The Church Without Walls/Brookhollow Baptist Church
www.churchwithoutwalls.org
Rev Ralph D West Sr., founder/senior pastor
Scripture: Matthew 25:14-30
Sermon Series: Taking A Step Forward
Sermon Title: “Take a Step Forward in Risk”

How many of us connect with being a follower of Jesus and actually taking a risk?

Some of us live by the status quo
Most churches operate by, “we ain’t never done it like this before.”

This scripture is a story about risk.

The kingdom of God is a story about people who take risk.

the real star of this Scripture is about the man with one talent, as opposed to the men with three and five talents.

The person who holds a talent has a major responsibility. It means that God has entrusted you with something.

In this parable, one talent means $30,000. In this biblical time, a week ‘s pay was 15 cents.

Some can handle more money than others, but God does. Of expect you to have less responsibility in handling what you have been given.

The man with one talent chose not to do anything. Jesus is stressing, “be a participant and not a spectator. In the kingdom, you get off the bench and get in the game.

Too often the church is a spectator sport. We will sit, observe, criticize and never get in the game. Anybody can sit back and watch.

When you don’t take a risk, it colors the way you envision life. It distorts how you see things.

Children don’t have as much fear as old folks. It’s something about being young and dating.

Some today look at the tough days of a recession, and forget how God has been providing for you for years.

You’ve got to watch how you let life distort your image. How will you know what God will do if you never participate in God’s plan?

Jesus never said the kingdom of God is like sitting in a LazyBoy chair.

Too many of us don’t associate following Jesus with risk taking.

In this Scripture, the man with one talent was described as lazy. How would you feel if God had that to say about you?

As Christians, we talk about entrepreneurs do. We get caught up in what someone else does? Why do we celebrate risk-taking in industry and capitalism, as opposed to what God is doing every day.

Believing is seeing. In God’s kingdom, believing is not seeing. What you can see is temporary. What you can’t see is eternal.

1. Take a risk by accepting responsibility and not casting blame. (see verse 19-24)

- Jesus is in the business of people taking risk.
- Risk is another word for people having faith.
- Without risk it’s impossible to please God.
- Risk works, but we like to play it safe. When you risk you might lose something .
- There is something about risk that pays off.
- If all you got is God then all you can do is trust.
- Giving is for our benefit and not for him.
- Some of you feel safe because your money is in CDs. Surely you know that financial institutions go belly up? But God never goes belly up.
- you may feel comfortable because you’ve got your money saved. But all it takes is one sickness to wipe that out. The real person who secures our deposit is God. We need to believe, “Lord, it’s in your hands.”

What good is it for a person if they gain the whole world, yet forfeits their soul?” Matthew 16:26a

There comes a time when we have to make a decision about what we are going to do in life or about a given situation. We live in a manner that has no focus, no direction, and no stick-to-it-ness. Think about it. Are you running after things that are possibly not attainable? Do you have your hands in everything and seemingly do not have a grasp on anything?

As we grow in our faith and seek the direction and guidance of God, we are better able to reach for those things that are meant to be ours. When we are continually searching, yet never really settling in to where and what we are destined to be, we miss out on the real joy of living a fulfilled life. Are you tired of being aimless? Are you losing yourself in your vain ambitions? Have you tired yourself of gaining partial happiness, but still do not have complete joy, restoration, and victory?

Today, you are able to end your quest right now. You don’t have to try to hold on to one thing before you have the true thing with which the Lord wants to bless you. It is time to let go of things that are holding you back so you can move forward. God wants you to have peace and spiritual prosperity (1 John 3). Each day in your walk with Him, He will show you how to achieve your dreams. And as you seek the Lord, you will find that you do have it all.

Announcements and Events

New Book Wedded Bliss available on KINDLE and NOOK in time for Thanksgiving and paperback available for Christmas 2011.

Learn & Launch Series
November 4, 2011, DC Empowerment Luncheon
11a-2p, 13th & Pennsylvania
Registration: $75 (Registration includes the seminar, lunch and book.)

Source: Douglas Stanglin / USA Today

Family Radio Network preacher Harold Camping, whose prediction for the end of the world on May 21 misfired, now says that his new date of Oct. 21 looks like the real thing, well, probably.

“A lot of things we didn’t have quite right will probably be finished out on Oct. 21,” the 90-year-old Campng says in a message on his Family Radio Network website. “That looks like it will be at this point, looks like it will be the final end of everything.”

After the May 21 debacle, Camping initially said he was “flabbergasted,” but then announced that it had in fact been a “spiritual” End of the World, and that would culminate in the finally, final end on Oct. 21, Time reports.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of followers, including many who had left their jobs, had contributed money for billboards warning of the coming Doomsday. The Los Angeles Times reported that the worldwide campaign cost $100-million campaign for caravans and advertising, financedby the sale and swap of TV and radio stations.

To read this article in its entirety visit the USA Today.

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” Proverbs 21:5

Slow down. Take your time. Stop to smell the roses. These and other sayings are structured to tell us to prepare before we go off half-cocked! When you plan, you find a greater reward for the work you do. Yet the flip side is that when we do not plan and prepare we find that when problems arise or a glitch comes along, we do not have a contingency plan. The plans of hard working people lead to prosperity, because the hard work is done ahead of time. When you are able to mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually prepare for what lies ahead, your efforts can lead to great rewards. It takes time, energy, and effort to do well in life.

However, we must exercise caution to not run ahead of God. When we get ahead of God we find that we are not properly prepared to deal with circumstances that are beyond our control. We get so busy moving, that we did not stop to listen. Learn. Re-think. Re-evaluate. Re-tool. And, when we miss an opportunity for growth with God, we miss the chance to excel beyond our current skill set. Today, think of ways or areas in which you need to slow down and let the Lord reveal to you how to proceed. There is nothing wrong with sitting on the sidelines for more coaching. But, if you are taken out completely, who do you have to blame other than yourself?

Prayer focus: Those who need to get out the fast lane.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

Online Bible Study: Join me each Wednesday, 1pm(EST) at www.jacquiehood.com for an inspiring and theological look at God’s word and ways in which we are to appropriate it in our daily living.

Source: Sophia Hollander and Sean Gardiner / The Wall Street Journal

A white powdery substance believed to be narcotics was discovered on the body of a 42-year old megachurch Florida pastor who was discovered dead in a Times Square hotel room, a law enforcement official said Monday.

The cause of death for the Rev. Zachery Tims, Jr., who led an 8,000-member ministry in Orlando, is still pending.

Tims’s body was discovered Friday afternoon when a worker trying to check the minibar in his room at the W Hotel found it latched from the inside. A maintenance worker opened the door and found Tims lying on his back between the bedroom and living room area. According to a law enforcement official, police found a glassine envelope with a white powerdery substance inside the right pocket of his shorts.

The substance was being tested, according to a law enforcement official.

Another law enforcement official familiar with the case said, “what that white powdery substance is and whether it played a role in Mr. Tims’ death is still to be determined.”

To read this article in its entirety visit The Wall Street Journal.

Source: Martin E. Comas / Orlando Sentinel

The Rev. Zachery Tims, senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center, with one of the largest congregations in Central Florida, was found dead in a New York City hotel room on Sunday, several news sources reported. Tims was 42.

Dozens of people gathered in the parking lot outside the Apopka church on Sunday night, many with tears in their eyes.

“He was a great man,” said Shirley Jackson, as she drove into the church property. “I had to come out here and see if it was true.”

Anthony Fryer, a member for about 2 years, said he came out to the church when heard about Tims death from New York City web sites.

To read this article in its entirety visit the Orlando Sentinel.

Roland Martin appears in The Situation Room with Rich Galen and host Wolf Blitzer to discuss Gov. Rick Perry’s charitable donations.

Source: AP / The Washington Post

Washington — President Barack Obama is hosting an Iftar dinner Wednesday evening to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The Iftar is the dinner that breaks the holiday’s daily fast. The dinner became an annual White House tradition under President Bill Clinton and was continued by President George W. Bush. The White House says invited guests include religious and grass-roots leaders in the Muslim-American community as well as leaders of other faiths and elected officials.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Washington Post.

Source: Jacquie Hood Martin / Special to CNN

It’s true what they say, that hindsight is 20-20. Looking back provides me with the clarity and ability to address the many things that have happened in my life.

Many people will say there are no bad experiences, that it’s our perspective on the things that happen in our lives that cause us to label them good or bad. I believe that is an improper analysis.

I have been able to find the silver lining in all the things that have happened to me, but only because the love I know the Lord has for me lets me be in God’s grace and keeps me well adjusted.

I grew up initially in a single parent home where my mother and I were raised by her grandmother. God’s favor allowed my mother to meet a man who married her and her 2-year-old daughter. Yes, it was a package deal.

My first sibling, a sister, was born when I was 8. A second sister arrived when I was 10. We became a party of five who lived the American dream. My parents owned a car and a home and were both employed. We even had pets: a dog, cat and a turtle. I include this because I marvel at people who say this kind of life did not exist for African-Americans before the Huxtables. I was born in 1965, and by 1975 things were looking pretty good.

In 1976, as a fifth grader, I had my first experience with personal tragedy. A teenage boy abducted me, held me against my will and tried to sexually assault me. Many things go through a tween girl’s mind after such an encounter. It has a way of shaping your outlook on men and relationships, as well as a yearning to give back to the community so you can save someone else’s child – even if you were unable to save yourself.

I kept this to myself until the summer of 1992. I was preparing for the ministry, and the process of purging my past allowed me to reveal to my mother what happened that horrible day in fifth grade. I have since taken the opportunity, as some would say, to turn my “misery into a ministry.” Whether on radio or television, in columns or books, I find comfort in knowing that whatever I have experienced can help others live again.

During my time in the Red Chair, I grew even more as a woman, a leader, a Christian, a wife and a writer. The Red Chair interview has provided me with greater clarity on my life’s purpose, and how I have been able to balance my life without losing faith in myself and in others.

In my column for Hope for Women magazine, I share in detail “How to Heal After the Reveal.” There will be moments in every person’s life where they will wake up from their nightmare, stupor, stupidity, trauma, haze, or whatever self-induced coma-like state they find themselves in. And I hope my words, my ‘Red Chair’ moment, can help bring them back to sanity and safety among the rest of the human race.

Source: CNN Belief Blog

Visit Jacquie Hood Martin online at http://www.jacquiehood.com.

Source: Nina Mandelli / New York Daily News

President Obama’s proclamation honoring the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has some pundits up in arms.

The statement, a simple sentence reading “Times like this remind us of the lesson of all great faiths, including Islam – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us,” caused an uproar in the “Fox and Friends” newsroom.

The show’s hosts claimed it was a double standard – since President Obama hadn’t issued a proclamation for Easter this year, another issue the conservative-leaning show had taken up in April.

At the time, White House spokesman Jay Carney brushed off a Fox reporter’s question about issuing a statement with a slight laugh and pointed out that Obama went to church.

To read this article in its entirety visit the New York Daily News.

Source: Michael McAuliff / The Huffington Post

Washington – Capitol Hill police arrested 11 people — many of them members of the clergy — protesting the Republican House budget-cutting plan, a police spokeswoman said.

The group, organized by Common Cause’s president, the Rev. Bob Edgar, occupied the center of the historic Rotunda for more than a half hour Thursday, praying and singing until police closed the massive chamber and arrested the group, one by one.

Official press release: Faith Leaders Arrested In Capitol Hill Protest To Protect The Poor

Before officers closed the Rotunda, many visitors sang along, clapped, and filmed the prayers, although it was not clear that passersby understood what the group was protesting.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post

Interfaith Coalition Protests Administration, Congressional Plan to Balance the Budget by Placing an Undue Burden on the Nation’s Most Vulnerable

Source: Adam Muhlendorf / Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications

WASHINGTON – Frustrated that their pleas to the Administration and Congress to protect funding for the nation’s most vulnerable are being ignored, nearly a dozen leaders from the faith community were arrested inside the U.S. Capitol Building on Thursday. Despite repeated warnings from the U.S. Capitol Police, the leaders refused to end their public prayers asking the Administration and Congress not to balance the budget on the backs of the poor.

Inspired by a common spiritual conviction that God has called on all Americans to protect the vulnerable and promote the dignity of all individuals living in society, the faith community has worked along the United States government for decades to protect those struggling to overcome poverty in the U.S. and abroad. Without a sustained federal commitment to these programs, the interfaith leaders fear that their Houses of Worship will be unable to solely support the country’s most vulnerable in their time of need.

Among those who were arrested include Jim Winkler, General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church; Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Shalom Center in Philadelphia; Rev. Jennifer Butler, Executive Director, Faith in Public Life; Rev. Paul Sherry, Director of the Washington Office, Interfaith Worker Justice; Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, Director of Public Witness, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Rev. Michael Livingston, Past President, National Council of the Churches of Christ (USA); Sandy Sorenson, Director of Washington Office, United Church of Christ; Martin Shupack, Director of Advocacy, Church World Service; Jordan Blevins, Director of Peace Witness Ministries, Church of the Brethren; and Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, President of Common Cause.

“Congress is paralyzed by toxic partisan politics while people suffer,” Rev. Michael Livingston, Past President, National Council of the Churches of Christ (USA). “Our elected officials are protecting corporations and wealthy individuals while shredding the safety net for millions of the most vulnerable people in our nation and abroad. Our faith won’t allow us to passively watch this travesty unfold. We’ve written letters, talked with and prayed for our elected officials, and prayed together daily in interreligious community. Today, we ‘offer our bodies as a living sacrifice’ to say to congress ‘Raise revenue, protect the vulnerable and those living in poverty.’”

Recent events have catalyzed an eighteen-month public policy campaign led by faith leaders representing the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths to promote a message of the common good in the current economic debate. Members of the campaign are calling for Congress and the Administration to exempt programs from budget cuts that assist the most at-risk families and children in the U.S. and abroad.

To date, the campaign has mobilized constituents and brought about public statements from leaders, high-level meetings with policymakers, a Washington fly-in of religious leaders and daily prayer vigils, and today’s arrests.

The daily prayer vigils are being held on the front lawn of the United Methodist Building (100 Maryland Avenue, NE, Washington, DC), near the U.S. Capitol Building. Led by a different religious organization each day at 12:30 p.m. EDT, the prayer vigils will continue until a budget/deficit deal is enacted.

“Due to the inability of the Congress to work together, the good of the people across the globe are being compromised by the self interest of our political leaders,” said Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, Director of Public Witness, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “Too many Congresspersons of all parties are trapped in a space where conviction to the common good is diminished for the sake of personal gain and the seduction of power. In this process, the American people and others all over the world are left to suffer. Faith leaders cannot stand idly by and watch while the mandate of the gospel to love our neighbors is violated in the halls of Congress.”

Christian, Jewish and Muslim institutions and faith-based organizations united by shared beliefs to lift up the nation’s most vulnerable, are mobilizing across the country to impact the national budget dialogue by demonstrating that America is a better nation when we follow our faiths’ imperative to promote the general welfare of all individuals.

City alleges Internet minister is operating sex and rave clubs as churches.

WATCH:

Bishop Eddie Long Had Fifth Accuser in Sexual Misconduct Lawsuit: MyFoxATLANTA.com

Source: Dale Russell / MyFoxAtlanta.com

Atlanta, Ga. - The FOX 5 I-Team has uncovered that there was a fifth accuser in the Bishop Eddie Long sexual misconduct case. He never filed a lawsuit and his name was kept a secret, but Centino Kemp’s allegations of sexual misconduct against Bishop Long brought him front and center into the recent settlement negotiations.

Senior I-Team reporter Dale Russell has crisscrossed the city of Atlanta searching for the mysterious fifth young man.Centino Kemp, sometimes called Centinio, is young– barely 22. We’re told he met Bishop Long years ago. He has Long’s name tattooed on his wrist, and he is currently recording songs written from the perspective of an angry lover.

For nearly two months, Russell searched all over Atlanta for Centino Kemp, and finally caught up with him leaving this small recording studio. He was happy to talk about his music. But he didn’t want to talk about anything else.

I-Team has learned that after the initial lawsuits were filed , Centino Kemp came forward with similar allegations of sexual misconduct against Bishop Long. Our sources say he became involved in the settlement talks. He was the mystery man. Though his name was never made public, the I-Team has learned he may have played a significant role in the mediation.

To read this article in its entirety visit MyFoxAtalnata.com.

Source: Ben Smith / Politico

Michele Bachmann recently left her longtime church after reports that the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, of which it’s a part, has anti-Catholic views.

WELS President Mark Schroeder has responded to the affair on the website of the Synod — a large, independent, conservative denomination — and affirms the holding that the Pope is the “anti-Christ,” though he says it’s not the church’s particular focus.

He writes that WELS draws its views from Luther’s original revolt against the Catholic Church:

While WELS continues to see the characteristics of the Antichrist in the Roman Catholic papacy, it is wrong and dishonest to portray this belief as stemming from anti-Catholic bigotry. We do have strong convictions, and we identify what we believe are teachings that depart from the Word of God. But we hold no animosity toward Christians who hold the Roman Catholic faith, and we respect the right of people to hold beliefs different from ours even as we point out the error. Furthermore, we rejoice that even in the Roman Catholic Church, where we believe that the gospel has been distorted, there are many Catholics who hold to a simple faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and who will ultimately be saved. Testifying to the errors that still exist in Catholic doctrine is itself an expression of love; remaining silent or glossing over doctrinal differences would express the opposite.

To read this article in its entirety visit Politico.

On Sunday, July 17, 2011, the Rev. Dr. Christopher A. Bullock and First Lady Dr. Debbie Bullock and the Canaan Baptist Church hosted CNN’s Roland Martin and his wife Jackie Hood-Martin as they moderate a panel discussion and book signing of Billy and Kim Allen’s new book release, “It Flows Through Us.”

Source: Eric Marrapodi / CNN

Washington (CNN) – Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has long been a darling of conservative evangelicals, but shortly before announcing her White House bid, she officially quit a church she’d belonged to for years.

Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, and her husband, Marcus, withdrew their membership from Salem Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minnesota, last month, according to church officials.

The Bachmanns had been members of the church for more than 10 years, according to Joel Hochmuth, director of communications for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the broader denominational body of which Bachmann’s former church is a member.

The church council granted the Bachmanns’ request to be released from their membership on June 21, Hochmuth said.

To read this in its entirety visit CNN.

Evangelist Ty Adams explains her new DVD ‘The Real Housewives of the Bible.’

WATCH:

Bishop Paul Morton has a message for Bishop Eddie Long in response to the recent sexual scandal and settlement.

Roland Martin talks with April Ryan, Robert Traynham, Dr. Wilmer Leon and Joe Madison about using high tech devices at church to follow sermons and take notes.

Roland Martin talks with Rev. Jim Wallis and Peter Sprigg about faith based organizations putting policy, politics and partisanship before the prophetic.

Source: Fran Jeffries / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

New Birth Missionary Baptist Church is disputing rumors that Bishop Eddie Long’s wife, Vanessa, has moved out of the couple’s home.

“That claim is completely and absolutely false,” according to a statement from church spokesman Art Franklin. “Mrs. Long is very much a loving, dedicated and committed wife and mother.”

Eddie Long and New Birth are rebounding from allegations of sexual misconduct. Last fall, four young men accused Long, senior pastor of the Lithonia megachurch, of coercing them into having sex. Their lawsuits were settled in May, then dismissed.

The statement said New Birth church has, as a rule, chosen not to respond to rumors, but felt obliged to respond after blog entries surfaced claiming to have anonymous sources stating that Vanessa Long had moved out of the house.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Source: CBS News

Harold Camping, the Family Radio minister who inaccurately predicted that the world would experience Judgment Day last May 21, has suffered a stroke.

Camping, the 89-year-old head of the Oakland-based evangelical media company, suffered a stroke on Thursday night after a radio broadcast and was taken to a local hospital, according to a message posted on a Family Radio-oriented Yahoo group by Charlie Menut, station manager of Family Radio affiliate WFME.

A neighbor of Camping told the Oakland Tribune that the Alameda minister was taken by ambulance from his house Thursday night.

The unnamed neighbor said she had spoken with Camping’s wife Shirley on Friday and was told the radio evangelist is doing “OK,” although his speech is “a little bit slurred.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Roland Martin discusses Bishop Eddie Long’s decision to privately mediate and settle the civil case filed against him by four young men who claim he sexually coerced them.

When Bishop Eddie L. Long stood before his congregation in Lithonia, Ga., May 29 to declare that he would be looking forward, not focused on the past, his supporters said that’s the right thing to do. He had just settled civil lawsuits that alleged he had coerced young male followers into sex.

Sorry, bishop, as a man of God who is the shepherd of an international ministry, we cannot simply let you off that easily.

From the moment Bishop Long was first accused eight months ago, he had the benefit of the doubt. He was innocent until proven guilty, and I wrote in a column that if he was innocent, he should defend his name and character with every fiber in his body.

And he said as much before his congregation.

Yet now he settles a lawsuit, keeps the details private, refuses to speak publicly about the accusations, and expects some form of forgiveness? It’s just not that simple.

To my legal friends, I get the whole issue of settling a lawsuit to risk further damage and put it behind you. But when you are a pastor who has preached against gay marriage and homosexuality, has openly talked about the covenant between a husband and wife, and has talked about the importance of men leading their families as strong men of faith, there is an expectation on you that is greater than the one on the average man.

Some have suggested that I and others who aren’t members of his church should shut up and that it’s up to them to accept him at his word. Again, I disagree.

I remember vividly hearing Bishop Long for the first time in June 1999 and loving the sermon, “A Fresh Anointing for Change,” quoting it on many occasions. When I worked on a television project in 2000, I attended Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church for three months, regularly attending services and tithing to his ministry. When I served as news editor at Savoy magazine, we did a photo spread of pastors and fashion and recommended he be a part of it. Last year, my wife and I spoke at a black marriage summit at Hampton University in Hampton, Va. We were the luncheon speakers, and Long was the evening speaker.

I’ve watched his worship services on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, bought and read several of his books, and purchased numerous videotapes and tapes of his sermons. Lastly, I’ve discussed his efforts to reach out specifically to black men to get them involved in the church, even writing about it in an essay in my book “Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith.”

So count me as one of the committed Christians who poured a seed into his ministry and who has a reasonable expectation for the pastor to be a stand-up man and speak honestly about what has happened.

He is someone whom thousands follow, and they should hear the truth and nothing but the truth from Bishop Long.

Not his lawyer, not his spokesman, not his wife — him! He should not have decided on a private mediation; he should have demanded that everything be discussed in public.

Again, count me as someone who believes that if you are truly innocent of such heinous allegations, you don’t go behind closed doors. You defend yourself publicly and shame those who try to muddy your name and derail your ministry.

Bishop Long has utterly failed even his own preaching. He has stood in the pulpit and demanded accountability of others but clearly believes that different rules apply to him.

With his refusal to address the issue publicly, openly and truthfully, I don’t see how any pastor could participate in a conference with Long on the rostrum. I don’t see how any gospel musician could go to his church and stand in the pulpit with him to sell CDs. As a churchgoing man, there is no way I could sit under the spiritual leadership of a pastor who was unwilling to stand before his congregation and address the issue head-on.

I know all about forgiveness. It is one of the tenets of being a Christian. But I am not to forgive foolishly. If Bishop Long wants forgiveness, he needs to be open in discussing what really happened — or didn’t happen — with those young men and allow all of us to decide for ourselves whether we are willing to grant it.

If his followers are angry with me for writing this, then so be it. But there is no way that I can sit here and talk about the righteousness of ministers of the Gospel (my wife is an ordained minister) and make excuses for Bishop Long or any other pastor in a similar situation.

As Christians, we are supposed to expose darkness with light. In this case, Bishop Long chose to keep the truth behind closed doors and say, “Trust me; it’s all good. Everything is fine.”

John 8:32 says Jesus told his disciples, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Bishop Long, I’m not saying you are Jesus, but to your followers, it’s time for YOU to reveal the truth so YOU can be set free.

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and the author of the book “The First: President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin.” Please visit his website at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM

Source: AP / The Washington Post

Atlanta — Atlanta-area megachurch founder Bishop Eddie Long is confirming that the daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King is leaving his New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.

In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press by his spokesman on Tuesday, Long said that he and the Rev. Bernice King have been “in discussion and prayer” for some time about her decision to leave the church to continue the legacy of her parents. The decision comes days after Long reached a settlement in the sexual misconduct lawsuits he has fought since September.

King, who has served as an elder at New Birth, is expected to address her future ministry plans Tuesday on a local gospel radio station.

To follow this topic visit The Washington Post.

Lawsuits brought by 4 young men who accused a megachurch pastor of sexual misconduct have been resolved, lawyers for both sides said Thursday, bringing a quiet end to a blockbuster legal complaint that targeted a national religious leader.

UPDATE:  05:37 PM EST

Source: John Blake / CNN

Atlanta – Art Franklin, a spokesman for Bishop Eddie Long said Thursday that the pastor settled because it “is the most reasonable road for everyone to travel.”

“This decision was made to bring closure to this matter and to allow us to move forward with the plans God has for this ministry,” Franklin said in a statement.

According to a statement released by B. J. Bernstein, neither she nor the accusers would talk about the lawsuits “now or in the future.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: WSBTV.com

Atlanta – Bishop Eddie Long reached a settlement with four men who accused him of sexual abuse, an attorney for the men told Channel 2 Action News on Thursday.

Four former New Birth Missionary Baptist Church members filed lawsuits against Long, his church and youth academy, after they said he used his power and influence to entice them into sexual relationships. Long has denied the claims.

Attorney B.J. Bernstein told Channel 2’s Jodie Fleischer that neither she, nor the men who made the complaints would speak about the settlement. She released a statement saying only, “The matter has been resolved.”

The settlement came after court-ordered mediation sessions. It was Easter week when the judge in the case said the parties engaged in a marathon mediation session and came out of it close to a settlement.

To read this article in its entirety visit WSBTV.com.

Harold Camping says he wasn’t entirely wrong about May 21, 2011.

WATCH:

Smokey Fontaine joins Roland Martin on Washington Watch via the HP SkyRoom to discuss Harold Camping’s prediction that the world would end on May 21st.

Bishop T.D. Jakes joins Roland Martin on Washington Watch to discuss Rev. Franklin Graham questioning President Obama’s faith.

Any Christian will tell you that when an individual confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord and savior, they are considered saved. No if, ands or buts. That’s when the conversation should end.

Yet for some reason, the question as to whether President Barack Obama is a true Christian continues to be challenged by many, and one of those who should know better is the Rev. Franklin Graham.

As the son of the Rev. Billy Graham, Franklin Graham is often called upon by national media outlets to discuss matters of faith. But when it comes to the question of President Obama’s faith, Franklin Graham has gotten a free pass from far too many folks in the media. And to be honest, his back and forth answers help to muddy the waters.

Recently, in an interview with ABC’s Christiane Amanpour on her Sunday show, “This Week,” Franklin Graham was asked whether President Obama is a Christian. He replied, “He has told me that he is a Christian. But the debate comes, what is a Christian?

“For him, going to church means he’s a Christian. For me, the definition of a Christian is whether we have given our life to Christ and are following him in faith, and we have trusted him as our Lord and savior. That’s the definition of a Christian. It’s not as to what church you are a member of. A membership doesn’t make you Christian.”

Instead of challenging Graham with President Obama’s own words about his salvation, Amanpour ignores Graham’s sleight of hand by asking if he actually believes the president.

“Well, when he says it, of course I can’t — I’m not going to say, “Well, no, you’re not.” I mean, God is the only one who knows his heart,” Graham said.

But that’s exactly what he did! In Graham’s own sly way, he managed to say that he believes President Obama is a Christian because he said so, and then question if he’s really a Christian by suggesting that he’s just a guy who thinks if you show up at church it makes you one.

This two-step is dangerous because all of a sudden Graham has become the arbiter of who is and who isn’t a Christian through the eyes of those in the media. By even asking him the question, we are affording Graham a level of respect that he doesn’t deserve.

In fact, if anyone wanted to truly challenge Graham, all he or she would have to do is actually read what Obama has written on the matter.

In his best-selling book, “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama wrote that he “felt God’s spirit beckoning me.” And as a result, “I submitted myself to His will and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.” And he was baptized at Trinity United Church of Christ in the 1990s.

Yet polling from last year showed that 1 in 4 Americans believe the president to be a Muslim.

There is no doubt that his name plays into that as well as the fact that his father was a Muslim. I wonder if Dr. Ergun Caner has to contend with that. He was actually a practicing Muslim who converted to Christianity. And today, Caner is the dean of the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.

It is simply a stubborn fact that too many Christian conservatives like Franklin Graham refuse to accept, something that Bishop T.D. Jakes — one of the world’s most prominent pastors — finds “insulting.”

“We didn’t question the Christianity of President Bush when he said he accepted Christ, and I’m disappointed in Rev. Franklin Graham in that regard,” Jakes told me Friday for my Sunday morning news show, “Washington Watch,” on the TV One cable network, which airs at 11 a.m. EST. “I wish he had the diplomacy of his father, who brought the gospel to people without being nuanced by politics, because when you do those things you offend people that you are actually called to save and to serve.

“And I would hope that he would see the rationale in apologizing for such statements — because if the president’s faith is suspect then all of our faiths are suspect, because the Bible is quite clear about what it takes to be saved, and the president has been quite open about his accepting Christ and him openly confessing it before men. And if it’s good enough for the Bible, it ought to be good enough for the rest of us.”

While Jakes has the courage to take on the issue, far too many fellow Christians have refused to call out Graham for his shenanigans, which is clearly an attempt to cast doubt on the issue. Where are the likes of pastors Rick Warren, Rod Parsley, Robert H. Schuller, John Hagee, Richard Land, Dr. Julius Scruggs, Paige Patterson, Samuel Rodriguez or even the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops? Are they too afraid to offend their congregations by directly challenging the erroneous assumptions of Graham and speaking truthfully and prophetically?

When Graham has gone on CNN, ABC and other media outlets offering his contradictory statements, they should have the courage to come out and say even Billy Graham’s son is dead wrong.

This isn’t an ideological issue. This has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans. It doesn’t matter if you are Catholic, Methodist, Baptist or any other Christian denomination. It has everything to do with Christian values and standing up and defending a fellow follower of the faith.

But the reality is that these days, when the Rev. Franklin Graham speaks, he sounds more like a partisan politician rather than a prophetic pastor.

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and the author of the book “The First: President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin.” Please visit his website at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM

Roland Martin talks to Dr. Earl Trent about using clean energy to power  Florida Avenue Baptist Church in Washington D.C. FABC is the first African-American church in Washington, D.C. to power a church with solar energy.

For more information visit Florida Avenue Baptist Church

Roland Martin talks with Bishop Harry Jackson, Rev. Dr. H. Beecher Hicks and Rev. Wallace Charles Smith of Shiloh about why religious leaders have not spoken out against attacks against President Obama’s faith.

Roland Martin sits down with Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland; the Rev. Dr. H. Beecher Hicks of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.; and Rev. Wallace Charles Smith of Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington , D.C. to discuss questions about President Obama’s birth certificate and faith.

Source: Devin Dwyer / ABC News

President Obama says he’s been doing “a lot of praying” in recent weeks while faced with tough choices on Libya and other crises at home and abroad.

“I am praying that I’m making the best possible decisions, and that I’ve got the strength to serve the American people well,” he said in an interview Tuesday with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer.

While the president has not shied away from openly discussing his prayer life, Obama’s comments are the latest reminder that he believes faith in God has helped him navigate the presidency’s difficult moments.

At the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington last month, Obama described how the shooting tragedy in Tucson, Ariz., had deepened his faith and how watching his daughters grow up makes him lean on God a little bit more.

To read this article in its entirety visit ABC News.

WATCH:

President Obama’s comments about prayer begin at approximately at 5:03 minutes into this interview.

One Texas woman offers free pole dancing classes as a way for women to get closer to God.

WATCH:

Roland Martin recently preached during a Men’s Day event at New Olivet Baptist Church in Memphis.

Source: John Blake / CNN

Bishop Eddie Long, the Atlanta pastor who has received massive media attention since four young men accused him of sexual coercion last September, is entangled in a dispute with an entrepreneur over $1 million in investments that Long wants returned to his church members.

The week-long dispute has included dueling press statements, an accusation of character assassination and a YouTube video in which Long pleaded with the entrepreneur to show compassion.

Long, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Church in suburban Atlanta,  said in the YouTube video that Ephren Taylor from City Capital Corporation held a “wonderful” financial seminar at his church last year that inspired some members  to invest about $1 million in retirement accounts through the corporation.

Long said those investments went “sour” and is asking Taylor and City Capital to return the money because some investors from his 25,000-member church are experiencing hardships.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

WATCH:

President Barack Obama says he prays regularly and that he and his wife, Michelle, aren’t bothered when they “hear our faith questioned from time to time.”

WATCH:

In 2009 Father Albert Cutié left the Roman Catholic Church after a tabloid published photos of him with his girlfriend on the beach and it was discovered that he was in love with her.

Roland Martin talks with Father Albert Cutié about his new book, Dilemma: A Priest’s Struggle with Faith and Love.

In his new book, Dilemma, Father Albert Cutié details the devastating struggle between upholding his sacred promises as a priest and falling in love. Already conflicted with growing ideological differences with the Church, Cutié was forced to abruptly change his life the day that he was photographed on the beach, embracing the woman he would later call his wife.

Once a poster boy of the Roman Catholic Church-loved and admired by millions-Cutié found that he was not happy and able to live as a celibate priest, especially having to defend the number of positions he was no longer in agreement with. For years he kept his relationship a secret, while he soul searched and prayed for answers. The love that he deemed a blessing was bringing him closer to God, but further from the Church. In Dilemma, Cutié tells about breaking that promise, reigniting the very heated debate over mandatory celibacy for Catholic priests, beginning a new way of life and discovering a new way of serving God.

Source: AP / CBS News

The Vatican on Tuesday clarified the pope’s controversial comments about condoms and HIV, saying he by no means suggested their use could be condoned as a means of avoiding an unwanted pregnancy.

The Vatican’s moral watchdog, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a statement Tuesday saying some commentators had misunderstood and misrepresented the pope’s remarks in a book-length interview released last month entitled “Light of the World.”

The Vatican has been under pressure from conservative theologians to issue such a clarification amid widespread confusion about what Pope Benedict XVI meant and whether he was breaking with church teaching.

In the book, Benedict said that condoms weren’t the real or moral solution to battling HIV and AIDS. But he said that condom use in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, could be a first step in a more moral and responsible human sexuality.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: Dominique Ardoin / Houston Gospel Music Examiner

Houston’s radio station Praise 92.1 is reporting that the legendary Gospel music artist Albertina Walker has passed away at the age of 81. It was announced on The Yolanda Adams Morning Show.

More details will be posted as they become available.

Albertina Walker is best known for starting the world famous Caravans at the age of twenty two. After a stellar career with the Caravans, Walker experienced success as a solo artist with many Gospel music projects of her own. She has recorded over 60 Gospel albums and won a Grammy award for Songs of The Church. Popular Gospel songs are “Lord Keep Me Day by Day” and “Please Be Patient With Me”.

To read this article in its entirety visit Examiner.com.

This week past week, four young men accused Bishop Eddie L. Long, of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, of coercing them into sexual acts. Bishop Long denied the claims in a written statement released by his attorney on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show.” Word of the scandal sent folks to the Internet to find out more on really what’s going on.

Rev. Kanika Magee of Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church, public relations strategist and MSNBC contributor Karen Finney, and News One’s Smokey Fontaine join Roland Martin to talk about the impact of this scandal on the Black church.

WATCH: Did Bishop Long Wait Too Long To Address Allegations?

Source: Andrew Reinbach / The Huffington Post

A town in upstate New York is trying to force a local Muslim religious community to dig up a small cemetery on its property and never bury anyone there again because it says it’s illegal.

“What we would not want is an unauthorized cemetery,” says Bob McCarthy, town supervisor of the Delaware County town of Sidney, population 5,993. “We’re taking care of a bunch of cemeteries, and they just came in and buried the bodies, and didn’t go through…there’s no funding there, it’s not a standard kind of deal, and it’s going to become a liability to the town.”

So what steps have the Muslims skipped? “I don’t know what the exact law is,” he says.

Which is the problem; because whether or not the town government likes it, there are no laws in Sidney — or New York state, for that matter — covering cemeteries on private land — religious cemeteries included. Plus, the town approved the cemetery in 2005.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: Don Lemon, Ashley Fantz, Aaron Cooper and Susan Brown / CNN

Five days after the first of four lawsuits was filed claiming he coerced young males into sexual relationships, Georgia pastor Eddie Long took to the pulpit Sunday to tell his side of the story.

Speaking to the massive congregation packed into the Atlanta-area New Birth Missionary Baptist Church for an 8 a.m. service, Long said that “this is probably the most difficult time” of his entire life, but he intends to fight the allegations against him.

He said his first responsibility was his family, and the members of his Atlanta-area church. However, he joked that he would be “remiss” not to address “the world.”

“I’ve been accused, I’m under attack. I want you to know, as I said earlier, that I am not a perfect man,” he said. “But this thing, I’m going to fight.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

WATCH: Bishop Eddie L. Long Vows To Fight Allegations

Source: CNN

A fourth lawsuit has been filed against Atlanta-area pastor Eddie Long, alleging he coerced a 17-year-old into a sexual relationship during a 2005 trip the two took to Africa.

The suit — filed, like the others, in DeKalb County, Georgia, State Court — claims Long invited Spencer LeGrande, now 22, on a trip to Kenya.

In a statement released by his spokesman, Long denied the allegations.

“Our position about the lawsuits has not changed. Bishop Long categorically denies the charges,” said spokesman Art Franklin. “We believe that it is unfortunate the young men have chosen to take this course of action. The defense team will review the complaints and respond accordingly at the appropriate time and in the appropriate forum.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

WATCH: Fourth lawsuit filed against Georgia pastor

Roland Martin talks with Craig Gillen, Bishop Eddie Long’s attorney about the lawsuits filed against Eddie Long. Bishop Long had agreed to appear on the Tom Joyner Morning Show but after a third lawsuit was filed on September 22, 2010, Long cancelled his scheduled interview with Roland Martin and press conference at the request of Gillen.

Before taking questions from Roland, Gillen read a prepared statement from Bishop Long. In the statement, Long expressed the charges being brought against him and New Birth Missionary Baptist Church are false and the false allegations “hurt him deeply.” Long asked for patience and categorically denied “each and everyone of these ugly charges.”

At the close of the prepared remarks, read by Gillen, Long stated he would address these charges on Sunday, September 26, in front of his congregation.

Gillen, Long’s attorney explained why there would not be a press conference this morning and told Roland that he is the reason why Long cancelled this morning’s scheduled appearances. “No lawyer likes to have his client in a situation where charges are made and the lawyer does not have control.”

Gillen said, “These false allegations are an attack on Bishop Long, personally. They are an attack on New Birth, the entire church and all of its 25,0000 good people.” He also said that it is an attack on the mentoring program that has “helped thousands of young men.” Gillen said that it is “deeply unfortunate that these allegations have been made.”

Roland asked Gillen why Bishop Long waited 48 hours to release a statement and ultimately waiting until Sunday to respond to allegations made against him. Gillen told Roland, “it is important for the bishop to make sure that as many folks as possible in that church understand and know he is going to be talking with them directly on Sunday morning.”

Gillen also answered questions about the three young men traveling with Long stating travel “is part of the mentoring program.” Gillen also explained the mentoring process as it relates to travel was not exclusive to the three plaintiffs who have filed suit against Bishop Long.

Before the interview ended, Roland asked Gillen if BJ Bernstein approached them about a settlement prior to the public release of the lawsuits. Gillen replied the only correspondence he has had with Bernstein is when he wrote her to say he felt that her conduct was in “violation of state bar rules.”

Listen to Roland Martin’s exclusive TJMS interview with Craig Gillen, the lawyer for Bishop Eddie Long.

Download audio file (martintjmsCraigGillenEddieLongLawsuit092310.mp3)

Source: CNN

Atlanta-based megachurch pastor Eddie Long, accused of coercing young men into sexual relationships, will not be interviewed on a radio show planned for Thursday.

Long was scheduled to address the civil lawsuits filed against him on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show.” Instead, his lawyers will speak, Long’s lawyer told Roland Martin, a syndicated columnist and CNN political analyst.

Martin was scheduled to conduct the interview because he is substituting for Joyner at the radio show.

Long had also scheduled a news conference for Thursday. It is unclear whether this decision will affect the news conference.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: CNN

A third lawsuit has been filed against Atlanta-based megachurch pastor Eddie Long, alleging coercion, deception and manipulation that involved a sexual relationship with a young male, CNN has learned.

Through a spokesman earlier on Tuesday, Long denied similar allegations in two other lawsuits filed over the past two days.

“We categorically deny the allegations,” he said. “It is very unfortunate that someone has taken this course of action. Our law firm will be able to respond once attorneys have had an opportunity to review the lawsuit.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: CNN

Atlanta, Georgia – Atlanta-based megachurch pastor Eddie Long, accused of coercing young men into sexual relationships, will go on radio and make a statement Thursday following civil lawsuits a spokesman has termed a “shakedown” for money.

Long’s appearances will follow Wednesday’s filing of another lawsuit, in DeKalb County, Georgia, State Court. It was brought on behalf of Jamal Parris, now 23, who was a teenager at the time he joined Long’s church.

Art Franklin, the pastor’s spokesman said Long will make a statement Thursday morning and supporters are expected to stand with him.

Syndicated columnist and CNN political analyst Roland Martin said on Twitter that he will talk with Long at 7:15 a.m. ET Thursday on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show,” a syndicated radio program.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

WATCH: Spokesman denies claims against bishop

Source: CNN

Allegations that a prominent Atlanta pastor coerced two young male church members and employees into sex are “a case of retaliation and a shakedown for money by men with some serious credibility issues,” the pastor’s spokesman told CNN Wednesday.

Pastor Eddie Long “categorically and adamantly denies these allegations,” said spokesman Art Franklin. “There’s been a lot of chatter since yesterday, but these complaints that have been filed are definitely without merit.”

Lawsuits filed Tuesday in DeKalb County, Georgia, allege that Long used his position as a spiritual authority and bishop to coerce young male members and employees of his New Birth Missionary Baptist Church into sex. CNN was the first to report on the lawsuits.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: CNN

Two Georgia men have filed suit claiming that prominent Atlanta pastor Eddie Long coerced them into sex.

The suits, filed Tuesday in DeKalb County, Georgia, allege that Long used his position as a spiritual authority and bishop to coerce young male members and employees of his New Birth Missionary Baptist Church into sex.

Long spokesman Art Franklin said Tuesday that “we categorically deny the allegations.”

The suits are seeking unspecified amounts of punitive damages from Long on various counts, ranging from negligence to breach of fiduciary duty.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: Dan Gilgoff / CNN

President Obama publicly attended church Sunday morning for the first time in nearly six months, and shortly after a major survey showed that only a third of Americans can correctly identify Obama’s faith as Christian.

The first family attended the 9 a.m. service at St. John’s Church Lafayette Square, an Episcopal congregation about a block from the White House.

The Obamas – the president, first lady Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha – made the trip on foot.

The number of Americans who expressed uncertainly about the president’s religion, meanwhile, is much larger and has also grown, including among Obama’s political base. For instance, fewer than half of Democrats and African-Americans now say that Obama is Christian.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: AP / CBS News

The imam leading an effort to build an Islamic center near the World Trade Center site said Monday that events of the last few weeks “have really saddened me to my core,” but promised that he was working on a solution to the “crisis” his plans have caused.

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said he was disappointed that many of the arguments made against construction of the Islamic interfaith center have been based on “deliberate misinformation and harmful stereotypes.”

“I am deeply distressed that some have exploited this issue for their own agendas,” he said.

Rauf did not directly address questions about the future of the planned Islamic center – first known as Cordoba House and later renamed Park51 – in Lower Manhattan, saying only that “all options are on the table” and that he was working diligently to bring about a solution that will please all parties. He said that crises always present opportunities as well.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: The Huffington Post

Pastor Terry Jones said Thursday that he decided to cancel his protest because the leader of a planned Islamic Center near Ground Zero has agreed to move its controversial location.

However, Imam Rauf, the leader of the proposed center did not make a deal and has never talked to Pastor Terry Jones, Park51 officials tell Huffington Post, adding that they are open to all solutions and that the proposed Islamic cultural center is open dialogue and reconciliation with the community in lower Manhattan.

To follow this topic visit The Huffington Post.

Source: ABC News

Pastor Terry Jones today canceled his plan to burn Korans at his Florida church after claiming he has struck a deal to with a New York Muslim cleric to relocate the mosque that has been planned to be built near Ground Zero in New York.

Jones emerged from his church in Gainesville, Fla., to announce the deal which he said came after days of prayer and said he viewed the tentative arrangement as “a sign from God.”

The fiery pastor said that Imam Abdel Rauf, the leader behind the Ground Zero mosque, will meet with him in New York on Saturday.

“We have agreed to cancel our event on Saturday,” he said.

To follow this topic visit ABC News.

Source: AP / CBS News

Donald Trump is offering to buy out one of the major investors in the real estate partnership that controls the site near ground zero where a Muslim group wants to build a 13-story Islamic center.

In a letter released Thursday by Trump’s publicist, the real estate investor tells Hisham Elzanaty he would buy his stake in the lower Manhattan building for 25 percent more than whatever he paid.

Trump says he’s making the offer not because he thinks the location is spectacular but because it would end “a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Roland Martin appears on AC360 with host Anderson Cooper, David Gergen and Cliff May CNN to discuss the controversy and bigotry being aimed at Muslims as a result of the Ground Zero Mosque.

Roland said, “This is one of those tough times where we have to ask ourselves how much do we really love and cherish our own US Constitution. We can not sit here and call ourselves a nation that supports our troops fighting for freedom … when we want to ignore this very freedom here. This is a tough choice when you are an American.”

WATCH: The Constitution, Religious Freedom And Islam

Source: Doug Stanglin / USA Today

The pastor of a Florida church says he takes very seriously Gen. David Petraeus’ warning that his church’s burn-a-Quran day on 9/11 could endanger U.S. troops and that his congregation is praying about it, but he still plans to go through with the protest.

“We are definitely weighing the situation,” Terry Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., tells CNN today. “We are weighing the thing we are about to do, what it possibily could cause, what is our actual message, what we are trying to get across. How important is that now.”

Petraeus, top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in a statement Monday that the actions by the 50-member church “could endanger troops, and it could endanger the overall effort.”

But Jones says the protest aimed at radical Islam is still on. “Once in awhile, you see that in the Bible, there are instances where enough is enough and you stand up,” Jones tells CNN.

To read this article in its entirety visit the USA Today.

Source: CNN

A fire last weekend at the construction site of a future mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, has been determined to be arson, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman said Friday.

Lab reports indicate that accelerants were used to start and spread the fire, which destroyed an earth mover and damaged three other vehicles at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, ATF spokesman Eric Kehn said.

There are no suspects in the arson, which occurred early Saturday morning, Kehn said. The investigation is ongoing and the ATF and FBI are offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect or suspects, authorities said at a Friday press conference at the construction site.

“Somebody here in Rutherford County knows what happened here,” said Keith Moses, an FBI assistant special agent based in Nashville, at the press conference, which featured representatives from the Islamic center.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: CBS News

Nearly one in five Americans think President Obama is a Muslim, according to a recent poll — but conservative commentator Ann Coulter says instead that he is an atheist.

“The nonsense about President Obama being a Muslim has got to stop,” Coulter wrote on the conservative website TownHall.com. “I rise to defend him from this absurd accusation by pointing out that he is obviously an atheist.”

Coulter, known for her brash, often humor-tinged commentary, wrote that the “only evidence for Obama’s Christianity is that he faithfully attended the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years.”

While 20 years of attendance at a church may seem like good evidence, Coulter ruthlessly slams Wright, reducing his sermons to “hate-filled demagoguery.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: Charles Riley and Paul Steinhauser / CNN

Washington – The Republican National Committee distanced itself Tuesday from a tweet issued by the committee’s new media director, Todd Herman, which questioned whether President Obama himself is part of the 20 percent of the country that believes he is a Muslim.

“Watch – Is @BarackObama amongst the 20% who think he’s Muslim?” Herman tweeted on Friday. The message included a link to an interview taped during the 2008 campaign in which Obama stumbled while explaining his religious views.

First reported Tuesday by Politico, the tweet prompted the RNC to make clear that President Obama’s Christian faith is “crystal clear” and that the tweet was sarcastic in nature.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Last week the Pew Center released a report that showed18 percent of Americans believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim. This figure is up from 11 percent last year. In last year’s poll, 48 percent thought that he was a Christian, this year only 34 percent believe that he is a Christian. 43 percent claimed they have no idea what President Obama’s faith is.

Roland Martin talks with Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell about Americans questioning President Obama’s faith and could this have a political impact on him. Pastor Caldwell is the pastor of the largest Methodist church in the country, Windsor Village. He was spiritual adviser to President George W. Bush and has often prayed with President Barack Obama.

Pastor Caldwell calls this controversy “amazingly ridiculous.” 60 percent of those polled said they got the information about President Obama being a Muslim from the media. Caldwell said he was glad that the “Tom Joyner show and brother Roland Martin are addressing this issue head on.”

Caldwell told Roland, “At the end of the day, we all know that if your opponent can attack what you do and who you are they have laid the foundation for your defeat. So this whole politics of personal faith destruction is simply a strategy to defeat who the president says he is.”

Listen to Roland’s entire interview with Pastor Kirby Jon Caldwell.

Download audio file (martintjmspastorkirbyjoncaldwell082410.mp3)

Audio Download

Source: Lauren Russell /  CNN

In protest of what it calls a religion “of the devil,” a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida, plans to host an “International Burn a Quran Day” on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The Dove World Outreach Center says it is hosting the event to remember 9/11 victims and take a stand against Islam. With promotions on its website and Facebook page, it invites Christians to burn the Muslim holy book at the church from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it’s causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times,” Pastor Terry Jones told CNN’s Rick Sanchez earlier this week.

Jones wrote a book titled “Islam is of the Devil,” and the church sells coffee mugs and shirts featuring the phrase.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

WATCH: Preacher wants to burn Qurans

Source: Jonathan Weisman / The New York Times

Islamic radicals are seizing on protests against a planned Islamic community center near Manhattan’s Ground Zero and anti-Muslim rhetoric elsewhere as a propaganda opportunity and are stepping up anti-U.S. chatter and threats on their websites.

One jihadist site vowed to conduct suicide bombings in Florida to avenge a threatened Koran burning, while others predicted an increase in terrorist recruits as a result of such actions.

“By Allah, the wars are heated and you Americans are the ones who…enflamed it,” says one such posting. “By Allah you will be the first to taste its flames.”

White House homeland security adviser John Brennan told reporters Friday that he had seen no evidence that the debate over the proposed Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, other mosque protests or the planned Koran burning had affected U.S. counterterrorism efforts.

To read this article in its entirety visit The New York Times.

CNN’s John Roberts and his panel discuss President Obama’s religious faith and the role Islam plays in the U.S.

WATCH: President Obama’s Religious Faith

“My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.”

When those words were spoken on July 25, 1974, they were eloquently put by an outstanding woman and fellow Texan, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. She was a member of the House Judiciary Committee investigating the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

And as I have listened and watched the stunning debate over the potential location of a Muslim community center and mosque two blocks away from where the World Trade Center towers were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, Jordan’s precise words keep coming to mind.

In the aftermath of the tragic 9/11 attacks, many Americans felt it was critical for the United States to not the let the terrorists — al-Qaida — win by taking from us what we succeeded in getting from the British between 1775 and 1783: our freedom and democracy.

Yet in our zeal to fight terrorism worldwide, we have chipped away at our precious rights, willing to surrender hard fought civil liberties under the guise of protecting ourselves from terrorists at home and abroad. And we stand today, a nation embroiled in a local zoning dispute over the possible building of a 13-story Muslim cultural center that will house a mosque, a theatre and other amenities.

It has been described as the “Ground Zero Mosque,” which is ridiculous considering it will be two blocks away from the site of the fallen World Trade Center towers. Yet what has been fascinating and demoralizing to watch is the clear and unmistakable religious bigotry that has taken over this conversation. Critics of the project contend that they are not trampling our precious constitutional rights of religious freedom by opposing the project. They contend that it is simply in bad taste to build it so close to ground zero, and that Americans are far too emotional about issue.

Other words really come to mind. Irrational. Hysterical. Intolerant. Hypocritical.

Over the last several years, we have witnessed Americans troops shedding blood on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, fighting for American liberty and values. We hold ourselves up with self-righteousness as the paragon of democracy and freedom, yet we are quick to stifle the freedom of others we simply don’t agree with.

A lot of the hateful rhetoric spewing out of talk radio, on blogs and on mainstream TV stems from a deep-seated mistrust, hatred and dislike of anyone practicing Islam. In our politically correct way, we say that we respect Muslims who aren’t intent on launching a jihad, but the venom evident in the words of many shows that not to be true. As James Carville debated this issue on CNN with Bill Bennett, Carville talked about his Muslim friends being sickened by this, only to see Bennett demand if they publicly repudiated the Muslims involved in 9/11 and terrorism.

Is that what we’ve come to? We willingly want to demand to see IDs of Hispanic-looking folks who might be here illegally, but we also want any American Muslim to prove their patriotism by denouncing any and every crazed and deranged Muslim in the world who seeks to do us harm? Never mind that we have Muslims fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan — proving themselves to be worthy Americans who are on “our side.”

The pain and heartache that was created on 9/11 was unbearable for many Americans.

The nation was traumatized, shocked and paralyzed by the brazen acts caused by the bastards who didn’t swear allegiance to peace, but instead to a murderous man named Osama bin Laden and a loose-knit terror network named al-Qaida.

For some reasons, Republicans have lost sight of the fact that even President George W. Bush made clear that America hasn’t been at war with Islam. And clearly some Democrats are so afraid to stand up for the U.S. Constitution that they are about as weak as a wet sheet of paper.

Now instead of joining hands with fellow Americans, including Muslim Americans, our deep-seated hatred of Muslims is calling us to detest this community center and mosque.

As the drama has unfolded with rapid speed over the last several days, I’ve tried to understand how a nation so willingly to pronounce our “American values” across the world could so easily forget that the early American settlers left a nation to escape religious persecution. Our Founding Fathers could have easily created a national religion. But they had the foresight to see into the future and allow this to be a land where anyone could choose, or not choose, to practice their religion freely.

Years ago while interning at the Houston Defender, I remember writing an editorial about a Texas ACLU lawyer and member of the NAACP defending a leader of the Ku Klux Klan, who was being ordered to turn over membership roles of the group. No matter how much the attorney detested the KKK personally, he spoke of their rights being just as important as the NAACP, and he cited how efforts were made in the 1940s, 50s and 60s to force the NAACP to reveal their membership roles.

Fighting to protect and uphold the U.S. Constitution even means defending those we can’t stand. We cannot be so willing to exclude someone from the protection that the document affords.

Rep. Barbara Jordan also spoke to this issue in that tense hearing room on July 25, 1974:

“Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States: ‘We, the people.’ It’s a very eloquent beginning,” she said. “But when that document was completed on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that ‘We, the people.’ I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in ‘We, the people.’”

Any American who claims to love this nation with all of his or her heart should take the same view — no matter how raw our emotions have been rubbed or how much anger we have for the despicable human beings who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11. None of us should be so angry and shameful that we trample the one document that has held this nation together all of these years.

I am a believer in Jesus Christ; He is my personal Lord and savior. I am an American who loves this country with all of my heart and soul. But I also believe that the building of a Muslim community center near the World Trade Center site will not be an insult to the souls lost when those planes flew into the Twin Towers. It will not be a slap in the face to others traumatized by the events of that day. Allowing this project to go forward will show the best of America. It will mean that we not only love and respect our values, but we also revere them to the point that we allow something to go forward, even when other Americans disagree.

Even the pain of 9/11 isn’t enough to turn our backs on the U.S. Constitution. THAT would simply be un-American.

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and the author of the forthcoming book “The First: President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin.” Please visit his website at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM

Source: Tim Grieve / Politico

Nearly a third of all Republicans believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim, according to an astonishing new poll released overnight by the highly respected Pew Research Center.

That’s a dramatic spike in false views about the president’s religious faith – and it comes in a poll taken before Obama weighed on plans to build a mosque two blocks from ground zero.

In a Pew poll taken last March, only 17 percent of Republicans said that Obama was a Muslim. Now, 31 percent hold that false belief.

While Pew’s new poll finds that people who disapprove of Obama’s job performance are more likely to consider him a Muslim, false beliefs about the president’s faith aren’t limited to Republicans. Eighteen percent of the independents polled said Obama is a Muslim, an eight-point increase since last year.

According the the poll only 10 percent of Democrats believe that Obama is a Muslim, which is up three points from last years poll.

Dating advice columnist Deborah Cooper says the Black church keeps Black women single. According to Cooper, to find a man, women must look beyond the church.

WATCH: The Black church and Black women.

Roland Martin talks with Pastor Joel Gregory about his book What We Love About the Black Church. Pastor Gregory details what he has learned about the Black church. The majority of Pastor Gregory’s preaching has been in the Black churches. This has given Pastor Gregory, who is a white preacher, a unique and unprecedented view of the vitality of the Black church.

Pastor Gregory explains that he wanted to make the statement that churches of other cultures can learn from the strengths of the Black church.

For more information about Pastor Joel Gregory and William H. Crouch, Jr.’s book “What We Love About the Black Church, visit GregoryMinistries.org.

Download audio file (martintjmspastorjoelgregoryloveblackchurch060310.mp3)

Roland Martin, Dr. Bobby Jones, Christopher “Play” Martin, Soledad O’Brien and Roland’s wife, Jacquie Hood Martin discuss the changing face of the Black Church. Things get a little heated when the topic of tithes and church members being asked for their W2s comes up.

Do you think church members should be required to hand over their W2s once they have joined a congregation?

WATCH: 2010 Fantastic Voyage panel discussion on the changing face of the Black Church.

Source: Larry Neumeister / MSNBC.com

New York – The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor, said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press that he is “toxic” to the Obama administration and that the president “threw me under the bus.”

In his strongest language to date about the administration’s 2-year-old rift with the Chicago pastor, Wright told a group raising money for African relief that his pleas to release frozen funds for use in earthquake-ravaged Haiti would likely be ignored.

“No one in the Obama administration will respond to me, listen to me, talk to me or read anything that I write to them. I am ‘toxic’ in terms of the Obama administration,” Wright wrote the president of Africa 6000 International earlier this year.

“I am ‘radioactive,’ Sir. When Obama threw me under the bus, he threw me under the bus literally!” he wrote. “Any advice that I offer is going to be taken as something to be avoided. Please understand that!”

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.com.

Source: CNN

For one group of women in Chicago on Sunday, Mother’s Day was marked not with flowers, but with a stark reminder of their loss.

One by one, they filed toward a newly unveiled sculpture at the city’s St. Sabina Church, placing small white cards emblazoned with names such as Blair Holt and Matthew Michael Rodriguez at the foot of the two figures in the sculpture.

“Today, as I woke up, instead of what a lot of mothers get, which are flowers or Happy Mom’s Day or a kiss, I didn’t get any of that,” said Maria Ramirez, whose son, Matthew, was killed at 16. “I don’t even get to hear anybody say ‘Mama’ anymore. I’ll never hear that again.”

Statistics released Sunday by Chicago police show that while the overall violent crime rate has decreased by 11 percent this year, the city’s homicide rate has risen 8 percent. As of Saturday, 127 killings have been recorded this year — three more homicides than the 2008 yearly total.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: Peter Hamby / CNN

Tampa, Florida - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s decision to abandon the Republican Party and run for Senate as an independent, made official at a St. Petersburg campaign event Thursday, marks a stunning turnaround for a politician who just over a year ago was heralded as one of the GOP’s brightest young talents.

But Thursday’s rally also represents a general election kick-off for what is now one of the most entertaining and unpredictable races of the midterm election year, a battle between three viable statewide candidates.

“This is unprecedented in Florida, and I would say unprecedented in the country,” said Justin Sayfie, the editor of the SayfieReview.com, an online clearinghouse for Florida political news.

Crist will be hunting for votes in the nation’s fourth largest state along with Democrat Kendrick Meek and Republican Marco Rubio, whose small government message has rallied conservatives to his side over the last year and turned him into a celebrity of sorts among Republicans.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: Reuters / The Washington Post

Pope Benedict has accepted the resignation of Bishop James Moriarty, the Vatican said Thursday, bringing to three the number of Irish bishops who have stepped down due to the sexual abuse crisis.

Moriarty tendered his resignation in December, after an official report named him among Church leaders in the Dublin archdiocese who had covered up cases of child sex abuse by priests for 30 years.

He was auxiliary bishop of Dublin from 1991 until his appointment as bishop of Kildare and Leighlin in 2002.

Hundreds of cases of sexual and physical abuse of youths in recent decades by priests have come to light in Europe and the United States in the last month as disclosures encourage long-silent victims to finally go public with their complaints.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Washington Post.

The phones are ringing off the hook at the parish of St. Michael’s Church, where the Rev. James Scahill called in a sermon last weekend for the pope to resign over the church’s sexual abuse scandal.

Source: Hamil R. Harris and Krissah Thompson / The Washington Post

President Obama will sit down Tuesday with about 20 black religious leaders, including representatives of the major African American denominations, in the second White House meeting in three months to discuss the needs of the black community.

The president has faced growing questions about whether he has done enough to help African Americans deal with the nation’s economic downturn. Blacks have been hurt more than other communities by the lack of jobs and the difficulty in obtaining bank financing, among other issues, and some — including political commentator Tavis Smiley and some members of the Congressional Black Caucus — say that Obama has not responded urgently.

As the criticism intensified last month, the White House paid little public attention to the critics while aides privately pushed back, citing examples of the president’s agenda, such as health care and education, that specifically benefit African Americans.

Tuesday’s meeting appeared to be a clear sign that Obama has heard the complaints, especially because it precedes a gathering with a larger group of ministers in the East Room for an Easter prayer breakfast. But a White House spokesman rejected the conclusion.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Washington Post.

Source: Gillian Flaccus / AP / The Huffington Post

The head of a Roman Catholic order that specialized in the treatment of pedophile priests visited with then-Pope Paul VI nearly 50 years ago and followed up with a letter recommending the removal of pedophile priests from ministry, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

In the Aug. 27, 1963, letter, the head of the New Mexico-based Servants of the Holy Paraclete tells the pope he recommends removing pedophile priests from active ministry and strongly urges defrocking repeat offenders.

The letter shows that the Vatican knew, or should have known, about clergy abuse in the U.S. decades ago, said Anthony DeMarco, a plaintiff attorney in Los Angeles who provided the letter. The accusation comes as plaintiffs in Kentucky are attempting to sue the Vatican for negligence for allegedly failing to alert police or the public about priests who molested children.

Yet the problem was very well-known to Rome well before the 1960s. The 1917 code of canon law criminalized sexual abuse of minors. Five years later, the Vatican penned a document outlining detailed procedures for handling such cases. In 1962, that document was updated and has been used in many of the lawsuits by victims against U.S. diocese and the Vatican itself.

The letter, written by the Rev. Gerald M.C. Fitzgerald, appears to have been drafted at the request of the pope and summarizes Fitzgerald’s thoughts on problem priests after his Vatican visit.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: Susan Donaldson James / ABC News

As outrage mounted over the latest Catholic Church sex scandal, writer Christopher Hitchens called for the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI, and singer Sinead O’Connor said the pope should face a criminal investigation.

Protesters rallied outside the Vatican, angry that an office under his command had stopped the prosecution in 1996 of Wisconsin priest Lawrence Murphy, who admitted molesting 200 boys at a school for the deaf where he worked for 20 years.

Experts in canon law say only a heavenly bolt of lightning can take the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger from power as the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

“The only person who can fire him is God,” said the Rev. Thomas Doyle, who worked at the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C., and was one of the first whistle blowers when the sex scandals broke in 1984.

To read this article in its entirety visit ABC News.

Mom Blasts Pope for Lying About Abuse

Source: Barbra Surk and Hadeel Al-Shalchi/The Huffington Post

It was a startling voice of protest at a startling venue. Covered head-to-toe in black, a Saudi woman lashed out at hard-line Muslim clerics’ harsh religious edicts in verse on live TV at a popular Arabic version of “American Idol.”

Last week, Hissa Hilal, only her eyes visible through her black veil, delivered a blistering poem against Muslim preachers “who sit in the position of power” but are “frightening” people with their fatwas, or religious edicts, and “preying like a wolf” on those seeking peace.

Her poem got loud cheers from the audience and won her a place in the competition’s finals, to be aired on Wednesday.

It also brought her death threats, posted on several Islamic militant Web sites.

Hilal shrugs off the controversy.

“My poetry has always been provocative,” she told The Associated Press in an interview. “It’s a way to express myself and give voice to Arab women, silenced by those who have hijacked our culture and our religion.”

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Bishop T.D. Jakes launches a program to keep former inmates from returning to prison. He spoke to HLN’s Richelle Carey.

CNN’s Tony Harris reports on the census message from the “Oldest Black Baptist Church in North America.”

The Dalai Lama says he doesn’t fault President Obama for his low-key reception in Washington because he recognizes that the president must juggle ties to the Tibetan spiritual leader with concerns about angering China.

The Dalai Lama told The Associated Press he understands that Obama must be practical in exercising his commitment to human rights worldwide.

“No disappointment. The last six decades my heart hardened. I do not consider important political gestures. I don’t care. The important is meet face-to-face,” said the Dalai Lama, who was sometimes assisted by a translator.

“With President Clinton, the first meeting was a ‘drop-in,’” he said. “People asked me the same question (then). I don’t care.”

The Dalai Lama also takes on Tiger Woods’ apology, follow the link below.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Faith Complex: Michael Eric Dyson on hip-hop theology

Source: Washington Post

A woman is pulled from the rubble in Haiti.

Rev. James Meeks, founder and senior pastor

Acts 2:37-41

Sermon title: “Help Us, Preacher”

- of all the things people shout at the pastor when he’s preaching, Meeks says he likes “Help us, preacher.”
- In this first sermon preached by Peter on the day of Pentecost, he helped people.

1. Preaching that helps you makes you ask questions.
- Preaching ought to reach your heart.
- You should not be afraid to ask questions as the Word is being preached.
- You can ask questions without questioning God.
- He says he often asks, why do the wicked prosper?
- Some of the stuff we are going through is a result of some sinful things we have done.
- Yet Jobe teaches us that all suffering is not a result of sin.
- Have you ever asked, what is favor?
- Another question: Why do bad things happen to good people? And whoever told you that you were good people?
- Another question: Will there be a seating chart in heaven?
- Another question: Will we recognize each other in heaven?
- When a preacher is preaching, he asks: Am I doing enough in my church?

2. Preaching that helps you will change your behavior.
- You don’t hear preachers today focus on repentance.
- Preaching cannot help if you are mean when you come to church and when you leave.
- You cannot come into church in adultery and leave still in adultery. That means you’ve heard no preaching that didn’t help you.
- If you’re single, you can’t come in a fornicator and leave a fornicator!
- For some reason we don’t want to hear preaching that pricks our heart.
- Liars should not be comfortable in church and leave lying.
- You shouldn’t come in worrying and go out worrying.
Read Luke 19:8.
- When you come into conrtact with Jesus and His Word, it is supposed to change you.
- The worst thing is to come week after week and never change.
- if you come to church and your behavior never changes, find you another church. You should see some changes in your walk.
- Preaching that helps you informs you or something that you have.

3. God provides us all the tools needed to change.
- Anything that heaven requires of us to change, heaven supplies us with all that need.
- We have the power inside of us to live a holy life and to do right. Jesus has already given us the power to live a sanctified life.

Rev. James Meeks, founder/senior pastor

Scripture: Acts 2:2

- There is no subject that causes more dissension in the church than that of speaking in tongues.
- if this gift is in operation today, it is the least of all spiritual gifts today.
It is the only one that edifies the individual and not the entire body.
We have taken a gift that is so small and blown it up. In fact, some denominations have been formed solely around speaking in tongues.

This event happened on the same day that the Holy Spirit came into the lives of the believers.

It is not correct that everyone hears the sound of God in a mighty rushing wind.

And are we saying that everybody is filled with the Holy Ghost that the fire is sitting on them?

Some signs that you are saved:

1. Love. Do they love people or not?
2. Forgiveness. Do you have the capacity to forgive people that hurt you or do you wrong?
3. Are you patient? 1 Corinthians 13.
4. Do you give people a secnd chance? Read Acts 15. Paul didn’t want to give Mark a second chance. If God keeps giving us chances, why don’t we give someone else a second chance?
5. Do you go to church?
6. Giving.

The Holy Spirits purpose is to shine the light on Jesus. The Holy Spirit does not come to bring attention to himself, so you know he doesn’t come to bring attention to you. Read John 16:13

If the thing you do does not bring glory to God, is not ordained by the Holy Spirit.

When they speak in verse 4, the emphasis is actually on verse 11.

Verse 4 was never the intention of Jesus for the church. It was verse 11.

The day of Pentecost was a celebration of when God gave the people the law. People were from all over. What happened was everyone gathered outside of the Upper Room where the 120 were gathered. So the noise they created spread and others came to hear what the noise was all about.

God intends for whatever happens in the church, He plans for it to spill out on the outside. Our message is so powerful that we ought to take it on the road to those that need to know.

The tongue spoken on the day of Pentecost was not something only God understood. It wasn’t unintelligible. It wasn’t gibberish. They were speaking other languages and the people from all over heard them speak in their own language.

If you are communicating with me, communicate in a way that I understand.

What happened on Pentecost reverses what happened on the Tower of Babel. Genesis 11.

We are supposed to leave here and tell others about the wonderful works of God.

Rev. James Meeks, founder/senior pastor, Salem Baptist Church of Chicago.

www.sbcoc.org

“Why We Don’t Wait on the Lord”

Acts 1:14-26

- This is the first mistake that Jesus’ disciples make after his death.
- Their hearts are in the right place. They don’t make it out of malice.
- If you make a mistake, make it with the right heart or right intentions.
- God can bless you if you do the wrong thing for the right reasons.
- Waiting on the Lord sounds easy but is real complex.
- One of the most difficult things on earth is to wait on the Lord. When you accept Jesus, you have everlasting life. But we don’t automatically learn to wait on God.
- Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem and wait on God.
- The church was born in an atmosphere of prayer. He says our churches today are weaker because we don’t pray as individuals and corporately.
- What if we opened church with prayer and not singing?
- Jesus’ mother was there and his brothers. Jesus’ family was not members of his church when he was on earth. They were not following him around and a part of his ministry.
- The Bible says they even decided to do an intervention because of what he was preaching.
- if you know you’re in the will of God, keep doing what you do. Your family will catch up later.

- Peter stood up and suggested they elect someone to take Judas’ place, and narrowed it down to two, and it fell on Matthias.
- We need to be reminded that they are men and are not perfect.
- No one told them to replace Judas. You can’t say they were led by the Holy Spirit because there was none; they were waiting on the Holy Spirit. All Jesus told them to do was wait on him.
- Without the Holy Spirit, they were forced to pick someone – the next preacher – by casting lots, and not by the direction and authority of Jesus. In essence, they chose a disciple by rolling dice.
- If Jesus picked all of them, what made them think they needed his help?
- Then they picked a guy and we never heard from them.
- and Jesus already had in mind who was going to take Judas’ place, and that was Saul of Tarsus. We know him as Paul.

Why don’t we wait on God?

1. Because we think our timetable and God’s is the same.
- After we pray, we have a timetable for God to answer the prayer we just prayed.
- God has to do two things after you pray: He has to get the thing you prayed for ready for you and he has to get you ready for the thing you prayed for.
- He said Salem prayed for a church but it took them five years. He said all those years they were not ready to financially support the mortgage or light bill.
- Then he said they filled up a small church, but in the new church, it was barely filled. Just like if we live in an aprtment, and then move into a large place, we don’t have enough to fill it.
- Thank God he doesn’t give you immediately what you prayed for.
- People pray for a spouse and they are crazy themselves!

2. Waiting on God means letting go of control.
- We are literally control freaks. When we are waiting everything is out of our hands.
- We like our own money. We’ve had friends talk us into going dinner and you get there and they don’t show up.
- someone was supposed to pick you up at 7 and the show started at 7:30, and they call you to tell you at 7:20 to drive yourself.
- This is because we have been disappointed.
- we need to remember that God is not other people. God is incapable of not coming through.
- But also, you’re not in control of what you think you are.

3. We really think we know what’s best for us.
- We know that God knows what’s best for other people.
- Even when He told us and the Word told us, we still think we know what’s best.
- Look at tithing. The Word says one thing, but you don’t think anyone else knows.
- we think we know what’s best. Look at Abraham. God told him he was going to have a child, they had sex, and Sarah came to Abraham and said, “I think…” Those are the two worst words when God has already told you something.
- She said that “I think God wants you to sleep with Hagai.” And then the Arab people were born.
- Abraham and Sarah were supposed to wait on God, and they improvised. They decided that since God’s plan isn’t working His way, maybe it will work our way.
- If you think God’s way isn’t working out, why do you think your way will work?
- If you do your way over God’s way and it works, why will you trust Him next time?
- Only God knows the way for your life.

Waiting on God is a matter of faith because we know that God will come through. Look at Job. God gave him twice as much.

We are all going to have to take the class on waiting on the Lord.

Rev. James Meeks, founder/senior pastor, Salem Baptist Church, www.sbcoc.org

Acts 1:9-11

“Whose Angel Are You?”

- This verse records the ascension of Jesus.
- Jesus ascended without any warning.
- It also describes for us the ministry of angels. The Bible records that the disciples were caught off guard by this.
- We are descendants of this first group of people because after this, they went to the Upper Room and that was the gathering of the first 120 people of the church.
- The New Testament church is the hope of the world.
- We should thank God for angels that will show up at the appropriate time.
- Do you have your own personal story of encountering an angel? Remember, God does not have to send someone in white apparel.
- God allows some people to just show up and they show you kindness.

What do angels do?

Read Luke 2:8

You become someone’s angel when you tell them a Savior is here.

- A lot of people are going through a whole lot, and it’s unnecessary to go through that much drama.
- There are two lives a person can live: a life without Jesus and one with him. A life before Christ and one after Christ.
- People believe a life with Jesus means a life of no more fun, but Jesus said I will give you life.
- God’s got your back. There is no reason to depressed and living such an anxiety-filled life.
- When you help someone being tempted by the devil, you become their angel. Read Matthew 4:10.
- Jesus faced temptation in 3 ways: by flesh, material things and pride. A person becomes your angel when they say I know what you are going through and I’m here to pray for you.
- Get rid of all of your cheerleading friends who cheer you on in wrongdoing. You need some angels for you to rely on.
- Angels are not critical, arrogant, haughty, and self-righteous. Angels will tell you that the Lord will make a way out of no way.
- When a person is going through agony, be an angel and strengthen them. Read Luke 22:41.
- When Jesus was in agony and when he was being tempted, an angel came and strengthened him. If he needed angels, so do we. The scripture does not say that God sent an angel. It just said that an angel appeared. If that angel couldn’t watch Jesus go through agony, how could you watch someone do it?
- If someone is going through anything, just show up.

Rev. James Meeks, founder/senior pastor, Salem Baptist Church of Chicago.

Acts 1:8
Sermon title: “Why Are There So Many Messed Up People in the Church?”

- The church seems to be a magnet for disturbed, messed up people. We have people who fall over and over again.
- We have people in the church with relationship and marital problems; drug issues. We have people in the church with sexual issues. We have people with domestic abuse issues. We have people who have been abused and we have the abusers sitting in the same church.
- It’s hard for someone who has been abused to watch someone lift their hands in praise but never go back to the person they abused and appologize for their behavior.
- We have people in the church who are broke and broken.
- We have people who are paranoid.
- And we have people in the church who are plain old crazy.

The real question is why?

You would think that a church is a place of all good people, and where everyone has it together.

We must first discuss the purpose of the church to understand this.

In Acts 1:9, Jesus left His power to be witnesses. And the word witness is used 29 times in Acts. A witness is someone who can tell you what they’ve seen and what they heard. Read Acts 4:19

In order to be a witness, you have to see, hear or know something for yourself.

That’s all a judge even wants to know in court.

The disciples had a responsibility? And that was to tell the world about Jesus. Read Acts 1:21

If you don’t know what you are talking about, it’s best to shut up and keep your mouth closed.

Doing Jesus’ earthly ministry, he made it crystal clear who he is looking for. Read Luke 19:10

The earthly life of Jesus was a magnet for messed up people. Read John 4. He was dealing with a woman who was having sexual issues.

In John 8, Jesus meets a lady who was caught in the act of adultery.

Read Luke 15:2. A church is supposed to attract people with problems and have issues.

A church that attracts people with no issues, it does not reflect the ministry of Jesus and doesn’t have the Holy Ghost.

Why does the Holy Spirit draw people

We are supposed to tell people what Jesus is able to do.

We are to tell them that sanctification is a process. Church people are messing up the church because we are putting on the allusion that nothing is wrong with us. You will not be perfect the day after you join church. Every time you fall down you can get back up again. We are supposed to tell people that Jesus can heal the broken-hearted.

We are looking for people who had trouble in their marriage and Jesus healed it.

The reason so many people in the church are messed up because no one can deliver the message like Exhibit A.

The woman in John 4, when she heard about Jesus, ran into town and said I know you called me a whore, but now I got another man who has healed me.

On a daily basis, you shouldn’t be telling someone what God did for Peter, but you should be providing your own testimony.

Rev. James Meeks, founder, Salem Baptist Church of Chicago. www.sbcoc.org

Genesis 12:10-13

“What Do You When God’s Way Doesn’t Work?”

- He leaves home and goes to Canaan on the direction of God.
- He left his home, his family, and his country, where there was never a famine, to follow the will of God and there was a famine in the land.
- Whenever it appears that God’s way isn’t working, we think He made a mistake.

When it appears that way:

1. Don’t let the green grass fool you. Abram looked @ the fertility of Egypt. But rather than stay where God positioned him, he decided to go where the action was.
2. Don’t choose another way that forces you to be God. Abram settled for a quick fix. So he then started lying. When you choose your own way, you have to make your way work. God is only responsible for His way. When it’s your way, you’re on your own! God cancels His contract and you have to live by the terms of your contract.

When it appears God’s way isn’t working, be cool. It’s only a taste.

Abram had just passed a faith test. When you pass one, God is sending another one is on the way.
- The only way you move to the next level is to pass all the tests
on this level.
- God sometimes wants to see if we really trust Him and believe in Him. He sends calamaties or storms to see if we have the capacity to wait on Him. The times we don’t trust Him turn out so disastrous that when the next time we face one, we will definitely wait on Him.
- How would God tell you where to go and tell you to trust Him and depend on Him and turn around and let you down? It’s only a test and God wants to see what you are made of.

Rev. Anthony Trufant

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

“Your Reservations About the Resurrection”

- Paul was the primary Christian church builder.

- Paul wrote the letters to help the various communities think through accurately their faith.

- In matters of faith we tend to suspend reason and listen to authorities. God has not called me to tell you what to think but how to think for yourself through Scripture.

- Some of us have a superficial view of faith; it’s all about how we feel.

- We don’t come to church to find God but to worship God.

- There are some who said you can’t trust Paul’s gospel because you can’t trust Paul.

- We need to know what people believe. If they love God so much, tell me! Or you believe in God so much, you exclude people who God wants, as well as treating women as a second-class citizen.

- The church of Corinth mirrors our experience.

- if you have difficulty with the resurrection, you have issues with Jesus (v2).

- The Christian faith has always been subversive and corrective to society.

- The problem for many of us is that we really don’t want to think.

- How do we know what Paul is saying is truthful? Because the community around Paul was the same as in Africa. There was a tremendous oral tradition.

- The Scriptures enhance our ability to hear God.

- Read Iaiah 53:1-7.

- We have a religion that is private, but not personal.

- Without the church you wouldn’t have many institutions such as schools and hospitals.

- Maybe the problem with contemporary Christianity is we’ve introduced them to religion and not a relationship.

- We already know enough about God, we just don’t do what we know.

- Today it’s a matter of not being close minded but being clear.

- The more grounded you are the more comfortable you are in your Christian skin.

- Read Psalms 16:9-11. Hosea

Matthew 28:16-20. 1 Peter 3:18.

Rev. James Meeks, Salem Baptist Church of Chicago

Scripture: Hebrews 9

“How Do We Enter the Presence of the Lord?”

The tabernacle was divided into three parts:

- the outer court, the holy place and the holy of holies.

It was in the third part where the presence of God rested.

- You just didn’t walk in the door and automatically entered the presence of God.

- God’s presence and his existence just doesn’t hang around the doorway.

There is something called a brazen altar. They all had to stop by it first. If we come to church and never get our business straight at the outset, we will never make it pass the outer court.

- the brazen altar was the largest piece of furniture in the tabernacle. It was made of wood and covered with brass.

- this altar of wood was so shiny you could see your reflection in the glass.

- the brazen altar is where sin is confessed.

- sin always indicates something has got to die. That’s why the priest sacrificed the lamb.

- Then the priest would sprinkle the blood on the altar so that person’s sins would be covered by the blood.

- we cannot approach the presence of God if we have not confessed any sins. A lot of us come to church and have never been on our knees.

- One main weakness in our service today is that we don’t set aside time for repentance, to confess our sins and to ask God to forgive our sins.

- Jesus said to think it is just as bad as doing it.

- Our sins must be transferred somewhere or else we will never see Him.

- if you are trying to get in the presence of God, you need to name those things that you should confess.

- Deliverance always starts by admitting that you’re lost. The sooner you admit that you don’t know yu can get some help.

- if we miss the brazen altar and confession in Jesus’ name, we miss the presence of God.

- if we miss washing, we miss worshipping.

- the worshippers also had to pass the brazen laver, which was next to the brazen altar.

- Worship is always a time to see yourself.

- you could also see yourself in the laver.

James 1:23; Ephesians 5:25;

- just like the priest cleaned himself, we have to come to church and clean ourselves.

- Satan is trying to build a kingdom on earth. And you are always exposed to filth.

- Television is a defiled instrument. Whether you are looking to be exposed to sexually explicit stuff or not, it’s all around. We are defiled everywhere we turn around.

- we come to church so we can hear the Word.

- the more Word the church has, the cleaner its members can be.

- It could be that we try to enter the presence of the Lord too soon.

- David tells us how to enter the presence of the Lord. “Make a joyful noise.” “Enter his gates with thanksgiving.”

Let’s not kid ourselves, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was going to be a part of this presidential campaign through November, whether Sen. Barack Obama smacked his former pastor upside the head, or not.

Roland Martin says Sen. Barack Obama must fight back after the damage Rev. Wright inflicted on his campaign.

Now that he has taken the necessary steps to separate himself from Wright, Obama must go on his most vigorous offensive to date and make it clear that he is running for president, and not Wright.

Sen. Hillary Clinton is doing all she can to make the case to undeclared Democratic superdelegates that Obama is a wounded duck because of Wright; that she has a better shot at winning white working-class voters; and he’s not tough enough to take on Sen. John McCain.

With that said, Obama is leading among pledged delegates, the popular vote, and has significantly closed the gap between himself and Clinton in superdelegates. Bottom line: He’s winning.

But now it’s time for him to ratchet up his message and to take back the stage from Clinton,McCain, and of course, Wright, and one way to do that is to be far more forceful in advocating his position and direction for the country. Here are a few suggestions:

Let voters know that you will be calling the shots, not Wright. I’ve seen the e-mails of voters who say they will not vote for Obama because of Wright. For the junior senator of Illinois, challenge them directly.

Tell them flat out that Wright will not keep their homes from foreclosure.

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Tell them that Wright has absolutely nothing to do with gas prices doubling under the presidency of George W. Bush.

Make it plain that your name is on the ballot and not his, and you’re the guy who has the right plan to transform the country.

Have your supporters increase the book sales of Alan Greenspan. McCain said last year that the economy wasn’t his strong suit, and that he needed to read up on the books of the former Federal Reserve chairman. I would put some of those young supporters to use and have them greet McCain at every campaign stop with a copy of a Greenspan book. Even print up some Greenspan masks and hound him to death.

Then you must back that in-your-face campaigning with an economic message that speaks to the masses, especially those blue-collar voters. Show them that the Bush tax cuts that McCain wants to continue will benefit those same owners who are shipping their jobs overseas.

Tell blue-collar voters that the hedge fund owners that are snapping up companies and slashing their jobs don’t care about them, and will be happy to fund the campaign of McCain.

Make the case that he might be a good guy, but he’s more concerned about the tax bracket of his wife –she’s worth in excess of $100 million – than the middle class voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

They say you’ve got a white problem? Tell those white rural voters that voting against their economic interests is political suicide.

Make it clear to women, especially white women, that Roe v. Wade will be extinct if McCain wins. The next president is going to choose three Supreme Court justices.

There is no way — no way — that the religious right will let a President McCain appoint anyone with a moderate bone in his or her body. Remember Harriet Miers? Bush even said he knew her heart, and they told him to go to hell.

What Obama has to tell those women, who are supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton in huge numbers, and will be disappointed if she’s not the nominee, that sitting at home on Election Day, or crossing the aisle and voting for McCain, virtually assures that a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body will be taken from her.

I would run an add slapping a large “C” for conservative on the faces of Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Antonio Scalia, and make it clear that three other justices will likely step down.

If McCain chooses, they vote with the conservative bloc. That is a day the pro-choice movement never wants to see.

Make college tuition a cornerstone of your campaign. You and Michelle paid off your student loans three years ago — why keep that such a secret? Hit folks over the head with that.

With Sallie Mae cutting back and being more selective on student loans, the ability to pay for their kids to go to school is a huge issue. Push it. Hard. Don’t let it be just one of many items on the list.

Convene a panel in Indiana, North Carolina and Oregon of parents and young folks and let them express their fears about not being able to go to college and get a good job. There isn’t a parent, aunt or uncle that isn’t concerned with that issue.

The war still matters. I’m watching Lanny Davis, a big- time Clinton surrogate on “Larry King Live,” challenge Obama’s judgment on attending Wright’s Chicago church for 20 years.Obama must re-engage the electorate and say that the judgment of Clinton and McCain has led to a war that has cost us 4,000 lives and billions of dollars.

Those costs are real. Don’t let it slide by. Ratchet up the sound. Don’t let voters forget for a second that the wrong choice was made by your opponents.

A lot of folks are assuming the doom-and-gloom scenario for Obama. Everyone is saying he’s toast, and this race is over. But we forget that conservatives really don’t love McCain, and the evangelicals aren’t hot in love with him.

Go back to who you are: Mr. Change. Drive the issues home in a more forceful manner. The election is little more than six months away, and a whole lot can happen between now and November 5.

The revelation of controversial comments made by the longtime pastor of Sen. Barack Obama, and the equally hot aftermath from the general public that led to the junior senator from Illinois delivering a strong speech/sermon on race in America, has opened anew the explosive connection between three of the most volatile issues today.

If a poll were taken, there is no doubt that race, faith and politics would be the most emotional, passionate and divisive topics. Why? Because all three are so deeply personal. What one person sees as a negative, another would determine as a strength.

Republicans strongly believe that they are superior and right on the direction of the nation compared to Democrats. African Americans are protective of their culture and ways of living, while whites routinely ask why we can’t just be one nation with no labels. Catholics contend they are the one and only true church, while Baptists will say that being dipped in the water after making a personal decision to give your life to Christ is the true way of salvation for the believer.

As a Christian, I’ve seen church members go toe-to-toe when discussing either one of these issues, and can remember some late night debates in college that would have made the toes of Lincoln and Douglas curl.

So why did the comments of Rev. Jeremiah Wright strike such a core, and how did it lead to Obama to give a speech on race? That was the question posed to me in a number of emails, and like Obama stated in his speech, it’s really America’s lack of understanding – no, refusal to accept – how the different races live and act.

The Kerner Commission stated in 1968 that we were living in two Americas – one black and one white. When we examine the TV shows we all watch, those in the top 10 for whites are vastly different than those for blacks. Musical tastes vary, so do cultural norms. We all kid ourselves that during March Madness, the courts are loaded with mostly African American ballplayers, yet when the College World Series tips off in May, you will see mostly whites on the baseball diamond.

But we are also separate when it comes to worship. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said the most segregated hour of the week is 10 a.m. on Sunday morning. And it still is. For Christians, we may celebrate the same Jesus, but how we do so and with whom is very different.

I fundamentally believe that whites, blacks – and yes, Hispanics and Asians – reacted differently when hearing the snippets of Wright’s preaching. Not solely because of content, but also style. For African Americans who are accustomed to a certain style of preaching – and a lot of Southern whites – the thundering voice that drops to a whisper, the weaving of social issues with the theological, is common.

Even former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee – while not embracing Wright – agreed with that point.

Yet our view of America is also different. Justified? No. Just different.

While many white Americans will look at Memorial or Veterans Day as an opportunity to celebrate our armed forces, African Americans do the same, but also will think historically of seeing and reading about black troops hung from trees, still in their uniforms. They will think of soldiers returning home to America in World War II forced to sit in the back of the train, while German Nazis got to sit up front.

When Wright was castigated for being anti-American for saying “God damn America!” – which was not delivered in his speech about 9/11 – I couldn’t help but think about that famous speech Dr. King gave at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, when he blasted America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. King was disowned by many of his supporters, was denounced as a traitor to the nation, and his speaking fees dried up.

See, even the man who many conservatives quote today with fervor, was treated as an outcast in his own country.

Our shared experiences today may not be so raw and overt as America’s racial past, but we can’t forget how our past defines us today.

Are these excuses? Nope. Just a dose of reality.

I watched Joe Scarborough on MSNBC say, while qualifying that these weren’t his views, that a blue collar man in Youngstown, Ohio didn’t want to hear about race from a black man who went to Harvard and his black wife who went to Princeton.

He’s probably right. But what Joe failed to mention is that same black man came from a single family home where the mom had to go on welfare just to feed her family. That same black women lived in a two-bedroom home and saw her parents bust their butts to make ends meet, and scrape together every penny to send their children to the nation’s finest schools.

Isn’t that the dream of every white, blue collar parent, and every black, blue collar parent? So why should such success be seen as anger towards someone else?

When we sit down, break bread together and truly listen and learn from one another, our worldview changes.

For the last few months I’ve seen that experience up close and personal at my church in Chicago.

The Rev. James Meeks, founder and senior pastor of Salem Baptist Chuch, a predominantly black congregation, has been engaged in worship with another predominantly white mega-church, Willow Creek, led by its founder and senior pastor, Bill Hybels.

The pastors of the state’s two largest churches have been engaged in the swapping of youth members and choirs, have preached at one another’s church, and have made it their mission to break down the racial and economic walls that exist between Christians.

It has been rocky at times. To see the faces of African Americans watch the worship service of Willow Creek members has been a bit jarring, from the style of preaching to the music. But the common denominator is the same: Jesus.

There is no doubt that a lot of Americans are angry and confused by Obama staying at Trinity United Church of Christ and not disowning his pastor. Folks, that’s just not what church folks do. I don’t recall folks asking members of the Rev. Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson to leave their churches in droves. They knew their leaders are fallible and make mistakes. Should they be criticized for hateful and divisive comments? Absolutely. Disowned? I would never say that.

This is an opportunity we have. Those of us in the media, as Obama said, can continue to run the same clips, but is that providing healing to America? No.

What we can do is begin to show where communities are coming together, talking openly and honestly about their hurts, frustrations and pain. Will we get angry and upset because of the other person isn’t fully getting what we are trying to say? Of course! But until we decide to look in that mirror, and confront our deep-seated fears of the other because of their race, religion and political affiliation, we’ll remain a fractured nation.

The Bible says don’t put new wine in old wine skins. So let’s stop using the resentments and anger of the past and holding against the people of today and the future.

So, what are YOU prepared to do?

Originally published on Feb. 26, 2008 

It was a hot and muggy night in June 1995 as I drove down the nearly vacant highways of Houston. The temperature had been climbing all across the city. To my left was the eighth wonder of the world, known in Space City (Houston, Texas) as the Astrodome. And to my right was a man who could easily be considered a wonder of this world, Harvard’s Dr. Cornel West (he’s since moved to Princeton).

It was such a sight to see. Dr. West was still wearing his trademark black three-piece suit, huge afro blowing in the wind as a result of the top of my Mazda Miata being let down. Hey, it was 99 degrees at 4 a.m. We couldn’t help it!

As my Alpha Phi Alpha frat brother enjoyed the sweet jazz coming from the speakers in the seat, my soul was busy; troubled by the dilemma I was facing. I had walked away from the Catholic Church after 25 years, and my church attendance was spotty at best. I was perplexed because my soul had been hankering for a change of scenery. As a man then in my mid-20s, I was looking for a significant level of relevance in my spiritual life, and the Catholic Church, though wondrous to me for so many years, was no longer the answer. In essence, I was dying a slow death because my spirit was no longer being fed.

I reached down to turn the radio down to ask Dr. West, a noted theologian, what had been bothering me for months. After telling him about a church in Dallas that I was interested in attending — I loved the pastor’s commitment to social equality and justice — I was perplexed because I had been such a dyed in the wool Catholic.

“Ah,” he said in his trademark tone, stroking his beard as he contemplated my dilemma.

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“Brother Martin, it’s a rather common problem. You see, when I’m in a contemplative mood, I will attend a Catholic Church. There’s something about the quietness of it that allows me to think and reflect on my issues. When I need to have my butt whipped, I will attend my old-fashioned black Baptist Church because of the strong delivery of the Word. Now, my wife is Ethiopian, and I don’t know what they are saying, chanting and beating on the drums, but the rhythmic sounds they make is such a strong presence in me that it has a spiritual effect.”

“Dang,” I thought. “This brother’s good.”

I thanked him for that small yet wonderful explanation because it cleared up so many of the misconceptions that were going through my mind.

The conversation is just as clear to me today as it was 13 years ago because it clearly highlighted a problem so many of us face. After so many years of attending one church, we often assume that we are meant to be born, baptized, married and buried in the same place.

But all too often our spirits are no longer comfortable in the same place. We begin to get restless. No longer do we think about the message being taught but instead, wonder what we will fix for dinner, what movie we will catch that night or what the score is in the football game of our favorite team. That mental escapism is what caused me to question my presence in the Catholic Church. I found myself reciting the Apostle’s Creed and the other mantras without any thought to what I was saying. I was basically “The Walking (Spiritually) Dead.”

That’s why it was no shock to me to read the study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life that showed thousands are either switching faiths, denominations or leaving the faith altogether.

When I moved from Dallas to Houston, I left my home church and joined another in Houston. Although I loved Friendship-West Baptist Church, God led me to Brookhollow Baptist Church. I stayed there two years before returning to Dallas, yet my spirit wasn’t comfortable in FWBC once I moved back. The same pastor was there; most of the same people were there, yet I felt out of place. I thought it was because I had left and needed some time to adjust, but God made it clear that I was no longer being fed there.

This did not mean that the pastor wasn’t doing his job; he was. But God needed — no, He required — me to go elsewhere because what He had for me to do made it necessary. I had to forego my will and what I thought was right and completely let go and say, “God, wherever you think I need to go is where I will go.”

I had basically graduated from one spiritual level to another. In layman’s terms, I had been granted my papers from high school and now it was time for me to go to college. And when I finished my B.S., it was time for me to go after my master’s.

It finally dawned on me that that was what Dr. West was ministering to me about that night in 1995. We have to submit ourselves to the will of God and go where he wants us to go.

I know it’s difficult to leave a place where you and your family have grown comfortable. I feel ya when you say that your leaving may create a void or may give the impression that you had a falling out with a pastor. It’s important for you to convey to those around you the true nature for your leaving and why you need to continue onward to your spiritual growth.

I loved listening to Pastor Haynes. He was a young, dynamic man, and personally, we were fraternity brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha. But I had to listen to God tell me, “I need you to make this move because what I have in store for you requires it.”

Continue to pray and meditate on being in a place where you are constantly being fed and taught. And if it feels like you are going over the same lessons over and over, don’t fret and begin to badmouth the pastor and the deacons.

That could simply be God’s way of saying that you have graduated, and it’s time to elevate yourself to the next spiritual level.

Excerpted, with some additions, from “Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith,” by Roland S. Martin.

With all of the recent debate on religion in politics, CNN’s Roland Martin hosts a holiday edition of “What Would Jesus Really Do?” as he takes a look at the presidential political landscape to ponder how Jesus Christ might respond.   “What Would Jesus Really Do?” airs on Friday, Dec. 21, and Monday, Dec. 24, at 8 p.m. (ET)

For the special, Martin turns to a star panel of theologians and the Best Political Team in Television to apply the question to the war in Iraq, gay rights, immigration, abortion, healthcare, the economy and more.  A CNN “Quick Vote Poll” solicits viewer opinion on whether Jesus would be a Republican, Democrat or an independent.

Excerpt of CNN’s God’s Warriors to air during special

CNN’s Roland Martin tackles the issue of some societies’ insatiable appetite for money, lust and power in an hour-long special airing at 8 p.m. (ET) on Monday, Aug. 20, “God, Sex and Greed” leading up to the premiere of CNN’s God’s Warriors on airing Tuesday, Aug. 22 through Thursday Aug. 24 from 9 p.m. to 11p.m. (ET).

Martin will explore whether or not modern society is caught up in such lust and greed that eclipses its spirituality with diverse guests including Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Author Irshad Manji, Dr. Al Mohler of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. Martin will examine the decadent trappings of American society and the historic role of religion in our culture. Hedge fund manager Timothy Sykes along with adult film star Savanna Samson will provide their unique perspective on society’s views of greed and sexuality.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.