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 remember in my Finance 101 class the professor giving us the formulas for how to figure out return on investment of the principal or capital deposit. The answer usually produced what was also known as the rate of return, either in fraction or percentage form. It’s basic math, the final value of the investment […]
Read more "Members of the Black Church Should Demand A Return on Investment"Most liberals are familiar with the phrase “[speak] truth to power” which I always loosely associated with social justice messages, particularly those from the pulpit. But, when pressed on the issue, I wasn’t able to give a cogent definition of what the “truth” was and let alone what the “power” was. So when I heard […]
Read more "Speaking Truths That Empower"I think I’m squarely identifying myself as a Christian Universalist. I am convinced that the basic tenets of Christianity provide a framework with which all can be reconciled back to the Deity in some form or fashion. I’m sure most would disagree with this thought process, but I fully believe that all go to “heaven” […]
Read more "This Is Why Folks Don’t Take Church Seriously Pt. III: Recreational Preaching"I remember watching George Bush walk out of St. John’s Church on January 20, 2001 on the slightly rainy inauguration day that year, and I remember at 16 wondering what it would be like to see a black man as a president having to attend a white church service. I imagined that he’d be going […]
Read more "The Obamas’ Search For a Spiritual Home"Last year, around finals, I was in the barbershop for about two hours. Partially because my barber always runs about 15-30 minutes behind schedule (not a big deal, I’m used to it) and my friend was in the chair behind me. So they all know that we go to “that preacher school” up the street, […]
Read more "Creating Community"Updates to come… But let the record show that Rick Warren did a complete and total and utter disservice to the legacy that was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. He should have let it slide with the inaugural invocation tomorrow morning, but this fool got up in front of a black congregation and quoted […]
Read more "Rick Warren and the mess that was the Keynote Address at Ebenezer Baptist Church"I wrote back in April or something about “In Defense of the Black Church: America’s Chicken’s Are Coming Home to Roost” borrowing from the phrase made even more popular from Jeremiah Wright’s rousing sermon following the 9/11 attacks on the previous Tuesday. As I watched CNN do the story digging into Sarah “I’m still picking which […]
Read more "In Defense of The Church: The Need for a Public Theologian"Raving Black Lunatic wrote a while back about swagger in regards to Barack Obama and this whole idea of him coming off as overconfident, and arrogant and dare I say–uppity. But, I debated after hearing yesterday’s sermon from Rev. Otis Moss III as to whether or not I wanted to write about swagger, and I […]
Read more "Don’t Hate on My Swagger"I grew up hearing the phrase “speak truth to power” and its derivatives namely from the pulpit and from my mother. It was always used as a justification for preaching social justice sermons or putting forth a social justice message; usually in the face of a prosperity gospel preached (such as in the Word of […]
Read more "What Is ‘Speaking Truth to Power?’: Social Justice Gains Popularity"
Joshua Lawrence Lazard 