God In America: The Black Church

In the fall of 2008, newspapers, talk shows and blogs exploded with news that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the African American minister from Chicago's Trinity Church, had denounced the United States with inflammatory language: "God damn America!" Wright's most famous parishioner was the leading Democratic contender for the presidential nomination, Barack Obama. Trinity was Obama's spiritual home -- the place where he had found religion, where he was married, and where his daughters had been baptized. Rev. Wright, a former Marine with a Ph.D., had served as his spiritual mentor.

While many white voters seemed surprised, puzzled and shocked by Wright's angry rhetoric, African Americans were less so. Obama seized the moment to deliver a profound meditation on race in America, a speech titled "A More Perfect Union." Tracing the deep historical roots of racial inequality and injustice, Obama put Wright's anger into historical context. In very personal terms, he also described his experience at Trinity:

Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

The Bonds of Freedom

There is paradox in the Christian understanding of what it means to be free.

No single word resonates with Americans and millions of others quite like freedom. A television commercial announces that buying a certain automobile or flying with a certain airline will make you "free." People celebrate their country's independence with songs of "freedom" on their lips and ringing in their ears. Politicians, businesspeople, advertisers, salesmen, military leaders and recruiters—all know how to use "freedom" to attract attention and draw interest. Few words are so common while carrying so much weight.

The word is also found throughout Scripture and Christian tradition. Everyone raised in Sunday school knows "the truth will set you free" (John 8:32) and "[i]t is for freedom that Christ has set us free" (Gal. 5:1). Freedom is not just an American or humanitarian theme; it's also a gospel theme.

'No Religion' Is Increasingly Popular Choice For Americans: Pew Report

Sarah Garrison grew up Catholic, but today she does not consider herself part of any religion. Yet as someone who meditates and prays every day to the "God here in our hearts," she would never call herself an atheist or agnostic and thinks church can play a positive role in society and individual lives.

"Some people need [religion]," said Garrison, 26, who works as a training coordinator for an online news company in Moline, Ill. She mentions her older sister, a Catholic nun, who "couldn't be happier" with structured religious practice.

According to a new report from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Garrison has plenty of company in her spiritual beliefs and practices.

Is Your Church a Cruise Ship or Aircraft Carrier? 10 Ways to Find Out

Recently my friend Emily told me she visited a church so big she needed a map to get around.  Coming from a relatively small church that meets in an elementary school, she was astounded at this sprawling church campus. The facility housed a restaurant, coffee bar, lounge, escalators, and multiple worship spaces, each with high-tech sound equipment. In the lobby massive concrete columns rose up three stories into a glass atrium and sunlight streamed in to illuminate the hip and modern architecture.  But the strangest thing, she said, was that this colossal building, filled with largely affluent congregants, sat in a crowded urban area in a poverty-stricken neighborhood.  As far as she could tell, no one from that neighborhood was present. The church reminded her of a cruise ship docked in a third world country!  The walls even had round, fishbowl windows, driving home the cruise ship effect.

The Preacher and The Emcee….

The emcee is but one element of Hip Hop, but this one element has become the most influential component of Hip Hop. Ironically the emcee began as the sidekick to the DJ. These days that equation has almost been completely flipped it almost appears that the DJ is either a sidekick or completely forgotten about.

LOL (Love Out Loud)

A review of Jean-Paul Heldt's, Revisiting the “Whole Gospel”:  Toward a Biblical Model of Holistic Mission in the 21^st Century.

I wanted to share some thoughts about an article I recently read by Jean-Paul Heldt, Revisiting the “Whole Gospel”:  Toward a Biblical Model of Holistic Mission in the 21^st Century.  Heldt introduces a statement by Robert Speer, “evangelization is nothing less than the good news in action."  

Unconditional Movie

Samantha Crawford's life is a storybook life: she’s happily married, she lives on a ranch where she keeps her beloved horse, and the stories she’s told and illustrated since childhood have become published books. When her husband Billy is killed in a senseless act of violence, Sam loses her faith and her will to live.