Faith in Action

Hat Tip: Washington Post

Gambling Away Our Principles
Sunday, May 18, 2008; B08

It is easy to get caught up in the false promise of slots — of easy money and a quick fix to all that ails Maryland. But the simple truth is that Maryland can’t win and that Marylanders will lose if slots are legalized.

Gambling is becoming an increasingly pervasive element of American society, and legalizing slot machines in the state would be one more example of our society’s eagerness to abandon hard work and ingenuity in favor of a Band-Aid for a gaping wound. Encouraging gambling in our communities would be irresponsible and would result in lasting and irreversible harm.

Proponents of slots contend that their legalization would help finance public education. We ask: What lessons are we teaching our children? That they should throw hard-earned money away in the false hope of a big payday? Those who say slots will create revenue for the state don’t acknowledge the catastrophic ramifications of such a decision. For the state to win, the player must lose. As people of faith, we are called on to speak out to protect Maryland from the insidious vice of gambling.

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Revolutionary Freedom Fighter, George Jackson, said:

“The ruling clique approaches its task with a “what to think” program; the vanguard elements have the much more difficult of promoting “how to think.”

And that conceptual statement guides me as I lead the Bible Study at the church where I am blessed to serve as Pastor - Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Northeast Baltimore.

Bible Study has never been something that I’ve been overwhelming excited about namely because in my many experiences it has been either an opportunity for the Pastor to “preach” a lesson or it has looked like a facilitator standing in front of the audience telling them what they should think with very little meaningful interaction. I always said that if I ever became a Pastor that I would have a Bible Study that folks would want to come to.

So far we’re well on our way to creating that type of study experience. Pleasant Hope Baptist Church is on track to have the most dangerous Bible Study in Baltimore simply because I push the people to THINK. I don’t answer a whole lot of questions. I help folks to re-read the scriptures with “fresh eyes” and question what they read. I dissuade them from taking anything they read in the Bible at face value. EVERYTHING is open to questioning, criticism, challenge.

We read the scripture in its context understanding that it was written at a certain time, in a certain location, by a certain person (or persons) within a certain culture, for a certain reason.

The amazing thing is that as we engage in textual criticism and exegete the text in a way that honors the scripture’s original meaning (or likely meaning), my students then begin to draw parallels between the context and/or meaning of the passage we’re studying and their everyday realities.

Two weeks ago as we were studying the persecution of Jesus a discussion was born about the persecution of so many others who stood up against the status quo power structure and were viewed as a threat capable of organizing the masses thus necessitating their assassination or exile. It was such an invigorating discussion. It eventually led to us analyzing the Roman Empire and the Religious Order of Jesus’ time and looking at Baltimore’s Government and Shadow Government today. (We love dealing with “problem texts” by the way - like when Jesus called the syrophoenician woman a dog.)

In addition, we’ve started our studies off with warm up activities designed to get people’s juices flowing. We started with analyzing a Baltimore Sun article one night, we played a Jill Scott song the following week, and we read a Paul Lawrence Dunbar poem the following week. Who knows I might drop some Kanye West on them next time. They don’t know what to expect from week to week. I keep people on their toes and prayerfully am helping them to realize that critical study of the Holy Writ is just as much an act of worship as singing songs on Sunday morning.

We even have the teens coming out to Bible Study faithfully…and bringing their friends!

As we continue in our time of weekly critical study, it is obvious to me that this group will be a very dangerous sect of Believers. They won’t be walking around talking about “Bless me indeed” and “enlarge my territory” while hiding behind sofas when the Jehovah Witnesses knock on their doors.

They’ll be walking around with a heightened awareness of how the revolutionary message of God’s love toward humanity was understood over the centuries and how it applies to their lives and responsibilities to community today.

This Bible Study is a Bad Mutha - Shut yo’ mouth! What? I’m only talking about the MOST DANGEROUS BIBLE STUDY IN BALTIMORE!

Be there!

Every Tuesday 7:00PM
Pleasant Hope Baptist Church
430 E. Belvedere Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21212
(410) 435-0851

This sermon got Father Mike removed from his church - the Faith Community of St. Sabina. To their credit, the St. Sabina family is standing with their pastor. Mary Mitchell writes an interesting article in the Chicago Sun-Times about this situation pointing out that Cardinal Francis George moved slow to remove a pedophile priest, but with great haste pushed Father Mike to the side!

It is with great excitement that I share good news related to the next phase of my service to God and community. I have recently been called to serve as the Pastor of the Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland. (430 E. Belvedere Avenue, Baltimore, 21212) Pleasant Hope is a loving congregation situated not far from the intersection of Belvedere Avenue and York Road in North Baltimore City.

I am truly thankful to God for this opportunity to serve God’s people and the broader community in this way.

All are invited to attend my first Sunday at Pleasant Hope Baptist Church which will actually be this Sunday, June 1, 2008. Sunday School begins at 9:30AM and morning worship begins at 11:00AM. As we are anticipating a crowd, I invite you to get there a bit early if you do plan on coming.

For those who are unable to come, I certainly solicit your prayers for me and my family. I’ve had the distinct privilege of serving alongside many of you as we advocated for justice for Isaiah Simmons, III, the removal of liquor stores from Park Heights, a quality education for Baltimore City public school students, a peaceful remedy for the people of Darfur, Sudan, engaging in civil disobedience at the gates of the White House in reference to the American invasion and military occupation of Iraq, and so many other important issues. Now more than ever I need your support as I have become an heir to a great tradition in my family and community. The Black Church, in my estimation, is the most valuable institution in the African American community and I will strive to honor the legacy of the Great Ancestors and Elders who have gone before me. With your prayers and God’s guidance, I will be successful in my quest.

Let’s continue to work together in an effort to usher in the realization of the Beloved Community in this world - starting right here in Baltimore City!

May God’s Peace be yours,

Pastor-Elect Heber M. Brown, III
Pleasant Hope Baptist Church
Baltimore, MD

I’m putting the finishing touches on my presentation which I will share at The Johns Hopkins 58th Institute for Spirituality and Medicine. The conference started Monday, May 12th and will continue until Wednesday, May 14, 2008. National and local presenters have converged on Charm City to talk about “Violence and the Challenge of Healing in Our Communities.”

Notables such as Rev. Eugene Rivers (Boston), Bishop Doug Miles (Baltimore), Dr. David Kennedy, Dr. Harold Carter, Sr., Rev. Karen Brau, Pastor Billy Stanfield, and a whole slew of others are sharing on a variety of topics.

I’m honored to be invited to present on the topic “Faith in Action: Examining Religious Outreach and Activism in Baltimore.” I’ll be profiling some members of the clergy and Faith communities who have welcomed the expression of their Faith beyond the boundaries of their sanctuaries. Contrary to the opinion of some, Baltimore has a very rich history of religious civic engagement and only as of late have we as a community drifted from our roots and centered moreso on a gospel that speaks primarily to a middle class who is hungry for personal advancement at the expense of social justice for the marginalized.

Hopefully, my presentation will resurrect and rehash the legacies of those strong clergy women and men who have, in days past, pointed the way to the Beloved Community.

Here is a short video (about 12 min.) that I will be sharing as a part of my presentation.

Hat Tip: Baltimore Sun

Black preachers agree to disagree
Area pastors react differently to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. scandal

By Kelly Brewington
Sun reporter
May 1, 2008

The Rev. Alvin C. Hathaway Sr. considers the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. to be a tremendous pastor and a brilliant theologian. But sitting in the audience of the National Press Club in Washington this week, Hathaway found himself wincing at some of the remarks by Sen. Barack Obama’s embattled former pastor.

“When Jeremiah Wright says an attack on him is ‘an attack on the black church,’ that’s kind of stretching things,” said Hathaway, pastor of Baltimore’s Union Baptist Church. “I think it’s potentially dangerous.”

He is not the only one who thought so.

On Tuesday, Obama condemned Wright’s remarks, characterizing them as disrespectful, offensive and not accurately portraying the perspective of black churches.

Wright’s plunge back into the national spotlight - in which he has defended his fiery remarks, praised the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan and accused the media of distorting his words - has sparked an intense reaction in Baltimore’s black faith community. Some pastors assert that Wright is not the spokesman of the black religious tradition - one as diverse as the black community itself.

Others have defended Wright’s remarks as rooted in a rich history of black ministers using the pulpit to challenge injustices. They fear that the Wright backlash has overshadowed the black churches’ history, value and good deeds.

“Many of us pastors are pained,” said the Rev. Johnny Golden, pastor of New Unity Church Ministries in Baltimore and president-elect of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. “We see a lot of what he is saying and we understand it, but his comments have wounded the opportunity of Mr. Obama to make gains and opportunity for America to embrace its ideals.”

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Shout out to Reality Speaks of the Solvivaz Nation. They are bringing Dr. Ray Hagins to Baltimore again TOMORROW, April 26, 2008 7PM. Check out their note below and please do all you can to support this valuable engagement.

Greetings Family,

Reality Speaks of Solvivaz Nation would like to invite the entire Afrikan family to join us as we feature Rev. Dr. Ray Hagins this Saturday @ the Sojourner Douglass College 200 N. Central Ave from 7pm-10pm doors open at 6pm. Tickets for this event are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

America is Falling: How will the Black Man and Woman Survive???

This is a don’t miss event!!! Dr. Rev. Ray Hagins challenges the way we as Black people think about ourselves and our worldview. This will definitely be an informative event for Afrikans of all ages.

FMI call Reality Speaks Bookstore and Media Center 410-889-0477or visit us online at www.RealitySpeaksBookstore.com

We appreciate your support. Tubman Fried Fish Dinners will be sold!!!

That’s right ladies and gentlemen. Despite the tumult that she has recently experienced in her own past marriage(s); “Dr.” Juanita Bynum will now be giving counsel to those couples who are planning to move forward with divorce proceedings on the Divorce Court television show. (Only in America can you have television shows centered around failed marriages. How does our society create a market for this mess!?)

I’m not one who totally discredits the marital counsel of those who have been divorced. Certainly, some of those individuals have learned much about marriage and themselves making them perfect candidates to point out potential potholes for others. However, I remain concerned that the wounds in “Dr.” Bynum’s relationship are still too fresh…too new to be able to counsel in a balanced and thorough way. (Even Star Jones - after her Bynum-esque wedding of the century went the rational route and is now engaging in a quiet divorce and is asking for “privacy with her thoughts“. That’s what newly divorced people do! They go sit down somewhere and get themselves together. They don’t call a press conference the day after the marital explosion claiming to be a spokeswoman for battered women across America!)

Wait. There’s more. According to this report, Bynum will also be talking about her divorce on the show. Talking about how she loves herself more now (nooooo really?), how she’s “done”, and how the rumors about reconciliation are false. Though her appearance on the television show could affect the mediation that she and her estranged husband are presently engaging in; Bynum will be on the set and in front of the cameras anyway.

Her marketing machine continues to roll full speed ahead. Bynum is certainly an ambitious sista who is striking while the iron of her own celebrity is hot. She seems to be jumping on every opportunity to get in front of a camera, call a conference, or sell a product.

I don’t know folks. I know I’m biased against Bynum for a number of reasons so perhaps I’m being too harsh and a bit unfair. I know I’m not one that’s interested in building a marketing empire that’s centered on me, but is there anything wrong with her doing it? Maybe I need to cut the sista some slack.

SOURCE: (Sun photo by Amy Davis / April 21, 2008)

Hat Tip: Baltimore Sun
2 men shot, 1 fatally, outside funeral in West Baltimore
By Gadi Dechter | Sun reporter

The packed West Baltimore funeral was unsettled before the shots rang out.

At 12:15 p.m. Monday, the Rev. Napoleon Rush was preaching on the need to stop the violence that had brought 300 mourners to Unity United Methodist Church to view the body of Anthony Lamont Izzard Sr., 26, killed April 11 in a triple shooting.

“I noticed a lot of things that was out of order,” Rush said of the overflow crowd, many of them young and, according to him, “in the drug life.”

Instead of sitting quietly in the pews, many mourners were walking in and out of the church, according to Rush, and not abiding by his calls for order.

“Most times when a minister speaks a certain thing, people will respect that, but there was none of that,” he said. “Even when we was saying, ‘Don’t come to the casket,’ they was still coming to the casket.”

And then at least eight shots were fired outside the church in the 500 block of N. Stricker St., according to witnesses. People who couldn’t find seats in the chapel “rushed in, running and screaming and hollering,” Rush said. “At that point, everybody inside started screaming and hollering too.”

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Kevin A. Slayton, Sr. is a lobbyist with the Slayton Group, LLC and is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Howard University in Washington, DC. He currently resides in Baltimore, MD.

The Gospel and Black Culture: A Past Perspective Still Relevant

The modern concept of the “mega church” in African American faith communities is raising many interesting questions about authentic discipleship today. Urban ministries in Baltimore are developing influential ministries never before introduced into the fabric of church life, while creating a visibility deserving of federal scrutiny. But is the influence being used to change the lives and communities in which these churches exist or are they perpetuating a gospel damaging to the Kingdom of God. What is the cultural phenomenon of the “Mega-church” and the impact it has on the spreading of the Gospel to a community in need?

In most urban cities across the country exist three or more churches that fit the “mega church” model, Baltimore is not different. Most are defined by huge million dollar facilities with extravagant facades, large memberships and multiple worship services. Another staple of the mega-church is cloaked in the persona of its leadership. The mega-church pastor tends to be very theatrical, charismatic, flamboyant and verbose in his/her presentation. Granted those are the characteristics that will initially attract most parishioners in the first place, in addition to amazing music ministries. The rosters of many of these churches exceed five and six thousand active members. Ironically, many of them are located in communities where the average income is far below the median. The visual dichotomy presents a very interesting contrast between the pastor and parishioner, as well as, the temple and the average homes in the community. Despite the stark differences new members continue to flock to these congregations seeking some form of renewal and hope.

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