by UrbanFaith Staff | Jan 15, 2015 | Feature, Headline News |
c. 2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
WELLSTON, Mo. (RNS) They filed into the gym Monday (Jan. 12) for an assembly about graduation and applying for colleges — an intentionally vague description that wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for a senior class.
Instead, the seniors at Normandy High School learned that full-tuition scholarships would be given to 11 of them in honor of Michael Brown, who graduated just days before he was fatally shot by a Ferguson police officer.
Ferguson’s death — and the subsequent grand jury decision not to charge the white officer with his death — set off protests and heightened racial tensions coast to coast, followed by a similar case of a unarmed black man on Staten Island who died in a police chokehold.
“The way we deal with this situation is we breathe life into you,” said George T. French, president of Miles College in Birmingham, Ala., which is offering two of the scholarships. “We believe in you, Normandy High School seniors.”
More than a dozen local and national church leaders sat in folding chairs on the gym floor, inside a high-poverty school south of Ferguson where opportunity runs short and paying for college doesn’t come easily for most.
The scholarships would cover four years’ tuition at colleges and universities operated by each of the three African-American Methodist denominations: African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal. And the scholarships would target not necessarily the top students, but those who want to go to college and wouldn’t otherwise have the chance.
The idea came from a meeting in North Carolina last month. Leaders were lamenting that, unlike during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the religious community at large hasn’t played much of a role in the Ferguson movement, said the Rev. Jamal Bryant of Baltimore, who was at that meeting and who has been part of some Ferguson protests.
“This is a young people’s movement,” Bryant said. “We figured the best way to help support that was to educate them.”
Sitting with church leaders were Michael Brown Sr., and his wife, Cal Brown. Their foundation, Michael Brown Chosen for Change, is partnering with the denominations in awarding the scholarships. Doing this “means a lot,” Brown Sr. said.
Normandy seniors must apply for the scholarships. Fort Valley State University in Georgia and Texas College are the other colleges offering the full rides. They will be awarded at graduation in May.
Ahniya Gilmore said she’ll be applying. “Some people don’t get the opportunity for scholarships,” she said. “It tells us that we can make it.”
(Elisa Crouch writes for The Post-Dispatch in St. Louis)
Copyright 2015 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Jan 12, 2015 | Feature, Headline News |
c. 2015 Religion News Service
(RNS) Nigerian Roman Catholic Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama says his country needs a similar march to the one held in Paris on Sunday (Jan. 11) to pay tribute to victims of Islamist militant attacks.
While 20 people were killed in the Paris rampage (including three terrorists), Boko Haram’s ongoing campaign of terror in Nigeria has left hundreds dead. Last week, as many as 2,000 were killed as Boko Haram militants took over the town of Baga in Borno state.
Kaigama said he wants the international community to show determination to stop the advance of militants, who are indiscriminately killing Christians and Muslims and bombing villages, towns, churches and mosques.
“I hope even here a great demonstration of national unity will take place, to say no to the violence and find a solution to the problems plaguing Nigeria,” Kaigama told Fides, a Catholic news agency.
On Saturday, three female suicide bombers — one reported 10 years old — blew themselves up in a crowded market in the town of Maiduguri, killing more than 20 people.
A week earlier, militants wiped out the town of Baga, along the western shores of Lake Chad. More than 2,000 people were feared dead and 10,000 displaced, in what has been described as the most deadly attack in the militants’ history of mass killings.
Ban Ki-Moon, the U.N secretary general, condemned the attacks saying he was ready to help the Nigerian government in “bringing an end to the violence and alleviate the suffering of civilians.”
“This marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram’s ongoing onslaught against the civilian population,” said Daniel Erye, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International, in a Friday statement.
Copyright 2015 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Jan 10, 2015 | Feature |
c. 2015 Religion News Service
(RNS) Bishop Talbert W. Swan II has worked with police departments in western Massachusetts for two decades, speaking to new cadets and riding in patrol cars with officers as their chaplain.
He sometimes coordinates meetings at his church with witnesses to crimes who didn’t want to visit a police station, but says only “pockets of the religious community” have fostered that kind of regular communication with law enforcement.
“The unfortunate reality is that many predominantly black churches have thrown up their hands and decided that the police departments just are not willing to respect communities of color and so they’ve given up,” said Swan, pastor of Spring of Hope Church of God in Christ in Springfield and an adviser for social justice policy in the predominantly black denomination.
“And then there are many predominantly white churches who don’t see a problem. Therefore, they see no reason to work with the police.”
As racial tensions continue to simmer in the wake of the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white officers in Ferguson, Mo., New York City and elsewhere, churches have offered themselves up as trusted go-betweens for the police and angry residents, particularly in black communities.
Yet as the new movie “Selma” focuses on the harsh treatment that police meted out on civil rights activists 50 years ago, clergy and police say there is still much work to be done. Black pastors, especially, find themselves in the uneasy spot of giving voice to the rage in the pews while also trying to work as honest brokers with police.
“There’s tremendous similarity between what was happening in Selma and what’s happening in Ferguson,” said the Rev. Traci Blackmon, pastor of Christ the King United Church of Christ in nearby Florissant, Mo., who joined protests against police brutality in the wake of a grand jury decision not to charge the white officer who shot and killed Michael Brown.
Blackmon has seen both sides of the church-cop relationship in suburban St. Louis. Two years ago, a police officer friend helped her track down a missing 14-year-old when others told her there was nothing they could do. In December, her church joined two other predominantly black congregations to distribute toys to poor children alongside police officers and members of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.
“At least from the churches’ standpoint, it’s never been an attack on all police,” she said. “This is more, for the church, about a response to a system of repression.”
After months of exacerbated racial tensions, black clergy and police officials say bridge-building between the people in uniform and those in the pews is needed now more than ever.
In South Los Angeles, LAPD Inspector General Alexander Bustamante began meeting with clergy and lay leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church last year. Soon, he hopes to meet with Catholic leaders to build inroads to Latino communities.
“The idea is to try to team up to educate their constituents and to make sure that they know that they have recourse if they believe the officers have been performing misconduct,” he said.
From coast to coast, clergy and cops say personal relationships are the key to improving police-community interactions. As the Ferguson protests rippled across the country last fall, the Rev. Tony Lee gathered police officers and former inmates at his Community of Hope AME Church in Hillcrest Heights, Md., just outside Washington.
Even as he supported the Rev. Al Sharpton’s national protests against police brutality, Lee wanted to highlight the positive local relationship his church has with the Prince George’s County Police Department.
“They literally have sat down with young brothers and sisters who have records or who have had major issues with the department,” Lee said.
In nearby Baltimore, the Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant gathered hundreds of youth and police at a town hall meeting about what to do during a police stop.
“I had lawyers, public defenders, parents to try to bridge that gap of communication,” said Bryant, pastor of Baltimore’s Empowerment Temple, who was recently appointed to a city task force to consider use of body cameras by police officers.
On the Sunday before the upcoming Martin Luther King Day holiday, some black churches are calling for a “walk out” to make their presence visible in local communities. But the Rev. David Isom of Fairfield, Calif., is taking a different approach.
His St. Stephen Christian Methodist Episcopal Church will delay its morning service to meet members of a mostly white church in a unity walk that will end at the local Police Activities League center.
Isom, joining with other ministers and the former police chief, co-founded the group Faith Partners Against Crime that mentors local youth and gives them PAL scholarships.
“I am concerned about what has happened to African-American lives — period,” said Isom. “But I don’t think that all police are bad, and I don’t think that all kids are angels.”
The current police chief in Fairfield said work with churches has improved the community and helped establish a Public Safety Academy in the local school district. He praised the “moment of blessing” ceremonies initiated by Isom at local crime sites, where clergy, police and families of victims come together.
“It has helped with putting a personal face on those that are involved in this and that are going to support a family through the process,” said Fairfield Police Chief Walter Tibbet.
Kenton Rainey, the police chief of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, who helped found the Faith PAC in Fairfield, said black ministers were among the first groups he approached when he started his new job in 2010. He said it was important to gain their trust before a crisis.
His message to them was simple: “We can’t do this without you guys.”
Copyright 2015 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by UrbanFaith.com | Jan 6, 2015 | Feature, Headline News |
Today Essence magazine made history with the release of their February issue cover, the first cover in the magazine’s 45-year history to not feature a cover model. Instead, the editorial team at Essence turned their complete attention to “Black Lives Matter” the predominating topic in the black community and beyond since last year’s non-indictments in the cases of Mike Brown and Eric Garner, two of almost countless young black people gunned down by white police officers. “After I spoke with the editorial team—with all our souls aching for answers—we knew immediately what we had to do: Tell the story of this tipping point in our history in America,” said Vanessa K De Luca, editor in chief of Essence magazine. The special collector’s edition magazine features reflections from activists, authors, thought leaders, and cultural figures on the “Black Lives Matters” movement and what we must do next.
The February 2015 issue of Essence will hit newsstands on Friday.
by Kyle Waalen | Jan 2, 2015 | Feature |
Not many films can boast having the Olympics, world warfare, a plane crash, shark attacks, and torturous imprisonment, but this one does…and then some. Throw in a riveting true story and one of Hollywood’s most glamorous women to direct it, and you’ve got the makings of a perfect blockbuster, right? Well, not quite.
The film Unbroken tells the remarkable true story of Louis Zamperini, an Italian-American Olympic athlete and World War II prisoner. It’s based on the acclaimed book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand and directed by Angelina Jolie. Louis grew up in a religious home but showed no interest in church. He was often bullied for being an Italian immigrant and took part in stealing, drinking, smoking, and fighting at an early age. He never thought he’d amount to much in life until his older brother, Pete, helped him turn his life around and began training him for long-distance running in track. Louis then became an outstanding runner and eventually qualified for the 1936 Olympics.
This experience had a huge impact on Louis and prepared him for the Air Force and the suffering he would face during World War II. On May 27, 1943, his B-24 plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean, where he was lost at sea for 47 days. After battling the elements and miraculously surviving the ordeal, Louis is captured by the Japanese and tortured repeatedly for more than two years.
One of the most compelling parts of Louis’ story is the conflict between him and Mutsuhiro Watanabe, an Imperial Japanese Army sergeant, who saw Louis as a threat to his authority and took sick pleasure in tormenting Louis. How much suffering can one person endure? No matter what was thrown at him, Louis’ will remained unbroken. The story falters about halfway through because the focus is on a cycle of suffering and there’s no real character development in Louis. This is problematic because it removes the audience from the story and doesn’t keep them engrossed, even though Louis’ experience is remarkable and inspiring.
Sprinkled throughout the movie are some simple moments of faith, prayer, and the struggle to understand the meaning of suffering. Louis occasionally observes the faith of others around him. Some have criticized the generic form of faith that is presented in the movie, but I think it was used far more effectively than many Christian films that can be preachy and overbearing.
The film is beautifully shot, and I was pleasantly surprised by Angelina Jolie’s directing abilities. I think she has a promising career ahead of her as a director, but the film could have really soared in the hands of a more experienced director, such as Kathryn Bigelow or Steven Spielberg. The relatively unknown cast deserves a shout out for its solid performances, especially from Jack O’Connell (Louis) and Takamasa Ishihara (Mutsuhiro).
Unbroken is one of those epic life stories that a single film cannot really do justice. I think this one bit off a little more than it could chew. By trying to include as many events as possible, the story and character development suffered. Overall, the movie is worth seeing, but it lacks the emotional impact that this story deserves.
Release Date: December 25, 2014
Running Time: 2 hr. 17 min.
MPAA Rating: PG -13 for war violence including intense sequences of brutality, and for brief language
Production Co.: 3 Arts Entertainment, Jolie Pas, Legendary Pictures
by UrbanFaith Staff | Dec 15, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
(RNS) The Rev. Pauline Njiru of Kenya displays a poster showing how Ebola can be transmitted. (Photo Credit: Fredrick Nzwili)
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) The government of Sierra Leone banned public Christmas and New Year’s celebrations because they may exacerbate efforts to eradicate the Ebola virus.
President Ernest Bai Koroma said that despite immense help from the international community, the number of people infected with the virus continues to rise.
Ebola infections in Sierra Leone recently surpassed those of Liberia and Guinea.
“The illness started at the border and now is in the cities and close to 2,000 people have died from the outbreak,” Koroma told reporters. He asked traditional leaders and tribal chiefs to quit performing rituals in hopes that will help curb Ebola.
The majority of Sierra Leone’s 6 million people are Muslim, but Christmas is widely celebrated among the 27 percent of people who are Christian.
Officials said soldiers will be deployed on the streets and people are advised to stay at home with their families.
Ebun James-Dekam, general secretary of Sierra Leone’s Council of Churches, said Christians should be allowed to pray in churches on Christmas and New Year’s Day, and then go back home.
“If we have a quiet Christmas, that does not make us less believers,” she said. “We must break the chain by avoiding body contacts.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Roman Catholic Church lifted the ban on shaking hands and receiving the Communion wafer on the tongue. It also ordered the refilling water fonts at church entrances.
The practices were suspended in August over Ebola. The World Health Organization declared Nigeria Ebola-free in October.
Copyright 2014 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
