| In This Issue: We have a new President of the United States. We have a brilliant, capable, good-looking, African-American President. We have seen history in the making and tap us on the shoulder to be more diligent and energized in making our own history. Our upcoming Black Church Summit and Townhall features the theme of “Moving Beyond History”. Please see the information below on the Summit and the Townhall which will be held on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. The Townhall is free and the Black Church Summit is $50.00. Please go to www.nbjc.org to register. The Religious Affairs Program is pleased to announce Rev. Byron Williams, pastor and syndicated columnist, as our new co-chair. Rev. Williams introduces himself in this newsletter. He is a dedicated ally and person of faith. We are proud to have the opportunity to work with Rev. Williams. We also feature the prayer of Bishop Eugene Robinson, which was deleted from the HBO coverage the Sunday before the inauguration. It is a remarkable prayer. On the other hand, we have the correspondence of Rev. Rick Warren to African American clergy and how ally Rev. Renita Reems responds to his cluelessness. And, on the 200th anniversary of the births of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin (both born on the same day, same year) we have the words of Jeanette Bronson, a Los Angeles activist who is concerned about the lack of scientific knowledge and inquiry (as evidenced by Rick Warren) and its ramifications. Sylvia Rhue, Ph.D.
Director of Religious Affairs
National Black Justice Coalition
The Power Of Us... Moving Beyond History! 4th Annual Black Church Summit: Saturday March 28, 2009 at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. Register for this empowering event TODAY!
An Introduction to Rev. Byron Williams As the new Co-chair of the Religious Advisory Committee as well as serving on the host committee for NBJC’s upcoming one-day conference on March 28 in San Francisco, it is my pleasure to greet you with peace and blessings. I agree with the prophet Amos that justice should roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream, but the question we must confront: Who’s in charge of the irrigation system? And once we effectively address that question, we can begin the process of diverting the spring water of justice and equality to so many whose souls are parched due to the dry bitterness of hatred, bigotry, and ignorance. Hopefully I will have the opportunity meet some of you at the March 28 conference. If you want more information
about me as a columnist, pastor, and author visit my website at byronspeaks.com. In struggle and solidarity, Rev. Byron Williams
 | A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama
By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009
Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.
O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will?
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.
Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.
And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.
Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
AMEN.
Dear Rick: A Lesson on Race by Renita Weems
It took several days for me to decide whether to post the email below. It arrived Sunday night in my mailbox. I read it and became immediately suspicious. "You're kidding, right?" It's obvious that Warren hasn't read what I've written here and elsewhere about him. Either that, or the letter is a fake. I shut down the computer and thought nothing more about it.
Well, maybe one more thought came to my mind: Perhaps Warren knows that I've been critical of him and is writing because he genuinely and really wants to reach out and find common ground. Read my friends and weigh in. Dear Pastor Weems,
Recently I was reading an older issue of African American Pulpit (I'm a long-term subscriber) and I came upon your article, "How Will Our Preaching Be Remembered". I thought it was so good I wanted to write and tell you what a great job you did. Well done!
After reading your work, I decided to ask you for your help. On Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 19, I have the humble privilege of being invited to be the first white pastor to preach the annual memorial message in Dr. King's home church in Atlanta, Ebenezer Baptist. I consider this opportunity as one of the greatest privileges in my ministry. It is even more important to me personally, than praying the invocation for my friend President Obama's Inauguration the next day.
I'd like to know your thoughts. If you were preaching the annual Martin Luther King sermon at his church on his day - what would YOU say? I just felt led to write you. Please help me, your brother in Christ. I'm open to any ideas, texts, or suggestions you might have for me, and I'd deeply appreciate it.
For so many of us, Dr. King was a role model, not just for justice, but also a role model for local church pastoring and preaching. I have a personally typed and signed letter by Dr. King framed on my office wall.
I am committed to the ministry of reconciliation, so I'm always trying to build bridges to my African-American brothers and sisters in ministry. We're a part of the same Body, saved by the same Grace, filled with the same Spirit, preaching the same Word, serving the same Lord, and called to fulfill the same Purposes on earth.
Thanks again for how your words touched me. I look forward to hearing from you.
Rick But that was before I got here to Florida where I'm vacationing with friends and discovered that I'm not the only one to receive a letter from the pastor of Saddlebrook Church. Jessica, Floyd, Jeremiah, Frank, Jim, John, Eboni and many others did too. It seems that Warren (or his emissaries) decided to go through some old issues of The African American Pulpit and write letters to folks with sermons there claiming to want to reach out to us and solicit our advice on a sermon he's doing Monday in celebration of King's birthday there at Ebenezer. Everyone got the same form letter. Change the recipient's name, the sermon title and hit "send" is all it took.
Is this Warren's way of getting to know African American preachers? Is this his way of making friends with us? Is this how he bones up on Black History? Evidently, Warren obviously doesn't know that black preachers talk, that many of us are friends, and that a letter from Rick Warren would generate buzz enough for us to share and compare notes.
Admittedly, nothing annoys me like white Americans—especially those my age—wanting me to teach them about race and racism. Where have you
been?
Warren, if you (or your people) read this, you're asking yourself, "What did I do wrong? What harm is there in sending an email out to respected black leaders around the country and soliciting their advice on a King speech you're slated to give on Monday?"
If you have to ask, then you don't get it. You don't get the whole point of King's ministry and that of others who suffered and sacrificed working for racial equality in this country. You don't get that a mass email to black leaders can not substitute for real flesh-and-blood relationships with peers in the African American community. Can not substitute for doing your own reading and research on the history of the American slave trade and race relations in America. Can not substitute for asking God to open your eyes so you can see, really see, the race dynamics in your church and in your city. Can not substitute for asking how a man like yourself born in 1954 doesn't know better. And doesn't know more about race in America. Where have you been?
What was the King Committee thinking? What got into them to invite Rick Warren who has no street creds in justice work to be the speaker for 2009 annual Martin Luther King service there at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta? But that's another conversation. In the meantime, follow the money. You can bet there's a Purpose Driven donation that's recently been deposited in the King Center account. |
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