BlackVoices Preach!: Being Prepared for God's Call

With the new year in full swing, many of us are taking our resolutions head on and tackling big changes in our lives. Regular sermon contributor Princeton Parker ponders, while preparing for a big change of his own, how we prepare for these new challenges and make way for God during big changes.

Reverend Nicholas Stuart Richards updates us on his recent trip to Ethiopia and the amazing lessons he's learning through his work with the Abyssinian Fund.

FInally, Monique Ruffin grapples with the often overlooked issue of homophobia in the church and calls us all in 2012 to challenge it's damaging hold on black religious life.

Comments

[Mushman Peets]

09:05 PM on 01/18/2012

Religion destroys the black children's mind. It creates within them, a huge inferiority complex. When are black folks going to wake up. look at how far ahead white folks are world wide of black people, yet, we are still singing their (White God) praises...Literally.

[WCWinner]

05:03 PM on 01/09/2012

I hope that preaching stops teaching hate toward non-christians, and seeks to repair the damage done by the black clergy to people who helped them gain their CIVIL RIGHTS--gay people!

[IGNSTHMD]

01:52 AM on 01/10/2012

if gay people are the reason blacks have civil rights then you ought to get back to work because you didnt finish the job.

[WCWinner]

09:50 AM on 01/10/2012

I ain't doin' nothin' more until you stop CONTRIBUTING to the hatred of gay people.
Fight your own battles, since you've demonstrated that you're not interested in SHARING the rights you have achieved through my help.

[demcratville]

08:39 AM on 01/09/2012

Christianity is a White mans Myth.

[IGNSTHMD]

12:44 PM on 01/09/2012

how so?

[WCWinner]

05:04 PM on 01/09/2012

If Jesus existed, he was surely non-Anglo, as presented.

[Stephen Stafford]

02:10 PM on 01/09/2012

I have been Christian all my life, and affirmed the Holy Spirit's move on my heart through baptism at the age of nine.

Do me a favor and tell those White men you know who think this is myth that Jesus is real, and relationship with God is open to each of them as well.

Why deal with some myth when they can access the real thing?

While you are at it, feel free to get some for yourself. All are welcome.

[WCWinner]

05:04 PM on 01/09/2012

Even us gay people?
Can we get married in YOUR church like you can get married in ours?

[David Weidner]

05:24 PM on 01/08/2012

I still cannot understand why black people would participate in a religion that was forced upon them, and endorsed slavery by men who considered them to be inferior and were on 2/3 a man. Heck Mormans wouldn't even allow black ministers until the 1970's. It amazes me.

[TheNewShadeofBlue]

12:41 AM on 01/09/2012

It is the second biggest brainwashing of the human psyche over the last 2000 thousand years. I too for so long have wondered what is wrong with blacks participate. I really think if they took a moment and thought critically, they would see what a waste of time it has been.

[IGNSTHMD]

01:07 AM on 01/09/2012

i really think if they took a moment and thought critically, they would see what a waste of time it has been

how so?

[IGNSTHMD]

01:05 AM on 01/09/2012

estrangement does weird things to your esteem. aside from that, everyone is subject to the conditions they find themselves in including who you look up to and what they answer to. just think, what do you aspire to that hasnt be introduced to you by the people you answer to, or by others' propaganda? it might be 2+2 = 4, or it might be the words "i love you," or maybe it could be a doctor telling you, "if you don't stop drinking, you will die." all are examples of our vulnerability to authority figures; imagine math was flawed in some fundemental way or that the one who said they love you would only love you on their terms, or if you will, imagine you gave the same impugnity to police as you would some who is trying to save your life. the thing is all the above are mostly true, but we accommodate them out of convenience and conformity because that is the outline we have been shown for submiting our ascent.