Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
What Attracts Hypocrites to Religious Leadership? | The Atlanta Post
What Attracts Hypocrites to Religious Leadership? A Discussion, Bishop Eddie Long | The Atlanta Post
The jury is still out on Bishop Eddie Long, who is facing charges of sexual coercion from four men. And as time passes for the religious leader, accusations continue to mount. Besides the sensational value of the scandal, the Eddie Long issue has put some of the most serious questions about organized religion on the table. If Long is proven guilty, he will represent the latest religious leader to symbolize hypocrisy in the church; while he vehemently condemned homosexuality as a leader for the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, he was involving himself in sexual wrongdoing with young men. To better make sense of this relationship between the Church, homosexuality and hypocrisy, we turned to Dr. Richard N. Pitt, associate professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University and an expert on the sociology of religion.
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center » Homophobic Megachurch Pastor Accused of Exploiting Teenage Boys
Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center » Homophobic Megachurch Pastor Accused of Exploiting Teenage Boys
f the allegations in two lawsuits filed Tuesday in Georgia’s DeKalb County are true, staunchly anti-gay megachurch leader Bishop Eddie L. Long told two teenage boys that, according to Holy Scripture, it was cool for them to have sex with him.
Maurice Robinson, 20, and Anthony Flagg, 21, have accused Long, the leader of the Atlanta-area New Birth Missionary Baptist Church – one of the largest churches in the nation – of misusing his mentoring role of “pastor, counselor and bishop” to coerce them into sexual acts when they were teens. Their lawsuits allege that Long gave them gifts of cars, clothes, jewelry, electronics, college tuition and overnight trips to places including New York, Las Vegas, Dallas, the Caribbean and New Zealand – and that Long would share bedrooms with them in luxury hotels. Long allegedly would “sleep in the same bed” as Flagg while the teenager was living at the church (Robinson complaint [1], Flagg complaint [2]).
The lawsuits describe Long as engaging in various sex acts with Flagg and Robinson.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution [3] today reported the filing of a third sexual exploitation lawsuit against Long. Jamal Parris, 23, another former member of New Birth, similarly accuses Long of using his leverage as a mentor and spiritual leader to compel the plaintiff into a sexual relationship. Parris, who now lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., joined New Birth at age 14 with his mother in 2001, and worked as summer camp counselor at the church, the newspaper reported.
Long’s attorney said the pastor “adamantly denies” all the allegations, telling Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “We find it unfortunate that these two young men have taken these actions. We are reviewing the complaint and will respond accordingly.”
The allegations are particularly stinging to a charismatic African-American pastor identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2007 as “one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders [4] in the religiously based anti-gay movement” and who, along with other prominent clerics [5] including Bishop Harry Jackson [6] of Hope Christian Church in Washington, D.C., embodies black religious resistance to gay rights progress. In a videotaped sermon described in an SPLC profile [7], Long declared, “The problem today, and the reason society is like it is, is because men are being feminized and women are being masculine! You cannot say, ‘I was born this way.’ … I don’t care what scientists say!”
Robinson and Flagg were enrolled in a tuition-based, New Birth ministry for boys 13 to 18 years old. The ministry, called the Longfellows Youth Academy, intended “to train young men to love, live and lead as they proceed on their ‘masculine journey,’ ” according to the lawsuits. The church’s website was down Wednesday afternoon.
The complaints allege that “Long has utilized his spiritual authority as Bishop and leader of Defendants’ ministries to coerce certain young male members and employees of Defendant New Birth … into engaging in sexual acts and relationships for his own personal sexual gratification.” Further, it alleges that “Long has a pattern and practice of singling out a select group of young male church members and using his authority as Bishop over them to ultimately bring them to a point of engaging in a sexual relationship.”
“Defendant Long, through manipulation, coercion, deception and fraud resulting from the abuse of his confidential relationship with Plaintiff Robinson, convinced him that engaging in a sexual relationship was a healthy component of his spiritual life,” one of the lawsuits says.
The lawsuits are civil actions accusing Long, the church and church officials, among other things, of intentionally inflicting emotional distress, negligence, failure to intervene to protect the defendants from the sexual conduct, and fraud – for “representing that the Longfellows Youth Academy was a benevolent enterprise designed to foster the spiritual growth of young men.”
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Southern Baptist leader on yoga: Not Christianity | ajc.com
Southern Baptist leader on yoga: Not Christianity | ajc.com
A Southern Baptist leader who is calling for Christians to avoid yoga and its spiritual attachments is getting plenty of pushback from enthusiasts who defend the ancient practice.
Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler says the stretching and meditative discipline derived from Eastern religions is not a Christian pathway to God.
Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine."
"That's just not Christianity," Mohler told The Associated Press.
Mohler said feedback has come through e-mail and comments on blogs and other websites since he wrote an essay to address questions about yoga he has heard for years.
"I'm really surprised by the depth of the commitment to yoga found on the part of many who identify as Christians," Mohler said.
Yoga fans say their numbers have been growing in the U.S. A 2008 study by the Yoga Journal put the number at 15.8 million, or nearly 7 percent of adults. About 6.7 percent of American adults are Southern Baptists, according to a 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Mohler argued in his online essay last month that Christians who practice yoga "must either deny the reality of what yoga represents or fail to see the contradictions between their Christian commitments and their embrace of yoga."
He said his view is "not an eccentric Christian position."
Other Christian leaders have said practicing yoga is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. Pat Robertson has called the chanting and other spiritual components that go along with yoga "really spooky." California megachurch pastor John MacArthur called yoga a "false religion." Muslim clerics have banned Muslims from practicing yoga in Egypt, Malaysia and Indonesia, citing similar concerns.
Yoga proponents say the wide-ranging discipline, which originated in India, offers physical and mental healing through stretching poses and concentration.
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When will this denomination, born out of a support for slavery and segregation, wake up and smell the coffee? These folks give Christianity a bad name.
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When will this denomination, born out of a support for slavery and segregation, wake up and smell the coffee? These folks give Christianity a bad name.
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Schools Urged To Teach Youth Digital Citizenship : NPR
Schools Urged To Teach Youth Digital Citizenship : NPR
In the wake of a Rutger University student's suicide, researchers who study youth and the Internet say schools need to do a better job of teaching kids the basics of digital citizenship.
Freshman Tyler Clementi jumped off a bridge a few days after his sexual encounter with another man was broadcast online. Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and Ravi's friend Molly Wei were arrested on invasion of privacy charges. They haven't said why they allegedly broadcast the video, but by all accounts, they were good students who had no history of cruel behavior.
I think that the technological revolution has in some cases outpaced schools' ability to keep track of it.
- Jim Steyer, Commonsense Media
"I think it's a case where good kids can do terrible things," says John Pelfrey of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and author of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives.
Freshman Tyler Clementi jumped off a bridge a few days after his sexual encounter with another man was broadcast online. Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and Ravi's friend Molly Wei were arrested on invasion of privacy charges. They haven't said why they allegedly broadcast the video, but by all accounts, they were good students who had no history of cruel behavior.
I think that the technological revolution has in some cases outpaced schools' ability to keep track of it.
- Jim Steyer, Commonsense Media
"I think it's a case where good kids can do terrible things," says John Pelfrey of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and author of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Obama Tries to Calm Tensions In Call for Religious Tolerance - NYTimes.com
Image via WikipediaObama Tries to Calm Tensions In Call for Religious Tolerance - NYTimes.comWASHINGTON — President Obama gave an impassioned call on Friday for tolerance and better relations between Muslims and non-Muslims at home and abroad, defending the “inalienable rights” of those who worship Islam to practice their religion freely.
Mr. Obama made his statements as protests and violence continued in Afghanistan, set off by a Florida pastor’s plans, now suspended, to burn Korans on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and against the backdrop of the controversy in New York over a proposed Islamic center near ground zero.
With relations between the United States and the Muslim world perhaps at their most frayed since the invasion of Iraq seven and a half years ago, the president sought to appeal to America’s core principles.
Mr. Obama said it was imperative for people in this country to distinguish between their real enemies and those who have the potential to become enemies because of continued vilification of Islam in the United States. At a time when polls suggest that a substantial number of Americans erroneously believe that Mr. Obama is Muslim, the president cited his own Christian faith at one point.
“We have to make sure that we don’t start turning on each other,” he said. “And I will do everything that I can, as long as I am president of the United States, to remind the American people that we are one nation, under God. And we may call that God different names, but we remain one nation. And, you know, as somebody who, you know, relies heavily on my Christian faith in my job, I understand, you know, the passions that religious faith can raise.”
Asked about the wisdom of building an Islamic center a few blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Obama reiterated his position that Muslims have the right to build a mosque on the site, without directly saying whether he thought doing so was a good idea.
“This country stands for the proposition that all men and women are created equal, that they have certain inalienable rights,” Mr. Obama said. “And what that means is that if you could build a church on a site, you could build a synagogue on a site, if you could build a Hindu temple on a site, then you should be able to build a mosque on the site.”
Urged on by their religious leaders, Afghans in many locations around the country poured out of their mosques and took to the streets Friday morning, and in most cases the demonstrations remained peaceful. But two of them turned violent, in both cases outside NATO reconstruction bases, and a total of at least 12 people were wounded, three of them critically, in addition to the one who was killed.
While Mr. Obama cast the issue in terms of American national security and the impact of assaults on Islam in this country on American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, he also said that security was not the only prism through which the issue should be viewed. “We’ve got millions of Muslim Americans, our fellow citizens, in this country,” Mr. Obama said. “They’re going to school with our kids. They’re our neighbors. They’re our friends. They’re our co-workers. And when we start acting as if their religion is somehow offensive, what are we saying to them?”
This ninth anniversary of Sept. 11 has turned almost into a referendum on America’s ability to coexist with the multitude religions. Mr. Obama will be observing the anniversary at the Pentagon, while the first lady, Michelle Obama, will join the former first lady Laura Bush in Shanksville, Pa., the site where the fourth hijacked plane went down. Mr. Obama said that it was important to remember that Muslims are fighting with the United States in the two wars begun since the attacks.
“They’re out there putting their lives on the line for us,” Mr. Obama said. “And we’ve got to make sure that we are crystal clear for our sakes and their sakes: they are Americans and we honor their service. And part of honoring their service is making sure that they understand that we don’t differentiate between them and us.
“It’s just us.”
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Obama keeping public expressions of religion to a minimum
Obama keeping public expressions of religion to a minimum
Though President Obama has explained in his memoirs that his father was indeed born a Muslim, according to a Time Magazine article by Barack Obama in 2006, Barack Obama Sr.'s deep skepticism of religion eventually led to his atheism:
As he flew aboard Air Force One to Chicago on his 49th birthday earlier this month, President Obama dialed three Christian pastors to pray with him.
On an airborne conference call, he kidded with the religious leaders about being abandoned by his wife and daughters, who were away on vacation and at camp. As he celebrated his birthday, he was in a reflective mood. He told them he wanted to pray about the year that had passed, what's really important in life and the challenges ahead.
"That was simply something that he wanted to do at his initiative because it was important to him," said Joel Hunter, an evangelical pastor who was on the call and who is part of a small circle of spiritual advisers who frequently talk to Obama by phone.
The prayer session, which was not publicized and which neither the White House nor the ministers sought to bring to light, reflects Obama's decision to keep his public expressions of religious faith to a minimum. Hunter said the president often reaches out to pastors for private spiritual conversation.
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I believe the results of the recent Pew institute poll showing a 18 percent of Americans think Obama is a Muslim derives in large part from racial bigotry. It is much more acceptable in America to say negative things about Muslims as opposed to negative things about African Americans. Witness the sinister statements by Reverend Franklin Graham, son the the famous evangelist Billy Graham who recently said Obama was “born a Muslim” because the religion’s “seed” is passed from the father". This statement clearly contradicts the express words of the bible he professes to believe in which says upon accepting Christ as your lord and savior "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" 1Peter 1-3 New American Translation. The problem with many evangelical pastors is that they tend to br poorly educated, poorly read and intellectually dead. As a result they are steeped in the same bigotry and prejudices as other similarly situated citizens. The problem is that many Christians and non Christians hear there statements and believe this is Christianity. These types of statements chase many people away from the church, good pople who do not want to be associated with this type of ignorance and bigotry. Reverend Billy Graham was notorious for his open support for the corrupt President Richard Nixon and also the unpopular and morally indefensible War in Vietnam. No wonder some many highly educated and well read people reject organized religion.
John H. Armwood
Though President Obama has explained in his memoirs that his father was indeed born a Muslim, according to a Time Magazine article by Barack Obama in 2006, Barack Obama Sr.'s deep skepticism of religion eventually led to his atheism:
My father was almost entirely absent from my childhood, having been divorced from my mother when I was 2 years old; in any event, although my father had been raised a Muslim, by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition.
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