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Amber Rose: “I’m A Christian” [VIDEO]

Elev8 — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:14:11 +0000

Amber Rose is best known for dating rappers like Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa, but she recently revealed that she is a Christian. Our sister site HotSpotATL.com filmed her as she explained why she doesn’t smoke weed with her current boyfriend Wiz Khalifa, and much more.

Watch Amber explain herself right here.

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A New Path? Scientologists Come To Harlem

Al Sharpton — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:41:44 +0000

Harlem has long been a spiritual patchwork of storefront churches, lofty Christian congregations, mosques, synagogues, Five-Percenter meeting halls, and more. But now New York’s legendary Black neighborhood is home to a new and controversial denomination: Scientology. Terrell Starr reports:

When you step inside, it feels more like a bookstore than a place of worship. The walls are lined with books written by church’s founder, the late L. Ron Hubbard. To the left side of the entrance, a poster-sized image of the late Isaac Hayes greets you.

Phyllis Mack, the Executive Director of the Harlem branch, serves as the presiding preacher-one of her many responsibilities. In one service, she focuses her sermon on being a better person. True to the cadence of her black church roots, Phyllis moves her body left and right when stressing a point she wants her small congregation to narrow in on. She has a penchant for invoking James Brown lyrics into her sermons.

“When life has you down, you just have to…get on’ up,” she says to the approval of nodding heads in attendance.

Phyllis doesn’t read from a Bible, as do traditional preachers. Instead she refers to a thick, encyclopedia-sized book of teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.

Black Rabbi, Cousin Of Michelle Obama, Expanding The Face Of Judaism

Larry Young — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:20:12 +0000

Rabbi Capers Funnye, a prominent African-American rabbi from Chicago and cousin of First Lady Michelle Obama, wants to diversify the Jewish faith.

“The color of a person’s skin should not matter. It is what is in that person’s heart and in that person’s soul that matters,” he told a Beverly Hills congregation on Friday.

A staunch proponent of diversity in religion and one of a handful of Black rabbis, Funnyee himself is expanding the perspectives on what it means to be Jewish. On Friday he told congregants, “We are a Jewish people linked to each other not by color or racial background, but because of our belief.”

Funnye was once asked to address a congregation of Jews in Africa. According to the synagogue’s head rabbi, David Baron, there is a long history of Jewish people on Africa’s continent. He says that Egypt is mentioned in the Bible almost as much as the “Promised Land.”

Gospel Song of The Day: No Way

Elev8 — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:15:21 +0000

Welcome a new day with new possibilities. We all want to embrace happiness and the chance of a new day. That’s the best thing about sunrise. The darkness is over. May today be the beginning of the end of darkness for you.

There is a wonderful saying that when the darkness ends the joy begins. I hope joy is reaching your heart and pointing your walk toward to the best.

Hallelujah! Coalition Seeks To Bring Black Men Back To Church

Larry Young — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:56:14 +0000

The National Black Church Initiative, a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches, will begin a seven-year initiative to bring Black men back to the church.

The mission is a part of the NBCI’s Healing Family Initiative, which seeks to bolster African-American families against the tide of violence, poverty, moral depravity and failure.

The Grio Reports:

The NBCI uses a Pew Forum 2007 survey and the findings of the Barna Research Group to support their argument. According to the Pew Forum survey, people of black ethnicity were most likely to be part of a formal religion, with 85 percent being Christians. And according to the Barna Research Group, a Christian research firm based in Ventura, Calif., more than 90 percent of American men believe in God, and 5 out of 6 call themselves Christian. But only 2 out of 6 attend church on any given Sunday.

Time For Mormons, Romney To Confront Religion’s Racist Past

Larry Young — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:49:32 +0000

Writer Earl Ofari Hutchinson tackled the topic of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s refusal to confront the racist past of his Mormon religion, in an op-ed on The Grio today.

Hutchinson takes us back to the Mormons long standing purported curse of Ham teachings about Blacks, which justifies the enslavement of Blacks in many Mormon circles.

Brooklyn Teacher Says She Was Fired For Praying In School

Larry Young — Sun, 29 May 2011 02:59:30 +0000

A Sunday-school teacher and assistant special-education teacher was fired from her job at a Brooklyn elementary school for praying in the classroom.

The New York Post reports:

PS 224 assistant special-education teacher Anita Wooten-Francis, 52, claims she never hid her faith but took care not to influence kids. She worshiped in her classroom before or after students left, read the Bible on her lunch break, led other teachers in a prayer group, and played gospel music during non-instruction hours.

Wooten-Francis spent several weeks inactive as a teacher before she was fired last June. She claims that she was also teased by the school’s principal for her religious beliefs and has a filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn federal court.

Is May 21st Really Judgment Day? This Is What They’re Saying

Elev8 — Thu, 19 May 2011 15:00:25 +0000

This past week, I’ve been waking up to the news, huge colorful ads in newspapers and groups of people in the streets passing out literature reporting that Judgement Day will take place on May 21st, which is just a mere two days away. For those who believe in God, the coming back of Christ is not an event to fear, but rather a long anticipated event that wasn’t tied to any particular time and date. I’m not the one to believe everything that I see and hear, but my curiosity definitely led up to check out a pamphlet I picked up while walking through Times Square. So why are so many people are talking about the world ending on May 21, 2011?

Do You Think The World Ends On May 21, 2011?

It turns out the theory comes down to two numerological proofs.

The first proof is based on Genesis 7:4, when God said to Noah: “Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

When God referred to seven days, he meant both seven days and seven thousand years, because “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The flood occurred in 4990 BC. Seven thousand years later is 2011.

The second proof looks at the significance of the number of days between the Crucifixion and May 21, 2011.

There are 722,500 days between these dates. 722,500 is a significant number because it is composed of the significant numbers 5x10x17x5x10x17. Five signifies redemption; ten signifies completion; and 17 signifies heaven. The numbers represent the day of redemption (5) and the end of the Christian era (10) and the ascent to heaven (17) — and these factors are doubled for added significance.

The idea of the end of the world has been a subject of great speculation, ridicule, general discussion, fascination and fancy for 2,000 years—ever since Jesus Christ announced He would return to Earth. Judgement day has gone from being the subject of some of the most popular movies to thousands of people actually spreading the theory that the end of the world will occur this Saturday. As the movement spreads, will you take notice? What do you think will happen… is the end near? Are you laughing at this hoax theory?

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Bronx Pastor Is Obama’s New Religious Ambassador

Larry Young — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:48:34 +0000

NEW YORK-Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook was sworn in as the first African American to be the White House Ambassador For Religious Freedom.

The New York Daily News reports:

She was the first woman to serve as a chaplain for the NYPD, a position she has held since 1990. After 9/11, she helped traumatized police officers and worked with the city’s Muslim leaders.

Johnson Cook said passion for learning about other religions and cultures came from her mother, a teacher at Public School 194 in the Bronx, who teamed up with Jewish teachers to improve education.

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Presbyterian church to ordain gays and lesbians

Larry Young — Wed, 11 May 2011 18:54:13 +0000

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will now ordain non-celibate gays and lesbians following ratification of a constitutional amendment late Tuesday night.

The denomination needed 87 votes in order to ratify the constitutional amendment.

The 87^th vote came from a Minnesota presbytery that voted 205-56. This is a result of the fourth attempt since the late 1990’s to change the current constitution, which says, “Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman — or chastity in singleness.”

Support for the ban waned in the most recent round of voting in 2008 and 2009. But many presbyteries, the local governing bodies, changed their votes from opposition to support in the current round of voting, USAToday reports:

“I didn’t actually expect to see this for many more years,” said the Rev. Ann Deibert, a co-pastor at Central Presbyterian Church in Louisville, which has long supported the change in policy.

The denomination “has talked about, prayed about, worked, discussed, discerned for 35 years,” she said. “It feels like an enormous gift and a breath of the Spirit. What it means is we are recognizing the gifts and graces of God in more and more people.”

The new language says nothing about marriage, singleness or sexuality. Instead it says, “Standards for ordained service reflect the church’s desire to submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life. The governing body responsible for ordination and/or installation shall examine each candidate’s calling, gifts, preparation, and suitability for the responsibilities of office. Governing bodies shall be guided by Scripture and the confessions in applying standards to individual candidates.”

Ratification occurred after several of conservative congregations left the denomination – Some of these congregations had large memberships and active leaders in resisting changes to ordination standards. Other conservative congregations are proposing a reorganization of presbyteries, asking to be separated by theology, rather than location.

Presbyterians for Renewal, a Louisville-based coalition of evangelical churches, lamented “this unfaithful action” in a statement.

“In a lot of presbyteries, evangelical folks didn’t show up in enough numbers that it swung some votes,” added its executive director, the Rev. Paul Detterman. “How opposing sides can work together without compromising their core identities under the same denominational canopy is the question of the day.”

Other denominations that ordain gay or lesbian ministers include United Church of Christ, Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.