Posted on 08/01/2005 6:40:25 AM PDT by Crackingham
I'll be a-pinging the list a bit later this AM.
Thanks for alerting me. I know a lot of black ministers actively preach the truth. I remember a march for marriage in, IIRC, Atlanta led by a black pastor!
Right. What's going on is that a few preachers want an entire FAITH to be changed to their way of thinking (i.e. homosexuality, beastiality, polygamy, infidelity, pederasty, et al aren't sins).
Instead, the ethical thing to do would be for those few preachers to go form their own new Church system.
no surprise. You never (at least I cant think of one) see a black preacher speak out against abortion. They let John Kerry speak at their pulpit. Embracing homosexuality comes as no surprise to me
It may have something to do with Looking Fabulous.
But what do I know.
The Riverside Church is an interdenominational, interracial, and international church built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1927. The 2,400-member church is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches and the United Church of Christ.
Forbes is the first African-American to serve as Senior Minister of one of the largest multicultural congregations in the nation. He is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches and the Original United Holy Church of America.
Before being called to Riverside’s pulpit, Dr. Forbes served from 1976-1985 as the Brown and Sockman Associate Professor of Preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. From 1985-1989 he was Union’s first Joe R. Engle Professor of Preaching. Union named him the first Harry Emerson Fosdick Adjunct Professor of Preaching in 1989, when he accepted the pastorate at Riverside. Dr. Forbes also serves on the Core Teaching Staff at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York.
In their March 4, 1996 issue, Newsweek magazine recognized Forbes as one of the 12 “most effective preachers” in the English-speaking world.
Forbes has led numerous workshops, retreats, and conferences for the National Council of Churches.
******
Rev. James A. Forbes
Rev. James Forbes Calls for Recruitment of Human Race Activists
Speaker: The Rev. Dr. James Forbes, Riverside Church, NY
The Rev. Dr. James Forbes, senior minister of New York's Riverside Church, echoed the theme of "calling" at the 2001 General Assembly by calling for the recruitment of human race activists.
Why the need for "serious, unapologetic, radical human race activists"? Why is it the time for progressive religious faiths to encourage and recruit such activism? Forbes told of his visit to South Africa in 1994, during the freedom election, and his insight that the South Africans, black and white, would have to meet the challenge of learning to be neighbors. Then, on returning to the United States, he looked around at deep problems of racism: the erosion of affirmative action while affirmative action for the in-group continues; the increased mean-spiritedness; the closing of gates between communities; the increasing disparities in income despite gains in general prosperity. He likened today's racism to the story of Antaeus and Hercules: wrestled to the ground, Antaeus continues to rise again. And so it is with racism: the work of the 1950s and 1960s wrestled racism to the ground, but it rises again.
snip
Why, Forbes then asked, is it necessary to press for such a vision? He recounted a story from 1961, when he was newly able to sit down at a lunch counter -- but the white woman who had been sitting there moved away, left the store. Will white Americans act similarly when they are no longer the majority? Human race activists must be recruited, because so many white Americans will have an automatic reaction of fear, of moving away.
What will it take, then, to empower such activists, to "achieve fruitfulness?" A deep awareness, for a start. UUs, Forbes said, already know something that many religious people don't know, to have been so successful as a small denomination having such a large effect on the world. Discovering what takes people from where they are to where they can be transformed and where they can transform society -- to narrow the gap between creeds and deeds -- this, Forbes said, UUs know and need to learn to teach others.
snip
Forbes said he was struck, after attending a workshop on the Black Empowerment Controversy, with the critical engagement of audience and presenters "a trademark of your association." Forbes also thanked the Unitarian Universalists for "being willing to have your hearts broken" in that 1968 controversy, for providing, in the wake of the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, jr., "a place to scream rage, not into silent skies," not by rioting in the streets. Forbes also expressed his excitement at being at the UUA General Assembly in the year of the election of the UUA's first African American president, the Rev. William Sinkford.
******
No Hedging When It Comes to Pushing Lefties
Liberal reporter Chris Hedges again uses the pages of the Times to publicize a left-wing religious figure, this one Rev. James Forbes Jr. In his latest "Public Lives" profile, Tuesday's "From the Pulpit, a Struggle for Justice," he writes: "In the battle over Jesus, what he stood for, what he represents and how faith is experienced and sustained, the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes Jr., the senior minister of Riverside Church, is determined to provide an alternative vision to the one offered by religious conservatives."
After noting the religious activism of decades ago, Hedges adds, as if regretfully: "But times have changed. The social activism that was more widely accepted within the mainstream church decades ago has given way to a narrower belief that stresses personal piety and devotion."
So one must be a liberal activist to be fully religious?
"Dr. Forbes, who travels the country trying to galvanize liberal clergy members into a national network, is often a voice crying in the wilderness. He seeks, he said, to remind Americans that they also have carried out violence and oppression in the name of God."
The photo caption quoting Forbes reveals his liberal priorities: "Poverty is the real weapon of mass destruction."
October 23, 2004, Greencastle, Ind. - "Rev. James A. Forbes Jr. [is] pastor of Riverside Church in New York and the face of a church movement he hopes will serve as a counterbalance to the religious right," writes Robert King in today's Indianapolis Star in an article titled, "Faith moves to the fore in race." King notes that Forbes spoke at DePauw earlier this month, where he said, "They [the religious right] believe themselves to be 'the sole representatives of God... [but]Everybody who is talking about heaven ain't going there."
The story continues, "Forbes said the same people who get upset about abortion seem to care little about the death penalty, the number of children being killed in the war in Iraq and poverty -- which he calls 'the greatest weapon of mass destruction of all... I would say there is an inconsistency that people latch onto certain hot-button issues but abandon those values that are not on their list of sins,' said Forbes, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention in July."
Seperation of Church & State?! That only applies to Republicans, of course...
Bill Clinton speaks out against the Republican Party at the Riverside Church on
Sunday ... Courtesy Riverside Church. The Rev. James A. Forbes Jr. ...
Sept. 1, 2004
Sept. 1 - When the Democrats met for their national convention in Boston in July, the Rev. James A. Forbes, Jr. was given a prime speaking slot the second night of the convention.
snip
Forbes has helped to spearhead a new nationwide interfaith effort with other progressive religious leaders that is called Mobilization 2004. Its goal: to counter religious-right groups like the Christian Coalition. And to promote it, he invited Bill Clinton to speak at his pulpit on Sunday. On Tuesday night, he organized a rally at the church, attended by an estimated 3,000 New Yorkers “to call attention to the real moral, social and economic issues of this election.” Forbes also plans to take his message on the road after the convention, traveling to several states over the next two months to speak to voters about the importance of developing public policy that addresses, as he puts it, “the needs of all Americans including poor, marginalized and immigrant populations.”
snip
Do you realize that the poor and vulnerable of the land are usually voiceless because often they are voteless and because they are hardly able to defend themselves against the power of the rich and the more influential of the society?
Our church appropriated some resources and set me free to use half my time to travel around the country.
snip
The religious right has been quite conscientious in building up a climate that emphasizes the personal relationship and has had a much more ingrown sense of nationalistic fervor, the desire to promote religion as understood by conservatives as the only acceptable pattern of life. They are more engaged in promoting symbols of religion in public spaces, the insistence of prayer in public schools, where normally we recognize the separation of church and state, and spending lots of time on reproductive matters--abortion, stem-cell research and same-sex marriage. They have done a better job in the last few years of lifting those principles. But it happens that those are one-sided principles … I believe the religious right abandoned a strong commitment to the poor and abandoned a sense of inclusion of those who are different--whether it’s a different lifestyle or a different nationality or economic class … You can claim to be religious, but if you don’t care about justice or you don’t implement policies to bring more justice to the poor, if you don’t understand truth in politics, if you don’t have a commitment to quality education for all people … that is not the Christianity I read about in the Holy Book. And we all read from the same book.
This year, so much is at stake … Many interfaith progressive leaders assume that the trend we see in terms of domination, in terms of going it alone and of armaments as a primary means for conflict resolution, has us fearing the beginning of a decline of democratic principles on which the nation was built. Post 9/11, there has clearly got to be a responsibility to bring us to security, but not at the expense of liberty. There has to be a responsibility as a global leader that requires the use of more than just our might in terms of military energy, but the extension of the diplomatic arm, too, in regards to what we do. It is probably from the distortion from the right and the effectiveness of promulgating their perspectives that we [progressive church leaders] understand we would be irresponsible not to serve the nation by cautioning that we’ll be imperiling our own nation and, for that reason, imperiling the world unless some change in direction takes place.
The approach we are taking, because we are all religious leaders and limited regarding our 503c [nonprofit] status, is that we do well to lift up the principles. And if the Democrats embrace the principles, that’s good news for the nation. And if the Republicans embrace them, it’s good news for the nation. However, as we move around the country and articulate the principles, it is almost always assumed that we are taking an attack against the Republican party.
Enter here, the canon laws in most ortho faiths.
When I hear from those who pulling these au-so-moderne stunts on their churches, I just realize theirs is not about keeping the faith. But seeing it more like running a BUSINESS. How to get more "tithes" into the church. And therefore be able to PAY THOSE PULLING THE STUNTS. It's so cheap.
Data continues to show, folks are not buying the newer agenda. And are leaving the churches being "taken over".
You'd think the folks doing these stunts would take a good business message from that. But they don't. They just push their secular agenda even harder -- using religion, and these churches to enact a social cause and political agenda.
There's an oldie but good sci-fi book which encouraged me LONG ago to understand how and to what the secular church would evolve to: Stand on Zanzibar
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
The incenstuous relationship (no, this is not about animals, don't worry!) between liberal churhces, the promotion of homosexuality, and the Democrat party.
It is a nasty thing.
Freepmail me if you want on/off this pinglist.
A black pastor, of all people, should understand the need to promote the natural family and strengthen marriage!
There is a bit more to the prescription -the liberal translation loses something in the meaning... The love is comprised of charity which includes fraternal correction... Only in truth is authentic freedom and love is truth... Acceptance of the sinner only applies when the sinner is repentant and has decided to sin no more -a homosexual activist or 'proud' homosexual that publicly proclaims or glorifies homosexuality is to be justly discriminated against and if necessary avoided...
-thanks for the ping!
And the sad thing is that people who identify as "gay" need to hear the truth - that homosexuality is NOT acceptable to God, will separate them from a loving relationship with Him, and that they can change.
This "minister" is doing great harm, he certainly isn't ministering to these peoples' souls, just their depraved appetites.
It would be better for HIS soul to quit the fake "preacher" business and just join a pro-"gay" organization.
I can see how this preacher made an ideal speaker for the Democrats. His thinking was grossly distorted -- and not just about homosexuality. (Comparing abortion, for example, to the war in Iraq?)
BTW, I wonder: how does an African-American feel being lumped together with these kind of people (gays)?
Jackson invents a new phrase by this appearance.. "a Sissy Pimp"...
Jackson takes "Pimping" to new LOWS...
He "IS" a victim himself, you know.. d;-/
Many black Americans feel disgust and anger at comparing race, which is unchangeable and morally neutral, being compared with those who engage in same sex sodomy, an act which is voluntarily engaged in and morally reprehensible.
What are you talking about?
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