How Do You Church?

"At his funeral, listening to this church song.  His family yellin' and screamin', I hurt for 'em."
                                                                                          - Common, Kingdom 2014

You wanna know what disrespectful is?  A preacher presiding over the funeral of a just-met young, African-American male who was affiliated with a street lifestyle (possibly dying violently) and saying something to the effect of "I pray that he knew Jesus."  Uhhh....you think it's a little too late for that now?  I mean, you've got his family clearly distraught, his friends and/or associates thinking whatever, and then a statement about a prayer you know is ineffective gets thrown out there.  It's like, "let's shove the possibility of our loved one going to Hell down their throat one more time.  And maybe, just maybe, some of those hoodlums out there will come up here for prayer."  How about saying something more close to "this was a young man in my community that I had an opportunity to touch with the message of Jesus Christ; and I didn't...and I'm sorry."  But that would be too much like honesty and humility.

Brutal Law

Yep...I am in that statistic.  The one that talks about how many black men will be harassed by police officers in their lifetime.  Oh, and I'm also in the one that's for the number of black men that will be beaten by police officers.  I'm in that one twice.  So you can understand that for a period of time, I believed that this was the reality concerning the relationship between police officers and young African-American men....that police are evil and are sent to beat up black boys.  Interestingly enough, it's said that to help deal with rising crime from blacks and Hispanics in Los Angeles during the 1950s and 60s that L.A. police officials recruited in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and other southeastern states; hoping to bring on people who knew how to beat up black boys - so my mind frame wasn't that far-fetched.  'Cause you know, as I used to say "pigs be hatin'".  Never did I consider that there was anything I did or didn't do to make the hate grow more intense.

The Shepherd is Struck, the Sheep Are Fleeing

This following a post I made July 13, 2014 on Facebook.  It comes from a conversation had and, when granted permission, my desire to find more about the issue.

So, I was hearing this opinion about a certain large church in Richmond that allegedly is losing attendance rapidly because the senior pastor is battling an illness, and cannot meet his duties as usual.  The thought shared was that its members are living up to the perception of being fickle due to the pastor not being "available", and the situation is similar to Lebron James leaving the Miami Heat (i.e. fake fans).  Additionally, I've seen posts on FB and IG supporting this opinion with pictures that have captions such as "the look I have when there's a guest preacher" and others.  If you have an idea of what I'm talking about, what thoughts do you have about this issue?

Spirit Architecture

My wife and I were hanging out in the Wynn Resort-Las Vegas last week, just taking in the scene.  We came up on this sculpture of what happens to be my wifes' favorite flower, the tulip.  It was nothing short of magnificent, while still having a sense of simplicity that was pure class.  The bright colors, the smooth lines, and the size made it a clear attraction (like everything is in Vegas).  So while we and a few others surveyed the piece, I slid over to the suit who was watching us watch the work.

"Excuse me, sir.  How much is this piece?"
"Uh, about $35 million dollars if you round it off."
"$35 million?!  For this?!"
"Well, that's what Mr. Wynn paid for it."
"So what did the artist get?"
"I don't know.  I guess when you consider the shipping and all, probably most of it.  He's got another sculpture of Popeye down that way.  That one's $28.5."