Free Republic

A fiery, old-school eulogist at the funeral of Aretha Franklin fell flat for many in the crowd and prompted a social media uproar when he declared "black America has lost its soul," black women are incapable of raising sons alone and the Black Lives Matter movement is unfounded in the face of black-on-black crime. And that was just 26 minutes into the nearly 50 minutes of words provided by the Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. of Salem Baptist Church in Atlanta as Franklin's marathon funeral wound down Friday. Williams, who also eulogized Franklin's father, minister and civil rights activist C.L. Franklin,...

Barack Obama with Illinois Senate President Emil Jones and other leaders at a 1,500 person rally for the Senator at Liberty Baptist Church on Chicago's South Side on Tuesday, March 9th. Photo by David Katz/Obama forIllinois)   Barack Obama speaks to a crowd at Liberty Baptist Church. (David Katz/Obama forIllinois) OPINION -- "I am a Christian.… So, I have a deep faith. I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people....