Church and Society

In Tim Tebow We Trust

Let me be upfront: I’m a Chicago native born and raised.  I tried running away from it when I graduated high school.  I didn’t want to be associated with those that ate polish sausages from Maxwell Street and I didn’t want to be engaged in the lifelong South Side versus West Side and Harold’s mild […]

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The Good Reverend Doctor Herman “Feelgood” Cain: To Minister or Not to Minister?

I was perusing HuffPo late last week and came upon a question posed by commentator Martin Bashir posing what I thought was a thought-provoking and appropriate question: Should Herman Cain resign from his post as associate minister at his home church? To be fair, Bashir was positing this thought prior to Cain’s “suspension” of his […]

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Jumping The Broom: Understanding Sex and Marriage as Religious and Cultural Oppression

Yesterday I read an article at TheFreshXpress from another blogger who goes by the name DCDistrictDiva (her award winning blog is “The Dithering of a District Diva“) on the topic of sex and marriage.  The article was entitled “Twisted: Why God’s ‘No Marriage, No Sex’ Rule is for Protection and Pleasure, Not Punishment.”   I began […]

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For Black Religious Intellectuals Who Considered Suicide When The Foolishness Was Too Much

Black America paid close attention last fall when New Birth Missionary Baptist Church pastor Bishop Eddie Long was accused of sexual impropriety and misconduct.  Four young men were launching a civil case against Long for misconduct during their teenage years under the tutelage of Long as members of New Birth.  Suddenly picture text messages surfaced […]

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For Colored Persons Who Have Considered Suicide When Being “Black In America” Is Enough: An Uppity Negro Response to CNN’s Black In America III

I know that’s a long title and certainly hyperbolic, but I think it addresses the gutted and eviscerated feeling that I experienced watching CNN’s Soledad O’Brien “Almighty Debt” a Black In America special.  Granted I went into this third installment of the Black In America series with some serious preconceived notions.  Rightly so I believe. […]

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Mainstream Media Gets It Wrong Again: The Black Church in American Culture

On Wednesday, October 20, CNN.com posted a news article entitled “Black preachers who ‘whoop’ — minstrel or ministers?” that amongst the black churchy folk was a subject of tweets and Facebook status updates; many went so far as to link the news story to their Facebook pages engendering comments aptly defining the “whoop” (pronounced “hoop”) […]

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“Don’t Talk About My Mama!” and Other Problems With Black Intellectual Rhetoric

We’ve all had that moment when we realize that a conversation somehow strayed down a rabbit-hole and turned into a debate, and that debate got intense and turned into an argument.  Somewhere deep down inside you were maintaining your cool when all of a sudden the other Negro made it personal and said something about […]

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