For Some Black Pastors, Accepting Gay Members Means Losing Others
When the Rev. Dennis Meredith of Tabernacle Baptist Church here began preaching acceptance of gay men and lesbians a few years ago, he attracted some gay people who were on the brink of suicide and some who had left the Baptist faith of their childhoods but wanted badly to return.
At the same time, Tabernacle Baptist, an African-American congregation, lost many of its most loyal, generous parishioners, who could not accept a message that contradicted what they saw as the Bible’s condemnation of same-sex relations. Over the last three years, Tabernacle’s Sunday attendance shrank to 800, from 1,100.
“The church has to come to a point when it has to embrace all the people Jesus embraced, and that means the people in the margins,” Dr. Samuel said. “It really bothered my congregation when I said that as people of color who have been ostracized, marginalized, how can we turn around now and oppress other people?”
Failing Schools See a Solution in Longer Day
Can't we just let kids be kids? I'm all for having higher standards in terms of the quality of a kid's education and everything but isn't childhood supposed to be the care-free part of your life? My 9-year-old nephew has upwards of 4 hours of homework a night and now you want to extend the school day? I think this is a bad idea on all sorts of levels but that's just my opinion.
So there you have it, the more you know. Don't you feel smarter already.
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