely no place in Washington, where whomever shouts the loudest tends to be the one telling the story. Only, the loudest voice, in any room, at any time, is that of the president of the United States. Thirteen months later, Mr. Obama has finally made a good start. I hope and pray he continues, now, to do what he should have done from the very start: lead. Bully if he has to. But, we’re begging you, Mr. President, get something done.
Hail To That Guytag:www.praisenet.org,2010:/blogs2/praisenet//1.5812010-02-28T00:51:56Z2010-02-28T00:52:27ZSomeone needs to remind Barack Obama that he’s the President of the United States. Republican leadership demanded there be no podium at the useless “bipartisan” discussion of health care Thursday, and the president agreed, saying he was simply grateful the...priesthttp://praisenet.org
Someone needs to remind Barack Obama that he’s the President of the United States. Republican leadership demanded there be no podium at the useless “bipartisan” discussion of health care Thursday, and the president agreed, saying he was simply grateful the Republicans were coming. After much discussion over the shape of the table (no, seriously), the parties came to an agreement of a series of desks arranged in a rectangle. The GOP will simply not accept this man as president and will go to any lengths to discredit, disavow or obstruct Barack Obama, including this nonsense with the desks. Republican leader Mitch McConnel actually had the gall to chastise the president for a perceived inequity in how much time the Republicans had as compared to the Democrats. To which Obama replied, "You're right, there was an imbalance on the opening statements because I'm the president. I didn't count my time in terms of dividing it equally."
And, yes, he is. He’s supposed to be seated at the head of any table, at the front of any room. He’s not just anther Democrat in the room. Not some guy who lives down the block. He’s not just another politician. He’s the president. I can’t imagine George W. Bush acceding to such a ridiculous demand. Bush simply wouldn’t show up and he’d blame the Democrats for their idiocy over who sits where. Bush was the president. He wasn’t very good at it, but he was the president. In any room he was in, he was the president. I’m not sure who I’m more annoyed with, the Republicans for making such a stupid deal out of where Obama sits, or the president himself for, with all due respect, demeaning the office of the president by allowing these men to treat him like, or even make him seem like, just some guy from down the block. Mr. President, you knew this was a waste of time before you went there.
When We Were Coloredtag:www.praisenet.org,2010:/blogs2/praisenet//1.5792010-02-20T23:42:39Z2010-02-21T04:46:30ZAs if they knew I’d be talking about the vacuum of leadership in the black community, the NAACP appointed Roslyn M. Brock, to succeed Julian Bond as the civil right’s group’s board chair and work alongside CEO Benjamin Jealous. Brock,...priesthttp://praisenet.org
As if they knew I’d be talking about the vacuum of leadership in the black community, the NAACP appointed Roslyn M. Brock, to succeed Julian Bond as the civil right’s group’s board chair and work alongside CEO Benjamin Jealous. Brock, 44, and Jealous, 37, seem ideally suited to inject youth and vigor into the aging organization, and I’m happy to pray for and support that progression. More than new faces, however, the NAACP needs a new voice. It needs a serious image makeover, and it needs to clear its throat and start speaking again. We live in a world of high-speed, instant communication with a 24-hour news cycle, but how often do we hear anything, anything at all, from the NAACP other than its anniversaries and rearranging of executive deck chairs? And, while the NAACP’s mission remains focused on civil rights, they seem to turn both a blind eye and deaf ear to the cancer of ignorance and moral ambiguity destroying the black family and, as I write about this week, silencing the black voice.
The group awarded its 2009 Image Award to the increasingly raunchy Beyoncé for Outstanding Female Artist and to the foul-mouthed and salacious Jamie Foxx for Outstanding Male Artist, which suggests the NAACP, much like the black church itself, has bought in to the benign see-no-evil posture of not only tolerating youth-targeted media of questionable moral character but demonstrably awarding it. Which, I suppose, is fine. The NAACP does not present itself as an arbiter of morality so much as an avenue of social justice. And, though I realize I probably sound like a maniac or a prude to many people reading this, my ire at Ms. Knowles , Mr. Foxx and the rest is not so much about censoring their art form as it is about building a firewall between adult entertainment and children. Beyoncé's top constituency is not 30-year old women but 13-year old girls, to whom the singer is teaching lessons of sexual commodity. My frustration with the NAACP, the black church, and, I guess, everybody (since I seem to be the only one peeved about this) is there is not only no leadership in black America, there is, sadly, no accountability in black America. Ms. Knowles, husband Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Scrappy-Doo and the rest all know, good and well, they are selling sin to children. For, if they truly restricted purchases of adult material to, well, adults, their record sales would plummet. These people are no better than cigarette companies trying to get impressionable kids hooked, or drug dealers using them as mules. Beyoncé is hardly the antichrist, but she is increasingly crossing lines that demand a discussion of whether or not this is a positive person or a person of reasonable moral character. I honestly don't care if Beyoncé shakes her cakes, don't care about Lil Wayne's childish, insipid gynecological raps. But if these persons aren't serious about keeping the adult stuff away from ten and twelve year-olds, then, by any reasonable moral standard, they are corrupting children for money. And the NAACP hands these people a statue. An image award. Way to go.
For me, and I'd suppose many others, to take the NAACP seriously, they've got to stop sucking up to people who make money off of corrupting the values of our children. For the NAACP to actually mean something to me today, in 2010, they need to speak to me, rather than huddle in conclaves—or wherever it is that they huddle. The NAACP needs to reintroduce itself to America—white and black, and present a case for its relevance. For why it should continue to exist and why we should support it. I believe both suppositions are true: they should exist, we should support them. But that is not a case for this ministry to make, it is a case for them to make. To make plain and obvious who and what the NAACP is. They need an image makeover. As our president has done, the NAACP needs to aggressively embrace new media, put a face on their mission and make themselves relevant and important to this generation of African Americans.
“The Tea Party used marching effectively," Brock said, referring to the current political movement that advocates limited government. "It's long been a tool in our arsenal.” I sincerely hope Ms. Brock has more insight into the very dangerous Tea Party phenom than that. Given the benefit of the doubt—that the orphaned quote is more a product of amateurish reporting than what it sounds like: a Palin-esque dilettante remark suggestive of an alarming lack of depth. I assume Ms. Brock is certainly not Mrs. Palin, but if that was the best quote The Grio's reporter could glean all evening, I'm not terribly hopeful.
I’m not all that interested in marching. Marching, boycotts, sit-ins and such are all familiar tools of the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. What we need now is new ideas. New voices. Things no one has done before or tried before. The NAACP needs to make itself relevant again. Most people I know, white and black, assume the NAACP goes about its business quietly doing… whatever it does. The group needs to embrace new technologies like YouTube and do monthly if not weekly video broadcasts, letting us know what the NAACP has been up to, what our local chapters are doing. I, frankly, have no idea whatsoever what my local NAACP chapter does other than raise money for itself.
Brock spoke of the NAACP's future strategies, which she calls "PGA: policy, governance and accountability."
"I'd like for it to be more strategic in its focus," she said. "Historically the NAACP rallies and tells us what its against. I'd like for it to be more proactive and strategic. During our policy making sessions...we pass myriad resolutions year after year. I really want to assess that process."
Blink. What does that mean? Who is she talking to? Our children are being lost every day. Our families are falling apart. Our unemployment rate hovers around 15% on average. We are the first fired and last hired. We don't need someone to assess policy-making processes. We need someone to speak in plain English about real boots-on-the-ground solutions to real problems. This sounds like a drawn-out process leading to more huddling in conclaves and more documents being drawn up to resolve to do something... someday... eventually... maybe...
What is it you people actually do?
The NAACP, locally and nationally, needs to pick a fight. A big one. Needs to get in the news. Needs to engage the imagination and, more important, the trust of young people who view the institution as an anachronism.
The announcement of Ms. Brock was, perhaps, the singular opportunity for the NAACP to make national news, an opportunity apparently wasted as either the media didn't report anything substantive Ms. Brock may have said or, worse, that she didn't say anything more substantive than the corporate double-speak about evaluating and myriad resolutions. Which suggests either the NAACP has the world's worst media advance team, or that Ms. Brock may not have any new ideas about anything. For, if she did, now would have been the time to share them with us. There should have been no fewer than five prepackaged sound bites about who she is and why she matters, about what will be different about the NAACP and, most critically, about why black America should unite behind them.
Either Chairperson Brock failed to craft an effective media moment or she has no new ideas beyond rearranging the chairs in the corporate boardrooms where our member dues are spent on coffee and donuts.
Black America has fallen into a malaise of navel-staring, most of us having settled for whatever apportion of the American dream we’ve managed to grab hold to. The NAACP once represented a vision of not only what black America could be but what it should be. An Obama-style vertically-integrated media campaign would go a long way toward engaging the public interest again.
I certainly congratulate Ms. Brock. But I’ll get excited about this change of leadership when and if I ever figure out what the NAACP does and if whatever that is is worth my time and interest. Which is a terribly sad thing to say about so great an institution.
My Pagan Valentinetag:www.praisenet.org,2010:/blogs2/praisenet//1.5772010-02-14T23:02:11Z2010-02-14T23:03:03ZMost women who have ever been in my life became upset around the 14th of February because I didn't believe in St. Valentine's Day. I figured, (1) if I loved them, I shouldn't have to prove it and (2) being...priesthttp://praisenet.org
Most women who have ever been in my life became upset around the 14th of February because I didn't believe in St. Valentine's Day. I figured, (1) if I loved them, I shouldn't have to prove it and (2) being a robot and throwing money away just because Hallmark said we should is no way to do (1). The main problem with customs is they are customs, which is to say these rituals are so deeply embedded into our social DNA they rise to the standard of a religious obligation. Which is ironic considering I could talk most any woman I've been involved with into skipping church but skipping St. Valentine's Day was pure heresy. She would experience rejection. She would all but accuse me of lying when I refused to cooperate with this foolishness. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, of God or the bible involved in St. Valentine's Day, a seemingly benign distraction which actually tracks back to heinous pagan rituals.
The custom of sending lover's greetings on February 14 began with an ancient pagan celebration called The Feast of Lupercalia, "Wolf Festival," a pre-Roman blood rite honoring Lupercus, the god of shepherds. The celebration featured a lottery in which the names of young girls were written on slips of paper and placed into a vase. Young men would draw a girl's name from the jar, and the girl would be his sexual companion during the remaining year.
In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius changed the name of the Lupercalia festival to St. Valentine's Day, and ordered a slight change in the lottery. Instead of the names of young women, the box would contain the names of saints. Both men and women were allowed to draw from the box, and the game was to emulate the ways of the saint they drew during the rest of the year. Not too surprisingly, this prudish version of Lupercalia proved unpopular, and by the fourteenth century they reverted back to the use of girls' names.
The feast included blood sacrifices of two male goats (representing fertility) and a dog (representing purification). Girls and young women would line up to receive lashes from whips made from the skins of the animal sacrifices to ensure fertility, prevent sterility and ease the pain of childbirth.
Paul's insistence that such ancient rituals no longer have any power [1 Cor. 9] have led pastors to tell me we are, therefore, free to emulate them; to use benign improvisations of these rites (St. Valentine's Day, Trick-Or-Treating) as agents of evangelism Which is faulty exegesis. Even though the Apostle Paul denied the power of pagan gods and rituals, even though he instructed his followers to not chastise the new Christians for eating the meat of idols, such selectively myopic interpretation of scripture misses the broader context: Paul himself never ate the meat of idols and Paul himself never included pagan rituals into his Christian belief. Just because Paul says these “gods” have no feet, have no real power, he is not endorsing our emulation of pagan rituals, behavior Paul condemns [I Cor. 10:20-21].
Rituals and practices designed, from their inception, to deny the holiness of God are inappropriate vehicles for evangelism. Some have argued that we’re just taking Satan's tools and turning them against him. By definition, Satan's tools are Satan's tools. By definition they are FOREVER condemned and ineligible for inclusion in worship to God.
It frustrates me that if, when asked why I don't participate in St. Valentine's Day, I said I was a Muslim, people would accept that. Nobody demands long explanations of my Muslim friends. Their wives don't turn them inside out over this foolishness. But Christians, apparently, have no standards. And I am belittled, mocked, berated and dismissed as lazy or, worse, as someone who does not love. Churches having "sweetheart balls," and so forth are especially contemptible to me. Papering the fellowship halls with red and pink hearts is the height of ignorance. Why not build an altar to Baal while you're at it. I would like to respectfully disagree with pastors who endorse this heresy, but I can't be all that polite about it. There simply is no biblical defense for this practice. It is shameful and antichrist. We are a deceived people, led by pastors who either don't know better or who rigidly enforce the parts of the bible they like while crucifying Christ afresh with paper hearts.
I'm not all that bent about the paganism and religious aspects of this (though they are important to know). I just, flat out, think emotional blackmail is not love. My beloved sulking, refusing to speak to me, crying, experiencing rejection because I refuse to deal with this nonsense Is Not Love. If my love for her is so weak that she requires such Santa Claus-like external validation, our relationship is in serious trouble. I want to be with someone secure enough to not make demands of love, as true love makes no demands. Someone who knows herself and knows me and knows God and wants to please God more than she wants to please herself. I want to be with a grown-up: somebody who accepts me for me and accepts my conviction to not participate--even indirectly--in emulation of pagan rites that blaspheme the God I worship. Forcing me to participate in this idiocy Is Not Love. And, to me, it's really sad when a woman emotionally blackmails a guy into this nonsense. He's miserable, she knows it, she doesn't care. She's wallowing in self deception even as she undermines her relationship with him because he's marking this torture off on his calendar, February 14th becoming a dreadful obligation and a day when this woman loses her dang mind and acts like a pouty ten-year old.
There's certainly nothing wrong with giving your sweetheart a bouquet or a box of chocolates. But let's stop being lemmings, doing things because we've always done them. Let's understand the roots and origins of our customs and traditions and ask ourselves, truthfully, if these practices please God. I mean, we should demonstrate our love for one another every day. And if you want to designate a Sweethearts Day, there's certainly nothing wrong with that, either. But blindly following pagan tradition makes us obstinate and lazy and, ultimately, guilty of integrating paganism into our belief system. After all, waiting to Monday to give her those flowers would honor her and God. But she'll likely have a dang fit. Fellas--this is how we got tossed out of the garden in the first place.
Weather Reporttag:www.praisenet.org,2010:/blogs2/praisenet//1.5742010-02-14T05:32:59Z2010-02-14T05:33:22ZI 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....priesthttp://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.
State Of The Statetag:www.praisenet.org,2010:/blogs2/praisenet//1.5682010-02-01T22:29:54Z2010-02-03T17:47:42ZIf the president’s State of The Union Address proved anything, it was that congressional Republicans (and many Democrats as well) simply refuse to accept this man as president. Racism being as intangible and often as inexplicable as sexism, I’m sure...priesthttp://praisenet.org
If the president’s State of The Union Address proved anything, it was that congressional Republicans (and many Democrats as well) simply refuse to accept this man as president. Racism being as intangible and often as inexplicable as sexism, I’m sure the number of white men apparently tweeting (using handheld devices to post to Twiitter.Com) while the president spoke seemed unbearably disrespectful, unprecedented in both scale and manner. Grown men behaving like teenage girls who can’t put the blasted thing down even for a minute. I have never before in my life seen such capriciously calculated displays of disrespect and, yes, irrational and overtly racist hatred aimed at a sitting U.S. president. I am told John F. Kennedy had similar detractors, particularly in the far right. But the rule has always been to show the president of the United States a reasonable and expected measure of respect and temperance, most especially during such national events as the State of The Union.
Of course, Obama was heckled during last year’s address to a joint session of Congress (it wasn’t officially a state of the union speech). And every black man, woman and child knew what the talking head pundits debated and poked at with a stick: that Joe Wilson’s loathing of the president was—as is most other burgeoning irrational hatred directed toward the president—colored by racism. To deny racism plays any role in the surreal refusal to accept a duly elected sitting president simply insults my intelligence, and I’d guess that of millions of other Americans who sat horrified, watching flabby old men ignore one of the most provocative SOTU speeches in U.S. history.
Which isn’t to say it was one of the best. Obama’s cautious tip-toeing around likely only added to the disingenuous front of these guys’ refusal to accept him as president. It boggles that so many of these men accepted George W. Bush—demonstrably and unquestioningly the worst U.S. president in modern history—while treating Obama with a contempt I can scarcely imagine.
It reminded me of James Earl Jones playing a U.S. circuit judge in the Jodie Foster film Somersby, gasps elicited from the gallery as Jones’ judge entered the 19th century courtroom. There was a kind of reluctant, minimal respect accorded Jones, whose character was packing heat at the time, but Jones’ thoughtful portrayal told the same story the president’s face often does: he expected no less.
As the first elected black president of the U.S., I suspect Barack Obama knew the hypocritical racism in government would not only be exposed but would be on full display. The only people who can’t apparently see it are the racists themselves, most of whom cling to increasingly ridiculous and torturously thin distinctions between racism and political differences.
I’ll have to check, but I seem to recall Republicans hated Bill Clinton. Despised him. Wasted a billion dollars on a useless trial over what should have been a private family matter simply to humiliate him and sully his record. But, at this writing, I cannot recall a single time when even one of those Republicans treated Clinton as abusively as they routinely treat this president.
This lack of civility, on full display to the world, only encourages fringe wing-nuts who, seeing these hateful white men behave like children, reinforce and validate their own fringe thinking as racist vilification of the president becomes both acceptable and deeply ingrained into our society.
And I have to blame the president for some of it. I’m sure he’s been coached not to respond to senators and congressmen dozing off or ignoring him as they send text messages, but he is the president of the United States. He should have embarrassed them. He should have pointed out, there and in the moment, that their calculated displays of ignorance and hatred are precisely the kind of incivility that has polarized the political process. Obama should have called these guys out—not for personal reasons or out of ego, but because of the lesson being taught to our children and our society. A lesson that will be taught whether the president teaches it or the bloated, ignorant, hateful morons wearing their racism on their sleeve do.
Even sadder: I’d bet serious money (if I bet, or if I had serious money) that most if not all of these guys slouching in their chairs and pretending to ignore a man they dressed up and drove across town to see consider themselves Christians. As if Christ would ever, under any circumstances, behave that way. This behavior is the political equivalent of Church Folk. Nasty, easily-offended, motor-mouthed, gregarious, mean-spirited, ridiculous people who, I suppose, measure their status in the Kingdom by how fluent they are in tongues or how well they dance. These are people trapped in a bubble, Lost In the Matrix, having become so consumed with their charismatic Sunday experience that they’ve completely lost track of Christ.
These blubbery morons showing contempt to the president of the United States have nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with Jesus Christ. And yet they claim to speak for Him and to act in His name.
It was a good speech. Could have been better if the president wasn’t being so cautious and professerly. Not sure if the lecture to the Republicans would do any good, though it certainly was cathartic to many of us who are sick and tired of the childishness of the Party Of No. But the speech felt halting and piecemeal, the president unable to lay out an inspiring or even hopeful vision—just a collection of legislative ideas.
And I think he missed an even greater opportunity to improve America by interrupting himself long enough to ask the Senators to either pay attention or leave. If they’re going to behave like children, they should be treated like children. More important, the right lesson—that incivility is simple not acceptable—needed to be taught. Instead, Obama took the high ground, ignored these guys, and let them send the message that undermines everything we are as a people and everything we claim to be.
There's No News Like No Newstag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/praisenet//1.5342009-11-08T06:53:17Z2009-11-08T06:55:42ZThe Body of Christ News, a reader-supported monthly newspaper supporting African American churches throughout the state of Colorado, announced last week they would suspend circulation in the southern regions of the state because of lack of support from black Southern...priesthttp://praisenet.org
The Body of Christ News, a reader-supported monthly newspaper supporting African American churches throughout the state of Colorado, announced last week they would suspend circulation in the southern regions of the state because of lack of support from black Southern Colorado churches.
“Southern Colorado would send information in for free coverage,” ,” their press release stated, “but only a few churches over the years would actually advertise. There has been very little support in the last six years from Southern Colorado. So when a decision had to be made regarding cutbacks – it made sense to stop service in Southern Colorado.”
This is disappointing news, but is less indicative, I believe, of the economic downturn than it is a prevalent indicator of the overall malaise gripping African American churches and ministries in Colorado Springs, where the PraiseNet is based. We don’t usually focus on local Southern Colorado events because, like the Body of Christ News, this ministryh is not supported by local Southern Colorado churches.
Trying to get black churches here to support one another and to join together for a common purpose is a lot like teaching cats to dance. And offering something for free, as BOC has, often enables that malaise.
I never say the PraiseNet is "free" because "free" is a misnomer and a distortion of truth: it costs money to do what we do, what the BOCN does. The Body of Christ has been an important voice in black ministry, one that has likely gone underappreciated most especially here because our churches are so under resourced. This is problem I believe to have systemic causes stemming from lack of vision and leadership and a certain myopia or tunnel-vision that prevents our ministries here from seeing the grander horizon.
The BOC is an important community tool. But it is a tool we have likely taken for granted. And, as the PraiseNet ultimately moved well beyond Colorado to support churches in Texas and California, Ohio and Minnesota and other places, it is truly sad that Southern Colorado did not make better use of resources God placed at their disposal.
“I really tried hard to get Southern Colorado to support the Body of Christ News, but somehow people just didn’t see the need to advertise with the paper,’ states co-publisher Eva. PM Wynn Grove, host of The Word Network’s weekly Heavenly Sent broadcast..
Readers and churches can still subscribe to The Body Of Christ News by logging onto their website, www.bocnews.com.
The Public Optiontag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/praisenet//1.5012009-09-20T14:40:55Z2009-11-20T14:07:01ZThis 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...priesthttp://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.
Prioritiestag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/praisenet//1.4992009-09-14T00:35:00Z2009-11-20T14:07:13Zpriesthttp://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.]]>
School's Outtag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/praisenet//1.4972009-09-07T16:25:39Z2009-11-20T14:07:33ZReaching 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...priesthttp://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.
Back In A Flashtag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/praisenet//1.4942009-08-30T01:51:02Z2009-11-20T14:07:45ZSorry to be gone so long, there’s been a lot going on that’s distracted me from this ministry. I think we’re out of the tall grass for now, and expect to return next Sunday with perspectives on the ongoing health...priesthttp://praisenet.org
Sorry to be gone so long, there’s been a lot going on that’s distracted me from this ministry. I think we’re out of the tall grass for now, and expect to return next Sunday with perspectives on the ongoing health care debate and other issues. We appreciate the prayers and inquiries of those who’ve been writing in asking where we’ve gone—believe me, it wasn’t our plan or our idea, but God opening doors and presenting ministerial and growth opportunities which required this editor’s time and attention. A few breaths in a neutral corner, and we’ll be swinging for the fences next week. We pray you’ve had a blessed August. —Editor
Jackson Memorialtag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/praisenet//1.4842009-07-09T17:05:53Z2009-11-20T14:07:58ZIn 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,...priesthttp://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.
Jackson Family Woestag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/praisenet//1.4812009-07-04T14:16:22Z2009-11-20T14:08:08ZThe 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...priesthttp://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.
Michaeltag:www.praisenet.org,2009:/blogs2/praisenet//1.4782009-06-29T18:25:37Z2009-11-20T14:08:19ZWhatever 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...priesthttp://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.