Free Republic

Is The Black Church The Answer To Liberal Prayers? By Lisa Miller, Published: November 24 As the American left continues to seek a coherent way to articulate its moral priorities in these days of political stalemates and widening income gaps, it might look to the most unlikely of places — the academy — for guidance and inspiration. At elite universities and seminaries thrives a constituency of African American intellectuals who fiercely contend that the American conversation needs to stay focused on justice — specifically, for those whom the Bible calls “the least of these.” Cornel West, who was arrested at...

President Barack Obama and his family marked Easter Sunday by attending a service at an African-American baptist church in Washington, standing to clap the 120-strong choir. Obama and his wife Michelle brought their daughters Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9, to the service at Shiloh Baptist Church, to massive applause from worshippers.

Long before the sun rose over the Shiloh Baptist Church, people were passing through metaldetectors at the historic African American congregation where President Barack Obama and his family will celebrate Easter. [Snip] Rev. Wallace Charles Smith, in the church's program, said, "We are honored to welcome to our 10 a.m. Easter service President Barack Obama, First LadyMichelle Obama, and daughters Malia and Sasha. Shiloh prays for the first family every Sunday and we thank God for the wonderful inspiration they provide to our nation." [Snip] The 3,000-member D.C. congregation [was] started by freed slaves.

E.W. Jackson's Campaign Kick-Off! Dear Friend, Americans are calling for a new era of leadership, and two weeks ago I announced my intention to answer that call by stepping forward to serve Virginia as its next United States Senator. The history of my family in Virginia dates back to around 1778, the period of the Revolutionary War. Only in American can an heir of former slaves become a candidate for the United States Senate. All of our ancestors suffered to give us this freedom we enjoy, and now that freedom is threatened by oppressive debt, confiscatory taxation and job killing...

WASHINGTON- A coalition of 34,000 black churches is blasting President Barack Obama's decision to stop defending the federal law that bans recognition of gay marriage. The Rev. Anthony Evans, who heads the National Black Church Initiative, says Obama "has violated the Christian faith" by failing to uphold Jesus' teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman. As a result, Evans says black churches must "reassess their extraordinary support for him."

President Obama and the first family will join D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray to worship at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Northwest during a service that will reflect on the spiritual fervor of Martin Luther King Jr. Last year the president delivered a major address the Sunday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Districts Vermont Avenue Baptist Church where King spoke when he was alive.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - One of three white men convicted of setting a fire that burned down a predominantly black church in Springfield hours after Barack Obama was elected president faces sentencing in federal court. frpa

it is this devout style of belief and attachment to the black church that is keeping black women single and lonely. Cooper made claims that predominantly black protestant churches are the main reason black women are single. Cooper argues that rigid beliefs constructed by the black church are blinding black women in their search for love. In raising the issue, Cooper ignited a public conversation about a topic that is increasingly getting attention in the black community and beyond. Oprah Winfrey, among others, recently hosted a show about single black women and relationships after a Yale University study found that...

At 8:30 AM, Saturday, July 17, Pastor Ronnie Wallace, a black Pastor and disabled Veteran from Charlotte, N.C., was arrested by seven white police officers on the public right of way in front of the Family Reproductive Health Abortion Clinic on Hebron St, Charlotte N.C. for obstruction. Pastor Wallace comes regularly to this spot to preach the gospel and offer hope to women who are entering the clinic. Pastor Wallace, a war veteran, is disabled, walks with a cane and cannot stand for long time. ...

Christians and conservative groups in Washington are determined to take the gay marriage issue to the U.S. Supreme Court after their appeal to let the people vote on the matter was rejected. "In America, we respect the right to vote. The citizens of the District of Columbia should not have their voices suppressed by the government, but that is exactly what is happening here," said Austin R. Nimocks, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. In a narrow 5-4 ruling, the D.C. Court of Appeals upheld on Thursday the decision of the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics to...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A nationwide coalition of 34,000 minority churches is condemning the California NAACP for supporting a state ballot initiative that would legalize recreational use of marijuana. The California State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced support for the November ballot measure, saying current laws unfairly target non-whites. But the Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the National Black Church Initiative, says drugs have "ravaged" the black community with too much violence and death to consider legalization. Evans says his church will no longer contribute to the NAACP because of its position on marijuana....

The Black Church's Commitment to Obama By Lloyd Marcus Dear Black Church, What I am about to say will probably anger you. As a black Christian, I have struggled with whether or not to address this sensitive topic. I only ask that you give my statements prayerful consideration. Ninety-six percent of black voters, many of whom are Christians, cast their votes for Barack Obama. I question: Did your desire to see a black man in the White House trump your commitment to Christ and Christian values and principles? While I believe many white Christians also made a racist decision by...

Thursday April 22, 2010 Black Minister Forms PAC to Break Dems Party's 'Death Grip' on Black Community WASHINGTON, D.C., April 22, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr., retired attorney and Harvard Law graduate, is declaring political war on the Democrat Party and the liberal Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), the pro-life leader announced this week.Bishop Jackson, who has fought for pro-life and pro-family causes for 25 years, formed STAND AMERICA PAC on April 1. The committee aims primarily to recruit and support conservative black candidates to run against liberals in Congressional Black Caucus districts. "The black community has been...

Mark Chaves of the National Congregations Study has put together an interesting graph demonstrating the ways that different religious groups engage in politics. The numbers may surprise you:  Chaves breaks down the results: First, notwithstanding extensive media coverage of political mobilization within conservative churches, conservative white Protestant churches do not stand out in their level of political activity. Catholic and black Protestant churches, overall, are more politically active than either liberal or conservative white Protestants. About three-quarters of Catholics and black Protestants attend churches that engaged in at least one of these eight political activities, compared to about half of...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama and his family are attending Easter service at a historically black Methodist church in southeast Washington. The Obamas traveled Sunday morning to the Allen Chapel AME Church. The first family has attended a variety of Protestant churches in the nation's capital since Obama's election. The Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church traces its roots to just before the Civil War when it ministered to free blacks in the Anacostia area of Washington. It is part of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Southeast Washington was rocked last week by a drive-by shooting that left four dead and five others...

Catherine Davis is a woman with a message, and that message is getting harder to ignore. "Black children are an endangered species."The Director of Minority Outreach for Georgia Right to Life, Davis is taking that message to the public, along with a massive public awareness campaign that has captured national and international attention. Drivers in the metro Atlanta area are seeing billboards that demand attention - and are changing minds.Her argument is simple and the statistics are irrefutable. She accuses abortion providers in general, and Planned Parenthood in particular, of targeting blacks for abortion. She told The New York...

The Black Church, as we’ve known it or imagined it, is dead. Of course, many African Americans still go to church. According to the PEW Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, 87 percent of African Americans identify with a religious group and 79 percent say that religion is very important in their lives. But the idea of this venerable institution as central to black life and as a repository for the social and moral conscience of the nation has all but disappeared. Several reasons immediately come to mind for this state of affairs. First, black churches have always...

Sixth Mt. Zion Baptist Temple at 3100 Butternut Dr in Hampton, VA hosting 1st Annual Regional African American Faith Community Climate Change Conference. Powerful workshops to help raise the level awareness about disaster preparedness (e.g. Katrina and Haiti), Green Youth, Pastor's Roundtable, etc.. Keynote address presented by the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus. Yount adults encouraged to attend, and all pastors, ministry leaders, and community members.

Across the country, the anti-abortion movement, long viewed as almost exclusively white and Republican, is turning its attention to African-Americans and encouraging black abortion opponents across the country to become more active. A new documentary, written and directed by Mark Crutcher, a white abortion opponent in Denton, Tex., meticulously traces what it says are connections among slavery, Nazi-style eugenics, birth control and abortion, and is being regularly screened by black organizations. Black abortion opponents, who sometimes refer to abortions as “womb lynchings,” have mounted a sustained attack on the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, spurred by a sting operation by...

[Archibald Carey, a black preacher from Chicago, was a friend of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower had Mr. Carey speak at the 1952 Republican Convention in Chicago. The text below is from the speech Mr. Carey gave at that convention. Next to it the link is text from MLK Jr.'s speech.]

It took a while, but President Obama has finally found a church with a Bush-bashing pastor. Isn't it funny how "Separation of Church and State" is not evenly applied? It seems to only create moral outrage when conservatives do it for some strange, unknown reason. Speaking of "Bush", can you imagine the hissy-fit there would be if George W. Bush was sitting behind the podium listening to his pastor spewing partisan, political rhetoric that bashed Democrats? Watch this...

Obama Speaks From Pulpit, Noting Progress And Difficulty In America The president visits a church founded by freed slaves and where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sometimes spoke. By Mark Silva January 17, 2010 Reporting from Washington - President Obama, speaking today from the pulpit of a church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sometimes spoke, called on the congregation to rally around the spirit that had helped their ancestors pursue a long road to freedom. "It's that progress that allowed me to be here today," said Obama, the first African American president. The president, who doesn't frequently...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will attend church services with his wife, Michelle, and speak to the congregation about helping the people of Haiti.

On Fox News Channel live, so no link.

As Democratic fears increase that health insurance reform could slip away with a crucial vote for a new U.S. senator in Massachusetts, President Obama on Sunday used a church pulpit at a Martin Luther King Day service to say the massive health bill would be a victory for "decency." Speaking to congregants at Vermont Avenue Baptist church in Washington, D.C., before heading north to rally for Attorney General Martha Coakley, Obama said the legislation will help more than 30 million Americans, "men women and children, mothers and fathers" to get insurance. "This will be a victory not for Democrats," Obama...

A non-partisan, black, *CHRISTIAN* woman publicly repents for voting for Obama despite his pro-abortion record. She explains why she was deceived and reaffirms her committment to putting Christ first. Before race. Before politics.

The facts are that this "theology" is not black in the sense of skin color. It is black in that its source is hell's caverns. It is not liberating. It is binding and imprisoning. It is not theology in the legitimate definition. It is cultic writ for poor, duped disciples who don't know the Bible well enough to counter the hoax.

The black pastor who leads Bond Action Inc. in support of "family, traditional moral values and positive, honest race relations" says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., should be ashamed of comparing opposition to President Obama's plans to socialize medicine in the U.S. to support for slavery. "Reid's comparison of legitimate Republican opposition towards the Democrats $2.5 trillion health care plan to segregationists is deplorable," Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson said today. "This was an attempt to smear Republicans as racists in order to take the focus off the details of this awful socialist health care bill. Reid's remarks are a...

President Barack Obama’s past continues to haunt him. A friend e-mailed me this revealing post by Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr., pastor of The Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake, Virginia. Bishop Jackson wrote it last June, but I have not seen it circulated or mentioned before now. Now, someone found it and put it on their own blog. Like so many of us, Bishop Jackson describes himself as once a leftist Democrat; an African-American who grew up in a black urban community in Pennsylvania, and a man who is disturbed about what he calls “a strain of anti-Semitism in the black...

The Rev. Reginald Jackson, who last week announced he was throwing his coveted support to incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine, received $87,000 in donations from the multimillionaire governor last year, Jackson confirmed yesterday. According to Corzine's 2008 tax returns, the governor made a $50,000 donation to Jackson's congregation, St. Matthew AME Church in Orange. Corzine gave another $37,000 to St. Matthew from his philanthropic foundation, Jackson said. He explained the smaller sum was contributed early in 2008 and the $50,000 was donated in July last year, shortly after the governor began raising money for his re-election campaign. The contributions were the...

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) has announced election of The Reverend Bernice King, the youngest daughter of The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. (the organization's founder), as its eighth president. The announcement has raised concern among the LGBT community and its supporters. Bernice King has been vocal against marriage equality and has stoked the homophobic fires when she said, "I know in my sanctified soul that he (Dr. King) did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage."

Prayer stopped for a few moments Sunday at 11 churches in Chesapeake and Portsmouth as pastors allowed time for a little bit of politicking between hymns of joy and sermons of salvation. State Del. Lionell Spruill Sr. came to visit, bringing along Democratic candidate for governor Creigh Deeds and envelopes of tickets to one of the hottest political events in Hampton Roads this season. Conducting what has become a tradition for Democrats running for high statewide posts, Spruill led Deeds on a five-hour whirlwind tour of Sunday services, with staff members and reporters in tow. At each stop, Deeds, a...

During the entire Bush administration critics accused him of using religion for political purposes. Many people were aghast that our President was a religious man -- as opposed to his predecessor whose fidelity to the Ten Commandments was an on-off sort of affair. When George Bush named Jesus as his favorite philosopher he was laughed at as being a simpleton. What really provoked the left was when he created the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives as a way to work with religious groups to perform social services. There were fears that the wall between church and state were going to tumble...

Prayer was mixed with a dose of politics at Passaic’s largest black church on Sunday as congregants donned Obama T-shirts in a show of support for a president they say has been unfairly criticized after only eight months in office. The Union Baptist Church held a “Support Obama Sunday,” asking members to “turn the script” on the “wicked and nasty” reaction Obama has received in some quarters as he pushes for health-care reform. The church’s pastor, Rev. Ronald W. Johnson, said he rarely brings politics into the church but was moved to do so because he is concerned that some...

A group of pro-life black pastors are showing their support for President Obama’s health care plan, though conservative public policy experts note that such a plan remains nowhere in sight. Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr., who heads the six million-member Church of God in Christ, and the group of black ministers endorsed the president’s controversial health care overhaul Thursday but was careful to reiterate Obama's no-abortion-funding pledge while cautioning the White House against breaking its promise. "In accord with our commitment to Christian teaching, we wholeheartedly affirm the president's position that medical costs related to the abortion of fetuses shall...

At The Top Of The Televangelist's Game Wesley Pruden. Barack Obama did what he does best. Billy Graham once said Bill Clinton could make a great evangelist, but Bubba's not a patch on this president. Mr. Obama early on mastered the cadence of the black church - dropping his voice on the last word of the sentence to make the listener pay attention - and he understands the power of language. He speaks great prose. He understands that a televangelist concentrates on sales, not substance. The president was on his game Wednesday night, soaring with a promise of partisan geniality...

black woman is suing the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, saying she was abruptly fired after complaining that the organization was not reaching out to black churches. A spokesman for the organization didn't comment on the firing, but said the association does extensive outreach and works extensively with black congregations and other diverse churches. Kimberly McCallum said in the lawsuit that was moved into a federal court on Wednesday that she was the only black employee working in the executive offices in Charlotte when she started in February 2007. She complained to her superiors later that year when she was asked...

A coalition of gay marriage opponents asked the D.C. elections board Tuesday to authorize a ballot initiative that if approved by a majority of voters would define marriage in the District as the union of a man and a woman. Stand4MarriageDC, led by Bishop Harry Jackson of Beltsville's Hope Christian Church, filed papers with the Board of Elections and Ethics seeking authority to collect petition signatures for a November 2010 referendum on the definition of marriage. The filing, backed by the Archdiocese of Washington, comes ahead of an anticipated D.C. Council effort to legalize same-sex marriage in the District. "The...

What is Black Liberation Theology anyway? Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright catapulted black liberation theology onto a national stage, when America discovered Trinity United Church of Christ. Understanding the background of the movement might give better clarity into Wright's recent vitriolic preaching. A clear definition of black theology was first given formulation in 1969 by the National Committee of Black Church Men in the midst of the civil-rights movement: Black theology is a theology of black liberation. It seeks to plumb the black condition in the light of God's revelation in Jesus Christ, so that the black community can...

In an unexpected move, Michael Vick might not be feeling venom outside of Lincoln Financial Field Thursday night but rather he will be feeling some puppy love as supporters planned to march the night that the controversial QB returns to the NFL. The Philadelphia Chapter of the NAACP, the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and other Philly-area civil rights groups were planning a “massive demonstration” outside of the Eagles preseason game against Jacksonville -- the game where Vick is expected to make his Eagles’ debut

Besieged pastor of L.A.'s First AME Church touts his successes Critics seeking to oust the Rev. John J. Hunter cite financial issues and what they view as a shift in priorities from his predecessor's. Hunter's backers cite progress they say the church has made. Teresa Watanabe August 2, 2009 Nearly five years after replacing a legendary pastor in one of the nation's most prominent African American pulpits, the Rev. John J. Hunter counts his blessings. Since taking the helm of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in October 2004, Hunter says, he has been privileged to bring...

The Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, the flamboyant minister better known as the Reverend Ike, who preached the blessings of material prosperity to a large congregation in New York and to television and radio audiences nationwide, died Tuesday in Los Angeles, where he had lived since 2007. He was 74. “This is the do-it-yourself church,” he proclaimed. “The only savior in this philosophy is God in you.” Along with Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and Pat Robertson, he was one of the first evangelists to grasp the power of television. At the height of his success, in the 1970s, he reached...

African-Americans are the most religiously devout racial group in the nation when it comes to attending services, praying and believing that God exists, according to a recent profile. Compared to the rest of the U.S. population, which is generally considered highly religious, African-Americans engage in religious activities more frequently and express higher levels of religious belief, Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life highlighted in a report released in time for Black History Month. The center's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007 on more than 35,000 people, found that 79 percent of African-Americans say religion is very...

WASHINGTON – A number of black evangelical leaders are rising up as a new voice in the conservative movement traditionally dominated by white Protestants. Their centerpiece agendas are abortion and same-sex “marriage” – the same two key social issues emphasized by most conservative evangelicals. But unlike the typical white evangelical Christian that is most likely part of the conservative wing of the Republican party, these African American leaders may be card-carrying Democrats but willing to switch over to the Republican side if their conservative values are addressed. Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr., who heads the socially conservative black pastors group...

Last week, Senator Dick Durbin made comments that should have won him the “Most Racially Insensitive Remarks of the Year Award.” His statements were made in a committee markup. An audio recording of the heated exchange between Senator Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Brownback (R-KS) revealed the unfortunate bias of the Senator from Illinois. Senator Durbin justified the fact that 41% of pregnancies in DC are terminated by abortion by essentially saying, “It’s a black thing!” His exact words are listed below: Durbin: In terms of safe, legal and rare, to the Senator from Kansas, I will tell you two things....

The following is an excerpt from a letter that will be sent this week to President Obama from leaders in the African-American community. Two events have precipitated the writing of this letter. 1. The President hosted a Stonewall Riot 40th anniversary celebration at the White House, when no such meeting has been afforded to African-American clergy to date. 2. The legal attempt to overthrow the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that has come out of Massachusetts last week. All too often, both the press and politicians view the African-American community as a monolithic group that will go wherever the cultural...

A conservative black pastor and former NFL linebacker says he's highly offended that President Obama would compare the plight of homosexuals to that of blacks during the Civil Rights Era.On Monday, President Obama told a gathering of homosexuals at the White House that he is aware that many of them "don't believe progress has come fast enough," and compared their struggles to those of blacks during the Civil Rights Movement. Ken Hutcherson, the senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Washington, says the comments are especially disturbing from an individual who is supposed to be familiar with "the black experience." "But I...

President Obama hosted a reception at the White House celebrating LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Pride month. Black Christians should take note and learn a few things about our black President. As they say, we are what we do. It tells us something that Mr. Obama had no time to host an event for the National Day of Prayer. Nor did he have time to accept the invitation to convey greetings and a few remarks to the couple hundred thousand who came to Washington, as they do every January, for the March for Life. However, the LGBT Pride event did...

Irrespective of race, it seems that nowadays the primary question asked when deciding which party to support is, “What will you do for me (and my downtrodden brethren)?” Looking at the “comments” section of an article about diversifying the GOP, it’s clear that for many African Americans, the answer expected from and assumed of Republicans is: nothing. (One of Asim’s reader’s comments: ” The Republican Party has not done anything in recent time to warrant an AFRICAN AMERICAN caring about it.”) This despite the fact that it was Richard Nixon who signed the first major application of affirmative action into...

A black evangelical Christian pastor and former NFL linebacker says there was "absolutely no truth in anything" President Obama said in his speech to homosexuals in the East Room of the White House Monday. President Obama promised LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) supporters Monday at a White House "gay pride" celebration that he "will continue to be an ally and a champion" for their agenda, once again vowing he will repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. (Related article: Obama White House not appealing transgender ruling) Ken Hutcherson, senior pastor of Antioch...