The Rural Black Church has served as one of the most powerful and transformative institutions in black life. Instituted by race, most former slave masters did not want their recently freed slaves to worship with them. Also, an institution mainly of the South since a great number of slaves were needed to fuel of economy of tobacco and cotton in the South. With migration and the lack of relevance to many young people, many of these churches are dying. I have served as a pastor to rural black churches for the past 20 years. I recently completed 16 months of academic study on the rural black church. I want to breathe new life into the rural black church. Will you join with me in the discussion? Hopeful in the near future, I will have both a book and a podcast to further the discussion on the institution that I love. Comments are welcomed and encouraged.
The Way We Treat Women
This has been something that I have been meaning to right on for some time. And now with the recent removal of the president of a major Southern Baptist Seminary for statements he made about females, and the advice he gave to one in an abusive relationship, I knew it was the right time to address this issue. For many of our traditions and beliefs stem from we learned from our ancestors, many of whom worshipped in the master's church and were taught the same. As I look at the "me-too" movement and how so many have been caught up in its web, I have to wonder, how many men of faith, or men who grew up in Christians families felt that they had the right to do things that were not of God to women because of the way women have been treated in the church. Many of the ways that men look at women come from our interpretation of scripture, starting with the two creation stories. Many men overlook the first creation story where God said, let us make humankind in our image. Or as a...
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