by UrbanFaith Staff | Jun 23, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
(RNS) Meriam Yahya Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian doctor sentenced to death for apostasy, has been set free after an appeal court canceled the death sentence, according to the state-run news agency SUNA.
Meriam Ibrahim and her husband, Daniel Wani
Ibrahim, a 27-year-old Roman Catholic and mother of two, had been sentenced to hang in April for abandoning her Muslim faith, triggering global outrage and condemnation, including a campaign with more than 1 million signatures.
“This clearly shows that the path of martyrdom is still there,” said Agnes Abuom, an Anglican theologian from Kenya who is the moderator of the Geneva-based World Council Churches.
“It is a huge, huge testimony of encouragement for the church and Christians in Sudan, who feel they are a minority.”
Before the release, Ibrahim had continued to breastfeed her 1-month-old baby in chains at the Omdurman Women’s Prison in Khartoum, while caring for her 20-month-old son, Martin. The latest verdict is a result of an appeal instituted by her legal team on May 22.
Many in the Muslim-majority nation held that Ibrahim, who married Daniel Bicensio Wani, an American citizen of South Sudan origin, should never have become a Christian because her father was a Muslim.
The couple was arrested in September for adultery, after men claiming to be Ibrahim’s relatives complained to authorities that she had broken Shariah, or Islamic law, by marrying a Christian man. The charges were dropped last year, but an appeal overturned the ruling, bringing in the more serious charge of apostasy.
Abuom said international pressure helped bring her release. The churches insisted her sentence contravened the 2005 interim constitution, which allows freedom of religion, she said.
“I think Sudan felt it did not have a case against her,” Abuom said. “I think Sudan also feared the case will jeopardize its diplomatic engagements globally.”
In Sudan, where Christians and churches are often persecuted through arrests and frequent interrogation of church leaders, clerics had come out boldly to demand her release.
“Never in her life did she embrace the Islamic religion nor renounce it,” said the Rev. Mussa Timothy Kacho, vicar general for the Khartoum Roman Catholic Archdiocese, in a statement.
Ibrahim and her brother Hassan, according to the cleric, were probably born out of wedlock. Their father, Yahya Ibrahim Ishag, abandoned the late Zahra Tesfai, an Ethiopian from the Orthodox Church, when Meriam Ibrahim was 5 years old.
Ibrahim never saw her father, according to the cleric, grew up under the care of her Orthodox Christian mother and was admitted into the Catholic Church before she could marry her husband.
“The Catholic Church expresses deep regret over the way the case is being handled in the court in disregard” of Ibrahim’s “moral and religious belief,” said Kacho.
For her freedom, the courts had earlier demanded she recant her Christian faith and end the marriage to her Christian husband, but Ibrahim kept her faith and remained married.
Ibrahim’s lawyer confirmed her release from jail.
Copyright 2014 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by Nicole Symmonds, Urban Faith Contributing Writer | Jun 18, 2014 | Feature |
Yesterday the internet nearly broke in the same way that it nearly broke when Beyonce dropped her fifth album “Beyonce.” This was because Michelle Williams, the gospel singing member of Destiny’s Child, got the group back together for her new song “Say Yes,” a dance remix of a popular Nigerian gospel song. Williams debuted the song’s video on Good Morning America which then sent many into a frenzy because everyone’s favorite female group reunited not for a concert, or for a “Bootylicious” redux, but for Jesus. The song, which has a completely infectious electronic dance beat, has an equally infectious chorus in which Williams and her Destiny’s Child sisters sing, “When Jesus say yes, nobody can say no.”
The song is spreading like wildfire across media outlets and social media which communicates, ever so slightly, that the messenger does count. 12 years ago the women of Destiny’s Child released “Bootylicious” a song that helped a nation embrace more ample derrieres. That also led to the word landing in the Oxford Dictionary in 2004. Following their dictionary win, the group had people sweating to the percussive sounds of “Lose My Breath,” swaying submissively to “Cater 2 U,” and declaring their need for a “Soldier.” Now Williams’s “Say Yes” reunites the group for a higher and more explicitly positive cause and it seems that people are feeling that energy. Without even being subversive Williams and the group have given a gospel message a worldwide platform showing us the impact that pop culture can have on Christ–or vice versa. Here’s hoping that this is just the beginning, but for now, check out the video and share your thoughts.
ABC US News | ABC Celebrity News
by UrbanFaith Staff | Jun 12, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
On Wednesday June 11th actress and Civil Rights activist Ruby Dee passed away peacefully in her home in New Rochelle, New York.
Dee was considered a legend among her peers in both the entertainment and the political world, having appeared in a countless number of movies, television shows and Broadway plays as well as having been an active member of the Congress for Race Equality, the NAACP, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Dee and her husband, the late Ossie Davis, were also close friends with both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X–Ossie gave the eulogy at Malcolm X’s funeral. Many may remember when Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis were arrested in NY for protesting the police shooting of Amadou Diallo. The activist couple also received the Lifetime Achievement Freedom Award presented to them by the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee.
As an actress, Ruby Dee’s was a presence that you couldn’t forget with her big, inquisitive eyes and her petite frame. She was the epitome of strength, style, and grace. Whether it was alongside Ossie in movies such as 1963’s Purlie Victorious and Spike Lee’s 1989 Do the Right Thing, or by herself in 1961’s A Raisin in the Sun and 2007’s American Gangster–the film that garnered her her first Oscar nomination–she was captivating.
Many black actresses today can claim their place in the industry because women such as Ruby Dee made a way for them. We are thankful for the life and legacy of Ruby Dee and celebrate her good deeds. On this day we sweetly hope that she will be reunited with Ossie Davis and that they will continue to live in our consciousness for years to come.
Rest in peace Ruby Dee.
by Natasha S. Robinson | Jun 4, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
Trillia Newbell
Trillia J. Newbell is a new author and voice in evangelical leadership which has already captured the hearts and minds of many who regularly read her blog, and articles at The Gospel Coalition, Desiring God, or The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. She is a young, African American woman who was raised in the South, married a white man, and is now the mother of two beautiful biracial children. Beyond the identity markers of writer, speaker, wife, and mom, Trillia is a passionate follower of Christ and her love for Him has inspired her love for his church. It is with this love that she has written and published her first book, United: Capture by God’s Vision for Diversity, through Moody Publishers (March 2014).
Why I picked up this book:
Over the past couple years, I have watched Trillia pour out her heart concerning the issues of race, racism, partiality, thriving in an interracial marriage, and mothering her kids in an ever changing culture. Compelled by her writing voice and presence, I asked her to participate in a racial reconciliation series on my blog by discussing author and theologian, Dr. John Piper’s book, Bloodlines: Race, the Cross, and the Christian. I know that the reading of that book deeply inspired her to share her own story and convictions, and I wanted to hear more of that.
The Power of Story:
We all have a story. Most often, the story is headed in a certain direction or down a firm path long before we realize what God is doing to shape us into his liking. It is very much like God to use every interaction, relationship, struggle, sacrifice, and suffering to transform us into the image of his Son Jesus Christ. This is the truth found in Trillia’s story. She was raised in a loving and supportive home of African American parents who lived through the Civil Rights Movement and believed that all people had value. This is a nugget Trillia took with her when she left her home as an adult. Like myself, she is a child of the 80s and 90s, who heard the stories of our parents, witnessed the national racism through the beating of Rodney King who asked “Can’t we all just get along,” and even experienced some racism of our own.
But race and racism was not the only topic of her family discussions or personal struggles. Trillia was raised in a predominantly white environment and in some instances, it was clear that she did not belong. Among Blacks and among whites, she did not fit in. Like every man, woman, boy, or girl, Trillia struggled with her identity, that is until she met Christ at a cheerleading camp. That encounter affirmed her identity, her love for his Word, and a desire for a church that reflected the diversity of all people whom God loves.
Trillia spends the rest of the book giving a theological presentation and her personal longing for diversity, the divisions of sin and partiality, finding a safe community in her predominantly white church, and the unity that we all have and can intentionally seek in Christ. She questions whether “race” is the proper term to use when discussing the cultural or ethnic differences among people. She also shares how God shaped and knitted the hearts of her (an African American woman) with two of her close friends and sisters, Amy (a Caucasian American) and Lillian (a Chinese American). She closes the book by reminding the reader that God loves diversity and she challenges us to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream where children of all ethnicities will grow and play together and be judged only by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. Even with all of the progress and change in America, she still longs for that dream to be a full reality for her own children.
What’s in Store for You:
This is a book about racial reconciliation. It is about how we can intentionally choose to surrender our will and comforts to God and humbly submit to entering personal relationships, church membership, and fellowship with people who may be different from us. In some ways the book indirectly addresses racial insensitivity, but it does not address racial or systemic injustices. You will need to read another book if that is the conversation that you want to enter.
However, with the issues of racial reconciliation and racial injustices, I believe that we need a both-and—top-down and bottom-up—approach, along with a clear and biblical view for the redemptive practices to take shape first in our own heats, in the hearts and minds of those we will enter into relationship with, only then can we use our convictions, power, and influence to change broken structures that encourage or simply allow racial injustices to continue. Trillia has been captured by God’s vision for diversity. It is a biblical vision and she has done an excellent job of giving a theological presentation of that vision, along with presenting the practical reality of what that looks like in the heart of a believer. This is solid contribution to the racial reconciliation conversation and it is worthy to read, own, and practice.
by Nicole Symmonds, Urban Faith Contributing Writer | May 30, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
Recently I read a post entitled, “Why I’m Not Attending Church with My Girlfriend.” In it writer Jozen Cummings discusses his relationship with his girlfriend, a devout Catholic who attends church regularly, while he, a former Catholic who is now a Baptist, has sporadic attendance. Gina invites him to church often but Jozen declines citing that although church is important to him and his faith in God is deeper than any “religious practice,” there are many things that have kept him away. From a periodic lack of desire to attend church to what seems like a residual ecclesial exhaustion from his Catholic altar boy days, Jozen articulates why he stays away more often than not. Undergirding his argument is what he describes as the personal nature of faith and church attendance. He begins his story by talking about how both he and his girlfriend view faith as a personal matter and concludes it with church being a personal matter as well. Of this he says,
Church is not a time for couples to be together so much as it’s a time for all of us to be with God. That’s my time for Him. I truly believe that, and yet, I haven’t been giving Him much of it. I also realize, writing about this may contradict some of what I said about taking my faith personally. But I wanted to share because I know people who look at faith and church-going as a high value in a partner. I believe Gina and I feel the same, but I also believe we might not ever attend church together and we don’t have to. As long as I go do my thing and she goes to do hers, I think we’ll be all right, at brunch, together.
My concern about Jozen’s situation—and maybe that of anyone who doesn’t consider church attendance with their significant other important—is that it isn’t a sustainable model for being in intimate relationship with another person. Intimate/Intimacy is the key word here. Whether casually dating or charting more serious territory that is leading to engagement or marriage, church attendance as a couple can unearth much about a person that you wouldn’t get if you just met up for brunch with them.
Sharing Vulnerability
To attend church with your significant other is to let them into your most personal and vulnerable space and you theirs. The church is a city of refuge from a chaotic world and thus it is the space where many can let their hair down, let the tears flow, be silent, or be slain in the spirit. Now this could be a reason not to attend church with your significant other because you may not want them to see your “ugly cry,” or maybe you don’t want them to know you sing quite off key, but these possibilities of vulnerability can open a relationship up. Does this mean that if your significant other doesn’t sing along or barely sways during praise and worship that your relationship is doomed for failure? Not necessarily. But it is something to take note of if you are more prone to charismatic expressions in worship. Or maybe you like to debrief about the sermon after church but your significant other has very little to say and seems like he or she didn’t even pay attention. This doesn’t mean they are going to hell in a hand basket. It does give you something to reflect on if church is an important part of your life. And if he or she doesn’t attend church at all are you comfortable with upholding the spiritual mantle in the relationship and, if so, how long? Throughout my time in church I’ve seen far too many wives attending church alone, managing their rambunctious children alone, taking their relationship to the altar alone, only to return home to a husband who is sitting on the couch or hitting the links. One cannot the spiritual mantle alone. Two can carry it better.
Sharing with the Community
When you attend church with your significant other you are also exposing your relationship to a community that should have your best interest in mind—“should” being the operative word. A friend directed me toward Hebrews 10:24-25 which says, “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching.(NRSV)” Many know this scripture as, “Do not forsake the fellowship of the saints…” This is important on an individual level as well as on a communal level. It is the fellowship with other believers that strengthens and sharpens us—iron sharpens iron—and the hope is that a couple’s fellowship among other believers will strengthen them, collectively, for the journey ahead. That is the hope, but as you can imagine there are some saints who are too nosy for their own good and others whom are just scandalous, therefore, protecting your relationship is important even when you are in church. If you’ve been attending a church for long enough, you know whom your allies are and whom are those you keep at arm’s length. Everyone will have something to say about your relationship—in and outside of the church—but you should be clear on who the wise counselors are in your church that can or may help you discern the direction of your relationship.
Sharing a Sacred Space
In his book, “Works of Love” Soren Kierkegaard said,
“Worldly wisdom thinks that love is a relationship between (hu)man and (hu)man. Christianity teaches that love is a relationship between: man-God-man, that is, God is the middle term…if God and the relationship to God have been left out, then, Christianly understood, this has not been love but a mutual and enchanting illusion of love.”
God as the middle term in a relationship is a mediator between both parties, and part of that mediation should take place in church, well before a couple decides to go to the chapel to get married. Gathering in church together can enhance a couple’s spiritual devotion toward God and each other because it binds them to a place, a space—if you will—in time. Attending church with your significant other Sunday after Sunday gives you a neutral place where the two of you can meet and leave all of your cares behind. It is the place where you are supposed to be able to find some semblance of peace. But it is also the place where the two of you can receive the preached word of God and the Eucharist. This is of particular significance because the first binds you two together in a common understanding of the Gospel and the second binds you together as people in the body of Christ and restores you.
Going back to the story that inspired this article, Jozen and his girlfriend seem to exist in two different spiritual spaces. She is a devout Catholic attending mass every week, receiving the word and the Eucharist, while he wavers between receiving the word and not. Right off the bat we know that there are theological differences that can separate them in significant ways and make them less compatible than they think they are, but that’s not anything they will discover if they both insist on maintaining separate spiritual lives. And this is the clencher.
I hesitate to use the phrase “equally yolked” but it is deeply implicated in this discussion. The vitality of a relationship where one of the people has a strong commitment to God and ecclesial life is enhanced when both share in that commitment. For a couple that desires to stay together and go the distance, going to church together might make all the difference. Sure a couple may pray or read the Bible and/or inspirational books together outside of church, but there is very little to replace entering the sanctuary together, worshipping and fellowshipping with the body together, hearing the word together and taking communion together. In the best case scenario, when you attend church with your significant other you are increasing the possibility for intimacy. Your attending to corporate worship together can reinforce your personal worship and relationship with God because it is in the gathering together that we are encouraged and reminded of the importance of our personal relationship. Church attendance is not mandatory but it does bind us to God and each other in explicit ways that our ordinary day-to-day activities don’t bind us.
But what do you think?
- Do couples have to attend church together?
- Do you think that there is ever a time when it is too soon to go to church with a significant other?
- Do you think church attendance with a partner helps or harms relationships?
- Can a relationship between two believers be sustained if they go to separate churches or if one of them goes and the other does? (Keep in mind that this doesn’t include circumstances where people can’t attend church together because of work, ministerial calling, etc.)
- If you asked your significant other to attend church with you and they kept declining, would it be a dealbreaker?
- Can faith be a personal matter when two people have entered a committed relationship?
- Like the couple that prays together, does the couple that goes to church together stay together? Are you part of a couple who went together while you were dating and you’re now married to that person? Share your story.
by UrbanFaith.com | May 28, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
Maya Angelou (Photo Credit: Bob Richman, 2010 Harpo Inc.)
Today the world has lost one of its greatest contributors in the death of Maya Angelou. Author, civil rights advocate, educator, poet, and kindred spirit of many, Angelou died in her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her writing touched the hearts of many, from her autobiographical series which included the critically-acclaimed book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” to her poems such as “Still I Rise” and “Phenomenal Woman.” She encouraged women and men alike to tap into their potential for greatness. Her presence was commanding, she was like an elder for the world leading us with wisdom and grace. And who could forget that voice? Many of us remember what it was like the first time we heard “Still I Rise” and how we were struck by the power of her voice made that much more powerful by her words. She did not leave us without sharing one last word of encouragement. She did this, last week, through what would be her last tweet:
“Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.” @DrMayaAngelou
Today that tweet went from 892 retweets prior to the announcement of her passing, to well over 25,000 retweets. This is a testament to the enduring power of Maya Angelou’s work. We also hope that many will heed her last public words and many more will continue to be encouraged by the legacy of work this legendary women left us.
Rest in peace Maya Angelou, the original Phenomenal Woman.
