These are a few words that come to mind regarding the earthquake that rocked Haiti. Our leaders will meet tonight to discuss our church’s response to this great tragedy. I will share our plan of action tomorrow.
Labeling any natural disaster as God’s judgment is nonsense. True “judgment begins with God’s family” (1Peter4:17), not others.
Peter warned that God judges all people according to their deeds. He also disciplines and judges his own children in order to refine them, as Peter has explained in 1 Peter 1:6-7. This judgment purifies and strengthens believers, readying them for God’s Kingdom. Natural disasters are the result of living in a broken world! Please pray for nation of Haiti.
“Lord, let your glory reign in the midst of this devastation.”
Racism still exists (even in the church)
That’s right, I said it!
Americans may be poised to elect an African-American as president, but it’s segregation as usual in U.S. churches, according to the scholars. Only about 5 percent of the nation’s churches are racially integrated, and half of them are in the process of becoming all-black or all-white, says Curtiss Paul DeYoung, co-author of United by Faith, a book that examines interracial churches in the United States.
Personally, I do not believe integrated churches work.
(when they are led by Black pastors)
Henry Mitchell, former professor of theology at Rochester Divinity School said, “The central figure in the Black church is the Black preacher. He has no exact counterpart in the white church, and to attempt to see the White preacher on the same plane is to risk confusion, for the Black preacher includes a dimension peculiar to the Black experience.” In the Black church the Black preacher has perpetually served as a father figure to Black people, seeing to their welfare in all spheres of life whether they were social, political, economic, or the traditionally recognized spiritual aspects of life.
Growing up as a preacher’s kid, I saw in operation the validity of these statements. The Black preacher commanded the respect and obedience of his congregation. He was the most powerful man in our community & even today the Black preacher retains most of that prominence. Many Black Christians look to their pastors as an authority figure who should have a lot of biblical knowledge and wisdom. They are viewed as being above and a little distant from ordinary lay people.
In 1991, Spike Lee released his fifth feature-length film Jungle Fever. The plot centers on the interracial romance between a successfully married Black, played by Wesley Snipes, and an Italian woman played by Anabella Sciorra. The lovers come under intense pressure from their friends and family as a result of their interracial relationship. It’s no secret that even today, interracial relationships are still under intense scrutiny – even when it comes to attending church.
For most of white America, the black church is an alien segment of the nation’s culture, hidden behind the plain facades of large brick churches, the rude clapboard of country chapels, the salvation-emblazoned windows of tattered storefronts. It is a montage of impressions, some real, some misleading the low-moaning spirituals, the clapping and the shouted amens; the phenomenon of a Bishop TD Jakes and the curious charisma once possessed the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell; the prophetic, nation-shaking philosophy of a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the pragmatic, neighborhood-building politics of a Rev. Jesse Jackson.
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Best regards,
Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.
