I think I’m going to start a new series, not that I’ve been super successful with my others, but alas, here goes. I know it’s pretty doom and gloom to write about the “lack thereof” particularly in the black communities of this country, or even various other cultural observances, but I do believe that if […]
Read more "The Lack Thereof… Intellectual Black Religious Communities"When dealing with the hip-hop generation and most certainly what M.K. Asante, Jr. refers to as the emergence of the post-hip hop generation, one must understand that much of the state of affairs within the inner cities is a result of a systemic governmental policies on the federal, state and local levels. At issue is […]
Read more "Hip Hop and the State of the Black Church, pt. 1"The following is a response piece from a forwarded article to me by one of my readers and Twitter followers @tsboddy on a piece that Princeton professor Eddie Glaude, Ph.D. wrote for the Huffington Post entitled “The Black Church is Dead.” Clearly this is up my alley and I’ve finally gotten around to responding to […]
Read more "An Uppity Negro Response to Eddie Glaude’s “The Black Church is Dead”"This is a piece forwarded to me by one of my readers and Twitter followers @tsboddy on a piece that Princeton professor Eddie Glaude, Ph.D. wrote for the Huffington Post entitled “The Black Church is Dead.” Clearly this is up my alley and I plan to have a response to this later on this week. […]
Read more "Sunday Morning Coffee Break: Eddie Glaude’s “The Black Church Is Dead?”"Last week my friend asked me to lead the discussion for the “Next Gathering” a group of budding theologians who meet for a couple of hours once a month to discuss theology in a slightly more formal setting than just over hot wings and drinks. My colleague asked me to give the preacher’s response to […]
Read more "The Preacher’s Response to the Haitian Earthquake; Pat Robertson’s comments"So I learned a hard lesson when I preached in front of my peers the other week: Not everyone can handle what you say across from the pulpit. From being accused of plagiarism (yes, again) to being accused of not remaining biblically accurate, I got the whole gamut of concerns surrounding my sermon. In a […]
Read more "Prophetic Tradition Versus Priestly Tradition"I actually got a tweet about this mess when it happened. Two weeks ago while the historically black Pentecostal denomination of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) held their annual 102nd Holy Convocation in Memphis, Tennessee, apparently Donnie McClurkin, the gospel recording artist and ordained elder in the COGIC church took the microphone on […]
Read more "Hurt People, Hurt People: The Homophobic Prophesying Rant of Donnie McClurkin"As I was writing the first post, I thought about the fact that there really is a segment of Christianity in this country that truly feels that politics and religion don’t mix. That is to say, that all they need to do is preach Jesus, and him crucified, dead, buried and resurrected and all will […]
Read more "Which Comes First: Religion or Citizenship, Pt. II"It’s kind of like the Civil War where brothers fought across the Mason-Dixon line. I don’t want to stain my faith. I don’t want to stain my fellow Muslims and I don’t want to stain my country’s flag.” — Ardi Arkun, 32, of Lindenhurst, N.Y., who joined the Marines in 2000 and was deployed to […]
Read more "Which Comes First: Religion or Citizenship?"Fellow clergypersons, So it just hit me randomly this year that we, as self-professed American Christians really do worship the religion of Americanity rather than being true Followers of the Way. That is to say, we’ll follow what American capitalism says, dress it up in Christianity and the Bible and be okay with that. Here’s […]
Read more "Spiritualizing the Secular: An Open Letter to the Clergy of America"
Joshua Lawrence Lazard 