BCNN1 tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2011-11-14:/news/2 2012-02-07T03:25:38Z Movable Type Pro 5.12 David E. Crosby, Pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans, Will Nominate Fred Luter for President of the Southern Baptist Convention tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14807 2012-02-07T03:07:00Z 2012-02-07T03:25:38Z Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention by David E. Crosby, pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans.... BCNN1 Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention by David E. Crosby, pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans.]]> "Fred has been among Southern Baptists for more than 20 years as a pastor. He has taken a church that was at death's door to the largest worshipping congregation in the state of Louisiana among Southern Baptists," Crosby said.

"He has been a great evangelist and has baptized thousands of people through these years of ministry."

Luter, the SBC's current first vice president, told his congregation Jan. 29 he is willing to be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Crosby cited Luter's diligence and determination as a pastor, Bible expositor, evangelist and spiritual leader as characteristics that qualify him to lead Southern Baptists. Luter's family life -- his love for his wife Elizabeth, and his two children, Kimberly and Fred "Chip" III -- is a model for Southern Baptist ministers, Crosby said.

The fact that Luter is African American would make his election a historic moment for Southern Baptists, Crosby said.

"Our election of Fred Luter as the first African American president of the SBC will send a great, hopeful, powerful message to our city, our culture, our convention and our country," Crosby said in an interview. "For many, it will make them rethink who Southern Baptists are, and it will help us reach the new diversity that we find in our cities.

"For Southern Baptists to elect Fred Luter heralds a new era of inclusion -- of working together in our diversity," Crosby continued. "It is a statement that people of all ethnic groups make up the Southern Baptist Convention and are honored."

Luter, who often calls himself a "street preacher from the Lower Ninth Ward," has made a significant mark on Southern Baptist life. A popular preacher at conferences and seminaries across the country, Luter became the first African American to preach the keynote sermon at the Southern Baptist Convention in 2001. At last year's annual meeting in Phoenix, Luter became the first African American to serve as the convention's first vice president.

Though known for boldness in proclaiming the Bible, Luter is a native New Orleanian who became pastor of Franklin Avenue in 1986 at a time when the church was fading as its surrounding neighborhoods were in transition. Under his leadership the church was given fresh life. Membership grew to around 5,000 and each Sunday, the church draws nearly 7,000 worshippers. 


Source: Baptist Press | Gary D. Myers

Gary D. Myers is director of public relations at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. 

]]> The Church Declares War on President Obama; The Catholic Church Declared First, Now the Baptists Are Joining Them tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14808 2012-02-07T02:24:44Z 2012-02-07T02:32:13Z From CBS New YorkCatholic leaders upped the ante Monday, threatening to challenge the Obama administration over a provision of the new health care law that would require all employers, including religious institutions, to pay for birth control.... BCNN1 From CBS New York

Catholic leaders upped the ante Monday, threatening to challenge the Obama administration over a provision of the new health care law that would require all employers, including religious institutions, to pay for birth control.]]> As CBS 2's Marcia Kramer reports, it could affect the presidential elections.

Catholic leaders are furious and determined to harness the voting power of the nation's 70 million Catholic voters to stop a provision of President Barack Obama's new heath car reform bill that will force Catholic schools, hospitals and charities to buy birth control pills, abortion-producing drugs and sterilization coverage for their employees.

"Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church," said Catholic League head Bill Donohue.

Already Archbishop Timothy Dolan has spoken out against the law and priests around the country have mobilized, reading letters  from the pulpit. Donohue said Catholic officials will stop at nothing to put a stop to it.

"This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets," Donohue said.


Source: CBS New York 


From the Baptist Press

GuideStone: Obama mandate violates religious liberty

The Southern Baptist Convention's benefits entity has joined the growing chorus of evangelical and Roman Catholic voices publicly protesting the Obama administration's mandate that health insurance plans cover contraceptives, including ones that can cause abortions.

GuideStone Financial Resources, which provides health insurance coverage and other services to more than 200,000 people, expressed strong opposition Monday (Feb. 6) to the new federal rule, especially its failure to provide adequate conscience protections.

"This encroachment of religious freedom is blatant and outrageous and should be taken seriously by those of us who are part of the body of believers, as well as by others who respect and regard this nation's history and constitutional foundation," GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins said in a written statement.

Under final guidelines announced Jan. 20, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the controversial 2010 health care reform law would require health plans and insurers to provide no-cost coverage of contraceptives and sterilizations as preventive services. The "contraceptive mandate," as it has become known, requires all methods approved as birth control by the Food and Drug Administration to be included in a range of services offered to patients free of charge. Those FDA-endorsed contraceptives include ones that have abortion-causing properties -- emergency contraception, such as Plan B; the intrauterine device (IUD); and "ella." 

The HHS rule includes an exemption for employers who oppose paying for such coverage on religious grounds, but critics say the religious exemption is too narrow. While it will protect many churches and other houses of worship, it does not appear it will cover all. The exemption also will not extend to such faith-based organizations as schools, hospitals and social service programs.


Source: Baptist Press |  Tom Strode


From Telegraph.co.uk

Roman Catholic leaders criticise Barack Obama over healthcare

Roman Catholic leaders have furiously criticised President Barack Obama for approving new regulations that compel religious organisations to include morning-after pills and other contraceptives in employee health insurance coverage.

Roman Catholic leaders have furiously criticised President Barack Obama for approving new regulations that compel religious organisations to include morning-after pills and other contraceptives in employee health insurance coverage.

New rules, introduced under Mr Obama's overhaul of the US healthcare system, mean that religious charities, universities and other groups must now provide contraception in staff insurance packages.

Failure to do so would result in fines being levied by the federal government that larger Catholic organisations claim would cost them millions of dollars a year.

At least 153 US bishops have spoken out against the change. A letter from a leading bishop, accusing the president of waging a "severe assault on religious liberty", has been read to dozens of congregations.

"We Catholics will be compelled to either violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees and suffer the penalties for doing so," wrote Alexander Sample, the Bishop of Marquette.


Source: Telegraph.co.uk | Jon Swaine, Washington 


From CNS News

Archbishop to U.S. Troops: Obamacare Reg 'Is a Blow to a Freedom...for Which You Have Seen Your Buddies Fall in Battle'

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, wrote a letter to be read at all Sunday Masses for U.S. military personnel around the world that said that a regulation issued by the Obama Administration under the new federal health care law was "a blow" to a freedom that U.S. troops have not only fought to defend but for which some have recently died in battle.

"It is a blow to a freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your buddies fall in battle," the archbishop wrote.

Another line in his letter said: "We cannot--we will not--comply with this unjust law."

The message from the archbishop touched off a controversy both in and outside the military when the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains told the service's senior chaplains that Catholic priests serving as Army chaplains should be told not to read the archbishop's letter from the pulpit.

The Archdiocese for the Military Services has described that move as a violation of the archbishop's First Amendment rights as well as the First Amendment rights of the Catholic chaplains involved and their congregations.

The regulation the archbishop spoke about was finalized by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Jan. 20. It mandates that all health-care plans in the United States cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions. A "religious" employer exemption included in the regulation only applies to organizations that primarily focus on inculcating the tenets of the church in question, primarily employ members of the church, primarily serve members of the church, and is organized under the section of the Internal Revenue Code used by actual parishes.


Source: CNS News | Terence P. Jeffrey

]]> Muslims Are Murdering Christians All Over the World In the War on Christians tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14812 2012-02-06T21:30:18Z 2012-02-07T03:26:53Z From one end of the muslim world to the other, Christians are being murdered for their faith. We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring's fight against tyranny. But,... BCNN1 From one end of the muslim world to the other, Christians are being murdered for their faith.

We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring's fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway--an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm. global ]]> The portrayal of Muslims as victims or heroes is at best partially accurate. In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries.

The media's reticence on the subject no doubt has several sources. One may be fear of provoking additional violence. Another is most likely the influence of lobbying groups such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation--a kind of United Nations of Islam centered in Saudi Arabia--and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Over the past decade, these and similar groups have been remarkably successful in persuading leading public figures and journalists in the West to think of each and every example of perceived anti-Muslim discrimination as an expression of a systematic and sinister derangement called "Islamophobia"--a term that is meant to elicit the same moral disapproval as xenophobia or homophobia.

But a fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity--and ultimately of all religious minorities--in the Islamic world is at stake.

From blasphemy laws to brutal murders to bombings to mutilations and the burning of holy sites, Christians in so many nations live in fear. In Nigeria many have suffered all of these forms of persecution. The nation has the largest Christian minority (40 percent) in proportion to its population (160 million) of any majority-Muslim country. For years, Muslims and Christians in Nigeria have lived on the edge of civil war. Islamist radicals provoke much if not most of the tension. The newest such organization is an outfit that calls itself Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege." Its aim is to establish Sharia in Nigeria. To this end it has stated that it will kill all Christians in the country.


Source: The Black Daily | Ayaan Hirsi Ali
]]> WATCH: Let's Not Get It Twisted, the Gospel Coalition and Its Self-Appointed Board Is Not a Church and Therefore Has No Authority tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14802 2012-02-06T21:01:27Z 2012-02-06T21:15:06Z Above is a video from last year's Elephant Room. The clip highlights a panel of popular pastors discussing the behavior of perceived "wolves" in the church and in Christian media.... BCNN1 Above is a video from last year's Elephant Room. The clip highlights a panel of popular pastors discussing the behavior of perceived "wolves" in the church and in Christian media.]]>
During the first minute and thirty seconds, several members of the group react harshly against Christian bloggers as sources of doctrine or opinion. Painting them as limpwristed, "loving, inclusive guys" living "in their mom's basement," the group dismisses Internet-based writers as legitimate sources of doctrinal opinion or interpretation.

This dismissive response of a panel of high profile pastors to the general blogosphere garnered a sharp reaction by bloggers like Zack Hunt over at The American Jesus.

The small spat raises big questions. How does the church view authority in a digital environment? How do we determine if a given voice - whether blogger or pastor - is reliable to shape our theology and practice?

Is legitimacy determined only by the massive number of followers of a celebrity pastor or blogger? If that's not enough, then what gives weight to the words we speak, type, shout or tweet?

For most Protestants, this is further complicated by the fact that many high-profile pastors are under little or no direct authority themselves. For bloggers, the dynamics are similar.


Source: Christianity Today | Ruth Moon 
]]> Amazon.com Is Thinking About Opening Retail Stores since Barnes & Noble Is Rejecting Them tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14801 2012-02-06T20:44:11Z 2012-02-06T20:45:48Z Amazon.com is planning to open a retail store in Seattle in the new few months, the blog Good E-Reader reports, citing "sources close to the situation."... BCNN1 Amazon.com is planning to open a retail store in Seattle in the new few months, the blog Good E-Reader reports, citing "sources close to the situation." ]]> The site asserts that the store will focus on selling Kindle e-readers, the Kindle Fire tablet, and related accessories, as well as the company's growing collection of Amazon Exclusives book titles. Note that some bookstore chains, including Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, have said they will not sell books published by Amazon.

The idea of Amazon dabbling in the bricks-and-mortar store business is a fascinating one; this is not the first time this rumor has cropped up. In December, the blogger and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis asserted in a blog post that he had heard that Amazon as planning to open retail stores with a focus on its own branded merchandise.


Source: Forbes | Eric Savitz
]]> Lost Malcolm X Tape Found by College Student tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14800 2012-02-06T20:41:40Z 2012-02-06T20:43:47Z The recording was forgotten, and so, too, was the odd twist of history that brought together Malcolm X and a bespectacled Brown University Ivy Leaguer fated to become one of America's top diplomats. Brown University senior Malcolm Burnley, 22, stands... BCNN1 The recording was forgotten, and so, too, was the odd twist of history that brought together Malcolm X and a bespectacled Brown University Ivy Leaguer fated to become one of America's top diplomats.

Brown University senior Malcolm Burnley, 22, stands with a copy of the 1961 edition of the Brown University Herald in the John Hay Library on campus in Providence, R.I.
]]> The audiotape of Malcolm X's 1961 address in Providence might never have surfaced at all if 22-year-old Brown University student Malcolm Burnley hadn't stumbled across a reference to it in an old student newspaper. He found the recording of the little-remembered visit gathering dust in the university archives.

"No one had listened to this in 50 years," Burnley told The Associated Press. "There aren't many recordings of him before 1962. And this is a unique speech -- it's not like others he had given before."

In the May 11, 1961 speech delivered to a mostly white audience of students and some residents, Malcolm X combines blistering humor and reason to argue that blacks should not look to integrate into white society but instead must forge their own identities and culture.

'A dead people' 
At the time, Malcolm X, 35, was a loyal supporter of the Nation of Islam, a black separatist movement. He would be assassinated four years later after leaving the group and crafting his own more global, spiritual ideology.

The legacy of slavery and racism, he told the crowd of 800, "has made the 20 million black people in this country a dead people. Dead economically, dead mentally, dead spiritually. Dead morally and otherwise. Integration will not bring a man back from the grave."

The rediscovery of the speech could be the whole story. But Burnley found the young students in the crowd that night proved to be just as fascinating.


Source: MSNBC
]]> It Is Reported that Diabetes Killed David Peaston tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14810 2012-02-06T20:40:35Z 2012-02-07T02:49:08Z BCNN1 As previously reported in EUR, R&B and gospel singer, David Peaston passed away on Wednesday. ]]> Even though it was suspected, official word brings that his death was caused by complications from diabetes, according to the St Louis Post-Dispatch. Peaston was 54.

Peaston fought a long battle against diabetes for years. In 2004, it resulted in the amputation of both his legs. In an interview the same year with Post-Dispatch, he blamed himself for acquiring the illness.

"I didn't want to be back in the public. I wasn't embarrassed or ashamed, but I felt I let myself down and, therefore, I let everyone else down. It was my fault for being sick, and I didn't want anybody to see me like that."

Known for his vocal range, the singer was a winner at "Showtime at the Apollo" and like many young artists, that's where it all began.

His rise to fame began with hits "Can I" and "Two Wrongs (Don't Make a Right)" (hear it below) and later his debut album, "Introducing ... David Peaston."

Following the success of his R&B career, he became the Soul Train Award winning for his rendition of "God Bless the Child."

The night of his untimely death, messages from family, friends and fans began to circulate all over the Internet.


Source: EURWeb.com
]]> Attorney Jordan Sekulow Accuses Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama of Lying tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14799 2012-02-06T20:39:10Z 2012-02-07T02:04:59Z A Christian attorney and expert on terrorism says newly uncovered documents reveal that Attorney General Eric Holder wasn't truthful in the statements he made about "Operation Fast and Furious."... BCNN1 A Christian attorney and expert on terrorism says newly uncovered documents reveal that Attorney General Eric Holder wasn't truthful in the statements he made about "Operation Fast and Furious." ]]> Representative Darrell Issa (R-California) of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has threatened a contempt of Congress ruling against Holder for failing to turn over the subpoenaed documents about how his department handled congressional inquiries after problems with Operation Fast and Furious came to light.

The lawmaker alleges the Justice Department is engaging in a cover-up. New documents reveal that Holder knew about the operation the day U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by Mexican drug lords using guns supplied by federal agents. The attorney general assured Congress he knew nothing about the operation until much later.

But Jordan Sekulow, director of international operations with the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), says this is typical.

Source: One News Now | Chad Groening
]]> Q&A with Possibly the First Black President of the Southern Baptist Convention, Fred Luter tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14806 2012-02-06T20:39:01Z 2012-02-07T02:06:28Z Two weeks into a church-wide 21-day session of prayer and fasting, Fred Luter came to the conclusion that God wanted him to allow his nomination for the Southern Baptist Convention's presidency.... BCNN1
Two weeks into a church-wide 21-day session of prayer and fasting, Fred Luter came to the conclusion that God wanted him to allow his nomination for the Southern Baptist Convention's presidency.

]]> After 30 years as a follower of Jesus Christ and 25 years as pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, Luter said he became convinced that God had brought him to such a juncture in his Christian life.

"I wanted to make sure this was not something I was doing out of the flesh, something I was doing out just of popularity, notoriety," Luter said. "I wanted it to be of God. I prayed about it, and my wife -- her relationship with God is just one I truly admire and respect -- was praying for me, and others in the church.

"It was last Friday, [Jan. 27] the week before the fast was ended. My wife and I were talking and I said, 'Baby, I think God wants me to do this,' and the only thing she asked me was, 'Are you sure?' It was really clear to me this is what God was leading me to do."

Baptist Press spoke with Luter about his reasons for allowing his name to be placed in nomination, about his leadership of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, and about his thoughts on the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as the possibility of his presidency. The following questions and answers are adapted from the interview.

BP: Did any special word from the Lord confirm this?

Luter: A passage of Scripture that my wife shared with me from Isaiah 66 and verse 2 really spoke to me about this situation. 'Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?' declares the LORD. 'This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.' And I saw 'wow.' And she said, 'That's you, sir; that's you, Fred.' That's the one. She gave me that from the Lord and when I read it I said, 'Wow, that's a blessing.'

BP: If you are elected, what do you envision as your key emphases or key messages to Southern Baptists? What do you see as greatest challenge to the SBC in the short-term?

Luter: This convention has been one of the top conventions in the world as far as our primary mission of evangelism and discipleship. My goal and vision is that we would get back to being that convention we're known for. Through the years we've kind of gone off-track with some things and that has allowed us to not make evangelism and discipleship our main focus. My prayer is just that we get going back in the right direction, depending on God to help us fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. That's what He's called us to do and that's what I hope to lead this convention to do during my time as our president.

BP: Even with just your nomination, what message do you hope it sends to the SBC and to the nation?

Luter: The thing I hope it sends to the SBC is that if you're faithful to God and faithful to God's Word, that God will be faithful to you. That's what's happened here. I'm from the Lower Ninth Ward, and Mom and Dad were divorced when I was a kid. But through the 30-some years I've been a believer and the 25 years I've been a pastor, I have been faithful to God, faithful to the Word of God, and faithful to my wife. I just believe God has allowed this [nomination] to happen for such a time as this. It is nothing I was looking for. It was not on my bucket list, so to speak, but I think God ordained this because of the fact that what we're dealing with right now through the convention is trying to make the convention diverse. I think this will speak not only to our convention but to our country and throughout the world that this convention is serious about reaching all people.

Click here to read more.

SOURCE: Baptist Press
Karen L. Willoughby
]]> Obama Hates the Fact That His Wife Has Been Dragged Into Politics tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14803 2012-02-06T20:39:00Z 2012-02-06T21:16:38Z President Barack Obama says one of the toughest parts about being president is that his wife has been dragged into the "political realm."... BCNN1
President Barack Obama says one of the toughest parts about being president is that his wife has been dragged into the "political realm."

]]> Obama was responding to a question about how he felt when Michelle Obama said she has been inaccurately portrayed as an "angry black woman." While the president did not address that comment specifically, he says his wife is as good a first lady as anyone could imagine, and says he believes Americans have a positive impression of her.

Obama also says the first lady is ready for another four years in the White House, despite her initial reservations about coming to Washington.

The president spoke in an interview with NBC.

SOURCE: The Associated Press
]]> --- tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14811 2012-02-06T20:36:58Z 2012-02-07T02:58:18Z BCNN1 Here We Go Again - an Overly Sensitive Homosexual Group Is Now Trying to Accuse Roland Martin of Advocating Violence Against Homosexuals tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14809 2012-02-06T20:35:47Z 2012-02-07T02:43:27Z CNN's Roland Martin is under fire from gay rights groups after tweeting that people should "smack the ish out" of male fans of a steamy Super Bowl commercial starring David Beckham.... BCNN1 CNN's Roland Martin is under fire from gay rights groups after tweeting that people should "smack the ish out" of male fans of a steamy Super Bowl commercial starring David Beckham. ]]> Martin, who has been a longtime analyst for CNN, was actively tweeting throughout the Super Bowl. After an H&M commercial featuring Beckham clad only in his underwear aired, Martin tweeted messages making fun of men who may have liked the ad. He wrote that "real bruhs" would not purchase underwear advertised by Beckham, and that people should "smack the ish out" of a male supporter of the ad.

Many of Martin's followers responded to his, harshly criticizing him for the comments. Martin staunchly defended his messages and claimed that he was simply mocking soccer, something he said he routinely does.

Unfortunately for Martin, gay rights group GLAAD picked up the baton. The group tweeted a response to Martin, saying that "advocates of gay bashing have no place at @CNN." The activist group went even further and has now called for CNN to fire Martin.

GLAAD's letter states that "Martin's tweets today advocating violence against gay people weren't an accident -- they are a part of a larger pattern for Martin. Anti-gay violence in America is a serious problem facing millions of Americans. It's no joke. CNN should fire Roland Martin."


Source: The Huffington Post 
]]> Bishop Eddie Long Writes Letter of Apology to Anti-Defamation League Over Torah Ceremony tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14575 2012-02-06T15:59:09Z 2012-02-06T14:37:09Z Bishop Eddie Long has apologized to the Anti-Defamation League over an incident in which he was wrapped in a Torah scroll and crowned "king."... BCNN1 Bishop Eddie Long has apologized to the Anti-Defamation League over an incident in which he was wrapped in a Torah scroll and crowned "king." ]]> As shown in a video that went viral, the televangelist was wrapped in a "Holocaust Torah" and crowned king during a recent ceremony at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, his suburban Atlanta congregation.

"The ceremony was not my suggestion, nor was it my intent, to participate in any ritual that is offensive in any manner to the Jewish community, or any group. Furthermore, I sincerely denounce any action that depicts me as a King, for I am merely just a servant of the Lord," Long wrote in a letter dated Saturday.

The letter was addressed to Bill Nigut, southeast regional director of the Anti-Defamation League -- a Jewish group that fights anti-Semitism.

"While I believe that Rabbi Ralph Messer has good intentions during his message at New Birth, I understand that the ceremony he performed on Sunday, January 29th, caused harm to the Jewish community, for which I am deeply sorry," Long wrote.

On Sunday, Nigut acknowledged the apology and said he was grateful for it.

"I thought it was a very heartfelt, sincere, humble apology," he told CNN. "I was very gratified by Bishop Long apparently recognizing what our concern was."

Nigut said he was deeply offended by the "fake ritual," and by how the Torah was handled during it.

Video from the ceremony showed Messer wrapping Long in the Torah scroll, which he said was recovered during the Holocaust. He then directed four men to lift a seated Long in his chair and parade him before the New Birth congregation.

"He is a king. God's blessed him. He's a humble man, but in him is kingship, royalty," Messer shouted.

He said during the ceremony that the Torah was a "priceless" 312-year-old scroll that had been recovered from the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. He said he wanted to honor Long "on behalf of Jewish people, and the land of Israel."


Source: CNN
]]> How Quentin Smith and 100 Other Black Officers Took a Stand Against Segregation at Tuskegee Military Base tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14607 2012-02-06T15:55:09Z 2012-02-06T14:37:35Z Perhaps the defining day in Quentin P. Smith's life was the day the young Tuskegee airman defied a direct order and helped to integrate the U.S. military. Now 93, he has had a close-up view of U.S. history from desegregation... BCNN1 Perhaps the defining day in Quentin P. Smith's life was the day the young Tuskegee airman defied a direct order and helped to integrate the U.S. military. Now 93, he has had a close-up view of U.S. history from desegregation to the Barack Obama presidency. ]]> During World War II, Smith was stationed stateside as a pilot, flying out of Moton Field from the base near Tuskegee, Ala. Then, in early 1945, at a small base in Seymour, Ind., he took a stand against segregation along with other African-American officers. The incident is known by the name of their airstrip, Freeman Field.

Smith--then a first lieutenant--tells his story: The officers were banned after 5 p.m. daily from the officer's club, which the townspeople also used during the evening hours. The insulting directive kept young, energetic officers away from their primary sources of entertainment: the bar, the pool, and the tennis courts. Rather than accepting it, the officers determined to challenge it, sending different small groups of officers each time to walk up and force the officer in charge to turn them away over and over. This soon brought them into a confrontation with the commanding officer.

Eventually, a superior officer called them in one by one to have them sign a statement that they had read and understood the base's regulation. When Smith's turn came, he declined to sign. Told that it could be specified that signing was not agreement, he declined again. Then came a direct order to sign, along with a reminder of the consequences of refusing a direct order under Article 64--severe in penalty and technically punishable by death.

"He sucked the wind out of me," Smith recalls. "All I could do was shake my head."

The officer repeated the command, and Smith managed to squeak out a smothered, high-pitched "no." Confined in his quarters, he expected to be shipped to Fort Leavenworth for a long imprisonment. Instead, he was released.

He later found out that he was one of 101 officers who took the same stand one by one. More than 400 officers yielded to the order, pooled their money, and contacted the NAACP. Thurgood Marshall, a lawyer and eventual Supreme Court justice, went to work on the case. Marshall's influence--or perhaps the sheer impracticality of locking up 101 officers of the U.S. Army Air Corps--got political attention in Washington, D.C., and President Harry Truman ordered the officers to be released.


Source: World Magazine | Joel Hannahs
]]> What Made Reagan Great? tag:www.blackchristiannews.com,2012:/news//2.14804 2012-02-06T15:54:10Z 2012-02-06T21:42:58Z Regent University hosted its 7th Annual Ronald Reagan Symposium this weekend. And with the 2012 presidential election looming on the horizon, its theme was especially timely.... BCNN1
Regent University hosted its 7th Annual Ronald Reagan Symposium this weekend. And with the 2012 presidential election looming on the horizon, its theme was especially timely.

]]> This year's speakers examined President Ronald Reagan's leadership traits, something they say can help voters at the polls.

Political scientist Paul Kengor said Reagan's faith-based optimism was one of his most important leadership qualities. It sustained him in tough times, like in 1976 when he lost the Republican presidential nomination.

"His daughter Maureen, cried for two weeks," Kengor said. "His staff was all upset. They said, 'This is it. It's all over. In 1980 you'll be 70 years old. The country won't elect a 70-year-old president.' That's how we thought back then."

"And Reagan said, 'Don't worry about it. God's in control," Kengor recalled.


Click here to read more.

SOURCE: CBN News
Heather Sells
]]>