by UrbanFaith Staff | Jan 30, 2014 | Entertainment |
“I been thinking…I been thinking…”
It seems everybody’s talking about Beyonce…everybody but the church. Or should I say, “Most of the church ain’t talking out loud about her.” Ever since her self-titled album dropped last winter, no Twitter or news feed has been the same. I, for one, recognize the “BEASTNESS” of her team–they all got a team folks–in the stellar release of her non-promoted album. As a woman entrepreneur, there is so much to learn about marketing but her presence was more than a Business 101 course. Like many who watched the opening of the Grammy Awards, I had 50 million thoughts when I saw Beyonce’s backside to the audience, sitting in squat position, in a leotard-ish, thongish, very sexy ensemble–if I had a husband, I’d get two. I cheered when I heard the beat. I cheered at everyone staring at a black women–although we have been accustom to screaming for her for quite some time now. I cheered because in a few short moments, she was going to be joined by her big-lipped, Brooklyn-bred mogul of a husband and, in many ways, Jay-Z and Beyonce have become the current pop-culture model of black love and matrimony. BLACKNESS, in the Nina Simone sense of the word, was about to grace the stage. But, I was also thinking, “I hope the kids of the world are asleep,” and I was wondering “If I had a husband, would I want to be sitting next to him right now? Or would he be banned from watching?. And you ministers, are Y’ALL watching this? Can I be a fly in the corners of your brain right now? She bad…Don’t deny it.”
And without skipping a beat, the industry of Beyonce-journalism ensued. Praises of her boldness, her dress, her wet hair–actually, there were mixed reviews on the hair, her fingers adorned with $10 million worth of diamonds…no inch of her body or life was untouched in the fray of critiques. Even the usual background noise of MSNBC in my studio/office was buzzing about her opening act. But again, I realized “No one is really addressing what’s in my head. Like why aren’t we–the bold, the fabulous, the saved–also chiming in with our thoughts?” I shrugged, thinking maybe it’s just me. Maybe I am the only one who both adores the person of Beyonce and at times, even in the midst of adoration, am convicted of entertaining certain things that my spirit tells me are flat out not of God. At other times, I unapologetically declare “Nah, she’s playing with fire.”
Now, in all fairness, all the pews ain’t been silent. The article “Church Girls Love Beyonce” comes to mind, as the author explored the void Beyonce fills in the lack of open discussion about Black sensuality and sexuality from a woman’s perspective. And Washington Post writer and Founder of faith and social platform, UrbanCusp.com, Rahiel Tesfamariam–while not directly from a church perspective–did provide some thought provoking commentary about “feminism” after the release of Beyonce’s “Bow Down/I Been On.” But even among all the articles about how much she liberates women–or doesn’t; on how she embraces the full desires of many women–to be successful, have a child, and a husband–who does not mind other husbands wishing she was their wife; and how she slaps all those uncomfortable with seeing the bare curves of black women, in a society that has done a great job of over-sexualizing black women since our arrival to this country–we, as a collective, as the church, are silent in the public eye. And I, for one, am confused about why that is so?
Is it because we don’t know how to critically discuss her without bashing her? Or are we afraid of the backlash from others that assume that’s what our intent is?
Is she untouchable because she is married? Is marriage the new invisible cloak, like in Harry Potter?
Or is it because we don’t know which angle to discuss her?
Or is it because her team is–at least perceptually–so powerful that even the conversation requires you to do 20 pushups, run 15 laps, and go through several games of Sodoku to mentally prepare for the marathon back and forth with “Stans”?
Or are we afraid of what the next church member is gonna think about us, or say to us, when we admit that some songs are flat out “too much” but at the right time, help us out on the treadmill?
Or are we just being “polite,” because the church should not be “judging” anyone and their actions any way (Ify note: We got this whole judging thing CONFUSED! Judging is not a sin; in fact, those who are spiritual must judge character–through a spiritual lens, not a personal one–in order to make right decisions. And, yes, we too must be prepared to be judged…as expected. Check out a couple references and we can talk about it later Malachi 3:18; Psalm 37:30; Amos 5:14-15; Isaiah 59:8…I can go on and on; “judge” is only used 700 times in the Bible. Back to the rant-programming.)
So you don’t talk about Bey? Oh…well I do. I talk about Beyonce’s songs, moves, outfits. I raise my hand high and admit that I am conflicted by the various levels of power her lyrics embrace–some empowering, and some, self-indulging. And unlike many, who like to chalk things up to “well, that’s just music…ain’t nothing behind it,” I have always treated musicians as serious professionals and have written about it previously–because I, too, am an artist and I’m sensitive about my work. I do not think things “just happen” or are “just done.” I don’t think Bey (and her team) want people to think that either, even though I think much of her brand (which the world has bought) is that she is a grown woman and she can do WHATEVER she wants.
I talk about Beyonce because she is worth discussing. I have no desire to bash her as a person, but I am open to hearing about her public portrayal, its influence, and its impact. And because everyone else has no problem analyzing her (but God-forbid, we say something and the church become a house full of haters, right? Sigh.). As part of my ministry revolves around youth and young adults, I think it is very important for me to be in the world, as we are called to be, and GET IN IT! God could have easily called us to move to a separate island and refuse to co-exist with these “heathens” until the day of Jesus’ return. We could have been called to keep our mouths shut and live our simple potpourri lives of salvation, without ruffling any feathers, but we weren’t. We are here, and we are supposed to be seen.
With that being said, don’t hate Bey…thank Bey!
Thank her that she gave y’all sermons for DAYS! Thank her because she challenges us to think about our theology around sexuality, marriage, and success. Thank her because she lyrically throws out references that–while fun for a grown married woman–have very different consequences for a 14-yr old teen (i.e. surfboard). Thank her because we must NOW talk about the complexities of feminism, and whether the church thinks it is worth reinventing how we discuss the empowerment of women–not just in the boardroom but in the bedroom. Thank her for giving you that “Bow Down” sermon (because my Lord IS the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and the 1st Commandment ain’t nothing to mess with!). Thank her for that “Flawless” sermon (because truth be told, we are all like earthly, easily broken vessels, enter II Corinthians 4:7). And please thank her for that Matthew 5:28 lesson…you know…the one that says “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (And the urban amplified version would add: REGARDLESS OF IF YOUR HUSBAND IS COOL WITH IT.) And if you think it is not influencing the way people think: look at all the reality shows that now have no problems showing married men meeting their other married men-pals…at the strip club. Bey is NOT a stripper, but she is coveted—I am sure—by SEVERAL married men, which has resulted in many women adopting the mentality that it is ok for their men to “look but don’t touch.” And it actually has many believing that a marriage remains “healthy” that way. That is out of order, and it’s only 2014. What are our youth going to accept when they get married in 15-20 years? Are we just cool with that? (There’s your other sermon). Take note that I am not critiquing what Beyonce believes–just what she wants us to believe, and I think it’s time to thank her for giving us so much to talk about.
Don’t be “scurred” of the BeyHive. All discussions are not from a stance of hate, but from a desire to seek truth. And we all should learn how to talk, respect dissent, and evolve. I don’t have all the answers but I do know this: Her platform is to be respected. So give it its respect and let the church say whatever it needs to say! There are too many opportunities to explore, and possibly too much at stake, to remain on the sidelines. Write that sermon!
Ify Ike is a former Capitol Hill advisor and counsel, with experience on a variety of social justice issues. She is an original blogger of the faith-blog “The Bold and Fabulous,” founder of the policy and communications firm, Ike Professionals, LLC, and has assisted numerous ministries in program creation, youth outreach efforts, community service, and natural disaster relief. At least once a day, you can find her in a debate about politics or religion.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Jan 29, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
c. 2014 Religion News Service
(RNS) African church leaders are urging parties in the South Sudanese conflict to respect places of worship, after rebels attacked and looted church compounds in the town of Malakal.
The Roman Catholic Cathedral of Malakal was looted at gunpoint, forcing priests and civilians to flee, a regional church leader said.
Catholic and Presbyterian churches, a hospital and an orphanage have become safe havens for refugees escaping the fighting in the city.
“I came to know myself what it means to be asked for something under the threat of a gun when a group in uniform stopped me on the way from the hospital to the church,” said one Catholic priest, who did not give his name because he fears for his safety. “They blocked me and took my watch and a key.”
The conflict began Dec. 15 after President Salva Kiir alleged that his former deputy Riek Machar was planning a coup and arrested several senior politicians. (Seven of the 12 politicians arrested then were released Wednesday.) Since the conflict started, soldiers loyal to Kiir and rebels aligned with Machar have been engaged in bloody battles across the country.
The fighting has taken on an ethnic dimension, pitting Kiir’s Dinka tribe and Machar’s Nuer one.
Fighting has been heaviest in Malakal, which is seen as a gateway to oilfields in the north. Rebels looted shops and businesses there in mid-January before turning to homes and churches.
“We urge the fighters to respect the places of worship,” said the Rev. Ferdinand Lugonzo, general secretary of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa. “They should not force out civilians who already feel safe in the church compounds.”
Churches have been providing aid to victims of the conflict with support from international relief organizations. As of Jan. 18, the Catholic cathedral in the town was harboring 6,500 refugees.
The U.N. compound is hosting an additional 20,000. More than 600,000 people have been displaced in the fighting countrywide.
“We first thought this was spontaneous and the rebels were simply looking for houses to loot, but the attack on churches, which are clearly marked, is very disturbing,” said Lugonzo. “At all costs these premises must be revered.”
Although both sides signed a cease-fire agreement last week at peace talks in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, clashes have continued, with both sides being accused of human rights abuses.
Church leaders have urged expansion of the talks to include the religious leaders and the international community.
Christians played a crucial role in South Sudan’s independence, reconciling fighting factions, providing services and building structures. The groups now fear that all these facilities may be at risk of destruction.
Copyright 2014 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Jan 27, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
c. 2014 Religion News Service
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan (Photo Credit: AP/Richard Drew)
(RNS) In the last month, many Westerners watched in horror as Uganda, and then Nigeria, enacted laws that are brutally repressive to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The fate of a bill passed by the Ugandan parliament remains uncertain after President Yoweri Museveni refused to sign it, but news reports from Nigeria indicate that there have been mass arrests of gay men following President Goodluck Jonathan’s signing of the National Assembly’s anti-gay bill.
World leaders, including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, have expressed their dismay. Many Christian leaders around the world, regrettably, have been largely unwilling to criticize Christian leaders in Africa who cheered the passage of these punitive laws.
The Anglican primates of Uganda and Nigeria enthusiastically support anti-gay legislation in their countries. I, like them, am a member of the Anglican Communion, a worldwide body of more than 80 million Christians. I am troubled and saddened that fellow Anglicans could support legislation that fails to recognize that every human being is created in the image of God.
Western Christians cannot ignore the homophobia of these church officials or the peril in which they place Ugandan and Nigerian LGBT people. The legacy of colonial-era Christian missionaries and infusions of cash from modern-day American conservatives have helped to create it.
Twice in the last three years, I have traveled to Africa to meet with biblical scholars, grass-roots activists and church officials at consultations about the Bible and sexuality. These brave leaders have taught me that there is no getting around the Bible when searching for the origins of the homophobia that is rampant in many African cultures. What’s more, Europeans and North Americans bear much of the historical responsibility for this sad state of affairs. As Zimbabwean biblical scholar Masiiwa Ragies Gunda has written, it is “far-fetched to look beyond the activities of Western missionaries” when considering the role of the Bible in Africa.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Western missionaries, fired with fervor to save souls in what they called “the dark continent,” sought to translate the Bible into indigenous languages so that converts could hear the Word of God, with special emphasis on the passages that urged hard work and submission. We know the result: as former President Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya reportedly said, “When the missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.”
Along with the Bible, Western missionaries also bequeathed to Africans a literal understanding of how to read it. Today, that literalism continues to encourage fundamentalist interpretation of difficult passages like the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Although many scholars in Africa now understand that these passages are properly read in context of the ancient cultures that produced them, people can still fuel grass-roots homophobia by appropriating a handful of biblical texts that seem to vilify gay people.
As a result, Christians who publicly advocate for more historically accurate biblical interpretations and more generous treatment of LGBT people can find themselves jobless, homeless and in grave danger.
The situation is not hopeless. Across Christian Africa, tools like contextual Bible study, developed in post-apartheid South Africa, provide new ways to read the Bible and what it has to say about sexuality and other central issues in the lives of African Christians. These new readings of old texts encourage Christians to accept LGBT people as God’s children.
Even so, progressive African Christians are fighting an uphill battle. The voices of strident homophobic leaders in Africa have been amplified by large infusions of money from American right-wing culture warriors such as Howard F. Ahmanson Jr., who has bankrolled homophobia on both sides of the Atlantic and helped make common cause between right-wing American Anglican splinter groups and the Anglican churches of Nigeria and Uganda.
Western Christians cannot fix the homophobia that is currently gripping Nigeria, Uganda, or other African countries. We can, however, stand in solidarity with progressive Africans and support their efforts to teach new ways of interpreting the Bible and understanding sexuality. When we see human rights abuses, we can speak out. And most of all, we can acknowledge with humility that we bear our share of the responsibility for this tragic legacy of empire and insist on repudiating contemporary efforts to expand its reach.
(The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings is the president of the Episcopal Church’s lay and clergy House of Deputies and is a member of the worldwide Anglican Consultative Council. She is a founding steering committee member of the Chicago Consultation.)
Copyright 2014 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Jan 23, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
c. 2014 Religion News Service
A Sudanese Christian woman carries a across. Sudanese Christians have faced increased hostility since 2011, when the country split into two. (Photo Credit: Fredrick Nzwili)
(RNS) For Christians living in predominantly Muslim Sudan, travel restrictions are making life more difficult each day, a Roman Catholic cardinal said.
Sudanese Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako highlighted the challenges at a Catholic Bishops Conference in Juba, the Republic of South Sudan’s capital. His auxiliary bishop could not attend the Jan. 21-30 meeting because his passport was seized by security agents, along with those of eight priests.
“Christians in the two countries are facing difficulties,” Wako told the gathering. “We (bishops) must focus on serious matters and come up with strong messages.”
Catholics and other Christians survived serious persecution during the Sudanese civil war (1983-2005), between the Khartoum-based Islamic government and rebels in the mainly Christian south.
In 2011, the country split in two, with the south becoming the Republic of South Sudan. Since then the Christian minority in the north has faced growing violence, harassment and discrimination, including reports of priests being interrogated and having their visas denied.
The government of Sudan recognizes only six priests out of about 40 as citizens of the country. The rest it considers citizens of the Republic of South Sudan, and there are fears continued harassment may force most of them to quit working in the north.
Copyright 2014 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Dec 9, 2013 | Headline News |
Nelson Mandela at Oakland International Airport, 1990 (Photo Credit: San Francisco Gate)
Nelson Mandela was a lion of a statesman and an icon for the struggle for social justice especially in South Africa where he served as the country’s first democratically elected president after the dismantling of apartheid. With his recent death the world mourns a courageous leader who was a symbol of social justice, freedom, and democracy for his country and for the world. Even before he became president, Nelson Mandela, was a charismatic attorney and a leader of the African National Congress who was on the forefront of dismantling apartheid. He was imprisoned for defying the apartheid state and after his release he took a tour of United States to raise support for anti-apartheid, it was then that I met him. I was selected to meet him as part of the welcoming community at the Oakland International Airport in June of 1990. I was one of the lucky ones from the Bay Area to welcome him and say a couple words to the civil rights icon.
Growing up with the disability of cerebral palsy always set me apart from my peers. Because of my severe mobility and speech disability I maneuver in a power wheelchair and communicate with an electronic augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device. Because I traverse the world in an unique way it led me to have a desire to advocate for myself and people like myself to have our own voice and our own self expression. That was why I was so excited to meet Nelson Mandela because he dedicated his life to advocating for the freedom and equality that his people deserved and I wanted to follow in his footsteps.
When my parents informed me that I was selected as part of the welcoming committee to greet Nelson Mandela I was extremely excited. I was a nine year old who didn’t know much about South African history and apartheid, but my parents told me he was one of the main leaders fighting against South African apartheid, which to my mind put him on par with one of my role models, Dr. Martin Luther King. At nine I realized that it was a grave injustice for Mandela to be locked in prison for twenty-seven years since he advocated for all who inhabited the land that his ancestors lived for centuries have the freedom and democracy that everyone deserves in their home country.
I spent over a week preparing what I was going to say to Mandela. I had my Dad’s help with ideas of what to say and with revisions. When I was finished I thought I had an excellent five-minute speech stored in my Touch Talker, at least to my nine-year-old self. I waited in anticipation for the day I would meet the famed Nelson Mandela. When the day came I went with my family to Oakland International Airport and was ushered to the front of a large crowd that gathered on the side where Mandela’s plane was going to dock. When his plane finally came and he appeared with his then wife, Winnie, there was a great cheer from the crowd. I was so nervous I was worried that when I finally met the famous high-powered couple I would not be able to push the right buttons on my Touch Talker to speak my prepared speech. But when the time came and both Nelson and Winnie Mandela came up to me I was able to speak the prepared statement to the delight of the couple. I believed Mandela smiled after he heard what I said to him. I know for sure that Winnie gave me a hug and a few kisses on the cheek. And although I cannot quite recall what Nelson Mandela said to me, I will remember that encounter for the rest of my life.
After our encounter Mandela became president of his nation and helped build a thriving democracy. The way he unified his country with his leadership after decades of racial divisions because of apartheid is definitely outstanding. During the death throes of apartheid the country was ready to tear itself apart, but under Nelson Mandela’s leadership he was able to unify the country under one national identity. I would visit South Africa 18 years after my first meeting with Mandela and see first hand the populace’s acceptance of the country’s multicultural heritage as being an integral part of who they are as a nation. This is an enduring part of Mandela’s legacy and I am honored and overjoyed to have met such a phenomenal man that was such a positive influence to his country and to the world.
